Fixing all of the too-loud audio packs for good

Seems I am not up to date with the latest msu1 hacks... qwerty (or anyone) can you update
https://www.zeldix.net/f46-msu-1-hacks-database
with these games?

I added FFIII, but I can't seem to get it formatted correctly to show the video in the thread list... not sure what's up there.

Thanks

I tried to repost it but failed as well, no idea either with the video. But it works for me as it is.

Anybody who knows about a msu1 patch not listed there, feel free to post it. E.g., I got known of super turricane only by chance watching one of retrorgb's videos, where it was mentioned.

Looks like it just didn't like the really long url for the patch. I ran the link through bit.ly and now it previews just fine.

I finally got my Zeldix account registered. Thank you for taking on this huge task qwertymodo, it's much appreciated.

I've analyzed the PCMs of all of my large collection of MSU1 hacks, and found the following hacks have boosted/clipping audio (except the SMW hacks, which don't have boosted audio, but their patches must be mixing the sound effects very low or something).

Clipping PCMs
BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 MSU Rock Extended v1 Kurrono, Conn, Ice Man
BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 MSU v1 Conn, Ice Man
Donkey Kong Country 2 MSU RemixPack v2 Matrizzle, Daniel Reimer
F-Zero MSU Rock Edition Tony Thai v1.1
Mega Man X MSU PSX-Saturn v1 DarkShock
Mega Man X2 Rock Guitars v2 Krzysztof, Darkshock, Exort, vacantplanets
Mega Man X3 Rock Guitars - Krzysztof, Darkshock, Exort, vacantplanets, v1.1 Audio
Rock N' Roll Racing MSU Instrumental v1 DarkShock
Rock N' Roll Racing MSU Vocals v1 DarkShock
Secret of Mana MSU Alt v1 DarkShock, Daniel Reimer
Super Mario World MSU v1.5 Conn et al
Super Mario World MSU-1(+) v1.1 Conn et al, NTI
Super Road Blaster MSU v1.2 Matthias 'd4s' Nagler
Top Gear MSU - Kurrono Kei
Top Gear MSU Alternative - Kurrono Kei
Top Gear MSU Chase Horizon - Kurrono Kei
Top Gear 2 MSU v1.1 Kurrono Kei

Hey smokemonster, glad to see you over here.  Thanks for all of your work.  I realized after our conversation that the topic of the boosted audio has kind of been discussed at length over several different threads on several different sites, but now that we have a final solution in place, I never really consolidated that info into one place, so it might be helpful for me to do that.

Basically, the current situation is that we have 4 different ways of handling the volume right now, as a result of the SD2SNES issues:

1) properly normalized audio files, code sets volume register to $FF
2) properly normalized audio files, code sets volume register to something less than $FF, usually $60
3) boosted audio files, code sets volume register to $FF
4) boosted audio files, code sets volume register to something less than $FF, usually $60

Scenario 1 is "correct".  It was the way the spec was always designed to work, and it is what I am implementing here.  Scenario 2 doesn't work anywhere, it's the result of mixing and matching the others, the pcm soundtrack will be too quiet.  Scenario 3 is the old SD2SNES workaround trying to play this in an emulator or new SD2SNES will result in blown-out pcm audio that is too loud and suffers from clipping.  Scenario 4 is the second workaround, aka "emulator version" patches to address the issues with scenario 3.

Now, technically, I could settle for either scenario 1 or 4, as the results would be the same.  However, scenario 1 is the better option for a few reasons.  For one, it allows a greater dynamic range on the audio tracks.  This is a really big deal for some games.  Super Metroid is probably the biggest example.  With scenario 4, you're already so close to the volume ceiling that there really isn't anywhere for you to go if you want to go any louder (you'd have to do it in code, which I don't want to do, better to leave the code untouched and fix the audio files).  Second, in some cases (though thankfully so far not many), packs with boosted audio actually boosted PAST the 0dB mark, resulting in permanent clipping damage to the audio files.  Converting those packs to scenario 1 won't fix that damage, but it also won't make them any worse.  The damage is done, the result is the same either way.  HOWEVER, by converting them to scenario 1, it gives the option of later going back and reconverting from the original source files and fixing that damage.  You wouldn't be able to do that with the boosted version, because you wouldn't be able to get them loud enough.

So, with all of that said, we need 2 things, non-boosted audio files and proper full-volume code.  In the case of hacks with "emulator" and "sd2snes" versions, that means that the "sd2snes" version is correct, because those hacks used scenario 3/4, and we want the full $FF volume.  In the case where you're not sure which is used, there's a fairly simple way to determine that.  Open the game in bsnes-plus (you'll need a proper .xml manifest, the higan .bml manifests won't work, and the files utilize the SD2SNES/Snes9x naming format gamename.sfc/gamename.msu/gamename-#.pcm).  Once you've confirmed that the game is loading with MSU-1 audio, open Tools>Debugger>Tools (in the Debugger window)>Breakpoint Editor

In this window, under Address Range, type 2006 into one of the boxes and check the "W" box for than row.  Now play the game and it should break the next time the game tries to set the MSU-1 audio.  You should get a message like this in the debugger:

