Request Sound test!

[Captain B. Zarre]

I just love the music in many late-80's through 90's pinball machines, and when I realized that included in Pro Packs were the menu, I tried to find the sound test. I eventually found it, but only two seconds of a song were included and the music of the menu played over it. I would seriously love a Sound Test option in the Extras menu so I can listen to those awesome tunes!

(PS: Methinks that the instructions music in Whirlwind should be the millions-plus tune.)

 

[netizen]

This has been requested numerous times with no response as to why this doesn't work properly, or why the attract mode sound/music settings don't do anything either.

 

[Kevlar]

I would like to use this opertunity to dig up my old thread again. I still think it would be awesome although never going to happen.

 

[Furnessly]

That's actually a great idea since it's not just the music but also the voices and the sound effects as well that are worth listening to. You get people listening to VG Music from sound tests, OSTs, ROMs, file rips or putting in the redbook CD and pinball music is like a branch off that. It also helps that many machines used FM chips and DCS that were mainly used in arcade games too. To me it might be a sound bug if it only plays 2 seconds on the Operators Menu in the Pro Packs.

Sounds like the only way to listen to the full songs is by getting the ROM and playing it via BridgeM1, even then it doesn't support every pinball machine (it supports a fair amount of the late 80s-late 90s Bally/Williams [so from High Speed to Cactus Canyon] but not every one [e.g. Creature from the Black Lagoon, White Water aren't there], the late Gottliebs e.g. Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter II, some of the Data East/Sega stuff but not the Stern Whitestar or SAM and I think the Capcom stuff too e.g. Big Bang Bar). Also it doesn't play the voices either so vocal stuff such as the Main Theme of Black Knight 2000 isn't there, you just hear an instrumental.

 

[jaredmorgs]

Keep raising bugs to the support email address until it is fixed. One each release.

 

[spoonman]

Yeah, I've been asking for this along with the option to listen to background music via the XMB on the PlayStation for over a year now.

It'll probably never happen though unfortunately.

 

[Worf]

It's probably a bug in the sound emulation. Remember, for DCS tables TPA does NOT emulate the DCS board. Instead, they took a real machine and sampled it.

I suspect the emulation for the music is not quite perfect so sound test doesn't work well.

 

[LanceBoyle]

I think that for every machine they just sampled the audio instead of emulating it. It's like how Digital Eclipse did in many of their compilations (for example many of the Midway ones, or the Sega Genesis Collection)

It probably explains the audio quality on the iOS/Android versions. I guess sound sampling is less resource-intensive than emulation?

I do second the idea of a sound test, by the way.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I think that for every machine they just sampled the audio instead of emulating it. It's like how Digital Eclipse did in many of their compilations (for example many of the Midway ones, or the Sega Genesis Collection)

It probably explains the audio quality on the iOS/Android versions. I guess sound sampling is less resource-intensive than emulation?

I do second the idea of a sound test, by the way.

Remember, Digital Eclipse actually had the ROMulation during the development of the ceased Addams Family simulation; it was supposed to come out for the N64 and Windows 95.

 

[starck]

I suspect the emulation for the music is not quite perfect so sound test doesn't work well.

That's an understatement to say the least. The sound 'emulation' is abysmal for TPA. Comparing actual table sound samples to TPA tells it all!

 

[MonkeyGrass]

If I had one complaint about the current state of TPA, it would be the badly compressed sound samples. Even the intro theme is mid-rangy and lacks hi-end definition and a tight bottom end. By sampling instead of emulating, they can control the bitrate and compression levels, making the same "sounds" take up less space and that's great for iOS and mobile platforms, but falls FAR short of 16 bit uncompressed WAV audio, which is what you would hear from a real machine. Unfortunately, by using that compression and lowered bitrate, we get weak sounds. The "voices" and most of the game FX are fine, but you really hear it on the theme music and arrangements.

Of course, being an audio engineer by trade just makes it stick out like a sore thumb to me. When I play my real Sys11 table, the sound is thunderous and rich (and that's before I upgrade the speakers, lol). I have to keep my table at about 15% volume or it starts to get obnoxious!

 

[sellenoff]

Sound test should work 100% perfectly, if it doesn't for a table, please post specifics (request to everyone not just Worf).

