DescentBB

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:41 am**

EDIT: Get the Descent PlayStation remixes here (note: I left out the songs from the D2 redbook)

Skyalmian posted a thread a while back on the D3KBB about the old-school D1/D2 music, and how it sounded so much better in the game with the HMI drivers than it did in Windows. It got me thinkin about how that was true. So, I hooked up an old P233, threw in a Soundblaster Awe64, ran a cable to the line in on my main rig, and recorded em with Audacity. Sky then tweaked em a bit and normalized the volume.

NOTE: I recorded these with OPL2, not Awe32 (cept for level 18, see below). In other words, it sounds like it should on an old SB card without any wavetable crap.

The entire D1 set as a .zip file

Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7
Level 8
Level 9
Level 10
Level 11
Level 12
Level 13
Level 14
Level 15
Level 16
Level 17
Level 18
Level 18 (FM mix)
Level 19
Level 20
Level 21
Level 22

Note: Level 18 wouldnt work quite right, so theres 2 versions. The first was the FM version, the second is the non-FM version (I had to change it to Awe32). Its not quite right, so if anyone could try getting that for me I'll post it here.

And the rest:
Briefing
Credits
End-game
Exiting the mine
Main menu

Descent 2 (no zip, sorry):

Credits
Main menu
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:26 am**

Dammit Vindi, I thought at first you recorded the music wavetable-synthesized!

That's like, the point of the AWE64, you might as well have been using the original SB16.

Good work though, nice to hear the FM versions. Maybe I should get off my lazy ass sometime and finish up recording the Descent music in wavetable synthesis so people can hear that version too.

(D1 tracks 1-3 and 8-11 available in wavetable format at my hosted site; anyone who doesn't know the difference between FM and wavetable should compare Vindi's MP3s with mine so you get an idea of how they're different.)

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:37 am**

i dunno, ive been comparing these MP3's to the ones i already had, and i think the ones i already had sound more "organic" and better... maybe that's just me...

HOWEVER, i'm not sure about this one, my previous MP3's may be the ones from the mac / PS1 version of the game.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:14 am**

Playstation mooozik

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:20 pm**

Asrale wrote:Dammit Vindi, I thought at first you recorded the music wavetable-synthesized! That's like, the point of the AWE64, you might as well have been using the original SB16.

Thats what I was going for, actually. A lot of us started playing D1 on 486s with SB cards. I never thought the music sounded as good in D1X or in Windows. So bah to your fancy wavetables

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:42 pm**

I had a vortex Sound card (A3D for you old timers.) The music rocked on that thing; even just simple midi files. Unfortunately it's ISA and there is nothing that supports it out there anymore. Too bad it went away.

Oh, just found another set of D1 music. Here is the readme text. I can't remember where I got this from. :

ReadMe wrote: __ __ ___ _______ _______ __ ___ ________
| ||\ | ||___\ /_______\ /_______\ | ||___\ |`\ |`\ |________| || \ | | ____ _____ __ | | ____ | \ | | __
| | \ \ | ||____\ \ \ | \ | ||____\ | ||\| | | |
| |___\ | | |______ ___/ / | \____ | |______ | || | | |
|_________| |_________\ \______/ \______/ |_________\ |___| \___| | |
\ |
The Soundtrack in MP3! - Recorded by Charles McKee, aka. Valin Halcyon \|

(Sound Blaster FM (OPL2) Edition)

First, let me just say that it's been a very long time since this game was
released. Ever since that deep, dark and creepy music hit my speakers way back in 1995, I knew that it would remain my favorite game for the rest of my life. My own history with the game, and then the community in general is a long one, so I won't bore you with details.

These tracks were recorded by using Miner, the original Descent level editor to play back each track individually, effectivly using the game itself as the MIDI player, preventing any loss or changes that could be induced by file conversion, odd SoundFonts, or incorrect Windows audio settings. The output of the soundcard was sent directly in to the Line In jack on another PC, where the music was listened to for quality, had the ends cleaned up for proper looping, and had their amplitude adjusted in order to ensure that all tracks were of the same level of volume before being encoded into MP3 files.

The hardware used in this recording was an Intel Pentium II running at 333Mhz with 128MB of SDRAM, a S3 Virge/DX PCI Graphics card, and most importantly, a Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold soundcard.

