Game Discussions Frontier (FE2) DOSBox ECE bundle

[Gernot]

ECLAIRE TOI!
brighten up yourself!

And i was in need of that.
You might have noticed that i stumbled over the weird sounding music for some games and had absolutely no idea about that.
Had.
Now i'm a little brighter, just a little.

At least now i know the cause is that these games music was written for the Roland MT32 which is a programmable Midi device which became very popular in early '90s.

I always thought "what a poor sounding music Frontier in Roland sound mode has" it isn't poor sounding it's rich it's just completely wrong interpreted by the MS Midi Mapper which interprete it as General Midi with a complete different instrument set and no capability to reproduce the programmed SFX.
(in the relevant time span from '90 to '98 i was a die hard Amiga user)

Already last year i stumbled on Vogons over the "Munt" project and "DOSBox ECE" (enhanced community edition) but i didn't took a closer look at both projects which i should have.
Because "Munt" and the associated Roland ROM images are the solution for this Problem.

Before i write on two clips to show off what you can expect of it.

Source: https://youtu.be/NcqOa1WAr38
Some ten minutes of Frontier intro with intro to the intro (sound selection)
Just to quickly show off how the title music should sound like (i was quite close with my edit - nah it even still sounds better but this is amazing good)

Source: https://youtu.be/dF-CRsfxRh0
Some hour of the complete Frontier score played back three times.

First i played it back with MegaMID which would allow to switch between GM and MT32 sysex instructions but since i have no such hardware and the MS Midi Mapper disregards these
sysex instructions it had no real use except that it shows the proper instrument names when you play back a midi which was written for the MT32.
Together with "Munt" it acts just like the "real thing" (and a little more as mostly for emulated old machines).

Second it's played back via "GUS's MegaEm" which allows the GUS to interpret MT32 midi, it's not like the "real thing" but quite nice as always for GUS. Some instruments seem to by patched wrong but that didn't surprises me i made such an instrument patch list myself ("...i had no idea" no really not). As player i used "Bristlehog's" PX player which plays back midi using
the various Miles AIL2 sound drivers which was very popular in the '90s (First Encounters uses them as example). While it's not important which driver you use as long as it plays back midi because the patching to MT32 resp. from MT32 to GM is controlled by MegaEm and of course it plays the tard using it's own wavetable. This would have been the solution for owners of a GUS to play a game where the music is written for the MT32 in a proper way. Well as long as the game; didn't needs EMS, can work with EMM386, didn't runs in protected mode (usually all which use DOS4GW). Yes finally i found a solution to start MegaEm, because it needs the EMM386 memory extension to work and this is a bit difficult to have in DOSBox.
But there exist loaders which allow you to to load a driver even if the OS is already running, thus you can load EMM386 and use it for MegaEm in DOSBox (i need still more experience with that loader stuff).

Third it wouldn't be me if wouldn't have liked to achieve something "impossible". All my DOS Midi players use the same programs, "MegaMID", "GUS's Playmidi", "PX AIL2 SBP2FM, PX AIL2 SC32MPU, PX AIL2 GF1MIDI" thus i like to keep GUS's Playmidi even for this "DOS Game Music Player". But it didn't works together with MegaEm, as soon as you start Playmidi MegaEm detaches itself because it's obvious it recognizes another program likes to use the GUS port and frees it also it won't be needed Playmidi plays midi via the GUS and needs no TSR to control it.
Would not - due to whatever reason you can use Playmidi together with the Ultramid TSR if you specify this option (probably because Ultramid won't detach from memory and return if needed).
However if i use anything else as GUS as output option the player window won't open and this would be only half of the fun. Also when using the "-umid" option the window won't open so to use Ultramid is no solution and also to interprete a MT32 midi it will need a instrument patch list.
Thus i started to create one, first i took the "MT32.SYX" i found in MegaMID and hand edited a "Ultramid.ini" for the Ultramid because you can and have to specify the to use patchlist for Ultramid again something i learned for games which need Ultramid and have a own ultramid.ini you will have to specify the path to this file.
Until i recognized this won't work for me as i liked to, the player window won't open.
Then i portet the tard to "Ultrasnd.cfg" which contains the patchlist for GUS and also for "Playmidi" and copy the files around by need.
It resulted in what you see and what you hear, Playmidi plays MT32 midi with Gernots very own patchlist (i didn't found anything similar in the web, probably because the MT32 stuff was/is copyrighted by Roland). Yes some instruments are wrong - dammit it's quite hard, you have a zillion (4) acoustic pianos and string ensembles, stuff you don't have in GM it needs a lot of guesswork to find the right instruments. Also the names can differ much what is "A" for one is "Z" for the other.

