Lossless Audio for Sountrack

Black Mesa Archive Suggestion Box
#1

Hello,

Firstly, thank you for this wonderful project, I know it started long ago but do not rush, the more we wait the better it’ll be :smiley: .
I’d like to talk about something that will be as much important as the “graphical enhancement” you are producing for some players : the audio quality *. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_compression_(data)
I don’t know anything about source engine but I guess that if it does not support WAV you could however get the original tracks of the download section and upload them as WAV or Flac files.
As for the game lossless audio would obviously be great. It would make the experience even more magical :slight_smile: . For instance in lossless WAV there will be much more reverb with footsteps on a ladder.

Thank you for considering my suggestion :slight_smile: .

*As with movies and pictures there are two kinds of compression for music : lossy and lossless, mp3 and divx are lossy (yes, even 320 kbps mp3 :wink: ), WAV and DVD images are lossless meaning nothing is lost. (Up)converting from lossy to lossless is useless because the source itself is lossy, the quality is irreversably altered.

#2

Won’t happen ingame simply because the filesize of lossless compressed audio is vastly larger than lossy. Might happen as a separate download though. Oh, and the Src engine can only play wav/mp3.

#3

Even if Source did flac or wavpack, it just wouldn’t be worth the extra size. Even a mid-quality LAME encoded mp3 file sounds transparent to the vast majority of people, and that is with active listening in peace and quiet, imagine if gunfire, ambient sound effects, etc. are played on top of the music.

I agree that lossless OST would be great for a separate download (I use lossless for all my music), but in-game it is plain unnecessary.

#4

I propose that the soundtrack be available as a seperate FLAC/master WAV file. And perhaps multitracks for fan remixes?

As for WAV from the game itself, depending on how frequently music is used (and in Valve titles typically it’s not used often), a WAV could be worth the extra space requirements due to it’s higher quality. Best way to judge would be the actual length of the pieces. Most of the clips that have been released so far vary from 40+ second stingers to 2.5 minute musical interludes. I think we could get away with WAV.

#5

99% of us won’t hear the difference of a high quality lamed MP3 and an uncompressed wave. But 100% of us will have do deal with the increased filesize when downloading the mod. I can already hear people whining like: “my download is now taking 5 hours, why didn’t they compress the audio files?”

uncompressed audio files make no sense.

#6

A few years back they said they would release the soundtrack separately, but whether that’s still the plan is unknown.

#7

They would release it separately, but it would be included in the mod. They wouldn’t just upload the mod with no soundtrack, that would be stupid on their part, and the BM devs are anything but stupid.

#8

I have utmost confidence in our Sound/Music Engineer Lead: Joel “.plink” Nielsen

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.