Akkubohrer
10-31-2018, 09:24 PM
Oh boy.

First off, I have no idea what I'm doing. To combat that, I uploaded the untouched .xwm files from Sounds01.ba2 and Sounds02.ba2 here: https://mega.nz/#!arYwyApZ!IUs33R98wc3JRF-37js-FRWwhSrigFovGbZAgvRk-PE

For those who just want actual playable files, I used the Skyrim Audio Converter and got these tasty mp3 files for you:
https://mega.nz/#!T3B0yI5D!aXIg0d2AYN_cGTe-375ojkay37m2nE1U-GIbNstnK5c

The quality doesn't seem to be stellar, we're talking 128k judging from the file size? If someone wants to convert the .xwm files properly, please feel free to do so.
As I said, I'm not gonna claim this is the best thing out there. I simply wanted to listen to the soundtrack before release in 2 weeks :)

Have a great week!

Bizargh
11-01-2018, 09:06 AM
Checking the Spectrogram for the Fallout 4 .XWM's after using xWMAEncode to convert them to WAVs and not seeing it go above 14k often, then doing the same for the Fallout '76 seeing it between 15-16k, I do think the MP3 quality checks out & Skyrim Audio Converter's on the right track.

Many thanks for both the native data and your conversions. Even if I don't relish this treat for myself, I certainly know a friend who might.

Abramelin
11-01-2018, 02:03 PM
Note a note: Since the release of Skyrim, Bethesda has switched from ingame music encoded in Mp3 to music encoded in Xwm (like Windows Media Audio but in another container). Unfortunately Bethesda only encodes the files at the lowest available bitrate (48kb), which is aweful and severely harms the music. 48kb Xwm = 80 kb/s MP3, more or less, in quality terms. Playstation ports (unlike XBox & PC releases) don't use Xwm but another codec (at9) which apparently does less harm to the audio.

Thanks for sharing the xwm files. They can be played back directly (or converted) in Foobar, if you have the VgmSteam plugin installed: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjLoYvXoLPeAhULiHAKHb4mC14QFjAAegQIHRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foobar2000.org%2Fcomponents% 2Fview%2Ffoo_input_vgmstream&usg=AOvVaw0jNGPhWpNJVkCr4vth9uaM
No need to transcode them unless you want to play the music on a cell phone or a TV.

Akkubohrer
11-01-2018, 06:31 PM
Note a note: Since the release of Skyrim, Bethesda has switched from ingame music encoded in Mp3 to music encoded in Xwm (like Windows Media Audio but in another container). Unfortunately Bethesda only encodes the files at the lowest available bitrate (48kb), which is aweful and severely harms the music. 48kb Xwm = 80 kb/s MP3, more or less, in quality terms. Playstation ports (unlike XBox & PC releases) don't use Xwm but another codec (at9) which apparently does less harm to the audio.

Thanks for sharing the xwm files. They can be played back directly (or converted) in Foobar, if you have the VgmSteam plugin installed: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjLoYvXoLPeAhULiHAKHb4mC14QFjAAegQIHRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foobar2000.org%2Fcomponents% 2Fview%2Ffoo_input_vgmstream&usg=AOvVaw0jNGPhWpNJVkCr4vth9uaM
No need to transcode them unless you want to play the music on a cell phone or a TV.

Thanks for the info, gonna give the plugin a go! I sent a tweet to Inon to confirm if the OST will be available on launch day, and his reply was "I assume so".

Edit: Oh and thank you for giving me rep! Have a great weekend and enjoy the B.E.T.A. (if anyone is playing it haha).

Bizargh
11-02-2018, 12:50 AM
Thanks for the info, gonna give the plugin a go! I sent a tweet to Inon to confirm if the OST will be available on launch day, and his reply was "I assume so".

Edit: Oh and thank you for giving me rep! Have a great weekend and enjoy the B.E.T.A. (if anyone is playing it haha).

If you're going for anything outside of the uncommon iTunes release Bethesda has lately started to be very consistent in (Or Google Play if Bethesda Music is finally stretching it's reach), I'd advise you to be somewhat wary, as although nu-DOOM slowly got treated to the whole package all the way up to Vinyl & all in between without any trouble, MachineGames's Wolfenstein saw some unusual errors. These ended up being that Wolfenstein: The New Order did get a 24bit FLAC release via 7digital, but one of the tracks was a duplicate of another (Wish I knew who to contact to sort that one out), then Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus's 16bit lossless appeared to be an upscale no matter where you got your FLACs from (7digital & TIDAL were accounted for at least), at least if the Spectrogram is to be believed (Which is very odd considering The New Order's 24bit quality actually appears to check out).

Akkubohrer
11-02-2018, 05:12 PM
If you're going for anything outside of the uncommon iTunes release Bethesda has lately started to be very consistent in (Or Google Play if Bethesda Music is finally stretching it's reach), I'd advise you to be somewhat wary, as although nu-DOOM slowly got treated to the whole package all the way up to Vinyl & all in between without any trouble, MachineGames's Wolfenstein saw some unusual errors. These ended up being that Wolfenstein: The New Order did get a 24bit FLAC release via 7digital, but one of the tracks was a duplicate of another (Wish I knew who to contact to sort that one out), then Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus's 16bit lossless appeared to be an upscale no matter where you got your FLACs from (7digital & TIDAL were accounted for at least), at least if the Spectrogram is to be believed (Which is very odd considering The New Order's 24bit quality actually appears to check out).

That's good to know, gonna keep that in mind. Stuff like tracks being unintentional duplicates is hillarious.