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Whatever happened to higher audio quality?

ck64ck64
edited September 2009 in Sam & Max
Hello, new Sam & Max'er here. Just started episode 1 of season 1. Holy cow, the first time Sam began speaking, the quality was distractingly low.

So, I opened up the forums and did a few searches. Searches that led me back to topics made as far back as 2006. In these topics, it seemed that TellTaleGames were considering adding higher audio quality after completing season 1 in its entirety.

Was anything ever done to this effect? I have the season 1 and 2 dvds on there way where it would make sense, if they had ever improved the audio, to have the larger files given the additional storage space afforded on the dvd media.

If this was never accomplished, do we have any hope of ever experiencing Sam & Max with crystal clear audio, or is it simply an abbandoned dream?

Comments

  • WDerangedWDeranged
    edited July 2009
    Season 2's audio was slightly better but certainly not great, the dvd versions have identical sound quality, even what should be the jewel in Telltale's crown (Monkey Island) has sub par audio quality :(
  • TeethTeeth
    edited July 2009
    Can someone please provide a good example of an audio flaw? I've been playing Sam and Max from the very beginning and I've never had any problems with the sound. It sounds absolutely fine to me.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    We seriously looked into upping the audio quality of Seasons 1 & 2 for the dvd release, but unfortunately it simply wasn't possible. The way the engine was made back then, we recorded the voice, processed the audio into vox files, then did all of our editing to the vox files themselves. We trimmed a little here, processed a little there, that sort of thing.

    In order to get higher quality voice for those two games, we would have to go back and re-edit all of the uncompressed voice files to match all of the edits to the vox files. To make matters worse, we don't have any good record of precisely what changes were made to the files, so someone would have to compare each uncompressed file to it's compressed one to make sure they matched. At roughly 20,000 something voice files (napkin math), it just wasn't feasible.

    In short, it's a really really big nightmare, but I'm pretty sure we learned a darn good lesson from it.
  • ShwooShwoo
    edited July 2009
    Teeth wrote: »
    Can someone please provide a good example of an audio flaw? I've been playing Sam and Max from the very beginning and I've never had any problems with the sound. It sounds absolutely fine to me.
    I haven't until I started hearing a lot of complaints about it. Now it's hard to ignore. I really noticed it in Night of the Raving Dead.

    I can't tell if Sam is supposed to have a speech impediment, or it's the audio quality.
  • PimPamPetPimPamPet
    edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    In short, it's a really really big nightmare, but I'm pretty sure we learned a darn good lesson from it.

    So does this mean you will include higher quality audio in your next released game?
  • ck64ck64
    edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    We seriously looked into upping the audio quality of Seasons 1 & 2 for the dvd release, but unfortunately it simply wasn't possible. The way the engine was made back then, we recorded the voice, processed the audio into vox files, then did all of our editing to the vox files themselves. We trimmed a little here, processed a little there, that sort of thing.

    In order to get higher quality voice for those two games, we would have to go back and re-edit all of the uncompressed voice files to match all of the edits to the vox files. To make matters worse, we don't have any good record of precisely what changes were made to the files, so someone would have to compare each uncompressed file to it's compressed one to make sure they matched. At roughly 20,000 something voice files (napkin math), it just wasn't feasible.

    In short, it's a really really big nightmare, but I'm pretty sure we learned a darn good lesson from it.
    Thank you for the response.
    Teeth wrote: »
    Can someone please provide a good example of an audio flaw? I've been playing Sam and Max from the very beginning and I've never had any problems with the sound. It sounds absolutely fine to me.
    The most obvious effect of it, to me anyway, is a slight hissing sound whenever a character speaks. This is amplified when the characters say something with an "S" sound and characters who have a higher tone of voice.

    Its not an audio flaw as there is no "error" with the audio, just a lower quality sample of the audio for the character voices.

    It always gets me when I start a gaming session, but after awhile I just kinda tune it out unless I force myself to listen for it.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    PimPamPet wrote: »
    So does this mean you will include higher quality audio in your next released game?

    I can't make any promises I'm afraid, but I'll do my best.
  • VondurVondur
    edited September 2009
    I've noticed this problem most wile playing with headphone.
  • bobdevisbobdevis
    edited September 2009
    Relax guys. As you may have noticed, Telltale re-released ToMI episode 2 with better speech quality. Also, Will heavily suggests above here that they know the cause (re-editing of compressed data) and have learned from it.
    I take that as a sign that this problem won't pop up again in new releases. If it does..then well... shame on them :)
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