I noticed that GOG.com has updated the HoMM2 Gold installer per the sticky topic, but unfortunately, GOG still seems not to be aware / not to care about one problem which seems to kind of stick out with that game - the low quality, crackling, poor bitrate CD music conversion... What's wrong with that? It seems like the installer once used to contain the original Redbook audio (yet unfortunately I bought the game after it was already changed), yet later GOG removed it and replaced it with .ogg conversions. While the idea of using conversions to save space is not bad, I'm really sad seeing that the conversions are 96 kbit/s and they crackle in many spots and in many tracks (there's a sharp "clicking" noise due to ripping errors). Given that some of the games on GOG are as large as 3 GB+, I don't see the point in saving 300-400 MB by sacrificing the quality greatly. Is there any chance GOG will restore, at least as an alternative download or as an extra, the original Redbook audio as they (as far as I know) used to provide?.. This is the only real problem I have with the game.

Hi,
Thank you for your response, here are some of the numerous examples of potential ripping errors:

homm2_04.ogg - at about 02:31 - 02:34 (roughly at 02:33)
homm2_05.ogg - at about 00:29 - 00:31 (roughly at 00:30)
homm2_06.ogg - at about 01:31 - 01:34 (I think at about 01:32 to be exact)
homm2_07.ogg - at about 00:15 - 00:17 (roughly at 00:16)
homm2_10.ogg - a very strong one at about 01:08 and then another one right after it at 01:11 or so
homm2_11.ogg - at about 00:08 - 00:09
homm2_13.ogg - at about 01:15 - 01:16

There are similar artifacts in many other tracks, it's very noticeable to my ear when I play... :( And of course, 96 kbit/s is just not enough to preserve the depth of the beautiful HoMM2 music, some of which was recorded to contain operatic singing. I compared the GOG rips to the original HoMM2 Gold CD that a friend of mine owns and the ripped OGG conversions feel pale in comparison. Also, for that reason I'm sure that the original CD music doesn't click. :(

I'm certain that it's not an issue with the sound card or a driver because the same artifacts are heard in the exact same spots in any media player (VLC, Media Player Classic, etc.). Thank you again for investigating this.

Oh well, I was kind of hoping that there would be a follow up to Galimatias's message above, but it seems like the matter is going to be ignored and forgotten once more... Sigh. Well, it seems like it's the destiny of the GoG version of HoMM2 Gold. :\

If you reply directly to his post, instead of just posting into the thread, he will be notified of that response, since it is aimed directly at him.

Thank you very much for your reply and for your assistance. Please let me know if you need any help with finding a rippable game copy, because a friend of mine owns a clean enough disc with HoMM2 Gold (that doesn't crackle anywhere) and, if necessary, we can assist with trying to get crackle-free rips of the music. :)

P.S. If at all possible, please up the bitrate a bit on the new rips... I understand if it's impossible, but if it is and it's not too much hassle, please make it better than 96 kbit/s... :))) And thank you very much again for your understanding and support! :)

I too would prefer a much higher quality than 96 kbit/ for HoMM II and HoMM. As it is now I prefer to play my old copies instead of the ones I bought here.
For some of us the quality of the music in the game is very important.
I would prefer that a quality of 192 kbit would be the standard for music ripping on GOG.

I have to say though that I'm thankful for all your work and that you actually improve the state of the games after they are released.

What town music in used on HoMM Gold? The original or the expansion music?

I have to second Sargon here. It is important that the music has proper quality. And especially for a game like HOMM2 with very good music.

I'd prefer lossless myself, but 192 should be the absolute minimum. If the games got packed with 192, but there was an optional lossless package for people, then that would be ideal.

Lossless would be even better. :-) For me the limit where I can't hear any difference anymore compared with higher bitrates is at 192 Kbs (mp3's) but I know that many people think lossless is really important. I don't know how much bandwidth costs but perhaps creating a lossless package for the games that uses cd music would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Since GOG is GOG I have a lot of faith that they will actually fix this problem for HoMM 2. Maybe not right now but sooner or later I think they will do something about it if we are vocal about it.

Perhaps the users could submit ripped lossless audio files to GOG for some of the games with low quality and\or clicks and pops in the audio. If a lot of the data, including the music for some games actually are ripped from personal copies of the staff of GOG there shouldn't be any legal problems in using copies that users have ripped from their original cd's?

Perhaps there could be a place in the support section where you could make a complaint about the music in some game and then upload a version that you had to agree that you had listened through yourself for any defects. Then a member of the GOG staff could read the complaint, do some comparison between the two and then listen through the audio that was uploaded once. If found satisfactory he\she could then forward it to some other staff member that just need to update the game files.

GOG should make some notification system that automatically puts a label like "Updated" on the games in your shelf that have been updated since you bought them. When you download the game again the label could go away. Perhaps the label that is placed there automatically could say "minor update" and when a more important update has been made the person that updated it could edit the label to say "have been impoved" or "updated".