Topic: Descent Mac Shareware Music

[Scyphi]

Using a few tricks I know of with Audacity, I was able to take your file and mostly remove that whine to the best of my abilities given my limited knowledge on sound engineering. I also increased the volume and went ahead and converted the file into an mp3.

Details

[Chaplain5]

Holy WOW, that's fantastic!   

Granted there's a fair bit of quality lost for some of the sounds, so it sounds kind of like it's playing on 240p on youtube, but DUDE! 

Any chance you'd have the time and energy to do that for all the tracks if I get them to you? We could at least have tracks of this quality on the forums.

[-<WillyP>-]

If you recorded at a higher volume level that would help the sound quality tremendously. Listening with cheap computer speakers, I thought Scy's mp3 sounded great. If there's any way to turn up the volume on the Mac, that might help.

[Chaplain5]

If you recorded at a higher volume level that would help the sound quality tremendously. Listening with cheap computer speakers, I thought Scy's mp3 sounded great. If there's any way to turn up the volume on the Mac, that might help.

Is that so? Thanks for the tip!

[Scyphi]

WillyP's right, a higher music volume would help, otherwise the whine becomes such a considerable part of the recording, it becomes difficult to isolate just the music without losing some notable quality in the process. Right now, your recording has the two roughly the same in volume. If you can record it where the music records louder than the volume of the whine, that'll help with cleaning it out later and minimizing quality loss.

Of course, there's probably going to be some quality loss no matter what the way I'm doing it, but as I said, I'm not an expert at this--I just know enough to get by. I'm sure a professional could probably clean it up much better than I...but at least what I'm able to do still seems to be of satisfaction to y'all. 

As for cleaning up more recordings, I probably could, though likely not all at once, especially at present time (probably going to be pretty busy the next couple of weeks). So it wouldn't be immediate...but something I could still do with enough time.

[Chaplain5]

So it's okay if I get all the recordings together, pack them into a zip file, and send them your way?

Awesome!

[Chaplain5]

Hey guys, here's the folder with the raw recordings!

I did the best I could. Those old speakers really aren't up to the task. Scyphi, do you have the time and energy to clean them up?

[Scyphi]

Given present life circumstances, it could take a couple days to a couple weeks, but yeah I should be able to get through them. 

[Scyphi]

Was listening through your recordings just now...is that really all there is of the briefing music? The file you recorded comes in at a length of 1:18, which is notably shorter than the original version of that same song in Descent, typically coming in at about 2:55. Considering all the other songs seem to be at the same lengths as their original counterparts, I just want to make sure that really is all there is to the briefing music.

[Chaplain5]

Was listening through your recordings just now...is that really all there is of the briefing music? The file you recorded comes in at a length of 1:18, which is notably shorter than the original version of that same song in Descent, typically coming in at about 2:55. Considering all the other songs seem to be at the same lengths as their original counterparts, I just want to make sure that really is all there is to the briefing music.

That is, as far as I could tell, all there is. The briefing apparently looped after that point. I didn't listen to it too far beyond the point when it started playing identically to what I had heard at the beginning.

[Scyphi]

Hmm, that's interesting that this version was shortened then...wonder why...

Anyway, working out how to best clean up these while limiting quality loss, but unfortunately, I think the best quality I'll be able to give in the end is the same as the level 3 clip I cleaned up earlier, in which there will still be noteworthy quality loss. Which, to be sure, is still better than the nothing we have before, but obviously, if there's any way around that, that's worth pursuing.

Especially as I'm worried level 2's track will probably suffer the most, because I noticed most of it's bass line blends in considerably with the whine, and I fear removing it is only going to take most of that bass line with it.

In reviewing our discussion on the matter from the beginning, though, I remembered you had managed to get Audacity on that Mac--albeit an older version--and that got me thinking...that means you could still be able to record the sound internally, capturing the sound as the computer "hears" it. Basically, no microphones or anything like that, just setting up the system so the program captures the audio as the computer plays it back, exactly as it plays it back...thus bypassing that whine problem altogether. The only catch is that you'd have to have Audacity open and recording already before booting up whatever it is you want to capture audio from.

Doing this is, of course, complicated some by the fact you're doing this on a older Mac with an older version of Audacity, and the fact that Macs don't typically come with the ability to sound capture internally like this built-in like most PCs do. BUT...there ways around this.