The bundle isn't yet complete but in the near future i will publish it here containing all the needed stuff to run it from an USB stick (means no installation, runs on any windows) except for Frontier itself (except someone would stat it's no problem but it's also easy to obtain the shareware version of Frontier).

DOSBox-X is a little to blown up for a gamer, "DOSBox ECE" is just the right thing it offers what a gamer can wish of vanilla DOSBox and not more while keeping the most stuff of it.

 

[metatheurgist]

The PC version of that theme is so crap.

 

[Gernot]

Comparing to? Atari?
Amiga i would know and it's not much better even if it's no midi (sorta module? it's all in one bigfile but can't use a lot of space to store the samples i assume), then only Atari is left and this i know only "from far" because Tom Morton used the Atari version for GLFrontier. But as far as i can tell from the extreme low quality ogg it didn't sounds much different to what i posted if it's played back on the proper MPU, but was on the other hand responsible for that i asked myself "why does it sound different to what i hear on my PC?".

IMHO it's mostly crap because 99% of the times it's played back wrong as General Midi.

 

[Gernot]

Similar like Lotus, sure it sounds quite good on the amiga and the midi of the pc version is still thin even if played back on a virtual MT32, but no longer deranged.

Roland MT-32 – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

The MT32 is a bit limited compared to later standards, but i'm happy that i can hear the music now like it was supposed to be, Wing Commander is another example.
Sure the music is still meager but finally it sounds like it should and the SFX in the title track no longer sound like someone hammering randomly on a piano.
Which is the most interesting that you will have the proper SFX when played back with the help of "Munt".


What i didn't wrote yesterday is that you can make use of Munt in three different ways, either you use the software and GUI which comes as "Munt" but this means you would have to switch the midi mappers for each game manually, or you specify the port no. in the DOSBox config file but this might differ from machine to machine (user to user), or you specify the MT32 and it's ROMs as MIDI device in the config which is imo the best way because you won't have to care later on about that and it's in this way portable, it will work for you the same as for me. "Munt standalone" didn't sounds exactly the same as the built in version in DOSBox ECE, i think the latter sounds even better but most of all you could configure the behave of the MT32 in DOSBox ECE which you can't using Munt.

But i'm easy to please, i even like this;

Source: https://youtu.be/N0-N06xAyag?t=672

which is nothing else as to midi converted opl instructions (remapped) and it's very minimal.

 

[MickyG1982]

There is, of course, only one way this intro should sound (in my opinion)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzEj4Gq7fT4

 

[Gernot]

Let me count, i guess i played it in this version at least for 5 years and of course i still play it.
Erm not exactly i own the CD32 version and it's my preferred version just because of the navigation aid, it makes the game much more fun to play if you don't have to zoom into the system map to select the navigation target for thousand times.
Roundabout 2000 i played the PC version for the first time before '98 i had no doze.
I enherited a used one from my Dad and used it up to my divorce in 2007.
The one i used then in my little cabin while i was hiding from all the world and liked to die was an old siemens notebook.
In this period i played the DOS version of Frontier each day, i studied hard Theunis de Jongs "Objects of Frontier".
It was my only lecture apart from the RRTII scenario creator.
The PC version of Frontier is obviously a lot easier to hack (at least for me).
Yes OK i used my dads machine around '90, but i bought me an Amiga 500, then A2000, then A4000, then the CD32.
The point was obvious back in '90 i still had more games and the better games/versions to choose from.
I bought the complete series of amigas (used) i listed here for the price of an IBM compatible in 1990 including a lot of softs. All in all SFr. 3000 and that rotten thing haven't had a real soundcard (some minimalistic one to connect at least a joystick) and a cheap graphics card because Dad used the machine only for office purposes then, there i met RRT and SimCity as well SimEarth and a friend convinced me with the Amiga version of RRT of the advantages of the Miggy.
My first miggy i bought from this friend for almost nothing, the A2000 i bought from a student who left for the states for even a good price while it was a little heavy used and not in a good condition (coffee and orange juice remnants inside, but i would like to see a modern machine still running on orange juice and coffee - the machine not me!) thus it didn't took me to long until i bought the A4000 which would still work but the poor mans cd-rom controller is broken, the CD32 was killed by my stepson, he has a special talent in breaking electronics, fortunately he's a cook now Yo, the A500 still runs and runs and runs and runs...
To be honest the one A500 which still runs i picked up from the garbage when we renovated a copy-shop around '95, i love this miggy it has pink color sprinkles on the shelf and was used as working horse.
While ok digging myself since a while through many DOS releases i found some gems, but they wasn't known to me in deep valley.

