What is the intened soundcard for System Shock? I know MIDI has a variety of options in regards to its sound output but I would like to hear what the composer had in mind when writing the OST. Like how the Roland SC-55 was the sound module used to compose for Doom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKIJUxSyaU
Anything that approximates the intro videos theme closest I would imagine is the correct one and the SC-55 doesn't sound close enough to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DENSsyd2igY
Also general MIDI or soundcard thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iopv2Jpjz7k

>>11798317 (OP)
Yamaha I think. But im not sure which Yamaha synth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuczsjMFX3E

>>11798329
That sounds pretty dead on. I guess the CM-500 is what Greg must have used, at least for the intro rendition. I wonder if other games would sound better with the CM-500 like Descent as well.
>>11798334
This one seems closer than the SC-55 for the intro but the Security track sounds way off.

He likely composed his music using a keyboard workstation and possibly other MIDI gear, and it's known he used Digital Performer as his sequencer, probably on the Mac. So when he was working he probably heard and preferred to work with the better sounds out of his workstation and rack gear. Only sometimes do you see a Sound Canvas. That's likely what was used for the CD music too. If you look up the studios of all these video game composers you'll see a big MIDI workstation at the center of it all. Anyway once you have everything how you like it, it's a simple job to find analogous patches on the Sound Canvas and / or Yamaha XG synth. Bam you have the higher quality CD-ready soundtrack with much better samples and the various Sound Canvas and even wavetable soundtracks all ready to go all at once.

If you want the most authentic sound, figure out what workstation he used and get ahold of it (or the rack equivalent if it exists) and use that. In those days nearly everything higher end had a GM mode, but the effects and voices were usually much much better. Some synths would give you the same sample set as Roland's SC-55 or whatever, or Yamaha would give you their set. Others gave you the option of knockoffs of either, both, or onboard waves from the ROM. You could usually edit the voices too so you could drop anything you liked into a part. With my EX5, if there are mono parts with acoustical or wind instruments or things like that I will sometimes drop in a physical modeling voice. It kicks ass with Ultima 6/7, where the tunes use the same parts on the same channels.

It all boils down to what you mean by accurate - do you want to hear what the composer heard when he made the soundtrack? Or what was packaged for market?

Every such question about every game soundtrack has to be answered in the same way. It can sometimes be resolved with period photos and interviews. SNES soundtrack composers, for instance, weren't playing with the raw SNES sound chip hardware when making their music, they were using MIDI gear.

Most people haven't ever even tried to hear the music for a game as the composer intended, it takes real research and then an actual synthesizer investment to even get started. At a minimum you'd probably need a Korg M1R, a Yamaha TG-77, a Kurzweil K2000R, and a Roland JV-2080 for things from the 1990s. Throw in a D-110 for your MT-32 needs too. That's only one rack of gear, you could probably swing it all for $1500 which is about as much as people often throw at a couple Sound Canvases, Sound Blasters, and an MT-32. I just picked up a D-110 not that long ago for $100 shipped. You can send it some sysex to put it into MT-32 mode.

>>11798317 (OP)
>What is the intened soundcard for System Shock?
whatever was inside your case back in the day

>>11798648
>>11798719
Hmm. I hadn't considered full workstations. What I meant by accurate is basically that I'd like to hear the closest approximation to the music that was baked into the intro cinematic with the MIDI data that's available from the game itself. Now I know the intro cinematic could also be doctored up with additional precussion and FXs but I'd like to hear what would match best to what is heard in the cinematic as I assumed that it would have been the ideal way to listen to the OST.

I didn't think that various other gear could have factored into the music creation process for games like System Shock, like aformentioned with Bobby Prince and the SC-55 being the primary use case for the Doom OST. I thought System Shock could have been composed in a similar manner with a specific sound canvas in mind. Ultimately I have no clue what kind of gear Greg LoPiccolo used and I'm not sure if I could find more information online without just asking the man himself. Even if I could contact him he might not remember. For all I know maybe the Mac CD tracks are actually the purest form of the soundtrack since I imagine that had full hands on control from the composer.
>>11798648
>SNES soundtrack composers, for instance, weren't playing with the raw SNES sound chip hardware when making their music, they were using MIDI gear.
Kind of a side discussion but was this the case for all SNES music? Could some of the composer in the day composed music directly for the chip in a similar manner to how Amiga MODs were made with trackers? Or maybe a piece of software like GEMS was for the Genesis?

>>11798867
>What I meant by accurate is basically that I'd like to hear the closest approximation to the music that was baked into the intro cinematic with the MIDI data that's available from the game itself. Now I know the intro cinematic could also be doctored up with additional precussion and FXs but I'd like to hear what would match best to what is heard in the cinematic as I assumed that it would have been the ideal way to listen to the OST.
Yeah, the problem isn't immediately obvious. While game music was made "for" the various computer gaming sound platforms it was not made ON them.

>Ultimately I have no clue what kind of gear Greg LoPiccolo used
He seems like a nice guy and has a social media. One could even ask him. If you were a real synth expert you might be able to tell by ear. AI might actually be able to help too.

>Kind of a side discussion but was this the case for all SNES music?
Nobody really knows, and yes you could control the chip in such a way. But there are lots of dynamics in many soundtracks, which gives a feel of the notes being input on a keyboard with velocity sensitivity. I suppose you could fake it with a lot of work but why bother? I doubt anybody could prove that the various game composers never owned a MIDI keyboard in the '80s or '90s because that just sounds silly to start with though.

