OPL timbre tool for Windows/Mac/Linux

[MusicallyInspired]

A guy on VOGONS released this program to create patches for Adlib, for those that care about supporting Adlib in your games. I haven't even tried it yet and it doesn't yet support the INS/BNK format (that the DOS-based Insmaker uses), but he says more format support is coming. But even so, in the meantime it looks interesting to play around with. I've also asked him what the chances are of support Sierra's patch format directly. That would cut some corners.

http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=48513

[Collector]

Certainly something to keep an eye on.

[MusicallyInspired]

I just rediscovered this and BNK support is in! I just opened a few Sierra patches and it seems to work quite nicely (have to use NRS's command line tool to convert between PAT and BNK though)! It would be nice if it could read and write to the SCI patch format directly (which is the same across SCI versions IIRC) but I don't know what we can offer the author in that vein. I know not many people use Adlib for SCI but it's nice to have the tools and not have to rely on DOSBox!

GIThub download
Initial VOGONS Thread

It also supports mass copying and pasting between different kinds of banks so you can take some instruments from one Sierra game and combine them with others if you wanted certain sounds together.

[Wohlstand]

Hello! I'm a creator of this bank editor (I have come to here by MusicallyInspired's invitation), and I came to ask the full specification for SCI PAT file to allow me to add support for it into my bank editor. Can Sierra, or any other who has it, send it to me?

P.S. About BNK: there is support for two types: AdLib and HMI. There are has differences and HMI banks usually can't be opened by most of BNK editors. Support for those files is experimental (especially writing case, reading works fine, but writing works incorrectly yet, I'll fix that in nearest time)

[lskovlun]

Hello! I'm a creator of this bank editor (I have come to here by MusicallyInspired's invitation), and I came to ask the full specification for SCI PAT file to allow me to add support for it into my bank editor. Can Sierra, or any other who has it, send it to me?

Just to clarify, the patch file formats are specific to each sound driver supported by SCI. Each driver requests a patch file with a particular number, which the main interpreter then loads and hands to the driver.
The one for Adlib, which we have been discussing in this thread, is PATCH.003 (look for it in the Patches pane in SCI Companion). I'm not sure there is a formal spec (if there is, VOGONS might be a place to look). Otherwise, the ScummVM adlib driver:
https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/master/engines/sci/sound/drivers/adlib.cpp

other files in that directory may be useful depending on what exactly you want to support.

[Kawa]

Hello Wolhstand, welcome to the board, and good luck.

Looking at ScummVM, the patch.003 format seems remarkably straightforward. Just don't forget the type specifier at the start of the file, when it's a separate file.

[NewRisingSun]

There is some variation between SCI versions in their 3.PAT format.
- SCI0 and 1.0 have 48 instruments, followed by 0xAB 0xCD if 48 more instruments follow
- SCI1.1 has 190 instruments, 128 melodic plus 62 rhythm channel instruments, followed by 62 bytes specifying the actual note pitch (MIDI note) for the drum notes starting with note 0x1B (Kick drum).

Another format of interest might be Miles Design' AIL 2.x (e.g. SAMPLE.AD, SAMPLE.OPL), which supports both 2-OP and 4-OP instruments. I can provide specs if interested. Also, you might want to switch to the Nuked FM emulation core at some point for its greater accuracy.

[Wohlstand]

There is some variation between SCI versions in their 3.PAT format.
- SCI0 and 1.0 have 48 instruments, followed by 0xAB 0xCD if 48 more instruments follow
- SCI1.1 has 190 instruments, 128 melodic plus 62 rhythm channel instruments, followed by 62 bytes specifying the actual note pitch (MIDI note) for the drum notes starting with note 0x1B (Kick drum).

Another format of interest might be Miles Design' AIL 2.x (e.g. SAMPLE.AD, SAMPLE.OPL), which supports both 2-OP and 4-OP instruments. I can provide specs if interested.

Yeah, and can you provide me some example files for reading test?
P.S. My latest version (you can find that at Git, in readme, dev version) already supports AIL banks

Also, you might want to switch to the Nuked FM emulation core at some point for its greater accuracy.

My latest versions of OPL3 apps (libADLMIDI, OPL3 Bank Editor) are already using Nuked OPL3 emulator, and yeah, it's very accurate, but eats more CPU power that makes lags on old computers or mobile devices

[NewRisingSun]

LBA are files from Little Big Adventure. The game uses one set of MIDI files with different instrument banks for OPL2 (SAMPLE.AD) and OPL3 (SAMPLE.OPL).

LOSTVIK are files from The Lost Vikings. The MIDI files differ between OPL2 and OPL3 as well, hence the two directories.

To play an example file, go into the directory containing the XMI file you want to play (example: title.xmi), then in DOSBox, type "..\XPLAY title.xmi ..\SBFM.ADV" for OPL2 (SBFM.ADV will automatically use SAMPLE.AD) and "..\XPLAY title.xmi ..\SBP2FM.ADV" for OPL3 (SBP2FM.ADV will automatically use SAMPLE.OPL).

[Wohlstand]

LBA are files from Little Big Adventure. The game uses one set of MIDI files with different instrument banks for OPL2 (SAMPLE.AD) and OPL3 (SAMPLE.OPL).

LOSTVIK are files from The Lost Vikings. The MIDI files differ between OPL2 and OPL3 as well, hence the two directories.

To play an example file, go into the directory containing the XMI file you want to play (example: title.xmi), then in DOSBox, type "..\XPLAY title.xmi ..\SBFM.ADV" for OPL2 (SBFM.ADV will automatically use SAMPLE.AD) and "..\XPLAY title.xmi ..\SBP2FM.ADV" for OPL3 (SBP2FM.ADV will automatically use SAMPLE.OPL).

Thanks for those files, I have checked out that, and, I had many bugs in reading/write of AIL (I had the inability to read LOSTVIK banks, and I had damaged save result) which now I finally fixed. The one thing I need to complete - banks toggle (to toggle 128-instrument sets by combo-box rather showing everything like done for BNK files). I have plan to implement own format I will use for libADLMIDI which will support everything supported by existing bank formats with the ability to provide full GS or XG standard instruments set to have properly played of MIDI files are designed for those standards (include a support of custom percussion channels providing by those standards).

I have updated build, now editor must support any AIL banks correctly 
Next update will have "banks" combo-box and list will show 128 instruments maximum
EDIT: "next update" has been implemented, and now bank editor supports 128-instruments banks: adding/removing/clearing, and ability to switch between AdLib BNK mode (I.e. show all instruments in same list without dividing by banks)

[MusicallyInspired]

Sweet!

EDIT: The website still says 1.2.1-beat as the latest version number. Does it have the changes you mentioned but just carries the same version number?

[Wohlstand]

Sweet!

EDIT: The website still says 1.2.1-beat as the latest version number. Does it have the changes you mentioned but just carries the same version number?

Latest is 1.3-beta which available by a bit separated link, I think, I'll update the stable after some times (need to test new-added features until I'll replace stable with this build). The latest dev build is always available from GitHub readme's link

Edit: I have created new release page for 1.3 beta with including builds for all three OSes ;-)