Ad Lib music archive: Complete, accurate DOS video game soundtracks

DeathAdderSF · May 17, 2020

Hello, all.

I use custom hardware (the "Adlib-DigiSnap") to make accurate recordings of DOS game soundtracks, which are then added to my website, the Ad Lib music archive.

Today, after a long hiatus, 18 [!] new soundtracks were added:

4D Boxing
Captain Dynamo
Chip's Challenge
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle
Elf
Gods
Golden Axe
Home Alone
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
KGB
Princess Maker 2
Risky Woods
Sango Fighter
Speed Racer in The Challenge of Racer X
Street Fighter II
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Test Drive III: The Passion
The First Samurai

If you love the YM3812 chip as much as I do, this should be pretty nifty for you. I hope y'all enjoy it.
Whenever new sets are added, I'll share updates.

Have fun!

SiriusHardware · May 17, 2020

I've always liked the AdLib sound and often prefer the Adlib version of a soundtrack to, say, the MT-32 (MIDI) version. Stephane Piq's Adlib / SB Music for Cryo's 'Dune' and 'Lost Eden' were great examples of this.

I followed your link and found a single page with no way off it to anywhere else, so do I take it that these 18 tracks are the first of more to follow?

Secondly, I'd like to suggest that if possible, you put an MP3 player on the page so that visitors can sample the tracks in-browser without necessarily having to download them to hear them.

bladamson · May 17, 2020

Check out the music in Dune, if you haven't already. My favorite AdLib tunes, I think.

SiriusHardware · May 17, 2020

Mentioned in #2 above, 'Dune'

Also mentioned above, 'Lost Eden', same software producer, same Adlib composer as Dune.

DeathAdderSF · May 18, 2020

SiriusHardware said:
I've always liked the AdLib sound and often prefer the Adlib version of a soundtrack to, say, the MT-32 (MIDI) version.

Same here. There are only rare exceptions where I prefer the MT-32 sound over Ad Lib, such as Leisure Suit Larry III.

SiriusHardware said:
Stephane Piq's Adlib / SB Music for Cryo's 'Dune' and 'Lost Eden' were great examples of this.

He's one of the masters. Parts of "Kursk," from his excellent KGB score, are frequently stuck in my head. Which is awesome.

SiriusHardware said:
I take it that these 18 tracks are the first of more to follow?

That's the plan. However as the process is extremely tedious and time-consuming -- added to which I rarely have proper time to devote to this beloved hobby -- you'll perhaps understand that there'll be sizeable gaps in-between updates. Those 18 sets I just added were a long time in the making, I can assure you.

SomeGuy · May 18, 2020

Suggestion: Use relative URL paths on the site, so browsers that don't support the encraption methods of the day aren't forced to HTTPS urls.

SiriusHardware · May 18, 2020

That's the plan. However the process is extremely tedious and time-consuming.

You could try 'crowdsourcing' recordings of other Adlib soundtracks to add to the site. I would assume that they would have to have been recorded from real Adlib hardware rather than from emulation by DOSBOX, which, while miraculous in its scope, does not always reproduce Adlib or MT-32 sound output 100% accurately.

Trixter · May 19, 2020

Fully approve of this project! My only comment is that 4-D Boxing sounds better with a Sound Blaster, since it uses the digital channel for digidrums.

DeathAdderSF · May 19, 2020

SomeGuy said:
Suggestion: Use relative URL paths on the site, so browsers that don't support the encraption methods of the day aren't forced to HTTPS urls.

Yeah, maybe. After 20+ years of strict browser compatibility testing with my simple-yet-elegant HTML designs, the thing that finally breaks support for the likes of Netscape and (Windows) Safari is HTTPS. Uff da.

SiriusHardware said:
You could try 'crowdsourcing' recordings of other Adlib soundtracks to add to the site.

Does anyone else out there actually own an Adlib-DigiSnap?

SiriusHardware said:
I would assume that they would have to have been recorded from real Adlib hardware rather than from emulation by DOSBOX

Correct. I'm a proud purist. :mrgreen:

Trixter said:
Fully approve of this project! My only comment is that 4-D Boxing sounds better with a Sound Blaster, since it uses the digital channel for digidrums.

