Can someone who already bought the remaster say if it allows to redirect midi into specific midi device in the system or feed custom sound font into the game?

I watched the Review of Digital Foundry and they have a deeper look into the sound.It didn't look like you could use anything external.

That is a real showstopper for me and the reason why I will stay with the original DF. Especially as the Remaster Sound is way off. Timing wise and instrumental wise.

I play DF since its original Release. Back in the Days I use an Ensoniq Soundscape Card and now I have external Romplers and an X-Fi Titanium HD that can handle Soundfonts without another Emulation Software. I really love the original IMuse MIDI Music. And I know how it has to sound.

I just bought this game yesterday, and to be honest, I am a bit underwhelmed.

I played the original back in 95-96ish? It was just a 486 back then, but I think the original game was 320x240, or whatever VGA was.

But I was privileged enough to have a Korg X5 synth at the time, with a MPU-401 card, and the music was GLORIOUS. The music is like 50% of the reason the game has stuck in my mind.

Now to the remake: Playing on a 4K monitor. Wow, it harkens me back to Doom 95. I did get some of the nostalgia, but the game looks like what Doom with mods looked like in 2005. It's a step up, but not far up enough. The modern Doom mods today completely blow it out of the water.

But the music is the worst part. Whatever engine its using, it's terrible. They must have used like a 50mb SoundFont, because these sound are like what a Casio keyboard from 2000 was able to do (the modern Casios sound better than this).

So I can't assign a Roland XP-50 or even a Sound Canvas to this? Or a Korg Triton? I have to stick with that tinny SF that sound like 20% better than the OPL3 option? I really hope they fix that in an update.

"reddit.com/r/DarkForces/comments/1b2dol1/dark_forces_remaster_vs_force_engine/"

also thema here, scroll down at the end.

The remaster comes with a 25MB Roland SC-55 soundfont, Roland SC-55.sf2, that resides in the game folder and is loaded with a config file entry:

seta im_soundfont "Roland SC-55.sf2"

I haven't tested it, but copying a different soundfont to the game folder and changing that line should allow for loading it. If not, you could always rename it to Roland SC-55.sf2.

Note their may be some help for you. The Force Engine is going to support the remaster and you can load any midi you want into that.

If you want to try a different Soundfont with more detail, might I suggest the following:

https://archive.org/details/SGM-V2.01

If it is as easy as adding that to the folder and changing seta im_soundfont, it might be an easy fix!

You have an option to choose "General MIDI" or "OPL3." OPL3 sounds pretty much like the original game sounds. General MIDI will sound however your system's MIDI playback functionality is set up.

I use a utility called CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth, which is a replacement for the (inadequate) built-in MIDI functionality in current Windows, and allows you to choose your own soundfont, or even combinations of soundfonts. I use a soundfont called "Timbres of Heaven," which I really like, but I have seven other soundfonts installed and can switch back and forth easily.

So, on my system, the music here sounds terrific. Not QUITE "proper orchestral," since it's still playing the original MIDI source files, but pretty darned good.

But it sounds OK with the basic MIDI OPL3. That's pretty much the original out-of-the-box version.

Replacing the soundfont works (or editing the .ini)

Sadly it does not produce the same results as when using an external MIDI Synthesizer since they use the Roland Mix and not the General MIDI mix. Roland is not 100% compatible with MIDI, that's why the original game had two separate entries. It uses different instruments and different volume settings.
Would be cool if a mode was added to use the original GM mix and use a external device like VirtualMidiSynth.

Btw, I tried the Timbres sound font and ... no, don't like it. So far I had the best results with HQ Orchestral v3.

Arachno is ok, but it's synth instruments (and sadly DF uses these in the Roland Mix instead of the standard instruments) are TOO synthesizer..ish.

Despite these shortcomings I enjoy playing the game however. This is excellent news!

I hope that the remaster contains both Roland and MIDI mixes, so we can get the original MIDI music back.

Thanks for the clues on the Roland as that is a great reason why it doesn't sound like the original. Not sure why they picked that Soundfont to work with, but it is what it is.

Well, Roland was very popular back then but I find it way to spacey.

I had a Terratec Maestro 32 GM Board back then.
They really should not have called the Roland mode "General MIDI", because ... well, it's not (even if it uses a GM synthesizer for playing the music).
They did a good job reproducing the roland sound, but it's just not GM standard.