Code:

Breakpoint 0 hit (1).
a1f9d7 sta $2006     [802006] A:31ff X:0001 Y:0000 S:01f2 D:0000 DB:80 NvMXdIzC V:225 H:253 F:43

Two things to note here, first, it starts out with sta $2006.  If it's stz $2006, ignore it, hit Run in the Debugger window, and continue to the next one.  Second, the information we're after is the low byte of the accumulator, in this case that's where it says A:31ff, and the low byte is the rightmost 2 digits.  Here we see ff, which means we are setting the volume to 255, we have a full-volume patch, that's all you need to know, done.  If the line starts with stx $2006, check the X: value instead, same for sty and Y: (stz means store zero, so it doesn't matter what the values are which is why we skipped it).  Now, if the value is less than ff, that doesn't automatically prove that we have scenario 2/4, because it's possible that maybe the game is fading out, or setting half volume for some other reason, so you'll want to Run a few breakpoints to establish a pattern, but once you see ff even once, that's enough to confirm scenario 1/3.

Now for the audio files themselves, I already mentioned this in the email, but I'll repeat it here for anybody else who cares.  You can open a .pcm file in Audacity using Import>Raw Data>Signed 16-bit PCM/Little-endian/2-channel (Stereo)/8 bytes/100%/44100Hz.  Visually, it's quite easy to see a boosted audio track because it will fill the whole track window vertically, where a properly normalized track will only fill about half of the window.  You can also open the Effect>Amplify window, and the default value in the Amplification (dB) field will tell you how much "headroom" you have.  Properly normalized tracks should have somewhere in the range of 6-15dB headroom available, depending on the game and a few other factors.  Boosted tracks typically have <1dB headroom, sometimes almost 0.

Long story short, we want to ensure that we have scenario 1, both normalized files and full-volume code.  Hope that helps.

Thanks for the explanation. Now it all makes sense. I'll re-patch everything that you've normalized using the full-volume patches instead of the "emulator" versions that I used.

Yeah, unfortunately most of the packs were designed primarily to work around SD2SNES' deficiency to output audio at its correct volume.

But thankfully, everything now follows the intended MSU-1 specifications, and little by little, each music pack is being normalized for proper balance in game. So far I did correct all my previous work, gonna take a look at these ones presented.

F-Zero & SMW normalized packs download

In case of Super Metroid. Which IPS do I have to use?
The one for emu or the one for sd2snes?

I would expect the one for emu.

Given the choice, always the SD2SNES version. The emulator version is scenario 4 in the long post above.

Thx.

I was unsure for my SD2SNES Rev. H.
Ok so I will use the sd2snes versions.

At this point, just ignore every "emulator" patch, they have no purpose anymore.

I've updated my list above with what's left of the clipping PCM releases (added/removed some).

Ok, I just finished* my Final Fantasy III Balance & Ruin pack from scratch.  Covarr already did a pack of his own from that source, but his loops tried to keep as much of each song as possible, rather than trying to create tight "game style" loops.  Aside from the stylistic differences, that means my pack is about 60% smaller.

*I did not include the Overture, Opera Sequence, Aria, Dancing Mad, or the Ending Theme, as I'm not sure how those are handled.  Once I figure those out, I will add them to the pack and re-upload. Also, some songs may need minor volume adjustment.

Great that your project is still alive. If you want me to update the msu1 database, best is you pm me. I am a bit short on time and therefore I maybe miss a post or anything.

@qwertymodo, any plan to add the PS1 FMVs to your FFVI B&R patch?
The other project by jbaiter seems definitely dead..

I'm not working on that patch, just converting audio. I still need to finish PW and Chrono Trigger before I can even think of picking up another project.

Roger that, thanks for the quick reply.

@ qwertymodo - will you be making your script \ conversion tools available to the public? I have alternative Secret of Mana music files and Mega Man 7 music flies that are "too loud" - if you want I can upload them if you would rather perform the fixing yourself, if you have time - thanks

Have you already converted and looped them? The tool I used for the volume adjustments isn't online, but the tool I use for the full conversion process is here.

At the moment the files are fully working, they already loop and are in pcm format (not my handy work I have to add) - alas they are too loud as I'm sure the music was sampled at a higher volume. Can anything be done or is it a long process of converting them back and then reducing the sound? I can post the packs online if needed?

Added aLttP DeMastered. Once I get a little more time to fine-tune and playtest, I'll upload the graphics patch that goes with it to the MSU-1 hacks section.

I updated the DKC2 Remix Pack or better, completely remade em from the originals. No more clipping and used the tools mentioned here with the mentioned settings. More news can be found in the order.txt in the archive. Waaaaay better on my RevE, errr RevF, err RevG, err RevH SD2SNES ^^
HERE
IPS Patch

Awesome
I updated
https://www.zeldix.net/t795-donkey-kong-country-2#8878

(replaced the files on my google drive account and put your links as mirrror there)

Sweet, that's one less for me to do. They definitely needed to be redone from scratch, but I could never find the original source files.