DOSBox – Upgrading Daggerfall's MIDI Soundfont

Fed up with the poopy sounds of AdLib music? Let's fix that. Experience Daggerfall the way it was intended to be enjoyed.

What the hell is a soundfont

Back in the day, dedicated sound cards were essential to any gaming PC. Each model of card featured a unique collection of digital instrument samples, commonly known as a soundfont, which enabled games to play high-quality music.

The soundfonts of these cards varied heavily in terms of their quality and variety. The Steam release of the Elder Scrolls II happens to emulate one of the crappier models of its day, resulting in a much less grandiose soundtrack that works in stark contrast against the composer's intent. Follow this guide, and I'll have your game sounding how it is meant to.

Part I: Setting up VirtualMIDISynth

First off, you'll need to download an external program called VirtualMIDISynth. Don't stress; it's super easy to get running and only takes up around 6 kilobytes of disk space. It is designed for playing karaoke tracks, but it works just as well with what we are trying to do.

Download VirtualMIDISynth[coolsoft.altervista.org]

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1. Scroll to the bottom of the page and download the most recent release, then run the program. Installation is straightforward, so you probably don't need my help here.

2. When complete, open the program and select the "MIDI Mapper" tab. You'll see that VirtualMIDISynth requires an additional sister program, the MIDI Mapper, which is conveniently linked within the window. Its sole purpose is for allowing users to change their PC's preferred MIDI device, a feature dropped from Windows some years back. Another simple installation.

3. Click the "Default MIDI Out device" dropdown and make sure VirtualMIDISynth #1 is selected.

Part II: Choosing a soundfont

I assume many of you want a sound similar to that of the popular Roland SC-55, the very synthesizer Daggerfall's music was composed with. Unfortunately, it appears that only imitations of this sound are available. No worries, though, as most of these sound fantastic.

Below are some examples that I recorded in-game. If you like what you hear, I've put this particular soundfont up for download. You can get it by clicking here.[drive.google.com]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJlFERW1K4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU0VucNAqEA

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If you've decided on a soundfont, then move along to the end of this section. If you'd rather something different, however, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive's software section. Another website I've encountered, Musical Artifacts, seems to be reliable in this vein as well.

What ever the case, it is ideal that the soundfont you choose is an emulation of an existing card that is supported by the game. Implementing the sounds of Super Mario 64, for instance, may initially seem like a hilarious idea, but more than likely this will result in a jumbled cacophony of MIDI earbleed.

The table below lists all devices deemed compatible by Daggerfall's sound setup program.

Supported Sound Devices

MPU-401

Roland Sound Canvas

MT-32

Sound Blaster

Sound Blaster Pro

Sound Blaster 16

Sound Blaster AWE32

Ensoniq SoundScape

Microsoft Sound System

Pro Audio Spectrum 16

Gravis UltraSound

Gravis UltraSound Max

ESS AudioDrive

Roland RAP-10

Gravis UltraSound Ace

NOTE: If you stray from this list, use common sense in determining which mode is most compatible with your chosen soundfont (AWE32 mode for AWE64, etc.)

After deciding on a soundfont, load its file into VirtualMIDISynth

Simply click on the "Soundfonts" tab and drag the desired file into the window. It should bear the file extension ".sf2" and you can enable it by ensuring the bubble next to it is colored green. If you've closed the program, you can open it up again via the system tray.

Part III: Implementation

After hooking your soundfont up to VirtualMIDISynth, it's time to configure Daggerfall's sound setup program via DOSBox. Don't make any typos, or you're gonna have a bad time.

1. Navigate to Daggerfall's Steam install directory. For most, it will look like this:

C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall

2. Go into the DOSBox-0.74 folder and open DOSBox.exe.

3. Through DOSBox, you will need to mount Daggerfall's directory as its own drive. Most users should type this into the command line:

mount c  "C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall\DF"

Make sure you are referencing the correct drive. In my case, I had to instead reference drive F: since that is where my install of Daggerfall is. Also note that folder names are case-sensitive.

4. Now, you will change to the drive you've just created. Navigate to the DAGGER folder, then run SETUP.EXE.

C:
cd DAGGER
setup.exe

5. Sound setup boots into a very blue interface. Using the arrow keys, choose "Select MIDI" to display a list of supported sound cards. If you're using my soundfont or one similar, pick "Roland Sound Canvas" and set its port to the default of 330. Press OK to return to the main screen.

6. Before leaving, try out the "Test MIDI" option if you'd like. Hit OK again to save and exit, then close DOSBox.

Voila, tu es fini

And that's it, you've vastly improved your Daggerfall experience with one weird trick! Daggerfall is a game in which atmosphere is paramount, and hearing its music the way it was intended to sound plays a large part in engrossing the player into its world.

Additionally, a welcome side-effect of setting up VirtualMIDISynth like we just did is that other games played in DOSBox will be affected, as well (granted they don't have their own overrides like Daggerfall does). The Elder Scrolls: Arena, for example, will likewise be blessed by these exquisite sounds, and with no further setup.

Anyways, cheers, and enjoy.