8MBGM and 8MBGSFX Gravis Patch Set v1.3 ======================================= (C)Copyright 1997-2004, Rich „Weeds„ Nagel - All rights reserved Overview -------- The files in this archive consist of a complete set of high quality Gravis format patch files that were created from EMU Technologies "8MBGM.SF2" and "8MBGSFX.SF2" SoundFont format soundbanks (E-mu Rev B). The patch set consists of 635 Gravis format patches (a total of 32,156,227 bytes of patch files) which make up a single high quality General MIDI compatable standard melodic bank, and a total of nine different General MIDI compatable drum kits (Standard, Room, Power, Electronic, TR-808, Jazz, Brush, Orchestral, and Sound Effects drum kits). These patch files can be used with the software wavetable synthesis MIDI music synthesizer "Timidity", or any program or utility that supports Gravis format patches for music synthesis (such as the native Gravis patch support included with PRBOOM, the native Timidity support included with ZDOOM, the software wavetable synthesis digital MIDI "DIGMID" music driver support included with BOOM or any other Allegro based application, or the MIDI player support of the Cubic Player). Essentially this patch set will make the MIDI music playback of any of the above mentioned applications sound highly realistic, all without the need of expensive MIDI hardware. Installation ------------ First create a new directory on your hard drive (i.e. "C:\8MBGMPAT"), and then simply unzip the files contained in the 8MBGMPAT.ZIP archive to this new directory. Allegro Usage ------------- 1) Run the ASETUP.EXE or SETUP.EXE configuration utility that is included with the Allegro based application. 2) Select the proper "Digital Driver" for your sound card. 3) For best sounding results, change the Digital Driver's sampling rate within the configuration utility to 22,727 (or higher). 4) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Midi Driver" and select the "Digital MIDI" (DIGMID) option. 5) Click on "Patches" and navigate around your hard drive to the directory where you unzipped the patches, and then select one of the following nine configuration files: BRUSH.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Brush Drum Kit ELECTRIC.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Electronic Drum Kit JAZZ.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Jazz Drum Kit ORCHSTRL.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Orchestral Drum Kit POWER.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Power Drum Kit ROOM.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Room Drum Kit SFX.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Sound Effects Drum Kit STANDARD.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Standard Drum Kit (default) TR808.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and TR-808 Drum Kit 6) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Test" to test your Digital Driver and Midi Driver selections. 7) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Save Changes and Exit". The setup utility will then create the file ALLEGRO.CFG in the current directory with your saved settings. BOOM Usage ---------- 1) Run the ASETUP.EXE configuration utility that is included with BOOM. 2) Select the proper "Digital Driver" for your sound card. 3) For best sounding results, change the Digital Driver's sampling rate within the configuration utility to 22,727 (or higher). 4) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Midi Driver" and select the "Digital MIDI" (DIGMID) option. 5) Click on "Patches" and navigate around your hard drive to the directory where you unzipped the patches, and then select one of the following nine configuration files: BRUSH.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Brush Drum Kit ELECTRIC.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Electronic Drum Kit JAZZ.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Jazz Drum Kit ORCHSTRL.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Orchestral Drum Kit POWER.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Power Drum Kit ROOM.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Room Drum Kit SFX.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Sound Effects Drum Kit STANDARD.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Standard Drum Kit (default) TR808.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and TR-808 Drum Kit 6) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Test" to test your Digital Driver and Midi Driver selections. 7) Back at the main Setup menu, click on "Save Changes and Exit". The setup utility will then create the file ALLEGRO.CFG in your BOOM directory with your saved settings. Cubic Player Usage ------------------ 1) Edit the "guspatchpath=" line in the CP.INI configuration file (located in your Cubic Player directory) to point to the drive and complete path to where you unzipped the patches on your hard drive (i.e. "guspatchpath=C:\8MBGMPAT", minus the quotes). 