The Dink Network

I'm pretty sure this is a hard-coded thing, but the warp sound playback within the editor sprite properties is set to 22050 unless the sound value is set to "0" via WDE/DE, then it plays sound bank 7, "open.wav" which is 8000 Hz.

Is this correct?

The default sound slot 7 is played at 12KHz, otherwise yes.

Yes, I noticed that. It is weird, but I guess it was all about getting file size down, or maybe the first demo versions, around 1.03 for the Dink Engine, used 8000 Hz and then come the release they moved to 22050, although there are some files at 11025 Hz, so I'm guessing.

The base data is more or less unchanged from the earliest demo to the full retail release. I assume the crappiest sound effects were used for the sake of conserving CPU at important times, as an 8-bit low-samplerate WAV takes far less processing power to play back, which would have been important when changing screens.

Can't you determine what speed the sound is played in the script for the object that plays it?

playsound(8, 22050,0,0,0);

etc.

No. Quite a lot are hard-coded and it's not obvious what the sample rate is. My review of Sparrowhawk's sound index provides a brief list.