Investigating DirectMusic: The Lego Island 2 Soundtrack

[@FilippRoos]

The load times are abysmal because the game updates the pizza/CD animation between loading very small amount of data. In windowed mode this does not happen. There is a patch in the Rock Raiders United forum to fix the issue.

[@dufferzzzzz]

fascinating. thankyou

[@ww-uq8ls]

So you mean to tell me the loading screen is what causes the longer loading time?

[@rawr51919]

@@ww-uq8ls Essentially yes

[@RisingRevengeance]

It's a pretty damn good loading screen though I think I'd rather play the game

[@Laenthor]

This is why most Unreal engine 1 games also don't have moving loading screens. Unless it's a gif, which wasn't really used in videogames at the time, then it could've worked, but this takes too much resources. They should've at least put all the sprites in ram and make them alternate.

[@bnmc]

Druaga1 is turning into a Lego game music channel and I couldn't be happier.

[@bsdims]

I just find em interesting

[@kode54]

FYI, the plugin author for Winamp actually used DirectMusic, and used a fake DirectSound output device object to export PCM from DirectMusic, which only worked in real-time, and not any other reasonable speed. The author, Peter Pawlowski, is also the author of the Winamp MIDI plugin, and currently the author of foobar2000. I inherited a bunch of his old source code, but only for the MIDI plugin, not the DirectMusic one, and I basically only used it to document all the obscure MIDI-like formats he supported in in_midi. Sorry I didn't have any extra information useful to your search.

[@The_Mister_E]

hi kode

[@_kps8734]

To open a dls file in FL Studio, there’s a little folder icon on the top of Fruity LSD. It will allow you to load the dls file from there. I recommend importing the midi first, as that will open Fruity LSD by default. Hopefully that will make things a bit easier!

[@arpy4428]

Eyy, Fruity LSD ftw! Gotta love those old Roland soundfonts.

[@user-lt2rw5nr9s]

Can we all just question why Fruity LSD is an effect when it's so clearly supposed to be an instrument.

[@arpy4428]

@@user-lt2rw5nr9s the mount on the FX side is just a hub to host the emulation of the corresponding midi channels. That's why you use a "midi out" for the instrument/vst.

[@larcane9509]

hmmm . i've always looked at fruity LSD in my plugin list and never gave it much thought .

[@Agronaut022]

Dave Didn't have to convert the dls File at all. The Midi Sampler (Fruity LSD i think) can load dls files directly

[@AJMansfield1]

8:00 that icon depicts a MIDI socket, the 5-pin DIN connector used to connect nearly all MIDI keyboards and synthesizers.

[@hs_doubbing]

The LithTech game engine also extensively uses DirectMusic, although most later games on that engine actually use waveform music. Many of them will have an SGT file and a bunch of WAV or MP3 files in a folder, with a simple text file that tells LTDM (LithTech DirectMusic, I assume) how to use the files together. There are "intensity levels" that the game uses to pick which part of the song to use for different events in the game. If you're just walking around, it uses one intensity. If you come near enemies, it'll use a different level, and if those enemies notice you, it uses the highest level. It's very interesting. It reminds me of LucasArts iMUSE except a little bit more crude and simple. Tron 2.0 is my favorite example. Its soundtrack was composed by Nathan Grigg, (the same man who composed ONESTOP.MID, believe it or not) and it sounds very much like the 1980s movie's score while still being an original piece of video game composition. It's also very dynamic, even by LithTech standards, and I love it for that. Tron 2.0 is an excellent example of unique early 2000s FPS gameplay and if you haven't played it yet, I highly recommend it. :)

[@dumb5308]

I actually really like these types of videos, they are hella interesting omg. :)

[@Shiloh_Shepherd]

These are honestly my favorite types of videos from you. Keep it up

[@MegaT486i]

Honestly I love these kinds of videos, please keep it up!

[@It-sJay]

How did I find you here?

[@_Bender_Rodriguez]

Thank you for doing these videos. I really enjoy them. Your channel is one of the main reasons why I still use this website.

[@Kaio7]

I did not understand a single solitary word you said. And the video walk-thorough makes it even harder. And yet this is so fascinating, I'm hooked to your videos. Please never stop.

[@nightfallgloam]

I'm in hospital right now and have limited phone data but your Lego Island 2 soundtrack obsession is the best thing ever!

[@SynaMax]

I remember messing around with DirectMusic Producer years ago with the music from LEGO Island 2 and Midtown Madness 2.

