XMI/MIDI Background music using mp3 files

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by kicnlag, Sep 9, 2016.

  1. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    Here's some work I wanted to share in response to bijaz and Yinn Yang's replies in this thread http://www.takproject.net/forums/in...ll-screen-as-old-school-full.6648/#post-37272


    (warning - it gets pretty loud at Surefall toward the end)

    The work by Shendare found here http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39747 really paved the way.

    My primary focus was just getting the xmi background music playing on mac however the end result is that pc client users can also use mp3s instead of trying to go down the MIDI driver/soundfont path.

    Another observation I made was that some wav sounds are also not working like the "tavern" noises that are played near Basur TuQual by the good bank in PoK. It appears to be possible to correct these with mp3 files as well however I am still unsure of that direction due to the sheer quantity of wav files.

    Heres an overview of what I did:

    Creating the mp3s from the xmi files.

    I used XMPlay with the MIDI plugin to playback and encode the audio.
    The MIDI plugin was loaded with 1mgm.sf2 as well as synthusr.sf2 and synthus2.sf2 from the game directory.
    Each subsong was saved as its own mp3 in the format <original xmi>(subsong #).mp3 for example qeytoqrg.xmi(6).mp3, the Sayer house music in Qeynos Hills.

    There is a lot of room to create mp3s that use different soundfonts, software, or methods of capture. I took a relatively easy path that I personally found to be good enough(tm).
    Getting someone with sound expertise to create the mp3s would be another path to explore.

    xmplay.PNG

    Adding mp3s to mp3index.txt

    The client uses line numbers referenced in the <zone>_sounds.eff file to play corresponding mp3 files.
    Here is what the file looks like with just Qeynos Hills background music added.
    Code:
    [ Only registered users can see the bbcode. Click Here To Register... ]
    Patching the <zone>_sounds.eff

    Using Shendare's post I was able to retrieve the subsong numbers and replace them with the negative index from the mp3index.txt file.
    I am in the process of cleaning up a small C++ program to append the mp3index file and patch all of the <zone>_sounds.eff files.

    sounds_hex.png

    Where do I download this?!
    I am still trying to work that out. I would like to publish and opensource the program to patch the eff files soon.
    https://github.com/nickgal/eqeff
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zf9lhykcjmhzwnr/AABg0zXilQ8dV-1q3CKnEGmLa?dl=0

    There is a link on the wiki http://wiki.takp.info/index.php?title=Getting_Started#Obtaining_the_Client to a beta client.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2016
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  2. Lenas

    Lenas I Feel Loved

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    To github!
     
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  3. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    Great info!
    How does this work in relation to proximity music triggers, like when you approach the gates of Qeynos? Sounds like (in your reference to tavern sounds) that maybe that could work? With some tweaking?

    I guess the reason I love the "area of effect" kind of music is that it was always such a relief when I would hear that music after a long (dangerous) run from Freeport to Qeynos :) Before Soulbinders were added to the game, I literally had a hotbutton for /ooc "Can anyone bind me at the gate, please?"
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2016
  4. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    In the video you can see (hear) the triggers. I run to a few locations, the qeynos zone line, the sayer house, the guard tower, blackburrow, the ruins, surefall. Each triggers different music.

    While my program currently only changes the xmi subsong to be the mp3's index it could support changing the trigger location, radius, fadeout and volume I believe.
     
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  5. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    543
    Disregard my previous post, just got a chance to watch the video... looks like you figured it out!

    Nice work!

    If the fading in and out can be worked out, it will be amazingly similar to the original game. Seems you've come up with a workaround that has been discussed for years... really well done!

    As far as the specific soundfonts and tweaking the sound/tone, as soon as it's an mp3, I suspect that someone with the right recording studio software could play with it until it's perfect (even, dare I say, slightly improved).

