Is it worth updating my Final Fantasy VI GBA sound restoration ?

[Bregalad]

The opera's lyrics are in Japanese, not in Italian.

Vanilla FF6A is pretty much exactly what she should sound like in my opinion)

As far I know, all the original SNES FF6, the original FF6a and my hack are on the same pitch. If one of them is to low to fit Celes, then all 3 are. I don't understand your logic, it doesn't make a difference whether the voice comes from a real recording or a synth.

For some reason they changed the pitch of the Aria when doing it with the real orchestra, but my personal opinion is that the original SNES pitch is the "real" intended pitch from Uematsu, and as such should be preferred.

EDIT : Now that I listen to it again I can see what you see, the voice sounds unnatural, not only because the pitch, but probably because we can hear it was edited, as such it sounds worse than if a female singer actually sound at that pitch. Unfortunately, unless you can lend me an orchestra I can't do much about it I could keep a higher pitch but then it wouldn't sound the same as the SNES... so something's going to be wrong in all cases.

[TheZunar123]

No offense, but I find it hard to believe all three are the same pitch. SNES and GBA, sure, but not all three. As I mentioned I have little knowledge of music, but to an ignorant person like me it definitely sounds like the pitch is too low for your hack.

But I'm not going to complain any more because I don't want to sound like a whiny kid or anything, so go with whatever you feel is right.

[Spooniest]

No offense, but I find it hard to believe all three are the same pitch. SNES and GBA, sure, but not all three. As I mentioned I have little knowledge of music, but to an ignorant person like me it definitely sounds like the pitch is too low for your hack.

But I'm not going to complain any more because I don't want to sound like a whiny kid or anything, so go with whatever you feel is right.

Pitch means "what key."

I believe you mean "equalization," as in bass, middle, treble frequencies.

All versions of the Aria are in the key of D major.

[TheZunar123]

Pitch means "what key."

I believe you mean "equalization," as in bass, middle, treble frequencies.

All versions of the Aria are in the key of D major.

You're probably right, I would not be surprised if I've been using the wrong terminology. Not the first time it's happened and definitely won't be the last. At least Breg seems to see what I've been talking about.

Unfortunately, unless you can lend me an orchestra I can't do much about it I could keep a higher pitch but then it wouldn't sound the same as the SNES... so something's going to be wrong in all cases.

Trust me, I would if I could. Personally I wouldn't mind if it wasn't the same as SNES so long as the voice was better, but I don't want to tell you what to do or cause you any more trouble, so just go with what you feel is the best solution.

[Spooniest]

So what you're saying is that the recording of the Aria being used in the currently downloadable version of the music restore patch is improperly mixed?

That, at least, we agree on...but is it possible to re-eq tracks like that individually or is the eq adjustment global, as in, affecting all tracks in the game at once?

If the tracks can be re-equalized individually then that'd be possible to do, I suppose, but I have no idea if this is the case or not.

[TheZunar123]

While we're still talking about the opera, I have another question. If you go to 8:58 in the video Spooniest linked, there's a kind of echo after Draco's "O Maria" lines, is that supposed to happen? It seems a little weird to me.

(The voice itself is good, no problems with it in and of itself, just the echo)

[Bregalad]

I don't understand your comments. All I can do is do effects on the existing recodings (such as chaging pitch/tempo/volume). I cannot do anything else, so your comments doesn't make any sense. You guys seem to assume I was there in the studio recording the orchestra and have the ability to mix it to my liking. This of course isn't the case, I just have the CD recording and I can only edit that recording.

The only other realistic option I'd have would be to record myself singing and using the SNES synth to accompany that, but I don't think if this'd sound any good.

[Spooniest]

Ok so all you can do is plug in the tracks, you have no way to re-equalize them?

That's expected, I suppose.

[TheZunar123]

So for example, if you wanted to increase the pitch of just Celes's voice, it would also increase the pitch of the music? Is that what I'm understanding?

[Spooniest]

So for example, if you wanted to increase the pitch of just Celes's voice, it would also increase the pitch of the music? Is that what I'm understanding?

If you just increased the pitch of one of the voices (in this case the lead vocal), then it would be dissonant with the rest of the piece.

Pitch is the note that's being played, not any quality of that notes tone.

[Bregalad]

Well - obviously - I just have the recording of the whole thing, not of individual parts.

[TheZunar123]

Well - obviously - I just have the recording of the whole thing, not of individual parts.

Gotcha. Welp, guess there's not really much that can be done to fix it. Thanks for explaining and putting up with my complaining earlier, at least.

Just in case you missed it earlier, I've been keeping backups of my saves, so let me know if there's a spot in the game you need to fix so I can be ready for it and send you a save.

