This version of the patch is NOT compatible with any Fan Translations! Please use the Fan Translations release instead if your ROM has been translated.

HIGH-QUALITY AUDIO MIXING FOR MOTHER 3 (JAPAN ONLY) / MOTHER3

Ever wanted to play MOTHER 3 without so much noise? Love hearing its soundtrack crystal clear on YouTube? Now you can experience the game with much cleaner audio!

This hack mixes every individual channel at 16-bit audio before downsampling everything to 8-bit audio as opposed to the default m4a mixer which mixes every channel at 8-bit audio (blame the GBA’s DAC!)

• This greatly reduces the number of quantization/rounding errors that pop up during the mixing process, making the classic GBA “background hiss” much quieter while making Shogo Sakai’s music sound crispier than ever! Results seem even better when played back on actual hardware. Enjoy!!

WARNING: If your game ever crashes with the Default HQ Audio patch, try the Alt. HQ Audio patch instead!

DISCLAIMER FOR EVERYONE: You may hear occasional popping in-game after patching your ROM, for example while saving your game. Throughout 100+ hours of testing, these same pops were heard while playing the original Japanese release, making us fairly confident this hack isn’t the cause. It’s possible these audio glitches were covered up by the original mixer’s background noise and are now easier to hear with clearer audio. Please don’t hesitate to report any bugs, but just keep in mind there’s only so much you can do with the GBA’s limitations!

CREDITS:

• Mixer preparation, ROM hacking, and patcher written by Summer Dragonfly (xkas format by Near/byuu: https://wiki.superfamicom.org/xkas)
• HQ sound mixer ingeniously programmed by ipatix (https://github.com/ipatix), inspired by “Golden Sun”: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=324673
• Original HQ sound mixing code written by Haruki “Bon” Kodera for Camelot Software Planning: https://www.camelot.co.jp/gimon/gimon21.html
• Mother 3 decompilation and technical support: Kurausukun and theo3 (https://github.com/Kurausukun/mother3)
• Extra technical support: phoenixbound and Yosuke
• Patcher translations by JumpmanFR and Somewhat Viable
• Special thanks to the Mother 1+2 Fan Translation/Sound Restoration project and the PRET Discord community!

Report any bugs found to https://github.com/MusicTheorist/MOTHER-3-HQ-Sound-Mixing-hack

• Database match: Mother 3 (Japan)
• Database: No-Intro: Game Boy Advance (v. 20210227-023848)
• File/ROM SHA-1: 4F0F493E12C2A8C61B2D809AF03F7ABF87A85776
• File/ROM CRC32: 42AC9CB9