Right on, and yeah, it's a similar case with "Fire & Ice" (one of the many games I have on my to-do list): With a Sound Blaster you get a barking dog accompanying the title theme, whereas with Ad Lib you get... something like a synth grunt. But at least they tried.

SiriusHardware · May 20, 2020

DeathAdderSF said:
Does anyone else out there actually own an Adlib-DigiSnap?

Probably not, since you make them sound so exclusive, so perhaps you'd like to explain the difference between one of those and a genuine but otherwise common or garden Adlib sound card?

Trixter · May 20, 2020

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/02/digital-opl2-and-opl3-recording.html

DeathAdderSF · May 20, 2020

Direct link to the build instructions...

http://yehar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ads.pdf

SiriusHardware · May 20, 2020

Right, so it captures the data which is being sent to the YM IC on your sound card, rather than the sound coming out of the YM chip, yes? And then presumably some bit of software can then replay the captured data through another YM chip, and by doing that you get the actual original sound being played by an actual YM chip, rather than a recording of the sound being replayed. Am I keeping up so far?

DeathAdderSF · May 20, 2020

It captures the data, which is converted to a raw waveform (raw PCM signed, 16-bit little endian, 49716 Hz, mono), which you can then open in your audio editor of choice. I personally use GoldWave to trim the files and save to WAV, and Audacity to encode them to MP3.

bifo86 · May 21, 2020

Looks like the most difficult part would be the acid etching, has anyone done a run of boards for these? I know that there are OPL via parallel port devices available out there but those output audio rather than raw digital data.

Trixter · May 21, 2020

BTW, for anyone wondering if there is any value-add to these files whose songs you might have heard before, there is: DeathAdderSF has named them all, and added MP3 tags for title, game, and composer/contributing artists. These are drop-ins for your music library.

SiriusHardware · May 21, 2020

bifo86 said:
Looks like the most difficult part would be the acid etching, has anyone done a run of boards for these? I know that there are OPL via parallel port devices available out there but those output audio rather than raw digital data.

If you can get to grips with a free PCB design package like 'Kicad', the output that program produces can be emailed to any number of PCB makers in China who will make you a little batch of them for surprisingly little money. They are so cheap that it is hardly worth mucking about with UV-resist PCB and Ferric Choride, then a PCB drill.

The days when having a one off or small run of PCBs made would have cost hundreds of dollars or pounds are long gone. The price now is more like $20 or less for a batch of five, even for double sided PCBs which are quite hard to produce by hand.

There is usually a carriage charge to add to that, but even then the price is not bad.

stephanepicq · Jan 19, 2024

SiriusHardware said:
I've always liked the AdLib sound and often prefer the Adlib version of a soundtrack to, say, the MT-32 (MIDI) version. Stephane Piq's Adlib / SB Music for Cryo's 'Dune' and 'Lost Eden' were great examples of this.

I followed your link and found a single page with no way off it to anywhere else, so do I take it that these 18 tracks are the first of more to follow?

Secondly, I'd like to suggest that if possible, you put an MP3 player on the page so that visitors can sample the tracks in-browser without necessarily having to download them to hear them.

Hello!

The album "Dune Spice Opera remastered" will include PC ingames remastered tracks as a bonus.
FREE download of "Arrakis", Adlib-Gold and MT32 dynamically mixed with expanded stereo and ehanced sound is available on my BandCamp!

Stéphane Picq
19/01/2024

SiriusHardware · Jan 19, 2024

Hello Stéphane, it is an honour to have you drop by in person to tell us about this. As you may have seen, the superb Adlib tracks you composed for Cryo are still well remembered and loved. Do you have some links you can share, a link to your BandCamp for example?

(And BTW, apologies for mis-spelling your name in my posts above).

stephanepicq · Jan 20, 2024

SiriusHardware said:
Hello Stéphane, it is an honour to have you drop by in person to tell us about this. As you may have seen, the superb Adlib tracks you composed for Cryo are still well remembered and loved. Do you have some links you can share, a link to your BandCamp for example?

(And BTW, apologies for mis-spelling your name in my posts above).

Yes, sure.