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General discussionCoolsoft VirtualMidiSynth / Scummvm bug?(11 posts)solved(11 posts)solved
(11 posts)solved
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Posted August 28, 2020
- Windows 10, VirtualMidiSynth 2.80/2.93
- Game: Phantasmagoria (GOG, Scummvm)

VirtualMidiSynth:
At some point in the game there's a harpsichord, click on it and it plays.
When I load certain (most?) SF files it plays glitchy clicks (e.g. Chorium Rev A, FluidR3, ...), with some other soundfonts it plays fine (SC55, SGM-v2.01).

But if I select Fluidsynth in Scummvm, any soundfont selected (Midi tab) plays like it should. I searched around, but couldn't find any mention of VirtualMidiSynth having problems playing certain sountfonts, in general. Maybe it's a Scummvm thing, or Phantasmagoria?

I know, it's probably a very obscure issue - but maybe there's an expert here? I found a solution for Scummvm, but it won't be that easy for DOSbox...
This question / problem has been solved by Geralt_of_Riviaimage
Posted August 29, 2020
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teceem: - Windows 10, VirtualMidiSynth 2.80/2.93
- Game: Phantasmagoria (GOG, Scummvm)

VirtualMidiSynth:
At some point in the game there's a harpsichord, click on it and it plays.
When I load certain (most?) SF files it plays glitchy clicks (e.g. Chorium Rev A, FluidR3, ...), with some other soundfonts it plays fine (SC55, SGM-v2.01).

But if I select Fluidsynth in Scummvm, any soundfont selected (Midi tab) plays like it should. I searched around, but couldn't find any mention of VirtualMidiSynth having problems playing certain sountfonts, in general. Maybe it's a Scummvm thing, or Phantasmagoria?

I know, it's probably a very obscure issue - but maybe there's an expert here? I found a solution for Scummvm, but it won't be that easy for DOSbox...
Interesting! Well I have the game in Steam and generally use the Falcosoft MIDI Player plus loopMIDI setup instead of VirtualMIDISynth. I can confirm that the bug exists using ScummVM and Chorium Rev A with my setup as well.

The bug didn't exist when i ran it in the included Steam DOSBox version, (using the GENMIDI.DRV, or even when using the MT32.DRV with the Chorium Rev A soundfont) so it must be a bug in ScummVM.

Now I wonder how many other games this bug effects....
Post edited August 29, 2020 by crimson_twilight
Posted August 29, 2020
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crimson_twilight: Interesting! Well I have the game in Steam and generally use the Falcosoft MIDI Player plus loopMIDI setup instead of VirtualMIDISynth. I can confirm that the bug exists using ScummVM and Chorium Rev A with my setup as well.

The bug didn't exist when i ran it in the included Steam DOSBox version, (using the GENMIDI.DRV, or even when using the MT32.DRV with the Chorium Rev A soundfont) so it must be a bug in ScummVM.

Now I wonder how many other games this bug effects....
Wow, I wasn't expecting a reply... Thanks for trying it out! I'm going to try it in a newer version of Scummvm.
I also wonder what the bug actually does. I mean, I just found one manifestation of it.
Is it only one or a few sound presets? Is it the samples themselves or maybe a Midi CC? And why do some soundfonts play fine and not others (at least for this example).
I didn't think Scummvm was the cause because the built-in Fluidsynth didn't have the same behaviour.

Update:
I tried it in Scummvm 2.10: it's even worse... Chorium Rev A (same with FluidR3 and Fatboy) doesn't make any sound anymore. No problem with SFM-V2.01.
Post edited August 29, 2020 by teceem
Posted November 29, 2020
VirtualMidiSynth doesn't work AT ALL with the latest ScummVM release. At least not with Phantasmagoria. I have tried everything and it defaults to the horrible Windows Midi output, which sucks big time. Can someone please suggest a different software solution that works with ScummVm? I really want to use the Fatboy soundfont to replay the game.
Posted November 30, 2020
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MisterSurrealist: VirtualMidiSynth doesn't work AT ALL with the latest ScummVM release.
Really? This is terrible..
I see that VMS is still developed, did you try a recent version of it? Or reported this issue to them or ScummVM?
http://coolsoft.altervista.org/it/virtualmidisynth

Did you also try their MIDI mapper?
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/midimapper
Post edited November 30, 2020 by phaolo
Posted November 30, 2020
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teceem: - Windows 10, VirtualMidiSynth 2.80/2.93
- Game: Phantasmagoria (GOG, Scummvm)

