How can I provide better music packs?

[starslab]

There's a bunch of issues with the Music Packs for UW1 and UW2

• UW1_Adlib sounds horrible. I'm not familiar with the game on original OPL hardware, but I can't imagine it sounded like this

• UW1_MIDI sounds about as bad, and very similar. I'm guessing Adlib and MIDI were generated by some MIDI soft-synth engine? Possibly with some kind of "MT-32" mapping?

• UW1_PSX appears to be incomplete, and some track numbers don't line up with the other packs.

• UW1_SB16 is MT-32 output, or very close to MT-32 output, but I think it's getting some of the volumes wrong, as I'd expect from MT-32 MIDI fed into a General MIDI soft-synth with an MT-32 soundfont. I'm about 99% sure the tempo is also slightly faster than the original game.

• UW2_Midi sounds pretty bad. Again, I'm guessing General MIDI soft-synth being fed MT-32 data from the game?

• UW2_Roland sounds nothing like an MT-32

I've done full OST rips of both games with the Munt MT-32 emulator, and I'd be delighted to provide high-quality music packs for these games

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQfcsYP5T4-GLq6qcvmGTDFOnEwvByiaY
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQfcsYP5T4-GmdcCKWUuisR6Ax33B6l05
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQfcsYP5T4-FrwVHz3LqG2t_9Gf56_VGk
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQfcsYP5T4-GAA53KTtkzowb7UXfPcqTo

What would be the best way to get these files to you? Github isn't great for dealing with large binary blobs, so far as I know. (I'm not really a coder, and I've never gotten along with git-like systems)

By chance do you implement or would you be willing to implement Ogg LOOPSTART meta-data support? Loops of a piece of music start slightly differently than the first playthrough, because they have reverb from the previous loop that the very start of the piece doesn't have. Ideally, I'd record two loops of each track. The track starts, finishes it's first playthrough at LOOPSTART, then plays it's second loop. At the end of the second loop, the music file ends and playback should jump to LOOPSTART for a perfect seamless loop listening experience.

SDL_Mixer implements this natively, but I'm not sure about Unity.

[starslab]

UW1_SB16/13.ogg

I don't recognize this piece. Can anybody tell me where the game plays it?

[starslab]

Testing in the original game regarding looping:

Sometimes the ambient music loops, sometimes it doesn't. It seems almost random. I started a new game, and just stood around on the first level without playing the game, and recorded the music.

03, 03, 04, 03, 04, 02, 04, 04, 03, 04, 03, 03, 04, 03

I believe your current approach of not recording or playing back loops for the three ambient music tracks is correct. I still think you should have looping music for the onguard and combat musics - 05, 06, 07, 10.

edit: Oh, and the automap/conversation music, 15, as well.

[Xerardo]

Hi, I just released a music mod for the UnderworldExporter on Nexusmods. It consists of high quality remakes of the original soundtrack by Pieces of 8-bit.

Nexusmods: Ultima Underworld Unity Music - true-to-original high quality remake by Pieces of 8-bit

Playlist on YouTube

[starslab]

Why is everyone speeding up the tempo of this music? That's not how it played in the original game!

That said, nexusmods seems as good a place as any to publish my own music packs, I guess.

[Xerardo]

In any specific track or do you mean the complete soundtrack?

[starslab]

Pretty sure it's the complete soundtrack. Both the current music packs provided in the UnderworldExporter releases, and your playlist on YouTube.

Compare your combat music to mine - it's plain as day:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZtNsqvrNU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ofUr_L-ggM

[Xerardo]

I checked several versions of the soundtrack (on YouTube and in my local collection) and you're right, all the other versions are faster than yours. Whether all the other versions are faster than the original music in the game or your version is slower, I can't say. Memories can be a tricky thing.

[starslab]

The music speed I have recorded is how I remember the game - that said, those original memories are of course about 30 years old.

However, those particular recordings and MIDI captures are from the game running in modern DOSBox, a few weeks ago. Unless DOSBox is somehow screwing up the music tempo, and no-one else has spotted it, my captures are accurate.

[Slegnor]

The modern remakes are usually faster from my experience of collecting the remixes done over the years, he's my a clip of my Dosbox playthrough with that tune and it's a much slower tempo. https://youtu.be/pdU05jyrJP4?t=421

[JonSaffron]

I’m pretty certain I would have noticed if DosBox had changed the tempo of the music. I think you can trust it to be accurate. I suspect the difference may have come about from problems converting from the original midi file format.

[Xerardo]

In my experience, the DOSBOX can affect the sound output of games. For example, I remember playing Might & Magic - World of Xeen via DOSBOX, and when you cast the "Jump" spell, the sound effect played was a helicopter flyover. I guess at some point this sound effect was changed in the library. (I think it was with Roland output.) Another example is when you play Burntime via DOSBOX, you can experience how the performance of the game affects the music output. If you reduce the cycles to below 100, you get into a range where you can slow down the music.

That said, I have no idea if any of that applies to the Ultima Underworld music in DOSBOX. I think the compositions of George Sanger and Dave Govett are fantastic and your version of their music sounds great as well. I hope that more people and especially modders become aware of the UnderworldExporter and we get some UI and texture mods in the future.

[starslab]

the sound effect played was a helicopter flyover. I guess at some point this sound effect was changed in the library. (I think it was with Roland output.)

This is venturing kinda off-topic, but I'm guessing you were feeding MT-32 MIDI output from the game to not-an-MT-32, or vice-versa. The MT-32 is not a General MIDI device, and wrong things happen when MT-32 MIDI is fed into a General MIDI synth.

[starslab]

I decided against using NexusMods.

Here's the full, authentic Underworld 1 soundtrack on GitHub: https://github.com/starslab/uwe-uw1-music/releases/tag/v1.0

I hope UWE implements LOOPSTART/LOOPEND meta-data support, in which case I'll gladly cut a v2 with seamlessly looping music.

In the meantime, I'll have an Underworld 2 pack published shortly.

[starslab]

And here's an authentic music pack for Underworld 2 - https://github.com/starslab/uwe-uw2-music/releases/tag/v1.0