[RELEASE] Shenmue Audio Restoration Project - Shenmue English & Japanese Dub - Shenmue II English

Wow, the Japanese audio is almost double the size of the English dub. I was thinking the audio quality sounded even crisper than playing Shenmue in English on the Dreamcast; wonder why the English dub was so compressed in comparison...
 
Now this is interesting... I got to the part where you go the Russiya China Shop to get the letter translated. For the couple of lines of
of dialogue that have Master Chen's phone number read out, the game uses the truncated versions for these HD ports, i.e. with the phone number shortened by one digit. I wonder why that is... either the re-dubbed lines used a different naming system so they were not converted, or the game forces the "newer" dialogue with the truncated phone number(s). The difference in audio quality is really apparent here.
 
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Now this is interesting... I got to the part where you go the Russiya China Shop to get the letter translated. For the couple of lines of
of dialogue that have Master Chen's phone number read out, the game uses the truncated versions for these HD ports, i.e. with the phone number shortened by one digit. I wonder why that is... either the re-dubbed lines used a different naming system so they were not converted, or the game forces the "newer" dialogue with the truncated phone number(s). The difference in audio quality is really apparent here.
They actually deliberately shortened the phone numbers because people called them in real life.
 
They actually deliberately shortened the phone numbers because people called them in real life.
I may be misinterpreting @Amir, but my understanding is that he his referring to the audio restoration mod, which uses the original DC audio as source, not using the original DC dialog file for that particular scene because the number that is spoken is the short version (and the quality is worse) only seen in the rerelease. Again, maybe I didn't understand it correctly, I thought that that was his remark rather than asking why the number is shorter.
 
Yeah, I knew about them shortening the number for the re-release. However, I thought that Dewey's mod would have those scenes as they were in the original game. But it seems either those files were not converted as they were separate/used different identifiers than the other audio files due to their "newer"/altered nature in the re-release, or they were converted but the game code forces the use of the "newer" versions (I'm playing with the Japanese dub by the way). My inclination is that these files weren't re-recorded as they likely used a different naming system than the untouched files.
 
Yeah, I knew about them shortening the number for the re-release. However, I thought that Dewey's mod would have those scenes as they were in the original game. But it seems either those files were not converted as they were separate/used different identifiers than the other audio files due to their "newer"/altered nature in the re-release, or they were converted but the game code forces the use of the "newer" versions (I'm playing with the Japanese dub by the way). My inclination is that these files weren't re-recorded as they likely used a different naming system than the untouched files.
I'm inclined to believe the first theory is more likely, something changes in the naming/addressing scheme of the specific file because of it being reworked, the game forcing the audio is less likely.

But in this case, shouldn't the dialog match the game for consistency?
Even if that means picking the original dialog where it is mentioned, cutting out the last digit, and reencoding.
 
But in this case, shouldn't the dialog match the game for consistency?
Even if that means picking the original dialog where it is mentioned, cutting out the last digit, and reencoding.

The purist in me would obviously love it if someone could modify the game and notebook so that telephone numbers are as they were in the original :p Either way, it's not that big of a deal.
 
I work late tonight; will discuss more when I get home. I also have some research to do since I did convert those lines.


EDIT: there are also a few small details I’ve noted in the last few posts that are half-accurate. My fault, I haven’t made note of some of the oddities here, and I forget that nobody else is really diving into this, so getting my knowledge out is actually important for once =p
 
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Shenmue II English has been completed, and is uploading to the Nexus now, so check there for links (first post of this thread has a link to the Nexus page). If you're impatient and don't feel like waiting for it to finish uploading, you can also grab each disc individually on Discord (for now, those links will be gone by the end of tonight, once everything is set up on the Nexus)


EDIT: ALSO

I'm inclined to believe the first theory is more likely, something changes in the naming/addressing scheme of the specific file because of it being reworked, the game forcing the audio is less likely.

But in this case, shouldn't the dialog match the game for consistency?
Even if that means picking the original dialog where it is mentioned, cutting out the last digit, and reencoding.

So, it -SHOULD- work in Japanese; I forget which archive those are in, but they SHOULD be as they originally were. They did NOT re-record those lines, they literally just did a horrible hack job and cut off the end. It sounds pretty ugly. Worked fine for me in English though, so it might be your install, or even just the game forcing it for some strange reason.
 
Hey there, was wondering if the Japanese dub was still being worked on? No rush, I still haven't completed Shenmue I re-release (got side-tracked with Yakuza 0, and now Catherine + Okami HD). If it's not being worked on that's OK. I'll just play Shenmue II as is, will still be neat to play for the first time with Yuan's original voice.
 
Hey there, was wondering if the Japanese dub was still being worked on? No rush, I still haven't completed Shenmue I re-release (got side-tracked with Yakuza 0, and now Catherine + Okami HD). If it's not being worked on that's OK. I'll just play Shenmue II as is, will still be neat to play for the first time with Yuan's original voice.


It is, I'm just really lazy, loaded up with work, other projects, and if I'm being honest, the Shenmue II Japanese dub is the biggest mess out of all of every dub in these games. It's not insurmountable, just a giant pain in my ass
 
Hey Dewey, wanted to let you know that the MEGA link for the Japanese dub is still the old version with the messed up BGM files.

Again, thanks for this amazing mod!
 
Gotta say, it's a damn shame you're having trouble with the Japanese voices in Shenmue 2. While I find the English voice acting charming, I find myself much more partial to the more serious Japanese voice acting. :/

Still, thanks for all the work you did on the other packs. It really helps these remasters to be the best they can be. Here's hoping you manage to find the time and desire to finish that one last voice pack. Cheers, mate.)
 
Gotta say, it's a damn shame you're having trouble with the Japanese voices in Shenmue 2. While I find the English voice acting charming, I find myself much more partial to the more serious Japanese voice acting. :/

Still, thanks for all the work you did on the other packs. It really helps these remasters to be the best they can be. Here's hoping you manage to find the time and desire to finish that one last voice pack. Cheers, mate.)

Thanks for the kind words. I'll get around to Shenmue II; but right now some other projects are taking a bit of a front seat, so this is gonna have to somewhat sit on the back burner for a while. Don't worry though, it is/will be worked on. It's just that I've got other stuff going on that takes precedence right now.
 
Thanks for the kind words. I'll get around to Shenmue II; but right now some other projects are taking a bit of a front seat, so this is gonna have to somewhat sit on the back burner for a while. Don't worry though, it is/will be worked on. It's just that I've got other stuff going on that takes precedence right now.

Love your work, just started my playthrough before Shenmue 3 and wonder if Japanese Shenmue 2 audio is likely to be released in near future?

Again thanks for all your hard work.
 
Hi, Dewey! I have a question not about mod itself, but voice files replacement techniques. I am helping (or trying at least) people around the world with subtitles translation and changing fonts, but lately Russian fans asked to help them to integrate voice translation in the game. Source - voice track that was used in video like Shenmue Movie format (just part II). Sound is clean so it's just matter of time to split it on dialogs.
But, is it possible to replace original tracks with new files automatically? Maybe I can link new tracks with subtitle IDs, compare custom table with tracks table, and replace files that exists in translated version?
As I can see from description of SARP Toolset, it will be useful for me for sound files replacement anyway (packing part), right?
Haven't tried anything yet so any tips will be useful. Thanks.
---EDIT----
Just checked sound archives myself, XMA files does have same IDs as related subtitles, which makes things easier. I will try to insert some tracks using your instructions, maybe will have some extra questions then. Thanks again.
 
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