[Bregalad]

Just in case you missed it earlier, I've been keeping backups of my saves, so let me know if there's a spot in the game you need to fix so I can be ready for it and send you a save.

Maybe if you have one I'd be interested at a save at anytime where you can easily access the Returner's hideout (if possible after the 1st time, so that I don't have to deal with the story).

Another thing I'd be interested is a save where there is the 2nd world map music (the one which is a little "depressing") when you are in the world of ruin, but before there is the 3rd world map music.

That way I can test how well the sound effects and music blends together

Also one last place I'd be interested to check is the begining of the phantom train (I have your save from the middle of the phantom train, but I'd like to check the begining of the scene to be sure - I don't remeber exactly, but there is another special sound effect playing there I believe).

I guess that's all. Normally everything should be fine in theory but I'd rather verify.

PS : Also if you guys are interested in bet-testing a version with no opera and only about 1/3 of the sound effects there, just ask.

[Spooniest]

I sent you a pm but it did not seem to have saved to my sent items folder so...

Uh, I'd like to beta test.

[TheZunar123]

Here ya go, Breg. First save is just before going to the sealed cave, meaning you have the airship, so pretty much the entire World of Balance is open to you in case you want to test other things besides the Returner Hideout, so go nuts. Second save is right at the beginning of the World of Ruin. Cid is hungry, so feel free to feed him. Or not. And finally, third is right outside the Phantom Forest after getting Cyan. I had to start from scratch for this one and sped through the game, so my equipment isn't optimal there. And excuse the names, they're supposed to be intentionally stupid (except one which you'll notice )

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w39r20nd54jl6mb/ff6a-soundpatch.sav?dl=0

Also I'd be down for testing. I mentioned before I have a flash cart, so I'll also be testing on real hardware. Two birds with one stone.

[Chronosplit]

Bumping because it just updated.

Anyone know if 2.0 still pops in emulation?

[ShadowOne333]

Bumping because it just updated.

Anyone know if 2.0 still pops in emulation?

I'm interested in knowing if the 2.0 update adds the remaining sounds that Bregalad was asking for in the OP.

Edit:
This is the changelog for 2.0:

Since version 2.0 of this hack, everything has been done again from scratch. All songs and sound effects were converted directly from the SNES sound data into something the GBA understand, instead of songs being reproduced by hear or taken from various sources like in previous version. In other words, the music is 1:1 to the SNES original. Thus not only the sound effects are restored as well, but the music sound better and more accurate to the SNES original.

...

2.0 (march 6th 2016) : Re-did the hack from scratch, all music and SFX are 100% coming from SNES data, new faster mixing engine and sounds more faithful to SNES original sound. Opera is the same as in version 1.1.

[Chronosplit]

Just took a little tour.  This update compared to the last is like night and day.  It's so vastly improved that this time around, I recommend that everyone needs to update right now no matter what the circumstances.  Truly beautiful work.

Insofar all popping and such problems have been fixed.  I haven't encountered the out-of-sync bug either.  This is using VBA-M, so perhaps those bugs with VBA only exist with the original?

[Granville]

I've been testing this on Android using Retroarch's mGBA emulator core (which incidentally is supposedly more accurate than VBA), seems very impressive so far. Nicely done again Bregalad!

Besides the obvious improvements in sound quality, I have also noticed a definite and huge reduction in the framerate problems that plague this game. Particularly the "mode7" parts when riding the chocobo, which previously had massive lag. While I haven't gotten far enough to test it, this should also affect the airship and submarine parts as they use the same mode7 effects. Now the GBA port appears to run about as fast and smoothly as the SNES version in these sections.

Granted I am using an emulator and not real hardware, but emulators have always accurately replicated the game's slowdown before this patch was applied.

[Bregalad]

[...] seems very impressive so far. Nicely done again Bregalad!

Just took a little tour.  This update compared to the last is like night and day.  It's so vastly improved that this time around, I recommend that everyone needs to update right now no matter what the circumstances.  Truly beautiful work.

Thank you very much guys !

Besides the obvious improvements in sound quality, I have also noticed a definite and huge reduction in the framerate problems that plague this game. Particularly the "mode7" parts when riding the chocobo, which previously had massive lag. While I haven't gotten far enough to test it, this should also affect the airship and submarine parts as they use the same mode7 effects. Now the GBA port appears to run about as fast and smoothly as the SNES version in these sections.

Not as smooth as the SNES unfortunately. I'm working on version 2.1 (or maybe 2.01), which should be the exact same, but faster. The problem is that I run into new synchronization issues for the intro and the ending, and I have to speed up the music ridiculously fast - because when programming the GBA they did werid stuff I don't really understand myself - probably they programmed it so that it lags, and then decreased the # of frames to wait, so that when I fix the lag, the games ends up doing things too fast.