From the days of way back.

TerraEpon wrote:

Ashley Winchester wrote:

TerraEpon wrote:

I'm sorry Judo, but anyone who uses WAV over FLAC or even APE is a an idiot.

Then I must be a real idiot, being satisfied with 128 kbps mp3's. Really, they sound good enough to me.

That's completely different, and unrelated to using a format that takes up twice as much space with less features.

Not really, I mean the formats your talking about are lossless ones, but the idea of maintaining the highest "quality" is the subject at hand. So, in this respect I was taking a jab at myself because I honestly can't tell that much difference in "quality" between a wav. and a 128kbps mp3.

Daniel K wrote:

Ashley Winchester wrote:

I honestly can't tell that much difference in "quality" between a wav. and a 128kbps mp3.

Maybe its time to invest in a new audio setup? Or possibly a hearing aid...

Oh, you're good. Naw, but really, I don't care about the sound loss to the point where I would expend a x10 file size. They're just data files, not the declaration of independence.

Angela wrote:

Daniel K wrote:

Maybe its time to invest in a new audio setup? Or possibly a hearing aid...

He said it.  I was just thinking it.

And to think, there are times where I bite my tounge, err, keyboard.

Edit:

I got over it, anyway...

So by this logic, I'm also dunce for still buying DVDs instead of Blu-Ray, and having an analog TV instead of flat screen-HD deal. I mean how could I POSSIBLY tolerate such sub-standard viewing! How could I be that unjust towards myself! I mean I do deserve the best don't I? I must keep up with all the other technophiles out there! If I don’t crave the high standards others have what’s the point?

Good enough is good enough for me.

Last edited by Ashley Winchester (Nov 14, 2009)

Angela wrote:

He said it.  I was just thinking it.

Well, isn't that usually my role here?

Ashley: stop whining. If audio quality isn't important to you anyway, stay out of the thread.

Pellasos wrote:

saw somebody talking about insector-x a few years ago and i'm still impressed by the album, thanks for that. the search for a complete mint copy is neverending.

You're welcome. I'm still impressed myself, even after 5 years of listening. It still sounds good.

  To continue with my renewed interest in older game music, I put up 4 more.

  All Sounds of Zavas - http://www.mediafire.com/?bz5ydrw24dj

  The sound quality on Zavas is not on par with Insector X and there are only 2 arranged tracks, but the compositions are rather engaging. I always find myself listening to the whole thing.

  King of Fighters '94 Arrange Sound Trax - http://www.mediafire.com/?w212gd0zk3m

  This is now getting fairly old (15 years) and it's worth checking out if you're not familiar with the series.

  Game Music Concert 1 - http://www.mediafire.com/?10wmgm2qozb

  I'd be surprised if anyone browsing this forum hasn't heard this one, but there's always the chance some new fan pops in.

  Game Music Concert 2 - http://www.mediafire.com/?jzjvoqznjnm

  Ditto.

Added 4 more:

Game Music Concert 3 - http://www.mediafire.com/?zmmnazitydm

Game Music Concert 4 - http://www.mediafire.com/?n5yo5j5m1mn

Game Music Concert 5 - http://www.mediafire.com/?zmjo5ozf2im

L'Empereur - http://www.mediafire.com/?njjzjtuagji

Media Fire has turned out to be pretty useful, since I actually had to use it at a friend's house. It's as if I can access parts of my hard drive from anywhere.

Statistics so far:

1.78 GB storage used
182 downloads served
13.4 GB bandwidth served

Daniel K wrote:

Bernhardt wrote:

I just don't feel the need to take the time or effort to learn about all those file formats that most people don't use...

What would you need to spend time on? You rip them and play them in the same way that you do with mp3s and other formats. You make it sound like rocket science.

We've discussed this before, Bernhardt, and it seems your only argument can be boiled down to "it confuses me, and besides most people don't use it, so why should I?" If you're always trying to stay within the confines of "normal" behaviour, what are you doing on a game music discussion forum anyway? Convention is a poor excuse.

No need to be snarky.

Besides, there's no need until portable players actually support APE or FLAC.

If you're really that much a fan of these formats, perhaps you'd like to wage a campaign to get producers of these devices to support these formats?

Sure, you can listen to these formats if you've got a stereo hooked up to your computer, but how often are you sitting at your computer at home?

Last edited by Bernhardt (Nov 16, 2009)

Bernhardt wrote:

Besides, there's no need until portable players actually support APE or FLAC.

If you're really that much a fan of these formats, perhaps you'd like to wage a campaign to get producers of these devices to support these formats?

Sure, you can listen to these formats if you've got a stereo hooked up to your computer, but how often are you sitting at your computer at home?

FLAC support was more or less a bonus in my D2 purchase (I was looking for something that was an audio quality upgrade from an iPod) and it just happened to be there when I figured I'd try it. Only downers are I wish they had Replay Gain support for the player (I'm going to try my luck with Wave Gain, then convert to FLAC from there) and more onboard storage. From what I understand, fighting for support of the formats has been a long-fought battle.

