Star Wars - audio problem

oktobernv

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Just got my own Star Wars cab - love it and it's in GREAT shape.

However, there seems to be an issue with the "speech" audio

The audio for "Luke" and "RD2" is crystal clear

The audio for "Ben" is kinda muffled, but still "ok"

The "Vader" audio is terrible. Super low sound, muffled, almost impossible to make out.

Were these "samples" stored on different audio chips?

Is it possible the that "Vader" chip needs replacement?

Thanks in advance

Rob in Vegas
 
Its all on the sound board - the board on the top of the PCB stack with the 5 or 6 pin connector to it.

So, It could be one of the chips - socketed or not.

Some of the Sound board chips are interchangable with the main board chips (its a 40 pin chip i think) - you can swap when in doubt to see if it leads to an issue somewhere else (to narrow it down).

If its not a socketed chip - the others and common points of failures - are the clock chips (LS161).

I am not sure if bad caps on there would cause this - you can visually inspect that board to see if any leakage happened.

So thats all speculation, and one of those three things might be your problem.


DO THIS FIRST - there is a VERY elaborate sound testing system for that board - its on the STAR WARS Troubleshooting guide - you can find it on line- it has the lord, Vader, on the cover. By grounding with an alligator clip a tip on the sound board, you can enter that test mode - it will help you to isolate the issue (ROM chip or not).

Good luck and let us know what happens (i am not an expert, just going from experience).
 
Can you make a recording?

The way speech works on SW still baffles me today. Those speech chips were designed to transfer voice only to "standard" LPC codes. This is a system where a chip actually recreates (or attempts) the several different sounds that makes up human speech.

Now..if you hear that kind of speech encoded you get something like this:

http://youtu.be/wVDE-6TtmFQ

You can hear that a LOT of the original character of the voice got lost.

Sooooo, it's amazing how Atari managed to get Darth Vader to sound like DV and Luke like Luke. Even more amazing are the R2D2 sounds AND the Tie fighters "screeching" sound when they fly past !!!

What you have to keep in mind is that they couldn't simply sample sounds like we do today because of the EXTREMELY limited memory available.
 
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(7:58 for the actual output of the program).

Quite a technical achievement. Makes the game even more awe inspiring to me (for its time it was GENIUS) - not just the speech, but also the other aspects such as the vector use as well.
 
Thanks for the great info guys

Much appreciated

Anyone else with a SW cab experience these issues??



The audio for "Luke" and "RD2" is crystal clear

The audio for "Ben" is kinda muffled, but still "ok"

The "Vader" audio is terrible. Super low sound, muffled, almost impossible to make out.


Thx

Rob
 
Thanks for the great info guys

Much appreciated

Anyone else with a SW cab experience these issues??



The audio for "Luke" and "RD2" is crystal clear

The audio for "Ben" is kinda muffled, but still "ok"

The "Vader" audio is terrible. Super low sound, muffled, almost impossible to make out.


Thx

Rob
Well this is how mine sounds, maybe you can compare.
 
42

Mine sounds "pretty" close to that

BUT it seems that my "Vader" sounds are much worse

They are just VERY low in volume and really muffled....

???
 
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