my .spc SNES files sound crud?

why when I play .spc files on foobar2000 with foo_gep do they sound quiet compared to the ones on youtube? they have punchier bass and pronounced highs. are they being amplified?

anyone?

Some games, such as Earthbound and Aero Acrobat 2, are naturally quiet compared to Aero Acrobat 1 and Jim Power. Check another SPC set and see if the problem is the same. I suggest Aero, the Acrobat, the first; the sound if super duper loud. Also, tell me what set you are listening, so I can check here as well and tell if it’s a problem with the set.

Lastly, SPC is a sequenced file format; amplification don’t usually work with sequenced music, only with streams (MP3, OGG, WAV and so on.). In Youtube, you listen to modified songs. They are probably converted to MP3 format, then amplified in the video editor, then uploaded. This is specially true in Ardy Lightfoot. The original Lightfoot songs in SPC are too quiet. I can easily tell they were converted then amplified before the video was uploaded. Same goes for R-Type 3 and several other games.

i’m getting the spc sets from snemusic.org. it’s all games, zombies ate my neighbors, gooftroop, zelda, cool spot. they all sound quiet. i convert them to flac they sound the same. are these people amplifying them after conversion? when i download snes music from here it’s louder too. they do sound a lot better on youtube though which is annoying but it’s hard to find out if people are amplifying or why mine sound quiet??

Yes, they are amplifying after the convertion. See if it’s a problem just with SPC files by trying to play another file formtat in Foobar. If it still sound quiet, then it might be bad configuration. If they sound fine, maybe it’s the Foobar plugin you are using.
Ever tried Audio Overload? If you figure it’s Foobar, in case of it indeed being Foobar, then I suggest moving to Audio Overload.
Software: Audio Overload (http://www.bannister.org/software/ao.htm)

foobar has a fixed sample rate for each type of file

upsamples some things but not spc, idk why

imo spc sounds better at 44khz

the sample rate can be changed in winamp

foobar has a fixed sample rate for each type of file

upsamples some things but not spc, idk why

imo spc sounds better at 44khz

the sample rate can be changed in winamp
I never used Foobar nor Winamp; I’m under Linux here. But maybe I’m missing some detail. I wish more Foobar and Winamp users came to this thread, so they could help too.

It’s just the .spc files, Audio Overload is cool but it sounds the same as foobar, quiet. i tried different sources of spc of the same game, made no difference so it’s not the .spc set. they MUST be normalizing.

here’s mine
Coolspot SNES – Tommy Tallarico – Off Da Wall HQ – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8epsMlysNo&feature=youtu.be)

here’s theirs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bo_dObUsVs

it’s like this will all my rips!

in Foobar, you have to set the preferences based on the decoder.

Foobar > Preferences > Playback > Input > (decoder)

For "Game Emu" decoder for SPC files, there’s a specific option to "Remove Surround > Interpolation > etc".
Maybe it’s playing back the SPC in surround sound format and your sound system is stereo (2.0).

Even if you are hooked up to a surround sound receiver, you may be hooked up via RCA/Headphone jack out (analog=stereo-only).
Then you’d need either to tell the decoder to remove surround sound or use a different DSP to convert to Dolby Pro Logic 1/2 (to recover surround sound).

That may be the reason it’s quiet.
It’s reading 5.1 on a 2.0 system.

But generally, in Foobar, it only normalize when you tell it to (as a DSP). It won’t normalize automatically.

The same for ReplayGain, RG values need to be scanned, embedded and then set in the preferences before and audio changes take place for playback.

Don’t forget about compression: Youtube saves to a lossy compressed format.
AAC, I think, is the internal audio stream.

So comparing the original SPC to a transcoded file (and who’s to say it wasn’t already transcoded before it was uploaded? 2x the transcoding) isn’t practical.
It will sully your opinions.

Best to ask the uploader what they did to their conversion.

I had a look inside the input options and removing surround doesn’t make a difference. if i turn up the treble and bass to full it sounds better but still nowhere near as good as the rips I downloaded/youtube.

Goof Troop SNES – To the South – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mec9cmYv808)

This is so loud it has to be amplified, can someone get the set from Game profile: Goof Troop ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=1026) and check if it’s just me?

applying replay gain has no effect either.

