Silent Hill Sound Troubles

Longwing · February 19th, 2003

This may be a really stupid question, so bear with me. I've recently purchased Silent Hill, and being the dork I am, I immediately tried to plug it into my computer. Much to my amazement, I've actually gotten ePSXe to run and run well, except: (There's always an except)

My problem is with sound, the FMV's and sound effects are fine, but the voices have this horrible jagged shudder to them, like a broken mpeg file. While I can understand what the characters are saying, the broken modulation of their voices jars me completely out of the game.

I'm running ePSXe 1.5.2 and I've been going back and fourth between the following sound plugins:
ePSXe SPU core 1.5.2.
Eternal SPU Plugin 1.30
Null2's Audio Driver 1.3
P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver 1.4

I've had the same results with each one. I've been playing with the settings, trying to gather clues from other peoples problems, but so far no luck. My system is a 1.1gz Athlon, with 512 megs of DDR. My sound comes from a Soundblaster live. I'm running XP Pro. Finally, the cd is free of any significant scratches. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Again, I apologize if I'm wasting people's time on something obvious.

Mr. Killjoy · February 19th, 2003

Did you try to change the settings, like Timing, Thread,..., buffersize?

Longwing · February 19th, 2003

Yep. Rasing the buffer sizes eliminated my other sound troubles. (Skips in the FMV's and the like.) But it didn't have any notable effect on the voices. Same goes for timing/thread. I've toggled and played with most of the options, but I still can't find that 'Magic Combination.'

Mr. Killjoy · February 19th, 2003

So, maybe your sound card is, errrr...

F-3582 · February 19th, 2003

Did you disable the SPU IRQ hack?

Longwing · February 21st, 2003

My soundcard hasn't given me trouble before. As for the IRQ hack, I've tried it both dis- and en-abled. There doesn't seem to be a difference. Since I last posted, I also went and downloaded an iso dumping program. While the iso runs quite nicely, there is no difference in the voice problem.

At this point, I've just started playing the game and gritting my teeth through the conversations. If anyone has a fix, I'll be more than happy to apply it. But why obsess? The game runs after all. None the less, I'd like to thank you both for your help.

Mr. Killjoy · February 21st, 2003

Maybe if you update your sound card drivers...

Longwing · February 21st, 2003

Ha! Solved it. Some kind of interaction problem between the sound and graphics plugins. I switched to Pete's Graphics Plugin and the sound cleared right up! I dance a happy dance of creepy abandoned towns-ness. I can play Silent Hill properly now!

It does beg the question though, is this a common error? I hadn't read any docs saying that problems could arise from the interaction between graphics and sound. (Trouble with timing sure, but not on a plugin by plugin basis.)

Again, thank you both for your help, I really appreciate knowing that there are people willing to assist the newbies among the net.

F-3582 · February 21st, 2003

This can happen if you choose the wrong frame limit number (e.g. 50 for a NTSC game). I guess that this was the cause.

Quote:

Again, thank you both for your help, I really appreciate knowing that there are people willing to assist the newbies among the net.

That's what discussion forums are made for

February 19th, 2003	#1 (permalink)
Longwing Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 4	Silent Hill Sound Troubles This may be a really stupid question, so bear with me. I've recently purchased Silent Hill, and being the dork I am, I immediately tried to plug it into my computer. Much to my amazement, I've actually gotten ePSXe to run and run well, except: (There's always an except) My problem is with sound, the FMV's and sound effects are fine, but the voices have this horrible jagged shudder to them, like a broken mpeg file. While I can understand what the characters are saying, the broken modulation of their voices jars me completely out of the game. I'm running ePSXe 1.5.2 and I've been going back and fourth between the following sound plugins: ePSXe SPU core 1.5.2. Eternal SPU Plugin 1.30 Null2's Audio Driver 1.3 P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver 1.4 I've had the same results with each one. I've been playing with the settings, trying to gather clues from other peoples problems, but so far no luck. My system is a 1.1gz Athlon, with 512 megs of DDR. My sound comes from a Soundblaster live. I'm running XP Pro. Finally, the cd is free of any significant scratches. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Again, I apologize if I'm wasting people's time on something obvious.

February 19th, 2003	#2 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Did you try to change the settings, like Timing, Thread,..., buffersize? __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

February 19th, 2003	#4 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	So, maybe your sound card is, errrr... __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

February 19th, 2003	#5 (permalink)
F-3582 Back to regular business Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: in Sachsen Posts: 3,242	Did you disable the SPU IRQ hack? __________________ In a world without walls and fences - who needs Windows and Gates?

February 21st, 2003	#7 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Maybe if you update your sound card drivers... __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

February 19th, 2003	#3 (permalink)
Longwing Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 4	Yep. Rasing the buffer sizes eliminated my other sound troubles. (Skips in the FMV's and the like.) But it didn't have any notable effect on the voices. Same goes for timing/thread. I've toggled and played with most of the options, but I still can't find that 'Magic Combination.'

February 21st, 2003	#6 (permalink)
Longwing Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 4	My soundcard hasn't given me trouble before. As for the IRQ hack, I've tried it both dis- and en-abled. There doesn't seem to be a difference. Since I last posted, I also went and downloaded an iso dumping program. While the iso runs quite nicely, there is no difference in the voice problem. At this point, I've just started playing the game and gritting my teeth through the conversations. If anyone has a fix, I'll be more than happy to apply it. But why obsess? The game runs after all. None the less, I'd like to thank you both for your help.

February 21st, 2003	#8 (permalink)
Longwing Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 4	Ha! Solved it. Some kind of interaction problem between the sound and graphics plugins. I switched to Pete's Graphics Plugin and the sound cleared right up! I dance a happy dance of creepy abandoned towns-ness. I can play Silent Hill properly now! It does beg the question though, is this a common error? I hadn't read any docs saying that problems could arise from the interaction between graphics and sound. (Trouble with timing sure, but not on a plugin by plugin basis.) Again, thank you both for your help, I really appreciate knowing that there are people willing to assist the newbies among the net.

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