At this link is a list of options of Mac work-arounds compatible with Audacity (including, I'm hoping, your older version of it) and tutorials on how to set them up and use them for this purpose. If you can use any one of these options working to use to capture the music instead, then that will give you the best quality of audio possible without any background noise that we're going to get. 

I, of course, will still attempt to clean up the recordings you've already made and see what we can get, but while you're waiting on me, that gives you something to look into in the meantime. 

[Chaplain5]

Yeah, unfortunately all of these workarounds are for Mac OS X. I had already considered the option, but the older version of Audacity doesn't have the ability to record directly from the computer's output.

It's a good idea but I'm pretty sure I can't do it.

If someone could run Mac OS 9 in a virtual machine on a PC, then install the shareware, then record the PC sound output... I already tried it and unfortunately I can't really get a virtual machine set up (too complicated, frankly)

I did also suggest before - I've got the core files of the shareware on disc somewhere, or I could at least flash-drive them over from the old Mac. Could someone extract the music from the files?

[Scyphi]

I know of a past attempt to try, but said person was unable to locate the files--they were not stored in the same manner as they would for other versions of Descent, and thus weren't quite sure where they are or what file types they would be in, and if it'd even be possible to extract them and read them properly...but that was the attempt of one person. It might be possible for another to try and have more success, but I leave that to whomever wants to try. As for me, that is a field I wouldn't know enough to be of much help with.

[Chaplain5]

I know of a past attempt to try, but said person was unable to locate the files--they were not stored in the same manner as they would for other versions of Descent, and thus weren't quite sure where they are or what file types they would be in, and if it'd even be possible to extract them and read them properly...but that was the attempt of one person. It might be possible for another to try and have more success, but I leave that to whomever wants to try. As for me, that is a field I wouldn't know enough to be of much help with.

Okay... when I get more time I'll put the files up here. 

[macmus]

Like Chaplain5, I played Mac shareware Descent in its day, and was trying to find that particular version of the music again on and off for years (decades?). So when I googled up this topic I'm posting in, I saw some progress, was inspired to try to make some of my own, and I have.

I was reminded of this quest the other day when I bought Descent 1 and 2 on GOG during a sale. They both came with mp3 soundtracks. One of the Descent 1 sets had the composition I recognised, but it still didn't sound right; the 'this was taken from the PC version and PCs have different soundcards' issue.

Macs came with the audio hardware already, and shared it, and the MIDI soundset only changed once in a big way (that I remember) during the OS 7-9 era for the typical user. There's no guarantee the Mac Shareware Descent used the hardware's (or even the OS's) MIDI sounds. I reckon it just packed its own.

Anyway, the upshot is - Chaplain5's buzzy recordings are indeed the versions of the music I was looking for. They're the same audio I had on my PowerMac 750/100 back in the day.

To help, I got off my butt and got Mac Shareware Descent running on my High Sierra Mac in the emulator Sheepshaver. Sheepshaver is an emulator of Macs with 'classic' OSes like 9 and earlier.

The game runs, and the music is perfect. I mean, without even checking what vintage OS I'm emulating, or exactly what model of a Mac it's emulating, it's already the same audio that Chaplain5 got out of his hardware, again testifying to the consistency of Mac setups.

BUT!... the controls aren't parsing well through the emulator. In other words, the game is basically impossible to play, with super wobbly and sometimes totally resistant controls. My only way to get the post-level 1 music would be by completing level 1, and I tell ya, I can't do that.

What I have done is got pristine recordings of the Title, Credits, Briefing and level 1 musics. In my next post I'm going to share WAVs (and maybe mp3s) of them.

With the level 1 theme, I notice that the tambourines are murder to the ears whenever they're doubled up if you're listening to the track at a decent level. In the game context, the lower music volume (roughly half the bandwidth) and other sound FX would have lessened or hidden the effect. But just in case they aggravate anyone else, I'll be including a version of the track where I EQ'd around the hats.

So maybe someone else can get the Mac Shareware Descent going on their current Mac with Sheepshaver, and maybe they won't have the controls problem on their computer. Or maybe they can play around that problem anyway because they're really good at Descent ... What I'm saying is, I've shown you can get at least at this music in current Macs, so if someone else can do that, they can capture this audio with a program like Audio Hijack.

Downloads to follow this post pretty soon.