System Shock Music Augmentation Project

This project consists of significantly improving System Shock 1 music quality, by using a bank of much better virtual instruments that have been either heavily modified or just simply tweaked to make them sound good with the original in game MIDI tracks.

This project has been in the making since before the existence of the source port and is compatible with every versions of System Shock 1, even the original one!

Get my soundfont mod (it's a bank of virtual instruments)

Here's how it sounds with the arranged OST:

Here it is (link to mirror thread on systemshock org because mega links get removed on Steam for some reason):
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=12023.0

This soundfont is very heavily modified and was made only with System Shock 1 in mind, therefore it will have missing instruments or sound out of place if you use it with other games.

If you don't already have a software able to read soundfonts (.sf2 files) I highly recommend Virtual MIDI Synth for Windows:
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth

Additional information

Here is a spoiler free demonstration of how it sounds within the game:
https://youtu.be/o9bCLSaF-mQ

Very good information can be found in this guide if you want to learn more about soundfonts: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=846407843

Credits

This is the list of the soundfonts I used to select instruments for my project:

-ChoriumRevA
-Crisis General Midi v3.01
-FluidR3_GM
-Giant Soundfont V6.0
-GMRBasico1.1
-MuseScore
-SGM-V2.01
-Timbres Of Heaven GM_GS_XG_SFX V 3.4 Final
-WeedsGM3
-32MbGMStereo
-Musyng
-ColomboGMGS2
-FatBoy-v0.790
-GeneralUser GS v1.471
-UHD3

Massive thanks to all the authors of these soundfonts, keep in mind that they are free of use as long as a project stays non commercial.

Also thanks to "The Red Snifit" for his cool guide about soundfonts!

[Deus_nsf]

@schprotoss Thank you!

[schprotoss]

Great work, many thanks to you!

[Deus_nsf]

Thanks buddy :D

[MetroNight]

Realy cool, i like that

[Deus_nsf]

I tried Arachno and MT-32 real quick with system shock, and as I thought (even though Arachno comes closer) those would need tremendous amount of work to get adapted correctly for system shock, with a complete overhaul of volume rebalance etc...
Those definitely are interesting soundfonts though, and I will be considering them for possible future projects :)

[Deus_nsf]

Oh, I just verified and I was apparently already checking the 4.0 version of Timbres of Heaven, so no worries there :)

[Deus_nsf]

Well, I just checked MT-32 and waw, does it sound good!
I'm honestly not going to change my soundfond mod any further (at least for the base system shock ost) but this could definitely be used for other projects!
If people want to take my soundfont and modify it even more that's more than welcome by the way, I'm super opened to see it being further modified! As long as it's being done with love and care :)

[Deus_nsf]

@Sabin Stargem
Well I'd love my soundfont modification to be included that for sure!
What is Hedsound's MT-32? Never heard about that.
As for Timbres of Heaven, last time I checked it was very loud, I'm not even sure I ended up keeping one instrument from that soundfont in the end. I know I at least tried though, I should have tracked those things better to be honest.
Also, I didn't use the Arachno soundfont at all because I didn't know it existed, which could have probably saved me a loooot of time... lol.

[Sabin Stargem]

Timbres of Heaven has a newer version, v4.0. Dunno if any samples in that are better than v3.4 for this font.

Hedsound's MT-32 has a sound in it, that is used on the main menu to create a 'heartbeat' effect, rather than the usual hoots and howls we hear from most soundfonts in Shock. Might be worth looking into?

Aside from that, Nameless Voice has been modding the remake of Shock to play custom music. They are trying to figure out what is the best version of the OG soundtrack, so maybe this soundfont could feature as a possible version for inclusion?

[Deus_nsf]

Thank you!