A website dedicated to preserving MIDI and Sega Mega Drive video game music.
Sound Hardware |
Photos on this page were taken by me using a Samsung Nexus S, so sorry for their lack of quality!
I may also have details incorrect here. If I do, please contact me with proof and I'll fix it.
Sound Modules
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Sound Module: Roland MT-32 (First generation)
Release Date: 1987 Picture: Front/Angled Soundtracks: Castle of Dr.Brain, Dune 2 Notes: First Roland module I ever got. Won it pretty cheaply on eBay (around £27). Clearly one of the best purchases I've ever made. I actually have two of these - I bought a second one a couple of years later (which cost £60 - a lot more). They're both first-gen modules, so most Japanese games don't play correctly on them which is why I've only recorded two games from them so far. Castle of Dr.Brain and Dune 2 don't play correctly on second-gen MT-32s or newer modules. Just to get a bit of confusion clear, the MT-32 may have 32 poly, but it isn't based on how many notes it can play. It can only play 32 partials at a time, where a single note can use up to 4 partials (the MT-32 is a synthesizer - each partial can be programmed differently to make unique sounds). Just to clarify some possible confusion, I shift the panning of my recordings from the MT-32, CM-32L and CM-64 to the left by 20%. This is done because Roland thought it was a good idea to have centre as 20% to the right. I'm not sure if third gen modules (CM-32N, LAPC-N, CM-500) have this 'feature'. |
Sound Module: Roland CM-32L
Release Date: 1989 Picture: Front/Angled Soundtracks: Frontier: Elite II, Gods, Hero Quest, Inferno, Jurassic Park, Laser Squad, One Step Beyond, Pushover, Pyrotechnica, Tactical Fighter eXperiment (T.F.X), Utopia, Akumajo Dracula, Granada, Phalanx Notes: The second Roland module I got, and again, another one of my best purchases. This is where most of my recordings come from, since it is technically a second-gen MT-32 but in a beige box which also contains 33 sound effects on the percussion part (channel 10). The CM-32L is also the 'external' version of the LAPC-I sound card, as it sounds identical. Second-gen MT-32s and LAPC-Is can do more sophisticated work due to bugs fixed in the ROM software. Games such as Inferno, TFX and One Step Beyond will not play on first-gen modules at all - some instruments will not play correctly even if you can get by the infamous 'buffer overflow' bug. This is also one of the later models that does not contain the 'clip' bug where notes are played on and off quickly. |
Sound Module: Roland CM-64
Release Date: 1989 Picture: Front/Angled Soundtracks: Sol-Feace Notes: This is basically a CM-32L and CM-32P in one housing. The CM-32P contains 64 high-quality PCM samples that play on channels 11 through 16. It also contains a card reader at the front, where Roland released ROM cards to add more samples - such as electronic guitars, sound effects and also a rock percussion set. Not many games actually support this module - I only know of a few Japanese ones that do. This contains an earlier CM-32L board that has a 'clip' bug when notes are played on and off quickly, as mentioned above. |
Sound Module: Roland CM-300
Release Date: 1991 Picture: Front/Angled Soundtracks: Inferno, Jurassic Park, Pyrotechnica, Tactical Fighter eXperiment (T.F.X), The Incredible Machine 2, Farland Story: Tooikuni no Monogatari, Farland Story 2: Arc no Ensei, Farland Story 3: Tenshi no Namida, Night Slave, Valkyrie: The Power Beauties, Akumajo Dracula, Angel Dive, Daimakaimura, Sleepwalker Notes: Another one of the modules that I use the most. The CM-300 is basically a Sound Canvas 55 in the same beige housing as the CM-32L. Unlike the CM-32L which is a synthesizer, this is wavetable based. This means it simply plays back samples in ROM instead of generating them. The module I have was actually released before the General MIDI standard came into existance (which is why it lacks the GM logo on the front, only having the GS logo). This doesn't seem to effect it's ability to play General MIDI though, as it sounds fantastic. This is also one of the most 'compatible' SC-55 based modules since newer ones do not play music from Inferno and TFX correctly. I think one of the best games on this module is Night Slave. |
Sound Module: Roland Sound Canvas SC-88ST Pro