This is a complete archive file list.
My personal favorites are marked with an "*"

Track | Title | Synth | extension | Special/Remarks
___________________________________________________
00.ReadMe.txt
01.Descent - Main Theme(OPL2).mp3
02.Descent - Briefing(OPL2).mp3 *
03.Descent - Level 1(OPL2).mp3
04.Descent - Level 2(OPL2).mp3
05.Descent - Level 3(OPL2).mp3 *
06.Descent - Level 4(OPL2).mp3
07.Descent - Level 5(OPL2).mp3
08.Descent - Level 6(OPL2).mp3
09.Descent - Level 7(OPL2).mp3
10.Descent - Level 8(OPL2).mp3 *
11.Descent - Level 9(OPL2).mp3
12.Descent - Level 10(OPL2).mp3
13.Descent - Level 11(OPL2).mp3 *
14.Descent - Level 12(OPL2).mp3
15.Descent - Level 13(OPL2).mp3 *
16.Descent - Level 14(OPL2).mp3 *
17.Descent - Level 15(OPL2).mp3
18.Descent - Level 16(OPL2).mp3
19.Descent - Level 17(OPL2).mp3 *
20.Descent - Level 18(OPL2).mp3 *
21.Descent - Level 19(OPL2).mp3
22.Descent - Level 20(OPL2).mp3
23.Descent - Level 21(OPL2).mp3 *
24.Descent - Level 22(OPL2).mp3 *
25.Descent - Escape(OPL2).mp3 *
26.Descent - End Game(OPL2).mp3
27.Descent - Credits(OPL2).mp3 *
PL.Descent - Soundtrack (OPL2).m3u (Play List for Winamp)

I took some liberty with "Escape", which is, as you might have guessed, the music for during the exit tunnel sequence. I think you'll all like the addition I made to it. The music itself is not mixed into the addition, and can be easily re-recorded in the case you wish to use it for some other purpose.

This Soundtrack is part of a collection of 4, which include:

Descent 1 - (OPL2)
Descent 1 - (AWE32)
Descent 2 - (OPL; Mix of 2&3)
Descent 2 - (AWE32)

The OPL editions represent the older, more digitally sounding music that so many of us fondly remember due to being kids with a cheap sound card that was incapable of using the better quality synthesizers, such as the Sound BLaster AWE32 and General MIDI(MPU-401). The AWE32 editions represent the way this music was meant to be heard. At the time of the creation of Descent 1, the Sound Blaster AWE32 cards were just coming out and cost far mroe than most people were willing to pay, but Parallax Software had them, and wrote this music to sound best on these cards. In case you are wondering, the AWE64 version of this soundcard has the exact same synthesizer as the AWE32, there is no change in sound from using the AWE64 instead of an AWE32 soundcard.

I hope you enjoy my work. This file and the others mentioned in this ReadMe can be found at www.PlanetDescent.com. If you have any questions or comments about this file, please comment on the forums at PlanetDescent.com

--Charles McKee, aka. Valin Halcyon

DESCENT IS COPYRIGHT PARALLAX SOFTWARE, 1995, 1996. DESCENT IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS. THIS SOFTWARE MAY BE USED FOR ANY NON-PROFIT PURPOSES. ALL OTHER RIGHTS AND PRIVELEDGES ARE RESERVED BY PARALLAX SOFTWARE.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:46 pm**

Sky then tweaked em a bit and normalized the volume.

I don't recall giving you the fixed versions I made.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:49 pm**

You put em on Krom's FTP

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:53 pm**

You're right. I did.
But I always rename all MP3s I get. The filenames you have listed are yours.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:13 pm**

I had AWE32 since the beginning, so I don't need to listen to trash for my nostalgia.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:23 pm**

And incase you are wondering, Vindicator has downloaded 23,519,541.12 KB (22.42 GB) from my FTP server since he asked if he could get those D1 MP3s from me...

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:35 pm**

Sky: I dont like spaces in my filenames when posting stuff on the internet. I also noticed you removed the ID3v1 tags I had so painstakingly put on them

Meanwhile, over on ICQ...

