YT algorithm helped a bit.

Me Too! Nice Sound! 🔊😳

Yeah, the sampled drums and obvious use of 4-op mode really gives off that Genesis feel. But the thing is, this sounds BETTER than most stuff you'll hear on the Genesis, let alone any Sound Blaster from the era. It's such a shame Creative screwed up this card's potential for success.

@@camulodunon It is also worth noting that OPL3 by itself can't do the sampled instruments; there's PCM playback happening as well to help it along. Still impressive, but not fair to compare against OPL-only songs in that respect.

@@big0bad0brad I know that, but composers still could've easily used sampled drums along with FM in Sound Blaster music.

@@camulodunon It was possible but not easy - it adds a whole different type of playback to support where the music not only has to care about OPL but also the sample playback, and would have to cooperate with game code to not step on it. Admittedly it would be workable for SB and many clones but they would likely still need an OPL-only version to handle Adlib and maybe some others. By that point, one might rather just move to a mod format and only care about PCM output.

Yeah some of these tracks especially Building reminds me of Golden Axe on the Genesis. I agree with you on liking the YM 2612 over this but this is still some nice fm synth tracks. I love fm synths!

Don't forget that Phantasy Star and Lagrange Point still had better sounding music than a lot of DOS games, despite using a neutered OPL2 chip for music.

​@@fungo6631 Oh man, you're right! I've kinda overlooked the OPLL for being too simple, but that genuinely sounds better than most PC soundtracks for OPL3. Really goes to show how much MIDI did FM dirty.

@@babylfsh One thing that I also noticed is that even the Megadrive isn't spared from OPL2 like farts. Valis II sounds like if someone told the composer that he was composing music for a PC game using Adlib audio. Because that's what it sounds like.

@@fungo6631 I wished we lived in the alternate universe where AdLib chose the YM2151 instead of the YM3812. That would be a better world.

Well, I think that the music made it by Vibrans in the JCH Adlib Editor is amazing... They used the YM3812

Same here.

Well, we might as well start this comment thread. Who else is here from LGR's Adlib Gold video?

Clit from V.A-Gina brought me here.

@@JTTofficial you should become a stand-up comedian

Wikipedia brought me here, long before the LGR video came out.

Thank you!

yea

Part of a balanced retro diet!

Interesting! I didn't think to check the files themselves with a text editor. However, I've recently got a production copy of the never-released Visual Composer 2 (for the AdLib Gold) working on my DOS rig, and I'll double check your findings, and see if there's more info to gather from the files!

@@theSoundCarddatabase hoping youre allowed to publicly release that. it would be a huge help to my project of documenting the rl2 file format

Leave the cassette in the sun for a few days for "period-correct" sound quality!

listen ingame music in Transport Tycoon Deluxe ))) it is good in OPL3 and MIDI variants ... very good!

The only game I've found that does this is Blue Force, in some of its tracks. But the FM sounds more like OPL2.

@@Alianger Under A Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive can do it with Sound Blaster cards and they also support the Adlib Gold outright. Zone 66 does it on Sound Blaster cards, and Scream Tracker 3 lets you make hybrid files with both FM and samples, but hardly anyone uses the FM capabilities, and even fewer composers use both.

Most composers targeted General MIDI with the inferior audio systems being a mere afterthought.

@@Roxor128 I've heard maybe ONE s3m track that uses both FM and samples. It's a shame its fm capabilities were hardly used. Like I said, it gives off a very Sega Genesis vibe. You could probs do a faithful interpretation of the Sonic 1-3 soundtracks on that with FM and drum samples.

@@MadameSomnambule I'll bet that track was "And This Is Ultrasound" and you had to load it up in ST3 in DOSBox because you couldn't find anything else that would play it correctly.

Strangely enough, not long after posting this, I found the song! Or, at least I found the original version of it (still can't find the midi version that came with a bunch of samples with a soundcard whose name I still don't remember!). I was close on the name, but it was "Oxygene," specifically "Oxygene 6" by Jean Michel Jarre. Man, what a blast from the past! Even though the instrumentation isn't what I remember, just hearing those melodies and distinctive beats... it's like a piece of my childhood that I've been hunting for off and on for years now! If anyone's interested, here's a link to the original song: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qLt6YK6BqLG7dKc.html If anyone can point me to the midi or soundcard sample recording of this song, I'd appreciate it, but I may have to settle for the original release, haha!

