Master Of Orion Music

[Mekkklon]

Does anyone have the music from the first part of Master Of Orion? Or know how to extract it from the game files?

I've been trying to get it now for a long time. The best I've came up with is this page: http://www.geocities.com/ace_mcjack/MIDI/midi.html

I thought it was the end of my painfull search, but this collection obviously lacks some of the tunes. What I know for sure there are no races theme. And that would include a tune for every of the races for: negotations; negotiations that went bad; short fading out when exiting the negotians panel and returning to the "races" screen. That is what I can recall from my head, because it's been a while since I've been able to run the game with music playing

So, here are the other things that I've tried:


1] Visiting composer's website


www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,5529/ says the page is www.davidgovett.com. Maybe it is, but since at least the middle of 2007 the domain name is not working


2] Contacting the composer


There is a problem with that, [because of above and] because he is sometimes refered to as David and sometimes as Dave, thus googling him is much harder. I find only some bios, much like those on Moby Games. I've even found some science / artwork work of an astromer / publicist named Govett about astrological Orion


3] Writing e-mails to people listed in contact sections of various MOO games oriented sites


Some of the emails don't even reach out those people because the pages are like discontinued years ago so I get them returned as not delivered. [One can assume those people are either dead or have moved on with there lives]. Those few mails that are replayed say they don't have it or offer the MOO II music instead. And most of e-mails are propably lost as some sort of an antispam collateral damage- that includes the case of guy from www.geocities.com/ace_mcjack/MIDI/midi.html as I just can not get any answer from his e-mail adress


4] Using extracting software


I didn't know any so I started looking for some, knowing I would probably need one specified as capable of handling LBX files, because that's where the music is suppose to be stored

www.watto.org/extract/games.html
Should have worked [see supported games disclamer for details] but it didn't [huraayyy!]

www.volny.cz/nova-software
Shoudn't have worked at it didn't [double huraayyy!]

I'm sure there are plenty of others programs, but I just don't know / have them


5] Checking out the [normally] usefull sites


http://downloads.khinsider.com
http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks.php
www.ocremix.org

No luck there [and no suprise either]. Im not aware of any other places where you could get music / soundtracks from computer games


6] Searching P2P


To my concern, not even the relatively easy acquirable music from MOO II is accessible via eMule. There is no shared a single file with "music", "score", "soundtrack" or "OST" in it's name with conjuction with "Master Of Orion" or "MOO". I'm not familiar with others PSP systems than eMule


7] Checking out the Mac version


http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=523 - If I got it right, there is no music on Mac?

Although it would be another waste of times beacaues I would be eventually stucked again with LBX files or some other old type not used in modern games


8] Going to Orion and deafeating the Guardian thus acquiring the know how


For now I lack some of the key technologies. Maybe in the year 2408, but not now [that is a joke- please laugh now]


9] Checking out forums


That's whay I'm here for. I've already asked on the biggest-old-games-oriented usenet newsgroup of my country. Now I'm seeking help in the english speaking world




And for the future-non-successful-MOO-music-seekers I will now mention what can be done as a last resort - record "what you hear" while playing the game with the sound off. I consider it as a very lame sollution with downsides:
- you have to have music in game
- you have to know what track is played when / why and force the game to play it [by stealing a technology for example]
- you have to figure out where track is starting to loop itself [in main menu]
- you have to edit out potentially interferes of diverse kinds within the self-made recordings
- you have to have time, patient and skills to do it properly

[Scatty]

There you go. I recorded the game MIDI music to MP3 files with Soundblaster Audigy 2 as output card. The archive contains also the original game's XMI files in case you need them (you can play them in Winamp, for example), or if you have Roland MT-32, Sound Canvas SC-55 or SC-55MKII (the two are compatible with LAPC-1 / General Midi) and want to re-convert the XMI files into MP3's for better sounding music.
I'll leave the actual track renaming to you, since I didn't play Master of Orion really much and don't know where which music plays. Since I currently don't have any of the above mentioned MIDI modules or Virtual Sound Canvas installed the music is in general Soundblaster synth quality only. Still, I hope I could help you with that.

Link (http://www.4shared.com/dir/5776371/fe6bae58/MOO_Music.html) (4shared)

[Mekkklon]

First of all- thank you so much

Next- the questions:

1] How did you extracted those XMI and from where? Was is only MUSIC.LBX or were there some more tunes somewhere else?

