LEGO Racers Menu music audio quality changes

[lol username]

A rather subtle bug that's been subtly bugging me for a while...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEZdaV0TAc

• From the main menu upon first starting the game, entering the Circuit Race, Single Race, Versus Race, or Time Race menus will make some sort of change to the quality of the music being played (see above video - you may want to use decent headphones). The music sounds a bit buzzier, particularly the drums (I'm not an audio guy so I don't know what that'd be called).
• Entering the Build menu does not make the change - upon returning to the main menu from Build, entering one of the above menus will still trigger the change.
• Oddly, entering the Options menu does not make the change, despite it continuing the standard menu music like the other affected menus.
• This change does not reverse itself upon going back to the main menu; once it's been altered it's set like that until you restart the game.

I'm using the 2001 version. I'm not sure which state is the "right" one, or if this happens in the 1999 versions (don't have mine installed to check). It's not something you're prone to noticing, but once you've heard it, it's a bit hard to unhear it.

 

Is it just a bug in the game that everybody has, or could it be more specific?

[Shadowblaze]

Okay, that's weird, the game swaps the stereo channels and does some other weird things with volumes. But what's most interesting is that the change is gradual, and not harsh, as I thought. I have no clue what it's caused by, but it may be random MIDI corruption, or something like that. After all, the game plays a sound effect when opening menus, maybe the game can't switch soundbanks fast enough and corrupts the panning sequences in the MIDI. That happens with Pokémon too.

[Fluffy Cupcake]

It didn't hear it the first time around in the video, I then proceeded to read your text, and then I heard it on replay. Thanks a lot jamesster, now I'm going to hear it every time.

No, the problem isn't just for you. It happens in my 2001 as well.

[aidenpons]

I was wondering why something sounded strange until I realised I had other music in the background.

 

  On 11/27/2014 at 7:09 PM, jamesster said:

you may want to use decent headphones

that explains most of it.

 

But why? That's what I don't understand: what's causing the music to change?

 

 

... or maybe it's all just the placebo effect?

[mumboking]

I don't really hear a difference, but that may be because my speakers add slight static to the headphone output at all times.

  On 11/27/2014 at 7:20 PM, Shadowblaze said:

I have no clue what it's caused by, but it may be random MIDI corruption, or something like that. After all, the game plays a sound effect when opening menus, maybe the game can't switch soundbanks fast enough and corrupts the panning sequences in the MIDI.

LR on PC and PS1 don't use MIDI... It's an audio file of the whole tune.

LR N64 uses sound samples like MIDI to play it's music. I guess the GBC version does the same, but generates the sounds itself...

[lol username]

I've narrowed down something else that triggers it - playing two menu slider selection sound effects in quick succession, even when sound effects are turned all the way down in the options menu. This means it can be triggered in the build and options menus as well. And once it's been triggered once somewhere, it applies everywhere, until the game is restarted. And no, it's not the placebo effect - I wasn't expecting it to happen in the build menu, and it took some experimentation to figure out what exactly was triggering it there/exactly how it could be reproduced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svwhM-eXUY0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNNI9elui7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=427vgtMZ2Rc

It does seem a bit less pronounced in the YouTube videos than it does in the original recordings or game, though - perhaps I should just upload audio somewhere else where it's not compressed like that. Or you could just pop on some good headphones, go in-game, and try it yourself. Scratch that, I just had my volume turned down. It's still very audible in the YouTube videos with volume turned up.

[Fluffy Cupcake]

Interesting... very interesting indeed.

The game is all like: "Too many sounds for me to handle at once, AAAAAAH! I must find a way to deal with this immediately! Oh, I know! Reducing the quality will help me handle this situation better! *changes* Aaaah, now I feel like I can focus on other important areas."

[Shadowblaze]

  On 12/6/2014 at 8:45 AM, Xiron said:

Interesting... very interesting indeed.

The game is all like: "Too many sounds for me to handle at once, AAAAAAH! I must find a way to deal with this immediately! Oh, I know! Reducing the quality will help me handle this situation better! *changes* Aaaah, now I feel like I can focus on other important areas."

 

Sorry, but it's not a quality decrease. It's just random volume increases and more pronounced panning, along with random slight equalizations. That is the weirdest audio management I've ever seen in a game.

[Fluffy Cupcake]

  On 12/6/2014 at 10:55 AM, Shadowblaze said:

Sorry, but it's not a quality decrease.

Well, whatever happens, all I know is that it doesn't sound as good as it does prior to the change.

[lol username]

Update - I was just looking at old footage I recorded of a different game (the demo version of Hot Wheels Mechanix) and noticed the exact same thing happening (0:03 is the moment it changes, when the first sound effect plays). Given these are entirely different games running on entirely different engines, I'm suspecting this may actually be a bug in the audio drivers of the computer(s?) this all happened on, or some other sort of generic issue. I haven't verified that yet, though.