LMMS now works on OSX (with bugs and crashes)

Rendered the title theme midi from the old DOS game, called CyberMage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcRrntnRqWs
Back then mp3 was not yet invented, so all game music was in midi format, usually relaying on a standard sample set, called General MIDI sound bank. Different audio hardware came with different implementations that that sample set, so all game soundtracks of the era performed incorrectly on all but some single audio card the composer had while making the song. Typically composers used high end midi keyboards to produce the songs, which programmers just thrown into the game, so in reality no card may have been compatible.

I think the original Space Invaders had some kind of analogue component to supplement its midi synthesizer in order to make the bullet sound effects more natural. This, of course, means that emulating the game means an audio experience that's not historically accurate. But I never knew that all midi scores came from different "sound banks".

That's really interesting to know that midi scores were all basically unique in timbre, because, as a kid, I always kind of contrasted the synth pop of the new wave with the perfectly reproducible, universal midi music of video games.

>>2
sound banks are one thing, the other is that what those games used was basically 'raw MIDI'. with your synth-pop example: a synth-pop musician would play a MIDI keyboard connected to a synth which would spit out sounds from the soundbank, but it would then be converted to audio through a DAC and fed through a chain of effects which modify the resulting sound-wave. then, all those synthesized instruments would be mastered with equalizers, filters, compressors etc. to achieve just right sound. also, the parameters of a synthesizer itself (e.g. a shape of the underlying wave could shifted from sine to square, or its attack and decay times could be altered) and those effects (e.g. a distortion could be disabled at one point to make a quieter part of the song seem more pleasant) could be modified dynamically, as the song develops - but it's something that's arguably more obvious in instrumental electronic music (happens in synth-pop too, but it's not as noticeable as in e.g. IDM or trance). old vidya music would not have those effects or those dynamic changes, it would be an output of pre-programmed synths.

BTW not all old video game music was based on the MIDI standard. old computer games and demoscene stuff relied more on trackers, which are more like sequencers/samplers

Different audio hardware came with different implementations that that sample set, so all game soundtracks of the era performed incorrectly on all but some single audio card the composer had while making the song

If I remember everybody had either a Soundblaster or Adlib sound card and you could choose which one you used in the settings. (at least it was like that in Warcraft 2)

>>2

had some kind of analogue component to supplement its midi synthesizer in order to make the bullet sound effects more natural.

I'm sure you can easily emulate the ancient analogue circuits on the modern hardware. In fact, people emulated whole CPUs together with precise timings.

>>4
Early soundblaster had only FM synthesis. Then there were several versions of soundblaster, each coming with different Yamaha FM chips. So same midi track played differently on different soundblasters. Later soundblasters supported GM banks, each having different one. Then beside original soundblaster, there were countless cheaper no-name soundblaster clones, which most people had. They sounded differently. Windows also came with its own GM sound bank, played using software synthesizer.

And that is beside Gravis, Roland, Korg and Yamaha sound modules, MT32. Here guys uses several of these sound modules to play the Windows 95 opening midi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMSdaPTuV8E

Obviously everything sounds out of place.

>>3

all those synthesized instruments would be mastered with equalizers, filters, compressors etc. to achieve just right sound.

Indeed. These early midi modules offered no per-instrument frequency filtering. So if some Korg instrument is nice but has harsh higher freqs, you just cut them off, and maybe replace high freqs from some alternate instrument, usually using custom samples. But DOS sound modules offered no way to do that. But that is not that huge of a problem, since composer can prepare his/her instruments in advance. Playstation 1 had basically the same Roland GM clone, but games came with their own sound banks. Custom samples and uniform hardware made Playstation games sound nice, although a bit limited, due to the sample size limitation.

There were also the so called tracker formats, which were basically midi coupled with samples, and simple post-processing effects. Unfortunately these ran in software, eating large amount of precious CPU memory, therefore not used in games, beside Unreal and Deus Ex, which used them because mp3 decoding was actually more expensive.

>>7
BTW, soundblaster FM synthesizer was actually really good and flexible as its own thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_sPAZZGtsI

but nobody really bothered to actually set it up properly, usually sticking to premade GM instrument set, which sounded like a horrible set of farts and bleeps.

https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/trackers-vs-midi/

This leads to a ‘lowest common denominator’ problem: Because there are so many different General MIDI devices out there, it’s impossible to try and program custom sounds on each and every one of them. So you just don’t use it. This is always a problem with standards and extension mechanisms, and reminds me a lot of OpenGL and its extension system.

you could think of MIDI as HTML: it describes which components should be on the page, and roughly describes the layout, but different browsers, screen sizes, installed fonts etc will make the same page look slightly different.

Well founded criticism of HTML, which was broken by design and became only more broken.

Brian Eno said something in "A Year With Swollen Appendices"
[quote]
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided.”
[\quote]
Basically, people like the kitsch which are the flaws ubiquitous to a medium. It's weird that in retrospect genres like chiptunes garnered a weird modicum of appeal in mainstream music, sometimes as a prominent motif. They like the artificial, in-organic sound signature of trackers and raw midi because of what that kitsch connotes.

I like the Touhou soundtracks, but it's really embarrassing to listen to them played with irl classical arrangements. The compositions are really meant more for the midi environment they were authored in. Classical music in general is kind of like that, because all my Classical nerd friends talk about how they prefer different performances of arrangements, which, in my rock music background and upbringing, sounds about as annoying as ten consecutive remasters and remixings of a single album, but they love that shit. What makes a performance better in a spacious, reverb-ey music hall than in a sterile, congested studio when both performances represent the same theory, which is apparently supposed to be the focal point of the genre?

Damn backslash fucked me over

>>12
You also wasted a pair of equal ending digits.

>>13
Dubs are autistic, fuckerman

fizzbuzz

LMMS is gay. I tried using it for years. I think after the third time going back to it after a year break and seeing it STILL hadn't added copy and paste for patterns, I gave up.

Makes sense though, it's a fruityloops cloan. And fruityloops is HARDU GHEEEEY

Someone make a decent Reason clone so I can finally ditch Windows on the desktop please.

>>16
What have you expected? It is GPL software. A bad Fruityloops clone, as you've noticed.

jizzbuzz

>>11

I like the Touhou soundtracks, but it's really embarrassing to listen to them played with irl classical arrangements

honestly no idea why people make classical arrangements for 2hu music. for me, it sounds more like it's meant for a jazz band with some traiditonal jap instruments for local flavor. and given the jazz influence, performances should not follow the score closely but improvise a bit around it.
>>16

Makes sense though, it's a fruityloops cloan. And fruityloops is HARDU GHEEEEY

modern FL has some nice features and I genuinely enjoy working with it. riff machine for basic algorithmic generation and chord stamps + arpeggiators for helping you compose manuallu, automation clips, recording automation, ableton-style performance mode, step sequencer for easy 808-like drum machines, LFO on piano roll. too bad that LMMS only imitates early FL.

Someone make a decent Reason clone so I can finally ditch Windows on the desktop please.

there's always Audiotool. it's browser-based which sucks but allows you to use it on Linux, and it's similar to Reason in that it tries to emulate a real-life modular setup. it's much more limited than Reason, but it's nice if you want a quick jam on modular softsynth