Sound/Music File Utilities

This page lists some of the various utilities that I've written to work with sound and music files, primarily from games released in the early to mid 1990s.

DRO2MIDI converts DOSBox Raw OPL captures (.dro files) into MIDI files. It also converts id Software IMF and Rdos RAW captures. It's based on Guenter Nagler's IMF2MIDI program, with some enhancements (OPL rhythm-mode instruments and pitch bends are now converted.)

dro2midi-1.3.tar.bz2 (source only, 89 kB)
dro2midi-1.3-win32.zip (Win32 console, 92 kB)
funky.dro (example DRO capture)
funky.mid (example DRO converted to MIDI)

Older versions
dro2midi-1.0.tar.bz2 (source only, 41 kB)
dro2midi-1.1.tar.bz2 (source only, 41 kB)
dro2midi-1.2.tar.bz2 (source only, 44 kB)
dro2midi-1.0-win32.zip (Win32 console, 57 kB)

Since MIDI instruments are quite different to OPL instruments, the program needs some help to map OPL instruments across to MIDI patches. When a conversion is first done, the program will print out all the unknown register codes. These can be copied into inst.txt, which is where all the mappings are stored. A patch number can then be assigned (or a drum note number for percussion instruments.) The conversion is then re-run, and the program picks up the new instruments and assigns them to the corresponding MIDI patches.

The conversion is by no means perfect, so subsequent editing with a good MIDI sequencer (such as Rosegarden) will be required - however, as a means of extracting the notes from a song captured in DOSBox, it works very well.

Version 1.3 adds a number of new improvements:

• Instrument mappings are now stored in a single file (inst.txt) instead of being split into a different file for each instrument.
• Instrument mappings to MIDI percussive instruments (on GM channel 10) now work properly.
• Fixed a bug with OPL rhythm-mode instruments that was causing extra notes to be played.
• Pitchbends now work perfectly! (Thanks Xky!)
• Instrument names are now printed to assist with conversion (names are read from patch.txt and drum.txt.)

DRO2IMF converts DOSBox Raw OPL captures (.dro files) into id Software Music Format (.imf) files, which are used for storing background music in many Apogee games (Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Monster Bash, etc.)

dro2imf.tar.bz2 (source only, 6.4 kB)
doofus-title.dro (example DRO capture)
doofus-title.imf (example DRO converted to IMF)

Since IMF files contain data to be sent to the OPL chip to provide in-game music, and DRO files capture this same OPL data on its way to the chip, these two formats are almost identical. This program rearranges the OPL data and stores the 'delay bytes' slightly differently (after each OPL register/value pair as opposed to DRO's "as needed" style) producing a Type-1 IMF file that can be used by the game modding community to replace the background music in many Apogee games.

Functionality not yet implemented:

• Need ability to produce a Type-0 IMF as well as a Type-1 (e.g. Commander Keen is Type-0, Wolf3D is Type-1)
• Need ability to produce IMFs at speeds other than 560Hz

Vinyl2CMF converts the Vinyl Goddess From Mars music into Creative Music File (CMF) format. Note that a nonstandard CMF player is required to correctly reproduce the instruments. Currently only my own CMF player is capable for this, however as of 2008-09-13 I have submitted a patch for AdPlug to have the change incorporated there too (Update: the patch was committed to CVS on 2008-09-14.)

vinyl2cmf-1.0.tar.bz2 (source code and DOS .exe, 53 kB)
m121-i197-title.cmf (example output CMF, 15 kB)

You'll also need a program to extract all the files from GODDESS.LBR so you can convert them. Frenkel's Vgfmext works well.