Midi device configurable?

[Shodan]

Hi,

First off, love the game. Big nostalgia burst for someone who grew up playing the various early Origin and SSI games.

Regarding the music for the game, i've noticed that regardless of how windows is setup, the midi device used for playback is always device 0 "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" , which is the default midi synth that comes installed with windows.

Now those of us who are old enough probably remember back in the day when the proverbial dogs nuts for computer midi was a Roland MT-32/CM-32/CM-64 or equivilent, followed by a Roland SoundCanvas of some description (SC-55 usually) in the later years.

I personally have a Roland MT-32 (rev2), a Roland CM-64 and a Roland SC-88VL, all connected through a Midi to USB connector (Roland UM-1G) just so that when I fire up ultima, wing commander, spacequest or kingsquest these modules kick in and I get lovely hardware midi with reverb exactly as the composers intended (plus it sounds awesome).
With dosbox there is the ability to configure which midi device to use (via "mixer /listmidi" and midiconfig=x), and its also possible to change the default midi device for playback in windows as well, either via the control panel or via a 3rd party applet in windows 7.

Would this be something you would consider adding? The ability to select which midi device to use? Or have it use the same one that windows is configured for (rather than always device "0").

I've linked some examples below of the ingame midi's being player through an SoundCanvas 88 in general midi mode, recorded in ogg format.

KotC - Roland SC-88
Track 1 - Medieval Village
Track 9 - Battle Theme
Track 10 - Dialogue Theme
Track 16 - Starting Theme

Also some comparisons of the SC88 compared to the default s/w synth playing music from other "early" games that utilised midi.
Example 1
SC88
Windows Midi

Example 2
SC 88
Windows Midi

Cheers!

[BlueSalamander]

Hello Shodan, thank you for the samples. I have no plans to tweak the music settings for the moment (I wouldn't know how), try playing the game under Dosbox?

[Shodan]

Hello Shodan, thank you for the samples. I have no plans to tweak the music settings for the moment (I wouldn't know how), try playing the game under Dosbox?

Thanks for the quick response.
Bugger, nevermind.
Let me know if you want me to record the other tracks in ogg format. The midi tracks are good, just that the internal windows s/w midi synth doesn't do them justice.