Video
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Music

Well I doubt it after seeing the quality of some of the music and also knowing that the DKCR club Nintendo Promo CD has all lossy 32khz gamerips on it which are actually in some cases even below raw gamerips in terms of quality.

But actually it wouldnt matter much for me either way because I actually finished my work on Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. They do sound notably better now. Not saying they are equivalent to lossless masters but they are definitely a upgrade since not only is there more high frequency sparkling but it also generally sounds cleaner and jucier. I think I managed to come up with a good new delossify concept for low quality gamerip files that definitely manages to make them sound better and it took me quite a while. I am going to release all my new Re-Engineered Soundtracks throughout christmas advent season in december including the Donkey Kong Country games. Might take until January until they drop here but they will be available from day one on my cloud accessible through Squid-Board forums.

I just wanted to say, maybe we won't need to make a proper version of the Soundtrack, because we could hope on a high quality version on the Nintendo Music app.

But no. Probably not. The Mario Kart 8 Base Race Tracks in the official Nintendo Music App have a sample size of 32kHz. I couldn't belive it when i saw it, but it's true. Wow!

It's sad, really. We'll probably get the in game Rips of DKCTF on the App, if that's even done on big titles like MK8D....

Not sure why mangrove cove is 48khz, could be an error or its on purpose because there is audio information above 32khz. UPDATE: There is audio information above 32khz. No idea what the source for this track is though. Maybe video or credits since I noticed these seem to be 48khz usually.

As to how to determine what codec a game uses, VGMStream usually displays the codec the game uses when you playback the ripped files with it. But if you have a new and undiscovered game that uses an exotic codec, you usually have to do this stuff yourself or wait until someone else did. The fileheader often gives it away too but for that you need to be able to read fileheaders in hex. Ripped files of almost all games you can find on https://vgm.hcs64.com

Thanks for your quick answer!
Okay yeah, that's a shame. A remaster would be great, sure! I still hope for an official OST release at least for some tracks in the future. But if you got the time, go for it, the community will thank you haha

Is there a way to determine which Codec some games use? (Besides listening to it of course)
I'm just really interested in how music is implemented in games nowadays. "Mangrove Cove" in the DKCTF Rip is 48kHz for example. But I guess thats just an error on the uploaders side, and not a decision by the devs to boost this tracks codec quality.

Yes and no. While the low quality codec certainly doesnt help, the main issue is usually bad samples or bad rendering done by programs on the composers end. Or a bad plugin handling conversion, bad bitrate conversion parameters, clipping peaks.

Many people dont really notice such problems though and its a niche audiophile problem. The DKCR soundtrack does suffer from it though.

I might try to fix and master a proper soundtrack for the game at some point. I have recently worked quite a lot with Nintendo ADPCM 32khz and managed to get good sounding music out of it with the help of a bunch of VSTs, Izotope RX, Cleaning Lab. DKCR and DKCTF really deserve some proper good sounding soundtrack releases but its gonna be lots of work.

Is that also true for most other Nintendo Titles on Switch (e.g. Paper Mario TTYD)? It seems some other Soundtracks dont share these problems, but I'd be dissapointed if its still such bad quality in games. Especially because we dont get too many OST releases from our beloved company...

The distortions and clicks some people point out are mostly thanks to the low quality audio from the games which is lossy 4bit Nintendo ADPCM at 32000khz. Sadly the audio quality is the same on Switch as well. Nintendo never released official soundtracks for the games so thats all we have... It sucks but thats Nintendo for you. Both "new" Donkey Kong Country games really deserve a complete soundtrack release but guess it will never happen. Maybe I will put out remastered Re-Engineered soundtracks for these games some day but thats a lot of work and I rather still wait a bit to see what AI driven VSTs will be able to do in the future.

It doesn't have Funky Mode

This album was updated on 11th of January, 2023.

Can't tell if some audio tracks have iffy quality but I will take what I can get considering this is the only upload.

are you ready for some big ragequit?
Yes we all do!

This is such a delightful soundtrack

This music is AMAZING. But, there is one track missing. It is the Irate Eight (Tension) from Irate Eight. The version here is from Rockin' Relics, aka 4-A

Uf men que buen soundtraks, gracias por subirlo

Wonderful music. Excellent blend of rhythm. Really sets the atmosphere. No doubt you will have a blast listening to this whether you have played the game or not.

I truly believe this to be the best videogame soundtrack out there. Even better than Undertale. The music has such richness and everything fits well into the atmosphere of each level. The choice of instruments, musical rhythms, and tones make this a worthwhile experience. Favorite Piece: 5-11 Staff Roll 2 (Stickerbrush Symphony Returns).mp3

@jrush73: You can listen to the tracks using the site's audio player (without downloading them to your hard drive), and no hiccups or noises will occur. For some reason, this happens with a lot of Wii U music rips; this game, Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad, and I think the Mario & Sonic Olympics games have this issue as well.

I have no idea why this occurs, but until the site managers figure out how to fix it, you can:

1. Set up Audacity to record only the audio from your PC (Google a tutorial)
2. Pick the song you wish to download
3. Start recording
4. Play the song on the site
5. Stop the recording when the song is over and trim the silence at the beginning

It 's a long and tedious process, especially if you want to record every track individually, but you get a better result this way.

Won't work with iTunes, you will get a clipping sound on all the tracks, but works great on Media Monkey at least. Something to do with the sample bit rate or something that some players can't handle? Anyway it does work, and it's a fantastic soundtrack.

Best music in a game ever i wish would be easer to dawnload

One the best OST of all videogames, incredible!

Very Nice Songs!
Love the rhythm of the songs; makes me want to just get up and dance!
Too bad some songs aren't that clear...

The Game is awesome and so is the music! Really love it! ^.^

I really want this album but there is an issue with the music. It is not a clean recording of the songs. It just hiccups throughout the music.

Just plain amazing. Nothing can be said

Finally, I found all of these DKC Tropical Freeze.

All of them sounds very good with good quality!

Good work! :)

The music is amazing, but all of the tracks I've downloaded have really terrible glitches. Really low quality rip.

David Wise once again outdoes himself with this score. The OST is also uploaded masterfully. Just one small nitpick/request , though - I believe there is a version of "Irate Eight ~Tension~" with different and more intense instrumentation that plays on the Irate Eight stage (the one uploaded is a version that plays on a different stage, if I recall). Could you please find it, rip it, and upload it? It would be much appreciated.


All in all, though, this is a great soundtrack from an equally great game. Easily one of the greatest Nintendo soundtracks. Here's to hoping Mr. Wise returns for the next potential installment!

iTunes makes weird noises throughout these songs, I have no idea why. If I play them in Audacity, it is perfect.

Thee is an odd distortion per song, its really obnoxious

there is clear distortion per song, which isnt what the songs actually sound like

The music is good but the mp3s are very glitchy in sound. Very unfortunate.

Wow, is this music amazing.
Problem? When I download the songs, there are annoying chirps and warbles throughout each song. No idea what's wrong; maybe how the files play on ITunes. Would gladly give a ten if it wasn't for the quality flaws.

Been waiting on this one for a minute, interesting arranges of classic "hits" from the series history. Actually prefer the new tracks more so than the re-arranged pieces but it's all well done. Thank you guys so much for uploading this.