The problem is the voice is so important for any game, especially an adventure, and if its true they can only spare 16 blood mb, Telltale gotta get their priorities right.
double that up to 50-60mb, anyone here can wait to download those 60mb more.
Really hope they fix they release proper voice for episode 2, this is just unacceptable
But that explanation doesn't make any sense, PandaEskimo. If it was just Elaine's voice that didn't compress well, why did it sound better in Curse of Monkey Island? Same voice actor, and the game is twelve years older than Tales.
I would like to know how it's possible that a dozen people got their gaming experience completely ruined, another dozen noticed the flaws in some dialogues, got annoyed, but were able to continue playing, another dozen could only hear the hissing in certain (Elaine's) dialogues, another dozen could not hear anything at all & some only after turning voice & music completely down, to listen to pure voice.
Now, the reason I post here, is because I am simply wondering how it is possible for a bunch of sound files - assuming that we are all using the same version/build of the game - can sound so utterly different to people or at least influence people differently. I, for one, am part of the last group mentioned above, and was not bothered at all by the sound. After reading about 5-6 topics about this issue, there must be some way to figure this out?
I am a bit reluctant to throw this all on the "compression business". I am pretty sure that Telltale - assuming they have a fair & square QA team - would not poke us with appalling audio, unless perhaps they could not hear it either, which is what I'm suspecting.. Monkey Sense Tingling™.
Now, the reason I post here, is because I am simply wondering how it is possible for a bunch of sound files - assuming that we are all using the same version/build of the game - can sound so utterly different to people or at least influence people differently. I, for one, am part of the last group mentioned above, and was not bothered at all by the sound. After reading about 5-6 topics about this issue, there must be some way to figure this out?
Some people are more sensitive to such sounds than others. I don't think there's any question that there is some sort of problem with the compression; it sounds like what might happen when someone does a crappy job encoding/compressing audio. I've never heard voice acting sound that miserably bad in any professional game.
It really should not be that difficult to tweak the compression settings to fix the horrible sharp 'S' sound, but TTG has demonstrated time and time again that they don't really give a crap about supporting their games post-launch. We can only hope that it will improve in future episodes...
I just played a bit more of Chapter 2 and it's gotten worse than the earlier part. At the Bait & Ship repair area, Anemone says a line "Look, it's real easy, just bring me a coupon and I'll give you some bait. Got it?" and the word easy can't even be heard. There are constant popping and cracking noises, and since you can hear the Royal Chamber dialog in that area as well, Elaine with her "S" problem is happening as well. I have subtitles on so I can understand the dialog, but I can understand that people who don't have the subtitles on (the default) would have problems.
This is shameful really. I feel sorry for all the people at TTG who put all this effort and love into their work only to have it completely ruined by this trivial nonsense. If it has been compressed for the Wii, it's not an excuse. The Wii and PC versions can use different assets, I don't see why they couldn't.
If it helps, my specs are as follows,
Win XP SP2
P4 3.0ghz HT
2.5 ghz ram
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
ATI Radeon X1650
I noticed this too. Episode 1 was great, but for some reason the sound quality in Episode II has been terrible so far, particularly for dialogue... I thought I might've blown my speakers and came here to see if something was wrong with my drivers or some such.
I shoudl clarify, the *voice* sound quality. It's like I'm using a low res sound pack for some reason... I didn't notice it at all in Episode 1.
While the general sound compression is not so hot. I think the Royal Chamber sound problems are a different issue all together.
The problem I’m having in the Royal Chamber is that the dialogue is full of pops and sporadic volume changes. It also happened in a few of the Wallace and Gromit games.
It only seems to happen when two lines of dialogue are overlapping each other. For example; Elaine’s conversation in the chamber, Wallace on the phone in episode 1, the old lady crying in Wallace & Gromit Ep 2. When the player character talks over these sounds they seem to conflict in some way.
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.
