Improving the sound engine

[Gonzo]

wow, it's been a while since I've seen so much fly over someones head.

[adventure_of_link]

troll, or someone's botting.

[Romeo]

Bsnes has been out a LONG fucking time, I've been hearing about it for over a year.

[Gonzo]

*sigh*

Question: what was the date the day before you posted:

ZSNES has the best sound emulation I have ever seen. Snes9x blows. Never tried Bsnes.

Answer: April the 1st. April Fool's Day.


Why should you have posted it on this date?

Because you are a fool.


There, have you caught up now?

[kode54]

And the joke has less to do with bsnes than it does with zsnes, which has fairly bad, inaccurate sound emulation. Current Snes9x is closer to the real thing. Bsnes is binary accurate to the digital output of the console's sound hardware.

[deepblue22]

Unfortunately, my PC is not strong enough for bsnes. Therefore I deal with ZSNES.

I have an issue with multiple sounds of the music in Donkey Kong Country 3 and I don't know if it's ZSNES or sound card related: Sometimes one sound disappears and I don't hear it anymore. This happens for example when I jump into a barrel and fire out of this barrel or temporarily pause the game via the pause key of the controller. After some time I hear the missing sound again and everything is alright now. So it seems that some sounds will be temporarily swallowed up. Does anyone know why?

[grinvader]

The snes only had 8 channels, so many games with complex music have to kill one or two channels for sound effects when they happen. It can have a notable impact on played music. The used channel doesn't get its 'normal' output back until the next key on event in the partition, which can be longer than expected.

[Romeo]

There, have you caught up now?

Doesn't matter. If I crack a joke, I'm being a troll prick. When others crack a joke, they are being cute and funny and I'd have to be dense not to catch on. I'd rather just avoid casual socialization with you basement dwellers, period. You aren't capable of it, even if we're both losers who play outdated video games that stopped being sold long ago.

[Gil_Hamilton]

There, have you caught up now?

Doesn't matter. If I crack a joke, I'm being a troll prick. When others crack a joke, they are being cute and funny and I'd have to be dense not to catch on. I'd rather just avoid casual socialization with you basement dwellers, period. You aren't capable of it, even if we're both losers who play outdated video games that stopped being sold long ago.

Hey, I resent that remark!
I don't HAVE a basement to dwell in!

[Romeo]

Hey, I resent that remark!
I don't HAVE a basement to dwell in!

"Prison is in the mind".

[deepblue22]

The used channel doesn't get its 'normal' output back until the next key on event in the partition

Yeah, this makes sense, because when I move further and thus a new sound effect appears, the normal output is back. Is it possible to eliminate this so that at any time all sound effects are present, or is this a too complex thing?

Basements are cool. And dweller can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2rXC4MeNAQ

[paulguy]

It's programmed in to the game, so it'd need to be patched out against a snes with more sound channels.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Hey, I resent that remark!
I don't HAVE a basement to dwell in!

"Prison is in the mind".

"Fear is the mind killer."

[Romeo]

"Fear is the mind killer."

I harbor no fear.

[grinvader]

No, that's not how it goes. The jabbar kills you.

For reference,
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

[deepblue22]

It's programmed in to the game, so it'd need to be patched out against a snes with more sound channels.

Sounds like a sound channel extension and a difficult task.

[king_harkanian]

Unfortunately, my PC is not strong enough for bsnes. Therefore I deal with ZSNES.

Snes9x 1.53 sounds as good as Bsnes (thanks to the Sony SPC700 emulator core) but the system requirements are a lot more lenient. You could try that, too. Lavos' scream never sounded better!

ZSNES has the best sound emulation I have ever seen. Snes9x blows. Never tried Bsnes.

That's the best joke I've heard all year!

[deepblue22]

I really have to say, I like the "Simulate Surround Sound" switch. It adds more atmosphere. Good work!
However, I miss the attention to detail like the one from SNESamp with settings "High quality" and "Sample Rate: 48000".
I loaded some *.spc samples from Donkey Kong Country with Winamp and the SNESamp plugin and compared the sound to ZSNES. The "Simulate Surround Sound" switch from ZSNES together with a more SNESamp-like sound (in terms of clarity and sensitivity) would be super, ...no..., uber.

[Truth Unknown]

So just re-sampling and inverting the left channel will create the greatest sound processing ever? To be honest, the improvement of such a thing is relatively minor. Yes you can hear a difference, most do hear a difference, but in the end it's still compressed samples recorded at a low bit-resolution and sample-rate. If there was anything interesting to be done, it would be allowing the sample-sets to be replaced with higher quality samples, advanced audio processing effects and maybe channel manipulation across a z-plane for 3D audio (SNESamp somewhat does this with the quad-channel mode with echos).

Oh yeah, thanks for the necro-thread I obviously overlooked right now.

[deepblue22]

If "Simulate Surround Sound" is "inverting the left channel", then one has had a good idea. I like it. Everything sounds more atmospheric.
Who made this "Simulate Surround Sound"? Pharaos? grinvader?

I also tried Snes9X, but the sound of ZSNES sounds better to my ears. I don't wanna miss the "Simulate Surround Sound" switch. So I'll stick with ZSNES. With ZSNES, the sound of Donkey Kong is like never before. If the instruments would sound yet clearer and the dynamic of sound yet closer to like it was intended (tempo, loud, quiet, decay, things like that), it would be an improvement.

[kode54]

I wrote it. It was based on my weak understanding of how the SRS 3D hardware effect worked. And it went through several iterations.

It does not invert one of the channels like many silly surround filters do. Rather, it calculates the average of the left and right channels, subtracts that from each channel, then subtracts the result of that from the opposite channels, in an attempt to increase the stereo separation.

I suppose I could have done it differently, such as increasing the magnitude of L-R and adding/subtracting that with the original L+R.

[deepblue22]

Thanks a lot for that. It definitely sounds better with it.

Hmm.., as I see, you are not on the ZSNES ABOUT list. I only see PHARAOS, TEUF, GRINVADER... No kode54. Has somebody forgotten to put you on the list?

Rather, it calculates the average of the left and right channels, subtracts...

Whatever. Good work!

[kode54]

I am on the contributors list at zsnes.com.

[deepblue22]

It wouldn't have been a bad thing if you were on the ZSNES ABOUT list. Well, maybe for v2.0 then.

I would state: SNES sounded damn good. ZSNES sounds better. (At least as for "Simulate Surround Sound" with "Cubic Spline")
One could call it SNES extended.

[Gil_Hamilton]

One could also call it OH GOD MY EARS! after stumbling across one of the audio-glitched games.