PS3 Game music Vs Audio CD

[pjoseph]

Ever since i got my PS3 i wonder why the music sounds so much better in the games then on a regular audio cd.
LIke in madden 09 the music while you are in the Menu sounds so much better then if i play an audio cd.

 

[goodman]

That is a good question, that I look forward to somebody with the technical chops to answer for you and for me, but it probably has something to do with more audio bits and bytes on the BD than on the CD.

 

[Gaigebacca]

Ofcourse it varies game by game, but 99% the developers do not use just straight mp3's for the music included on their games. They do use higher quality (usually straight from the studio) audio samples and then tweak them to help fit the style or theme they are trying to convey... I like to kind of think of it as the "Bose effect" where you are taking something, and tweaking it to the point of making it "sound" better, clearer, deeper, etc... without it actually being clearer or deeper. They may tweak the bass and vocal outputs on the track to give it a louder harder hitting presentation than how the artist originally recorded it. the drawback to this of course is usually the exclusion of the full dynamic range of the recording (why I reference it as the "Bose effect")... but when you are clicking through menu's or doing other things, and the music is just a supplement, there tweaks do help to give the perception that the music is "better" than you are used to hearing it (where as it is actually just better suited to the mood the game you are playing has put you in).

Just my $.02

 

[Soundman]

Are you comparing your PS3 games to well recorded CD's or crappily recorded CD's? My well recorded CD's sound quite good and the only PS3 game I've played that compares is MGS4. The audio in that game is fantastic!

 

[WmAx]

Take games like Guitar Hero - and perhaps others - these probably use music tracks that were mixed and mastered by the VG company, not the record company, so that the individual tracks can be synched and used to coordinate with the game play as is done in GH. That is, the VG company in this case probably used the individual session tracks that were recorded in the studio - not the mastered/mixed version that is found on the commercial release CDs.

They have no reason to horrendously clip and compress the music for a VG.

There is a big stink now about how the new Metallica CD sounds like trash quality - but the downloadable GH3 rip of the album is substantially superior.

-Chris

 

[Soundman]

Take games like Guitar Hero - and perhaps others - these probably use music tracks that were mixed and mastered by the VG company, not the record company, so that the individual tracks can be synched and used to coordinate with the game play as is done in GH. That is, the VG company in this case probably used the individual session tracks that were recorded in the studio - not the mastered/mixed version that is found on the commercial release CDs.

They have no reason to horrendously clip and compress the music for a VG.

There is a big stink now about how the new Metallica CD sounds like trash quality - but the downloadable GH3 rip of the album is substantially superior.

-Chris

I heard about that! Also heard that fans have picked up the game because of this.