It sure is disappointing to hear this about the sound quality. It was already mediocre in episode 1, but to have the second episode sound even worse is deplorable. I haven't had an opportunity to play the new episode yet, but I"m thinking I'm going to wait for a patch or just give up on the series until the DVD comes out with (hopefully) better audio quality.
I appreciate that someone from the company has finally directly addressed this issue (thanks, Will). However, he claims it's only noticeable in one scene, and I know there are many people who would disagree with this.
Can someone from Telltale Games please comment on this issue for reals for once? You've got some disappointed customers, and I think ignoring us is a poor way to handle the situation.
Surely it's not like comparing apples and oranges. It's like comparing a full price PC game with a full price PC game. Why should the method of delivery affect anything? It's not the case with any other full price game on any other digital delivery service.
Wow. I've never noticed it before in Sam & Max unless I listen really hard, or in Ep1, but this is just horrendous. Telltale this needs to be FIXED with a patch. Seriously, this is really really awful.
Well, it's a XXI cetury after all...it took me less then 10 seconds to download the game (and i don't have the extra-speedy connection, only 38 mbit\sec, which is considered normal even in a third-world country like mine)
What in the name of a holy jumping mother o' god in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib is the problem with download size? Make in larger.
I came to the Royal Chambers but had to quit at that point, since my ears were gushing blood and my brains hurting. I came here to find a fix to this bug, but looks like I came in vain. To be honest, the game is unplayable for me as it is at this moment. That s-sound is totally ruining the game experience, and playing with the sound turned off is not an option. I want my money back if this problem is not fixed.
Edit: Perhaps I overreacted a bit. As long as Elaine is not speaking it's bareable. But it still takes away a lot from the game experience.
What in the name of a holy jumping mother o' god in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib is the problem with download size? Make in larger.
Exactly what Arwald said.
It's 2009, download sizes of 200mb should not be happening any more. Most demos nowadays are over 1GB.
I noticed this problem right away and thought it may be my drivers as well. When I saw the responses in this thread it was an "a-ha" moment. I too would gladly download a file double the size of this one to have more sound quality.
Audio problem has been around since the first Telltale Sam & Max, and it was highlighted with female actors in it as well. For some reason Telltale has been unable to address the issue, even if many fans did hope for better quality sound option for downloads.
How much bigger download are we talking Telltale if compression was reduced enough or removed entirely?
Ep2 had 16MB of voice. Ep1 had about double that. Even if you doubled Ep1's quality (as there were complaints there), that's still only another ~45MB up from Ep2's 16MB. Not a big deal. Hell, triple it. Shouldn't be (m)any complaints then, and no-one will mind an extra 75mb.
If it was removed entirely, massive. Think factor 10 for the sound parts (or 4 with a lossless compression), so probably around 300MB per episode. But a reasonable increase in quality would probably cost around 20-30MB.
Edit: Sorry Pirateguybrush, posted at the same time.
Yeah, removing all compression would be an expensive (bandwidth wise) and largely pointless endeavour. Simply upping the quality would be the way to go.
Lets say its about 50 Mb, that wouldn't be an issue to any of the downloaders I would imagine.
Last Wallace and Gromit episode is actually double in size compared to Monkey Island's second episode (over 508Mb). So they can definitely afford and do bigger files.
I hope something could be done Telltale, as I do think Monkey Island is best Telltale game to date. Please do not let poor sound quality to continue to be an issue!
Having finally played episode 2, I've got to say (aside from how great it feels to be back in the game): What was this fuss about an s-sound? While reading the forums at work, but unable to play the game itself, I grew concerned. People had posted that it ruins the experience, they surely cannot continue, it really takes away from the performance or some garbage. Hardly. I would barely have noticed it without having read the forums and my colleague who was there didn't notice until I had mentioned that this was supposedly a huge problem.
I guess it's like anything else, you go to Spain to hear people speak Spanish, you go to internet forums to hear people whine.
