Anapan brought this to my attention in the flash cart thread, but I wanted to also post it here because I think it's awesome!
Donkey Kong Country Uncompressed Audio MSU-1 Hack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6qsqUJuO4oDownload links in the YouTube video description (click to expand).
So the story goes, some awesome fella was somehow able to source the uncompressed audio files for DKC and restore them. Some other awesome fella then took these uncompressed audio files and created an MSU-1 hack for them. The difference isn't immediately noticeable in some tracks, but if you A/B it then you'll realize that every track is a lot more clear. Some tracks had instrument channels that were very quiet/muted in the original version that I never noticed before, and are loud and clear in this uncompressed version! For example, there's a percussion part I never heard before in the track when you're talking to Cranky Kong (same track when you go into DK's tree house). The YouTube video doesn't even do it justice, it sounds better in person.
For those that don't know, the MSU-1 is a theoretical enhancement chip made by byuu for the SNES. It is capable of streaming CD quality audio as well as FMV. So think of it as the CD add-on for the SNES that we never got. You can play MSU-1 hacked games in the bsnes or higan emulators, or on a real SNES/SFC using an FX Pak Pro (formally known as the Sd2snes).
I think that MSU-1 audio hacks are awesome, but I don't particularly care for a lot of them. If you're curious, just search YouTube to find plenty of examples. Turtles in Time, Link to the Past, Super Mario World, and Chrono Trigger are just a few examples (there are many, many more) of games you can find with MSU-1 hacks that have the music replaced with CD quality audio. I was just talking about this in the SNES/Genesis port comparison thread regarding Hook. The game Hook on the SNES has some awesome music using the SNES' sound chip. The Sega CD version of the game had CD music ripped straight from the movie's soundtrack. This sounds awesome, but doesn't fit the game IMO.
But THIS Donkey Kong Country hack, this is a horse of a different color. This isn't just another MSU-1 hack with remixed CD quality audio. This IS the originally chip tunes, just in a higher fidelity. So if you're like me and find the MSU-1 to be an awesome possibility but tend to prefer the original chip tune music, then this hack might be right up your alley! It's the best of both worlds!
The author of this DKC hack has also done the music for DKC2 and DKC3, for anyone that's interested. I have only patched the first game so far. I did listen to some samples of the second and third game on YouTube, I have to investigate them more before trying the patches for them. DKC1 is pretty straight forward, but 2 and 3 are more complicated games. For DKC2, I noticed in Hot Head Hop that the alligators don't have reverb on them so they sound really weird. The video did mention that it has since been updated, so maybe this was fixed. But this leads me to believe that there might be other minor issues, like I said I have to investigate them more. For DKC3, I read in a YouTube comment that there's a few issues. Like Wrinkly's Save Cave only plays the normal music, but doesn't play the Super Mario 64 tune when it's suppose to. And Brother Bear Blue has really slow tempo music until you give him a present then the tempo gets really fast, this doesn't work in the MSU-1 patch. Again, maybe these things have already been fixed.
Like I said, although I think it's awesome, I'm not a huge fan of playing remixed tunes in SNES games because to me they don't fit. But this is an awesome possibility. There's a few games I'd be really curious to hear what the uncompressed audio sounds like, but these files aren't easy to come by so I wont hold my breath. I did hear of other interesting possibilities though. For example, taking the audio from an arcade board and using that in the SNES game (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, TMNT4, Final Fight, et cetera). That could be really cool.