Odd sounding pitch during music in different games

kimbapslice commented 5 years ago

In several games, the music sounds a bit off.

For example: In Garou Mark of the Wolves during Hotaru Futaba's giant bell/church rooftop stage, the music sounds like a bad VHS tape with audio warble. The flute instrument sound.

I have noticed this in games like Samurai Shodown 3 as well in different stages/character songs like Rimururu or Nakoruru's. This game has a great soundtrack.

Last Blade: Select Yuki and the first fight will be Amano at the bridge cherry blossom stage, the music is affected.

I will try to list more games and examples, but Garou is definitely noticeable and reproducible. It's hardly game breaking. Thank-you! I am running the newest release 11/25/2019 with 128MB RAM.

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

Hi. heard the same here.

Blazing Star stage 2 soundtrack, when higher synth samples (at the end of the loop), looks like wierd drunked tone/pitch music.
FF3 (0x072F music code - Terry stage) also have.

running last avril neogeo core build

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

Hi again

Stakes Winner musics do the same. kind of "sounds" used in this game helps to really ear pitch issu. IMO this is general issu, not for some games. Hope next release will fix it.

on the other hand (i don't want to add another thread with sound issu):

on Metal Slug X, stage 2, second part: there are missing half xylophone's notes (code 0x0023)

running: MiSTer v200429 / NEOGEO v200510 IO board analog out (direct out) / 128Mo ram

thanks a LOT all of you for amazing work!

jotego commented 4 years ago

Hi, this is the author of JT12, which was forked on this repository to handle the sound. If you can produce VGM files of the relevant music tracks where the problem occurs I will check if the problem is in JT12. Thank you.

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

Hi there Jotego ;)

here are 3 VGM: Blazing Star - Stage 2 FF3 - Terry song Garou - Happy ending NeoGeo-VMG.zip

Thank you!

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

and as i can't find VGM from Metal Slug X, there is records i done: Metal Slug X_xylophone.zip 0'0" to 0'15" is original 0'15" to 0'30" is from MiSTer

Thank you!

jotego commented 4 years ago

Hi @MonokromFR,

I have simulated the VGM files. Blazing Star blazing.zip and FF3 FF3.zip sound ok to me but I have just fixed one issue (https://github.com/jotego/jt12/issues/57) that may have been causing problems here too.

But I do hear some noise in GAROU.zip, around secons 8-10 there is a rythmic pattern in channels coming from ADPCM-A module. GAROU_adpcmA.zip. Is that what you were referring to? (For reference: the track is here, number 30)

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

Hi Jotego

thanks for reply!

there is my feed back about your sample above:

Blazing star: sounds good to me.
FF3: your sample sounds horrible to me and don't match original hardware at all.
Garou: this is the right song i was talking about (#30), but same issue as FF3 to me. also, GAROU_adpcmA don't meet instrument i was talking about.

Issues @kimbapslice and I were talking about are not glitches or rythmic pattern, we would say "bad VHS tape with audio warble" or "wierd drunked tone/pitch". or same like a vinyl turntable with bad belt.

Pay close attention to FF3 sample: forget about guitar and drum, listen to the 3th synth note: MV2F seem higher and regular, MiSTer seems lower and drunked. FF3_3th_note.zip

Pay close attention to Blazing Star: on MiSTer record i made a (A) shot at 0"4' that affect music. BlazStar_Get_ready.zip

There is an BlazingStar in game record. listen to MiSTer record:

i made a (A) shot at 0"9'
(B) shot at 0'11" then enemy explose: music is wierd. (you can listen to MV2F in game record but this is of course not the same shot at same moments). BlazStar_IN_GAME.zip

I think:

playing soundtrack from jukebox player with Unibios doesn't reveal too much odd sound issue.
listening IN GAME seems to be very more revealent and comes randomly. Maybe there is a link when others sounds are played at the same time?

I played Blazing Star a lot a few years ago and music is stuck in my head, I noticed this issu the first time i played it on MiSTer.

Thanks to trying to figure it out, i hope my explanation are clear enough, it is hard to explain sound by writing (and obviously my english is crappy).

PS: records sounds are very different, MiSTer is crystal clear while MV2F contains less trebles. the point isn't here :)

kimbapslice commented 4 years ago

Sorry I haven't had much time to test recently either, but the last few play times I did get in the latest versions, the warbly-ness of the audio seemed to have decreased a lot. I will try to sit down and track down more specific instances. Will update.

jotego commented 4 years ago

That's a lot of information, @MonokromFR. Thank you.

