Donkey Kong: Walking Sound Hack?

[mario64]

The walk sound is integrated into the DK core.

The release pullrequest is pending, but you can already download the build here:
https://github.com/jopdorp/Arcade-Donke ... 220429.rbf

It is great to see so much enthusiasm around the analog sounds of these arcades!
Persuaded by the enthusiasm here and on the Discord, I've created a Patreon, to help me be able to spend more time on these projects.

https://www.patreon.com/jopdorp

If you like the work, and want me to support me to keep on building these analog sound implementations, become a patron

This release doesn't work at all for me. I'm using the 4/29 rbf along with the included mra. Upon launch the game just sits there glitching and playing the mario death sound over and over.

Thank you for reporting this, do you have any more information for me to reproduce?
What addons are you using, power adapter, does it also happen when you don't have any expansion boards and peripherals attached?

MiSTer with Digital IO board. Only peripheral is MT Pi 32. I do have dual RAM installed though.

[jopdorp]

Works quite well for me.

There's a very minor bug, that you could argue is more of a style thing than a bug. In this change:

Code: Select all

-	.I_SW(I_DKJR ? 3'b000 : W_6H_Q[2:0])
+	.I_SW(I_DKJR ? 3'b000 : W_6H_Q[2:1])

the 3'b000 should have become a 2'b00. It won't make a difference; I'm not sure if Quartus will be issuing a warning for it but if it does, it's an easily avoidable warning

I'd also check how is W_6H_Q[0] generated, to see if it needs cleanup.

It's a bit confusing that the patch is already committed to master, but the PR is still open. What happened there?

Nice that you're paying attention to the details!

I opened a second PR that includes the release, maybe that's why it is open again, I may have not have created a new branch to do that from.

[jopdorp]

I will have a look, although I did measure and validate the frequency ranges.

I'm wondering if it could be the filters being stronger on the original, on the YouTube video or on the MAME version.

Another thing that I could imagine is going on is that there might be a slight difference in the speed at which the sounds drop/rise in pitch?

If anyone is able to exactly identify what the difference is, I'll be glad to improve.

Also when MiSTer Discrete becomes more mature, I will backport improvements into this and other cores, so it is expected to become more accurate over time

[mhartman]

I commented on the original PR that got merged. I'm in the camp that was slightly bothered by the samples in that they can't reproduce the random nature of how the walking sound is actually produced. I'd think though that anyone sensitive enough to want an improvement in the existing walking sound would not be convinced that this is an improvement. It sounds too high pitched and squeaky compared to the original. The existing samples are closer to correct. I'm not sure why it sounds so off based on the modeling approach taken which is closer to what actually happens and I haven't seen much negative feedback. I hope everyone concerned can try it out for themselves and sanity check my assessment before this gets released.

I’m traveling, but I’ll check on this when I get home. I have 4 original DK boards and an original machine to go by. BTW, the analog sound on each PCB that I have is slightly, but noticeably, different. I’m guessing due to tolerance differences in the parts.

[mhartman]

BTW, can someone more skilled than I (that’s anyone who can actually work with this code) check on the digital music code in Mister. For some reason, the rhythm/notes of the post board song is off.

Getting the analog sounds right would be a miracle, but it won’t be that great overall if the digital music is still off.

[jopdorp]

I commented on the original PR that got merged. I'm in the camp that was slightly bothered by the samples in that they can't reproduce the random nature of how the walking sound is actually produced. I'd think though that anyone sensitive enough to want an improvement in the existing walking sound would not be convinced that this is an improvement. It sounds too high pitched and squeaky compared to the original. The existing samples are closer to correct. I'm not sure why it sounds so off based on the modeling approach taken which is closer to what actually happens and I haven't seen much negative feedback. I hope everyone concerned can try it out for themselves and sanity check my assessment before this gets released.

Thanks for testing and validating.
I think I identified the problem and was able to improve the build.
It turned out there was a difference in my testbench vs the real thing because of the higher clock speed on the FPGA compared to my testbench, which results in a slightly different frequency responce from the 555 astable timer, this is due to a lack of numeric precision of the current implementation.

I will be implementing a floating point version of the whole system in the future, but for now I'm tuning the sound so it will get closer to the original.

I'll post a new build tomorrow!

[jopdorp]

BTW, can someone more skilled than I (that’s anyone who can actually work with this code) check on the digital music code in Mister. For some reason, the rhythm/notes of the post board song is off.

Getting the analog sounds right would be a miracle, but it won’t be that great overall if the digital music is still off.

interesting, this is worth some reseach

[thorr]

Just tried the current version. It's great to see the progress. I am looking forward to the new improved version. I was wondering if there are any samples still being used and if so, will those will be modeled as well? Thanks!

[jopdorp]

Just tried the current version. It's great to see the progress. I am looking forward to the new improved version. I was wondering if there are any samples still being used and if so, will those will be modeled as well? Thanks!

Yes, the rest of the analog sounds are still samples, for example the jump sound.
I'm planning to continue on other cores first, and then come back to Donkey Kong later to do more sounds.

[Robgus]

Just tried the current version. It's great to see the progress. I am looking forward to the new improved version. I was wondering if there are any samples still being used and if so, will those will be modeled as well? Thanks!

Yes, the rest of the analog sounds are still samples, for example the jump sound.
I'm planning to continue on other cores first, and then come back to Donkey Kong later to do more sounds.

Amazing! Thank you for doing this! How do I try the current version, do I just run the Update script?

