DRD Team

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!

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.

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?

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

Nash wrote: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.