›

Episode 2 Horrible S-sound quality why? [re-download for higher quality voice!]

RMJ1984RMJ1984
edited January 2010 in Game Support
we must have an answer now Telltale, why you absolutely wanna ruin, this great dialog with this horrible S-sound quality, especially on elaine, i mean my GOD my ears they hurt :(

Seriously, i just dont get it. why use so much time on dialog to put up such bad quality. Will you continue ignoring us ?

Thinks its time we get a responce, because its pretty horrible to say it nicely.
«13456

Comments

  • DrosphusDrosphus
    edited August 2009
    especially in the dialog in the royal chamber, really bad sound quality :(
  • Guybrush ThreepwoodGuybrush Threepwood
    edited August 2009
    Yep, I've got to second it. Normally it's not that noticeable for me in other episodes, but man, it's really poor quality here. You guys really need to make it better, please! It's a constant complaint.
  • Super BoscoSuper Bosco
    edited August 2009
    I was surfin' the web and just remembered that the episode was released today, I rushed over here and while I was dling I checked out the forums to find this thread, something I was worried about. I mean, the download is only 200 mbs. I hope it's not too bad.... or else its gonna bug the heck outta me.
  • NorahNorah
    edited August 2009
    I noticed it too, and I thought it was really bad.

    I recently got a new sound system for my PC, and haven't played Launch of the Screaming Narwhal on it since, so I thought maybe it was just more noticeable with my new system, but apparently it's related specifically to Siege of Spinner Cay.

    I wasn't pleased, especially with the Royal Chamber conversation so far.
    I thought Guybrush was bad, but then I heard Elaine talking... wow.

    I hope they can fix this somehow, because it's bad enough now that it's affecting my enjoyment of the game.
  • MagwillMagwill
    edited August 2009
    I was just about to go here and make a thread about this. It was a horror in S&M with Sybil that I learned to cope with, but as you say its just dreadful at the royal chambers.

    So Telltale, pretty pleaSssse with marSsssmallowSssss fix this because it ruins all the immersion.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2009
    Hey guys, I'm moving this to the Support forum. I'm talking with some people about it now.
  • Mr Party HatMr Party Hat
    edited August 2009
    I actually had to download episode one again, to make sure my ears weren't playing tricks on me. But no, it really is significantly worse than episode one.

    It's dropped down to Sam & Max levels of quality. :(

    It's a damn shame, as the better sound quality was utterly blissful in the first episode. It was responsible for a large chunk of my enjoyment.

    Edit: I think Will posting in here is the first time we've ever had a Telltale Team member actually post in a thread about sound quality. I hope this means we'll at least get a response. :)
  • PandaEskimoPandaEskimo
    edited August 2009
    I've also been experiencing this problem. It seems really bad in this episode, notably whenever Elaine says a word with "S" in it. Guybrush is passable, although there are slight problems there as well. Its not even an occasional problem, it occurs whenever she speaks. I also had this problem with the Wallace & Gromit games. It isn't a hissing problem, its a distortion or crackeling whenever there is an "S."
  • Mr Party HatMr Party Hat
    edited August 2009
    Oh God, I've just got to the bit everyone's talking about in the royal chamber. That's really horrible, I've had to stop playing. :(
  • Super BoscoSuper Bosco
    edited August 2009
    I just started playing and have to say Elaine's voice is pretty bad. Along with one time shortly after where I was hearing pip noises while Guybrush was speaking.
  • RMJ1984RMJ1984
    edited August 2009
    The Royal chamber is indeed very bad, my ears :( its such a shame for a damn nice game, i really hope its a mistake, because that low quality sound really doesnt do the rest justice.
  • SammichySammichy
    edited August 2009
    I noticed this happens in very specific parts of the game; in the royal chamber, when Guybrush is at the library and when he's looking at a specific statue. I think there was a part with Morgan that was also acting up but I'm not sure.