The Amiga was quite popular in Switzerland even if bad supported but we saw us as an exclusive club far above all PC users.

Just to tell that the Amiga version isn't unknown to me

In my heart i'm an Intellivisionary, this was my very first love.
It could have been so much more...

Source: https://youtu.be/DX6TK0wlF-E

(unfinished and never released back then)
Well and i wrote this for sure many times, '83 was when i had my dream of an open ended space game...
I really loved to play rotten star-strike and i imagined a game where you could fly free from planet to planet (in blocky pseudo 3D ), sure it exceeded all, i dreamed also of the possibility of multiplayer (i've read about the "internet" or what we imagined of it then), in my imagination each should play his own role, pilot, ground troops, administration, i was a die hard sci-fi fan and i'm still but not die hard anymore, ah wrong it's still the same, today i watched 40 minutes of an explanation how the computers in Voyager 1&2 work.

Source: https://youtu.be/H62hZJVqs2o


I'm very grateful that Frontier exists - it saved my life, that's no lie.
It kept me away from the bad thoughts and from the wish to die.

No need to feel sorry you had no chance to know all of this.

 

[Gernot]

But one could have guessed it?

Source: https://youtu.be/dF-CRsfxRh0

Yes rotten DOS MIDI score (not so bad at all i guess if played back on an (emulated) MT32)
It would be possible to "GUSify" the score with this player, a bit a different experience (part one "Munt MT32", part two "GUS MegaEm MT32", part three "GUS playmidi" (MT32 hack).
Unfortunately it's not possible to play the game with the (emulated) GUS soundcard, because FE2 needs the EMS and MegaEm to emulate the MPU401 needs the EMM386 which conflicts with EMS settings in DOSBox (recently i don't know if that would be the same on real hardware, EMM386 will invoke EMS memory expansion but you have to turn EMS off in DOSBox to load the EMM386 driver, thus EMS is off and if you re-enable it the virtual machine gets quite confused), else the GUS MegaEm can emulate the MT32. Recently i don't know how far it can emulate the MT32, it's fine for the music but i don't know if it's capable to reproduce the programmed SFX of the MT32. I expect this because the software for GUS is quite advanced for its age, a bit a tohu-wabohu one can notice well them was a lot of developers working on the same stuff. The documentation is a sheer horror.
If they would have made the software more user friendly it would have been a breakthrough, it was anyway but it's a geekery and not for a common user.
It's on the other hand cool that they made it so flexible but exactly this is to much expected of a common user i guess, while ok it had to be this flexible to replace the possible Adlib or SB and MPU combinations. A lot of work expected from the user to run a game with GUS if it's not natively supported.
Interested dudes created fine stuff with it, you could have created your own wavetable patches and some took chance of this possibility.
Thus you have soundfonts for the GUS which easy can still match up with recent custom soundfonts.
The memory was a bit to small for what some expected of it, as example an acoustic piano soundfont which uses up all the memory just to play Piano.
But the standard GUS is already very good and beats the MS-WS and also the creative sb ones, recent custom soundfonts like Fatboy or FluidR3 are good but often if not always a bit bad balanced, some instruments are to loud some to silent.
Perhaps, i have once to take a closer look at how the MS-WS is structed, it is also bound to the alterations to the wave itself you can specify in GUS, it's quite a lot which you can do with a sample before it is used.

