Why do some music files sound broken?

[BigDuke66]

I checked all sound files outside of the game and those I listed sound broken.

1850>Music1.ogg(Sounds like a bad version of Music0.ogg perfect fo comparison)

1914>Music0.ogg

1929>Music0.ogg

1938>Music0.ogg

1951>Music0.ogg

1975>Music0.ogg

Sounds>Credits.ogg

The composition of all files sound good but the files have somekind of irritating resound effect, not sure if that's the right description for it but just listen to Music1.ogg(bad) in the 1875 folder and then to Music0.ogg(good) in the same folder and you know what I mean.

[JAMiAM]

You might want to look into your media player's environmental settings. If you currently have some form of reverb enabled, you may be getting an amplification of the reverb which might sound bad.

What sort of sound card, and speaker system are you using?

The 1850 folder has two versions of the same music file. Music1.ogg was shortened and a fade off was put in, since the original file dropped off suddenly at the end. If there is one version that you prefer, simply delete the extra one. If you want to add more, then convert your .wav, .wma, and mp3 files to ogg, and put them into the folders. Just make sure that the music files that you have in the folder are named sequentially Music0.ogg, Music1.ogg,...Music13.ogg

I'm going to close the duplicate thread that you have in the general forum.

[BigDuke66]

There is no problem with any sound setting on my side. If so it would work for every file and not just the ones I picked out, all other files sound good.
And I used VideoLAN to check those files.

Please compare those 2 files, if they are the same why does Music1.ogg sound so worse compared to Music0.ogg?
And when you compare them please turn the volume a bit up just to make sure you will hear it.

[JAMiAM]

I did listen to them, and could discern no audible difference between them. I'm something of a hi-fidelity connoisseur, myself. I listened to them using Windows Media Player 10, using oggcodecs 0.71.0946, run through a Philips Aurilium external sound card, playing on Klipsch Promedia V-400, 4.1 surround speakers. It was loud enough to annoy my family this morning.

How do these same files sound when you are playing the game? Do you still have the same problems that you hear when you are playing the files through VideoLAN?

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66
There is no problem with any sound setting on my side. If so it would work for every file and not just the ones I picked out, all other files sound good.

This is not necessarily true. As I mentioned before, if you have a reverb or environmental setting chosen for your player, the reverb gets amplified. What I didn't go into further detail on, is that the amplification is not constant and what you often end up with, when you have two different reverb settings (one within the music source, and the other applied by the player) is a very warbled effect. Sometimes the reverbs cancel each other out, while other times there is an excessive reverb. The files that you mentioned were all files that were created fresh for TOAW III, in a professional sound studio. They do have various reverb effects within the music. The other files that you are not having any problems on, were the original TOAW sounds, which were also converted by a professional studio, but the original source material didn't have much reverb, and were much "flatter".

[BigDuke66]

I use the same codec, a Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS, a 4+1 Speaker System from Cambridge Soundworks and also tried the Media Player.
Still I can here that there is a difference. Especially between those 2 files in the 1850 folder.

Is there any difference in the way the where made, reworked, compressed or anything else?

This problem doesn't fit all new music files, just the ones I listed.
Music0.ogg in the 1850 folder sounds perfectly clean, also the main theme is clean.

[BigDuke66]

Now I tried my "Big" Boxes and I can here this "dirtiness" even better.
I checked the properties of those files and the seem to be the same.
If I wouldn't know it better I would say Music0 sounds like a nice 192kbps or even 224kbps mp3 file, but Music1 sound like a cheap 64kbps mp3 file.

Listen especially to the passage beginning 40 seconds into the track and listen carefully to the flute and the fiddle(I guess it is a flute and a fiddle).
Can't you hear that this passage is nice and clean in Music0 but in Music1 it sounds like flute and fiddle would tremble???

[BigDuke66]

Besides the quality question, how do those folders work?
For example will the music from the 1938 folder only be played in 1938 or later?
And what are the music files in the main sound folder for?
These seem to be the same ones that are used in the different sub-folders but does the game use them at all?