MIDI versus CD Quality Audio

[ryanstein]

So I've been playing through the remake of the Secret of Monkey Island (and loving the new graphics and voice-overs, by the way). All along the way, of course, I kept hitting the F10 button to play certain parts of the game in classic mode, as they were meant to be played. However, ever since the first time I did it, I thought that there was something... not right about it. I just had the feeling that something in the classic mode had actually been updated. After a little while, I realized that the music and the lower verb box was the ones from the CD version of the game. That's when it hit me: all these years, I had been playing the floppy version (although I own both, I stuck with the floppy version because that's the one I played as a kid).

Needless to say, I broke out my copies of SoMI and compared the two versions. It may just be the retrophile in me, but I actually prefer the floppy version with all its MIDI bleepy and bloopy goodness. It's not because it's the version I grew up with. Rather, there seems to be... for lack of a better word, a soul to the MIDI version that the CD version is missing. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Who else likes the bleeps and bloops over CD quality music, too?

[Mozgus]

I've very rarely come across sequenced game music that can't be enhanced by modern technology in a linear stream format. It's just that, back then, lower tech enforced better composition. Even the people who make a living doing retro style chiptunes are still at the very least incorporating additional instruments outside of the tech. I think that says something.

[RCBH928]

this is funny
that low technology brings the best of the people
A friend of mine explained to me an amazing twist in one of the Zelda games, and when I said it was pretty amazing for that time , he said because the graphics sucks so they had to make it up with story element.

Here is another example of the music. I honestly LOVE midi, it gives great tune.

[MrPopo]

It's pretty well known that it is much easier to create with limitations. Too much freedom is overwhelming.

[gravitone]

As is with all pc games at the time. The type of soundcard you bought really determined the quality of midi music. There was no consistency in PC land in that respect until CD-audio and directsound came into use. Back in the 80's/early 90's the sierra adventure games and the lucasarts adventures sounded at their best, i.e. how they were meant to be heard on the roland MT-32 midi sound generator. I have recently bought one of these babies just for that purpose, but still need a power adapter and midi cable to hook it up to my retro pc. Check out youtube sometime and look for money island mt-32 and you will be surprised by the quality you could have had back in the day. It really gives a shine to those old electronic tunes.

[Pulsar_t]

On the other hand there are people like me who preferred the Megadrive/SNES sound chips because they were far better than the (sub)standard SB-compatible MIDI playback of yesteryear. Games like Mortal Kombat and Flashback sounded better on consoles unless you had an expensive soundcard to render MIDI as was originally intended.

[Niode]

I preferred the Amiga versions of all my adventure games purely because the sound was so much better. The Amiga had an awesome soundchip.

I really should get around to including it in my composition set up.

[Pulsar_t]

The Amiga was great but its software like all platforms wasn't for everybody. Sure it had many ports of 16-bit titles but I preferred the exclusive MD games. The Amiga had the ultimate versions of strategy/sim titles which were later ported to the 16-bitters (e.g. Syndicate, Cannon Fodder, Theme Park).. By the time Doom and Magic Carpet showed up though it was obvious the IBM-compatible PC would supercede the Amiga.

The Amiga had more sampling capabilites (thanks to larger storage?) and better FM synthesis, to the degree it was used by many sound professionals across Europe. There are probably some that still use the latest iteration of AmigaOS to this day. Niode are there any advantages to that OS besides nostalgia?

[Niode]

Amiga OS has one, maybe two things going for it. Instant on and pre-emptive multi tasking. To this day I haven't heard or seen a PC or any software do it as well or as fast as the Amiga could with such little resources (a motorola 68k).

If you are thinking of running the OS it will only run on Motorola 68K CPUs for OS versions 3 and under and only on Power PC on Amiga OS4. Unless, of course, you run it through an emulator.

AROS is a clone of the OS which will run on X86 and PPC systems, however native AmigaOS apps will only run on Motorola 68k systems.

If you are looking for a lightweight OS for running on systems that require instant on/instant off access (Ie no boot times or shutdown time) such as a computer system in a car for example or a basic entertainment center that you don't want to have to wait for the OS to boot up then I say looking into AmigaOS or it's clones is a worthwhile endeavour.