An interesting fact i found is that the MT32 used already wavetables to synthesize the instruments, partwisly, the attack rate for the instruments is a sample as well as the decay rate only sustain is pure synthesized. It is really well to understand that it was preferred by some developers even if incompatible to General Midi.
Mostly of course because you can program own instruments and SFX.
If i had still a DOS machine (i would but i'm to lazy to fix it, some rat computer) the MT32 would be an option i like its sound, but maybe i like the technology behind even more.
It's planned, i would like to play the "miserable" DOS games on real hardware and dammit i still own two amstrad sticks (clones of) and if everything is still as it should be i even own an AWE32. And then fire up Win 3.1 just for nostalgic reasons and to get the feel how it is if the machine fails
I really have forgotten how that felt.

In about an hour or two i will upload the "DOSBox ECE bundle", i liked to solve the above described problem but there seems to be no solution for it by now.

 

[Gernot]

"release 1" of "Frontier DOSBox ECE".

It contains all you need to play it in a quite pleasing way except the game itself i assume anyone knows where to get the game.

Environment:

• DOSBox ECE, to emulate the MT32 and make it sound right (roms included - caugh)
• Special intro / outro and sound selection screen.

Mods:

• Arisata Mod, changes Ross154 to Arisata
• "Wormhole patch" to re-enable the wormhole bug ("special feature" only for DOS )
• Mining patch, removes a small bug when using mining machines
• "FFE Blacksky" unfortunately this is on all websites filed under FFE, but FFE has a blacksky setting it won't make sense this means "FFE's blacksky for FE2", also it only works with FE2. It's a TSR (terminate and stay resident program) and often fails to work proper (at least in DOSBox) else the idea is good.
• JSGME Mods Enabler to enable / disable the above mods. (older version, because the last build acts stupid in Win10 and you will be prompted to allow to run it)

Tools:

• Tom Mortons "Ship Editor" windows version
• Wormhole calculator, inevadeble tool to calculate jump systems for wormhole travel.
• EFPG, electronic flight plan generator, when bored enter a number and it will tell you where to go, the path is usually a profitable one.

Extras:
- Missions, my unique edited savegames which are ment as a sort of quick play FE2, ranges from "advantage to the child" to "hard as hell".
You will be ported to a already started mission have to finish it and get a souped up ship as reward. Some work only with the wormhole bug enabled.
- Music player, to play back the midi score in different ways.

The whole thing runs with batch proggies which are made so you can run the game "out of the box" as soon as FE2 is present in its directory.
(e.g. it works from an USB stick or drag it anywhere and it will run the same as long as the folder structure isn't altered, it isn't bound to a special drive name and just steps fore and back to find the folders/data)

da link:
FE2 DOSBox ECE

Click on that bloody Badge!
v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

 

[Gernot]

Pardon me, but after i compared the scores of the amiga version to the proper played back mt32 midi i prefer the sound of the mt32 synth, it has dfar more voices as only four and a smoother sound overall. The samples used for the amiga are of very low quality (obviousely based on the small total filesize they must be very very low) while the mt32 is synthesized and results in full resolution.
For the first time i leave the music on when i play (instead to playback some other music) and i enjoy it.

Usually i preferred the amiga version because it sounded wrong on a PC/Windows but that was/is only because of the wrong instrument patches if played back on GM/GS compliant synthesizer (so as Microsoft Wavetable Synth or any other which works in DOS/Windows except for the original MT32 or an emulation of it. MSWS neither will undestand a repatching of the instruments via a sysex file, it's stupid and disrespected by Windows since long. I.e. "Munt" using the original ROM images of the MT32 is fully programmable and understands all sysex and programming instructions while the built in midimapper won't understand all GM/GS sysex messages, apart from GS on/off XG on/off it won't understand much and you can't reprogram the GM synth to act like a MT32 even if that should be possible for the SoundCanvas family, while i can reprogram via the sysex the MT32 to sound like a GM/GS synth and play a GM midi file proper sounding on it).

Maybe a different example which makes the difference very obvious, the title music from "Wing Commander" usually you will think it sounds cheap and stupid, that's because the midimapper interprets it wrong as general midi and will in no way reproduce the programmed sound effects.
To listen it on a MT32 is a different experience.

