Exult Forum

Lately I've been messing around with music,
and I've decided to start a project to enhance the music
in Exult. The project will use the OGG files just like the
original digital music pack that is available.
If you go to my page, you can hear one of the songs
I've already worked on.
http://cinderaven.ath.cx/linkdragon/music/ultima7/

sounds nice. Question though: How do you do that

Well, it's kinda complicated to explain, at least I think it is..
but I'll try to sum it up.
I use a program called FruityLoops, which you can download
the demo of at http://www.flstudio.com.
FruityLoops lets you create music with prerecorded
instruments that can be laid over instrument tracks
like the ones in any MIDI file.
They come in all types, but I mostly use the SF2 kind,
which is short for Soundfont 2.
In FruityLoops you can import MIDI files,
such as the Ultima 7 MIDI files.
So I take the MIDI files, lay new instruments over the tracks,
tweak each instrument, adjust volumes, adjust the stereo,
add a few effects to the instruments, maybe add some reverb,
and then I can just save it as MP3.
And that's basically what I do, in a nutshell.
You can listen to other songs I have done by going to
http://cinderaven.ath.cx/linkdragon/music/

They definitly sound better. I listened to all the other ones on the music page too. I don't know most of them, so I have nothing to compare to, but they sound really good.

Oh, side not... Is there a way you could an extend a song? I have one that I have been trying to extend with Audacity (Freeware mp3/wav editor) but I just can't get it to match up properly, so it sound horrible.

Yeah, I think I could extend a song.

Oh fruity loops!! ive tried that program before... never really bothers to learn it well though. I didnt know you could just import midis and lay instruments over them.
cool.

Fruity loops is okay, but it pales in comparison to what you could do with Pro Tools or Sonar.

- Wizardry Dragon

PS: I have restored many of the older Ultima game's music simlarly. I can post the mp3's if anyone is interested.

More ultima music! YAAY! Please, post them. I will download and listen to them if nobody else does.

Thanks,
Iceshard-

Ever wondered what some of the soundtracks would sound with medieval instruments?

Ultima III: Combat
http://crpgn.org/u3_combat.mp3

Ultima III: Townes (old English spellings - yar!)
http://crpgn.org/u3_townes.mp3

Ultima IV: Combat
http://crpgn.org/u4_combat.mp3

Ultima IV: Fanfare of Lord British
http://crpgn.org/u4_fanfare.mp3

Ultima VII: Stones
http://crpgn.org/u7_stones.mp3


My favourite is probably Townes
- Wizardry Dragon


p.s.: What soundfonts do you use, Link Dragon?

Pro Tools or Sonar?
I've heard of them before,
but never really looked into them much.. hmm.
I think I'll check them out.
If they're better than FruityLoops like you said,
it could make the project's music much better
and/or easier to make.
Any other information you might have would be greatly appreciated.
And I like the songs!
I've gone all over the internet looking high and low for soundfonts.
I got a few from http://www.hammersound.net,
though not a whole lot of them were very good in my opinion.
The best on there though would have to be the classical guitar and flute,
which I've used in many of my songs.
I managed to find good strings and brass soundfonts,
and I could track those down again if you would like to have them.
Or I could even put them on my website for download, if they're not too big.

Music sounds good, thanks Wizardry Dragon.

Thanks

I would kill for some good wind instrument .wav's or soundfonts...

- Wizardry Dragon

LinkDragon:
I love videogame music/mixes. Do you take requests?


Wizardry Dragon:
These are very good, but the U7-Stones sounds terrible, with that off beat plucking in the background. For some reason I felt U3-Combat should be louder or more intense. I guess you decided to limit yourself in choice of instruments. The others are excellent... don't remember the original U4 fanfare.

My favorite is probably Townes.

Hey, how about an U5 music pack?
The best U5 MIDI files I have found are these:
http://exodus.voyd.net/zips/u5midi.zip

From Ultima Theme.mid I came up with this:
http://art-shrine.verge-rpg.com/Files/U ... 0Theme.ogg

I used Timidity++ with the EAW Patches. Timidity supports soundfonts too.

I would like to hear the conversion of Ultima Theme.mid by both LinkDragon and Wizardry Dragon.

Sure, I can do requests.
Providing a MIDI file would be a big help, if you can.

Oh my, I love that Ultima theme song!
I'd be very glad to do my own conversion of it.
Timidity? Maybe I'll check that out..

The MIDI file is in the zip file I mentioned before.

You can get Ultima's III through VIII off Televar Dragon's Mysterious Sosaria.

http://surfing.net/ultima/

Those are the MIDI's I use as a starting point.

The background in Stones really annoys me too. It's one of those cases where I want to keep it where it's in the original score, yet want to remove it because it sounds horrible.

I would rather not limit my instruments, but I don't have much of a sound selection to work with, unfortunately.

I can do some Ultima V tracks.

- Wizardry Dragon

In my opinion, the Ultima V MIDIs from Exodus project sound better than those from Mysterious Sosaria.

I dunno, I'm partial to Televar's; they sound closer to the original game tracks.

- Wizardry Dragon

Yea, but if you are going to use a superior synth, the least you could do is rearrange them so they actually make use of the enhanced capabilities.

The MIDI files from Exodus Project are a very good job at rearranging.

Well, to each his own. I prefer the more "authentic" sound to the glammed up one.

- Wizardry Dragon

ALSA MIDI support in Exult would rule - hardware soundfont-based MIDI would do the trick =)

But aside of that, I think remixing the music is a great idea. The MT32 soundtrack is pretty bland in my opinion, especially if modern soundcards and even the exult's Cheapass Forked Timidity Synthetiser can do better.