Apologies for the delay in responding. Back when I first read your first message, I was immediately thinking of Oxygène 4 by Jarre so I wasn't far off the mark! Indeed, there were a lot of compilations of midi files back then - first on BBS then on early internet, recreations of all types of music in the digital format. I remember for example being fascinated at how many versions of the Pachelbel Canon there were, and how radically different they played. Additionally, many sound cards used different chipsets to translate midi files into sounds, so the songs hit differently at friends homes or at school for example.

RichterEX2 Thank you! I updated the description to reflect this.

Epic MegaGames did with Zone66 and it sounds gorgeous !

while not specifically with PC games, a large portion of the Sega Genesis library of games were handed with sampled Drum/Percussion mixed with the FM synth of the YM2612. Some did that and also used the PSG in addition to provide even more voices of music simultaneously.

the OPL4 soundchip is really sweet, but it never really caught on. Essentially it's an OPL3 but with an additional PCM component that can handle up to 512 samples, and 24 simultaneous voices.

@B3ro1080 The OPL4 took it a lot further though. An entire song could be just PCM samples, or you could mix FM and PCM together. Here are some of the few examples: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJmWqKaGsM-4c3k.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kJOEdNF22bmzaJc.html

At least the Demo of Zyclunt did that, mainly because it was originally to be a Mega Drive game, then they changed plans due to the aging hardware.

I know, it just sounds much higher quality than the typical music you would expect from OPL.

I can tell it's using 4-op mode.

eh Yeah the drum sounds are samples, not done by the OPL synth chip.

Yep.

Nah

Yes

The AdLib Gold was released in 1992!

Hah, you don't know, do you? I've interviewed people from AdLib in 2016, and plan to interview more in the future, for a documentary project on AdLib (there's a thread about my progress on this, on Vogons). I can say at the moment, that none of them own the rights/patents to AdLib stuff as they were sold to AdLib Multimedia (in Germany) and then another company in Taiwan in the late 90s. There are clones currently being made by individuals, and even sold on ebay sometimes. I've seen a quad-opl3 card as well. Original schematics, I will probably try to get them from the people from Lyrtech, who collaborated with AdLib to build all the cards from AdLib and Mediatrix later.

I know about the surround OPL3 card, but it is adlib only, and it is not adlib gold compatible, as it doesn't have the 12 bit PCM digitized sound system on it. And as such games that say they support the Adlib Gold, won't play the OPL3 soundtrack back on OPL3 based devices and for whatever reason, even when you select SB Pro or SB16, the soundtracks tend to be OPL2 only. So the Surround OPL3 card, even though it is very cool, isn't of interest to me except in the fact that it's cheaper than an original Adlib clone card costs.

@@theSoundCarddatabase hi, I worked for AdLib from 96 to 98. At that time, German owned Adlib Multimedia was mostly branding taiwanese OEM products with "nice cardboard sleeves" and "added value software" I was developing. This was after the Adlib golden era, no pun intended, with only 2-5 employees, after the 1992 bankuptcy. The founder, Martin Prével, a music professor at Université Laval (where I was studying at that time as well), wasn't involved anymore at that time, but unfortunately died at the age of 55 in 97. I think there was a co-founder, a computer or electrical engineering professor at the same university, but I can't trace it back. I might still have old 360K disks of original software source (from around 1990) somewhere in my basement, that were collecting dust at the company in 96 and I was told to do whatever I wanted with that as "they" didn't want to hear about that anymore.

@zirco77 -- I would LOVE to have a chat with you, either via email, LinkedIn, or even in person! I'm sure you could help tremendously with the documentary. Please get in touch :) *the.scdb AT outlook dotcom* Cheers!

