pinsound startup procedure? conversions?

[mlager8]

Does anyone use pinsound still on their cab? I have it start in an elevated state with windows which loads before VPX (which also autostarts with windows) but none of the pinsound packages will work initially. I have to exit out of everything, restart pinsound then restart VPX and all works as intended

 

Alternatively is there an easy way to convert pinsound packages to altsound? One in particular that I love is the package for CFTBL with all 50's music and high quality callouts, it really feels like its how the game is intended to sound.

After some digging I saw that @iDigStuff actually did a conversion of this very package but there are still a few others like I would like (hook, GNR, LOTR) 

 

 

 

[iDigStuff]

Hi,

Short answer is there is no easy way to convert them.

It has to be done one sound at a time, which obviously takes a long time.

Add to that the fact that altsound doesn't always trigger perfectly depending on the sound platform the original table was built on.

However the upside of the tediousness is you become much more familiar with the gameplay and how the altsound should work.

Then I usually edit, replace, add, remove, and generally manipulate the pinsound to work as an altsound because what's the point

if you aren't being creative and having some fun.  

 

The altsounds you seek are already on this website in the altsound section. There is

also a great collection at http://altsound.vpin24.com

look at the bottom in the enhanced section. Tables are listed by rom name.

Have Fun!

 

[iDigStuff]

Re: Pinsound

It still works.

Technically not supported any longer

It's great and I used it myself for a while.

I'm trying to eliminate the need to run an additional software.

[Darkstar]

I use Pinsound on a regular basis and still make a lot of mixes. It is far superior to Altsound in my opinion, and most of the packages out there for Alt are usually very low quality. 

 

I had dialog with the founder of Pinsound and the conversation was a little bit…..weird. I may start sharing some in VIP soon. I think the lack of support was monetary and if you connect the dots to how the newer versions work, I don’t think he will ever support it again…but that is just my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m curious, why would you want to convert anything to Altsound from Pinsound? (I’m assuming you didn’t know the link IDigStuff gave )In reality that’s like reverting it back intentionally to the beta phase. Alt 1 was somewhat getting ready for Alt 2 which was the end product. Compare the size of the mixes and you’ll find those Altsounds are almost comical. Also the channels do not support in the same way…at least Pinsound will lower certain music and whatnot, come back up to volume and continue for instance…Altsound just starts and stops….very primitive. 

[mlager8]

Hey guys thanks for the info! @iDigStuff Thanks for pointing all that out, I will leave conversion to you after hearing your explanation/process, you're mixes are always awesome so why mess with perfection 🤣

 @Darkstar I do have pinsound (18.8.3) somewhat functioning and yes I like it because a lot of the altsounds are far inferior in terms of audio quality, but the software gives me trouble in the sense that I described above. I have it autostart with windows with elevated privileges and boots before VPX autoloads, but it wont work with VPX until I turn off both it and pinsound, then restart both. It makes the seamlessness of a one button press cab startup kind of useless. Thats really the only reason I would seek out altsounds as it avoids another piece of software.

[Darkstar]

Not sure if this is any solution, but have you tried…I think it was version .09. The numbers the guy used in updates made no sense, I’m pretty sure that was the version before. It’s the same except that it doesn’t support Data East. 

[mlager8]

I haven't, if I'm remembering correctly I thought the version I'm on was the last functioning version but maybe I'm wrong. No data east support sucks, Jurassic park, Hook, and GNR are a few of the only packages I use (plus a few more non DE)

 

Maybe i'll give it a shot and see if it makes any difference

 

 

[iDigStuff]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:16 AM, Darkstar said:

 

I’m curious, why would you want to convert anything to Altsound from Pinsound? (I’m assuming you didn’t know the link IDigStuff gave )In reality that’s like reverting it back intentionally to the beta phase. Alt 1 was somewhat getting ready for Alt 2 which was the end product. Compare the size of the mixes and you’ll find those Altsounds are almost comical. Also the channels do not support in the same way…at least Pinsound will lower certain music and whatnot, come back up to volume and continue for instance…Altsound just starts and stops….very primitive. 

No offense if you don't like altsound, I understand, but you are giving a lot of bad information here.   Most of the Altsounds on the vpin24 site are just the rom sounds converted to altsound. Unless you are using an ENHANCED altsound package

you will be hearing the original rom sounds hence the bad quality. Now there are a number of altsounds where people put very little effort in (just swapping out some music etc) I wouldn't expect much. However that is not the fault of altsound

but the author. You can 100% completely control the audio vol, ducking, stop, start, etc just like pinsound it does not just "stop and start" as you mentioned. The advantage is 1) its still being supported 2) no extra software running 3) simple setup 4) can be removed easily with no harm done. 5) all the features of pinsound minus the mixer UI.  I would suggest trying the Batman Data East, Bugs Bunny, Cactus Canyon, or The Shadow  which I'm about to release here as well. Give those a try before making your decision. If you still don't like it after that then cool. No disrespect, I'm trying to make my case because there is a lot of bad info on altsound imo.

[mlager8]

To expound, I previously said altsound is inferior, but I didn't mean any disrespect. I can see from the sheer size of your CFTBL conversion that they're obviously high quality samples. I only meant, much like you pointed out, that there are a lot of poor quality packages with low quality audio samples. 

 

I like that altsound is integrated right into vpinmame which is the exact reason why I started this thread. 

[iDigStuff]

@mlager8I was actually replying to Darkstar. No worries.

[Rappelbox]

On 1/11/2022 at 8:42 PM, iDigStuff said:

No offense if you don't like altsound, I understand, but you are giving a lot of bad information here.   Most of the Altsounds on the vpin24 site are just the rom sounds converted to altsound. Unless you are using an ENHANCED altsound package

you will be hearing the original rom sounds hence the bad quality. Now there are a number of altsounds where people put very little effort in (just swapping out some music etc) I wouldn't expect much. However that is not the fault of altsound

but the author. You can 100% completely control the audio vol, ducking, stop, start, etc just like pinsound it does not just "stop and start" as you mentioned. The advantage is 1) its still being supported 2) no extra software running 3) simple setup 4) can be removed easily with no harm done. 5) all the features of pinsound minus the mixer UI.  I would suggest trying the Batman Data East, Bugs Bunny, Cactus Canyon, or The Shadow  which I'm about to release here as well. Give those a try before making your decision. If you still don't like it after that then cool. No disrespect, I'm trying to make my case because there is a lot of bad info on altsound imo.

thanks for chiming in! exactly my thoughts. altsound has become a great alternative to pinsound
 

[scutters]

@mlager8

To answer the original question, yes i'm still using pinsound V18.8.3 on the cab.

I don't use it in the same way as you (i launch before table in pinballx and close it on table exit rather than start with windows) and don't have any issues. Maybe you need to add delays to what i guess are scheduled tasks in windows to start pinsound and VPX, just to make sure all the other windows stuff has completed loading?

 

Altsound is great but i like the flexibility pinsound mixes offer me - sorry to the pinsound mix authors, but i use it to delete table music (to mute it) but leave the callouts in place when i want to play pinball and listen to music. Altsound (at least in it's latest format) makes it harder to identify the audio file types as they're not separated to their own sub folders, so i tend to use the altsound mixes as the author intended where there is a large improvement over rom sound.

 

[mlager8]

@scuttersThanks for the info, I was not really aware of options like what you describe. I'm pretty sure I do have a delay setup but still for whatever reason I can not get my startup process to work like I intended.

If I find a solution ill post it here for anyone with similar problems