ExoticA Forum

Just wondereing if it is worth the hassle of tracking down and contacting musicians for permission to host their CD audio tracks as MP3s on UnExotica, not to mention the extra time spent by Kyz amending the script to allow for such files?

Not heard a right lot of feedback - just wanting to know if we were sort of wasting our time?

I think your doing a wonderful job!

Keep up the great work!

Love from Joolsie

Just one response then, and that was from BuZz!

Fair enough, due to lack of response my MP3 updates will be put on hold - unless I hear otherwise...

please please put more. we love you. etc etc..

Hi ! Firstly, as always, keep up the good work!!

Have you thought about using another format other than MP3 for encoding the CDDA tracks? Reason I mention this is because MP3 is showing its age a little at 128kbit, especially when you compare it to Ogg Vorbis or AAC etc etc. Essentially, you can get better frequency storage with Ogg than MP3 any day.. here are some comparisons.. I would attach some screenshots of a freq. spectragraph but you can't attach images here.

Pinball Fantasies CD32 Title Music (03:59)

CDDA WAV = 41,172KB (frequencies up to 22Khz)
MP3 (128kbps) = 3,736KB, freq. up to ~16Khz, nasty cutoff.
Q4 OGG (~120-140kbps) = 3,688KB, freq. up to ~20Khz
Q5 OGG (~150-180kbps) = 4,833KB, freq. up to ~21Khz

I always find MP3 @ 128kbps to be a bit hollow and you can see why.. no frequencies over 16khz. Yes you can force the encoder to store all freqencies, but its not advisable due to it making the sound all ugly. You see above a Q4 OGG has more frequency retainment and is infact a smaller filesize than the 128kbps MP3!.. try out some tests yourself if you want.

Anyway, a good source for MP3/OGG/AAC/etc encoding quality discussion etc is Hydrogen Audio - http://www.hydrogenaudio.org

You can pick up quality encoders at Rarewares - http://www.rarewares.org

Well thats all.. If you already know of all this then I'm sorry for pointing out the obvious.. some other people may like to know also though so no harm

Keep the vibe alive..

We have discussed using ogg (on the private admin list) and I do think its a great idea. Some of the tracks though we actuallly only have as mp3 as they were ripped some time ago.

XtC/Kyzer what are your views ?

Pfft.
We should use 92bit aiff images.

Hoya!

Hum.... Is OGG playable on Ammy?

Be funky

M A D

found this:

http://www.honeypot.net/audio/

but he says its barley useable on his 060/50

Im sure i saw another ogg player for amigaos. But can't remember where

Hi

If you are still looking for OGG playback on the Amiga, I found this one - SongPlayer, I don't know what its like on resources etc since I do not have an Amiga these days:

http://amigadev.free.fr/songplayer/index_en.html

It mentions OGG format support, so maybe it will do the trick.

MM..

In-time I s'pose we could always replace the MP3 versions with HQ OGG versions, if the original CDs are still available.

...but that's another project...

The hard part is tracking down the composers to gain permission, so far it's...

Allister Brimble - Yes
Richard Joseph - I'll get back to you
Barry Leitch - Yes ('Sleepwalker' - Yes / Unreleased 'Epic CD32' tracks - Maybe)
Patrick Phelan - Yes (was working on these before my Amiga died)
Matt Furniss - Can't seem to track him down. Anyone got any leads?
Martin Iveson - Contacted him through his manager who passed on my request - but I've received no response in months! May go ahead and upload these anyway!
Frédéric Motte - Not contacted him yet.

Have I missed anyone?

XtC wrote:In-time I s'pose we could always replace the MP3 versions with HQ OGG versions, if the original CDs are still available.

...but that's another project...

The hard part is tracking down the composers to gain permission, so far it's...

Allister Brimble - Yes
Richard Joseph - I'll get back to you
Barry Leitch - Yes ('Sleepwalker' - Yes / Unreleased 'Epic CD32' tracks - Maybe)
Patrick Phelan - Yes (was working on these before my Amiga died)
Matt Furniss - Can't seem to track him down. Anyone got any leads?
Martin Iveson - Contacted him through his manager who passed on my request - but I've received no response in months! May go ahead and upload these anyway!
Frédéric Motte - Not contacted him yet.

Have I missed anyone?

Jason Page? IMHO, the only good CD32 soundtrack is Fire and Ice.

XtC wrote: Have I missed anyone?

Olof Gustafsson. The Pinball Fantasies CD32 tracks kick ass!

Hoya!

Oh yesss!!! His tunes from the Pinball Trilogy are mind-blasting!!!

Be funky

M A D

Interesting maybe.. or not... I just checked the credits screen on my
xbox on rallisport challenge 2...

Some familiar names from Digital Illusions including Olof Gustafsson
for sound.... it is a damn fun game too.. nice to know these guys are still going strong...

we should get in contact about the cd32 tracks... and any extra information/photos for unexotica..