Shenmue Dojo

OL wrote: I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it being improved upon, but like Kiba and I mentioned in another thread, the compressed audio actually contributed pretty well to the atmosphere back when we first played the games. They are, after all, based in the 80s and take place across Asia; the compressed audio mimics the feel of an old 70s/80s karate/kung fu dub.
Much like putting intentional film grain into something to make it feel older, the compressed audio helps to plant you firmly in the 80s. Decompressing the audio wouldn't kill the games or anything, but it would detract a bit from the Shenmue I know and love. As it is, nothing else in gaming really sounds like Shenmue; you can hear an uncredited voice clip from it elsewhere and know immediately that, yes, that's Shenmue. I personally kind of like that it's so identifiable that way, and "improving" the audio would only serve to remove that aspect.

mjq jazz bar wrote:I’m going to guess they didn’t intend to make the voice tracks sound like that at all. It was a necessary evil due to hardware constraints.

Gen wrote:Yes, and also, there are prerecorded versions of many of the sample based pieces, perhaps all of them. These versions usually sound alot better. I guess hardware constraint (memory, space) was also the reason why sample based music was used. The music you hear in the game usually try to emulate the sound of the prerecorded version but are constrained by limited number of voices. It would be awesome if they included the prerecorded music in this remaster.

BlueMue wrote:

Gen wrote:Yes, and also, there are prerecorded versions of many of the sample based pieces, perhaps all of them. These versions usually sound alot better. I guess hardware constraint (memory, space) was also the reason why sample based music was used. The music you hear in the game usually try to emulate the sound of the prerecorded version but are constrained by limited number of voices. It would be awesome if they included the prerecorded music in this remaster.

While the ones on the soundtrack are of a higher fidelity overall, there is nothing wrong with the sample quality of the originals. They sound very very clean. The soundtrack versions often sound too noticeably different, especially the piano parts wich are in a different key. I personally think that these replacements would go a bit too far.

Gen wrote: It's certainly possible and probably not difficult to implement if Sega still has the original recordings. If that's the case I expect the audio to be improved, since as you point out, the dreamcast audio is highly compressed and sound quite bad by todays standards.

life_247 wrote:Anyone remember if the X-Box version had better audio?

Yokosuka wrote: An example of what an improved track audio may sound

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The recorder does sound way cooler than the compressed one!

phpBB [video]

life_247 wrote:

Gen wrote: It's certainly possible and probably not difficult to implement if Sega still has the original recordings. If that's the case I expect the audio to be improved, since as you point out, the dreamcast audio is highly compressed and sound quite bad by todays standards.

It all depends on if the original audio files exist in edited form or not. I would hope so but it’s not a given - there may be thounsands of random audio files that would need to be re-edited before inserting into the game. IE the cutscene audio for the beginning may only exist in constituent parts not the whole mix or sound files are from the recordings which were then edited down.

I suppose it would be lower down the list of priorities.

Anyone remember if the X-Box version had better audio?

BlueMue wrote: Pretty much any music track that is in the Shenmue games exists in some form of prerecorded demo.
They did this to easily establish how the music sounds and then converted it over to the Dreamcast's sound system. And by the way I doubt it would ever get close to run out of space for instruments, it has 64 channels.
A lot of these demos have been found on the Shenmue Online website, many give a good idea what to expect.

Personally I don't like the idea of replacing the orignals that much. They just sound too different at times, even if they are superior from a technical standpoint. The piano parts would be worthwhile to replace as the samples used in some of them sound a bit weak and I absolutely love how rich "Departure for hope" sound on the OST. You know, the one that plays when you show around the Phoenix Mirror. But it is, like pretty much all the others, in a lower key and that just ruins it for me deep inside.

Listening to the music in the trailer above I noticed something very interesting. The music that plays when it switches to Barry playing darts is the one used in Beverly Hills Wharf. The one on the DC has two alternating string notes while this one has only one repeating. And guess what... that's how it sounds on the Xbox.
I always thought this was a porting mistake but apparently the original was always meant to sound like that!
Still prefer the one of the DC, sound a lot less annoying the way it is. That means some improvements have been made when the demos have been converted but then the Xbox version...

Yet again a sign that points to the possibility of the Xbox version being built on an older versions of assets than the ones ultimately used for the DC...?