AdLib Visual Composer
Release type: Retail
Release date: 1987
Author: Ad Lib, Inc.
Website: EA.com
Related tools: Sound Designer
As it turns out, all along there was a readily available program for composing the FM-synthesis music used in RSD's Game-Maker. In the late '80s, Ad Lib, Inc. released the first widely supported sound card for IBM-compatible PCs. For this card they released an intuitive graphical interface for composing .ROL format music files and building sound banks.
Visual Composer was widely used amongst turn-of-the-'90s PC developers, in much the same way as Deluxe Paint and Autodesk Animator became standard game development tools. When Creative later grandfathered the same FM chip into its own Sound Blaster cards, PC composers simply continued writing in their familiar, if nonstandard, format. All it took was a simple utility to crunch the .ROL files into Creative's native .CMF.
Generally the .ROL files sound a little more distinct and roomy, but it largely depends on the player. To implement the music files, Game-Maker needs to further process them using Sound Designer.
Links
- Videogame Music Preservation Foundation Wiki
- ROL2CMF - For converting .ROL files and sound banks into .CMF files.
- Various other converters - MIDI to .ROL, and so on. Expect to do lots of cleanup.