VirtualMidiSynth:
At some point in the game there's a harpsichord, click on it and it plays.
I could give it a try but I don't want to play through the entire game to look for the harpsichord. Do you have a saved game in front of it? It's been many year since I last played the game. :-)
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MisterSurrealist: VirtualMidiSynth doesn't work AT ALL with the latest ScummVM release. At least not with Phantasmagoria. I have tried everything and it defaults to the horrible Windows Midi output, which sucks big time. Can someone please suggest a different software solution that works with ScummVm? I really want to use the Fatboy soundfont to replay the game.
I can't imagine any reason why it wouldn't work. This is most likely a configuration error on your part. I suggest you try the MIDI Mapper which Phaolo already mentioned.
Post edited November 30, 2020 by Geralt_of_Rivia
Posted November 30, 2020
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Geralt_of_Rivia: I could give it a try but I don't want to play through the entire game to look for the harpsichord. Do you have a saved game in front of it? It's been many year since I last played the game. :-)
I zipped up the saves folder:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14-GUEWNSW3BP7eFgi0t6aXFWBSfv2GxK/view?usp=sharing
It's the last save.
It's actually not that far into the game...
Posted November 30, 2020
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Geralt_of_Rivia: I could give it a try but I don't want to play through the entire game to look for the harpsichord. Do you have a saved game in front of it? It's been many year since I last played the game. :-)
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teceem: I zipped up the saves folder:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14-GUEWNSW3BP7eFgi0t6aXFWBSfv2GxK/view?usp=sharing
It's the last save.
It's actually not that far into the game...
Alright, back from some thorough testing.

I installed the game, unpacked your saves, gave it a try and sure enough the harpsichord was royally screwed no matter which soundfont I tried. Other than that ScummVM had no trouble using VirtualMIDISynth.

I tried other ScummVM games like Sam and Max hit the road. No problems at all.

So I tried updating VirtualMIDISynth and played around with the settings a bit to no avail. Then it suddenly occured to me that possibly the ScummVM version used by the game might be a bit old as well. I checked and found that GOG uses 2.0.0 which is about 3 years old.

I replaced 2.0.0 with the latest 2.2.0 and now the harpsichord sounds just like it is supposed to. Tested with 3 different soundfonts including Chorium Rev A.

Enjoy the music.
Posted November 30, 2020
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Geralt_of_Rivia: Alright, back from some thorough testing.

I installed the game, unpacked your saves, gave it a try and sure enough the harpsichord was royally screwed no matter which soundfont I tried. Other than that ScummVM had no trouble using VirtualMIDISynth.

I tried other ScummVM games like Sam and Max hit the road. No problems at all.

So I tried updating VirtualMIDISynth and played around with the settings a bit to no avail. Then it suddenly occured to me that possibly the ScummVM version used by the game might be a bit old as well. I checked and found that GOG uses 2.0.0 which is about 3 years old.

I replaced 2.0.0 with the latest 2.2.0 and now the harpsichord sounds just like it is supposed to. Tested with 3 different soundfonts including Chorium Rev A.

Enjoy the music.
Thanks!!! They must've secretly fixed it - I see nothing mentioned about VirtualMIDISynth in the v2.2 news announcement.
Posted November 30, 2020
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Geralt_of_Rivia: Alright, back from some thorough testing.

I installed the game, unpacked your saves, gave it a try and sure enough the harpsichord was royally screwed no matter which soundfont I tried. Other than that ScummVM had no trouble using VirtualMIDISynth.

I tried other ScummVM games like Sam and Max hit the road. No problems at all.

So I tried updating VirtualMIDISynth and played around with the settings a bit to no avail. Then it suddenly occured to me that possibly the ScummVM version used by the game might be a bit old as well. I checked and found that GOG uses 2.0.0 which is about 3 years old.

I replaced 2.0.0 with the latest 2.2.0 and now the harpsichord sounds just like it is supposed to. Tested with 3 different soundfonts including Chorium Rev A.

Enjoy the music.
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teceem: Thanks!!! They must've secretly fixed it - I see nothing mentioned about VirtualMIDISynth in the v2.2 news announcement.
Well, the news announcements only list the most important changes since the last release version. This is a very active open source project with many contributors. If you look at the commits you'll see that there are easily 10-30 changes made to the program every day. Good luck finding when a specific fix has been introduced. ;-) And there have been several release versions between 2.0.0 and 2.2.0 in the last 3 years.
Posted November 30, 2020
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Geralt_of_Rivia: Well, the news announcements only list the most important changes since the last release version. This is a very active open source project with many contributors. If you look at the commits you'll see that there are easily 10-30 changes made to the program every day. Good luck finding when a specific fix has been introduced. ;-) And there have been several release versions between 2.0.0 and 2.2.0 in the last 3 years.
Sure, makes sense! :-) I did try v2.1 (see the update to this post:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/coolsoft_virtualmidisynth_scummvm_bug/post3 )
Post edited November 30, 2020 by teceem
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General discussionCoolsoft VirtualMidiSynth / Scummvm bug?(11 posts)solved(11 posts)solved
(11 posts)solved