Gabriel Knight Question
 

I've been playingthe game and I've noticed the music is limited. I have heard music in the opening theme, but in places like the park, where all the jazz bands play, I hear nothing (Except speech in the appropriate times). I'm wondering if there's a problem. I've had this problem before with many Sierra games. Any information would be greatly appriciated.

The first one?

Yep.

It's unfortunate that the music isn't working for you. It has one of the best soundtracks I can think of.

What sort of system are you using? Are you playing it just through Windows, or an emulator like DosBox? If it's Windows, what version are you using?

Wait. Just so we're clear, there should be music in the park?

Yeah, I think there should be music in the park. There should definitely be music in the police station, I know that. Are you hearing it?

Are you playing the DOS or Windows version?

Yeah, there definately should be music in the park. There's one of GK's many When the Saints Go Marching In-themes... It's been in every GK in some form...

And you aren't using Hendroz's patch-thingie, are you? (In case you don't know it, check here). That might fix it...

Well, I'm using windows 98, as usual. The sound usually works on XP in Sierra games. I'll try that.

If that doesn't work, I have some ideas for getting it to work on win98.

If you are going to try it in XP, you have to use the patch linked to above. You're going to have a lot of trouble if you don't.

Ha! Once again, XP prevails!

Good. :)

It wouldn't have if not for Hendroz, though. :D

Guess not.

I have now tattooed "Property of Hendroz" across my chest.

I have a similar issue, I play it with DosBox. I've tried the GK XP patch, but it fails to install a resource file, which I end up ignoring, but then running the game has the speed problem. This music is perfect when running it with GKXP though. But since my CD is probably too worn out to retrieve this resource file, I have to go with DosBox.

But I'd rather play it with DosBox anyway, because of the icons. The music is an issue though, much of it isn't the high quality that it should be.
A good example is if you run the dream sequence, even with soundblaster, soundblaster pro, adlib compatable, etc. settings, it sounds like MIDI playback. But it's supposed to sound orchestral such as in the example they present in the "making of" which comes with the CD. Anyone know how to get better sound quality with DosBox?

Hmm, it always sounded like the horrible MIDI on my system.

Soundblaster/Adlib has horrible midi emulation, they've never sounded orchestral. If it's supported you should try General Midi instead. Chances are you will actual hear somewhat realistic sounding instruments. (Running the DOS version of GK1 in Windows XP with General Midi selected in the install sounds fine on my laptop).
But as a rule, midi sucks - it's much too platform dependent, which is why not even amateur developers use it anymore. If you keep having problems, try downloading VDMSound, if I remember correctly it has pretty decent General Midi emulation.

Yeah there's a big difference between the sound on Dosbox compared to the sound on Windows. The dream sequence is especially bad.. It's in beeps and bleeps as opposed to music that actually sounds like it's from instruments.
The other music, like the menu music or location background music is better though (not beeps), but it definitely isn't as good as it should be (GK's bookstore music is supposed to have a realistic piano sound). Thankfully the voices come through perfectly.

GarageGothic, thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a try.

If you are playing in DOSBox, set it to General MIDI in GK setup, DOSBox will then use the default MIDI device in Windows. But if you want to get some good music, and your sound card doesn't have a good wavetable, you can install some soft synthetizer like Yamaha S-YXG50 or Timidity, you will get much better music.

Didn't you also have to option to select Extended Midi instead of Basic Midi after installing the game in Windows?

You'll probably selected the correct Midi setting (extended) but just in case :P

I tried to install Gabriel Knight and when I started playing it the music didn't sound quite right. Then in the middle of the first conversation with Grace the game freezes. I tried installing it on another old PC which has Windows 95 but the exact same thing happens?

Could be a problem with your disc? If it's trying to read that part off the CD and the CD is scratched or something, that might be what's causing it.

Do you see any visible scratches or dirt on the CD? Try cleaning it with a cloth.