Final Fantasy XII: music sounds off compared to real PS2

[Aaron]

Hi all,

I've been using PCSX2 for quite some time now, love playing my games upscaled and antialiased in full 1080p glory!

Here's the thing though, while the appears emulator runs smoothly and all on my machine, the music in games seems to be off compared to a real PlayStation 2. I particularly notice this in Final Fantasy XII, where the music just doesn't sound as rich and deep. Note, there aren't bleeps that shouldn't be there like there were in earlier versions of the emulator; it rather sounds like some instruments are missing altogether.

So, I'm wondering whether it's just me having configured something wrongly or a known issue with the emulator. I've tried several options in SPU2-X, as well as ZeroSPU2 -- the latter sounding worse. Searching didn't reveal a similar thread, so here I am.

Some technical details:

• PCSX2 r3878
  
• emulator runs on an Intel Core i5 760 with 4GB DDR3 and Windows 7 x64
  
• speedhacks are off
  
• framelimiter is on, default fps settings
  
• GS=gsdx-sse4-r3878.dll
  
• PAD=lilypad-r3878.dll
  
• SPU2=spu2-x-r3878.dll
  
• CDVD=cdvdiso-r3878.dll
  

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Shadow Lady]

There has been some improvement in sound quality in SPU2-X after the latest beta and I think that's what you're talking about, if you want to try it you can compile a recent SVN of PCSX2/SPU2-X yourself or google a build after r4118 to try it but take in count there's no support for unofficial builds in the forums.

http://code.google.com/p/pcsx2/wiki/Comp...ForWindows

[Aaron]

Thanks. I'll give that a go, then.

[rama]

Here, use this build.
It has "debug keys" enabled so you can listen to the difference in quality by tapping numpad 5.

No support on the dll and all that

[Aaron]

Thanks Rama. I gave it a go and while I can hear a difference in some tones (they seem to get somewhat higher-pitched sometimes, most notably the regular sfx), it doesn't resolve my main issue with the music. I guess there isn't much I can do about it at this point then.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated.

[cloud50]

I found the sond much richer audio I put none Cdn skip
XAudio2 latency and 200 I have a good sound like that no problems during the zone change
I will take the Logitech S220 which is not expensive at all

[Aaron]

I'm using similar settings, cloud50. As stated earlier, the sound output isn't problematic in the sense that it has artifacts (bleeps and the likes) in it. It's just that to me, the music on the real thing sounds better.

Of course, it's quite a feat to have things emulate this well already, with things running as surprisingly smoothly as they do -- PCSX2 has certainly come a long way. In terms of music, there's still room for improvement, I think. And yes, I realise that's much easier said than done.

[cloud50]

I do not see what you're talking about watching my video background noise is due to the capture software

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSSFjnhZF7A
my video channel with different
http://www.youtube.com/user/calipo50?fea...DkbHxgiW-I

[Aaron]

That clip sounds about the same as what PCSX2 produces for me; I don't get any noise either. But here's the thing: listen the same bits of background music on a real Playstation 2. It sounds different -- deeper, somehow, as though part of it is discarded by PCSX2.

[Fezzer]

I've not even bothered as my laptop probably won't be able to do it but have you tried hermite or catmull-rom as they look like their the best options, but slow.