xusu

@psy_commando

oh wow fl studio.....im disappointed. this is so sad can we get a despacito lol. thanks so much for this info though

also i was given the green light to upload the soundfont, so here it is. again, i wasnt the one who made it but i made the instruments more usable.
PMD2 GM 1.000.sf2

On 6/12/2018 at 2:49 AM, psy_commando said:

Its fine, the whole point of this thread is to be bumped every once in a while! XD

I'm not really sure what you're trying to do? The xml file is for remapping PMD2's instruments to GM/GS when doing a midi only export. It has no effect when exporting the tracks along with their soundbank.

 And when you say the wrong instrument is set, what do you mean? In the midi-only rips or the soundfont, or in the midi files that accompany the soundfont?

Adding the -gm option on the command line just tries to make it so old GM only software has a better shot at playing it back by swapping any existing drum channel with the right one. By default the files are all exported for a GS compatible midi driver. GS allows things like disabling the drum channel as needed and etc.. The way DSE works is similar to GS and not GM. Which means some tracks just won't work when exporting as GM since they use the drum channel as a melodic channel.

yep, i'm trying to do a midi-only export. the soundfont i use isn't the one generated by your program (since specific instruments are almost impossible to find lol), it is by this guy on reddit who compiled a GM/GS friendly soundfont using samples ripped from the game. i dont use that soundfont to listen to the playback leisurely, i use it to check how close it sounds to the actual soundtrack on the instruments that were exported from the xml.
for example, say i exported treasure town (bgm0009) just as a plain old midi, no editing to the xml. i import the midi into FL studio and see the instrument bank that the original xml gave me. i actually did it just now, here are the instrument presets that were exported into the midi:

 
i then drag the GM/GS friendly PMD2 soundfont onto one of the channels and set it to the instrument that was exported into the midi to hear if it's right. in this case, the piccolo doesn't even exist in the PMD2 games. for the small woodwinds in PMD2, theres a flute, recorder, and pan flute. the piccolo is PC#73 in the GM/GS patch, but the game simply doesn't have one. but even if it did, it wouldn't be right because after using my memory and listening to the official soundtrack, i know it's really supposed to be the flute. i test it out on the PMD flute and it sounds perfect, exactly like in the game. this means i need to go back and change the preset in the XML file from piccolo (PC#73) to flute (PC#74). i believe this to be a computer mistake since some programs start the patches off at #00 and some start it at #01, in which case patches starting with #00 would have flute at #73.
another one that is wrong is the english horn, but its actual instrument isn't the next patch over -- it's actually the bagpipe, so i think this one is a human mistake. i always thought treasure town sounded like a scottish tune, and when i plugged in the PMD2 bagpipes it fit perfectly, so i went into the XML and changed the english horn to the bagpipes. thats the kinda stuff im here for to review and fix if needed.

i typically always have to go for -gm since the GS midi exports' drum channels use up more than one channel (and there's only 16 available in total), and theyre not assigned to a percussive patch, so the drum sequences are given the default piano. strangely, that wasn't the case for waterfall cave and it gave channel #10 a percussive patch despite it being a GS export, not a GM export. in this case is supposed to be a melodic patch, since waterfall cave should be taking advantage of using all 16 channels for its percussiveless ambience.

funnily enough, the orchestra kit is also PC#49 just like the strings 

i just asked permission from the guy on reddit who created the GM/GS PMD2 soundfont if i could share it with you and i'm waiting for a reply. i edited the instruments a bit in polyphone and reduced the envelope release levels since it was too reverby initially. i also added an instrument that was lying around unused from the PMD2 samples which sounds like its from a D-50, but it's not fantasia or anything. it's like a piano layered with strings and a chorus and the closest i could approximate it to was echoes/echo drops but it's really more of a pad than a weird pad than anything else? like an alternate version of fantasia. i'll post my appended version when i'm sure i have permission lol

sorta frightened on posting here since it hasn't been active since march and a lot of forums will give you a strike for replying to a dead thread

i've been lurking this thread for years but never made an account on here? well way back in the day (by which i mean 3 ½ years ago) i got involved with the PMD2 midi business when i was a wee 12 year old and used PsyCommando's utility to rip all the midis out of PMD2 to the GM standards

after looking to see if anyone made a GM mapped PMD2 soundfont i found this thread on reddit which linked back to the outdated midi pack i compiled in late 2014, though i have since changed my tumblr url from calibore. i noticed the poster said that "the MIDI pack is pretty outdated (was made before even the Procyon engine got reverse-engineered), and some instruments are wrong, such as the Alto Sax actually being a french horn", so that inspired me to redo the entire thing but make it as close to the original track as i can, using the GM mapped PMD2 soundfont this guy made.

in the ppmdu_audioutil_0.37, i noticed a few things off about the instruments, and i know that you can edit the presets yourself, but i'd like to contribute to them being corrected in an official release. an example was that in almost every song the piccolo instrument (PC#73) is set when really it's supposed to play the flute (PC#74), or oftentimes the violin (PC# 41) is set to the cello (PC#43). songs with nylon str. guitar (PC#25) have it often replaced with the steel str. guitar (PC#26)... etc. some of my "outdated" midis sound a bit better than the newer ones im generating so i just wanted to maybe make this into something ongoing whenever i have the time?

i'm not really a coder, i'm more of a spot the difference kinda person and i can pick out subtleties like if something needs an instrument change or transposing an octave by using my old midi sequences, the official soundtrack, and the PMD2 soundfont as references. so here are a few things to start that are frustrating me a bit and i don't know my way around them:
well they both have to do with the waterfall cave sequence (bgm0024).

1.  how do i make the preset on the instruments a sine wave? this basically goes for all the "sub-patches" as i call them, tho i think theyre officially called "banks". i know the sine wave was introduced in GM 2 under the square wave patch (PC#81, BS MSB#2) (or in FL studio for some reason the bank select MSB is 8 for sine wave)  but i see no way to set a preset to the sine wave specifically, as

         <!--0x62 Sine Wave  (smpl     0xB8 )-->
         <Program>
           <DSEProgramID>98</DSEProgramID>
           <MIDIPreset>81</MIDIPreset>
         </Program>

   is still just the vanilla square wave from GM 1. i actually had to modify this preset to <MIDIPreset>81</MIDIPreset> from <MIDIPreset>88</MIDIPreset> originally since that made it bass & lead (PC#88)

2. one of the channels has a percussion patch (channel #10 of course), no matter if i include -gm in the command line or not. it's really supposed to be strings but i don't know how to change it back to a melodic patch.

i still have a lot more questions, such as why the drum sequence in drenched bluff has changed from my older rip of it

but anyways i just wanted to help make stuff more accurate in the ppmdu audioutil xml since i have the resources and senses but without a lot of experience i can't do it all on my own ✌