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Lectronamo Sound Emulation

Open Urkz opened this issue 2 years ago • 5 comments

Even though VPX is using the actual rom, the sounds sound different on a VPX table video to a real table video, is it due to the hardware that the table would have used the rom sounds ? Any thoughts ? Its the same on my cabinet, i just used a youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTriFB7rdkY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO0VhrZROZg

Urkz avatar Jan 11 '24 21:01 Urkz

There are lots of analogue components in the Stern sound boards, nothing that can be emulated in a digital manner really.

Same goes for Zaccaria's later models. Needs lots of trial and error. Unfortunately nobody has had the skills to do it right so far...

volkenborn avatar Jan 11 '24 21:01 volkenborn

oh i answered my own question that even though the sounds might be the same on the rom , the hardware that was in the table played it different. Just because a rom is the same from a real table doesnt necessarily mean it will sound the same played through VPX. https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=19012 The above from 2012 addresses what im talking about (second to last post) , yes it might seem Pinmame just doesnt emulate the early soundboard. Just been looking at other early Stern table videos and their VPX remakes, the sounds are different, the SB-100 soundboard must have altered the sounds in some way from the rom that Vpinmame cant do. Just been looking at other early Stern table videos and their VPX remakes, the sounds are different, the SB-100 soundboard must have altered the sounds in some way from the rom that Vpinmame cant do.

At least i know why the difference is there now.

Urkz avatar Jan 12 '24 01:01 Urkz

even though the sounds might be the same on the rom , the hardware that was in the table played it different

"The hardware was different" is a foregone conclusion! Pinball machines from the 1970s didn't run Intel motherboards with PC sound cards producing the sound. Indeed, neither did machines from the 1980s or 1990s or even 2024. PinMAME's whole purpose in life is to emulate the original behavior, including the audio, with PC hardware.

So don't close it just because the hardware is different. The hardware's always different; if it sounds wrong, it's a bug, at least the way I conceive of PinMAME's goals. A better reason to close it would be "won't fix, don't care", which might be the case given the vintage and obscurity. I sure don't want to go down this rabbit hole myself. But it might be worth keeping the issue open, just to document the defect, in case someone does come along at some point who's really into late 1970s SS tables and wants to improve it. Having the reference video of the real table might help a lot with that - I bet it's not so much a technical challenge, since the sound board electronics of the era were so primitively simple, but more a matter that it was impossible to determine exactly how it was supposed to sound by looking at the schematics alone, given that half of the parts are probably no longer manufactured and the data sheets were never put online. The original implementers of that sound board emulator probably guessed at a bunch of parameters that could be tuned better by comparing the output to the reference.

mjrgh avatar Jan 12 '24 04:01 mjrgh

I agree with mjr, so re-opening.. Maybe our electrical-wizard @vbousquet has some interest at some point? :)

toxieainc avatar Jan 12 '24 06:01 toxieainc

I only closed because i wasnt sure i was correct making this thread to start, glad its been of use and reopened. Ok it seems F6 is our friend, choose computer type sounds when the table is loaded in the options on there and all is fine. Ill check this with other older Stern.

Urkz avatar Jan 12 '24 14:01 Urkz