2] Files on http://www.geocities.com/ace_mcjack/MIDI/midi.html have dos-like names: "Moo-" + no more than 8 signs]. So it seems that he got the MIDIs with original track / file names and added an "automated prefix". Thus that guy extracted them from somewhere else or in some other way- any ideas what would be that other way?

3] I'm not too familiar with MIDI's so: how do I get in the end WAV / MP3 sounding as much as possible like original music from a game? Few months ago I was collecting music from Syndicate and I got so confused becasue of those tunes I've found back then. I coudn't get them myself from the game itself so I canna looked here and there all over the internet and downloaded few MID files. They sounded differently- it looks like different poeple did it in defferent way and got different results

4] Are you sure those XMI files in that archive are playable? I've got some old XM files and I can play them in my Winamp but those yours- not. The same goes with my Media Player Classic

[Scatty]

1. I used Multi Ripper (http://www.maz-sound.com/file-rippers.html) (third program from top) which is a Ms-Dos command line program and I scanned only the music.lbx file since it seems to be the only one containing the XMI files.

2. You can anytime rename any files to whatever you like, suffix just as the prefix. In the case of the link it would be obviously more useful to have the files names Moo(+) so people know what they download.

3. The aesthetical sound quality of MP3's recorded from MIDI files depends on the soundcard, sound driver and (if loaded) the instrument bank used. Since I simply recorded the MIDI through my Sound Blaster Audigy 2, without any special instrument banks loaded (or the instrument banks that Master of Orion uses ingame), the sounding quality is not optimal.
With the older Dos games like Master of Orion (and pretty much every Dos game which uses MIDI music) the quality of MIDI music is (often much) better if you have an external sound module like Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 / SC-55 MKII or Roland MT-32 attached to the MIDI port of your soundcard. These modules (they aren't produced anymore and cost a lot of money to get on eBay nowadays, at least the abovementioned Dos-games compatible ones) were much better at their time at processing MIDI music than "normal soundcards" like Sound Blaster (PRO, 16, AWE-32), Pro Audio Spectrum and simiar which only offered basic MIDI compatibility. Those games had often MIDI instrument banks written specially for such modules to use their full capabilities for best MIDI quality output.
Alternatively you can use emulators like MT-32 Emulator (http://www.artworxinn.com/alex/) (works like a selectable Windows sound card driver once installed, you'd need the original MT-32 PCM ROM's too, which aren't provided) or Virtual Sound Canvas (http://www.roland.com/products/en/VSC-MP1/index.html), but they have only like 88% the quality of the original MIDI module. Still, if you don't want to spend good money on a good-quality Roland Sound Canvas, those emulators sound still way better than basic, synthetical sounding MIDI you get from a normal Windows driver for a general soundcard.

4. XM files are Tracker Module format (digital wave-files as instruments, were popular before the MP3 era), XMI files are Extended MIDI format (synthesized instruments). Windows Media Player in any case doesn't play any of those, forget that one.
WinAmp does support all of those files, but the XMI files are not enabled by default in the MIDI plugin. To enable them, do following:
Go to Preferences, there go to Input under Plugins. Select the [in_midi.dll] (Nullsoft MIDI Player 3.16, version depends on your WinAmp version), click on Configure button at the bottom of the window. Go to File Types tab, click on XMI to select it.

That's it! To open the XMI files, while opening files select All Files (*.*) instead of All Supported Files, then you should see them. Or just right-click on them in Windows Explorer and select Play in Winamp.

[Mekkklon]

A] Multi Ripper works fine, I was able to repeat what you did. I extracted xmi files from MUSIC.LBX. I was able to play xmi's in Winamp and I know what to do with them next [if I am to use Winamp as my player of choice]


B] But I've tried the Virtual Sound Canvas and to my astonishment I am able to hear a big difference when playing a midi [in comparission to what I get via Winamp]. Unfortunately VSC handles only MID and nothing else, so I can't use it as a player for those XMI. I get an error even if a rename the extension [the only lame thing I've came up with]. I assume converting xmi's to mid's would make them in the end sound worst, so I have to stick tho XMI format?


C] MT-32 Emulator link appears to be dead so I can't even tray to use it as a backup player for XMI


D] "I scanned only the music.lbx file since it seems to be the only one containing the XMI files". I've scanned every each one of MOO files and tracks were only in music.lbx. How did you know that in the first place? You simply assumed so because of the file name or was it some indication from Multi Ripper that told you where to look exactly?


E] "the instrument banks that Master of Orion uses ingame". Where / which one would there be? How could one know this, someone like a simple gameplayer not a gamewriter? Is there a way to get info about those banks [without going deep into the game code or something like that]? And I'm thinking about other games too, not only Master Of Orion. How will I know a got the right stuff?