    I always fully record my playthroughs for avatarmaking and remembering quotes so I could look up where the sound goes bad.
  • NRGzerNRGzer
    edited August 2009
    I was looking forward to this and started playing when my brain started hurting. As people already said the "s" sounds are unbearable. I didn't notice it in the first episode but in this it's horrendous. Now i became a sad panda. :(
  • AerothornAerothorn
    edited August 2009
    Gotta second this, am having trouble even getting past the intro sequence, really awful sound quality.
  • Mr Party HatMr Party Hat
    edited August 2009
    It's an extra shame because, blimey, this episode sure does look pretty. The visuals have gotten better and the audio has just... imploded, all in the space of a month.
  • Super BoscoSuper Bosco
    edited August 2009
    I don't think the visuals have gotten better... but the plotline sure does look interesting. I hope we get some sort of solution or response soon because I decided to stop playing to see if something can fix this.
  • AerothornAerothorn
    edited August 2009
    Ditto, don't want to have a subpar experience my first time through.
  • NRGzerNRGzer
    edited August 2009
    The interesting thing is that the reviews I've read has complemented the sound quality. Something wrong with just the final encode that winded up as download and not with the review code?
  • PandaEskimoPandaEskimo
    edited August 2009
    I think the audio quality in general is fine to good. The music sounds pretty good to me. It's just this problem with the voice audio that has been bothering me.
  • RMMCPRMMCP
    edited August 2009
    Likewise, I had to stop playing after a few minutes of Elaine's s'. (On a side note, that's probably the hardest phrase to punctuate.)

    Is that something I could wait for a patch for, or am I better off just powering through?
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2009
    Unless there was just some mistake, the review code got the same audio as the release code. As for powering through vs waiting for a patch, that one scene is the only part that particularly stands out so I would definitely suggest powering on. Something about Elaine's voice just doesn't compress well at all I'm afraid, particularly with all of the S's she has in that one dialog.
  • OCKiOCKi
    edited August 2009
    I hope the sound compression is at a higher rate on the DVD version!
    As I've now completed Siege, the audio quality was the only drawback for me.
  • LafferLaffer
    edited August 2009
    Only played the intro, and I have no idea what horrors wait in that royal chamber(?), but Im disappointed that they didn't improve the sounds after first episode.... Still better than Strong Bad but not as good as it should be.
  • Wicked MouseWicked Mouse
    edited August 2009
    I wish you wouldn't have to compress/cut so much for the PC version and let loose a lot more eye and ear candy.
  • SammichySammichy
    edited August 2009
    The sound problem is only in a few scenes, and not even consistently in those scenes all the time. It does distract a bit but the sounds problems don't actually last very long.
    In short, accepting it for now and playing on is very much worth it, in the rest of the game the sound is great!
  • Super BoscoSuper Bosco
    edited August 2009
    PandaEskimo wrote: »
    I think the audio quality in general is fine to good. The music sounds pretty good to me. It's just this problem with the voice audio that has been bothering me.

    Same
  • AerothornAerothorn
    edited August 2009
    Really? Good to hear. The prologue sounds awful, but if it's only in that and a couple of other scenes I'll be okay.

    And I understand Telltale wants to keep downloads small, but couldn't they offer a "less compressed" version for those of us willing to go for the bigger download? Maybe that takes a lot more resources to make than I'm thinking.
  • tmfm2000tmfm2000
    edited August 2009
    I also noticed the S'es in the royal chamber. Wouldn't it be possible to just cut down on the compression some? I mean, I'm downloading an episode in like ten minutes. I wouldn't mind waiting ten minutes more if it meant the sound got better. I can only speak for myself naturaly, but my tip to TTG is: If you are compressing sound to keep the games small in order to please the customers, I for one would be more pleased with better quality than quick downloads :)

    still, the audio quality is really the only glitch standing out in this one. The rest seems top-notch,
  • OCKiOCKi
    edited August 2009
    The voice quality in the sneak peak video had great quality, but in the game it sounds broken.
    Please fix this telltale! =)
  • BobTGoldfishBobTGoldfish
    edited August 2009
    I noted it on every character in the royal chamber scene except The 'Brush.

    Even Beluga had hints of it. Macgillcutty too.. but it seemed to fit with his voice a bit better than the others.
  • Mr Party HatMr Party Hat
    edited August 2009
    Will wrote: »
    Something about Elaine's voice just doesn't compress well at all I'm afraid, particularly with all of the S's she has in that one dialog.

    Then... don't compress the dialogue so much?

    Please? I understand bandwidth is expensive, but we've paid for the game. I've bought hundreds of games in the last ten years, both downloads and at retail, with prices ranging from 59p to £250, and Telltale games are the only ones with such poor sound quality.

    I've never experienced anything like this. At least you have acknowledged it now, that's more than you did during the S&M seasons, but can you please make sure something is done to fix it?
  • salmonmaxsalmonmax
    edited August 2009
    Yes, c'mon guys. We're saying "please" after all. Shouldn't our politeness be rewarded?