    Wonder if Seduce could pull that off? ;) Musician/Sound Master extrordinaire.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2016
  6. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    That was my thinking as well. I updated the original post with a picture of xmplay. Something I noticed was it shows d0:51 Missing. From what I could gather it has something to do with the original file using channel 10 for (in this case) program 51. I believe xmplay wants channel 10 to be drums. I don't know if theres a setting in xmplay I missed or if editing the xmi files would be required to correct it. This is sort of where I declared it "good enough".
     
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  7. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    Damn, think I need to leave work early to go home and try this out!

    Very exciting :)
     
  8. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    I just used Shendare's EFF2EMT program on the pc client. Surprisely, they seems to work. Kelethin music are playing where they weren't before.
     
  9. Skratching

    Skratching Active Member

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    Is there anyway to include the newly discovered unreleased Luclin music and attach it to the game in a similar fashion?
     
  10. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    I believe the only thing needed would be the actual files... not sure if they were on any original CDs... I'll look on my SoL set.
     
  11. Mambo

    Mambo Well-Known Member

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    Before soul binders my friend bound me, if memory serves, in EC tunnels (I think tunnel enterance or the Swashbuckler), then I had to pay someone to bind me at docs in Oasis, then I eventually recall doing that again in HIghpass, HHK, Overthere, Dreadlands/KC zoneline/ and finally at the Seb Orb. That was the last * important bind I remember.

    Wow, I HATED not having a box. But few people boxed on live back in 2000. Occasionally I was able to use my buddy's character, but the only way to do that back then (as I recall) was to use two computers. So only when our computer chairs were back to back and he was not around could this work.

    Ugh.

    Fun times. :)
     
  12. Skratching

    Skratching Active Member

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    Last edited: Sep 9, 2016
  13. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    So all we would need is someone who still has access on live (current) servers, patch (if it isn't already), and then find the mp3 (?) files in the game folder. Beyond that, there must be a file in there (or code) that will cause it to play when you zone into an SoL zone.
     
  14. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    Last edited: Sep 10, 2016
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  15. Seduce

    Seduce Member

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    Back on EQ Mac I was speaking with Hobbart from Sony online entertainment to implement music for EQ Mac! I had about 9 songs into the project and was going to making all the trigger songs mp3s for the mac client.

    As some of you know, Im a senior sound designer / audio director for video game companies / film industry for the last 24 years or so, this was a project of love for me. The one thing that always bothered me playing at Al' Kabor was we couldn't hear music!

    The 9 songs I re-made them playing note by note myself playing all the parts, it was a recreation from scratch! I spent a lot of time for accuracy and detail using very high end equipment for the production.

    Music is the catalyst that connects our emotions to the story or plot, it allows us to open up remove ourselves and take a journey into another world. While at the time, general midi sounded primitive, a lot of us loved the location triggers of music entering different parts of the zones. It gave us an idea of location, mood and possible lurking dangers about!

    If speedz, rob and the rest of the team want to meetup on discord someone, Id be happy to help on engineering this, mastering.

    Here area few examples I re-composed about 3 years ago, this was shared privately with the devs back in the day for a internal demo. Unfortunately dropbox compresses the hell out of these mp4s so the quality isn't final.

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Everquest Mac Sony My playing Music and redo.mp4

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Everquest Kaladim Theme My Remake played by Seduce.mp4


    -Seduce
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2016
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  16. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    would love to get it working on the intel client.
     
  17. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    65
  18. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    I havn't fully verified this yet but I think Shendare's program has a small bug where it might miss a sound.

    When I run Eff2Emt on qeytoqrg it doesn't have a line for the guard tower.

    Code:
    [ Only registered users can see the bbcode. Click Here To Register... ]
     
  19. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    can probably fork that git repo and fixed a bug that would miss a sound.
     
  20. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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  21. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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  22. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    I get an error about having wrong paremeter
     
  23. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    Running it on mac? What argument are you passing to the executable? It should(tm) work with absolute and relative paths.
     
  24. robregen

    robregen Administrator Staff Member

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    on a Mac. tried this: find /Applications/EverQuest.app/Contents/Resources -type f -iname "*_sounds.eff" -exec ./eqeff {} \; no directory or file is found. I'm not familiar with Mac commands.