It's probably a bug in the sound emulation. Remember, for DCS tables TPA does NOT emulate the DCS board. Instead, they took a real machine and sampled it.

I suspect the emulation for the music is not quite perfect so sound test doesn't work well.

 

[sellenoff]

Which tables?

Many are sampled directly from the real machine so those can't possibly sound any more accurate than direct from the real game ( although the compression certainly makes things worse ).

That's an understatement to say the least. The sound 'emulation' is abysmal for TPA. Comparing actual table sound samples to TPA tells it all!

 

[Billy Fishtale]

Sound test should work 100% perfectly, if it doesn't for a table, please post specifics (request to everyone not just Worf).

No disrespect intended but does this game get any testing after initial programming. I mean these sort of issues are easily spotted by even the most casual of players.

 

[TomL]

Sound test should work 100% perfectly, if it doesn't for a table, please post specifics (request to everyone not just Worf).

One bug is the attract mode music keeps playing while you're using the sound & music test feature. So there's this horrible audio overlap.

 

[sellenoff]

None taken, especially since I don't work for Farsight ( just a contractor ) and am not responsible for bugs outside of the emulation. I feel the same frustration you do as it seems there are times when bugs that seem obvious to me get out, but I can't comment what goes on during the process since I've only visited Farsight once back in 2009 ( would like to visit again ).

No disrespect intended but does this game get any testing after initial programming. I mean these sort of issues are easily spotted by even the most casual of players.

 

[sellenoff]

Funny, I pointed that out the other day to Stuart ( on Ios ). I agree the music should totally be off during Pro Mode or at least an option to turn it off anyway. I'll suggest it ( again ) to be sure. Aside from that though, the sound test via the coin door should be 100% authentic so if not, let me know.

One bug is the attract mode music keeps playing while you're using the sound & music test feature. So there's this horrible audio overlap.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

No disrespect intended but does this game get any testing after initial programming. I mean these sort of issues are easily spotted by even the most casual of players.

There's internal QA testing, the iOS closed beta, and the Android open beta. And we do catch sound issues; there was a great uproar in the iOS beta regarding Whirlwind's many sound faults. Unfortunately due to the 9-day lead time on Apple's submission process, fixes were not available in time for the first release. Finding bugs that can't be fixed in time for release is a source of great frustration for both FarSight and us.

Sound test should work 100% perfectly, if it doesn't for a table, please post specifics (request to everyone not just Worf).

I've recorded many of the sound (and other) issues reported here in the Table Master Issues Lists. Each table has its own list; sound issues are given a 600-series number and can be found below the art problems.

Also, my own personal pet peeve: Twilight Zone's jackpot sound is still missing its treble portion, at least on iOS. I think you said you own a TZ...if so, play TPA and get a jackpot, then play the real machine and get a jackpot. The difference will be immediately evident.

And yes, the attract mode music still plays during the sound/music tests, which limits their usefulness. Perhaps the attract music can be shut off when the coin door is open?

 

[netizen]

Sound test should work 100% perfectly, if it doesn't for a table, please post specifics (request to everyone not just Worf).

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ound-Test-report?p=89832&viewfull=1#post89832

 

[sellenoff]

Thanks for pointing me to the list, I'll have to check it out.
I don't frequent the forums much as you can tell since I'm usually too busy coding, but today it's taking forever to compile so I have some time to poke around and try to be helpful here.

There's internal QA testing, the iOS closed beta, and the Android open beta. And we do catch sound issues; there was a great uproar in the iOS beta regarding Whirlwind's many sound faults. Unfortunately due to the 9-day lead time on Apple's submission process, fixes were not available in time for the first release. Finding bugs that can't be fixed in time for release is a source of great frustration for both FarSight and us.


I've recorded many of the sound (and other) issues reported here in the Table Master Issues Lists. Each table has its own list; sound issues are given a 600-series number and can be found below the art problems.

Also, my own personal pet peeve: Twilight Zone's jackpot sound is still missing its treble portion, at least on iOS. I think you said you own a TZ...if so, play TPA and get a jackpot, then play the real machine and get a jackpot. The difference will be immediately evident.

And yes, the attract mode music still plays during the sound/music tests, which limits their usefulness. Perhaps the attract music can be shut off when the coin door is open?