Dublincalif

Usage of the toad guy in my vids?

Extra yap: I've gotten very mixed feedback on the toad guy in the vids. Some like it, some despise it. It was never a serious thing in the first place, it started as a reference to similar goofy characters in older YT vids, but I think it might be seen closer to a "pngtuber" kind of thing today. I mainly use it sparingly as filler, but I feel it's easy to come off in a negative way I never intended. Doesn't help he's naturally a smug character in the show and kinda looks it.

3 days ago | [YT] | 10

Dublincalif

AC:NL just got added to the Nintendo Music app, it's mostly great but with a few issues. The good is that it's substantially higher quality than the in-game files, which were the only source for the soundtrack before. In game, there's a lot of noise, especially when bright sounds play. The very first track "HOME Menu" is a fantastic example, comparison on my twitter. This new version also preserves unique content all the way to 20kHz, the max for the codec used in the app, which is slightly higher than the game's 16.3kHz. This is great because not every release like this on Nintendo Music gets that kind of quality upgrade, even where it could be applicable.

Unfortunately, it's missing a good few tracks. I understand the exclusion of KK Slider tracks given they're included in New Horizons. We are missing the campground tracks, and I think generally just from the "Welcome amiibo" update, including the Puzzle League and Desert Island Escape tracks. We're also missing the TV tracks, music in a lot of items, which is also the case with New Horizons, so it's not completely unexpected.

Kapp'n's Sea Shanties are an interesting case. In game, each song, both Outbound and Homeward are split into two halves: A and B. For each half, there's 10 unique variations for "male", "female", and "both" in the case of a male and female player on the same boat. The variation for part A is randomly selected, once it's finished Kapp'n will say something, then randomly pick a variation for part B, both according to the group aboard. This means, if I did my math and understand the game right, there's 300 unique combinations for Going, and 300 for Coming Back. The versions included in Nintendo Music seem to be recorded from gameplay. Outbound happens to have Female A #1, and Female B #4. Homeward is Male A #7, and Male B #2. I of course don't have an issue with the way they handled these songs and I'm happy they're here in any form at all.

It seems there's some mastering problems in the Nintendo Music version, mostly clipping. It's subtle, but comparing closely, there's audible distortion on in Nook's Homes, and 4:00 PM, and it's even visible in the waveforms. They mostly sound like short clicks. In mastering, it's common to put a clipper or soft clipper before a limiter to catch peaks and stop them from driving the limiter, which otherwise can cause a pumping sound especially if the limiter has slow settings. Usually it's an inaudible addition, most tracks are somewhat full and a brief clipping of a short peak will get buried. However, Animal Crossing tracks are pretty light and are largely comprised of soft instruments. Clipping these even a little is much more audible. My guess is the mastering process was rushed given there was 188 tracks included, or maybe the mastering engineer just didn't realize. With Nook's Homes, the clicking is on the organ instrument, and without comparing to the original, it can just sound like part of it, a lot of organ or e-piano sounds have that kind of click. In 4:00 PM, it's on a synth sound, and it's also something that could easily slipped by.

Either way I'm excited to get a cleaner version of this amazing soundtrack. I hope we get other AC soundtrack in the future as well, I'm curious how they'll be handled since the rest are almost if not entirely sequenced.

Image from @NintendoAmerica on twitter.

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 70

Dublincalif

Who's up listening to Stack-Up rn???

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 82

Dublincalif

The recent addition of OoT3D to the Nintendo Music app has left some puzzled, and is an interesting case. With Skyward Sword having two entries on release, Wii and Switch HD, the addition of OoT3D seems odd as it both used an update slot, and came 8 months after the original OoT.

The difference here is unlike Skyward Sword’s two entries, the OoT3D soundtrack is actually a little bit different from the original. TLDR: I prefer the N64 OST, as it’s more complete and higher quality where it matters.

The in-game music was rebuilt for the 3DS version using its middleware sound engine, which works very similar to the Wii’s. It’s one of the handful of 3DS game soundtracks to be sequenced. It shares the same instrument sources as the 64 game, but sometimes uses higher quality recordings of them. The 3DS version initially had new arrangements made for it, but while it was around 50% done Koji Kondo had told Mahito Yokota to keep it faithful to the N64 sound.