    Seriously, though... this has been a constant complaint, and I don't think it's an unreasonable one either. These games have been so meticulously crafted, the sound compression really strips the polish right off of them. Surely the folks writing and performing the dialog can't be pleased that people are cringing at the way they've been processed.
  • p12tp12t
    edited August 2009
    I read in this forum, that for Sam & Max the already compressed audio files were further edited, so it wasn't possible to improve the sound quality afterwards, even if you wanted to. But surely, you didn't make the same mistake again? :(

    So far, I've noticed the bad S-sound in every one of your games - often to the point that it got distracting or even annoying. And I can't think of any other games from the same time period where I noticed something similar. It's really a shame because it seems so totally unnecessary. If it's just about the bandwidth, I'd even pay for that.

    The reason I'm complaing is that I really enjoy your games. Otherwise I wouldn't even bother. But I'd enjoy them even more, if you would fix this issue. Maybe it's because I'm mostly playing with headphones on, but it's really distracting. So, pretty please with marshmallows? :( At least do it for the DVD.
  • shanedlmshanedlm
    edited August 2009
    Hello! This is my first post here on the board. I am really enjoying the game so far, lots of laughs and fun puzzles. But honestly, I wouldn't be on this forum right now if it weren't for those darned S's that everyone else is complaining about.

    I thought at first maybe it was my computer and came on the forums to see if anyone else had the problem. Alas, it seems there are plenty. (Both fortunately and sadly.)

    Again, fantastic episode so far and I'm really loving all the nods in this episode to the former MI games -- but the poor compression really does stand out!
  • RibotRibot
    edited August 2009
    I stopped playing b/c it was too hard to understand the voices with all the static sound in the royal chamber. Please make the voices clearer. I don't want to play it if the rest of the epis if it is gonna keep sounding like this.
  • PandaEskimoPandaEskimo
    edited August 2009
    My understanding of Telltale's response is, "We know our compression has made the voice audio terrible in one part and bad throughout the rest, but we aren't going to do anything about it." Seeing as this has been a problem for the rest of the TTG games, I don't imagine the future episodes will be better.

    I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the development process, but I will assume that someone has listened to all the audio post compression, noticed this, and decided it wasn't feasible to fix for some reason.
  • PariahKingPariahKing
    edited August 2009
    I must have the worst most awful hearing in the world. I've only noticed problems with Elaine and Morgan. If they just upped the compression for female characters I'd be fine with that.

    They should up it on the DVD though.
  • blommablomma
    edited August 2009
    Might as well put my two cents here also, i just got the chamber sequence and i had to stop playing, the voice dialog quality on elain is just terrible. For a moment there i thought my speakers were cracked.

    I love this game but you really need to do something about the sound. It is as much as a part of the gameplay as anything else and this horrible sound quality in parts of the game is just ruining it for me atleast.

    I can very much understand the reason's you want to keep the download size down, but i don't think you are doing yourself any favors by sacrificing the sound like this.

    *EDIT*
    I realized my post wasn't all that useful for tracking the problem i'm having, so here are the specific problems i'm seeing.

    *General bad sound quality: Hard to quantify and very nondescript, but im hearing an overall degradation of audio quality from episode 1, voices are flatter is maybe the best way to say it.

    *Hisses and pops: Most noticeably around the library and the chamber so far, again this is something i never heard in episode 1.

    *Voices: Elains voice is the worst so far, her s:es seems to vanish in a cloud of pops and hisses, but ive also noticed voices wonking out into hisses and pops on guy and the librarian. Altho with elain it's always there, haven't heard a dialog so far with her voice that hasn't gone bad at some point.

    This is on the same exact hardware as episode 1, a macbook pro early 2008 running under bootcamp. And again id like to say that these problems didn't exist for me on episode 1.
  • SHODANFreemanSHODANFreeman
    edited August 2009
    It's too bad that it'd be so much extra work for them to release bandwidth friendly low-res/lo-fi versions of everything, and then ultimately huge uncompressed amazing versions for those of us with crazy connections and hard drive space to spare. :D
  • ArwaldArwald
    edited August 2009
    What's the point of hiring such a wonderful voice actress as Alexandra Boyd, when it sounds like it was fan-made somewhere in the mid-nineties?

    After the Royal Chamber I simply quit. When I remind myself of Elaine's lisping I don't even want to load the game again (((
This discussion has been closed.