@@zirco77 N'oubliez pas de me contacter! J'ai besoin d'un coup de main, et j'ai beaucoup de questions pour vous :)

I used an oven-baked potato to capture this. (aka "EasyCAP" analog to USB, which I tested only this one time.)

@@theSoundCarddatabase Thanks for the reply! I have been using a StarTech device that works well and I like to feel around to see what the other channels are doing! Great work on your part!

@@UncleMikeRetro Startech does some good stuff! I've been recommended the Portta VGA to HDMI, in order to change the signal to a more recent one, and then use a HDMI capture device which are easier to come around. Will test that setup for my future stuff... someday :)

@@theSoundCarddatabase I just looked this one up and it seems nice, very cost-effective. I did a small video on the StarTech device, but it is pricey. Works poorly with Windows 10 though, running it right now in a Win 7 machine.

The Bowser fights in SM64 are influenced by Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Kondo was big into classical and neoclassical, especially Deep Purple which you can hear in the Bowser fights (Smoke on the Water) and various parts from The Legend of Zelda (April). Even Zelda's Lullaby is based off of Mott Garson's Concerto for Philodendron & Porthos. It was a time when games could just outright "steal" entire sections of music and nobody cared.

Wow that's cool to learn. Was tocatta copied or inspired from him?

@@TheCptES Technically they still do. A lot of music in Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe too as it's basically the same) has a LOT of riffs lifted from pop music, such as Thwomp Ruins which clearly note-for-note lifts "Apache" by The Shadows (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rLN6jZqav6m8dok.html around 30 seconds). I'll remind interested parties who aren't big gamers that this is currently a top-selling Switch game and has been for a few years now. The game is littered with steals like this, at least half a dozen, but that's the only one I can remember without booting the game up.

.RL2 files are literally .ROL files with stereo-panning, reverb module commands (I think) and PCM commands. I have managed to make successful installs of this software on 86Box, the only emulator that can completely emulate the AdLib Gold (other than PCEm, it's official version). Upon installing, the AdLib Gold comes with those 14 songs, drivers to play them, configuration software, separate drum samples in a subfolder, and "OPL3.BNK", along with "SAMPLES.BNK". .RL2 files take control of SAMPLES.BNK to play the drums, and OPL3.BNK has all the original instruments from STANDARD.BNK, along with new instruments, some of them having 4 oscillators instead of 2. You can look inside OPL3.BNK and view the instruments, as well as play notes to see how it sounds in a separate toolkit found on a vogons forum.The AdLib Gold also has an entire floppy disk for Windows 3.1 installation with expanded features. I've gotten that to work once or twice. It often crashes either the machine or the emulator if you play with it too much for some reason. I have tried editing/extracting the instrument files from OPL3.BNK using a bank editor, but never got it to work because it gives errors and crashes the bank manager. It was Wohlstand's OPL3 bank editor.

@@commander_dolphin5414 Thanks, this is very interesting information. I remember opening RL2 files in a hex editor and not recognizing the ROL file structure, but I might have done a lousy job when looking at it, I'll should try again then. Didn't the Gold card come with a "Sound Blaster Simulator" later in its life (pretty sure it was a note on a product literature that Ad Lib Multimedia sent me back in the early '90s upon request)? I think I read once that someone else than Ad Lib created it, but my memory might be corrupted here, couldn't find confirmation when I looked it up some time ago. Oh I wish I bought the Gold card when I had the chance, but I eventually turned to a Gravis fanboy instead back in the day.... Had no idea that Ad Lib Gold was even emulated at this point, will check it out.

