Daggerfall Remastered Music Project (Released)

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Al-Khwarizmi
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

Amazing. I love your rendering of 5strong (the track I used to know as "GSTORY"?), it's one of my favorite tracks in Daggerfall.
ByteMixer wrote:No worries man, always good to have choices.
Indeed. There are a lot of different things that can be done with Daggerfall tracks, depending on artistic choices, and one does not have to be necessarily superior to others in all aspects (and furthermore, one may want richer sounds or more classic-like sounds). So my utopia in 1-2 years would be to have a combo box to choose between different remasterings of the soundtrack. I don't care if I spend a hefty amount of gigabytes storing versions, it's the best game soundtrack ever after all.

Here's a different version of GSTORY I have a soft spot for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjbnZ30TFP0

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heilkitty
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by heilkitty »

Just my 2 septims: your 5-strong rendition, while being great, lacks epic level of epicness of the original. 02fm is overall nice, but cellos sound too damn sharp for my taste.

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

Hmmm, well, there's only so much I can do with the samples I have at hand. I think 5strong is the one that plays during the Daggerfall Unity launcher, yes? Though I think someone said it was the same song as GSong? One might be intended to be more epic sounding, and the other more subdued and regal. Or it could be a case of one being more detailed and meant for a certain format FM vs. GS and such. I'll need to check if there's a difference and go with the more detailed midi file. But I'll get through all of them eventually.

I can look through to see if have a different GM structured percussion available to add a little more bombastic feeling. Though, I do view the piece as more regal than epic. It sounds a bit like a procession to me. ;) I can also see about beefing up the lower 2nd strings. Maybe another sample I have is a little more full sounding. I can still adjust it since I'm still early in the project. I'll be less inclined to make instrument changes later since I want everything to sound like it's from the same orchestra and part of the same project.

On 02fm, the celli are sustained in the original, so I took some artistic liberty for variety in instrumentation, and like the spiccato style rather than smooth legato lines. It adds more interest. :) I can back them off to be a little more subdued, though. The East West layer of that particular track tends to have a fairly strong attack on the rosin, the sample is labled as a "Quick UP/Down Bow so I can move that layer back and subdue the sound a bit more. Might help with the sharpness of the attack of the note.

I'll see about adjusting them tomorrow. :)

Anyway, there's only so much that swapping in samples (like a very high end soundfont) will do. Some people will like my interpretations more than others, and I accept that. I'm doing this mod as much for myself as I am for the rest of the community, afterall. :)

Also, once I get through a phase or category, I probably won't make further adjustments since I want all the tracks to feel like they're from the same orchestra, or cut from the same cloth at least, and if I've got a whole grouping of songs done, making an adjustment to one would mean adjusting all of them.
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

I lied and worked on it tonight afterall. Got back from rehearsal a couple hours ago, and spent time adjusting and updating those two tracks. I Updated the songs on my soundcloud and removed the previous versions. These will probably be the final version of those two files.

Hopefully things are a little less sharp/piercing in 02fm, and I added some trumpets in unison with the flutes and tried to beef up the percussion a little. Unfortunately the sample that fits for overall percussion has kind of a thin orchestral bass drum. Not much I can do about that.

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/j-bot-1/5strong

https://soundcloud.com/j-bot-1/02fm

Addendum:
I did look at the differences between some of the files with similar naming conventions. e.g. 02 vs. 02fm. In the case of the numbered midi files, there is no difference. Same file size, same notes, same volume/program/panning/etc. parameters.

There IS a difference between the named midi tracks, though. e.g. FSnow_B and GSnow_B. The end point (I'm assuming the original Daggerfall engine uses the an unused note at the very end of the track to tell where the file was meant to stop playing) is a little farther down in FSnow_B. But the other difference, is GSnow_B has much more going on in volume and other changes (CC controlled stuff is more detailed). So I'm going to Assume the G versions of the files were for Roland GS cards, and contained a little more or at least a little different information compared to FM Midi (like the SB16 used)

There are also differences in FSneak2 vs. GSneak2. FSneak2 has some of the same number of volume adjustment paramaters as GSneak2, but the volume ranges are different. Of the two, I'm not sure which will be more detailed or natural sounding until I get them side by side. It'll probably be the same for all the named files with a "clone"

Seems I'll have to look at the named files (particularly F and G prefixed) on a case by case basis, as I can't tell just from sight which would be the better file to work with. But at least I can say the heck with half the numbered files since, as far as I can tell, there is zero difference between # vs. #fm Probably the same with d# vs. d#fm as well.
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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King of Worms
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by King of Worms »

Sounds very natural and nice even at this stage, thanks for the contribution!

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

Thanks! I did a few tracks yesterday to catch up a bit, and another one today, so that's 7 tracks done or nearly done so far. 02-06, 5strong, and d1. My rule of thumb is if I'm able to do at least one a day, I'm doing pretty well.

Since 5strong is used in the launcher I might go ahead and make that available now. All people need to do is create a Sound folder under the StreamingAssets, and plop the OGG file in.

I did test a few of the tracks in the game, and the game seems to normalize the volumes somewhat. They're a little louder than the midi soundfont tracks. Not by much though.

Some of the dungeon files use basic synth pads in creative ways, so I'm just using some evolving synth pads in the same vein but with a bit more atmospheric vibe as they morph to add to the feeling and the stereo soundscape. So, a bit of artistic license there, I suppose.

I did have an issue with a dungeon music file failing to loop in Privateer's Hold (Song_05.ogg). It fit pretty well with the scene though, IMO. So, 05 is a bit longer than the other tracks, so not sure if that had something to do with it.

Another dungeon song, d1 did loop in another dungeon, i'm pretty sure, but I'll double check.

If someone wants to take a look at it, I can throw it onto google drive. I'll throw 5strong in as well since it's used in the launcher, and is fine there. :) (addendum: I actually just loaded the game in another dungeon, and 05 started playing, and it looped! Must be something to do with Privateer's Hold in particular.)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

Just wanted to say, yes I'm still progressing forward with this. It's been a slow week on this project due to my commitments to the band, and writing/recording some new material for the group.

Anyway, I should have a first package of ogg tracks up and ready for people by the end of the month. (I Hope!). Probably the first set of numbered tracks.
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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delvisomanda
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by delvisomanda »

Hell yeah, Daggerfall need a sound remaster. I'm looking forward to it.
Currently translating Daggerfall into Spanish.

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

Thanks! I'm doing my best. And yeah, I'm definitely on track to have 02 - 30 done by end of april. I'm up to 13fm today.

10 was an odd one. Only a single midi instrument in the track: a generic "new age" pad type of sound. So I spruced it up a bit using a couple layers from the free Alchemy Player library to create more movement and creepiness.

I may go back and tweak it a bit more, or adjust one of the layers a bit, or even replace a layer with something else.

This one isn't really an orchestral track so much as it's ambient soundscape, or atmospheric, since I'm strictly using more synth related instruments to build up the track.

I put a tentative version of this one up on my soundcloud for now, so people can see where I'm going with this particular track.
https://soundcloud.com/j-bot-1/daggerfa ... project-10
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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ByteMixer
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Re: RE: MIDI

Post by ByteMixer »

Just about done with the first batch. I have maybe 5 tracks left, then I'll go back and double check some things, and hopefully have a zip file up on my google drive within the next week for everyone. I had a bit of a slowdown last week due to a cold, and my ears were all stopped up (not to mention my nose!).
"Whatever you do, make good art." - Neil Gaiman

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