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andrew603
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Re: Welcome!

Post by andrew603 »

HamJamSpamalot wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:27 am What will be the next post in the QuestStudios archive?
My next target is the actual MIDI file soundtrack pages.

It's a looong time coming.

I've been working on the framework for those pages on and off for a long time.

I want not just to be able to provide the original QS midi zips for download, but also have them playable in the web browser, or even on a mobile/phone on-the-go. This presents several problems, the the main one being the playback of MT-32 music or MIDI music in general. "How to do it?" and "How to do it without it sounding like garbage?". I could just make recordings of everything, but that's bandwidth intensive, and time consuming. Thankfully, Tomas Pollak's Polywave AKA Muki.io solves this problem wonderfully with a great implementation of MUNT, a more than adequate Soundfont-based engine for GM, as well as being a great MIDI/chip-tune player in general! I've had a number of great and extensive chats with Tomas about the player, some of the playback quirks I ran into, as well as some feature suggestions.

On top of all that, I also wanted to have the website code handle all of this in a more easy to manage way. There is a long story of what I did to automate the parsing the original QS Zip file contents, to match all the track names to their actual file names, many of which did not quite match or had typos in them in some cases, as well as determine what type of synth is needed, and to determine if a patch bank file was needed in case of MT-32 MIDI's. Ultimately, I was able to create a workflow that accomplishes this and puts it all into JSON, which is what Polywave uses also. I actually extended Polywave's playlist JSON template for my own site so that I can include track names, synth information, patch banks, file locations/URLs, and other info into the site, without now having to actually make a ton of individual pages with tons of hyperlinks manually. I am pretty pleased with the result and the potential. Again the goal experience I had envisioned for the QSA was that it be something that allows me to browse and listen to any of the tunes I want from any device on any platform.

Here is a test page you can checkout: http://www.midimusicadventures.com/jsontest.php

Here is the entire source of that test page for reference:

Code: Select all

<h1>Larry, the Complete MIDI Soundtrack Collection!</h1>
<div style="text-align:center;"><p><a href="https://www.polywave.xyz"><img src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/polywave-logo2-white.png" alt="Polywave" style="padding:0px; border:2px solid black;" /></a><br />A browser-based player with MT-32 Emulation, AdLib Emulation, SoundFont playback, and much more!</p>
<iframe src="https://polywave.xyz/embed?remote=https://www.midimusicadventures.com/qs/midi-zips/larry.json" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="264" style="border: 6px outset; border-color: grey black black grey;"></iframe></div>
<h3>MIDI ZIP Download Links</h3>
<?php
$url = "./qs/midi-zips/larry.json";
$contents = file_get_contents($url);
$contents = utf8_encode($contents);
$results = json_decode($contents);
if (json_last_error() === JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
    //echo "<pre>", var_dump($results), "</pre>";
    foreach ($results->tracks as $track) {
        $trackPath = strtok($track->location,"/");
	//echo $trackPath;
        echo <<<HTML
<p><a href="/qs/midi-zips/$trackPath/{$track->download}">{$track->name}</a> - {$track->note1}</p>
HTML;
    }
} else {
    echo "Invalid JSON";
}
?>
Regards,
Andrew
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Re: Welcome!

Post by GhostRider »

Howdy, I have not been on these forums since they moved, so wanted to say hello.
HamJamSpamalot
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Re: Welcome!

Post by HamJamSpamalot »

I was wondering something else: of Police Quest I, only the version by Shad0wfax is posted on the website. What happened to the "original" version?
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Re: Welcome!

Post by goatmeal1 »

HamJamSpamalot wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 11:41 am I was wondering something else: of Police Quest I, only the version by Shad0wfax is posted on the website. What happened to the "original" version?
Looking at my MHT files from the old Quest Studios site, I believe that the listings might be labelled incorrectly here on MMAS. From my download of the QS page that is ©2006, it appears only track 25 was a Fantom XR version by Shad0wfax, pq1(25).mp3.

The rest were standard MP3 HQ Versions -- except, again, for a second track 25 (pq1(25-2).mp3), which was the Roland ED version. I downloaded a few of the supposed "Fantom XR" tracks here from MMAS, but they are exactly the same as the old QS MP3 HQ tracks...

So, what Andrew has here is the "original" version; except for track (25) noted above, they are all just labelled incorrectly as "Fantom XR" tracks instead of "MP3 HQ Versions" tracks (and the one Roland ED version for track (25-2)).

Here is that MHT file of the old QS Police Quest 1 webpage for reference:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dUBakO ... sp=sharing
HamJamSpamalot
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Re: Welcome!

Post by HamJamSpamalot »

Ah, I understand. I'll explain what I was hinting towards. Because the soundtrack is labelled as "by Shad0wfax" I thought it wasn't an original version, but a different arrangement. For instance, the tracks don't sound like they were recorded from a Roland MT-32 to me. Because other soundtracks on the Quest Studios website were listed as "Roland MT-32 with Sound Canvas Enhancements", I was wondering if Police Quest I was recorded in a similar arrangement at some point. That's what I meant with "original version", I may have caused a little confusion with that.
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Re: Welcome!

