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studdering MIDI

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evildragon

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I noticed, while listening to MIDI's on my IBM Model 25, with it's V30 CPU, is that some music studder quite badly, while other songs, while more complex, don't at all..

What can cause this? It seems to be "patch" related, as if a patch is taking longer than the CPU expects, and then has to wait till that patch has finished playing it's note.. Yet, with the same sound card in a 486, there's no studder at all..

Song that Studders:
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/studder.mp3

Songs that don't, and are more complex:
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle.mp3

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle2.mp3

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle3.mp3

Any insights on this will be great... And yes, I like these tunes, it's from my favorite Sega Genesis game..
 
Could you post the first tune at what you believe to be its proper output. Which sound card are you using, and what software are you using for midi playback?

Even though the Genesis and the OPL3 use the same technology, that music definitely sounds better on the console.
 
Vlad said:
Ah, I see. Well, it is a vintage processor. They really didn't have MP3 in mind back then :p
Click to expand...
MIDI ;) not MP3.. i doubt an mp3 would load at all..

surely though midi was supported, i mean, the NEC V30 was used in arcade machines with the same FM chips too..
 
Great Hierophant said:
Could you post the first tune at what you believe to be its proper output. Which sound card are you using, and what software are you using for midi playback?

Even though the Genesis and the OPL3 use the same technology, that music definitely sounds better on the console.
Click to expand...
Here's what you requested.

Here's the output from a Genesis, the way it should sound: http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/castlegenny.ogg

sound card is a SoundBlaster 16 (which the only thing that really matters is the OPL3), and I'm using SBMIDI and PLAYMIDI, the only MIDI players that work on an XT "class" machine...

The sad part, is that the game on the Genesis, uses the 3MHz Z80 to play it's music, and yet an 8MHz V30 can't compete...
 
atari2600a said:
I know it's really off topic, but have you attempted to run a GYM player on the XT? I believe I saw some DOS players at Zophars Domain (http://www.zophar.net/utilities/gym.html), but I myself have never attempted to run a chiptune player on an XT or equiv as I don't have any ISA sound cards...
Click to expand...
won't work, as they don't even convert the sounds, they emulate it via the DAC, and even on my 1.5GHz G4 Mac, playing a GYM uses about 10% of usage... Doubt an 8086 can handle this...
 
evildragon said:
Here's what you requested.

Here's the output from a Genesis, the way it should sound: http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/castlegenny.ogg

sound card is a SoundBlaster 16 (which the only thing that really matters is the OPL3), and I'm using SBMIDI and PLAYMIDI, the only MIDI players that work on an XT "class" machine...

The sad part, is that the game on the Genesis, uses the 3MHz Z80 to play it's music, and yet an 8MHz V30 can't compete...
Click to expand...

Okay, I see two problems here. First, you are using a 16-bit card in an 8-bit slot. While it shouldn't be a problem for OPL music, you may wish to try it with an 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 (and it IS 8-bit.) Second, I would want to hear the midi played by a faster machine, not the original Genesis, to see if the problem is solved or the midi is corrupt, damaged or poorly converted. The same data will not sound the same or anywhere near it in a Sound Blaster as it would in a Genesis. Neither of your other tunes do.
 
Great Hierophant said:
Okay, I see two problems here. First, you are using a 16-bit card in an 8-bit slot. While it shouldn't be a problem for OPL music, you may wish to try it with an 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 (and it IS 8-bit.) Second, I would want to hear the midi played by a faster machine, not the original Genesis, to see if the problem is solved or the midi is corrupt, damaged or poorly converted. The same data will not sound the same or anywhere near it in a Sound Blaster as it would in a Genesis. Neither of your other tunes do.
Click to expand...
As said previously, already tried an 8-bit SB card, same exact studdering, but the OPL2 of the original SB sounded like crap...

i'll try and re-record the MIDI on a faster machine..
 
Here's the recording with the same sound card, but on a faster computer...

I recorded this in my fathers music studio as that's where the computer is that has an ISA slot.. Sadly, I couldn't work the stupid thing completely, so there's a little quantization (spelling?) in the high notes.

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/noskipopl.ogg

While they sound exactly the same, this one doesn't skip...
 
evildragon said:
I noticed, while listening to MIDI's on my IBM Model 25, with it's V30 CPU, is that some music studder quite badly, while other songs, while more complex, don't at all..

What can cause this? It seems to be "patch" related, as if a patch is taking longer than the CPU expects, and then has to wait till that patch has finished playing it's note.. Yet, with the same sound card in a 486, there's no studder at all..

Song that Studders:
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/studder.mp3

Songs that don't, and are more complex:
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle.mp3

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle2.mp3

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/OPL3castle3.mp3

Any insights on this will be great... And yes, I like these tunes, it's from my favorite Sega Genesis game..
Click to expand...

This has to do with how fast the MIDI file's timebase is. If the internal timebase is something like 480 or 960Hz, a slow computer will struggle to keep up. I can't play such files decently on an XT either, even with a player that supports the IRQ on my SCC-1. Note: A faster timebase doesn't mean the file is fast, or complex, it just means there are that many events per second (even if empty).

If you have a more normal timebase, like 96 or 100 or 120, it plays fine.
 
Trixter said:
This has to do with how fast the MIDI file's timebase is. If the internal timebase is something like 480 or 960Hz, a slow computer will struggle to keep up. I can't play such files decently on an XT either, even with a player that supports the IRQ on my SCC-1. Note: A faster timebase doesn't mean the file is fast, or complex, it just means there are that many events per second (even if empty).

If you have a more normal timebase, like 96 or 100 or 120, it plays fine.
Click to expand...
Damn, forgot about the timebase. (i call it the tempo)

I'll check it and correct it, thanks...
 
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