    Also I get this message:
    "Wrong number of arguments, try: eqeff qeytoqrg_sounds.eff"
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2016
  25. Seduce

    Seduce Member

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    Last edited: Sep 10, 2016
  26. Seduce

    Seduce Member

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    Hey all!

    Don't mean to hi-jack this thread. Got a lot of in game PMs asking what Ive done in the game world (not so much tv haha. We gamers at heart!) folks on TAKP wanted to hear some of the original compositions I've done (Now I've done it! I better deliver). I'll be happy to share a few of different sounding genres of games over a wide amount of time doing video game music. I figured I'd pick one of conccole (playstation 2, this was the time eq came outs its fitting to this thread), IOS and PC. Im usually pretty private but what the hell, right?

    Here we go!

    Video Game Summoner THQ / Volition (1999) (Playstation 2) - All orignal soundtrack and sound design. Backstory! All the guys at Volition were playing beta and retail Everquest! Yes, we have a guild "Volition" on Cazic thule. We were all hooked in beta and were playing day one. Ryan / Simon and also Paulaner was also from cazic thule at this time ;) The time period was why I picked this one, everquest was released this year these songs were created. Just picking out a few random of the catalog.

    [​IMG]

    Palace Theme:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Chosen One (Palace Theme).mp3
    Wolong:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Summoner Official - Wolong.mp3
    Title Theme:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Summoner Theme.mp3

    Video Game Repluze by Pixelbyte Games - IOS / Android release (2012?) - If you ever played the wipeout racing games on Playstation, this was its IOS form. High energy Electronica music if you are into that! Got some great reviews.

    [​IMG]

    Stage music:

    Flow:

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Repulze - Flow.mp3
    Cresta:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Repulze - Cresta.mp3

    Video Game Delta For Extreme 2 (2004-2007) from Novalogic Inc - PC release - This was the precursor to the Call of duty line of games. This is more of a industrial / rock / electronica mix kind of different so though id share. Backstory. Well actually this WASNT support to be in delta for extreme, but was suppose to be in Starsiege Tribes 3! I was working with Justin Durban (Edgen- Harry potter, avatar trailer etc) before the game got pulled and never saw the light of day. So I saw Hey, what about this track John? (My boss at novalogic)

    [​IMG]

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/01 Infection (DFX2 Main Theme).mp3


    Random CGI Short 2013 winner "Caldera" by: Evan Viera promo. Backstory - I like this song, just in context its just something I can throw in extra. It was up on my Dropbox so I threw it in!

    [​IMG]

    Soundtrack Promo:

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46437384/Sun God_1.mp3

    This just random game music Ive done. Created a lot of things over the years, these just popped into my head in no order. Anyways, hope you enjoy to those folks that wrote me. Here ya go!

    -Seduce
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2016
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  27. Haynar

    Haynar Administrator

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    I was able to get some of the sound working on mac, without altering stuff.

    My intel mac was missing some files in the Resources folder.

    I played with some .emt files too.

    Here are the sound files I got working.

    Make sure you get ride of any .emt files.

    This is mac only.

    These go into Resources folder. My system was missing the Resources\redist\macx86 files too. The sound system loads these for miles sound support.

    So here are all my sound files that got me going without any mods or running any scripts.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d3futjalpoc01cz/AAB4UE17o-XLu_OG30RkCcMna?dl=0
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2016
  28. kicnlag

    kicnlag Active Member

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    Cool stuff Haynar.

    Where'd you source the redistributable files from?
     
  29. Yinn Yang

    Yinn Yang People Like Me

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    So, literally go into my EQ game folder on my IMac, search any and all .emt, and hit delete? Do I lose anything by doing that? Or just part of the process to get Miles studio working on the Mac?

    Wow, I see some Luclin stuff in there too... part of the "long lost" set? Looking at those Acrylia & Deep .xmis... never seen those before.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2016
  30. Haynar

    Haynar Administrator

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    I got the redist files from a different zip of eqmac files I had. No clue where I got it originally.
     
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