Release Date: Unknown Picture: Front/Angled Soundtracks: None yet, hope to record Steam-Heart's from it in SC-88 mode. Notes: I don't really have any games from this module. It's a Sound Canvas 88 Pro but in a much smaller box - it only has a volume control, headphone socket, mode switcher and LEDs stating which channel is producing audio - that's it. Certainly not for composing, but that's not what I bought it for. Some Japanese games actually support the SC-88, and the Pro can switch into SC-88 mode - even SC-55 mode. However as I stated above, this is a 'newer' SC-55 mode so it does not play the music from Inferno and TFX correctly. The bass drum on the POWER kit also sounds deeper too. |
Sound Cards
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Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 (CT3900)
Release Date: 1994 Picture: Top Soundtracks: Descent Notes: Urgh, this card. Full of nightmares to be honest. The driver is a pain to work with, especially under DOS, and the wave table sounds terrible (in my opinion anyway). It does have one advantage though - as far as I understand, the 'Creative OPL' chip is just a real OPL3 chip re-packaged. The advantage here is that this model has a S/PDIF out near the EMU8011 chip, making recording from this card a total breeze. A lot of games do support the OPL3 chip, mostly in OPL2 mode. I think Descent is one of the better games out there to support it. |
Sound Card: Ensoniq Soundscape Elite
Release Date: 1995 Picture: Top with DSP attached | Top with DSP detached | Top (Card only) | DSP Soundtracks: None, but was used as an external MIDI card for the 'buggy' Pyrotechnica SCC-1 tracks. Notes: One of the more interesting sound cards I have. It's got a full wavetable synthesizer on it, including a powerful DSP daughterboard attached to it. I have a tool kit that allows me to change the DSP in so many different ways, but Ensoniq really didn't provide proper support for the card. While it supports General MIDI and Roland's GS, sometimes it simply refuses to properly reset back to General MIDI and requires power-cycling the system to get it back to normal. The DSP could only be accessed through the tool kit as well - it couldn't be accessed externally from another program, which made it a big let down. It did provide CD-quality audio and the wavetable synthesizer supported 32 poly, not to mention this is actually one of the easiest sound cards I've had to install. It's just a shame it wasn't supported natively in games and could only really be used through General MIDI. It has one advantage though - it supports external MIDI through the joystick port, and it's hardware based. I used this to record the 'buggy' Pyrotechnica SCC-1 tracks that would just crash DOSBox, but ran fine in real DOS (but obviously, don't play correctly due to a bug in the tracks). |
Sound Card: Gravis Ultrasound MAX
Release Date: 1994 Picture: Top Soundtracks: Pyrotechnica Notes: One of the best sound cards I've ever owned. The GUS MAX really changed the way music was composed and played on the PC back in the early and late 90s with it's powerful 32-poly GF1 chip. Samples could be uploaded to the card's RAM and the sound card would interpolate them in hardware. It ran at 44.1KHz until it reached 16 poly, which it then started to drop to around 18KHz depending on how many notes were playing at the time. The demoscene was the major player for the GUS, where software such as Scream Tracker 3 and Fast Tracker 2 natively supported the card, and -many- people composed music on it. The card lacked reverb and chorus where the Creative AWE32 and Ensoniq Soundscape Elite had both, but was still widely supported amongst games. There really is a lot I could say about this card, but many websites out there can do a far better job than I can. |
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DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this website is to preserve video game music that may be lost due to it's rarity. I do not mean
to infringe on anyone's copyright by providing the soundtracks to download freely here. Please contact me if I
am and with what soundtrack - I will remove it as soon as possible. I have recorded every single track on this
website from either the game it's self, from MIDI files provided freely on the internet, or through some other manor.
With that being said, please enjoy the music!
Contact - sahkolihaa[at]googlemail.com