I downloaded and it sound fine, as in "medium". Not so loud and not so quiet. Then again, I have four speakers. I recorded a video from the soundcard and let Audacious play the SPC file from source (no convertion). It might give you a light or two. If the same problem happens in both players (Foobar and Audio Overload) despite the configuration, check your speakers. Check also the soundcard. It most likely isn’t software.
Depura��o. – YouTube (http://youtu.be/3Vl0cvwgiCs)
It sounds slow because my computer was busy when recording.x3 Focus on how loud the song is, rather than the incorrect speed; my processor was focused on something else during the recording and caused latency in the video.

thanks for making that video, your files sound the same as mine, but as you say slower.

this is what i am talking about

quiet snes .spc files – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CC3DZof1AI&feature=youtu.be)

They are being played correctly. Let’s try a final test. These two sets are supposed to be loud:
Game profile: Aero the Acro-Bat ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=50)
Game profile: Universal Soldier ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=20114)
These two sets are supposed to be quiet:
Game profile: Aero the Acro-Bat 2 ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=52)
Game profile: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=712)
Also… Zombies Ate My Neigborns has almost the same volume level of Goof Troop. There’s a chance that you are being unlucky and picking only naturally quiet sets…

^ Actually, regional coding can make a huge difference.
You should ask the youtubers what region they got theirs from.

I’ve been mostly thinking of US/JPN releases.

In Snesmusic.org, the sets are the same no matter the region. If a track is different depending on the region (like in Suzuka 8 Hours), which rarely happens, the variations are also put in the set. Goof Troop’s set covers the Japanese, North-American and European releases, according to it’s page. If the location were really a problem, the thread owner would have reported that american files sound different that the european ones. But, in this case, the soundtrack is the same no matter the location.

They are being played correctly. Let’s try a final test. These two sets are supposed to be loud:
Game profile: Aero the Acro-Bat ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=50)
Game profile: Universal Soldier ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=20114)
These two sets are supposed to be quiet:
Game profile: Aero the Acro-Bat 2 ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=52)
Game profile: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest ~ SNESmusic.org (http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=712)
Also… Zombies Ate My Neigborns has almost the same volume level of Goof Troop. There’s a chance that you are being unlucky and picking only naturally quiet sets…

All the sets I pick sound quiet compared to youtube.
20. Aero the Acro-Bat – Final Boss – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEUF6StdiQ)

This Aero the Acro-Bat – Final Boss sounds way better and louder on youtube than in the set.

I don’t wanna start ripping the snes music until I fix this problem 🙁

All the sets I pick sound quiet compared to youtube.
20. Aero the Acro-Bat – Final Boss – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEUF6StdiQ)

This Aero the Acro-Bat – Final Boss sounds way better and louder on youtube than in the set.

I don’t wanna start ripping the snes music until I fix this problem 🙁

Ah, comparing to Youtube, sure, they will sound quieter. As I said, they usually convert, then amplify, before submitting the video. In the video I sent you of the song playing in my system, there’s no amplification at all and it sounds just like it sounds in your system.

Are you sure they are amplifying them? Almost every video, every download on here is louder but yet I can’t find anything on google about amplifying, I would expect a guide or something?
What’s you opinion on amplifying snes rips?

Right, comparing this: Goof Troop SNES – To the South – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mec9cmYv808)
With my own playback of the SPC file in Foobar2000…

There is no difference between the two, except that a) the Youtube one has been normalised, b) has been compressed to hell, and c) has some dynamic range compression – probably also as a result of Youtube’s overzealous encoding.

The frequency range across the board is the same. I’ve compared the graphs.

This is an average frequency graph. The line at the top represents the Youtube rip and the line underneath is represents playback of the SPC in Foobar2000. Notice that the Youtube rip is higher (louder) but that both lines are the same shape and there is the same amount of distance between them. If one had more bass or treble than the other, the line would deviate – but it’s pretty much an exact match. This means that both have the same balance.

The Youtube isn’t bassier; it’s just louder which is easily achieved:

Here’s In The South again; straight out of Foobar2000, normalised to 99% and compressed to FLAC. Sounds basically like the Youtube version but with no compression and no range crushing.

Zippyshare.com – – To the South.flac (http://www69.zippyshare.com/v/62002929/file.html)

the youtube version isn’t that compressed, very slightly.
i don’t think the youtube or your normalized upload is just louder because if i play the original .spc but turn it up to the same loudness, it sounds CRUSHED. normalizing really brings out all the instruments. listening to the original spc at the same volume as a normalized KILLS the dynamic range compression.

also to get the original spc to the same volume, my amp has to go past 12 o clock on the volume pot!

the waveform of YOUR flac file is regular waveform size, the original .spcs are tiny little waveforms so I think it’s neccessary to amplify snes rips, all the other sources of snes rips like dkc2 have normal sized waveforms.

this is your waveform vs the original

so is this why everyone normalizes snes music on this forum? i don’t like keeping audio in it’s original pure form but i think normalizing is the way to go for snes music? it sounds leagues better what’s the best way to normalize?
p.s thanks for taking the time to help me out.