Playstation Audio channel orientation:

[FBX]

So this was some interesting stuff I never knew was going on in original Playstation hardware (and apparently emulator authors didn't know either):

CD-DA audio data is inverted by the Playstation during playback. I only found this out when someone on Twitter messaged me about my article on Playstation digital audio modding:

http://www.firebrandx.com/psxdigitalaudio.html

The person informed me with concern that his direct rip of the music on the game had swapped channels compared to the output of my digital audio mod recording. I went to verify this by loading up some OST tracks from the official CD release. Those tracks from the OST matched the channel orientation of the digital audio mod. But why was this guy's direct rip playing swapped channels? Well it turns out when you pull the CD-DA tracks directly from the disc, you get swapped channels compared to Playstation hardware playback. To make certain of this, I played through Tobal no 1 on my Playstation using the multi-AV port with analog stereo audio. Sure enough, the channel orientation matched my digital audio mod recording and NOT the CD-DA rips.

Now here's what's funny: If you go on youtube and watch gameplay footage from people using emulators, the channel orientation matches CD-DA direct rips rather than Playstation hardware playback. The emulator authors must not have realized this nuance exists in the Playstation. However, we know that original game designers did know about it, because the OST release matches original hardware orientation.

-FBX

[cr4zymanz0r]

That's crazy that it's been like that all these years and nobody noticed. I wonder which way the Playstation Classic does it

[Thomago]

Say whaaaaat

[Xyga]

I think some did notice something was off, or at least, I seem to recall I've read ppl asking questions on the topic a few times over a too long period of time to estimate (possibly read smth even here) but afaik nothing was ever confirmed until now. Lol Sony.

[spmbx]

If noone until now had an issue with it i guess that says how much of a problem it really is Maybe noone plays emulators and just hoardz teh romz instead? I'm guessing none of the super sd pcengine users ever used playstation emulation...

[fernan1234]

That's crazy that it's been like that all these years and nobody noticed. I wonder which way the Playstation Classic does it

You can bet they messed it up.

It wouldn't surprise me if even some game developers for lower budget games didn't know about this either and did not flipped the channels on their game's soundtrack.

[FBX]

I think the next step is to find out if this is a flag setting or hard-wired design in the Playstation. We know Tobal no. 1 plays the CD-DA audio with swapped channels compared to the raw data on the disc, but what about other games that use CD-DA? I need to start testing other games that use this audio format and see if they are also swapped. If they are, then it's 99% likely a hardware design. I'm now also curious about redbook audio. Lots of things to compare to get a clearer picture...