If it's not the controls, they're not doing justice to the series or it's the lack of inventory combination. When they fix this, it's that the game came out late (read: on time, but later than you would have liked it). When they get it to come out earlier, the sound quality is "too harsh to sit through." I know I'm talking to a brick wall, but I feel the need to talk nonetheless.
Just enjoy yourselves and stop trying to find faults. Sorry for doubting you, Telltale.
Hardly. I would barely have noticed it without having read the forums and my colleague who was there didn't notice until I had mentioned that this was supposedly a huge problem.
I guess it's like anything else, you go to Spain to hear people speak Spanish, you go to internet forums to hear people whine.
Hey, you DO know, that different people hear different frequencies, right? (Well, now you sure do know). When some people hear their voice recorded, it seems completely distorted to them, while other's think it's fine. Hearing things - is very personal
So just thank heavens that your ears are less sensitive and stop blaming other people for expressing their displeasure. It's not like we are in this topic for sheer boredom - for some the quality of sound is simply unbearable.
It's my first post here and I'm really sorry that it has to be about bad sound quality, but I just couldn't resist to reply to this thread.
After playing SoMI SE, I can say that the sound quality in ToMI is just BAD. I feel that in Chapter 2 things just got a little worse, and I can't understand why Telltale doesn't feel that it's just not right this way. There were so many threads about this and so many complaints that something just has to be done here. The main problem is that games in the 90's had better sound quality than Tales, and thanks to that a great experience could become horrible.
I don't have an expensive speaker system or exceptionally good hearing, but this bothers even me, though I had no problems with Sam & Max or Wallace & Gromit. PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASEEEEEEE, fix this, Telltale!
You won't even get this bad sound quality with vorbis at lowest quality setting (q -2) if you recorded the voice properly. Also the audio artifacts don't show the signs of vorbis artifacts. So I just have to assume the sound engineering department used some digital sound processing beforehand, probably lowpassing and compressing the signal, which results in heavy clipping and hissing. So the samples were already FUBAR before going into the vorbis encoder.
I wonder why Telltale isn't doing anything about this since S&M season 1. I know that the Wii may be a big market, but it's annoying to see how the controls and technical quality of the game get dumbed down to fit the Wii. I don't see ANY technical limitations for not offering ToMI with properly recorded/encoded audio and proper controls for PC, you can still offer the crippled verison for the Wii.
Having finally played episode 2, I've got to say (aside from how great it feels to be back in the game): What was this fuss about an s-sound? While reading the forums at work, but unable to play the game itself, I grew concerned. People had posted that it ruins the experience, they surely cannot continue, it really takes away from the performance or some garbage. Hardly. I would barely have noticed it without having read the forums and my colleague who was there didn't notice until I had mentioned that this was supposedly a huge problem.
Posts like this add nothing. We don't care if you can't hear it. If you can't, congratulations. But don't then come into the thread and say that we're in the wrong because it's ruining our experience.
You might as well go into one of the threads reporting constant crashes and say "What are you talking about? My game doesn't crash. Ignore this person, Telltale."
"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they're not it." - Bernard Bailey
It's really pretty simple a problem. The highend has aliasing all over it. Elaine's voice is particularly succeptible because of her strong sibilance, but it isn't limited to just her. Telltale could fix this with a simple lowpass filter (though lose some "brilliance" from her voice), or compress less. The reason some people don't hear it is frankly because they have worse hearing than others. It's like the people that can hear the high frequency whine from an old CRT TV.
For another great example of a bad bitrate/khz combination, check out every game ever made by Relic. Their highend has the craziest warbles this side of dunking your head in a tub of water while singing the blues.
My recommendation would be a gentle lowpass filter before compression, to lower the voice sample frequency, or to simply compress less
Alright. I have crappy speakers, and I didn't hear anything. But when I heard the game with headphones, I DID hear what everyone was talking about!
