GFCA-525~37: Music from Akumajo Dracula Aka

[BlazingAbyss]

I managed to come across a FLAC rip of the 2010 box and as stated before I'm willing to provide a couple tracks from each of the the digital releases as well. Assuming that it isn't against the rules to do so would it be okay for me to provide a download featuring 2 or 3 tracks from each digital albulm as well as their 2010 box counterparts? If someone is willing to do some visual comparisons like Zane did between the samples and Aka/Kuro boxes then we should be able to get a definitive answer as to which discs are reprints and how badly the ones that aren't have been done. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any samples from K30X-7705 or KICA-1023, but on the off chance that anyone else can that would be great.

[Zane]

Originally Posted by BlazingAbyss

Assuming that it isn't against the rules to do so would it be okay for me to provide a download featuring 2 or 3 tracks from each digital albulm as well as their 2010 box counterparts?

I would be very interested to see how the 2010 boxset compares to the new releases. Rules permitting, I'd be happy to load up any comparisons to get level values the way I did in my original post to try to get a better idea on how those stack up.

[Zane]

BlazingAbyss was able to send me some files for comparison so I’ve been importing these into Logic to see how they look and to get the loudness results from them. There are some pretty big differences between the original releases and the various boxsets at first glance with a couple of tracks, while the comparisons without original releases all don’t look great.

The tracks I have come from four sources and are all labeled in my Logic screenshots:
- Kingdom Hearts Insider files (labeled KHI)
- 2010 boxset (labeled 2010)
- Amazon digital release
- Kuro/Aka rips

Rondo of Blood, PCE (Bloodlines, Stage 1)
Visual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z5w...ew?usp=sharing
KHI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_tO...ew?usp=sharing
2010: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gg2...ew?usp=sharing
Kuro: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kR1...ew?usp=sharing

This is exactly what I wanted to see! The original version has some nice headroom and dynamics, while the 2010 box has less so without being too clippy and the Kuro version is absolutely destroyed. If you take one thing away from this whole post it should be the picture of the visual of these three audio files. OOF.

Simon’s Quest, FC (Bloody Tears)
Visual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ay9...ew?usp=sharing
KHI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Ed...ew?usp=sharing
2010: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZFy...ew?usp=sharing
Kuro: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lm2...ew?usp=sharing

A derivative of what we saw above with Rondo. Even the old FC tracks are getting squashed here.

Visuals only for a bunch of other tracks for now, but I may grab loudness results later on.

Castlevania Adventure 2, Game Boy (Battle of the Holy). Original and 2010 boxset both look pretty decent, while the Kuro version retains a bit of dynamics but is clearly louder.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oWL...ew?usp=sharing

Super Castlevania IV, SNES (Trick Manor). Original looks best, 2010 not too awful, Kuro is blown out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_g0...ew?usp=sharing

Dracula X Chronicles, PSP (Demon Seed). All versions of this don’t look great.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YKU...ew?usp=sharing

Castlevania 3, FC (Aquarius). This is horrendous.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iQd...ew?usp=sharing

Order of Ecclesia, DS (An Empty Tome). These all look bad but I don’t have the original release to compare to.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iY1...ew?usp=sharing

Bloodlines, MD (Iron Blue Intention). Seems like the 2010 and Aka releases are the same, while the original one has more headroom (as expected).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SWb...ew?usp=sharing

CV Chronicles, PS1 arrange (Tower of Dolls). These all look squashed, no original to compare to.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFG...ew?usp=sharing

Curse of Darkness, PS2 (Abandoned Castle). Also totally squashed, no original to compare to.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12OU...ew?usp=sharing

[Zane]

Based on the comparisons above, it seems like the originals of older tunes are the best, the 2010/Amazon digital releases are a mixed bag, and the Kuro/Aka sets are the worst. That CV3 screenshot is going to give me nightmares (and headaches).

[suicider]

Loudness War at it's best

[《J》]

I just checked Castlevania Chronicles (KMCA-104~5) for a little bit. PS1 arrange is just as squashed on both but with a -0.30 dB limiter slapped in, X68000 original is louder in the Kuro boxset but the dynamics were kept mostly intact, and both CM-64/SC-55 are louder/more squashed and also feature the same -0.30 dB limiter. Amazon's digital release sounds closer to the original print to my ears.

As for Rondo of Blood, it seems the Kuro box uses the Dracula X Chronicles disc as source master, but yet again adds a -0.30 dB limiter that makes it louder/less dynamic and results in flat peaks (this also applies to Morning Serenade, you can hear very audible clipping in both releases). Looking at your waveform for Divine Bloodlines, 2010 boxset looks like a reprint of the Dracula X Chronicles master.

Curse of Darkness is also pretty flat/squashed in GFCA-34~5. Most likely a reprint without major changes, as I suspected in my first reply.

[LuxKiller65]

Someone should post this analysis on the customer comments on Amazon Japan so more people can see it

[BlazingAbyss]

That really sucks, it looks like I have no choice but to go back to my original plan of just buying all the separate albums. How did they manage to screw this up so badly, now I've starting to wonder if the Silent Hill Sounds Box they released a decade ago had any of these same issues.