@@GeneralVanRyberg I am happy to give you this information. I never owned any 80s and 90s computer hardware, since my first laptop as a kid was a Dell Inspiron B120. Since you said you contacted AdLib before, do you know the latest of Henri Chalifour? I've been trying to contact him, but his only site with his email has been dead for years. Also, if you want to emulate the AdLib Gold, you need to use PCEm. For a while now, 86Box won't emulate the AdLib Gold anymore. It does support it, but it won't play any sound. I haven't the slightest idea, but PCEm v14 can still emulate it. You will need to install a version of DOS (And optionally Windows 3.1 for the extra features.) You can find the drivers for the AdLib Gold on Vogons. There is a problem that you need to fix yourself after installing the AdLib Gold. For some reason, the drivers do not read in the drivers folder, so you need to copy them from C:/GOLD/DRIVERS to C:/GOLD, which is the install directory by default. Then you need to edit DRIVERS.BAT to re-direct all the driver files. For example, rewrite it to say C:/GOLD/FMDRV.EXE, and the next line, C:/GOLD/WAVEDRV.EXE, and so on. The drum emulation actually is not very accurate, as it ignores volume commands unlike a real AdLib Gold card. For example, when listening to Buildings Over Buildings on this video, the drums will fade-in with the song. It doesn't do that with the current state of the emulation accuracy. If you want to look inside OPL3.BNK, you can get the SDTK like I said, copy it to an IMG file, mount it as a floppy disk in PCEm, and then copy it to your virtual hard drive. Put OPL3.BNK into the SDTK folder, and run ED.EXE. You can see how the instruments work.

@@commander_dolphin5414 Thanks, gonna try your suggestions. I only had contact with Ad Lib Multimedia once back in 1994 (I think right before they were taken over for the final time, I remember writing to, and receiving a reply from, a Canadian address, after I saw an ad in Sierra's Interaction Magazine. They apparently didn't even have a color flyer for the Ad Lib Gold Card at that time anymore and just sent me a black/white Xerox'ed one and ignored all my questions that I asked in the letter). Quite a difference with Creative Labs, who were very patient with me and gave much more detailed answers to my faxes in the early '90s... I once contacted an engineer who worked for Ad Lib Inc., but that was more than 15 years ago and it wasn't mr. Chalifour, so I'm afraid I cannot be of any help for that.

@@GeneralVanRyberg I've found further information about emulating this card. Apparently, this works on the latest version of PCEm (v14), but from when I last checked, it still doesn't work on 86Box. This means that it's OPL emulation is still a little outdated. It is more than recommended that you enable NukedOPL3 instead of DBOPL, because NukedOPL3 is the most accurate engine for OPL2 and 3 on the internet. You notice how the sound on the AdLib Gold has a much wider stereo? This is produced from a chip known as the TDA8425. No other sound card has this chip, and it is unfortunately not yet(?) emulated by any emulator. So for now, emulating the AdLib Gold is like emulating a Sound Blaster Pro 2 with a 16-bit stereo DAC with reverb effects. Hopefully the DAC volume issues in Jukebox Gold and the stereo limit will be fixed, as well as support in 86Box resumes. I've asked more than once about the issue on a Discord server about 86Box, and they said they'll try to fix it. If I have to, I'll probably ask about the stereo limit as well.

Same, and I only followed LGR recently because dunkey mentioned him in a video; great series of events!

@@dorphlthewise1 who is dunkey? Maybe I follow him, because someone in the comments of an "AdLib GOLD, Jukebox Sample Songs" video mentioned him, lead here by an LGR video.

@@__Mr.White__ videogamedunkey is how full channel name; my favorite channel on KZfaq! Watch his “ultimate Skyrim” video.

@@dorphlthewise1 nice

I believe so. These sampled instruments were recorded, according to interviews with AdLib employees, at one of the composers' studio.

My thoughts exactly. FM never got the appreciation it deserved, simply because it was difficult to compose with it.

Actually the Genesis could make way better FM music when you have someone talented with a customised music driver.

oh hell yeah! you're right

The OST of Contra: Hard Corps kicks ass.

Genesis' sound chip (OPN2) was more advanced than OPL2/3 used in Adlib's and SB's. It had four operators per channel as opposed to only 2 in OPL2 and actually could produce much better sounding music... only SEGA's official driver was notoriously shit and there was not that many game companies/people that were willing to write their own better driver and tools and actually put some effort into learning the sound hardware and using it fully. Listen to Red Zone, Streets of Rage 2, Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloodlines soundtracks to have an idea how good it can sound in capable hands.

pcem can emulate the adlib gold but it seemingly doesnt output any sound from the card by default. i fixed it with a bit of assembly, which can be compiled to a com file and run from the dos guest: pusha mov dx,0x38A mov al,0xFF out dx,al mov al,8 out dx,al inc dx in al,dx or al,6 out dx,al popa ret

For me it sounds like Genesis+SNES. Weird but interesting.