2) Optionally copy one of the following nine configuration files to the filename DEFAULT.CFG (located in the directory where you unzipped the patches): BRUSH.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Brush Drum Kit ELECTRIC.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Electronic Drum Kit JAZZ.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Jazz Drum Kit ORCHSTRL.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Orchestral Drum Kit POWER.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Power Drum Kit ROOM.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Room Drum Kit SFX.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Sound Effects Drum Kit STANDARD.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and Standard Drum Kit (default) TR808.CFG = Standard Melodic Bank and TR-808 Drum Kit 3) For the best sounding results, press the "E" key on your keyboard within Cubic Player to access the "Echo Editor" menu, and select the "Waschmaschine & Hagel (c) Koegl" echo while playing a MIDI file. PRBOOM Usage ------------ 1) Copy the TIMIDITY.CFG file from the directory where you unzipped the patches to your PRBOOM directory. 2) Edit the "dir c:\patches\8mbgmpat" line in the TIMIDITY.CFG configuration file (located in your PRBOOM directory) to point to the drive and complete path to where you unzipped the patches on your hard drive (i.e. "dir c:\8mbgmpat", minus the quotes). 3) For best sounding results, change the "Sample Rate" within PRBOOM's "Sound Options" menu to 22,050 (or higher). Timidity Usage -------------- 1) Copy the TIMIDITY.CFG file from the directory where you unzipped the patches to your Timidity directory. 2) Edit the "dir c:\patches\8mbgmpat" line in the TIMIDITY.CFG configuration file (located in your Timidity directory) to point to the drive and complete path to where you unzipped the patches on your hard drive (i.e. "dir c:\8mbgmpat", minus the quotes). 3) For best sounding results, select "Enable Chorus Control Effect", "Enable Reverb Control Effect", "Enable Overlapped Same Voice", 16-bit, and stereo, and change the sampling rate to 44,100 (or higher) within Timidity's various "Preferences" menus. ZDOOM Usage ----------- 1) Download the special version of Timidity for ZDOOM from http://www.zdoom.org/files/timidity4zdoom.zip. 2) Unzip the files contained in the timidity4zdoom.zip archive to your ZDOOM directory. 3) Copy the TIMIDITY.CFG file from the directory where you unzipped the patches to your ZDOOM directory. 4) Edit the "dir c:\patches\8mbgmpat" line in the TIMIDITY.CFG configuration file (located in your ZDOOM directory) to point to the drive and complete path to where you unzipped the patches on your hard drive (i.e. "dir c:\8mbgmpat", minus the quotes). 5) Edit the "snd_mididevice=" line in the ZDOOM.INI configuration file (located in your ZDOOM directory) to read "snd_mididevice=-2" (minus the quotes). 6) For best sounding results, edit the "timidity_reverb=" and "timidity_chorus=" lines in the ZDOOM.INI configuration file (located in your ZDOOM directory) to read "timidity_reverb=1" and "timidity_chorus=1" (minus the quotes) to enable MIDI reverb and chorus, and the "timidity_frequency=" line to read "timidity_frequency=22050" (or higher). Technical Information --------------------- If you understand the basics of Gravis format patches and the concepts of software wavetable synthesis, have a look at all of the configuration files included with this package. There are numerous remarks of interest in those files that I have added throughout the years as this project has slowly developed (since December 1997), and during the time that the configuration files were created and edited. Legalities ---------- The 8MBGM and 8MBGSFX Gravis Patch Set (8MBGMPAT.ZIP) may be freely distributed in it's unmodified and unedited form with no modifications to any of the included support files or documents, and in it's original unmodified and unedited ZIP format archive for any non-commercial use as freeware. The archive and/or it's contents may not be distributed on any commercial CD-ROM or any other commercial magnetic or electronic media (commercial or freeware implied), on any "pay per download" online service, for any purpose of financial gain whatsoever, or for any purpose other than 100% freeware. Version History --------------- v1.0 - First unreleased test version. (December 8, 1997) v1.1 - Second unreleased test version. (December 11, 1997) v1.2 - Privately released test version. (January 1, 1998) v1.3 - Final release. (April 20, 2004) ENJOY! ------ Rich „Weeds„ Nagel [CIS: 112615,1575] RichNagel@compuserve.com 112615.1575@compuserve.com RFNagel@juno.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RichNagel http://www.geocities.com/RFNagel http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Metro/7256 http://snor.cmoo.com/weeds http://www.cmoo.com/~snor/weeds