And on any kind of setup, portable, car or PC, the difference is like night and day to me (even from high quality VBR mp3's, which I'm upgrading from).

One cool thing is a lot of older soundtracks seem to compress well with FLAC. My Seiken Densetsu 3 Disc 1 I got down to 250 mb (about an hour), compared to Judas Priest's Hellbent for Leather (360MB for 45 minutes). Strange...

Maybe try Apple Lossless? I admit I jumped right to FLAC and didn't really try it. I'm pretty sure iTunes can encode into it.

Razakin wrote:

Though, using Foobar at first can be bit confusing with all that multiple options, but people do usually get hang of it pretty fast. Though, I still haven't much gotten my hands dirty in the modifying the outlook of the player.

Anyways, to keep it more in the topic, gotta check those albums when I get back to home, atleast some of them are stff that I haven't heard in while nor have hidden somewhere in my HDD's.

You're right about Foobar; it is confusing. Here's some more for the "Days of Way Back" project.

Aquales - http://www.mediafire.com/?llm0tccxdyh

Dark Half - http://www.mediafire.com/?knidemmmqmi

FZ Series "AXIS" - http://www.mediafire.com/?tww3dmqmjec

Great Strategy III '90 / Imperial Force / Air Combat - http://www.mediafire.com/?zacemzitttz

Masaya Omnibus - http://www.mediafire.com/?1yzmwmn11ym

MIDI Power Pro2 ~Twinbee Yahho! & Salamander 2~ - http://www.mediafire.com/?gmyzhz3gutn

Neo-Geo Super Live! 1994 - http://www.mediafire.com/?vozjumyhmwl

Perfect Selection Sound Racing History - http://www.mediafire.com/?cm1immv1d2x

We Love Wizardry - http://www.mediafire.com/?gjinux2n0mv

Xardion Arrange Album - http://www.mediafire.com/?izokttmzdnz

Zan: Heat Haze Era - http://www.mediafire.com/?cjwzb2hnmm4


I also reuploaded these (added artwork):

Turok Dinosaur Hunter - http://www.mediafire.com/?hyrxw14wwuy

Sword Maniac Arrange Album - http://www.mediafire.com/?yijzzznztzm


I consider all of this a good start. Maybe once I've uploaded 50 or 100 more albums, I'll be close to covering some of the good stuff.

GoldfishX wrote:

And on any kind of setup, portable, car or PC, the difference [in FLAC] is like night and day to me (even from high quality VBR mp3's, which I'm upgrading from).

I'm not doubting the improved sound quality of FLAC at all, but I wonder if any of this has to do with differences in loudness?  It always seemed to me that less compressed MP3s, for example, aside from being clearer, were also just plain louder, which tends to sound better.  Any audiophiles out there know if this factors into the equation?

That said, even in MP3gained files, which should theoretically be at similar loudness, there is definitely a major improvement in quality from my old 128-160 kbps files to ones ripped with LAME at its highest VBR setting (which is now my default ripping setting and will probably remain so until FLAC or another lossless codec becomes ubiquitous).

Jodo Kast wrote:

Something like Guilty Gear X will take up much more space than Gradius in Classic. I occasionally watch the VBR files as they compress and hard rock always heavily fills in the bit rates above 224.

Yeah it always seemed strange to me how classical and orchestral music tends to compress better than hard rock or even electronica.

the_miker wrote:

Jodo Kast wrote:

You're right about Foobar; it is confusing.

It may be confusing at first but once you get to know your way around it, no other audio player will ever be acceptable again.

That may be the case but I found it unacceptably confusing.   I gave it a couple weeks of use and it still seemed ugly and lacking in features I needed.  Both of which can probably be modded to be improved, but the time and research required just seemed like to much to me.

If I were to stray from my mainstay J. River Media Center I would go with Media Monkey, which isn't overly complicated and has a decent interface and rock-solid playback.

GoldfishX wrote:

"Hmm, now how much will I enjoy songs I've only heard in mp3?".

If you can afford it, I recommend going for a $2000+ headphone system. I listened to Insector X for the first time on an audiophile-grade headphone system (mine) and you will not believe what I heard. You see, it's not about mp3. From what I've learned, it's all about the $$$. You just have to spend $2000+. It doesn't matter whether you listen to an mp3 file or a flac file or a wav file on lower quality set-up; it's never going to do anything special.

  I use a Harman/Kardon speaker system with my PC and mp3 files at bit rates of 160 and higher sound identical to ape files and wav files. Same thing in my car. I can only tell the difference when I use expensive audio gear.

  But there is a downside to my headphone system. It seemed like every 15 seconds someone had to cough during Game Music Concert 1. I heard all the 'people' noises in the crowd and on the stage. So it's not so great for live recordings, but rather magical for studio recordings.