Optimal Sound Settings?

[WinstonSmith6079]

I dunno much about audio-tech stuff. But I know that GZDoom has lots of settings to make your Doom, etc. games sound their best that they can possibly sound.

I have a Creative SoundBlaster Live! sound-card (with first-generation EAX). My other specs are here.

So how can I tweak the audio-settings in GZDoom to their maximum best (allthewhile not over-taxing the rest of the game)?

Thanks!

[Gez]

Given that "best" is very subjective, I suggest you read the options here. If you have a multicore CPU (even just a dual core is enough), you shouldn't worry about taxing your resources, since the sound system is in a different thread from the rest of the game.

Push "Sound channels" to the max, though. If it's still on a low value (32 or less), there are situations where it can sound quite bad if a lot of sounds are played simultaneously; and with the high monster count and many ambient sounds of modern maps, this can happen quite often.

For MIDI playback, I can only encourage you to install both TiMidity++ and FluidSynth (it's all explained on the wiki) and try a few sound fonts until you find some that you like. Unless you prefer OPL emulation, of course.

[WinstonSmith6079]

My CPU is ye olde single-core.

Okay, I got the TiMidity++ and put the files in a subfolder, in my GZDoom folder, called 'TiMidity++'. That was the first step on this page. That was easy hehe

The next step there says:

o Then, edit the timidity.cfg file which is in the directory where you installed TiMidity for ZDoom. You need to tell it where to find your sound font. Two options are possible:
+ An actual soundfont: use two lines, first dir <path-to-soundfont>, then soundfont <soundfont-file>
+ A collection of patches: use two lines, first dir <path-to-patches>, then source <patch-config-file-name.cfg>

Err, do I already have soundfont files in my computer? If so, where are they? Should I download more? And if I should get more, where should I put them?

[Gez]

Since you have a Creative soundcard, you probably already have CT4MGM.SF2 (or a smaller variant). It's in the system directory (e.g., C:\Windows\System32) if I'm not mistaken. [wiki]FluidSynth[/wiki] would find it automatically.

You can find other sound fonts from the wiki as well.

[WinstonSmith6079]

Okay, I got the FluidSynth .DLL file and put it into my GZDoom directory. I also changed the "fluid_patchset" variable in the .INI file to 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\CT2MGM.SF2', though I don't know if that was necessary to do. (It was blank before.)

The MIDI did sound a bit better, more clear and, yes, more fluid.

I used Windows' Search Assistant to fine if there were any other .SF2 files in my computer and, besides the 'CT2MGM.SF2' file, it found only 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\2gmgsmt.sf2'. I dunno what that is--is it another usable soundfont file?

Okay, now what? Back to setting up the TiMidity++? Or what?

Oh BTW, the FluidSynth and the TiMidity++ affect only the MIDI music? Do they also have an effect on any of the other sounds?

[Graf Zahl]

No. Both of these are MIDI synthesizers. Other sound formats use different code for playback.

[Nash]

perkristian made a high res sound pack for Doom, give it a try!

http://www.perkristian.net/game_doom-sfx.shtml

[DaMan]

The Creative Sound Font manager might be less taxing than Fluidsynth. Unfortunately you probably need the CD to install the program.

[Tiger]

perkristian made a high res sound pack for Doom, give it a try!

http://www.perkristian.net/game_doom-sfx.shtml

I have used that since last year, and I will never switch back to the horrible original 8bit sounds.