Bug Very poor audio quality on PS4 version.

I've seen a few people mention this but no specific thread. I've been reading all day about the poor sound quality and thought it can't be that bad. How wrong was I!!!. I have a really good sound system, DTS amp, B&W CM8's, awesome sub and the 360 version sounded very nice. I was shocked how badly this sounded on first launch. Normally I stick with DTS and frankly TPA sounds better coming out of my galaxy S4 than the DTS sound through my system. I switched to Dolby digital but it was much the same. linear PCM gives the best results but sound is still very low quality and distorted.

I believe this has to be a bug, I know pinball machines are mono and not right up there in hifi terms but they sound a lot better than this and TPA sounded 10 times better on my 360.

Possible good news, Farsight have acknowledged that this is a bug and will be fixed on their Facebook page.

Is it specific tables as it sounds identical to every other version of the game to me (limited by the quality of the original ROM).

All tables and very noticeable as soon as the menu music starts.

I sent them a message about the sound and got this in return:

Pinball Arcade Support said:

Thank you for the email! We are aware of the sound issue on PS4 and are working to resolve it as soon as possible.

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Doing some critical listening today and believe that the sound with the poor quality is just the audio that was pulled from the sound board of the real pinball machines and not the physical sounds of the ball and table that FarSight created.

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of those with audio issues. It sounds like the audio is coming out of a blown analog speaker; distorted, raspy, and staticky. I've played multiple tables with the same result. Even the corny intro song to the main menu sounds like it's being broadcast through a pair of thrift store computer speakers. I own every table on PS3 & Vita, and this is a big disappointment, as it looks phenomenal on PS4, but is basically unplayable for me with this audio level. I mean it's playable, but the sound is a major distraction. I've deleted & re-installed the app twice on the PS4, but no dice. Let's hope they patch this soon.

Alex Atkin UK said:

Is it specific tables as it sounds identical to every other version of the game to me (limited by the quality of the original ROM).

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I did an A/B test between the PS3 and PS4 versions and the quality difference was immediately obvious. Actually TPA sounds have never been up to the standards of their real life counter parts. When the PS3 version came out some people on the forum thought that the sound wasn't properly captured from the boards in the first place but then a FarSight employee chimed in on that discussion and told us that the sounds were compressed to save file space (presumably for mobile). However the PS4 version is worse in sound quality than the any other version that I've heard and obviously it is a problem since FarSight themselves said they will be fixing it soon.

This is very good news. I hope that they release a mini patch for the audio ASAP, because the game is almost unplayable with such poor audio — at least to me.

The only other major annoyance that I've encountered is minor framerate hiccuping on tables with significant lighting effects, such as Cirqus Voltaire. It seems that, every now and then, the framerate will stutter for just a second or two when a lot of action is happening on the table. It's not game-breaking or anything, but it's very noticeable and irritating when it does happen. The PS4 should be plenty powerful enough to handle every TPA table without any framerate issues.

I take it back, gone back on the game and the sound quality is noticeably dreadful.

Confirmed here too. It seems to be related to using a receiver in multichannel output mode and the game not sending the audio out properly for it.

If you switch your receiver to a mono or two channel stereo mode, such as "AllChannelStereo" on an Onkyo receiver, it suddenly sounds better.
I recommend that as the temporary fix.

Apparently the game is pulling the mobile audio files and is a bug that will be fixed:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=94055170&postcount=4905

Hi there!

The sound is actually an issue we were aware of. No idea how it made it into the retail version as our testing never had the issue, but somehow it seems that it's pulling from mobile sound files instead of the sound files that the PS4 version should be using. We're working on getting a fix out as soon as possible.

--------

Thank you,
Pinball Arcade Support

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From what I understand, Farsight physically records the audio straight from the machine which would explain the less than stellar audio quality. You have at least 3 main sources of distortion instead of one on a real table. A real table the sounds are distorted by the speakers in the cabinet, but with TPA you get the cabinet speaker distortion -> microphone distortion (huge) -> your speaker's distortion. Each time the sound passes through one of these the quality is degraded significantly.

Assuming what I heard was correct and this is how Farsight the majority of the sounds for the game, it would explain why the audio quality may leave a bit to be desired.

Also as far as mobile is concerned, they use something equivalent to the same codec with a lower bitrate. I assume this is for minimizing game size

That would be a CRAZY way of doing it.

To me anyway it sounds somewhat like clipping, so I wonder if the problem on a surround receiver is in addition to the basic problem of using the wrong sound files?

Its a shame they can't get the source material and have a HD option for those of us who aren't striving for it to completely replicate how the original tables sound. I would much rather have modern sound quality than authenticity personally, while I understand that people familiar with the REAL tables might still want the option of authentic sound.

Glad to see it's an easy fix that will be patched. I somehow didn't notice it, maybe it's because I'm so used to mobile.

