Many games scratchy audio

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA logo, etc.)
Ecco the Dolphin (beginning, etc.)
Castlevania Bloodlines (throughout)

Those are a few examples.  Not sure if this was causing by the recent 
audio changes.  Will test an older version.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by westonl...@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 8:48

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Different revisions of Phantasy Star II are blatantly scratchy at times.  It's 
hard 
to reproduce.  

Vectorman was scratchy at least once.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 9:25

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This issue appeared with the recent sound revisions.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 10:12

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the recent changes should not affect this, but yes scratchy sound happen 
sometime
when loading a new game, resetting or reloading the game should fix it, this 
happens
in earlier revision as well.

that's why it's hard to reproduce, because it's not related to a specific game 
and
it's not constantly happening.

you can try to disable High-Quality FM and see if it still happens.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 10:34

• Changed state: Accepted

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Issue 57 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 10:37

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Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 10:38

• Added labels: Priority-High, Type-Defect

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The version before the audio changes has much more consistent (and not 
scratchy) 
audio.  I really think Zombies Ate My Neighbors mucking up other games is a 
separate 
issue.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 3 Jan 2010 at 11:16

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I still need more infos:

1/ does it still happen when "High Quality FM" is disabled ? 
2/ is it indeed solved by returning to the menu ? reseting ? reloading the game 
?
3/ be more precise: what do you mean by "more consistent audio" ? Don't get 
fooled by
the revision changelog, the changes I made only brings a very tiny adjustment 
for
accuracy purpose and for later changes, there is no way it could be noticeable 
by
human ears :-)

To me, the bug still happens with the same randomness in this version as in 
previous
versions, some games have scratchy sound when being loaded after some other 
games and
sometime they don't (ie I could not reproduce this bug two times in a row).

And it's the same scratchy sound when you load Castlevania after Zombies (which 
is
ALSO a random issue and depends how much time you exacly wait before loading the
other game), hence why I'm pretty sure it's the same and one issue:  it's very 
likely
that it's not a specific game issue or an issue in the emulation cores but 
rather
something wrong in the mixing or resampling audio engine.

It might also be caused by how Wii Audio DMA playback is configured: to keep 
video &
audio perfectly synchronized (i.e to avoid any sound hicup or video 
frameskipping), I
don't render the same amount of audio samples per video frame but rather output 
an
average number of samples. Maybe this cause some issues when changing games, I 
need
to investigate.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 4 Jan 2010 at 2:24

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Test results from version before audio changes (to avoid Issue 1):

Issue 1: 
The constant static (hiss?) of the audio that sometimes happens using the new 
version of the emulator with Phantasy Star II or other games doesn't occur.  I 
think 
the audio change is noticeable.

Issue 2: 
The "Zombies bug" isn't limited to that game or even Konami games.  Golden Axe 
exhibited the same buggy behavior.  Some games, including Konami games Rocket 
Knight 
Adventures and Contra Hard Corps, are always fine when played alone.  High 
Quality 
FM: Off still produces the issue.

Reproducing Issue 2:  
The first game that is played always sounds fine.  Loading the same exact game 
again 
will produce the bug if it is one of the problem games. 
ex) Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Castlevania Bloodlines, Golden Axe, etc.

Once the bug has occurred, Hard Reset will fix the audio.  If the bug occurs 
and a 
non-problem game (Ecco the Dolphin) is loaded without a Hard Reset, that game 
will 
also produce the bug. 

I agree that Issue 2 likely has to do with the Wii audio system. 

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 4 Jan 2010 at 8:56

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I did not notice anything wrong or different in Phantasy Star 2 (just started a 
new
game and played a while), maybe you have a savestate to share where it is more
obvious ? Or a detailled description of where it happens ?

Thanks for the details about the "scratchy sound" bug: the fact it does not 
seems
related to "High Quality FM" also helps. Could you try the same tests with 
Region
forced to "EUR" (PAL) ? Some games will obviously refuse to boot because of 
region
protection but you can try to change the region after the game is started and 
see if
it changes something.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 5 Jan 2010 at 8:47

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Only a certain revision of Phantasy Star II (English, NTSC) exhibited the 
static 
(1989, ROM doesn't have revision number or any tags at all).  It happens right 
at 
the title screen with r398.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2010 at 2:09

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Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2010 at 9:22

• Added labels: EmulationAccuracy

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I tried again with all known revisions of PSII but did not notice any issue or
scratchy sound at title screen. I tested against Kega and the output is 
identical.

I also figured the "scratchy audio" bug does not happen when the TV Mode is 
forced to
50Hz (or the game forced to run in PAL mode), so it definitively has something 
to do
with the audio sync method used in NTSC/60Hz mode. 