[@DoomGuyPictures]

Druaga's videos make me dribble

[@CaveyMoth]

Ey, DoomGuy Pictures. Auf on your trails, ey see.

[@DOORZ2012]

This is beyond serendipitous. I was talking to my buddies about this game only a few hours before this video was posted. This was the only Lego game I ever played and I only would crash into stuff and skateboard on some half pipe somewhere.

[@VGA_Guy]

The MIDI export button logo is a MIDI Connector, which isn't too helpful of an indicator. I wonder if the software supports MIDI keyboards.

[@ansonx10]

Druaga is on his way to becoming a high quality ripper. Now he just needs to change a few of the notes to the Flintstones theme song. Nintendo DS music is one of the easiest sound formats to "rip" because it basically just uses sf2 and midi files, which is essentially what Lego Island 2 uses, with the directmusic specific tweaks you covered.

[@88farrel]

Thanks now i can make my own High Quality Rips

[@MidoriMizuno]

I don't understand why you had gone the manual way about importing and mapping the samples. FL Studio's Directmusic plugin imports DLS sets directly. So does OpenMPT, though OpenMPT makes a very bad MIDI tool, trackers aren't meant to be MIDI sequencers after all. With that out of the way, the only problem left to solve would be to import the sequences, which normally aren't compatible with anything but the DirectMusic Producer itself. Heaps of potential time and labour save...

[@bbtund81]

But OpenMPT is good if you want to keep music files small for games.

[@teodordumi]

Hey, I suggest you load the midi into FL studio. It will automatically create a fruity LSD instance on mixer channel 1. You can press the file icon in LSD to browse for the song's .dls file, and see how it sounds. It might just work exactly how you want it to work, if you're lucky!

[@CaveyMoth]

Oh, my gosh. X3 Too easy.

[@Gaming2-j8m]

LMMS Would've been a good choice for this project; After converting the dls to sf2, you set that as the default soundfont, and theoretically upon importing the MIDI, everything is mapped optimally and all that's left is to mix & export. Very nice video though, oldschool MIDI/digital music production is really, really fascinating.

[@zoeybledsoe9847]

Every year I gotta watch these investigation videos at least once

[@herusolares5320]

WOO! The base jump music is still on my playlist, all those years later.

[@AdamChristensen]

Now this is dedication to perfection. Very cool!

[@phs125]

Okay, Dave had it easy. But this is the video we all ended up watching... Can we appreciate it?

[@SkanderBibani]

You just made 2019 complete. I don't know how 2020 will top this

[@livvy94]

So what I've done in the past with this is 1.) Load the DLS file into Fruity LSD. 2.) Load the exported MIDI into FL Studio. 3.) Tweak if it sounds off There's a program called VGMTrans that makes these DLS/MIDI combinations for various consoles, it's really fascinating stuff

[@derivativYT]

Glad to see your community growing

[@RGM89]

About who is Dave, i probably think is LuigiBlood, because it also has an LI2 Main Theme. on YT, until it talks about using DirectMusic Producer and Audacity IIRC to record and put. imgur.com/a/aVdHOUT

[@CaveyMoth]

YESSSSSSSS! THE PARACHUTE TRAINING MUSIC, HOLY CRAP! -Thanks, Dave-

[@famitory]

some versions of FL studio have bugged MP3 export that causes some insturments/vsts/samples to have noticeable latency compared to others. it's likely that "dave" exported the original file in .ogg or .flac or .wav and then converted it to .mp3 using audacity or some other utility.

[@Baegus]

Another great game using DirectMusic is Drakan: Order of the Flame

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

I think the entire trilogy, including Lego Island 2 should get definitive remasters from the community. I know people don't look back at this game too fondly, but I really do believe it deserves a proper reworked version that fixes many problems and captures the spirit of what it could have been without the massive crunch from the Lego company.

[@TufteMotorsport]

This is the only Lego game rivaling Lego racers in world building, music and atmosphere. I don't get why it isn't looked upon fondly.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

@@TufteMotorsport I think it's mostly just the second game that isn't looked upon fondly, mostly for how broken it is. But for me and some other people, it has been a guilty pleasure and one that is like a fever dream in music and atmosphere. It's also the only installment that shows us what Ogel looks like, and it's pretty messed up! Sometimes I wonder, what if the Brickster decided to use the power brick to build Ogel into an entire planet?

