This was as I expected because the OPL FM chips cannot handle as many simultaneous 'voices' as a General Midi Synth. When one compares some System Shock XMI tracks intended for the Soundblaster OPL/FM with the General Midi ones: The difference I find is that the OPL/FM ones are missing some channels/sounds. In his podcast LoPiccolo mentions this synthesizer: 'Roland General Midi Box'. Wikipedia: 'LoPiccolo composed the game's score on a Macintosh computer and inexpensive synthesizer, using Audio Vision Midi Sequencer.' If something is really meant for SB16, I would say: go program the OPL chip directly instead of using the Miles 'Extended MIDI' sound system. It sounds unlikely that any game using the Miles Sound System is 'meant' for SB16. System Shock was meant for SB16 and not General MIDI, and sounds wonky on pretty much any GM device. Ikantspelwurdz: This one isn't Microsoft's fault. This link may be relevant, or at least interesting, though I wish it had more Medical Deck examples: Or if your soundfont's drum sounds are a bit louder than the SC-55s', a drum-heavy track could become overpowered by the drums. Tracks that use a lot of modulation, for instance, can easily be thrown off balance by having a soundfont that's too aggressive on the wrong instruments.

BASSMIDI with modern soundfonts can be a big improvement, but it can also make it fall apart, depending on the game, track, and soundfont. System Shock was meant for SB16 and not General MIDI, and sounds wonky on pretty much any GM device.įor games actually composed with a Roland SC-55 in mind, MS's GM synth is usually adequate, if not necessarily amazing. It definitely explains why the General Midi playback for this is so ear splitting and unstable. I knew that the MIDI in Windows 9x/XP was a chopped down version of something and that is why it was always wonky in implementation.

System shock soundtrack sc 55 midi flac