But still, it didn't ruin my experience. Unlike those of you infantile whiners who want to have your experience ruined by this minor quibble, I'll just accept it by using speakers that would bury the sibilants instead of screaming and bawling "WAAH! WAAH! THE SIBILANTS DON'T SOUND GOOD AND THE CONTROLS ARE BAD AND I'M NEVER EVER EVER GIVING MY MONEY TO TELLTALE AGAIN!!!!!!!111ONE"
I swear, this community has gone downhill since Telltale announced they were working on a Monkey Island IP. :mad:
Edit: No disrespect to those who have to have headphones in order to not bother others, but my point is you shouldn't make an everest-sized mountain out of this tiny molehill.
Alright. I have crappy speakers, and I didn't hear anything. But when I heard the game with headphones, I DID hear what everyone was talking about!
But still, it didn't ruin my experience. Unlike those of you infantile whiners who want to have your experience ruined by this minor quibble, I'll just accept it by using speakers that would bury the sibilants instead of screaming and bawling "WAAH! WAAH! THE SIBILANTS DON'T SOUND GOOD AND THE CONTROLS ARE BAD AND I'M NEVER EVER EVER GIVING MY MONEY TO TELLTALE AGAIN!!!!!!!111ONE"
I swear, this community has gone downhill since Telltale announced they were working on a Monkey Island IP. :mad:
Edit: No disrespect to those who have to have headphones in order to not bother others, but my point is you shouldn't make an everest-sized mountain out of this tiny molehill.
As Mr Party Hat said, posts like this add nothing to the discussion. You don't hear the problem, so just be happy with that and move on. Some of us genuinely hear it (because like it or not, it's there), and it's terribly distracting and noticeable regardless of the type of speakers used.
But Iron Curtain, I sincerely apologize to you that we are experiencing this problem. Our discussion of it seems to really be vexing you.
Alright. I have crappy speakers, and I didn't hear anything. But when I heard the game with headphones, I DID hear what everyone was talking about!
But still, it didn't ruin my experience. Unlike those of you infantile whiners who want to have your experience ruined by this minor quibble, I'll just accept it by using speakers that would bury the sibilants instead of screaming and bawling "WAAH! WAAH! THE SIBILANTS DON'T SOUND GOOD AND THE CONTROLS ARE BAD AND I'M NEVER EVER EVER GIVING MY MONEY TO TELLTALE AGAIN!!!!!!!111ONE"
I swear, this community has gone downhill since Telltale announced they were working on a Monkey Island IP. :mad:
Edit: No disrespect to those who have to have headphones in order to not bother others, but my point is you shouldn't make an everest-sized mountain out of this tiny molehill.
So you suggest to use crappy speakers as "workaround" for the bad sound quality? Sorry, but that's the stupidest thing i've read in this thread so far.
and i don't use headphones. i already use speakers. but no crappy ones. that's my problem.
As Mr Party Hat said, posts like this add nothing to the discussion. You don't hear the problem, so just be happy with that and move on. Some of us genuinely hear it (because like it or not, it's there), and it's terribly distracting and noticeable regardless of the type of speakers used.
But Iron Curtain, I sincerely apologize to you that we are experiencing this problem. Our discussion of it seems to really be vexing you.
Agreed! Like said before: Posts like this don't add nothing to this thread, so please don't post.
And like said before: ears are VERY personal. I get this a LOT in my field of work. Some people have (magnificent) hearing, others poor. Every individual interpreters sound differently, and the fact how you hear sound plays a big role. Yes, with headphones or 200 $ / € speakers you enjoy sound quality more, but also notice bad quailty than tiny cheap speakers.
As for the so called "whining" part: if you buy a product (ie. game in this case), than the buyer expects to have a certain quality, and to enjoy the quality. For the ones who think we are whiners: you don't buy a new car that runs badly either, do you?
I also don't mind to download some bigger files to enjoy the sound quality more. And Spacecat mentioned some pretty good solutions for the sound processing! Like I mentioned before a de-esser in the process would also help the essing problems.