[@TufteMotorsport]

@@Cyberbrickmaster1986 I find the game perfect except the loading times 😅 And you can't return to Dino Island. Ogel has always weirded me out, like timecruizers on drugs. Btw, as an OG Lego youtuber, What do you think of Studframe animation?

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

@@TufteMotorsport I'm not sure. I'd have to look them up to remind myself of their work, if I have ever seen them. I also agree with how freaky OGEL can be, with the structures looking like the insides of collector sets, the random use of LEGO pieces and colours to make things look unsettling, and the all around unwelcoming atmosphere. Almost like AI generated it's own line of LEGO in space.

[@killervacuum]

loving the technical music breakdown vids

[@elonmusk420]

I crave Lego island vids! Thank you so much!

[@nrdesign1991]

I first learned about DirectMusic when investigating the music from Empire Earth. It uses the dynamic music feature extremely well to switch the currently running music between "calm, peaceful/danger/battle"

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

How do your remastered files compare to a wave export?

[@CdH94]

I'm absolutely loving these dude.

[@mullahviking]

Druaga you always have the solution to the problems i never had. Thanks

[@LegoMan-cz4mn]

I remember never being able to beat LEGO Island 2 because for some reason the fog was turned on.. and I was too young to even know what settings meant, tryed it again some time later and found out you could turn the fog off The part I got stuck at was the one where you have to shoot the cannons in the medieval land

[@johnssonsmixed8303]

You're not alone! I did this aswell and shit I couldnt figure out what was wrong. Two years later I did when I first undrestood enligsh

[@XaneMyers]

9:28 Well, not really; I never use that dialog box. You can type in the instrument numbers on the right side of that table in there upper section. If you want one sample to play for every note, just enter the sample number for one of those then right-click and choose the option from the menu.

[@samuelvidar5215]

I remember we played this in the club and used windows xp

[@Lu9_ST]

Fruity LSD can load DLS files natively. Also, the thing with the drums in the Asteroids song - it happens EVERY TIME. No matter how or who's recording the note data it will always hiccup like that. Really not sure why that happens...

[@hisho_isa]

Truly striving for the highest quality rips

[@squeakers27]

This game is my childhood. All I can say is that peppers pizza makes me dribble :) thanks for this video

[@LilRamen]

OMFG DRAUGA I USED TO WATCH YOU SO MUCH I DIDN'T KNOW YOU STILL MADE VIDEOS

[@HoneyGoatStudios]

tfw in fl studio you can put a .DLS file in Fruity LSD and import the midi.

[@Budgiebrain994]

I recommend checking out SimCity 2000 for Mac music. It uses CoreAudio in much a similar way, and I haven’t been able to extract them exactly.

[@SunchippRadio]

By any chance for those who aren't able to wait around for debunking would it be possible to upload the MIDI files on Media Fire or something? I lost all my files to this game and trying to recreate the MIDI by ear is very irritating

[@recklesflam1ngo968]

I remember being so goddamn excited getting LI2 as a Christmas present back in 2005-8ish

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Rip the ISO and mount it on an SSD. Then the loading wouldn't be so long :P Any chance we can get the Lego Island 2 soundtrack ported to Unreal? (Or at the very least, the Asteroid song?)

[@llamafrhd]

I thought I wasnt going to get anything out of this video but very nice.

[@yorgle]

It would be interesting to analyze why the load times are so long, then perhaps re-engineer the disc (make a new image, layed out better perhaps) to optimize it?

[@teh_supar_hackr]

Could you analyze Lego Racers?

[@Yngdady]

The program to open the Lego Island 2 tracks only exports MIDI data, and FL studio is capable of opening MIDI data.

[@batteryman2852]

i have a handy dandy program called Awave Studio, and yes, i own a payd version. however it doesnt support DirectX music. but it does a really good job at converting dls2sf2

[@batteryman2852]

Also just to point out, if you having a Soundblaster with soundfont support, it does support dls. but maybe you already know that

[@notawesomebread]

strange how all these lego games have tons of music, and then there's rock raiders which has just a handful of unique tracks

[@ARitzCracker]

Apparently the long loading times are because the game prioritizes game rendering over file streaming during loading, resulting in content being loaded in at 1 byte per frame!

[@MrFiver1111]

This is all a complot! Druaga is doing this secretly because he knows there's a new lego island in the works and he wants to show off to become dev in it.

[@Lorentari]

The Button for MIDI export is actually how a MIDI-cable socket looks.

[@davidmcgill1000]

The RMI format is a combination of MIDI and DLS files. Deprecated of course, but what isn't regarding this stuff.

