Sample rate for rom sounds on LOTR

[mrschultz]

Anyone know the best sample rate to get the best sound from the roms on tables like LOTR and Elvis? Or is it CPU dependant?

Since I upgraded my CPU I've been trying various settings and somewhere between 56000 and 68000 has been giving the least scratchy sound. Would be nice to get it dialed in exactly, unless the emulation is not good enough and it's always going to give that slight distortion.

Later,
Marty

 

[Pinball_Ken]

Hi, Marty

I always thought pinball sound was a factor of 8000 sample rate. The old tables used that and the EM ones 16000 and finally the modern ones used 32000.

If you want to use higher then just make sure it's divisible by 8000!

Cheers

Ken :D

 

[mrschultz]

But the default rate for pinmame is 44100, not a multiple of 8000...

I've tried quite a few settings for the newer stern tables (LOTR, Elvis, Sopranos, etc.) and anything below 44100 leads to stuttering or dropped sounds, as you go up it cycles from scratchy to clearer back to scratchy but always slightly scratchy. Elvis is the one I'm really interested in hearing the ROM sound on.

Was hoping someone had already tried and found a good setting, or if the sound is always a bit off no matter how fast your CPU, so it's still better to go with the sampled sounds.

Guess I'll do more experiments, go up by steps of 100 around 60000...

Later,
Marty

 

[Pinball_Ken]

I'm giving you the sample rate generally of ROMs and particularly Bally/Williams DCS sound. Stern's WhiteStar II (LOTR/Elvis etc) may be different, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhiteStar

http://www.sternpinball.com/SB/ServiceBulletin_157.html

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=the-lord-of-the-rings&page=detail&id=5307

This last link suggests that LOTR runs at 40000!

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=elvis&page=detail&id=5319

And the same for Elvis.

Now I use ROM sounds and not sampled sounds, and I'm assuming VP8 here. You can put in YieldTime and increase 0 to 1 and 2, then beyond, till your minimum frame rate is close to your monitor refresh rate. Synclevel needs to be 0. Though VPinMAME was optimized for the latest Sterns, it still requires more VPinMAME input than other tables.

If you're getting scratchy sounds for sounds under 44100, try 48000 as the next 8000 multiple. I'd also try 80000, if your sound system handles it. It's an easier multiple that won't get out of synch so easily.

Cheers

Ken :)

 

[mrschultz]

Thanks Ken,

The speed of the sound chip listed is in MHz, that would be 40000000. The sound chip probably runs that fast so it can do multiple sounds simultaneously.

Does seem like the 8000 rule still holds for the whitestar roms, 64000 seems to be the best on my system, LOTR sounds really good 95% of the time, Elvis still a bit scratchy. If I get a better cooler for my CPU I could easily overclock up near 4GHz, might help, currently I'm only giving it a little boost at 3.25, at 3.5 it starts to hit 60°C when at full load.

Later,
Marty

 

[Pinball_Ken]

Yeah, Marty

I've always felt the VPM Development Team were less than helpful in posting a default of 44100 for sound in VPinMAME, when ROM sound has been generally in multiples of 8000.

You've confirmed that modern pinballs have now made the progression from 32000 to 64000, which works fine for all tables, as 32000 did a few years back when Bally/Williams DCS sound was the standard.

Cheers

Ken