Higher pitched music/sounds - Reboot

Pinballwiz45b · Aug 11, 2014

I created this thread specifically because the music in TPA doesn't exactly revolve to that of the actual machine. To be more specific, the music that we hear in Pinball Arcade sounds a bit higher in "pitch" (somewhat more "sharp" in the notes played) than the actual machines. I've noticed that this mainly occurred in games with the DCS sound system, but lately all seems to have gone well with the conversion, starting with Jack*Bot and going forward. As for Harley Davidson, well, who knows.

List of tables currently affected:

Tales of the Arabian Nights
Cirqus Voltaire
Monster Bash
Harley Davidson 3rd Edition
Scared Stiff
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Attack From Mars
Cactus Canyon
The Champion Pub
WHO dunnit?
Junk Yard

Comparison between real and TPA, using Arabian Nights as an example:

http://picosong.com/5a3K - Music from TotAN on Pinball Arcade

http://picosong.com/jb3a - How it's supposed to sound on the real thing

Shaneus · Aug 11, 2014

Black Knight 2000 can be added to the list. It's easier to tell with that because the flashing of the black knight insert in the middle of the playfield (when he's "talking") is perfectly in time on the real game, but it's too slow (ie the speech is too fast) on the TPA version. From memory, it's like this on both iOS and PC.

The sound pitch of the bonus countdown on High Speed is too fast on iOS as well. The bonus countdown sounds fine on PC, but because it's too fast on iOS the sound isn't smooth and sounds "juddery", like it skips.

Pinballwiz45b · Aug 13, 2014

Shaneus said:
Black Knight 2000 can be added to the list. It's easier to tell with that because the flashing of the black knight insert in the middle of the playfield (when he's "talking") is perfectly in time on the real game, but it's too slow (ie the speech is too fast) on the TPA version. From memory, it's like this on both iOS and PC.

The sound pitch of the bonus countdown on High Speed is too fast on iOS as well. The bonus countdown sounds fine on PC, but because it's too fast on iOS the sound isn't smooth and sounds "juddery", like it skips.

Black Knight 2000's music is fine. It's probably the lights that are the issue. High Speed's music and sounds are fine as well.

Espy · Aug 15, 2014

Pinballwiz45b said:
Black Knight 2000's music is fine. It's probably the lights that are the issue. High Speed's music and sounds are fine as well.

Anyway, pitch is separate from speed, right?

Pinballwiz45b · Aug 15, 2014

Espy said:
Anyway, pitch is separate from speed, right?

Listen to the comparison of TotAN on the OP. This is what I'm trying to explain.

JPelter · Aug 25, 2014

I'm pretty sure the difference comes from the speakers or whatever stuff the real pinball machine sound system uses. TPA I assume uses sound direct from the ROM so it'll be different just because it's not going through the speaker system. I'm sure there'd be some way to make it sound closer, but it'll never be exactly the same just because of that.

jaredmorgs · Aug 26, 2014

JPelter said:
I'm pretty sure the difference comes from the speakers or whatever stuff the real pinball machine sound system uses. TPA I assume uses sound direct from the ROM so it'll be different just because it's not going through the speaker system. I'm sure there'd be some way to make it sound closer, but it'll never be exactly the same just because of that.

The sound is also ripped to .wav files (not directly emulated), downscaled to 11 kHz (for mobile) then called on demand. Not having the original hardware with the DAC chips to decode in real time make a huge difference.

Pinballwiz45b · Aug 26, 2014

Strangely, both versions of MM (TPA + PHoF) have the same pitch as the real thing, as well as NGG and Theatre. And they use DCS Sound. Whereas every other DCS game listed in the OP (including HD) are not "normal" in TPA.

starck · Aug 26, 2014

Pinballwiz45b said:
Strangely, both versions of MM (TPA + PHoF) have the same pitch as the real thing, as well as NGG. And they both use DCS Sound. Whereas every other DCS game listed in the OP (including HD) are not "normal" in TPA.

To me MB sounds most normal of the DCS era tables, along with NGG. While MM may have the same pitch as the original rom, the sound quality is pretty dismal compared to the actual rom quality (sorry!)

wizard33 · Aug 27, 2014

JPelter said:
I'm pretty sure the difference comes from the speakers or whatever stuff the real pinball machine sound system uses. TPA I assume uses sound direct from the ROM so it'll be different just because it's not going through the speaker system. I'm sure there'd be some way to make it sound closer, but it'll never be exactly the same just because of that.

agreed. TPA is completely digital and might sound faster; not only the speakers, also the ROMs commanding the sounds/voices in the original tables.

Pinballwiz45b · Jan 12, 2015

Bump: I may have found a temporary solution, if at all possible, using Audacity. I recorded audio directly from Pinball Arcade -- a few of the tables affected above, though. After tinkering around with the playback speed, I may have found a sweet spot. By playing at .975x speed, it sounds like it would at an arcade.

But the question is: how can it be implemented properly without it going back to how it plays in TPA?

Tested TotAN, Scared Stiff, Star Trek, and CV; they all sound amazing at that speed! Pretty sure this will be a game-changer.

EDIT: Just changing the playback speed doesn't change the setting when I save it; it just goes back to normal TPA speed. I had to manually Change Speed under "Effect", with a -2.500% change. Here is the comparison, using TotAN as an example:

http://picosong.com/5a3K - Normal TPA music

http://picosong.com/jb3a - How it's supposed to sound

Pinballwiz45b · Jan 22, 2015

Heard back:

"Re-pitching the audio files would not be the fix here. The files in the game are recorded at the proper speed. Somewhere (in the software or our PC engine) the files are being sped up and what we need to figure out is why that is happening."

Ah well. Least I tried

Crazy Newt · Jan 22, 2015

There are scripts available that can clamp the FPS of the game. It would be interesting to see if the sounds change pitch when the game's frames per second are forced lower. This might provide another clue to where the issue might be.

Pinballwiz45b · May 18, 2015

Here's another comparison. The correct version makes Lyman much more grumpy and hilarious.

http://picosong.com/jCEY

Pinballwiz45b · Jul 18, 2015

Good news: Safe Cracker is NOT affected by this. The music quality has really gone up lately in terms of pitch.

The question is: How did these tables get affected by this issue?

1) The machine can have the same problem. (This can easily be solved by using a program like Audacity.)

2) Something must be affecting the file that makes it higher pitched in game.

If I had one of those sound files to test, the problem might be solved in a flash.

Pinballwiz45b · Jul 12, 2017

Perhaps I've found the worst offender of them all. And I feel stupid for not mentioning this issue this whole time.

Admiral's voice clip on ST:TNG. His cue ends early during Lock 1, leaving him still speaking but no words coming out. This feels very off.

Whereas on the real machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnR3MO6OS8Y

And in Visual Pinball/PinMAME:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU7kbifQPpk

Proof that this issue overall exists across multiple tables.

Higher pitched music/sounds - Reboot

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