I was working with some old files. After replacing them I think FF3 and Garou will sound ok to you. Please let me know what you think about them now: FF3-17 Garou-30.zip

About the pitch movement in the Blazing Star in-game recording: Yes, I can hear that between seconds 11 and 12 there is one instrument whose pitch drifts away. But I cannot debug that. I can only debug using VGM files for reference. Once the sound module goes into the rest of the system and we compile it into the FPGA, debugging becomes extremely hard. Please let us focus only at problems we can reproduce with VGM files.

MonokromFR commented 4 years ago

Hi Jotego. Your last FF3 rip sounds bugged to me, while Garou seems ok now...

I'm not a dev at all and trying to understand what you say ;) I just pointed out what i hear at final analog output: tracks are impacted by others tracks/SFX played at the same time. You know better than me what could be wrong ;)

kimbapslice commented 4 years ago

Hello,

Sorry for the slowness on my part. I got out my AES and a NeoSD Pro and loaded up Garou Mark of the Wolves (I also have Garou in MVS if you need me to try). Using the Mister 6-22-2020 build of Neogeo with all Mister files updated.

In Garou Mark of the Wolves: Mister v200814, OS v200618, Neogeo 6-22-2020 build System Type: AES, Bios: Unibios (4.0), Video Mode NTSC In the Unibios Menu JukeBox Music Player, use sound code 0x072A (unknown music) and 0x734 (Hotaru)

They both sound really bad when the flute sample plays.

Compared this to the real AES and it's day and night. I tried to record it on my phone and the sound quality is not good for sharing. I am certain this bug is in other games.

jotego commented 4 years ago

Hi @kimbapslice,

Thank you for your detailed report and sorry for insisting but it does save me a lot of time if I can be pointed directly to a VGM file of the melody in question.

I think the last sound fix I made has not been yet released by MiSTer curators. But if you're talking about sample music it won't be affeced by it as it was related to PSG.

Thank you

kimbapslice commented 4 years ago

Hello @jotego ,

Sorry I misread your last comment and overlooked the request for VGM files (I didn't know what these were - VGM). Anyway, attached are the 2 VGM in question for Garou Mark of the Wolves and verified glitch still exists in Neogeo build 8-20-2020

In the Unibios Menu JukeBox Music Player, use sound code 0x072A (unknown music) and 0x734 (Hotaru) I downloaded the vgms from vgmrips.net garou vgms.zip

The unknown music is bad immediately. The Hotaru stage music sounds off from the beginning, but really gets bad around 23 seconds mark - something to do with the flute sample.

Bocop commented 4 years ago

It's really noticeable during the title music for Pulstar as well, about 30 seconds in after loading the game once the gameplay demo starts and there is action on-screen (shots being fired, ships exploding, etc.). The music speed and pitch really starts dragging as though it's being played back on an analog reel-to-reel player with a dirty head.

It doesn't exhibit this behavior when played back in the game's Options screen in AES mode.

jotego commented 4 years ago

If it does not occur when played via the menu, it is likely to be a bus contention issue unrelated with the YM2610 implementation. Commands or PCM data to the audio "chip" must be coming in late.

Bocop commented 3 years ago

Anything new on this? seems unresolved.

Dubon77 commented 3 years ago

@furrtek did a decap of the PCM chip so that might provide some insight

stainmage commented 3 years ago

Hello same problem here but I noticed the pitch variation in every game I tested : Art of Fighting, Kof98, Snk vs Capcom...

Here is a comparison between the core and a real neo geo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szaYSXKVfdZ9bnq_-mSRIFflALAyzSgA/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqCVhe7P5jOVbZtC4V_RC36oJ95ZnUSW/view?usp=drivesdk

You can sense after pressing the start button how the second note drifts away in some kind of modulation while the computer shows the tutorial.

There are many parts of the game that has the same problem.

Hard to tell in the video but IRL it's easy to spot, sounds like a tape slow down

Cheers

kimbapslice commented 3 years ago

I am trying out the new 09/08/2021 neogeo core update: NeoGeo:

Audio fixes (greyrogue)
Reduce SDRAM cycles (fixes KOF'94 and some other games graphics glitches).

Seems like the pitch variation is gone!!! Amazing work! So far I have only tested Samurai Shodown 3 and Garou Motw. Please someone confirm and we get to close out another bug. Thanks greyrogue and everyone for making this core better everyday!

kimbapslice commented 3 years ago

I have been testing a few additional games and they all sounded very good! Closing ticket!

MiSTer-devel / NeoGeo_MiSTer

Odd sounding pitch during music in different games #60