##############################################################################
# May 19, 2013
#
# Put together these patches for the old Timidity that sdl_mixer uses.  Was
# not happy with the quality of most patch sets (can't stand the guitars in
# EAWPATS!).  Either they sound too artifical and thin, or they try to 
# imitate a midi module improperly; not only that but they can be huge (like 
# 30 megabytes or more!) and have bad quality.  The goal of these patches 
# is not to imitate a midi module (you're better off buying a midi module
# instead).  I wanted a set that had a classic sound yet not weak, very rich, 
# lots of detail and high quality.
#
# Had a lot of fun compiling this set of patches.  Reminded me of when I had 
# and AMD Interwave Philips ISA soundcard with no onboard memory (modern 
# Gravis Ultrasound) with an AMD K6-III and Voodoo 4 4500 (that card had the 
# best RAMDAC for razor sharp output quality).  Used a Sound Blaster Awe32 for 
# sounds as well.  The Interwave card I used for music and it brought 
# outstanding performance in the music department.  It had the  cleanest sound
# output and I sometimes used it's soundblaster SBOS dos driver (despite 
# sound blaster mode being mono) instead of the Awe32.  The Philips Interwave
# soundcard might have the cleanest output out of all ISA sound cards.  I was 
# thoroughly impressed by the music quality; don't know how it played music so
# well with no onboard memory.  Only problems I faced in a dual sound card
# setup was playing Blackthorne as I needed emm386; had to do lots of memory 
# tweaking for both sound cards to work on that game.  There was also a glitch
# where the snare drums got stuck repeating endlessly during gameplay (can't
# remember how that was fixed).

# Patches are based on Pro Patches Lite 1.61 with others added from Shan's 256 
# megabyte soundfont "SGM-V2.01.sf2", Gravis Ultrasound 4.41 drivers, Shom's 
# 10mb patchset, one or two patches from EAWPATS, and I think only one from
# ¥Weeds¥ Nagel 8mbgmpat.zip (instrument 123 but it's possible the drumset has
# one too). Pro Patches Lite don't even work with sdl_mixer's timidity which
# is the primary reason I put this set together (drums are noticeable right
# off the bat if anyone wants to download those and see for themselves; 
# Timidity++ works fine though!).
#
# Tried to tweak the instruments the best I could using Prboom-plus but 
# SDL_mixer has serious problems with panning, envelopes, distortion and
# clipping.  These issues don't arise with Timidity++ however.  You can use
# these with Timidity++ if you want but instruments may not be at proper
# levels (though it may not be noticeable).  It's probably betst if you make
# new .cfg's for Timidity++ without the amp= values and other tweaks already
# included; tweak them to your hearts content either way.  

# Credits go to the authors of the previously mentioned patch sets and 
# soundfonts (and whoever recorded the instruments).
#
# 
# Regards,
# Holering


HOWTO:

To make these work you must set the "dir" line in timidity.cfg and 
timidity_drums.cfg (add drums to the end of the path in timidity_drums.cfg!) 
to where you unpacked this patchset.  If you extracted this to your C:\ drive 
in Windows then the "dir" line should look like "dir C:\fatpatches" in your 
timidity.cfg file without quotes; it should look like 
"dir C:\fatpatches\drums" in your timidity_drums.cfg without quotes.  If 
you're using Linux and you extract them to your /home/username/Music/ folder 
it should look like "dir /home/username/Music/fatpatches/" without quotes; it 
should look like "dir /home/username/Music/fatpatches/drums/" without quotes 
in your timidity_drums.cfg.  Not sure about Mac OSX but it's probably like 
Linux.