PinSound review: a sound upgrade that transforms your pin

[Pavlov Pinball]

Hi all,

I've been trying out a PinSound board, and since they will be available to purchase in the next couple of days or so I've posted the full low-down on this pretty damn cool piece of pinball hardware.

You can read the review and information about new features like shaker motor support and the ability to play the original DCS sounds for Twilight Zone which were abandoned before that machine's launch right here:

http://pavlovpinball.com/pinsound-review-a-sound-upgrade-that-transforms-your-pin/

Cheers,

Paul

[Cueball]

Good read, thanks

[oldskool1969]

Installed this today on a mates machine. It is a TOMMY and all I can say is WOW.
Very easy to install the board itself with the appropriate supplied accessories.
You can not download the ROM zip file on a mac  BUT you can do quite easy on a Windows machine.
The only downside as far as I can see is the L O N G wait that you experience while the PINSOUND board unzips it, nearly 2 hours for the TOMMY re-orchestration.
We could not believe the audio quality this amplified system gave, using standard speakers. This is a very expensive unit, but you don't need to upgrade your speakers. The backup service you get is second to none and the ability to create your own sounds using their free utility, PINSTUDIO makes it worth while.
The community forum that exists has some interesting stuff too.
No support for STERN as yet, but who knows.
I can't wait to put mine in soon, but which machine? probably FT as Radical is not ready for quite a while.
9 / 10 for this must have mod.  Minus one for the long unzip time.

[ralph67]

Good news . Mick must be stoked hearing the real "Who" playing for a change . Cant wait to hear it for myself .
 Good investment i think, seeing you don't really need a Speaker upgrade kit after all in some games.
Was it easy to tune up using all the controls?

[oldskool1969]

To me it sounded awesome straight off the bat, but as you know, if it has a knob you got to play with it 
Watching Mick sing along with the tunes was good to see 

[Pavlov Pinball]

I think one reason it takes so long to unzip is that the board is also converting every file to .wav format as well, using the board's processing power. Earlier versions made you convert all your files to wavs before putting them on the memory stick, so although as you mentioned this takes a long time for the board to do, it's maybe more convenient than having to do it yourself on a PC.

[oldskool1969]

 Timothee from Pinsound advised that the next firmware update will address this and make it a lot quicker.
The service from these guys is awesome if you are having troubles. 

[oldskool1969]

Finally added this fantastic device to " the best game ever " FISH TALES
very easy to do, stereo conversion will be done when I mix my own sounds
AWESOME

 Gone fishing, leave a message!

[andypinboy]

Finally added this fantastic device to " the best game ever " FISH TALES
very easy to do, stereo conversion will be done when I mix my own sounds
AWESOME

 Gone fishing, leave a message!

You certainly are fan of FT oldskool   Could you please let us know how it goes, if you love it etc - I'm keen on pinsound but price is up there for a mod, so just interested to hear people's experiences.

[Zedman]

The article has missed major issues with the Pinsound boards supporting software.

The installation, operation and doco of the Pinsound Studio software is just horrendous.

Have a good look at the Pinsound Community forum and see what's happened in the last six months since release-
Hardly any shared mixes.
The Pinsound Studio software remains at version 0.5.
Pinsound Studio operation doco is non existent.

This is a very expensive mod that misses on one of its main selling points, i.e. giving users the ability to change sounds.

It's a pity some disclosure of these problems wasn't included in the "review" article.

Caveat Emptor people!

Z

[oldskool1969]

Totally agree with you Z man. 
As a product it is beautiful and most games are covered by what they say, I have installed 2 of these now on BW and a mates DE and the support is very efficient considering time zones and slight language barrier. I am awaiting ( patiently ) for there firmware update and there PINSOUND software for my mac to be sorted, supposedly not too bad on PC.
I guess all that travel to the USofA promoting their product has slowed them down some what.
When the user interface is sorted properly ( fingers crossed ) this is gonna be a lot of fun.
Also now I have a spare WPC sound board which may come in handy.

[oldskool1969]

Go t a reply email today, good news and as thought they had a little break, here it is.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Andrew,

Our latest firmware is almost ready.

As soon as it's released, I'll package the new PinSound Studio version
(with latest enhancements in the PinSound audio engine), for Win/Mac/Linux.

Stay tuned!
Have a nice day,
Nicolas

[Crashramp]

I hadn't taken much notice of this mod until I was listening to one of the recent Pinheadz podcasts where they played some alternate sounds for T2 with this board. Sounded bloody awesome, actually it made me want a T2! Just seemed to completed the package. I've always liked the art and gameplay on this game but the music always grated a bit.

 

[McKie1]

We have a couple in our pins and with decent speakers they sound good on the standard sound files.   Amazing with re-orchestrated sound files for those avail :)

[Crashramp]

We have a couple in our pins and with decent speakers they sound good on the standard sound files.   Amazing with re-orchestrated sound files for those avail :)

Cool, which games do you have them in?