Like the music in games? Use CD-Rs sometimes? Try this.

[SamIAm]

This may seem obvious, and it may also be sacrilege to some, but I thought I would share an easy method that has significantly increased my enjoyment of Turbo-CD games.

A lot of CD games, including some of the really good ones, have sound effects that are just too damn loud. Others don't have it quite so bad, but for me personally, it's better when the music always has a certain "auditory-priority" over the sound effects. Since it's a CD, why not change the audio and make this happen?

Enter MP3gain. This small, stable, friendly and free program is extremely efficient at adjusting the recorded volume of an entire CD or album. The catch, unfortunately, is that it only works on mp3s, but I find the benefits to be worthwhile enough that I'll convert anything to mp3 just to use it.

Basically, use the "Album analysis" function to check the tracks of a game for its average volume. Enter a new volume that is 3 to 7.5 decibels higher, click "album gain", and there you go. Just don't go much over 95, or you'll risk getting a lot of noticeable clipping distortion.

Use something like winlame for WAV<->MP3 conversion, good ol' TocFixer to properly size your tracks, and your preferred burning program to make yourself a custom-balanced CD. Just remember, if the game uses the internal music at any point, it will sound very quiet compared to the CD tracks. Same goes for AD-PCM voices.

Here are some games I think benefit a lot from this:
Gate of Thunder
Lords of Thunder
Sapphire
Cotton
Sylphia
Terraforming
Metamor Jupiter
Hellfire S
Nexzr
Alzadick
Spriggan 1 & 2
...and many others.

Anyone else ever try this before? Let me tell you, it's awfully nice to be able to hear the music in Gate of Thunder no matter what weapon you're using. Not to mention, overriding the the downright grating sound effects in Sapphire actually makes it a better game IMO.

[ccovell]

Yeah, I did that before burning games like Cotton.  Also, NEXZR benefits from custom equalization, since it has very high midranges and little else.  A bass and treble boost made it sound much better.

[Tatsujin]

I guess Sapphire and Rayxanber III do benefit the most

[SamIAm]

Yeah, I did that before burning games like Cotton.  Also, NEXZR benefits from custom equalization, since it has very high midranges and little else.  A bass and treble boost made it sound much better.

I never thought of that. Do you remember what program used to do it? Is there something that can do batch equalizations, or did you do it on a track-by-track basis?

I guess Sapphire and Rayxanber III do benefit the most

I just tried Rayxanber III, and even with a boost to the CD audio, the sound effects were overwhelming. You have to wonder about the first time the people making the game heard the music and the sound effects together, those continuous firing shots included, and the guy in charge said "yup, that'll do".

[vestcoat]

Good idea.  Five minutes into GoT in '97 I said to my friend, "would be nice if you could hear the music."  Since then I've always just turned the volume up really loud and have been happy with the results.

Personally, I hate MP3s and would recommend everyone try listening to a nice, shimmering hi-hat on one of their favorite CD's and then compare it to an MP3 rip.

Download Audacity here:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
It's free.  Drag all of your wav files in, *select all* to batch process, goto "effects" and normalize (for volume) or equalize (for bass and treble boost) to your heart's content.  A MP3 plug-in is also available if you want to go that route.

[nat]

This is funny.

I have exactly the opposite problem playing many CD games, especially RPGs that utilize both redbook audio as well as the Duo PSG. The redbook audio is often way too loud, while the PSG is jarringly quiet in comparison.

A perfect non-RPG example of this is Bonk 3 CD. The redbook music is SO LOUD that you can't even HEAR the sound effects at all at times. Also, the game uses the PSG for the "invincible" jingle when you eat a big meat, and the PSG is so quiet in comparison it's really quite disconcerting. It never occurred to me to rip the soundtrack and adjust the gain and re-burn a copy. I may try that, there's a chance it might improve my enjoyment of the game.

[Tatsujin]

You have to wonder about the first time the people making the game heard the music and the sound effects together, those continuous firing shots included, and the guy in charge said "yup, that'll do".

Kinda very hard to imagine, but such a scenario must have happened at that time.

[SamIAm]

Good idea.  Five minutes into GoT in '97 I said to my friend, "would be nice if you could hear the music."  Since then I've always just turned the volume up really loud and have been happy with the results.

Personally, I hate MP3s and would recommend everyone try listening to a nice, shimmering hi-hat on one of their favorite CD's and then compare it to an MP3 rip.

Download Audacity here:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
It's free.  Drag all of your wav files in, *select all* to batch process, goto "effects" and normalize (for volume) or equalize (for bass and treble boost) to your heart's content.  A MP3 plug-in is also available if you want to go that route.

I didn't know Audacity was that quick with batch processing. I'll try it sometime. It's not that I wanted to use mp3s, but MP3Gain was just such a no-fuss kind of deal. Although just to play devil's advocate, the tiny difference between a 320k mp3 and some lossless format doesn't matter as much when all the game sound effects are buzzing in the background.

This is funny.

I have exactly the opposite problem playing many CD games, especially RPGs that utilize both redbook audio as well as the Duo PSG. The redbook audio is often way too loud, while the PSG is jarringly quiet in comparison.

A perfect non-RPG example of this is Bonk 3 CD. The redbook music is SO LOUD that you can't even HEAR the sound effects at all at times. Also, the game uses the PSG for the "invincible" jingle when you eat a big meat, and the PSG is so quiet in comparison it's really quite disconcerting. It never occurred to me to rip the soundtrack and adjust the gain and re-burn a copy. I may try that, there's a chance it might improve my enjoyment of the game.

Yeah, the loud-SFX problem mostly occurs with shmups, I'd say.

[Arkhan]

I was playing rabio f*cking a$$holerabbitbastard lepus and then put in Final Zone II and almost went deaf.

Shit was like 4x louder.

[TheClash603]

I can never find the sweet spot with music and sound effects.  Whenever a game allows you to tinker the levels, I always do it over and over, and never end up happy.  Though, I will admit, I tend to like the sound effects to overpower the music.  I would've been great for quality control on the PCE

[ParanoiaDragon]

Out of all those games I think Sylphia benefits the most!  That's part of the reason I did my Sylphia Hard Rock version(inserted Vinnie Moore tracks for a more Lords of Thunder feel), because the music was wayyy to low compared to the sound effects.  Sam, let me know if you want that version of Sylphia.  Tom/Malducci hacked it a bit so I was able to add an extra song for the final boss, & I think I really matched each level with the right song!  Not to toot my own horn, but, the new soundtracks gives me goosebumps!

[Marll]

May have to try this on a few. I noticed that Sapphire's sound effects seemed to be way too loud compared to the music.