Thanks!

[thorr]

Amazing! Thank you for doing this! How do I try the current version, do I just run the Update script?

Download it from here: https://github.com/jopdorp/Arcade-Donke ... 220429.rbf and rename it without the Arcade- in the front and put it in the same folder as the other Donkey Kong rbf.

[jopdorp]

I commented on the original PR that got merged. I'm in the camp that was slightly bothered by the samples in that they can't reproduce the random nature of how the walking sound is actually produced. I'd think though that anyone sensitive enough to want an improvement in the existing walking sound would not be convinced that this is an improvement. It sounds too high pitched and squeaky compared to the original. The existing samples are closer to correct. I'm not sure why it sounds so off based on the modeling approach taken which is closer to what actually happens and I haven't seen much negative feedback. I hope everyone concerned can try it out for themselves and sanity check my assessment before this gets released.

I’m traveling, but I’ll check on this when I get home. I have 4 original DK boards and an original machine to go by. BTW, the analog sound on each PCB that I have is slightly, but noticeably, different. I’m guessing due to tolerance differences in the parts.

It may be due to old capacitors, I think they tend to change a bit as they age, and there are a couple of capacitors on the board that influence the sound strongly as their values change. Even temperature can be of influence.

[Robgus]

Amazing! Thank you for doing this! How do I try the current version, do I just run the Update script?

Download it from here: https://github.com/jopdorp/Arcade-Donke ... 220429.rbf and rename it without the Arcade- in the front and put it in the same folder as the other Donkey Kong rbf.

Cheers mate!

[jopdorp]

Created a pull request with improvements based on the feeback from lagomorph an Turbochop.
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... er/pull/46
You can grab the rbf file from there, or wait for it to be merged.

The walk sound should have the correct hight/tone range now, and is less squeeky
Also threw in a couple of other small improvements:
- mix is a bit better
- removed the final filter, as sorg indicated that it's best practice for users to choose for themselves.
- louder

[thorr]

Thanks! Here is a direct link to the rbf file in case anyone can't find it: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... 220501.rbf

I tried it and it sounds much better. Excellent work! I picked a random Arcade low pass filter. Which filter do you recommend?

[Robgus]

Thanks! Here is a direct link to the rbf file in case anyone can't find it: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... 220501.rbf

I tried it and it sounds much better. Excellent work! I picked a random Arcade low pass filter. Which filter do you recommend?

I tried it too and I agree, it's brilliant! Made my day and just the thought of getting more sounds looked over is absolutely fantastic.

Thanks!

[Chilli_Vibes]

I ran this directly side-by-side of my TV playing a YouTube video of the real thing, and it's pretty-much spot on. Brilliant work on this.

[Wave]

I love this community. :)

[mario64]

Core still doesn't work for me using the newest update. Same symptoms as before. Upon launch the game just sits there glitching and playing the mario death sound over and over. No one else is seeing this?

[thorr]

You may have some old files laying around. I had to delete some files previously.

[mario64]

You may have some old files laying around. I had to delete some files previously.

Which specific files?

[thorr]

Start reading my posts about my issue here. Hope it helps.
viewtopic.php?p=38526#p38526

[jopdorp]

Thanks! Here is a direct link to the rbf file in case anyone can't find it: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... 220501.rbf

I tried it and it sounds much better. Excellent work! I picked a random Arcade low pass filter. Which filter do you recommend?

I think the pcb actually has a 1 pole low pass with a very low cut off, so either the 1 pole 2khz or 4khz filter

[jopdorp]

Core still doesn't work for me using the newest update. Same symptoms as before. Upon launch the game just sits there glitching and playing the mario death sound over and over. No one else is seeing this?

I'm sorry to hear you're still having problems.
There are some timing warnings in this build that I'm still going to look at, hope that will resolve it.

Just to double check, the builds before mine do work?

[killersquirel]

I have the same problem, but I think it's the mra file and not the core. There are alternates that work in the alternates folder. Hoping for an mra file that will address the issue.

[mario64]

Core still doesn't work for me using the newest update. Same symptoms as before. Upon launch the game just sits there glitching and playing the mario death sound over and over. No one else is seeing this?

I'm sorry to hear you're still having problems.
There are some timing warnings in this build that I'm still going to look at, hope that will resolve it.

Just to double check, the builds before mine do work?

Yes. The official ones do.

[lagomorph]

The second rbf file released yesterday (May 1) sounds a bit better to me. If I had to try and articulate what still sounds different to me, I’d say it has something to do with the attack and the pitch. I think the original perhaps has a sharper attack and more low end. This still sounds a bit “squeaky” to me. There is also a periodic increasing pitch that cycles after either six or seven steps but a similar effect can be heard in the original (https://youtu.be/TXWWeTnIZM4?t=436) It just seems more noticeable or clearer to me in yours. Subtle difference though. I think the 2kHz filter makes it sound a little better too. I appreciate your efforts.

[mario64]

Could someone please post a known working MRA for this core? Thank you.

[lagomorph]

Could someone please post a known working MRA for this core? Thank you.

I'm not sure what the issue is as the current MRAs should work. You could try editing Donkey Kong (US, Set 1).mra or making a copy and editing the line <rbf>donkeykong</rbf> replacing donkeykong with the full name of your rbf that you placed in cores/ to make sure it's using the correct core.

[LamerDeluxe]

I'm just using the mra that was already on my MiSTer (from update_all) and it works fine.