How to make music for Keen: GB galaxy?

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Fernito
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How to make music for Keen: GB galaxy?

Post by Fernito »

Hi there! As this is my first post here, I'll introduce myself: my name is Fernando and I'm from Chile. I always liked the Keen series (specially GB galaxy), but never discovered this forum before.

Basically, what I want to know is how I can make music for this series of games, and then how I can put it into the game. Is there a special software for it? Is the music in MIDI format? (probably not).

Also, sorry if this have been already discussed in the past. If so, would you be so kind to give me the link of the discussion?

BTW, once I learn how to do it, I could contribute with music for your mods :) I have experience making original music, and remaking videogame music.
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Flyingmouse
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Post by Flyingmouse »

Excellent! More modders!

1. Find a MIDI to IMF converter. I would suggest IMFCreator.

2. Find an importer. Two examples would include Keenwave and WDC.

You may also want to look at this thread for more information.
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Thanks for all the info, I really appreciate it! I'll check that thread out as well ;)

PS: I'm not exactly a modder, but, as I said, I can contribute with music for mods :)
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Well, I tried it, but had some problems. This is all what I did, step by step:

- First, I opened one of my MIDIs with IMFCreator, and when I previewed it, some notes kept playing to infinity, messing the whole thing. Do someone knows why did that happen? Maybe the MIDI was too complex?

- After that, I quickly made a simpler MIDI for testing purposes, and IMFCreator played it back correctly, so I exported it as IMF.

- I did the IDWAVE thing, replacing SND1-156.IMF by my custom music file, and then patched it. I went into the game and the music didn't play back (the rest of the music, which I didn't modify, played back correctly).

- Thinking that I did something wrong, I replaced SND1-156.IMF by the original SND1-158.IMF, and did all the patching procedure. Then went into the game and the map screen music changed to the pyramids' one ("Too hot" is its name, isn't it?); that means that I didn't do anything wrong the first time, but for some reason the game doesn't want to play back my custom music.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

No one? :(
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Tulip
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Post by Tulip »

Have you read this tutorial? There is a section "working with IMF" that might help.
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Tulip wrote:Have you read this tutorial? There is a section "working with IMF" that might help.
Actually, I did, and according to that, I'm not doing anything wrong...

Thanks for the reply anyway.
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Ceilick
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Post by Ceilick »

First, I opened one of my MIDIs with IMFCreator, and when I previewed it, some notes kept playing to infinity, messing the whole thing. Do someone knows why did that happen? Maybe the MIDI was too complex?
I think thats right. Too many notes playing at the same time, possibly.
I went into the game and the music didn't play back (the rest of the music, which I didn't modify, played back correctly).
Did you get an insufficient memory error? How big is your song? Songs shouldn't be more than 64kb but idealy you want them to be no more than 30kb.

Have you included the correct patch in your patchfile and are you running the corresponding batch file to start the game?
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Thanks for replying!
Ceilick wrote: I think thats right. Too many notes playing at the same time, possibly.
I see, I supposed so.
Did you get an insufficient memory error? How big is your song? Songs shouldn't be more than 64kb but idealy you want them to be no more than 30kb.
Nope, no memory errors. The MIDI is only 4 KB big, it's just a 2-tracks random silly melody I made up for testing purposes.
Have you included the correct patch in your patchfile and are you running the corresponding batch file to start the game?
I guess so, since I then repeated the process but this time using another Keen track instead of my song, and it worked perfectly.
Videogamer555
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Post by Videogamer555 »

Flyingmouse wrote:Excellent! More modders!

1. Find a MIDI to IMF converter. I would suggest IMFCreator.

2. Find an importer. Two examples would include Keenwave and WDC.

You may also want to look at this thread for more information.
I already emailed the guy who was the musician for the Keen games and explained I owned the games and wanted to be able to convert midi to IMF for editing my copy of the game. He recommended IMFcreator like you did, but didn't mention an IMF importer. I'm glad you did, cause now I can try to insert my own music into keen.
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Please tell us if ou succeed :)
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Post by Videogamer555 »

Fernito wrote:Please tell us if ou succeed :)
I got a working IMF file (was able to test in sound player Foobar2000 with a plugin that lets it play IMF files). Now I notice none of the files in my Keen directory actually end in IMF. So how do I import my IMF file into the game to lets say replace the song on the map screen of Keen 4 (Goodbye Galaxy 1)? I tried the importers listed on this page and have no clue how to make them work. Unlike the VERY userfriendly MIDI to IMF converter. these IMF importers are ABSOLUTELY NOT userfriendly. They don't even have a GUI (which the converter had). Is there any IMF importer you'd recommend for Keen 4-6 games?
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

Yep, I also got a working IMF file (which BTW, you can test within the same IMFCreator program). What I haven't been able to do is to include custom music in the game.

Here's the tutorial I followed: http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/KeenWav ... _in_Keen_4
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Ceilick
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Post by Ceilick »

Fernito: I really have no idea what could be going wrong. I'd think your best bet is to keep trying different songs to see if they import or not. This probably isnt it, but check the volume of your songs. If you can, also play the imf file with a player of some kind to make sure it converted correctly (you can do this with a winamp plugin, or with "imfplay" http://software.kvee.cz/imfplay/).
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Fernito
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Post by Fernito »

OK. I don't have time right now, but as soon as I have some spare time, I'll keep trying. Thanks!!
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