[@hobbified]

Fun facts: RMI is short for RIFF MIDI (this was back in the days of 3-letter extensions). RIFF is the container format better known as "WAV", because most RIFF files ever made have been WAV files. But it's a generic container format that can be used with any kind of audio/video format, like AVI and MP4 and whatever. And in fact... AVI is just a slightly-enhanced RIFF!

[@st-entertainment]

would be an interesting video on how and why the loading times took bloody long to load.

[@dylon4906]

Didn’t know LEGO island was a thing but it looks like a bomb ass game i would’ve loved to have when I was 7

[@VoidGirlfriend]

I remember my brother and I discovering we could change the instruments used in the MIDI files for Sim Ant using Anvil Studio. It kind of messed up some of the songs iirc but it was fun to sort of remix the tracks and hear the change when we booted up the game 😁

[@CybershamanX]

(0:53) Wait a gosh darn minu-ette! Druaga... has bandcamp account! With music, even! Well... I think I'm going to have to check this out! :) Signed up for updates and the email list! Woohoo! Love your stuff, man! I'm enjoying the awesome new direction you're going with these videos! Take care, man! :) I had to search for Ian Anderson (damn it! I can't stop thinking of agent Smith from the Matrix... "Misssster Aaaanderrrrsonnnn!" heheheh :P ) and Island 2.0 to find it. Clicking on your name just brings up one other album. Do you have others in your catalog, sir? I would love to check them out! I love finding great music that makes other people scratch their heads because it's not the usual drivel that plays over and over and over again on pop radio stations. It makes me "really cool" in their eyes. All because I play someone else's music! :P Thanks in advance for making me seem super cool, dude! ;)

[@CybershamanX]

Figured it out! Bandcamp's layout has always messed with me in the past. I saw your other albums just fine! Thanks again for all of your hard work! :)

[@mifffalden9225]

I seem to recall OpenMPT being able to directly import a .dls file. Is that not the case?

[@Noratekki]

Yes, it uses some third party library or program called dls-conv

[@allan.n.7227]

Thanks for sharing!!.. what a journey

[@novafawks]

I think I'm going to do it with every other track, been using FL for a very long time and Ive always had an affinity for classic tracks like these! Given someone hasn't done it yet, I mean. Ahh, the Lego Island soundtrack brings back so many nostalgic memories :)

[@ElvenSpellmaker]

I still have DirectMusic Producer installed for playing back Lego Creator: Harry Potter music. There's some good music in that game and it brings back a lot of memories.

[@MinorLG]

there was a LI2? i only knew of (and had played LI1

[@filipstefanovski2077]

Druaga forgot that you need an SSD?

[@SunchippStudio]

Is there any li2 midi files online at all? I found one at least but I'm curious to know how it would sound as an orchestra

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Maybe you can reverse engineer DirectMedia/DirectMusic Objects so that all of those fancy DMO effects like Flanger, Chorus, Echo, Gargle and Reverb can be used on any operating system and included in a portable program.

[@drewbrady5727]

If you have the Software demo CD from 2001 do you think you could upload some Catch the Character stuff?

[@MoonDeLaAxel]

Is there already an sf2 of Lego Island 2 out there? Wouldn't mind expanding my sample library for OpenMPT.

[@RichardCraig]

YES, love for OpenMPT! I've been addicted to it as well, since all the way back in 1998! It's the only music software I use, although I'm hoping to dabble in Deflemask soon.

[@Mtik333]

Ehhh, I wish it would be this easy to decompress audio from game that I'm struggling with...

[@ErdrickHero]

To load a MIDI in FL Studio, use File>Import

[@fromaggio7654]

We need a smart, cunning, weedsmoking youtuber that can save us! Druaga1 what are you doing?

[@nightzeroAX]

How do you export to wav with DMP? I can't get it to work.

[@fl1ppydesu]

i found a channel that uploaded the lego island 2 soundtrack in 2009,but i cant find anything about saying how he got the tracks could it be that his dave?

[@JohnnyBricks]

Nice video, dude!

[@FeelingShred]

Someday the guy(s) who developed this audio format will find this video and will leave a super epic comment telling in detail what you have to do to extract the audio directly. Would be even better if they could share the source files for this since nobody uses it anymore.

[@OCPyrit]

Why did you have to import it into another program and assign the samples? Doesn't DirectMusic Producer use the included samples?

