Are recorded soundfonts legal? What about ripped ones? Discuss!

General Off-Topic
#1

That’s not being rude, that’s being ignorant.

I’m not a developer, that’s why I gave you the github of the main project. In the first message, right?

If the MIDI is out of tune it’s because you have the ports configured wrong.

Soundfont/Sound canvas are not polyphonic, they are waves, you should NOT have any problem playing waves even if you change the MIDI channels but if you change the channels on the host system you can create a conflict.

Who knows what you did, or what program you installed.
I use linux, and if I activate low latency, I have to reconfigure midi.

@GemaH Please remember that SC is copyrighted, there are many free .sf2’s that can be shared.

DOSBox Pure MIDI woes
#2

Pretty sure my file is OK. I think it’s the one shared with GZDoom or Raze.

I re-tested the frontend midi and it seems better now. I don’t think it was an issue with DOSBox Pure but with RetroArch itself. I used to get a piano instrument in 1.6.0 but in 1.7.0 it sounds correct. I didn’t change the core version (there are no updates the last 2 months anyway) or any setting. However, it still has other bugs. I’m getting some random missing parts here and there in Duke Nukem 3D.

But the soundfont sounds correct.

#3

I can assure you that the SC-55 sound library, even today, is Roland’s property.

FluidSynth, the same one used by Scumm, is pretty standard and you can even download it from the updater.

I have found some problems in other topics when it comes to the communication between pure and the interface, so it is good to publish them in the github, as I commented to the illustrious uzernaem because the developer does not appear here.

#4

To be fair, i’m not even sure if it’s a proper SC-55 soundfont so don’t mind the filename. Like i said, this is shared with GZDoom or Raze. It sounds the same in RetroArch as when i play these games on these source ports, which could be close to a real SC-55 or not, i’m not entirely sure. I tried a bunch of “SC-55” soundfonts in the past and they usually sounded different from each other so i’m not even sure what it should sound by default, my only source is some soundtracks on Youtube.

#5

I am once again asking you to stop assuming and flooding if you don’t have anything constructive to say.

#6

You are uploading a file on the forum that is called Roland SC-55 and has the original sound sources for the card inside. But you say that “to be fair”, you don’t know. LOOOL

Everything I have told you is constructive. I have given you the links, I tested all versions of DOOM 1.6, with many sound sources on 5 different devices. All to help you to find the solution and you… You are ungrateful.

Don’t abuse I am an extremely respectful and innocent person. LOOL

#7

This is funny, because I’ve just tested your soundfont and then my soundfonts with DOSBox Pure internal synth and I can’t recreate the “out of tune” issue anymore. I will test further because the issue is not permanent, as I’ve said it appears occasionally. I made this recording earlier, this is how it sounded: https://www.mediafire.com/file/oizv1ez8zpn8ket/DOS-240208-202315.mkv/file I’ve just updated RA to 1.17.0 from 1.16.0 so I guess this could have solved the problem (hopefully).

External MIDI is still busted on my side though, easily recreateable on Doom II title screen - the main synth becomes piano.

#8

Soundfonts sound different, some are optimized for some games, that’s why there are re-mappings. But, let me be sure that you were not using the CM32L driver, as if it was a .sf2?? no?? :roll_eyes:

#9

For the third time:

This soundfont is included in Gzdoom and Raze. Both source ports that are available for free. If you think they shouldn’t do that go and complain to them.

I used the filename because the soundfont is based on a SC-55. Sorry if that caused you so much distress.

#10

We’re not in gzdoom.

It doesn’t generate angst for me, what I’m not going to do is behave like an idiot saying, “it looks the same, it’s the same, but… it’s not the same”.

I only comply with telling you that it’s piracy, because, if you don’t know it, I know it.

The only one responsible for your actions, is you.

#11

If you think the files bundled with GZDoom, the most popular DOOM source port for decades, are in any way infringing any copyright then i’m afraid the idiot here is you.

There are a ton of different “SC-55” free soundfonts out there that emulate or approximate the thing. It doesn’t mean there are any copyrighted files in them. It also doesn’t mean they all sound the exact same as the original which is why i’m saying i’m not sure if it sounds the same. What’s so hard to understand?

But you know all this. You know it and you just want to argue and complain for the sake of complaining. Or you are trying to virtue signal against piracy and make yourself look superior. I don’t know what your problem is.

#12

I try not to be an idiot…
Every day I try hard, two or three times, and I leave them stuck to the bathroom wall, to avoid what your parents did.

If you go on with that. 1, it’s not free software, open source. 2, there are imitations of SC-55, that is not imitation.

You don’t know? it doesn’t matter, I’m educating you.

#13

What are you on about, your last post doesn’t make any sense, please give yourself some time to calm down before posting, thanks.

Anyway, here is the FREE to download and use Gzdoom software for you:

https://zdoom.org/downloads

You are welcome!

#14

:man_facepalming:t2:

Licenses! The legal instrument of software.

No matter gzdoom… I am just informing you that SC-55 is the intellectual property of Roland. And no piracy is allowed on RetroArch.

Keep doing what you want.

#15

Did they rip the ROM samples off the chips? They’re about 4MB in size. Or did they just record them and built a soundfont from those recordings? The former is piracy. The latter is allowed. How large is the soundfont?

#16

Keep calm, GZDoom is under GPL 3.0 license, the soundfont is right there in the repo:

https://github.com/ZDoom/gzdoom/tree/master/soundfont
#17

You can see the size in the download, but it doesn’t matter, it can be compressed.

No, neither is allowed. You can’t go to the cinema, record a movie with your phone and then share it. Copyright is not limited to the physical structure but also to the intellectual one. So much so, that you can be sued for “similarity”.

This is the original source, because I have them all, even the raw. I know which ones are pirated and which ones are imitations.

#18

You just assume it’s piracy without knowing anything or researching anything. You assume by default because you want to inform anyone you are against piracy. Don’t do that, you don’t look morally superior to anyone. Nobody cares.

#19

It is. Because the whole point of a synth is to record it and distribute the result in something called “music.”

Cloning synths by recording their instruments was very common. It was the only legal way to do a clone of other synths. There was a clone of a famous Yamaha piano synth that came with a huge (for the time) data size. The original Yamaha synth was like a couple MB, and Yamaha used that fact to make fun of the clone. But this was the only legal way to clone that synth.

Edit:
I think it was the Yamaha DX7 and the clone was the Behringer DX7, which Behringer created by sampling the original sounds one by one, note by note. Yamaha couldn’t do anything to Behringer legally because of that, but they did use every opportunity to ridicule Behringer because the resulting data size was humongous compared to the original synth.

Behringer has since cloned and sold dozens of other manufacturers’ synths by using this method. However, I am not a lawyer. I’m just conveying what is thought of as being legal by most people in the synth community.

1 Like
#20

If you don’t care, why do you answer?

Don’t fight anymore. As an act of reconciliation I’m going to make a tutorial that says “exodos, the best of the best in the world, you don’t need anything else”. :wink:

If I sell you a piano, the license allows you to make music and sell, what it doesn’t allow you to do is to make a copy because you leave me without a job.

Yes, you can make your own clone and sound sources “or similar” but not identical. Let alone record and resell. Perhaps Yamaha was too expensive to demand and if the weight was considerably high, it was unusable, because the sources were loaded from floppy disk.

It is entirely possible that you are not right, please @GemaH go to the vogon forums and share the same source. Let’s see how long you last?

You also get windows games of the year and ported to wine. With free license. cuphead for example.