But others would see getting a gas-guzzling Hummer when they ordered a MiniCooper as a drawback. All I'm saying is that you always have to find a balance between file size and quality and you can never satisfy everybody.
I heard the distortions in e2 and I sure as hell hope that they'll get fixed at some point, but I don't expect any miracles and neither should you. If you have way above average hearing than most likely the quality/filesize ratio that's perfect for the average user still won't be good enough for you.
The speech quality as it stands now is sub-standard and I think there's room for some improvements... but if TTG suddenly used FLAC for the speech, you can be sure that others would complain.
Edit: No disrespect to those who have to have headphones in order to not bother others, but my point is you shouldn't make an everest-sized mountain out of this tiny molehill.
If this was a FPS shooter, then it wouldn't be such a big issue, but in Monkey Island games, dialogue plays a huge part in the game experience, and that part is flawed.
I played first half of the episode with worst speakers I could find in my home to minimize the problem but that is like hitting your foot with a hammer when you have headache, sure you won't be bothered with the headache for a moment but it isn't the smartest thing to do.
If Episode 3 is as bad as this, I'll be seriously considering demanding a refund. This isn't an issue with any other company, and it should really have been fixed a long time ago.
But others would see getting a gas-guzzling Hummer when they ordered a MiniCooper as a drawback. All I'm saying is that you always have to find a balance between file size and quality and you can never satisfy everybody.
I heard the distortions in e2 and I sure as hell hope that they'll get fixed at some point, but I don't expect any miracles and neither should you. If you have way above average hearing than most likely the quality/filesize ratio that's perfect for the average user still won't be good enough for you.
The speech quality as it stands now is sub-standard and I think there's room for some improvements... but if TTG suddenly used FLAC for the speech, you can be sure that others would complain.
No one is suggesting they switch from the current system to FLAC. And actually, if they went ahead and released a high-quality speech patch for people that want it, that would actually go a long way towards satisfying everybody.
Comments
double that up to 50-60mb, anyone here can wait to download those 60mb more.
Really hope they fix they release proper voice for episode 2, this is just unacceptable
Isnt Wiiware limit something like 40mb and they compress the sounds even more to fit in that space?
Now, the reason I post here, is because I am simply wondering how it is possible for a bunch of sound files - assuming that we are all using the same version/build of the game - can sound so utterly different to people or at least influence people differently. I, for one, am part of the last group mentioned above, and was not bothered at all by the sound. After reading about 5-6 topics about this issue, there must be some way to figure this out?
I am a bit reluctant to throw this all on the "compression business". I am pretty sure that Telltale - assuming they have a fair & square QA team - would not poke us with appalling audio, unless perhaps they could not hear it either, which is what I'm suspecting.. Monkey Sense Tingling™.
Some people are more sensitive to such sounds than others. I don't think there's any question that there is some sort of problem with the compression; it sounds like what might happen when someone does a crappy job encoding/compressing audio. I've never heard voice acting sound that miserably bad in any professional game.
It really should not be that difficult to tweak the compression settings to fix the horrible sharp 'S' sound, but TTG has demonstrated time and time again that they don't really give a crap about supporting their games post-launch. We can only hope that it will improve in future episodes...
This is shameful really. I feel sorry for all the people at TTG who put all this effort and love into their work only to have it completely ruined by this trivial nonsense. If it has been compressed for the Wii, it's not an excuse. The Wii and PC versions can use different assets, I don't see why they couldn't.
If it helps, my specs are as follows,
Win XP SP2
P4 3.0ghz HT
2.5 ghz ram
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
ATI Radeon X1650
Sennheiser HDR 130 headphones
I shoudl clarify, the *voice* sound quality. It's like I'm using a low res sound pack for some reason... I didn't notice it at all in Episode 1.
The problem I’m having in the Royal Chamber is that the dialogue is full of pops and sporadic volume changes. It also happened in a few of the Wallace and Gromit games.