Vindicator: have i seriously d/led 22gb off you?
[D3k]Krom: Yep, I looked it up on the servers logs
[D3k]Krom: hmmm
[D3k]Krom: perhaps not
[D3k]Krom: looks like the server copys stats when I copy a user
Vindicator: lol so part of that was from someone else?
[D3k]Krom: yeah, you probably downloaded about 5-6 GB
Vindicator: okay, ill buy that
[D3k]Krom: You are no match for jmeat
[D3k]Krom: who is probably up to 160 GB

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:05 pm**

You kn ow I ripped the music files from the playstation version of D1, much better music in my opinion. But they come out as an XA file and I had to search to find an obscure XA player just to listen to them. Why dont you guys convert those songs if you know how, have you heard them? D1 for the pc has different music im finding out.

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:28 pm**

It needs more...cowbell

Posted: **Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:57 pm**

Re: Playstation Music:

Gimmie the files and I will find a way to convert them. E-mail me.

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:21 am**

That's AWE64? I've never heard it before, and I must say I'm quite disappointed

I've heard far better FM come out of D1/D2 with much cheaper cards, such as the SB Pro 2, SB16, ESS1388 (I think), and even my old IBM laptops (one was a P2 233MHz 380Z, and I think the other was a 380ED). Here is D1 level 1 through DOSBox 0.63, it sounds at least very close to how I remember it (had to edit the conf file to use 44.1khz mixing and OPL synthesis sample rates, it defaults to 22.05khz which sounds absolutely terrible). Beware, it's encoded in OGG. Winamp comes with a decoder for it, but anything else may need a DirectShow filter or a plugin. I don't have much web space, so I'm not going to put up any more, seeing how it's pretty easy to record, clip, and encode the music.

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:48 pm**

No, he used FM synthesis, even though he actually had AWE32 capabiltiy.

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:06 pm**

I have come to the conclusion that the D2 music kicks the crap out of the D1 music.

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:55 pm**

Krom wrote:And incase you are wondering, Vindicator has downloaded 23,519,541.12 KB (22.42 GB) from my FTP server since he asked if he could get those D1 MP3s from me...

No one will ever break my record!!1

/me Queues up *.*

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:24 pm**

"No, he used FM synthesis, even though he actually had AWE32 capabiltiy."

I'm not THAT stupid

I was just commenting on the AWE64's FM synthesis, which is really quite terrible compared to the other devices I listed. Give the OGG I posted a listen and you'll see what I mean. It might be because he used OPL2 instead of OPL3, but some of the instruments sound wrong, so I doubt it will help much to use OPL3.

I've never heard the AWE32/64 capabilities in Descent, but I have no reason to believe it would be any different from wavetable synthesis, which frankly sucks nuts for Descent's MIDI music. It does sound better, yes, but only on the basis of objective sound quality. It doesn't sound at all like Descent. Ever hear D2 MIDI music on a wavetable versus *good* OPL3? There's no comparison whatsoever. The D2 MIDI tracks benefit significantly more from FM than from wavetable synthesis because the instruments are more customized to suit the theme of the different levels (it's a real shame they only did tracks for the first four

). You can't customize a wavetable without huge patch files and a lot of time invested into designing the sound for each instrument, whereas FM synthesis with OPL2/3 chips is like, what, less than 15 parameters per instrument plus MIDI notes? Much easier for the musician to toy with. Never mind the fact that you have to know exactly what hardware you're talking to if you want to patch the wavetable. The OPLx chips were very popular back in the day, so Descent's music was designed more for them than for the wavetable cards.

hmm, I'm going to stop preaching now, I think my words are falling on deaf ears

Posted: **Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:40 pm**

I edited my first post to clarify my intent.

Patches: I've been playing around with DOSbox some... what settings exactly did you use to make that level 1 music file? Theres a ton of different SB emulation modes.

Posted: **Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:51 pm**

*bump*

This thread deserves bumpage. *insert "This thread rocks!" picture here*

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:10 am**

Patches' OGG sounds amazing.

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:17 am**

MD-2389 wrote:*insert "This thread rocks!" picture here*

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:17 pm**

Everyone has a balancing rock don't they? Why do they mark Idaho's like it was something special... I go to Utah and they are all over the place. In Idaho there is a rock that balances on another and everyone is like OOOOOH BALANCE!! ROCK TOO!! WOOT!!!1 Lets make it a national park!!