Post by goatmeal1 »

Ah, I guess I was a little confused, too... I really should read what I post/link/attach:

At the top of the page I attached, it DOES say PQ1 was Mixed, Arranged, and Produced for
Quest Studios by David Martinez Zorilla
(Shad0wFax) from the General MIDI using the Roland Fantom XR Sound module (which was Shad0wfax's module of choice). However, Tom only listed Track 25 as specifically being Fantom XR -- hence my initial assumption that the others were some other MIDI system.

However, Andrew has the tracks listed correctly. My most humble apologies, Andrew!


I don't know that Tom L. ever recorded a version of PQ1 himself.
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Re: Welcome!

Post by HamJamSpamalot »

Thank you, I think that mystery is solved then. At least, I hope so.
Also, did Quest Studios at one point have a soundtrack of King's Quest 8 on their website?
It's one of my absolute favourite Sierra soundtracks and thankfully The Sierra Chest has mp3 files of the soundtrack. They are 128 kbps and to me they don't sound like they have the highest sound quality. So I'm wondering, did Quest Studios have files of King's Quest 8 and if yes, were they of higher sound quality?
goatmeal1
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Re: Welcome!

Post by goatmeal1 »

HamJamSpamalot wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:13 am Also, did Quest Studios at one point have a soundtrack of King's Quest 8 on their website?
It's one of my absolute favourite Sierra soundtracks and thankfully The Sierra Chest has mp3 files of the soundtrack. They are 128 kbps and to me they don't sound like they have the highest sound quality. So I'm wondering, did Quest Studios have files of King's Quest 8 and if yes, were they of higher sound quality?
The last KQ that I have is KQ6 from Quest Studios -- No KQ7 or KQ:MOE.

I believe that's because they were not MIDI tracks, per se, but recorded digital tracks (whether or not they may have been recorded from an original MIDI source). That's not to say Tom didn't host digital tracks (see QFG5 - a mix of GAP-extracted digital files and tracks from the official CD release), but he tended to focus more on the MIDI scores.

The problem is that unless the tracks were specifically CD music tracks (.CDA) on a mixed-mode CD-ROM (like "Betrayal at Krondor" or "Half Life"), the digital tracks within Sierra games from the mid-to-late '90s were usually mastered at a lower frequency -- hence, lower quality.

For example, David Henry told me that "Betrayal In Antara" (one of my favorite Sierra scores) was mastered at 22 kHz mono for the CD-ROM; he never bothered to mixed a higher quality version at 44 kHz stereo because the game would only play at 22 kHz mono. LSL7 is like that, as are others.

Sometimes you get lucky and the composer _did_ create and save a higher-quality version. Alistair at Sierra Music Central was able to get a hold of another of my favorites, "Rama," from Charles Barth's personal archives. At 256 kps in a MacIntosh format, the score appears to be CD quality; however, in the game itself, the music is much 'muddier' and 'muted' in a lower sound quality...

Some people have tried various "enhancements" (such as Tom's digital version of "Cell Block Love" from LSL6, and Alistair of Sierra Music Central for the opening and closing digital songs in his "Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist" release), but I'm not privy to those techniques.

========================================

You can also try the KQ:MOE version found on the Sierra Help pages:

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Music/MoESoundtrack.html

They are mostly 44 kHz files (with a few 22 kHz) and sound a little 'better' than those from Sierra Chest -- at least to my old ears, but I could be wrong.
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Re: Welcome!

Post by Spikey »

Ham:
I was wondering something else: of Police Quest I, only the version by Shad0wfax is posted on the website. What happened to the "original" version?
The original version will be posted by me on Facebook and this forum soon, my recordings but very similar to a typical QuestStudios release. I will also include 2 enhanced versions which are like early (MT-32/SC-55) and later (MT-32/SC-55/SC-8820) QuestStudios CD releases. Tom never recorded the original MT-32 MIDI files for this game, so they were never available for him to make a CD of.

Goat:
I believe that's because they were not MIDI tracks, per se, but recorded digital tracks (whether or not they may have been recorded from an original MIDI source). That's not to say Tom didn't host digital tracks (see QFG5 - a mix of GAP-extracted digital files and tracks from the official CD release), but he tended to focus more on the MIDI scores.
Correct re KQ8, but KQ7 is 95% MIDI. The reason Tom never recorded it was I believe because of its length. It has something like 100 pieces. I would love to do it someday, but it's a pain in the proverbial. ;)
Spikey
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Re: Welcome!

Post by Spikey »

Ham:
I was wondering something else: of Police Quest I, only the version by Shad0wfax is posted on the website. What happened to the "original" version?
The original version will be posted by me on Facebook and this forum soon, my recordings but very similar to a typical QuestStudios release. I will also include 2 enhanced versions which are like early (MT-32/SC-55) and later (MT-32/SC-55/SC-8820) QuestStudios CD releases. Tom never recorded the original MT-32 MIDI files for this game, so they were never available for him to make a CD of.

Goat:
I believe that's because they were not MIDI tracks, per se, but recorded digital tracks (whether or not they may have been recorded from an original MIDI source). That's not to say Tom didn't host digital tracks (see QFG5 - a mix of GAP-extracted digital files and tracks from the official CD release), but he tended to focus more on the MIDI scores.
Correct re KQ8, but KQ7 is 95% MIDI. The reason Tom never recorded it was I believe because of its length. It has something like 100 pieces (~70 for a typical soundtrack release with some merged tracks). I would love to do it someday, but it's a pain in the proverbial. ;)
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