It only seems to happen when two lines of dialogue are overlapping each other. For example; Elaine’s conversation in the chamber, Wallace on the phone in episode 1, the old lady crying in Wallace & Gromit Ep 2. When the player character talks over these sounds they seem to conflict in some way.
It sure is disappointing to hear this about the sound quality. It was already mediocre in episode 1, but to have the second episode sound even worse is deplorable. I haven't had an opportunity to play the new episode yet, but I"m thinking I'm going to wait for a patch or just give up on the series until the DVD comes out with (hopefully) better audio quality.
I appreciate that someone from the company has finally directly addressed this issue (thanks, Will). However, he claims it's only noticeable in one scene, and I know there are many people who would disagree with this.
Can someone from Telltale Games please comment on this issue for reals for once? You've got some disappointed customers, and I think ignoring us is a poor way to handle the situation.
Download size, plain and simple.
What in the name of a holy jumping mother o' god in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib is the problem with download size? Make in larger.
Edit: Perhaps I overreacted a bit. As long as Elaine is not speaking it's bareable. But it still takes away a lot from the game experience.
Exactly what Arwald said.
It's 2009, download sizes of 200mb should not be happening any more. Most demos nowadays are over 1GB.
As much as I appreciate a quick download, I'd rather leave it going overnight if it meant getting rid of the audio compression issues.
How much bigger download are we talking Telltale if compression was reduced enough or removed entirely?
Edit: Sorry Pirateguybrush, posted at the same time.
Last Wallace and Gromit episode is actually double in size compared to Monkey Island's second episode (over 508Mb). So they can definitely afford and do bigger files.
I hope something could be done Telltale, as I do think Monkey Island is best Telltale game to date. Please do not let poor sound quality to continue to be an issue!
I guess it's like anything else, you go to Spain to hear people speak Spanish, you go to internet forums to hear people whine.
If it's not the controls, they're not doing justice to the series or it's the lack of inventory combination. When they fix this, it's that the game came out late (read: on time, but later than you would have liked it). When they get it to come out earlier, the sound quality is "too harsh to sit through." I know I'm talking to a brick wall, but I feel the need to talk nonetheless.
Just enjoy yourselves and stop trying to find faults. Sorry for doubting you, Telltale.
Hey, you DO know, that different people hear different frequencies, right? (Well, now you sure do know). When some people hear their voice recorded, it seems completely distorted to them, while other's think it's fine. Hearing things - is very personal
So just thank heavens that your ears are less sensitive and stop blaming other people for expressing their displeasure. It's not like we are in this topic for sheer boredom - for some the quality of sound is simply unbearable.
It's my first post here and I'm really sorry that it has to be about bad sound quality, but I just couldn't resist to reply to this thread.
After playing SoMI SE, I can say that the sound quality in ToMI is just BAD. I feel that in Chapter 2 things just got a little worse, and I can't understand why Telltale doesn't feel that it's just not right this way. There were so many threads about this and so many complaints that something just has to be done here. The main problem is that games in the 90's had better sound quality than Tales, and thanks to that a great experience could become horrible.
I don't have an expensive speaker system or exceptionally good hearing, but this bothers even me, though I had no problems with Sam & Max or Wallace & Gromit. PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASEEEEEEE, fix this, Telltale!
I wonder why Telltale isn't doing anything about this since S&M season 1. I know that the Wii may be a big market, but it's annoying to see how the controls and technical quality of the game get dumbed down to fit the Wii. I don't see ANY technical limitations for not offering ToMI with properly recorded/encoded audio and proper controls for PC, you can still offer the crippled verison for the Wii.
But to me it was fine. I liked the voice acting.
I'm not very amused...
edit: and i had absolutely no problem with the sound quality of ep1
Posts like this add nothing. We don't care if you can't hear it. If you can't, congratulations. But don't then come into the thread and say that we're in the wrong because it's ruining our experience.