P.S. PS1 OWNZORS YUO!!!1

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:46 pm**

Aw crap man. Listening to this music has brought me back a lot of years. Now I feel compelled to reload D1 and start playing all over again. Thanks.

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:41 pm**

mob-messenger wrote:Everyone has a balancing rock don't they? Why do they mark Idaho's like it was something special... I go to Utah and they are all over the place. In Idaho there is a rock that balances on another and everyone is like OOOOOH BALANCE!! ROCK TOO!! WOOT!!!1 Lets make it a national park!!

P.S. PS1 OWNZORS YUO!!!1

heh! All this pen[size=0].[/size]is envy because one little bit of Galaxyquest was filmed in Utah....

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:04 pm**

bash wrote:Patches' OGG sounds amazing.

To tell you the truth, I favor the recordings I made of the MIDIs earlier this year. The only reason for this, though, is because I first really played D1 on a P4 machine using D1X, so that particular sound is just what I'm used to hearing. No matter how it sounds, that song is kick@$$.

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:51 pm**

Aw, thanks MD.

I have the PS1 music also... shall I post that as well?

Posted: **Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:10 pm**

I personally don't have a problem with it. Hell, I've never even heard the D1 PSX music.

Posted: **Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:35 pm**

Uploaded em, check my first post.

Posted: **Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:09 am**

woodi wrote:You kn ow I ripped the music files from the playstation version of D1, much better music in my opinion. But they come out as an XA file and I had to search to find an obscure XA player just to listen to them. Why dont you guys convert those songs if you know how, have you heard them? D1 for the pc has different music im finding out.

i rip them some time ago to MP3 Krom and a few others have copys.

Posted: **Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:37 pm**

I found a program that extracts and converts a few PS1 formats, including XA, into WAV/AVI. Those remixes are particularly cool.

Posted: **Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:41 am**

MD-2389 wrote:
mob-messenger wrote:Everyone has a balancing rock don't they? Why do they mark Idaho's like it was something special... I go to Utah and they are all over the place. In Idaho there is a rock that balances on another and everyone is like OOOOOH BALANCE!! ROCK TOO!! WOOT!!!1 Lets make it a national park!!

P.S. PS1 OWNZORS YUO!!!1
heh! All this pen[size=0].[/size]is envy because one little bit of Galaxyquest was filmed in Utah....

LOL, I was actually making fun of Idaho!

Well considering 4 Corners, Arches national park, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Red Canyon, Capitol Reef, and a chunk of the Grand Canyon are all found in Utah.... not to mention the Coral Pink Sand dunes and a bunch of other canyons. Everyone seems to judge Utah by Salt Lake City. It is probably the least interesting place in Utah.

Personally there are very few places in Idaho that are mildly interesting or scenic. Montana.... well, lets just say that I know why David Letterman once said he gets so many speeding tickets...

Go to the southern half of Utah. It ownz

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:06 am**

Vindicator wrote:
I have the PS1 music also... shall I post that as well?

Please allow me to bump,

Vin, do have the rest of em? Level 7 was my personal favorite.

Thanks for the ones that are there pal:)

For some reason whatever converter I try to use to convert them from XA does not work, and I dont know enuff about it to figure it out, I've tried the psmplay
and others in japanese, only one that works is the XAPLAY, but that doesnt convert em.

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:12 am**

The PS version only has remixes of certain tracks, not all of them. Sorry.

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:56 am**

Correct me if Im wrong, but wasn't the descent music that came with the games not MIDI files originally?

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:13 pm**

you are correct Flip. They were tucked away in the HOG file as a ".hmp" file.

The utility program DTX allowed you to save the file out as a midi, which I did some time ago. It's great music, even 10 years later.

Anyone know who did the music for D1?

Posted: **Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:25 pm**

wow, i totaly missed this thread.

Posted: **Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:40 am**

I think were talking about two different things here, the computer version of D3 was midi, but what im after is the playstation version of D3 which wasnt midi.
An example of those are in the "here" link on vindicators first post, the playstation remixes.
Some of the playstation tracks off D1 have some awesome guitar work and I would love to know who did these.

DescentBB

Get yer old-skool D1/2 music here (now with PS remixes!)

Get yer old-skool D1/2 music here (now with PS remixes!)