Batch converter

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Darkimmortal
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Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:14 am

Batch converter

Post by Darkimmortal »

I made this for a friend recently (I don't actually use HLDJ), and I hate not releasing things, so:

http://darkimmortal.com/hldjconverter.rar

Just a simple batch script which will convert any files dragged on to it to the appropriate wav format and remove a bit of the bass for better quality. :)

Also I normally wouldn't include the SoX binary like that, but it doesn't come with mp3 support as standard.
Renegade
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Renegade »

Thanks for sharing your work.
I was looking into using Sox too, but decided on libmad+libsamplerate for now.
Just out of curiosity have you or your friend tried the HLDJ batch converter on the downloads page? I could use some feedback before integrating it into HLDJ.
Gaw
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Gaw »

Renegade wrote:Thanks for sharing your work.
I was looking into using Sox too, but decided on libmad+libsamplerate for now.
Just out of curiosity have you or your friend tried the HLDJ batch converter on the downloads page? I could use some feedback before integrating it into HLDJ.
(I'm his friend btw)

Well, I've tried both of them. Your one converts better, but takes about 8x longer, and yours only converts a little bit better. Both of them sound terrible in-game tbh.

The best one is this one by far. It provides a really nice, and moderately fast convert.
Renegade
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Renegade »

thanks for the feedback. Currently the default is highest quality (and slowest performance), but you can increase speed by decreasing quality (command line options for hldj_aconv.exe). I'm currently working on adding a GUI interface into HLDJ for the converter. Another issue I could use feedback for is the clipping, the current clipping algorithm isn't elegant and can sometimes result in loud parts becoming "crunchy" or distorted, let me know if you find this as well versus when using other converters.
Gaw
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Gaw »

Bass needs to be reduced a hell of alot more, if its being reduced by say 10% now, reduce it by 60-80% instead. It also doesn't convert treble well, a big reduction in that would go well.
The volume needs a reduction aswell, 20-40% should do the trick.
Renegade
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Renegade »

You can adjust volume in hldj_aconv.exe or the batch scripts via the gain parameter (currently set to 1, but 0.8 should give a reduction of 20%); unfortunately no bass or treble adjust yet, I'll try to implement something like that when/if I switch to sox or ffmpeg libraries.
Game Zombie
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Game Zombie »

Gaw wrote:Bass needs to be reduced a hell of alot more, if its being reduced by say 10% now, reduce it by 60-80% instead. It also doesn't convert treble well, a big reduction in that would go well.
The volume needs a reduction aswell, 20-40% should do the trick.
That doesn't work all the time
Example: Tetris
That song has very little bass so reducing it WORSENS the quality
Renegade
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Re: Batch converter

Post by Renegade »

Sort of. While not all songs will benefit from certain frequency adjustments, reducing bass on a bass-less song shouldn't worsen its quality (unless doing something complex like compressing the spectrum). Generally speaking, attenuating lower frequencies should have no effect on audio that doesn't contain these frequencies. It is tricky though because some songs can sound decent without needing filtering, others (with too much or too loud bass) can sound horrible. There may be some algorithm I can use to figure this out...
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