So I got to work, but my efforts were only half-successful. In DPP, I only found two or so samples that were reusable, so I'm not going to talk about that. What I did find was that HGSS uses a huge number of samples also used in Gen V games. And thus, the HGSS HQ project is born:
Download here.
The download contains both an NCSF set and the modified .sdat.
Some notes about this:
-How much higher quality are we talking? Most of the samples I replaced in HGSS were ones sampled at around 16000Hz or 22050Hz, and all of the samples that come from B/W are at least 32000Hz (most are a couple hundred Hz more than that), so we're talking rather non-marginal gains here.
-Due to the length and articulation of the new samples compared to the old ones, things won't sound exactly the same. Whether it sounds better or worse is a matter of taste, I suppose, but I personally feel that it is almost universally a change for the better
-The new samples are frequently louder than the old ones in addition to the quality boost. This means that there is some amount of clipping in the new songs. It's not audible, but it is certainly clipping. I might look into a way of lowering the overall volume, but it's not exactly a high priority.
-In the NCSF set, I have removed the "GB Sounds" version of the songs along with any sound effects. Even if GB Sounds didn't sound like absolute ass, these sample changes have no effect on them, so it's not worth keeping. Also note that I have not renamed anything, so it's up to you to find out which songs are which (knowing a bit of Japanese helps you here), and they're not in order either because SDATtoNCSF appends the hex number of the song to the beginning of the filename, and Windows doesn't order that properly.
-Lastly, remember that the effect will be greater or lesser for different songs--it all depends on what samples the songs use, so listen to a good deal of them.
Enjoy listening; thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
edited 11:43 PM EST February 23, 2016
I'm not sure if this really adds anything to the discussion but based on all of the above I don't really think there's a way to get a higher quality version of that specific instrument.
Also I should note that also in B2W2 there is a similar sounding instrument (that in most of the songs it is used in is assigned to the same program as the instrument from D/P when used in B2W2), used in songs such as Hugh's theme (again regular and battle) and Iris's battle theme. However to me at least it's not a higher quality version of that instrument but rather a completely different instrument entirely, and imo it doesn't have the same charm as the original instrument from Diamond and Pearl.
LOL hopefully I was clear.
If you find the sample, though, please do post a wav of it, or at least let me know where to find it in an swar--I'm pretty sure I checked everything, but I definitely could have missed a sample somewhere.
And yes, there are a number of samples reused in BW/B2W2 that are of the exact same quality as DPP because I guess there was no higher quality source. I would like to know where these instruments come from since I've heard at least one of them used in a completely unrelated work.
edited 10:31 AM EST February 24, 2016
edited 10:43 AM EST February 24, 2016
edited 11:03 AM EST February 24, 2016
This is the sample I was talking about:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0o00t2objci11z/Synth%20Wave.wav?dl=0
I tried upsampling it, and the results.....less than stellar. The quality took a massive nose drive. So I guess there's no modifying this instrument.
EDIT: I found it, and it sounds better than I recall. A gain of ~24000Hz versus ~16000Hz. The only problem is the loop is a bit more noticeable. Here it is.
edited 7:33 PM EST February 24, 2016
edited 4:45 PM EST February 25, 2016
edited 9:56 PM EST February 25, 2016
edited 11:48 PM EST February 25, 2016
I personally like the additional articulation of most of these samples (with the exception of the Trombones maybe). The strings and tubular bells really make tracks sound smoother IMO.
As far as finding original samples, I don't know how I'd do that. I don't think it's that important, though--the SWAVs used in DS games aren't actually that compressed (they typically use 4-bit IMA ADPCM). But if you know where I can find source instruments, let me know.
edited 9:51 AM EST February 26, 2016
If we keep it a secret between just us, nobody would know! ;)
edited 6:52 PM EST February 26, 2016
edited 8:15 PM EST February 26, 2016
Long story short, the NCSF player does not technically emulate DS hardware, because I used very few components from a DS emulator for playback. I suppose it might be more proper to say it simulates how a DS would play the music without emulating the DS's hardware of doing so.
I can't say 100% for sure if NCSF can handle samples over 44.1KHz, but it should be able to load samples and play them back with no problems, as it'll try to use interpolation to the sample rate that the player wants. So for example, if you had 44.1KHz samples but told the player you want to output at 22.05KHz, while it'll try to use interpolation to make it sound less like crap, it will probably still sound somewhat worse than setting the player to 44.1KHz. And if the player was set to something like 96KHz, it'll interpolate to fill in the gaps and while it won't sound exact as a result, it also won't sound terrible unless you use no interpolation or one of the weaker interpolation options.
Also, as far as an "apples to apples" comparison, I'd say it would be more fair to compare NCSFs of DPP to this set, as opposed to comparing the 2SFs of DPP to this set, as it is possible there could be very, very slight differences between the NCSF and 2SF sets. (I've tried my best to make sure that NCSF playback is as close as possible to how it should actually be playing.)
Also on an unrelated note, as an amendment to my first reply to this thread, N's decisive battle theme appears to have the synth wave instrument in its soundbank, though it goes completely unused by the song (as far as I can tell).
edited 3:34 PM EST March 1, 2016
Also, thank you very much for shedding some light on the inner workings of NCSF, CyberBotX. It was helpful and interesting.
edited 7:26 PM EST March 1, 2016
http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=234036
At first glance, it becomes obvious that values such as the attack and sustain rate are different for the higher quality samples from BW, and if they are different, the sound does not play.
Now, Kurausukun, I'm obviously not suggesting you try this, especially since as you said it might be a lot of work. But perhaps this is the main (and hopefully the only) reason they don't play.
It seems that Spiky-Eared Pichu's experience over there is exactly the same thing that's happening with my replacements. But why would the sound not play from the attack and sustain values being different? Yes, they are clearly different since almost all of the samples are not only clearer but longer in BW vs. in HGSS, but that shouldn't be a problem. If it were, how would any of these rips be playing at all? If the ASDR info were invalidated, it shouldn't play at all, even in a rip. This is why I think the problem is the game not finding the offsets properly.
If I needed to change these values, I would need to edit the .SBNK as well, for close to 100 instruments. This would take a good amount of time, especially since I'd need to find out what the correct new values are using the .SBNK from BW. We would also need to consider that I especially have no idea what I'm doing there because there are no SBNK editing tools I'm aware of, and I don't feel like I have enough experience to dig through the hex and find the information myself. If I knew for sure this would fix the issue, then I'd be a lot more motivated to try, but I'm not at all convinced this would do anything.
edited 6:02 AM EDT May 13, 2016
Actually out of curiosity what did you use to make this? I imagine it's not a tool most of us here are unfamiliar with, but it's worked for them and not for this.
Also I shouldn't get credit for finding that thread, someone on Discord messaged me that :P
edited 4:35 PM EDT May 13, 2016
If they are sounds sample that use the same instruments in HG/SS then I would definetly shell out the cash for them.
I am honestly not certain re-sampling them from the original plugins would make a difference but it wouldn't hurt to try if one had the plugins.
Also @RebeccaSugar yes, the waves in BW and HGSS were sampled from the plugins, but I do not think at the maximum quality possible.
edited 9:41 AM EDT May 18, 2016
edited 10:49 PM EDT May 18, 2016
=)