Homebrew 3DS Theme Question

[TheWrathofRevan]

Hey, everyone. I've been working on some 3DS themes, but I can't seem to find a good way to make high quality sound effects. Is there some sort of tutorial that I can use? I've used tutorials involving the Nintendo SDK, but when I convert the files and play them, they all sound off-tune, which is definitely not a good thing. If anyone knows a good answer to this, I would appreciate it. Also, since I'm new to these forums, if this thread belongs somewhere else, I'll happily move it. Thank you in advance.

 

[jurassicplayer]

Try ditching the Nintendo theme editor and using Usagi.

 

[Guipradi]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-creating-a-3ds-custom-theme-from-scratch-with-yata-v1-1.393602/

Down in this post there is a "Sound and BGM" section, follow it

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

That's exactly what I followed, but all of my CWAVS sound horrible.

 

[Joom]

That's exactly what I followed, but all of my CWAVS sound horrible.

Are you using a lossless source (FLAC, WAV, etc.)? If not, then you should know that transcoding from lossy to lossy is always going to produce a degradation in quality. Oh, and don't try to transcode lossy to lossless either. That'll make it even worse.

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

Are you using a lossless source (FLAC, WAV, etc.)? If not, then you should know that transcoding from lossy to lossy is always going to produce a degradation in quality. Oh, and don't try to transcode lossy to lossless either. That'll make it even worse.

I have no idea what any of that means. Like I've said, I'm really new to this kind of stuff, so please bear with me.

 

[Joom]

I have no idea what any of that means. Like I've said, I'm really new to this kind of stuff, so please bear with me.

FLAC, WAV, ALAC, and so on, are all lossless audio formats. MP3, OGG, M4A, WMA, etc. are lossy formats. They don't retain the same quality as lossless, and transcoding ("converting") them to another lossy format or even lossless will just result in a major loss in quality. You should always transcode lossless to lossless, or lossless to lossy.
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/the-difference-between-lossy-and-lossless-compression/

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

FLAC, WAV, ALAC, and so on, are all lossless audio formats. MP3, OGG, M4A, WMA, etc. are lossy formats. They don't retain the same quality as lossless, and transcoding ("converting") them to another lossy format or even lossless will just result in a major loss in quality. You should always transcode lossless to lossless, or lossless to lossy.
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/the-difference-between-lossy-and-lossless-compression/

This kinda helps... I think. Now all I need to know is this: are .aiff files lossy, or are they lossless?

Edit: Yes, my sound effect files are .aiff. They came that way, and I doubt I can find them in any other format on the internet.

 

[Joom]

AIFF can be either lossy or lossless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format#Uncompressed_audio_format

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

AIFF can be either lossy or lossless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format#Uncompressed_audio_format

Well, that's great. Maybe it's my converter. Would you happen to know a way to convert my files to 3DS sound effects with better quality?

 

[DarkRioru]

Well, that's great. Maybe it's my converter. Would you happen to know a way to convert my files to 3DS sound effects with better quality?

audacity

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

audacity

Maybe I should have been more specific. What I want to convert is a .wav to .cwav. Since .aiffs can either be lossy or lossless, I'll be fine in what you were trying to help with. Thank you for trying, though. What I really need to know is if there's a converter to .cwav.

 

[Joom]

Not that I'm aware of. That's most likely a proprietary codec. What's the bitrate on these? You can check with a proper media player like VLC.

Edit: Never mind, that actually won't help. Have you tried converting them to OGG and going from there?

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

Hey, sorry for not replying for so long. No, I actually haven't done that. I could try that, though. What would I do after converting to .ogg?

 

[Joom]

Hey, sorry for not replying for so long. No, I actually haven't done that. I could try that, though. What would I do after converting to .ogg?

Use the OGG as your source provided whatever you're using supports it.

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

Use the OGG as your source provided whatever you're using supports it.

Uh, my converter only uses .WAV to .CWAV ...

 

[Joom]

Uh, my converter only uses .WAV to .CWAV ...

That would have been helpful to know. If that's the case then there's not much else you can do other than finding better source material.

 

[Ryumaru]

You can use this modified version of Audacity. This modified version allows you to create several types of formats, cwav is one of them.
https://github.com/jackoalan/audacity/releases

 

[Joom]

Yeah, if I had known that CWAV wasn't so proprietary that a specific tool was required, then I would have recommended using something else.

 

[TheWrathofRevan]

You can use this modified version of Audacity. This modified version allows you to create several types of formats, cwav is one of them.
https://github.com/jackoalan/audacity/releases

This works perfectly! Thank you so much!