Freelancer soundtrack remaster.

@Bolte : [Thanks! Sorry but it seems you have a too much bass, because with my equalized Superlux HD660 (monitoring headphone) this is really better and I gave to them a lot of punch and realism. What is the file where you hear that sort of muffle, I will try to correct that file especially.

@SWAT : Yeaaah… -_- I’m doing once again a useless thing so I ask if I am useless… I offer to you the best audio mastering for Freelancer, and you say that the average player wouldn’t notice the difference! You will learn the fact that peoples have a preference for sound quality. A music can be awesome, but with a bad mastering, it loses everything, that’s what happened to Freelancer’s music. Everything was less enjoyable and listening to these musics outside the game was not interesting at all! But with what I’ve done it allowed everyone to hear this soundtrack without closing the file 2 second after the beginning. I think you can understand the point of this project now. I think you are not a picture/sound quality fan…

Haha! I see what you say! That was due to the fact that some harmonics weren’t fully expressed or obliterated by the sample rate, so things become really robotic, restoring some harmonics and things result in a natural and clear shaped sound.

Nice to see you’re liking it and final de-essing can bring some healthcare. Less headache. But now I will make a undo cause I used a plugin that finally scuttle all of my efforts, so the time has come to make something more accurate in term of sound volume that bring some unwanted background noise :-?, I will put a sample in a new post. I’m always improving existant method.

OK! Great you like it!

I just wanted to have direct comment on my work and not the possible consequence on the average players, the thing which interests me is your own feeling about that and not other players that don’t want to have better sound quality. They are not the targeted audience. It’s a mod for audiophiles and other techies that always want better things and unleash the full potential of their rigs. But if I can make someone that originally doesn’t care about sound quality entering in a new world of possibilities it could allow him to taste what I live every time I listen to great mastered sounds.

Bonus content :

BERSERK Forces original master O_O NICE!

I have the feeling that I did things wrongly… :?

Did I misunderstood what FL OST was intended to be? Is my remaster the original thoughts of the composer? :?

I think that, because I looked at some master and their spectrum weren’t shaped the same way and they sound correctly.

So I gonna surely ask an idiot question. What is the music genre of FL because looking at a spectrum is good but things could become unrealistic and really sibilant so annoying to hear. But the mix of different genre of music can be really tricky to master.

I ask for some help because I’m not fully satisfied of my work right now. I want the best master. Sorry to be so suspicious but I always to do better things when it concerns a personal project.

I’ve a solution! I will do an old idea. Creating an artificial ear to have the most flat rig by measuring my headphones with some tweaks and after do the remaster with a combination of spectrum and my ears. While the result isn’t perfect I have to make it better.

I had 3 opinions but it’s not enough, I want to create something better to show it in other forum and make a mod db page, some remasters are lacking volume so it isn’t right even if using a compressor which totally disable the original volume. And even you have a good knowledge in mastering, there is always things that have to be perfected every time you use another file. Sadly, in other terms I have to reboot my remastering cause of the fact that my sound equipment is not fully ready to make it, even if it’s good it could be better especially in bass range that I can’t measure properly…

I don’t say that’s bad, I say it’s perfectible. The main problem is in the trebles because I don’t edit the bass.

In this case I will put some efforts on keeping Freelancer spirite and improve it.

Edit : Crap! I dunno what to do now… Should I prefer the original mastering or continu what I’m doing? I’m lost in the see…

Before going to sleep, I have got a crazy idea, looking at vanilla spectrum. And I have equalized the CD soundtrack from the informations I have got from narrowed sampling rate vanilla ost and you will not believe me… That’s it! The result reflect totally what it should be! Just an example, m13 final at 10 kHz vanilla -78 dB, CD OST -81 dB, elevation of 3 dB of the CD OST and in the trebles, the instruments are really accurate and the main ambiance remains… WTH! for 3 dB! I know that 3 dB double the sound volume but for 3 dB everything is better. Vanilla OST despite its low sampling rate is far better mastered than CD OST. Another example, nomad lair battle, with the informations got in the vanilla one, the ambiance has been restored in the CD OST and once again, that was exactly what the soundtrack was intended to be! Unlike Starcraft CD OST, the master of FL CD OST was probably done with a high trebled speakers or headphones or they tried to make things like me but with their speakers… 3 dB… -_- I’ve a reason to be enraged…

So right now, vanilla OST will be the reference and not Pink Noise, I think it’s the best approche. I have taken the buoy, not a big one but a high quality one, I’m not any longer lost in the see.

@ Schmack : You’re right! That was exactly what I thought after some thoughts. Things need to be as close as possible to the original ambiance and artists choices. If it remove the goal of the track it ruine it. The only thing to change is to make the remaster as close as possible to the vanilla tracks. Now I know where I go.

Freelancer remaster comparison.

Content :

• CD OST
• Pink noised master = 1st remaster
• FL remaster = CD remaster based on vanilla master.

I create a poll to see which is the best (and don’t forget to use headphones!)

Why no one else wants to reply to this topic? And votes for one of the propositions? Are you waiting that I do the work? I would like to have some opinions on the comparison, I want to give the best material for the community so once again, I would like to have your opinion. :?

OK! When you have the time, make your decision.

You can compare them with speakers too because I just changed the trebles.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. I have taken it into account.

Wow! I will have a bunch of work to do! I shouldn’t have watched the file number… I have to find some energy to make it. (I think after some done files, it should recharge batteries. ^^ ).

Now every day I will make a report. It could allow me to make a certain number of file per day.

PS : ATH-M50x, rather a bassy one but not as bassy as certain measurement shows, Audio Technica is renowned for their headphone quality in audiophile world. It’s a nice choice though, despite my linearity fanaticism, I already owned bassy headphone (Superlux HD 681) and the sound remained clear, and also the treble was piercing but every time I looked at a meas site to equalize them… ‘~’ But there is a website called Golden Ears which shows quite accurate curves. Make sure that curves are green and blue (I didn’t try to test them but I trust their Head and Torso Simulator. I have to buy a HD 668B to test.)

I made some comparison and your’s is more accurate in the high mids from 1k to 6k, as for mine, that was before I made a refined process, that wasv one of my first files, so it isn’t the case for all the files of the comparison pack. I put a screenshot of the spectrum of vanilla, schmack one and my one.

We are both right. But I want to make it! Schmack, you’ve already done a lot for this community, so could you let me do that? please? It makes me happy and allow me to work in one of my beloved domain. If I struggle with this task I will surely ask for some help but for now it seems that I prefer to do this myself. Do not believe it’s against you, I really like you, it’s just to force me to do a project and you’ve a lot of work to do with your OpenGL wrapper, it’s a long and tough task to do, concentrate you on this, you’ve no time to lose in this, you’re not Atlas!