1pp hq music

Mathuzzz

Hi,
I created a thread some time ago about my old copy of BG2 having some additional music tracks. I found out that it was 1pp hq music mod that apart from improving music quality, used some additional music not used in original game. I was wondering if there is any way I could hear those tracks in EE or if 1pp hq music is compatible with EE?

ankheg

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/14066/please-use-some-previously-unused-music-in-bg2ee#latest

agris

I'm with @Mathuzzz here, and am curious if 1pp HQ music is compatible. If I remember correctly, the mod modifies the exe to play the higher frequency HQ music at the correct speed, so I don't expect so... (the EE .exe having different offsets).

@CamDawg any idea if BG1:EE natively supports the audio encoding in 1pp HQ music? If it does, I think we could just drop in the music folder to replace the existing.

agris

@Mathuzzz and @ankheg I wanted to test if the EE engine could play the higher frequency music natively, so I downloaded 1pp TotSC HQ music. I extracted it to data/music and the game is playing everything correctly (not in double time, as would happen if it didn't support 44.1 kHz correctly). I've yet to try the BG2 HQ music mod but I'd imagine it can play it natively also.

prophet1

Wasn't all music re-recorded / resampled specifically for BGEE? I seem to recall Sam Hullick was contracted for that job. In that case, you may want to make sure the "HQ" version is actually better before using it.

agris

@prophet1 why don't you do some searching and find out if it was? you know the bar it has to beat- the 1pp HQ music release.

prophet1

@agris
Well, I've never used 1PP music before, so I can't compare how it sounds (and don't have time to catch up now really). I do think BGEE music sounds much better than the original BG1 (haven't tried BG2EE yet).

What I can tell you is that BGEE music is OGG-encoded with the following parameters:
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bitrate: 176 kbs
Codec: Vorbis
Encoding: Lossy
Tool: Xiph.Org libVorbis I 20120203 (Omnipresent)
< BITRATE_NOMINAL >: 192

It's easy to check. BGEE ACM files in the music subfolder are not actually ACM, but OGG files with ACM extension. Rename them to *.OGG and you can play them in your music player of choice.

agris

@prophet1 Looking at the readme for the 1PP TotSC HQ music release, it appears as if Erephine (the mod's author) has done several things. She has ripped CD audio of all the BG1 songs that were included on the soundtrack and has converted it into a 44.1 kHz .acm but I don't know the compression specifics (they aren't listed in the readme or in the forums). Not all songs were on the CD, but due to the .exe hack she implemented, all music had to be played at 44.1 kHz. So she included a converter to upsample all original music that she hadn't found on the CD to 44.1 kHZ, so that it played at the correct speed.

ACM is a lossy format, so the quality of those cd rips is dependent on the encoding parameters like you've listed above. Those are relatively high quality OGG files in the EE, I'm sure it's superior to anything upsampled from the original game. What isn't clear is if it's better than the cd ripped music. @Nathan used to do sound stuff for beamdog, maybe he can tell us.

leeowensoas

I hope the EE's music is higher quality. If not, they've already included 1pp, so why not include this mod too?