Source: https://youtu.be/pQ-6Nmy-GnE
the first half of the clip shows how it sounds on a MT32 the second half shows how it sounds wrong using the (GM compliant) MS midimapper.

The same for "Lotus Ultimate Challenge" while here it really won't sound as good as the amiga version but far better as if the MS midimapper interprets the midi.

Some games music was composed to sound well on both variations MT32/GM, Dune is such a game, it is meant for a MT32 but sounds also right on a GM/SoundCanvas, you can't tell that it sounds wrong until you heard the MT32 playing it back it has no completely wrong instruments on a GM synth.
There is a version of the midis for the opl synth (adlib/soundblaster midi, in fact two versions probably one is for GM the other for AdLib but all three sound the same) it's in general the same as the MT32 midis and they sound similar "wrong" (different to the MT32) as if you would play the MT32 version as adlib, they just leak of the MT32 sysex instructions.
Yet another one is "Formula One Grand Prix", you can't tell by the music that it's played back wrong (but by the missing SFX), but the music is composed for a MT32.

Dune II supports both the MT32 and GM with different midi files but the MT32 version still sounds better due to some special programmed instruments which aren't possible to have in GM. In the GM version you have still some completely wrong instruments (probably also caused by a disregarding of sysex messages, there is this obviousely wrong "telephone bell" which should be reprogrammed to a side stick, it sounds horrible and you get the feeling the music is wrong until you play it back on a MT32). GUS's MegaEm will emulate a MT32 but also can't reproduce this programmed instrument and it will stay a "telephone bell". It won't be as wrong for the GM versions but overall they don't sound as good as the MT32 versions they leak of all the synthesizer sounds you can produce with a MT32.

Overall "Munt" (DOSBox ECE or similar supporting the MT32) brings a lot of old games back to their glory especially for the music.


Soon i will upload an updated version of my "Frontier (FE2) DOSBox ECE bundle" (i've made some cosmetic changes to it).

 

[Gernot]

Release 2 of the FE2 DOSBox ECE bundle

Like i said i've made some "cosmetic" changes to the bundle and added more resources to it (but not all i.e. the whole GUS software would blow it useless up).
Cosmetic:

• changed almost all .BMP to .PNG for the good of a little space
• added a little GIF animation (to waste the space i gained)
• added ADPLAY to playback the raw DOSBox OPL captures (.DRO v1) as AdLib and as close as possible to how they sound in the game.
• added some quick GM conversions i made (GM_FE2.XMI) for "common" SBFM playback (together with FE2ADLIB.XMI which is converted from the .DRO files).
• more notes in the readme
• additional "last minute changes" text
• resources of the used software
• more documents for the used software

I also decided to implement the Munt project itself, you will need something like "Coolsoft Midi Mapper Configurator" or "Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth" to make full use of
it so that you can select at least between "Microsoft MIDI Mapper" and "MT32 Synth Emulator".
NOTE:
The bundle won't need this, DOSBox ECE has Munt implemented and the needed ROM images are present, you can use it without to install Munt or a configurator to switch between "MSWS" and "MT32".
But it might be you like to have it to play MT32 (.smf files) in WinAmp or the Windows Media Player or any else Windows MIDI player.
Coolsoft resides here: https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en
Munt you will find here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/munt/
A very nice soundfont (for General MIDI of course) is "Fatboy" i recommend it to play classical and jazz midi files: https://fatboy.site/
To listen to distorted and overdrive guitars (Rock!!!) use "Weeds" GM soundfont, you will find the link on coolsofts site.
To listen to heavy synthesizer tracks i recommend "FluidR3" also to find on coolsoft.
For a cheap opl3 feeling use "OPL 3 FM" also coolsoft links to it.
The "OPL3 FM" soundfont has only a standard drum set which means if you stack another soundfont above it (in coolsoft virtual midi synth)
any drumkit which isn't standard will be taken from the on top stacked soundfont, suitable for this is the creative "8MBGMSFX" soundfont,
it results sometimes in interesting sounds.
Also as reference i would take the "8MBGMSFX" it's not the phattest sounding but very good balanced (i.e. if you like to create a own soundfont, an idea for a simple one would be to split the soundfonts drumkits from the rest so you can exchange the drumkits in "coolsoft virtual midi synth" if one pleases you more as the other)
There is a vast number of soundfonts linked already on coolsofts site and one link leads to a japanese site with even more soundfonts.
With the right soundfont and a well made MIDI it's hard to tell if it's a MIDI or "real music".
If you like to edit MIDI files and you are a bloody beginner like me:
Anvil Studio is a very nice sequencer and easy to understand https://www.anvilstudio.com/
MIDIPLEX becomes very handy to convert midi between the formats and to finetune and add notes to MIDI files
Since i always have troubles to find the proper beta release which has far more functions i bundled the compiled releases and uploaded it to my dropbox

