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Galaxian background sound (hum) not quite right.
#385255 - 02/12/20 10:53 PM
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The Galaxian background hum has never sounded quite right to me in MAME so I did a little research.
On the web, I found a number of original (and a few not-so-original) Galaxian machines and checked the background hum.
A link to those I found are below.
Here are my observations.
-1- The hum is generally quieter than the Galaxian attacking shriek.
-2- The hum hits various bands where there is a noticeable increase in pulses / second
-3- The hum, within a given band, appear to get faster but *very very* gradually.
-4- The hum stops getting faster at a certain point
-5- The hum stops during freefall mode.
Timings
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I timed 40 pulses at the point just after the start jingle on both MAME and the links below. For 40 pulses, around 15 seconds is typical with MAME coming out at around 21 seconds.
These real arcade machines were not entirely consistent but are within a tolerance and all are quite a bit faster than MAME.
Note that it is not always easy to count these with gameplay going on - but FindArcadeMachine's entry was better.
I took the top link below (FindArcadeMachine) and did some more detailed timings.
First, I stripped out the audio to the point the start jingle ended leaving the file pointing to the beginning of the hum.
I modified the file to increase the bass and reduce the treble (to hear the hum a little better above other sounds).
The files are on the Google Drive link below which should work.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13Mp83el6dp4zX3wWzBotgMLYgpcnyr3-
Here are the timings and the approximate point at where the next band begins and the pulses speed up:
Band 1 00 seconds
Band 2 10
Band 3 19
Band 4 27
Band 5 45
It seems to me that MAME is not quite there, yet with the pulses being quite a bit slower and the volume of the hum a little too loud.
Possibly the best solution currently (if people agree) is that MAME should be marked 'Imperfect sound'
Hopefully, someone with an interest in this game will check it out at some point.
-- ORIGINAL GAMEPLAY --.........Link.................................................................................Start...Timings
FindArcadeMachine.............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mdSHAC6zlk ....00:40...40 pulses 15:20 Seconds
Joe's Classic Video Games...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngw9yijOOo ....15:37...40 pulses 16.22
TNT Amusements................. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfypw0H5khM ....05:00...40 pulses 16:12
ArcadeDocs524.................. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhOX1f0bd3U ....13:45...40 pulses 14:00
DeLuSioNal's Arcade............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8KrmkIYhE ....24:00...40 pulses 15:22
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MAME............................................................................00:00...40 pulses 21:00
-- NON ORIGINAL --
Joe's Classic Video Games...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2NFboPZVdc ............40 pulses 15:30
FindArcadeMachine.............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQe9n4ftrTc ............40 pulses 14:00 secs
Sound hardware web link.
http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/09/galaxians-digital-oscillator-explained.html
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God, I miss those dark, musty arcades ....
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Re: Galaxian background sound (hum) not quite right.
[Re: JonBoyRetro]
#385265 - 02/14/20 11:58 PM
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| gregf |
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Re: Galaxian background sound (hum) not quite right.
[Re: JonBoyRetro]
#385268 - 02/15/20 06:48 AM
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The text research almost reminds me of Gary Walton's (UK) long ago text-only research observation comparisons (before YouTube began back in 2006) between his pcb hardware/cabs versus MAME's emulation back in the post 2000 AD years when his text comparisons were part of MAME Testers entries back then.
The background sound effect issue is noted in the source code files, but not in extensive details when I had posted last month. I don't know if your findings would be added into source code....maybe more along line similar to the old entries Gary Walton used to post on MAME Testers back in the early days of MT.
--
01/20/20
https://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/sh...part=1&vc=1
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src/mame/drivers/galaxian.cpp
TODO:
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- Problems with Galaxian based on the observation of a real machine:
- Background humming is incorrect. It's faster on a real machine
- Explosion sound is much softer. Filter involved?
src/mame/drivers/galaxold.cpp
TODO:
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- Problems with Galaxian based on the observation of a real machine:
- Starfield is incorrect. The speed and flashing frequency is fine, but the
stars appear in different positions.
- Background humming is incorrect. It's faster on a real machine
- Explosion sound is much softer. Filter involved?
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couriersud's work (netlist style replacing old discrete method) from last month was adding particular analog hardware filters for Konami pcb hardware run games. The netlist work for the game Galaxian itself is possibly on his future to-do list?
https://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/sh...part=1&vc=1
As I am guessing you are already familiar with Galaxian having different analog audio hardware variations, some of them could have entire audio being perfectly emulated while others such as bootlegs will not be unless pcb owners were to list all the specific components on some of the bootleg pcbs. Somewhat the same same issue like all the various Space Invaders pcbs etc.
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Re: Galaxian background sound (hum) not quite right.
[Re: JonBoyRetro]
#385284 - 02/17/20 03:40 AM
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Please add findings/research to report here:
https://mametesters.org/view.php?id=443
Bug report has been opened for over a dozen years, since 2008 with last note update from 2018.
Seems the issue has been around since the get-go; however, there is also varying results with the Arcade PCBs as well.
The Aug 13, 2009 update from couriersud covers this point:
"Mike Coates was so kind to grant permission to cite him here:
---- citation ----
I've had in excess of 50 galaxian / moon cresta boards, bootlegs and originals - for quite a lot of the sound circuitry (and the video mixing and colours) they used whatever resistors / capacitors / transistors they had handy - sound varies from board to board quite considerably - even if the boards are originals from the same manufacturer.
---- citation ----
This perfectly explains the difficulties in discrete sound emulation. Even if you have high quality recordings at hand there is still uncertainty whether they fit the schematics available."
What may be ideal is a way to tweak the background sound pace (and pitch?) within the game with adjustable setting(s) via the menu options, similar to the analog sensitivity adjustment for controllers but regarding the respective analog sound components involved.
That is up to MAMEDev prerogative and resource available, of course. 
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