Honestly though, if I have to go out of my way to collect the rest of the individual albums now anyway then maybe I should just drop all 3 boxes and stick to high quality rips for the few titles that were exclusive to them (Legends, Kid Dracula (GB,) Dracula X, Legacy of Darkness and the SotN Saturn tracks.) Though in SotN's case I believe with the sole exception of the PS1 version of the Master Librarian theme all of the audio in the game was streamed, so I'm not actually sure if a rip would actually sound any better than what's available on the official releases or not.

Aka has a few bonus tracks not featured on the original Order of Ecclesia soundtrack, but they're all pretty minor and due to the original soundtrack probably being the rarest (or at least the most expensive) Castlevania soundtrack I was already on the fence about selling it even when these CD boxes were only just announced. Even though the files appear to be the same, or at least close to it I guess it's enough to justify keeping the original. How's Dawn of Sorrow look on the Aka box, does it appear to be a reprint? It seems like everything beyond the fifth generation consoles are probably the same as the original releases, but I guess it's not safe to make assumptions when it comes to present day Konami.

Now I'm wondering if I should try to track down K30X-7705 and KICA-1023 now too for Haunted Castle and Kid Dracula (FC) since it seems like I just can't trust any of Konami's later Castlevania CD releases. I suppose it's possible that the ones on the 2010 box could be the same, but I have no way of knowing that for certain at this point in time.

[Zane]

Here are a few more quick visual comparisons between KHI/2010/Kuro/Aka that BlazingAbyss requested and a few that have the original tracks on there for reference from KHI that weren't in my previous pictures:

Kid Dracula GB (Go Go at the Great Castle, level 1)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mvv...ew?usp=sharing

Vampire Killer MSX (Wicked Child)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cz...ew?usp=sharing

Legends GB (Vampire Killer)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x75...ew?usp=sharing

Haunted Castle (Cross on the Chest)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dg9...ew?usp=sharing

Curse of Darkness PS2 (Abandoned Castle), updated with KHI file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NN7...ew?usp=sharing

Castlevania Chronicles PS1 Arrange (Tower of Dolls), updated with KHI file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZX1...ew?usp=sharing

Order of Ecclesia DS (An Empty Tome), updated with KHI file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sM...ew?usp=sharing

[Zane]

Originally Posted by 《J》

I just checked Castlevania Chronicles (KMCA-104~5) for a little bit. PS1 arrange is just as squashed on both but with a -0.30 dB limiter slapped in, X68000 original is louder in the Kuro boxset but the dynamics were kept mostly intact, and both CM-64/SC-55 are louder/more squashed and also feature the same -0.30 dB limiter. Amazon's digital release sounds closer to the original print to my ears.

As for Rondo of Blood, it seems the Kuro box uses the Dracula X Chronicles disc as source master, but yet again adds a -0.30 dB limiter that makes it louder/less dynamic and results in flat peaks (this also applies to Morning Serenade, you can hear very audible clipping in both releases). Looking at your waveform for Divine Bloodlines, 2010 boxset looks like a reprint of the Dracula X Chronicles master.

Curse of Darkness is also pretty flat/squashed in GFCA-34~5. Most likely a reprint without major changes, as I suspected in my first reply.

I'm glad that I was able to get some visual confirmation of the sound issues here but 《J》clearly has way more technical insight about the specifics than I do and was spot on about both CC and CoD! It's great to have some actual numbers and processing info here to see what's going on.

[BlazingAbyss]

Originally Posted by Zane

Here are a few more quick visual comparisons between KHI/2010/Kuro/Aka that BlazingAbyss requested and a few that have the original tracks on there for reference from KHI that weren't in my previous pictures:

Kid Dracula GB (Go Go at the Great Castle, level 1)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mvv...ew?usp=sharing

Vampire Killer MSX (Wicked Child)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cz...ew?usp=sharing

Legends GB (Vampire Killer)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x75...ew?usp=sharing

Haunted Castle (Cross on the Chest)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dg9...ew?usp=sharing

Looks like between Kuro and the 2010 box the 2010 box is the better option for these ones. Though I can't speak for the older releases of Haunted Castle and Kid Dracula (FC.) Also, having recently had the chance to compare the Aka version of Aria of Sorrow with the original release I can now say with certainty that the Aka release is the better of the two. Granted, that's probably the only instance where I can say something was better on the Aka/Kuro CD boxes. I guess in the end the best option is to simply keep all three boxes and collect what remaining standalone albums I still need even though all together it'll take up a lot of space.

[TerraEpon]

.....why are the credits so bad? Even Yamane is no where to be seen on the page.

[CHz]

Originally Posted by TerraEpon

.....why are the credits so bad?

Because Konami doesn't care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[LuxKiller65]

no i assure you they care, my credit card was debited correctly from konamistyle

[Mac_Tear]

All they care about is making money, nothing more. Sad, but true :/

[TerraEpon]

Originally Posted by CHz

Because Konami doesn't care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sure but that shouldn't mean the credits where known shouldn't be added.....right?

[CHz]

They certainly could be, but no one here has cared to either

[Zane]

I noticed that the notes section was pretty barren here, too. I'm going through the discs again so I can add information as I come across it to see if I can help fill in the gaps.