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

MIDIPLEX resides here: https://github.com/stascorp/MIDIPLEX
NOTE: if you like to convert from .MID to .XMI don't use MIDIPLEX it fails to assign the drumkit proper so that it will be recognized even by SBFM playback
For this task use the original Miles "CONVERT.EXE" it's included in the "PX" project.
What the exact reason is i have no idea and i informed the dev about this issue but didn't received an answer yet.

FE2 DOSBox ECE bundle 20191031

 

[Gernot]

The same happened to FFE.

Source: https://youtu.be/sPypbKhm6g0

Ahh, yes pardon me the screenshots are from FFED3D, but of course i can switch easy to (almost) the same images in "original quality".
I posed the ships in JJFFE and saved the game so i can make a quite similar shot from in every release of FFE.
To reach this in a useful timespan "buffet" helped me a lot.

Some changes here and some changes there and i will upload even this "shell" for the game.

Btw, "Grates Gates of Kiev" has been recognized by YT's bots as a composition of who was it? Some "wishi washi" pop artist.
Shall they do what they like but respect the classical composers - goddammit! This is the n-th time a classical composition has ben rated as a composition of "i never heard before" but we certainly heard before of Mussorgsky.
Really i don't mind much this but this is mean - really mean, to claim false copyrights.

In the sense of "copying is no theft"
"if i have a bicycle and you don't..."
---
"but ALWAYS respect the author" that's the important part - not to claim a composition of Mussorgsky is mine, that's what it should be about and not money.
But it seems today it's only of interest who bought it not who composed it, what a shame!
So i'm allowed if i'm powerful enough to claim a composition of Mussorgsky, Bach, Beethoven is mine as long as i have the right money, what a blame!

 

[Screemonster]

I managed to find a CD-rom copy of FFE and gave it a play before I dived into ED, and I remember thinking "wow, this music really isn't what I remember it being" - having grown up on FE2 on the Amiga. Good to know I'm not going crazy!

 

[Gernot]

Dunno, screenmonster, i like the PC-DOS score as well, even better come on listen it and then judge it, the MT32 version is cool (it is the only "version" on the PC so far, it's just because i mishandled it for so many years as GM, i had no idea...)
The Amiga version uses a sort of soundtracker modules, very close to a midi with the exception that you store the samples for the instruments with the instructions how to play them.
If i listen now the Amiga version it sounds very thin and brittle, the used samples are of very low quality not to compare to a good soundfont and by far not to compare to the output of a good synthesizer what the MT32 is.
This modules can't use up much more space as the midi instructions which means the samples must be of very very low quality, we could compare it (or it could be easy) to an output of an AdLib composition to a module.
(shall i compare the waveforms for you? It will be like night and day, one is very thin and looks like the output of a FM chip the other is saturated and looks like a real musics wave. One has no dynamic and the maximum amplitude reaches far over 0dB (looks like an unsigned interpreted signed waveform), the other is smooth and silky, one is on lousy for channels in the stereo field the other can use up to 16 channels and covers the whole stereo field, one sounds like a Chainsaw the other like Violins).

The compositions for FFE, everything by "Quality Quartet" sound very well while to listen to the part of the original FE2 score is a pain.
It seems to me after i dived into this MT32 / GM mess that they converted the MT32 versions of FE2 for GM but they did it in a miserable way, the original FE2 score on a MT32 sounds better.
As example the Intro of FE2, when played back proper by an MT32 there are French Horns and a leading Timpani to hear, if you play that back wrong on a GM device the Timpani turns to Tinkle Bell (yech) and the Horns to Saxophone, this error is to find even in the FE2 "Intro" which is part of FFE's score.
So it seems to me as it was converted a little loveless from FE2, half of the instruments is corrected the other half not, sure it's difficult the MT32 differs completely to a GM device, it leaks of many presets has many instruments in versions up to 4 instead only two and is programmable which means you can program your own instruments or SFX on this synthesizer.
But in the case for FE2 it is enough to find the proper instruments in the GM set, which is difficult enough.

