Buzzing in SQ5 Track 17

[gortmertl0]

Tom --

Was listening to SQ5 soundtrack this evening with my headphones, and I discovered 2 flaws in the Track 17 OGG, "Planetside".

A) At 0:27, there are 2 quick BUZZing sounds

B) At 0:33, there is another BUZZ/HUMM sound

(And no, it's too soon in the game for Roger to be a fly.)    

To double-check, I downloaded the file to make certain I didn't have a slightly corrupted file, but they are still there.

To triple check, I pulled out my old QuestStudios CD of SQ5, and sure enough, they are there, too, although somewhat minimized.  For instance, the buzz at 0:27 is only a single buzz -- perhaps the OGG-ification amplified and split it into two?...

Just letting you know.  Thanks!

Gary

[Alistair]

Yeah, I've known about that for a while too. I think it's due to the velocities of the SC-55 instruments, or something.

Ari Stone ripped/converted that one, by the way. Never liked those OGG rips. Though, I don't like many lower than quality 5.

I suppose it's also an old CD, and it just slipped past Tom's radar. Or had some problem. Though when I recorded it recently I don't remember having any.

- Alistair

[gortmertl0]

Yeah, I've known about that for a while too. I think it's due to the velocities of the SC-55 instruments, or something.

Ari Stone ripped/converted that one, by the way. Never liked those OGG rips. Though, I don't like many lower than quality 5.

I suppose it's also an old CD, and it just slipped past Tom's radar. Or had some problem. Though when I recorded it recently I don't remember having any.

- Alistair

I don't have any OGG editting software, or else I'd edit it out for my own peace of mind.  Perhaps I'll convert to WAV and use a WAV editor.  Eh, on second thought, I can probably live with it -- just chalk it up to the imperfections of a digital age...  

More than anything, I'm just surprised I never noticed it before -- I listen to these soundtracks an awful lot...

Gary

[Alistair]

It's easy to not notice if you're, say, on a train a lot, like I am when I listen to these CD's. But when I'm listening in quiet I sure do notice. Especially on my own ye olde crapola recordings.

Listening to the file, I'm noticing a really weird sound quality to the file. It sounds kinda wrong.

Whole file sounds distorted. Like something sucked the life out of it. Captain Quirk, maybe?
The SpaceQuest.Net MIDI recording is even worse with regards to clips, but isn't distorted. Listen and you'll know what I mean:
http://www.spacequest.net/sq5/soundtrack/SQ5_21-%20Planetside.mp3

I'm pretty sure the rest of the CD has minor issues, but doesn't sound this bad. I wish Tom would rerip and reupload the whole lot. or someone could send me the WAV's and I'll do it.. I want the CD in better quality myself.

Regards,
- Alistair

[Ari]

I'll be happy to rerip it.

BTW, if you were so unhappy with the rip, why haven't you said anything up until now?  :?

[Tom]

We're talking about http://66.49.226.244/digital/miscellaneous/sq5cd/Track17.ogg -- right?

If so, I'm not the man to fix it, then; I don't even notice the buzzing at those two spots...other than the reverb.  It must be out of my hearing frequency range.  But I DO hear what you mean by the whole file being kind of "dead".  

The "rip" is good, though, and the Ogg encoding is fine.  The original WAV sounds about the same.  The primary difference seems to be with the instrument playing the music.  I believe most (if not all) of the sounds are coming from my old SCB-55.  There's much more reverb in this version than the MP3 recording, wihich of course, is going to add noise since all sounds are being artificially elongated.  The panning is also not very good, so the sounds aren't spaced well.

[Zemus]

If so, I'm not the man to fix it, then; I don't even notice the buzzing at those two spots...other than the reverb. It must be out of my hearing frequency range.

There's no buzzing, so I guess your ears work fine.

However, at 0:27 and 0:33, the sound reaches digital maximum and is clipped, which might be what causes a buzz sound on certain sound cards that don't handle clipping very well. It could also be because of the Vorbis decoder if you're using one of those old betas

[Alistair]

If so, I'm not the man to fix it, then; I don't even notice the buzzing at those two spots...other than the reverb. It must be out of my hearing frequency range. But I DO hear what you mean by the whole file being kind of "dead".

I'm still unclear on why the file sounds dead, though. Wonder what happened

- Alistair

[gortmertl0]

We're talking about http://66.49.226.244/digital/miscellaneous/sq5cd/Track17.ogg -- right?

...

The "rip" is good, though, and the Ogg encoding is fine.  The original WAV sounds about the same.  The primary difference seems to be with the instrument playing the music.  I believe most (if not all) of the sounds are coming from my old SCB-55.  There's much more reverb in this version than the MP3 recording, wihich of course, is going to add noise since all sounds are being artificially elongated.  The panning is also not very good, so the sounds aren't spaced well.

Well, that would certainly explain why the 'buzzing/humming' sounds different (i.e., less noticeable) on the SQ5 CDR you made a number of years back than on the more recent OGGs.

I kind of liked the fact that it sounds distorted -- being on a bizarre alien planet kind of lends itself to an classic Star Trek episode (heck, SQ5 owes its very existence to classic ST).  But you are all correct; it definitely sounds muted, almost like Track 17 was recorded/played back on cassette tape.  It has the same loss of quality...

Thanks for the answers, everyone!

Gary