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Nintendo DS Sound Quality

F

fugimax

Member
While I was at EB today, I took the liberty of jacking in my Sony Fontopia's into the headphone jack (thank you Nintendo) and got to experience DS' stereo sound without the pollution of consumers shopping around me.

The verdict? It's pretty damn good.

The music in Metroid: Hunters is decent, but what really is nice are the sound effects and feeling of immersion it gives you. I wanted to hear how much positional audio was going on, so i played chicken with a metroid a few times and would let it whizz by to the left or right of me. Sounded nice.

Bottomline, it looks like the sound on the DS is going to be great. I'm not sure how it differs (if it does at all) from the sound chip in the GBA, as I never got to use headphones with my GBA. I can't wait to hear "Dire, Dire Docks" pumping through my headphones come this Sunday.
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
Hmm, I really would hope that the sound chip is good.

The worst part of the GBA is how crap the sound chip is. Playing Zelda:MC makes it totally obvious as the music itself is great, but coming out of the GBA it's brutalized >.<. If composers are going to create great scores for games, it would be nice to actually hear them properly.
 
A

aoi tsuki

Member
i've used my Sony Nude EX-71SL's several times with my GBA. Bad idea. The sound output is noisy... it's like listening to a stereo NES. Listening to some of the IGN vids of Metroid and the startup sequence, you could tell there was some notable channel separation, and for a compressed video it sounded pretty clean too. Glad to hear they're actually putting the stereo output to good use early on.
 
S

snapty00

Banned
The Hunters sounds sound similar to those generic, token sounds you hear in movies to represent a kid playing a videogame.
 
F

fugimax

Member
The Hunters sounds sound similar to those generic, token sounds you hear in movies to represent a kid playing a videogame.
Click to expand...

I dunno how you figure this...most of the sounds used actually are straight from Metroid Prime it would seem..
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Sound quality is definitely pretty good. But, it must be said, in context it's still crap next to PSPs sound capabilities ;)
 
S

StrikerObi

Member
I fooled around with one in the quiet of my apartment last week, and I can tell you that the speakers get pretty loud. If the environment is noisy I can barely hear my GBA SP with the volume all the way up. That's not a problem on the DS.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
MPH sounded great. Almost all of the sounds were from the Cube games, but the music was mostly original... well, original remixes of classic Metroid and newer MP songs. But it all sounded great.
 
Brofist

Brofist

Member
Amir0x said:
I hope you're making a sleeping sound and not a buzzing sound indicating "wrong", because what I said is a fact.
Click to expand...

it's him going into fanboy denial mode. we all know the ds has to be better than the competition in every aspect to please the fanboys. dork probably thinks the DS has superior graphics too.

and it got pretty damn old after the first time too
 
S

snapty00

Banned
Are you guys nuts? A lot of the sounds are not from the GameCube versions. When you shoot the gun, it basically sounds like "pow pow pow!" It's cheesy.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
aoi tsuki said:
i've used my Sony Nude EX-71SL's several times with my GBA. Bad idea. The sound output is noisy... it's like listening to a stereo NES. Listening to some of the IGN vids of Metroid and the startup sequence, you could tell there was some notable channel separation, and for a compressed video it sounded pretty clean too. Glad to hear they're actually putting the stereo output to good use early on.
Click to expand...

The noisy output is usually a mixing rate issue; software mixing hurts the GBA badly enough than you can choose either more channels or a better mixing rate, but not both. Since the GBA speaker is so lousy in the first place, most developers take the extra channels (well, sometimes both must be sacrificed...)

Typical GBA mixing rates are 11KHz and 16KHz, but I've seen some 8KHz stuff. CD quality is 44KHz, by comparison.

The DS obviously seems to have a competent hardware mixer, although I'm not sure of what the exact specs are for it.
 
K

krypt0nian

Banned
Amir0x said:
I hope you're making a sleeping sound and not a buzzing sound indicating "wrong", because what I said is a fact.
Click to expand...


No it was more like "boring" as obviously this is true and doesn't need to be brought up constantly.

But you wouldn't see it that way.....no matter.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
krypt0nian said:
No it was more like "boring" as obviously this is true and doesn't need to be brought up constantly.

But you wouldn't see it that way.....no matter.
Click to expand...

No, it is boring.... you're right. But whenever I see a thread about the DS sound capabilities, I just can't help thinking "It's ok for what it is, but I mean... it's not worth writing home about."

Any person who is into music or sound or anything will tell you the difference is fairly dramatic. I just don't think making a thread about one of the more unimpressive aspects of the DS is helping its cause, is all. I'd rather threads about awesomely unique uses for the touch screen.
 
T

TheDiave

Banned
I tried out the DS over at the local Wal-Mart. I've gotta say, Metroid Prime: Hunters is pretty cool. I didn't quite get the hang of changing direction with the stylus, but overall I was impressed. My girlfriend saw it too, and even she said it was really cool.

If my girlfriend approves, I approve.

*a sound of a whip cracking is heard*
 
D

drohne

hyperbolically metafictive
i was under the impression that neither the gba nor the ds actually has a dedicated sound chip. so sound quality will be a tradeoff with graphics quality, game complexity, etc.
 
S

Spiritreaver

Member
Amir0x said:
No, it is boring.... you're right. But whenever I see a thread about the DS sound capabilities, I just can't help thinking "It's ok for what it is, but I mean... it's not worth writing home about."

Any person who is into music or sound or anything will tell you the difference is fairly dramatic. I just don't think making a thread about one of the more unimpressive aspects of the DS is helping its cause, is all. I'd rather threads about awesomely unique uses for the touch screen.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but sadly no topic about any feature of the DS is going to go all well around here.
 
W

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
NINTENDO DS BOOT UP SCREEN > PSP BOOT UP SCREEN

OMG YOU HAVE TO TOUCH THE SCREEN TO BOOT IT UP, INNOVATION!!!
 
mashoutposse

mashoutposse

Ante Up
I played Metroid Hunters at a BB a couple of days ago. I agree with the guy above, the fire sounds are standard issue handheld cheese. Maybe it was the speakers.
 
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