I'm not sure but there seems to be no way let a SC or GM device sound like an MT32, while vice versa it's easy possible.
However whatever i did to reprogram/reassign the instruments of a GM/GS device to MT32 it went wrong, it seems not to be possible with the software interpreters. On a real SCC it should be possible to re-assign the instruments in a similar way with system exclusive commands (sysex, .syx), but the windows midi interpreter won't recognize any of the relative ones except GM/GS/XG reset, echo and reverb.

Since "Munt" uses images of the original MT32 device it acts the same as and it's programmable the same as.
In other words you can hear to FFE's score on a MT32, you could even play it with the proper sounding music, but it's impossible to hear the music of FE2 in a proper way on a GM device.

Instead to write a lot let's compare the scores one to one (soon, i will make a clip of the amiga version, of course it is posted above but it seems to me you didn't compare the for real? because well you would hear the difference and it is one i'm not just talking, perhaps i can find an extracted module of amiga FE2 that would be nice. i could extract the used samples with WinUAE to see what standard soundtracker 8kHz 8bit samples they are, if they are that "good" at all).



Further, in the case for FFE, what you hear on you Windoze when you play back any midi depends a lot on the used soundfont, the MS wavetable device is less far less good as the GUS from 1993.
It is already an upgrade to use the creative 8MBGMSFX soundfont instead of MSWS, and there are worlds between MSWS and a good soundfont likle "Fatboy" or "FluidR3".

In the case for FE2 it's a (emulated) synthesizer, something complete different to a wavetable device with a complete different instrument set as a GM device.


Also im Ernst ich bekomme Zahnweh vom Amiga FE2 score - so hätte ich denn noch Zähne
Sagen wirs mal so, noch vor einem Jahr hätte ich gleich geurteilt da ich nicht wusste dass ich die Musik von Frontier immer auf dem falschen Gerät abzuspielen versuchte.

A year ago i would have judged the same as you just because i played back the music of FE2 on a wrong device.

Wrong device = wrong sound, wrong instruments, wrong pitch bends, wrong attack and decay rate and such since a horn is no violin.
When you look at the "GM2MT32 emu" which is in fact just a sysex file you can see that not only the instruments are patched also the behave of the instruments is re-programmed in the sysex.
What i like to point out is that when it was sequenced for an MT32 as i.e. Violin and it becomes a Trumpet also the behave of the Trumpet must be assigned to the new Instrument and not only the sound of it.

Let me explain this with a different example, to make it possible to playback MIDI sequenced for the MT32 with the GUS Playmidi you need a new config file for the GUS to tell it which instruments are on which position in the library, now for the GUS this won't matter much since the instructions how to handle the waveform of i.e. "Trumpet" are stored with the sample "Trumpet" so if i assign it to a new position it still sounds like a Trumpet.
If i like to do similar with a MT32 or SC device this won't be enough i will only move the sound "Trumpet" but not the instruction how to play "Trumpet", if i assign it now to "Violin" it will be played like a "Violin" with "Trumpet" sound except i also tell the device how to play "Trumpet" in this new slot.
This can be solved with the sysex instructions, here you can tell the device which instrument has to be played how, in case for the MT32 you can even program own instruments or methods how to play an instrument.

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One thing you must know i like the miggy and i do like the hundreds of soundtracker modules i've collected, but this is somehting different and a good is a good.
Story:
This summer i showed a young comrade some of these modules, i know that he likes music with exceeding BPM so i put on a simple mod and turned up the speed "is that fast enough? no? - but now it is?" he answered "that easy it is?" i said "it is that easy".
Take an already fast track with short own samples, you can speed it up until it starts to "spin back" like a wheel (our hearing sensitivity is then slower as the BPM, equal to the visual effect of a spinning wheel) and until it starts to move foreward again.

Let's make a very special amiga clip - you will see.