[XCSSA] Sound issues with "The Darkness"

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

>
>> I'm using the standard VGA cable and the regular RCA audio jacks.  
>> Now, the
>> VGA cable has an optical port on the plug so I have another sound  
>> option.
>> Is the sound for this game meant to best listened through optical/ 
>> digital
>> as opposed to standard analog or did Starbreeze Studios, the  
>> company behind
>> "The Darkness", did an absolutely crap job of sound encoding and  
>> that it
>> won't make a difference?
>
> Got me there... but if you have any way "turning down" the volume  
> on the xbox
> side, I would try that first.  If there are "game settings" that  
> let you set
> the music sound level during play.., I bet that's set low and when  
> regular
> GUI interface audio levels take over, the music level jumps up and  
> distorts.
> Check it out and let us know what you find.
>

Good idea.  How would I know if they've bungled the encoding or not,  
but I would think not.  Encoders these days are almost perfect, as  
long as THEY are not overloaded.  It's hard to screw up unless you  
want to.  Red lights are blinking and so on.  Also, quite often music  
is generated digitally to begin with, and not subject to distortion  
in recording, distribution, etc.

But synthesizers like my digital Kurzweil K2661, have all sorts of  
distortion DSP options you can add in, and pre-distorted  
"programs" (aka voices) deliberately designed to sound like  
overloading guitar amps, barely functioning tube electronic  
keyboards, etc., for more expressivity and realism.  It's not mostly  
my kind of thing, but it's there, and apparently some people like to  
play with that.  Lots of rock was made with those kinds of  
distortions, and without which it would sound sterile.  Maybe that's  
what your game designers were doing.  Actually, my first CD was made  
with my older barely functioning Kurzweil K2000, which was basically  
producing random notes and noises, which I thought was cool, so I can  
hardly claim innocence.

Sure, the optical output will give you a cleaner sound overall than  
the analog.  I use digital connections whenever I can, in fact I have  
a digital preamp now (a TacT RCS 2.0) that can select up to 5 digital  
(and 4 analog) inputs, do the volume control using 48 bit DSP, and it  
feeds my digital EQ and Crossover in digital as well.  It only needs  
conversion to analog (with a "24 bit" DAC) to power my analog power amp.

Actually, similar capabilities are built into good "receivers" now,  
though most frequently they don't give you a digital output as it's  
assumed you're going to use the built-in power amps.

But, I don't even believe I could hear the difference between that  
and a good analog preamp.  It's just nice to know that when I'm  
digital sources, anyway, my preamp is adding zero noise and distortion.

In the case of a game machine, there might be an audible difference  
and the built-in analog circuitry may not be the best.

Charles


> Tweeks
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