by DarioEMeloD at 2:19 AM EST on February 22, 2016
Are there any soundtracks that sound good without any kind of interpolation? For me that seemed to be the most "sample-accurate" sound, if that makes any sense, but for the most part they sound worse than Gaussian (it's especially noticeable in bass strings or bass sounds in general, and sound effects like wind or water flowing). I've tried a few, but no success so far.
Anyway, I like to keep digital signals in as high of a quality as possible (with a few liberties taken depending on the system). So, I crank everything up to as high as it can go if possible. That silly "Simulate analog anomalies with a lowpass filter" toggle is just a great way to cut down on signal clarity if you ask me.
192KHz
32 bits per sample
Cubic interpolation (I like my highs crisp and clean and my lows with a palatable amount of aliasing to give them some character. No interpolation is a bit much if you ask me. Highs come out sounding as good as they can get, but lows come out about as rough as an Amiga game.)
And just because I find some soundtracks to be on the quiet side, I cranked the internal volume from 16 to 24. Only the loudest games cause clipping. Like the Mega Man games or Super Off Road.
@dj4uk6cjm mostly well. There was one sequence from Biohazard 2 that did not convert well at all when I tried. There are a copy other tracks, but they are from games people here wouldn't care about.
After some testing, I think I'm gonna stick with Gaussian from now on.
You can tell the difference for example in "Theme of Super Metroid", using Sinc or Cubic makes the bass have a high harmonic that makes it sound more slap-like. Something similar happens in the Opening theme with the low strings and some of the high pitch sounds.
Here's a comparison (using SPCPlay): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1duR-0901kWviIUnmvrbHLixrhWq-X89D/
It's subtle, but it's there. So I guess I prefer accuracy over crispiness.
Sorry to necro, but I hope this helps someone else too.
Gaussian absolutely required for proper accuracy. Practically all of Donkey Kong Country 3’s soundtrack sounds completely different with the other options, as well as the Level Intro song from Yoshi’s Island now sounding like a weak gunshot sound instead of a low drum.