[@XZYZ0R]

Bro upload only that song to KZbin so I can add it to my playlist!

[@megazenn22]

nice watch, Kalvin 😘

[@ethans7938]

Guess I'll just stick to character voices for ringtones then

[@sasha-fe2bl]

the first hitman uses directmusic

[@Mangmasta]

Was "Dave" actually Lu9? I'm not sure but I know he has done some Lego island stuff in the past like this soundcloud.com/lu9/lego-island-2-theme-ultimate-cover

[@kscott4836]

god i love these

[@HazyJ28]

FL can be good for mixing and processing instrumentals, but it's not great for processing vocals. You can mix vocals in FL for sure, but if you don't have the correct third party VST's then you might as well use Studio One

[@hubzcaps]

dls reminds me of midi sound fonts. the file type

[@Wobuffet3]

Where can I find these early versions of the music? I looked on his site and can't find anything. Also, do you have a link to that directmusic program?

[@rdxdt]

Seriously that you didn't get the Export MIDI button icon as a DIN Connector used on MIDI ports and cables?

[@nickwallette6201]

I think he was referring to the function of the button, not its symbolic icon.

[@coondogtheman]

All that work just to get an MP3 of a song from this game? You could just unlock the tracks in game and then go to the computer thingy and play them back and record the output. Done.

[@sigurdtheblue]

Yeah, it would be better to use techniques like this if you were trying to learn the composing techniques. Although with DirectMusic, you would need this stuff to get variations out of songs that would not show up in a sound test most likely.

[@elijahtheurer344]

Check out the vid by mattKC. He reverse engineered the audio data, and rebuilt the audio files with the new high quality music. For normal Lego island

[@JaapioNL]

8:12 search midi interface and have a look at the images, see if you recognize anything ;-) Still an odd place to put such buttons

[@johnssonsmixed8303]

I think I have spent 4 years playing this game. And we have a mutual fav, Asteroids. I tried making a midi "cover" of it on Flstudio12 but that didnt work out. I love this vid! Did you do it cuz I asked in your last vid?

[@GBlastMan]

It has nothing to do with DirectMusic but at one point i was pretty damn obsessed with the TRON 2.0 soundtrack (and im still are of course) so much that i wanted to get my hands on it but trying to rip the tracks from the game itself. Why? because at one point i ripped the soundtrack from Need For Speed Underground and i thought "if i can do that with some batch files and some minor knowing of DOS maybe isnt so hard to do with TRON 2.0" but oh boy sure i was very wrong with that statement. I mean it isnt like you couldnt rip the tracks from other Monolith games like Claw or Get Medieval because you can actually do that with REZ Editor, that and much more like graphics, scripts, models and so on, so i thought i just have to load the main REZ file that contains the tracks and just extract them and maybe convert them into MP3 right? wrong because the devs didnt just added the complete tracks into the game and that's it, but they are segmented into specific parts so you can have a "dynamic soundtrack" that changes between each one at any point of the track whenever you fight enemies or not, it wasnt like the program paused the current track and then replaced it with the battle theme for that map but instead the program just stops that individual small segment of music file and plays the battle music until you clear of all enemies in the room THEN it plays the correct segment file for the theme of the map. So you have all this wav files that are labeled by parts up to 100 *FOR EACH TRACK IN THE GAME* so the game can stop that individual little segment of the current song at any moment and then cue up the battle theme, so for years nobody had the means or the patience of going throught thousands and thousands small parts of each of songs in the soundtrack and then creating all the songs in order because it was too tedious and for years i thought the only way you are going to get the soundtrack of TRON 2.0 directly from the game was by going throught each one and their individual files and assembling them all together one by one, and at one point i was going to do that just because i freaking love TRON 2.0 and its soundtrack, and for the time being we only got 3 songs the main theme for TRON 2.0 "Welcome to the world of TRON" Kernel's Theme and the Credits song that is a mash up of all songs in the game, and of course the small part of TRON Sherzo that plays right at the begining of the game because some songs arent segmented because they play on cutscenes and menus but the ones that change while playing are a segmented nightmare. Well of course with time i got lazier and lazier since i couldnt find a good way to do that without expending a inhuman ammount of time trying to search each one, save each of the segments and theeen starting the process of putting all back together into a whole song, so i gave up at one point when i was trying to put together the song that plays on the abandoned server that one that plays the Sherzo and all is breaking down, but luckly for me later on i found that somebody had made what i was attempting to do and made a very high quality (for what was at that time) conversion of all tracks.