Never. But there are now pictures of it on wikipedia. Maybe it could be made?

Even at the time it was a very short run in stores so something already rare is even rarer today. And to answer your other question, sadly I didn't keep the uncompressed originals for this, sorry!

I better wanna know where to get these source .rl2 files to run them on Adlib Tracker, it says that it has very accurate emulation of OPL3 so I want to compare.

the only way to listen to them is downloading the disks and playing it in pcem afaik, not many things support adlib gold emulation

It's not a regular Adlib, it's Adlib Gold 1000 - a very rare and sought after sound card that Adlib released in small quantity just before their bankrupcy. It had DAC on board, so of course it could produce digital samples. And also it is sort of the ultimate OPL3 card, because it uses OPL3's chip features fully and it's analogue circutry was much more advanced than your typical Sound Blaster, that's why even regular Adlib/OPL2-3 music sounds smoother and more pleasant than on SB's and it's clones.

I could find the .RL2 files. But the .WAV files for the video are long gone. Which do you seek?

@@theSoundCarddatabase .RL2 or a format such as vgm if it exists, can I open RL2 files in a windows program? I want to have a look at the individual channels and the samples

I've heard it in the video trailer for the original AdLib card, though it was a "simplified" version to fit with the older OPL2. Maybe that's where you heard it?

Hmm, didn't see Adlib card trailers. Thanks for info

​@@theSoundCarddatabase where can i find the trailer

@@genericrandom64 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n6ekkrJ8y9C3Y3k.html

For these demo songs for AdLib Gold, it alternates: mostly Henri Chalifour and Gerard Jones, possibly one or two by Raymond Skilling.

FM is a synthesis method, so it is impossible to do it this way. It's a surprisingly complex synth, and even if I don't know the status of emulation of exactly this chip, making full emulation would require access to one.

U R doing stupid, lazy trolling, pretending that the fact something may require actual work means it can not be achieved. "You can't build a race car. They are expensive, and difficult to maintain" blabla = idiot. FM synthesis like anything else can be modeled, & accurately so, depending on whether somebody chooses 2 put in the work. Also, U don't need 2 model the synthesis method, just sample the good SOUNDS it can create. You don't need them all. Sample playback can be done countless cheap ways. You can have a limitless number of samples, and there is no need to have an infinite variation of each one, just the noticably different good sounding ones and ignore the others.

@@Deathrape2001 18 operators that can be arranged in any way, have a dozen parameters each. Have you ever coded audio in your life? Doing the synthesis is the easy part, getting it right is hard. Idiot.

U R pretending it is not possible 2 sample the best sounds so they can be played back on any type of emulator or software. The significant differences can be broken into categories relatively similar, same way people sample orchestras & if it's done well it sounds like the real thing. U R pretending U can't read, & that everything is impossible. It's not clever, but pathetic. You don't need a million shades to make a DVD. It only has only 256 & looks fine (depending on other things like how heavily compressed it is or not). U also don't need every note in between others to get the same sound. You can bend them from other places to approximate it. All you are doing is making yourself sound like a retarded troll. Anybody can fart 'no you can not' all day long, whether it is true or not. You're a sick jackass. It's EASY to emulate cards like this. Maybe you own one and are trying to 'protect your investment' by pretending nothing else can sound the same. You are a liar.

@@Deathrape2001 A simple two operator fm patch, where each has several paramters, means you would have to sample basically every note with any combination of those parameters. You would need millions of samples. You also have pitch envelopes which makes it even more complicated, requiring making a wavetable synthesizer that is more complex than straight forward synthesis emulation. Youre delusional if you think your idea is something anyone with any insight into the topic would think is a sensible approach. Maybe sit down and read the source of some of the emulators, or just play with a synthesizer to at least have some basis to pretend you have any idea about this.