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2010 at 8:35

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Reproducing Issue1: (r398)
1. Load Ecco the Dolphin (NTSC)
2. Listen to the scratchy audio.  Note that it is different than the crackly 
audio 
from Issue2.  Perhaps Issue1 compounds Issue2.
3. Reloading/Hard Reset does not fix the scratchiness.
4. Load some version of Phantasy Star II (NTSC) immediately afterwards
5. Loading Ecco and then Phantasy Star II may take some tries to reproduce the 
bug, 
but when it happens it's very loud hiss/static.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 7 Jan 2010 at 3:04

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I didn't notice any scratchy audio after loading these 2 games, tried to
reload them a bunch of time in this order to reproduce your issue  but nothing. 
Are
you sure you just didn't set the volume too loud in order to listen to possible 
audio
"imperfections" and your TV setup can not handle it ? Because nothing is wrong 
here
on my side, music is just fine :/

Anyway, I'm not sure to understand the difference between "crackly" and 
"scratchy" audio
here, seems to me there is still one and single bug that affects some games, 
that's all.
Maybe you could try to do some kind of video capture so that I can notice the 
issue,
but otherwise, there is nothing I can do about "Issue 1" and I will concentrate
myself fixing "Issue 2".

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 7 Jan 2010 at 1:23

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2: (crackle, separated)
http://www.mediafire.com/?4wdidygjn4w
Notice the little one right at the beginning of Ecco.  Castlevania's title 
screen 
after Zombies is the worst.

1: (scratchy hiss/static/etc., constant)
http://www.mediafire.com/?zuh322vjntm
Got about three different variants of the audio issue.  Ecco was hairy.  A 
couple of 
the short Phantasy Star II segments were perfect (and thus short.)  Phantasy 
Star II 
at the end is the real show.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2010 at 1:22

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Oh, and sorry about the noise.  It must be the integrated sound card, because 
the 
headphone jack on the stereo does not sound that bad.  I didn't want to alter 
the 
results.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2010 at 1:24

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Can you point me the exact time where Ecco sounds wrong ? I don't notice 
anything
here. I can hear the weird stuff at the end on Phantasy Star 2 but it seems to 
me it
VERY random as you reloaded it a bunch of time before it would happen. Did not 
notice
anything wrong in the sound before that other than usual noise that are probably
releated to your TV output . Care to point me the exact times where it sounds 
wrong
according to you ?

The other issue is the usual one that I can reproduce myself so nothing new 
about
that one. The crackling noise on Ecco is from your TV, I don't have this on my 
setup.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2010 at 11:39

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I should also note that I tried the same sequence (2nd recording) on my side 
and did
not notice ANY of this sound artefact.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2010 at 11:45

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I assure you it's not my TV (well, because the audio doesn't pass through the 
TV) or 
my audio setup (Sony stereo receiver).  This only happens in Genesis Plus GX 
while 
playing games.

This is the r398 OGG layout:

E1 -- P1 -- E2 -- P2 -- P3 -- P4 -- P5 -- P6

E1: very quiet, constant scratching; same little pop at beginning (from Issue 2)
P1: high-pitched hum
E2: very quiet, constant scratching
P2: perfect
P3: perfect
P4: quiet hiss that contains changing pitches
P5: perfect
P6: loud hiss

I hope your headphones/speakers can reproduce these subtleties.  Listen very 
carefully. :)

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 9 Jan 2010 at 5:40

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Ok, I can hear the sound defects you are mentionning. The problem is that I 
could not
reproduce this on my console, no matter how many time I try the exact same 
sequence.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 9 Jan 2010 at 3:42

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Now that I have returned to college, I won't be able to test for a few months.

Original comment by westonl...@gmail.com on 9 Jan 2010 at 5:20

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Ecco's crackly sound in the intro is definitively there, guess I did not wait 
enough
on title screen before. It is indeed a constant issue and should be fixed in 
future
revisions. Note  that it does not happen when setting TV Mode to 50Hz or 
forcing game
region to EUR so it's definitively something in the audio backend, even if it's 
not
similar than the "Castlevania" sound bug which is random and not game specific.

I could not reproduce the other issue with PSII, tried to load both revisions 
more
than 10 times and always got perfect sound. It could be related  to the 
'Castlevania"
bug for its randomness and effect or maybe I accidentally fixed it in my current
revision (not commited yet).

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 12 Jan 2010 at 10:10

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I've completely rewrote the sound processing and mixing part which should be 
now more
accurate and avoid any sample skipping or lag. All scratching issues seem fiwed 
so
far, at least I could not reproduce them anymore.

Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 11:43

• Changed state: Fixed

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Original comment by ekeeke31@gmail.com on 29 May 2010 at 7:57

• Changed state: Verified