[ scummvm-Feature Requests-817242 ] ALL: MT-32 to GM key velocity conversion

SourceForge.net noreply at sourceforge.net
Fri Oct 3 21:35:00 CEST 2003


Feature Requests item #817242, was opened at 2003-10-03 10:11
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by jamieson630
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=418823&aid=817242&group_id=37116

Category: None
Group: None
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Fixed
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Marek Roth (logicdeluxe)
Assigned to: Jamieson Christian (jamieson630)
Summary: ALL: MT-32 to GM key velocity conversion

Initial Comment:
I experimented with the key velocity, which definately

is different between GM and MT-32 so it needs to be

converted as well in case a MIDI track is converted.

For my tests I used my three GM wavetables and compared

them to the MT-32 output. These are a Yamaha MU5, a

Terratec wavetable professional, and a SB-Live with the

standard sound font.

I measured the output levels of the notes in order to

figure out the relation to the velocity. (I didn't

found that information in any documentation. Seems

they'd forgotten that in the GM proposal back than.)

What I found out is, that GM wavetables in fact have

quite wide spreaded different velocity behavior. Here

are the results given in the difference between a

velocity 127 note compared to a velocity 1 note.

MT-32: -30 dB

Yamaha MU5: -35 dB

Terratec: -40 dB

SB-Live: -54 dB

The ranges between those do not differ that extremly,

so a linear translation would do, I guess. And even the

MU5 looks less dynamically at first sight, the result

sound similar dynamically to SB-Live after my

corrections formula, since the curve is slightly more

linear there.

So obviously the MT-32 is less dynamically than average

GM wavetables. This is why some tunes don't sound that

well in current ScummVM with MT-32 to GM conversion.

Some quiter melodies are almost not audible. For

instance listen to the Monkey2 Woodtick's outdoor

music, where the slow background melody are almost not

audible without velocity correction.



In conclusion I would suggest the following formula,

which sounds pretty close to the original MT-32 dynamic

with all my three wavetables (which sounds in deed a

lot better than without it):

GM velocity = MT-32 velocity * 3/4 + 32.

A check would be required, so it only would be

translated when the source is MT-32 MIDI, ie. it is a

'ROL ' resource, AND native MT-32 is NOT selected.



This is not to be confused with the expression

controller which exist on many MIDI devices, and in

fact it works completely different as I figured out. To

be exact, it usually scales down the dynamic fixed at

the quite end of the range which wouldn't solve the

conversion problem. So better leave that one alone and

implement that formula.



----------------------------------------------------------------------

>Comment By: Jamieson Christian (jamieson630)
Date: 2003-10-03 14:35

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=596642

Sounds like as good a conversion formula as any. (I think we 

had a logarithmic conversion we were going to put in at one 

time, but it's probably not worth the clock cycles or bytes for 

a conversion table to do that.) Conversion is in CVS.



(Boy, I've been meaning to do this for a while. Guess I just 

need the right paperwork to provide motivation. Thanks!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=418823&aid=817242&group_id=37116




More information about the Scummvm-tracker mailing list