The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

If I play the MODs from UQM it sounds like the original SC2 running under DOSbox.  But then I found some mp3s of the music recorded from the 3DO version, and everything is in a slightly higher key.

Anyone know what's up with that?  Did the two versions actually play things differently?  Is one "right" and one "wrong"?  Or are the mp3s or MODs somehow messed up?

Covak

The 3DO music got renovated, and it does sound much better..
well..

aside from the Quasi-Space music!! Why in the world did they change it?! ARRGH!

I know they remixed a few tracks to take advantage of the CD format, but the majority of the game's music is still just MOD... those bits are more what I'm curious about.

I'm trying to make myself a soundtrack CD, but the MODs aren't the greatest quality when played on modern equipment, so I've been going through and cleaning them up a bit (removing audible pops and clicks from the samples, etc).  I downloaded the 3DO mp3s just to see if they were in stereo, and how they did the stereo seperation.  Wasn't expecting to find that everything was playedin a higher key too.

I dunno if the PC version did stereo sound, I never had a good enough sound card back then, and DOSbox still just emulates the original mono SoundBlaster.

I guess what I'd really like to know is what the composers wrote the MODs on, and what sounds closest to that these days.

I'm probably alone in thinking this, but I think it'd be great for all the music to be... not remixed in the usual sense of taking out all but a very few melodies, and writing a whole new tune around it, but more kind of adding new instruments to make it sound better.
This could be done without bulking up with MP3s. There are other module formats available, the best of which is either Impulse Tracker's ITs, or FastTracker's XMs. I lean towards the latter, merely because it seems more common, and is used by some of my favourite module composers.
Yes, I collect these things like most people collect MP3s. < ^.^;>
Anyway, that last is the part I'd most like to see. The current MOD files done up to use the more advanced features available in XM files (including *gasp!* more than 4 instruments playing at once!). A good composer can make a XM that sounds as good as an MP3, and it takes up heaps less space. But I somehow doubt many people will agree with me here.

-- Stelard Actek

I actually do agree with you... except for the fact that I prefer .IT to .XM :D (the only real advantage is that .IT has internal compression... but I like Impulse Tracker better, anyway).
However it seems more interesting (to me) to make my own soundtrack collected from various artists. Why did that thread die, anyway? I would've thought more people would be interested in sharing their ideas.

I can think of two possibilities: the MP3s are badly recorded and are therefore at the wrong speed, or the MODs are being played at a different pitch on the 3DO.

If someone wants to investigate this, try comparing the MP3 and the OGG in UQM of some of the remixes. If they exhibit the pitch difference, it's probably a recording artefact. If not, it may be a MOD player thing. Considering that different MOD players not always agree on the pitch to use, I wouldn't be surprised if the 3DO version plays MODs off key.

SC2 supported stereo sound on the Gravis UltraSound. Unfortunately, the GUS support appeared to be slightly buggy and occasionally corrupted instruments. Quite a shame; SC2 sounded so much better with hardware mixing at 44 kHz than software mixing at about 8 kHz...

I guess I got my GUS MAX too late to ever try it with SC2.

The pitch SC2 plays at in DOSbox seems to agree with the pitch Modplug Tracker plays at, and what UQM plays at, so I'll assume the 3DO version is just a little funky.

Another funky thing about the 3DO version is its stereo.  It seems to put channels 1 and 3 to the left and channels 2 and 4 to the right, while MOD players default to channels 1 and 4 to left and 2 and 3 to right.  I think the MOD players are right, as far as the way things used to be back when these ancient MODs were actually made :)

The Amiga sound hardware has channels 1 and 4 to the left and channels 2 and 3 to the right, and all the original MOD trackers were written for the Amiga. 3DO UQM definitely has some bugs in its MOD player.

Thanks for the tip :)