I think WWWWolf hit the nail there. What is the point of using all those programs like FruityLoop, Pro Tools or Sonar if you are going to play songs that try to mimic music played by old hardware with limited capabilities? By passing them through those programs, aren't you trying to make them sound "newer"?

I have listened to the U5 music from Apple II, Atari ST and Commodore 128, and I agree that Telavar's songs are close. The polyphony is limited in those old systems, and Telavar "respected" that. The software synthesizers no longer have a poliphony limitation. Why would you stick with that if you want the songs to sound "new"?

Listen to Ultina VII-IX music. From VII to VIII they try to push the polyphony to its limit. In Ultima IX they have digital music, and the songs sound as if a complete orchestra is playing it.

I am in no way saying that you are wrong just for liking telavar's songs better. I am just asking what's the point of using such software synthesizers for "enhancing" songs that try to mimic the music played with a "today damn crappy" hardware with "today extremely limited" polyphony, and that could barely play anything different than triangle, square and saw waves.

Ultima IX DID have an orchestra playing them

And IMHO that was the only good point of U9 - the music.

- Wizardry Dragon

I've been working on the Ultima theme and it just doesn't sound
good to me, yet..
So instead I used amigatheme.mid and made something out of that.
I personally love it and it's become one of my favorites.
http://cinderaven.ath.cx/linkdragon/mus ... atheme.mp3

LinkDragon: Which Ultima Theme is it that you can't make sound good enough? Is it the Ultima Theme MIDI from the Exodus Project, or the one at Mysterious Sosaria?

The one located at http://exodus.voyd.net/zips/u5midi.zip
I just don't like the way it sounds..
It might be just that I'm not very good with too many tracks all in one song..
My best ones usually have six or less tracks.

I am usually the other around. The more the merrier

- Wizardry Dragon

BTW, good remix of the U5 theme!

That MIDI file doesn't have credits, or at least none that Timidity displayed (it usually does when it finds them). I guess the credit goes to Voyager Dragon. All I did was play it with Timidity++ and output to WAV, then encode to OGG.

Sometime over the next 24 hours I'll be
adding a lot more mp3s to my site for Exult.

Me too the soundfont I use to play with exult sound really good

Alright, I finally got the ones I was working on finished up and uploaded!
Enjoy!

The URL is http://cinderaven.ath.cx/linkdragon/music/ultima7/
in case anyone has forgotten!

I just updated 23bg, Britain's Theme.
I didn't like the way it sounded before.
There were some conflicting notes in the beginning
and I slightly modified the MIDI track of both the
flute and the trumpet for a much nicer sound than before.

Okay, now I've updated 03bg, the Main Theme.
I didn't like the way the trumpets sounded before,
and now, overall, the song sounds much better.

LinkDragon. I envy your work, as it is better than any commercial game music I've ever heard. I use Reason 2.0 myself, and it's really good if you know how to use it. I, however, will never be able to meet the quality of your work. I have listened to every piece. Every piece is perfect, with the exception of 27bg. The only constructive criticism I can give to that piece is the flute is too loud and the other instrument in the melody (which I never understood what it was supposed to be in the original or any other) has too much attack to it, and should also be smoothed out. Other than that, every one is perfect. All they need is volume changing. Some I can barely hear, some make me cry.

Good luck with finishing!

Well all the constructive criticism is welcome!
Thank you so much for your compliments, too!
It's great to know that people actually like what I'm doing.
The volume thing has to do with clipping..
I'll try to find some other way to reduce clipping in the songs.
And I'll take a look at 27bg right now.
Thanks again.

I checked through all the music again. I see you've changed 27bg! Everything is perfect now. I mean everything. I especially love 37bg because of the extremely realistic lute. I love it.

These are *really* well done. They (with one exception that's probably more personal taste than anything else) really capture the feel of the original songs, but are much more clear and balanced.

The only ones that didn't really feel quite right to me was 03bg and 35bg -- they don't have the same oppressive feeling that the original ones do, but I'm afraid I don't know how to describe my thoughts in a way that would be meaningful. 03bg needs more power to the deeper tones in the buildup in the beginning, and 35bg feels very weak in the middle, at the cymbal crashes (the drum hits accompanying them are almost silent, maybe that's my problem) -- but in both cases, that's probably more a personal preference for the deep heavy sounds in the original ones than any deficiency in the remake.

Anyway, I just thought I'd say something now that I finally got around to listening to them. Superb work.

I'll get to work on those two. I know exactly what you're talking about,
and I'll fix it and upload them once I've got them sounding like they should.

You are awesome.

Let me add my appreciation to everyone else's!

Can't wait for the Oggs

Oh, everyone wants some Oggs?
I'll get some new songs up and fix the
two in question from before, and also
put up an OGG pack for Exult sometime
before next Friday.

I also, most humbly, request that you perform your magic on the rest of the Ultima 6 MIDIs .... I will gladly provide them!

Excellent work on these mp3s, Linkdragon. Can't wait for the oggs!

You know what Jackson 5 says:
OGG, easy as MP3!

Hello!
I was browsing through the forum today after a long long time and I read this page and thought ... "wow! That's a cool idea".
So I am starting to rearrange a few pieces of Ultima7, hoping it won't be an utter failure

Today's first draft is from "Dead Bodies" in Ultima 7- Black Gate.
It is a very early version, but I'd love some feedback. I aim at trying to keep the feeling of the original songs, while making something new.
You can find it here:
http://www.tem.uoc.gr/~iakapolo/ultima/ ... s_v0.1.mp3
(it's ~750KB of data).

Enjoy!