You might as well go into one of the threads reporting constant crashes and say "What are you talking about? My game doesn't crash. Ignore this person, Telltale."
"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they're not it." - Bernard Bailey
It's really pretty simple a problem. The highend has aliasing all over it. Elaine's voice is particularly succeptible because of her strong sibilance, but it isn't limited to just her. Telltale could fix this with a simple lowpass filter (though lose some "brilliance" from her voice), or compress less. The reason some people don't hear it is frankly because they have worse hearing than others. It's like the people that can hear the high frequency whine from an old CRT TV.
For another great example of a bad bitrate/khz combination, check out every game ever made by Relic. Their highend has the craziest warbles this side of dunking your head in a tub of water while singing the blues.
My recommendation would be a gentle lowpass filter before compression, to lower the voice sample frequency, or to simply compress less
But still, it didn't ruin my experience. Unlike those of you infantile whiners who want to have your experience ruined by this minor quibble, I'll just accept it by using speakers that would bury the sibilants instead of screaming and bawling "WAAH! WAAH! THE SIBILANTS DON'T SOUND GOOD AND THE CONTROLS ARE BAD AND I'M NEVER EVER EVER GIVING MY MONEY TO TELLTALE AGAIN!!!!!!!111ONE"
I swear, this community has gone downhill since Telltale announced they were working on a Monkey Island IP. :mad:
Edit: No disrespect to those who have to have headphones in order to not bother others, but my point is you shouldn't make an everest-sized mountain out of this tiny molehill.
As Mr Party Hat said, posts like this add nothing to the discussion. You don't hear the problem, so just be happy with that and move on. Some of us genuinely hear it (because like it or not, it's there), and it's terribly distracting and noticeable regardless of the type of speakers used.
But Iron Curtain, I sincerely apologize to you that we are experiencing this problem. Our discussion of it seems to really be vexing you.
So you suggest to use crappy speakers as "workaround" for the bad sound quality? Sorry, but that's the stupidest thing i've read in this thread so far.
and i don't use headphones. i already use speakers. but no crappy ones. that's my problem.
Agreed! Like said before: Posts like this don't add nothing to this thread, so please don't post.
And like said before: ears are VERY personal. I get this a LOT in my field of work. Some people have (magnificent) hearing, others poor. Every individual interpreters sound differently, and the fact how you hear sound plays a big role. Yes, with headphones or 200 $ / € speakers you enjoy sound quality more, but also notice bad quailty than tiny cheap speakers.
As for the so called "whining" part: if you buy a product (ie. game in this case), than the buyer expects to have a certain quality, and to enjoy the quality. For the ones who think we are whiners: you don't buy a new car that runs badly either, do you?
I also don't mind to download some bigger files to enjoy the sound quality more. And Spacecat mentioned some pretty good solutions for the sound processing! Like I mentioned before a de-esser in the process would also help the essing problems.
I heard the distortions in e2 and I sure as hell hope that they'll get fixed at some point, but I don't expect any miracles and neither should you. If you have way above average hearing than most likely the quality/filesize ratio that's perfect for the average user still won't be good enough for you.
The speech quality as it stands now is sub-standard and I think there's room for some improvements... but if TTG suddenly used FLAC for the speech, you can be sure that others would complain.
If this was a FPS shooter, then it wouldn't be such a big issue, but in Monkey Island games, dialogue plays a huge part in the game experience, and that part is flawed.
I played first half of the episode with worst speakers I could find in my home to minimize the problem but that is like hitting your foot with a hammer when you have headache, sure you won't be bothered with the headache for a moment but it isn't the smartest thing to do.
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11698
No one is suggesting they switch from the current system to FLAC. And actually, if they went ahead and released a high-quality speech patch for people that want it, that would actually go a long way towards satisfying everybody.
Wow! His problem is seriously a minor issue, and he got a "we'll look into it" response in less than an hour!
Heck, I think a response of "sod off" from Telltale staff would be preferable to just being ignored. At least then I could stop wasting my time.