And on the futher note on banks, It seems that without them you will never get 100% accurate music. And to bypass this problem you should... record "what you hear" when playing game??? But only when using some kind of old external sound module [because then the game itself would load the original banks]?!

[Scatty]

Whoa, more questions on answers. I like that :nuts: ;)


B) Renaming XMI to MID won't do anything, since MID files are a different format than XMI (MID is General Midi). What you could do is, after you install Virtual Sound Canvas, you can select it (in Windows XP) in Sound and Audio Devices in Control Panel, under Audio tab, as the default device for MIDI music playback at the bottom (there should be something like VSC bla bla).
Then you go in WinAmp to the in_midi.dll again and under the Device tab also select VSC. Then you should be able to play the XMI files with WinAmp, but with the better quality than before.

C) You just click on Downloads, using my link to it above, and click on Mt32Drv.zip to download it. Keep in mind that you still need the original PCM ROM's of MT-32 which aren't provided with the download because of copyright issues.

D) First, I looked through music.lbx with Volkov Commander's hex-editor and when I found a XMI pattern (XDIRINFO) I knew that XMI files are in this one. Old Dos games usually packed all the music in one file to keep it simple and organized, except when the music files were located simply in the game's folder as separate files, so I knew I don't need to bother with other files.

E) I suppose that in case of Master of Orion, the instrument patches are packed in similar way like the XMI's in some file, and I don't think you want to waste so much effort to search for them, especially if you don't know what to search for. Similarly it goes for other games.
But you don't really need these patches anyway, since playing the XMI files under VSC or one of the aforementioned modules would play them pretty much in 96-98% of the originally meant quality for those modules anyway.
You get 100% of the music quality anyway only if you hook up one of those modules to a soundcard with MIDI port under older Pentium-100 or similar, select that module in the game's install program as the music device (if it supports it), and listen the music ingame. DosBox is only emulating Soundblaster so it doesn't sound as true in it as under the real Soundlbaster (preferably Soundblaster 16 due to quality), same for the higher-quality MIDI modules.

About the further note, you're right. If you want creme de la creme of music from older Dos games, you gotta have one of those modules and an older computer as mentioned above, but recording it from ingame would be much more effort than you might want to invest your time into.

If you would like to compare the music from, let's say, Legend of Kyrandia, download it's music in MIDI format from here (http://www.mirsoft.info/gmb/music_info.php?id_ele=MjAxOQ==) (good recorded, normal Soundblaster quality, pretty close to original ingame Soundblaster music), or even better, play the game through (you can download it here) with music set to Soundblaster and listen to it's music, even DosBox will do. After you listened through it, and I suggest only after you listened to it, download these (http://www.4shared.com/dir/5847922/19c82111/Legend_of_Kyrandia.html) two archives with Legend of Kyrandia music, recorded in MP3's using the attached MT-32 and / or Sound Canvas (Sound Canvas ones are mixed together using Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 MKII and Roland MT-32 since the game originally didn't support SC yet), and compare the quality. If you listen closely, you'll notice that some of the Sound Canvas versions sound even slightly better than the according ones of just MT-32, while not being any less than the MT-32 original.
Not all Dos games have such big differences in MIDI device output (Westwood did quite some quality work on Legend of Kyrandia and Kyrandia II - Hand of Fate), but in all of them you will notice an improvement in music quality if using Roland MT-32 or especially Roland Sound Canvas SC-55/SC MKII modules (where a game supports Sound Canvas, it's better than MT-32). I know since I own a Roland MT-32 myself, just not at the moment where I am right now.

[Mekkklon]

In first 10 second of XMI00002 there is some buzz / noise [just like you would take an MP3 and trim it up way too much; or volume up WAV file in some editor so much, you would eventually see the sound wave going literally through the top]


First I thought it was me, but then I've checked those mp3's you've made and I heard the same sounds [2.5 & 4.75 seconds into track]. What is it? What could try to change to loose this effect of crushing speakers? I've tried changing some configurations on in_midi.dll in Winamp but I don't even know what I'm changing

[Scatty]

Hmm, I don't know what you mean because I don't have that crashing sound you mentioned, neither in XMI nor in MP3 version of it.
Maybe there's something wrong with your soundcard or soundcard driver? If you're by chance using Virtual Sound Canvas for sound output (not music), don't. It won't be as good, if at all working, as any other actual soundcard you have.