Queue said:

This is very good news. I hope that they release a mini patch for the audio ASAP, because the game is almost unplayable with such poor audio — at least to me.

The only other major annoyance that I've encountered is minor framerate hiccuping on tables with significant lighting effects, such as Cirqus Voltaire. It seems that, every now and then, the framerate will stutter for just a second or two when a lot of action is happening on the table. It's not game-breaking or anything, but it's very noticeable and irritating when it does happen. The PS4 should be plenty powerful enough to handle every TPA table without any framerate issues.

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Sony's turnaround for patches is six weeks assuming that its the same as the PS3 and from the sounds of it FarSight has already submitted the first. So it will be fixed but it won't be quick.

I'm wondering if the sound will be better than the PS3 because one of Farsight's engineers led us to believe that the same compressed files used for the mobiles were intentionally used for the PS3. That would explain why they might have wound up in the live PS4 version. They might have been put in there as a place holder until higher quality files were made from their recordings and then when compiling the final version someone might have mixed up the file names. It's a working theory...

brakel said:

Sony's turnaround for patches is six weeks assuming that its the same as the PS3 and from the sounds of it FarSight has already submitted the first. So it will be fixed but it won't be quick.

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Argh, I forgot about Sony's DLC update policy. I also remember Bobby explaining in one of the PAF.com interviews that Sony doesn't permit individual patches for DLC content, so Farsight has to resubmit all the resources with the patches included. So yeah, I'm guessing that the audio won't be updated until the first big patch goes live, whenever that happens. Bummer...

I don't think we know yet if Sony's update polices have changed for PS4. If the game engine is loading the wrong audio files, it also could be a configuration error within the base application. Would be kind of funny enough if PS3 and mobile placeholder files were left in, and it's a line of text somewhere pointing at the wrong set of folders. (And the PS4 files are there already, but not being loaded.)

Deltaechoe said:

From what I understand, Farsight physically records the audio straight from the machine which would explain the less than stellar audio quality. You have at least 3 main sources of distortion instead of one on a real table. A real table the sounds are distorted by the speakers in the cabinet, but with TPA you get the cabinet speaker distortion -> microphone distortion (huge) -> your speaker's distortion. Each time the sound passes through one of these the quality is degraded significantly.

Assuming what I heard was correct and this is how Farsight the majority of the sounds for the game, it would explain why the audio quality may leave a bit to be desired.

Also as far as mobile is concerned, they use something equivalent to the same codec with a lower bitrate. I assume this is for minimizing game size

Click to expand...

With quality equipment and a quiet room, close-micing playback from the sound test menu at a reasonable volume would produce very nice results as long as they don't stress any of the components. The sound on pc is very well done and most likely from the same assets.

The issue is most likely in the audio processing. Possibly running the sampler through a dynamics compressor/expander may have increased the amplitude too much and caused clipping. There's redundancy compression for file size which will also degrade the sound quality. If they added the wrong sound it most likely sounds like the machine is turned up too loud which is what a lot of tables sound like on the mobiles.

Alex Atkin UK said:

That would be a CRAZY way of doing it.

To me anyway it sounds somewhat like clipping, so I wonder if the problem on a surround receiver is in addition to the basic problem of using the wrong sound files?

Its a shame they can't get the source material and have a HD option for those of us who aren't striving for it to completely replicate how the original tables sound. I would much rather have modern sound quality than authenticity personally, while I understand that people familiar with the REAL tables might still want the option of authentic sound.

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I believe some tables have an audio out connection but not all. Maybe someday they will have full audio rom emulation but Mr. Ellenoff mentioned that they use sound samples to ease the load from the cpus as each cycle is precious on the mobile platforms.

I don't think they are allowed to add an had sound mode as there was something in their contract with Williams I believe that everything had to be as it was released from the factory, though I'm not sure if it applies to the sound.

Adding my voice to the chorus that is noticing this. Glad to hear that FS acknowledges and is committed to fixing the problem.

Queue said:

Argh, I forgot about Sony's DLC update policy. I also remember Bobby explaining in one of the PAF.com interviews that Sony doesn't permit individual patches for DLC content, so Farsight has to resubmit all the resources with the patches included. So yeah, I'm guessing that the audio won't be updated until the first big patch goes live, whenever that happens. Bummer...

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All of the tables out now are part of the title game. I downloaded the free game first because I wanted to see what they were giving away for free before I bought any tables. So after I went back in the store and bought them I was waiting for the notification that they were added to downloads. It never happened. It never downloaded anything. So there is no problem with updating the season one tables on the PS4.

Having said that, Jeff and/or shutyertrap said that now tables can be updated regularly on the PS3. Whatever they figured out with Sony they can do whenever they need to update. I'm sure this will hold true on the PS4 as well even if Sony's policies have not changed.