The 3DS version has a CD release, NTDO-17233. As with many soundtracks in Nintendo Music, this CD version is the one used. It misses out on a fair amount of tracks, containing 51 while the N64’s has 82. As far as I can tell, the important ones are here at least. I noticed hyrule field was shorter and was arranged differently past the intro in 3D. It does however contain a new track, “End Credits 2”. This is the only streamed track in-game, and was performed by a live orchestra. The CD/NM release of this track is higher quality than in-game, though the rest of the sequenced music seems to be something like a recording of the in-game versions, maybe through the SDK’s sound player tools.

The largest immediate difference between the 64 and 3D OSTs is the reverb. The 64 OST was a studio mix, and used an external reverb that was relatively high quality. It’s subtle, sounds good, and sits nicely in the mix. The 3DS OST uses the middleware engine’s reverb, as it does in game, which frankly doesn’t sound very good. It’s also relatively loud in the mix, loud enough to negatively impact it in my opinion.

Another downside in the 3D version is aliasing. The N64 onward actually had good sample interpolation, which means you don’t hear much ringing and artifacts from samples when they’re pitched lower than the system’s sample rate. The 3DS version has moderate ringing in some bass instruments. Since the 3DS uses the same kind of interpolation as the N64, this is likely a difference in the pitch of the sample relative to its own sample rate. Bad cases can have ringing even with good interpolation.

One thing 3D gets right is mixing. Many bass sounds in the N64 were hard panned, while the 3DS version makes them more centered. This goes for many other instruments too, the panning is more sensible overall. There’s an abundance of various mixing and articulation differences between the two versions, similar to things I’ve pointed out in some of my videos. If there’s any major that I haven’t mentioned here, feel free to let me know.

Everything considered, I prefer the N64 version. The mixing improvements are important and appreciated in the 3D version, but don’t outweigh how dark and unfavorable the reverb makes it sound. The instrument articulation in the N64 OST also just sounds nicer, even if it’s not as accurate to the in-game version. I do appreciate this new addition for the sake of completeness, but I probably could’ve thought of 500 other soundtracks I’d rather have seen first.


Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like this style of written content. I first thought to do it to justify having a twitter, but I’ll always post them here too if I do more.


Image from @NintendoAmerica on twitter.

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 85

Dublincalif

I've been wanting to talk about sources of instrument samples in Nintendo's music for a while. I had a script done but scrapped because another video came out similar enough I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism. I still want to talk about it in some way though, I was thinking a history of the biggest hunts and finds. I'm not sure if that's been done already.

Also I was privately notified a while back how underwhelming my Wii audio video is, and I've been given a wealth of information I previously didn't have. Would another video that's substantially more in depth and longer interest anyone? Something like a part 2 focusing on the deeper details and anything else unmentioned or previously wrong. I'd still try to make it watchable alone.

Either way I still have a video about a handheld's audio and music similar to the Wii one coming out first. What do you want to see after?

4 months ago | [YT] | 19

Dublincalif

Which physical music format do you prefer?

9 months ago | [YT] | 27

Dublincalif

Just cleared my block list for comments. Most of it was spammers from my synthesia videos, but some likely were not. Probably nobody subbed or reading this was blocked, but I still wanted to mention it just in case someone knew they were. I also set default moderation to none, and default sorting to "new".

Since uploading "real" videos, I decided not to delete comments. Even if I don't like them, and even if they objectively have misinformation. Only exceptions are scams, unrelated advertising, and blatant spam similar in nature. Blocks will now be reserved for scam bots and repeat blatant spammers.

9 months ago | [YT] | 36

Dublincalif

Merry Christmas!

10 months ago | [YT] | 86

Dublincalif

How often do you use the Nintendo Music app? Any thoughts about it?

1 year ago | [YT] | 18

Dublincalif

Today I'm launching my new website, pixelprelu.de/
It's the new home of my MIDI files, and countless other arrangements. It has a decent launch catalogue, so if you like messing around with MIDI files, there might be some stuff you've never seen before there.

1 year ago | [YT] | 49