Beneath a Steel Sky Audio Restoration Project

dpolsrod · Post by **dpolsrod** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:08 am

SimSaw: They didn't make fun of you, they just cracked a little joke. The reason being that the statement you made was not fully thought out.
To make a copy of a DAT tape, he would need access to a DAT recorder which was what he was looking for to begin with.
Hope you see the funny part of the situation and not take it as a personal insult.
Unless of course it was meant as an insult.
In that case, disregard this post.

Herrscher · Post by **Herrscher** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:50 am

dpolsrod wrote:SimSaw: They didn't make fun of you, they just cracked a little joke. The reason being that the statement you made was not fully thought out.
To make a copy of a DAT tape, he would need access to a DAT recorder which was what he was looking for to begin with.

Sounds like some cruel Graphic Adventure riddle, eh!?

dpolsrod · Post by **dpolsrod** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:07 pm

I didn't think about it like that.
It does, doesn't it?

multiaudun · Post by **multiaudun** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 5:54 pm

Being a sound tech student, I know a bit about DAT players.

Most of them, maybe all of them have some kind of digital output. Those I've been using have optical S/P-DIF outputs (and inputs).

Connect this to the S/P-DIF on you computer sound card, and you'll be able to extract the audio with no quality loss at all!

I really can't tell if the results from your converted tape-streamer will be any good.

If this thread was up a year ago, I'd be happy to send you a DAT tape for testing purposes, however I don't have one at the moment! Next time I'm over at my university studios (that'll be in about a week or so) I'll see if the dat-players are still in there (they probably are). If so, I may be able to record some stuff and send it to you

BTW: As DerSchrauber mentioned, there's allso a standard called ADAT. These are the size of VHS, and have 8 tracks of digital audio. DAT tapes are much smaller, and have 2 tracks of digital audio

Lookie · Post by **Lookie** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:14 pm

multiaudun said "BTW: As DerSchrauber mentioned, there's allso a standard called ADAT. These are the size of VHS, and have 8 tracks of digital audio. DAT tapes are much smaller, and have 2 tracks of digital audio"

What he said is true as ADAT's can record 8tracks and DATs can record 2tracks BUT DATs are also capable of recording 8 digital tracks onto a tape on the Tascam DA-88's. The 88's are no longer manufactured but im sure you can find them in many places as they were the standard in the recording industry.

My suggestion: If any one around your way has a DAT with optical or spdif outputs (which most do) i say transfering those tracks digitally to Protools hardware/software will give you the best result. You can then save these audio clips to almost any format you need. If you were from around here id do it for you but im too far from the Netherlands.

Good luck!

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:08 am

Somehow, I suspect that editing etc would be more likely to take place in something like Audacity than Protools. I can see the next post now "Needed: Digi002 for Protools!" :)

edweird · Post by **edweird** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:25 am

Are you guys looking into some kind of re-mastering of the game's music? I'm a producer\composer and fan of the game and might be interested in reproducing the music (which would then be in mp3 format), if you're looking at doing that.

lavosspawn · Post by **lavosspawn** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 3:39 pm

We weren't actually planning on remastering the music, mainly due to the lack of skills...
But if you are able to come up with something better than BASS's midi music, we'd certainly add support for it in ScummVM.

edweird · Post by **edweird** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:43 am

I threw this together today to give you an idea of how some of the re-made tracks might turn out: http://www.logic.turntablism.info/mp3/bass1.mp3

Keep in mind I haven't spent much time on it, and I'm also often able to make use of live instruments (such as violin and vocals) so that will definitely help with the more melodic parts that never sound right with midi\samples.

Let me know if you think it's worthwhile, and if so, what sort of timeframe you're looking at finishing the audio restoration, so I can aim to have the music ready by that time.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:57 am

edweird wrote:I threw this together today to give you an idea of how some of the re-made tracks might turn out: http://www.logic.turntablism.info/mp3/bass1.mp3

Keep in mind I haven't spent much time on it, and I'm also often able to make use of live instruments (such as violin and vocals) so that will definitely help with the more melodic parts that never sound right with midi\samples.

Let me know if you think it's worthwhile, and if so, what sort of timeframe you're looking at finishing the audio restoration, so I can aim to have the music ready by that time.

Well, I like it at least.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:11 am

edweird wrote:http://www.logic.turntablism.info/mp3/bass1.mp3

Sounds nice.
Live instruments should be used whenever possible, of course.
Also, why not use Ogg Vorbis for this?

Also while at it, I think ScummVM should support soundtrack replacement for all games, where this is possible. That should be all kind of MODs and all MIDI games, except for the iMuse titles. Besides BASS, that would be at least those, I guess:
Maniac Mansion C64, EGA, Amiga
Zak McKracken C64, EGA, Amiga
Indy3 EGA, VGA, Amiga
Loom EGA, Amiga
Monkey Island EGA, VGA, Amiga (well, Amiga already supports this

)
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Gobliiins Floppy, Amiga
Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2

Maybe we should file a feature request for alternate soundtrack support for all those games.

joachimeberhard · Post by **joachimeberhard** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:38 pm

LogicDeLuxe wrote:
edweird wrote:Also, why not use Ogg Vorbis for this?
Well, offering MP3 AND OGG would be great.

Offering it as OGG only would be as DISCRIMINATING as MP3 only, because I have no way to integrate OGG in ANY of my Music&Media programs I use.

And I WANT to be able to listen to them in my preferred Music&Media programs, even in my car and my mobile MP3 player, if possible.

Please honor this request.

Best regards

Joachim

jg · Post by jg » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:21 pm

edweird wrote:I threw this together today to give you an idea of how some of the re-made tracks might turn out: http://www.logic.turntablism.info/mp3/bass1.mp3

This greatly exceeded my expectations. Really dark and foreboding, exactly the kind of atmosphere BASS should have. In short, I love it. Just... wow.

lavosspawn · Post by **lavosspawn** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:55 pm

Wow, your sample does sound good, edweird, especcially considering the short time it took you to make it... I like it. And it made me very curios about what else you can come up with, if you decide to do a full remake of all tracks. :)

So far we have absolutely no idea how much time it'll take us to finish the audio data... If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say it's a matter of 1-2 months. Sorry :)

The kind of transmission, be it mp3, ogg, flac or wave, is the smallest of our concerns and can easily be decided on when everything else is done.

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:21 pm

lavosspawn wrote:Wow, your sample does sound good, edweird, especcially considering the short time it took you to make it... I like it. And it made me very curios about what else you can come up with, if you decide to do a full remake of all tracks.

Same here. Good job, I'm looking forward to hearing more!