[FE7] Sound Enhancement Patch

By a fella named Prince Marph over on FEShrine.

This patch modifies the code oh-so-slightly to resemble Golden Sun’s parameters, so that it sounds clearer and more vibrant.

I would suggest coupling this patch with new samples.

Download

It changes like 3 parameters so that the sound comes out clearer. Namely frequency but with this you should also be able to get more tracks to play (like 2).

This does make it more CPU extensive though, so if you put in something really crazy you might have slowdown problems, but it seems to be fine at the moment.

It doesn’t sound great but if you imported Golden Sun’s samples it would sound very similar to Golden Sun. I didn’t include the samples though because some people might have added stuff to their rom and I don’t want to cause any conflicts, while this would change something most people wouldn’t even have touched in the first place.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x33/heimdallinc/raaaaainbow.gif

Just a note: this does make some of the default music sound a little janky (some underlying parts of the songs were obviously never meant to be emphasized this way), and if I recall correctly one or two crash the game.

Just a quick word on why this makes the default music sound shitty:

The Sappy engine has some instruments that are set to play at a “fixed frequency”, noted by an 08 3C (as opposed to 00 3C) in the instrument map. The fixed frequency is defined by the second digit of the byte located at $BE579, which is usually 13379 Hz. However, the sound enhancement patch here increases this frequency, which while increases the quality at which 00 3C instruments play back at, it also makes anything marked as “fixed frequency” (08 3C) play back at an increased frequency. As it happens, this patch makes them play back at around 26758 Hz, which is double that of 13379 Hx, and thus an octave higher. Therefore, most instruments or samples (including some sound effects) marked with a 08 3C play at twice the octave, resulting in some weird sound percussion and some other samples like in When the Rush Comes, or the monk’s “twinkle” sound effect. Nothing should crash the game, and if it does, it’s not related to this patch.

This can be remedied, for the most part, by changing the instrument from 08 3C to 00 3C but the trouble is getting the actual addresses of them.

You will NOT be able to get more instruments to play; that parameter is hardcoded elsewhere in the ROM (I don’t know where).

As far as CPU intensiveness goes, if you’ve got a recent computer you shouldn’t have any issues unless you crank up the frequency REALLY high. If you’re using a device that has an auto-throttling system like a phone with an emulator you may notice your phone getting very hot and then at some point lagging.

My plan is to release a patch that does this for you but as of writing I’ve changed too much on my own ROM to do that. Rest assured, a fix will happen at some point.

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