Is it possible to replicate the Retron 5s "Sound enhancement" feature in Retroarch

RetroArch General
#1

Hi

Is there any way to replicate the Retron 5s “Sound enhancement” feature in Retroarch? Of the retro audio interpolation I’ve heard it sounds like the best and it does seem to help out GBA games quite a bit.

#2

Probably. I don’t know what that feature is/does, though. The first place to look is the audio dsp filters.

#4

I hadn’t really messed with the audio DSPs before but they’re pretty fun to play with! They work basically like the shader presets in that you can play with settings on pre-written audio filters without needing to really know anything about how the filter actually works.

Here’s one I made that makes chippy stuff–like Sega Genesis and Gameboy–sound good, I think, though it doesn’t sound as good on sample-based stuff like SNES:

filters = 4
filter0 = eq
filter1 = reverb
filter2 = iir
filter3 = panning

eq_frequencies = "32 64 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000 16000 20000"
eq_gains = "6 9 12 7 6 5 7 9 11 6 0"

# Reverb - slight reverb
 reverb_drytime = 0.5
 reverb_wettime = 0.15
 reverb_damping = 0.8
 reverb_roomwidth = 0.25
 reverb_roomsize = 0.25
 
# IIR - filters out some harsh sounds on the upper end
iir_type = RIAA_CD

# Panning - cut the volume a bit
panning_left_mix = "0.75 0.0"
panning_right_mix = "0.0 0.75"

to try it, save the above text as sound-enhancement.dsp (or something like that) and then put it in your filters > audio directory. Go to settings > Audio > Audio DSP and then select it from the list.

Help to create the dsp audio filter :(
#5

Thanks!

I can’t find any direct comparisons but here is the sound enhancer in action

#7

This is interpolation, which, in the context of audio, is upsampling. Simply increasing the sample rate in RA does this. You can choose which algorithm you want to use for sample rate conversion in the “drivers” section of the menu. The setting is “Audio Resampler Driver”. “Sinc” is the default, which is quite pleasing to the ear.

Essentially what Hyperkin did with that video is try to generate extra hype by pointing out standard functionality of RA and not giving any credit or explanation about where it came from.

#8

Thanks. Basically there are very few instances where I feel this type of thing is necessary and pretty much all of them involve the Gameboy Advance.

#9

Hunterk, just tried your dsp sound enhancement filter, it does sound really better, thanks.

Hey, chippy stuff? Mega Drive is a 1988 console, SNES is basically 1991, in today’s standards, 2 or 3 years is a giant leap in technology, lol.

#10

Glad you like it :slight_smile:

I’ll try to work on some for GBA and/or SNES soon.

#11

How do I change the sample rate?

#12

How weird. It doesn’t seem to be editable in the menu right now. That should be reported as an issue. However, you can always edit the cfg file.

#13

[QUOTE=hunterk;50886]Glad you like it :slight_smile:

I’ll try to work on some for GBA and/or SNES soon.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, and I put the home theater loud to notice the difference from the stock audio with your enhanced dsp, I then wondered to myself what other systems this filter will work with. So if you’re willing to work on other systems, to have better and cleaner audio, I’m assuming most systems will need their on DSP plugin?

#14

Is there a way to apply multiple filters to the base audio output (the full sound as output from the core)? With a few sets of EQ+panning filters working off the base audio output, you could work out some pretty amazing stereo remastering.

#15

My assumption is no, but it’s worth trying.