It's possible music was composed on a keyboard and then transcribed by tools or by hand even in cases such as the C64's music. Noodle something to get ideas and then program the chip afterwards once you know what the sound you want sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOVrGczMsg&t=517s
Okay a little bit of insight from this interview. It was composed for a sound canvas with a keyboard driver as well as also having some custom sound done for the Gravis Ultrasound. So in a way this really is a soundtrack that is designed for all soundcards and is down to taste. Still feels like the CM-500 might be most intentional but that could be my own bias.

>>11798317 (OP)
QUERY FOR CLEARANCE

. . .

I don't remember which soundfont I used when playing the game, but it was pretty close to the Roland soundtrack if not it outright. It's pure kino and yes it does fit the game perfectly

>>11798921
Huh, he did use the Sound Canvas primarily. Question answered I guess!

SC55 but MT32 sounds great too.

>>11798921
Gravis ultrasound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvlGbv3JIEk

>>11800240
Sounds more upbeat and energetic. Not really what they were going for, but that's neat.

>>11798317 (OP)
Gravis Ultrasound is the "intended" card to play with iirc. Can't remember what was used to make the music with exactly, there's quite a few interviews with Greg LoPiccolo where he talks about it though, probably in there somewhere.
Personally after using Timbres of Heaven I can't go back.

>>11800613
>Gravis Ultrasound is the "intended" card to play with iirc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvlGbv3JIEk
sounds horrible

>>11800613
>Gravis Ultrasound is the "intended" card to play with
It was intended that you could play the game with one. I do not believe that it was intended to be THE way to play it.
It doesn't sound right, but it's good enough and doesn't sound terrible. It's a neat card. Not very many people have one. I have two. One got shorted in a computer used for development. And the other is fine. I also have one of the green AMD ones. I have no idea where that one came from. I found an old shoebox in a giant box of old pc crap and there was some serious oddball graphics cards and sound cards in there. I had PC shop for a while and had a bunch of shit given to me all the time. For a while I was busy enough that I just boxed things up and forgot about them till years later. My weirdest card is the first PowerVR 3D accelerator. It has no external I/O.

Here's the soundfont that sounds most accurate and consistent throughout the game:
>https://archive.org/download/free-soundfonts-sf2-2019-04/CREATIVE_28MBGM.sf2

Test it out yourself in-game.
Specifically go to the are with the force bridge and radiation floors on Medical OR right outside Diego's quarters on the executive level, for the WEIRD music.
This soundfont even makes this not sound too jarring.

>>11800686
What is this soundfont supposed to be replicating?

thing is that these examples are just the OST, can't forget the "dynamic music" like when your HP is low (that alarm like sound on the music) or that "weird robotic wailing synth" when you're near heavy robot forces etc etc

>>11800692
Looking at:
https://gmsynths.blogspot.com/2016/02/list-of-known-creative-gm-soundfonts.html

>This SoundFont is from the Creative X-Fi Vista installation CD:
>* 28MBGM.SF2 (28.3 MB)
>- Internal name: 28MB General MIDI
>- Designer: Seok-Kwee Chew, Tim Swartz, & Janis Chaffin
>- Copyright: (c) Creative Technology 2006
>- Has GM melodic instruments, plus GS drumsets. Lacks SFX set.
>- Preset 000:034 (Picked Bass) is absent from this SoundFont.

It's a GM soundfont included with a Sound Blaster X-Fi, and I think it sounds a lot like the intro video's music.

>>11800830
Also, if you trust the various soundtracks floating around released as the "System Shock OST," then you'll hear that the instruments in those renditions are close to the soundfont's.
So that's the intro music in the game files and the compile soundtracks that both sound very similar to this soundfont, and it handles the weird dynamic music well.

>>11800240
>>11800621
I don't think that's even the Gravis Ultrasound. I was curious about the custom samples for the card myself and my version sounds completely different from that. I know that the GUS can be fitted with different patches, akin to a soundfont. I went with the vanilla 4.11 set in Dosbox-X and this is what mine sounded like.
https://files.catbox.moe/epd67q.avi
Now Dosbox-X could be rendering this wrong so if any anons have real hardware and the floppy disk version of System Shock to record from I'd be curious to hear it.

Everyone had the soundblaster card only a few randoms had these other soundcards
All DOS games were mainly played with soundblaster
Why care otherwise his rackmount equipment sequenced in the studio is never going to sound like the average platform

So stupid what zoomers do

>>11801376
>So stupid what zoomers do
It's called autism. Has nothing to do with zoomers or zillennials.

>>11801376
>Everyone had the soundblaster card only a few randoms had these other soundcards
This. Sound Blaster ruled the roost. All the others were niche. Gravis gave away 5000 sound cards to scene people and etc. assuming they'd finally make games but they just made demos with more tracks at once with 'em instead. It never really took off and became a rival to Creative.

Much better faring were the many companies who made generic Sound Blaster compatible chips. Creative didn't even go after the laptop market so a lot of these wound up there, but also many made their way onto PC motherboards from OEMs who didn't feel like bundling a Sound Blaster or taking a slot for one.