| User | Post |
HyperLamer
Posts: 6250/8210 |
You'd probably wind up needing a full-fledged SNES emulator to play those. A game might use expansion chips to decompress or process its music or something dumb like that. 
If it could be done with just 65816 emulation, though, I bet people would be willing to use a decent Winamp plugin which supposed a PSF-style SNES format in addition to standard SPCs. |
KawaiiImoto-e
Posts: 934/1068 |
A list of games that stream their Music would be interesting.
Edit: No need to assemble it, there is one on SNESmusic.org |
Dish
Posts: 492/596 |
PSF? or GYM?
PSF/NSF/SID/GBS/etc are rip formats. That means they are actual code from the game yanked out and stuffed in files. They are the hardest to make since ripping actually requires quite a bit of manual work (no real safe way to automate the process in most cases). However they account for ANY tricks the game can use to playback music. Any song from any game can be ripped with a rip format. Plus, PSF variants (minipsf, gsf, usf, etc) are [usually] incredibly efficient since they only have the sound engine and all common data (like instruments) in one file, and very tiny individual files to drive each song. Older rip formats like NSF/GBS/SID don't have the individual files, rather they keep all the songs in one file along with the common data.
SPC is a dump format -- which is pretty much the exact same concept as a savestate. SPC dumps are [usually] just RAM/state dumps of the SPC700 chip. This is why they're all the exact same size, regardless of song complexity or length. This format has the pro of being VERY easy to make, however full soundtracks tend to be bloated since you have several copies of the exact same music engine in every song file. Some SPC players worked around that by supporting RSN files (which is just a bunch of SPC files in a RAR archive) to decrease the amount of redundant data and ease HD space. However another problem with this kind of format is it will only work on games which allow for this kind of savestate. As previously mentioned, SPC dumps of some games just don't work.
GYM is the worst of the worst. It's a log format -- which basically just takes writes to audio registers and dumps them to a file as the song is played, along with a timestamp. This is another easy-to-make format since any emulator could easily log such writes, however file sizes are often INCREDIBLY bloated, and since there's no CPU emulation, looping doesn't really work. Looping can be faked by setting markers in the file (I think another Genesis format was developed to make looping work a little better along with other improvements... VGM I think it was? I forget -- either way it was just another yukky log format). However this format does have the pro of being able to accomidate any game's music.
So anyway yeah... rips are the way to go. Yeah they're harder to make, but it's worth it in the longrun, since you get the best/most efficient/easiest to work with file when it's all over and done. |
Prier
Posts: 6954/8392 |
Isn't that like some sort of uncompressed sound file or something? Doesn't even loop.  |
Dish
Posts: 491/596 |
One of my many complains with .spc and other non-ripped formats.
Rip formats are the way to go. A psf variant for SNES would be dynomite -- unfortunately there will never be one because .spc is "good enough"
At least it's not a piss-poor log format like GYM... ugh *cringe* |
RT-55J
Posts: 166/240 |
I think Top Gear 3000 does something like that. I tried dumping a few tracks from it but it only played the current note. ;-[ |
HyperLamer
Posts: 6170/8210 |
When that happens it means the sound data is being streamed to the SPC chip, a few milliseconds at a time. So when you try to dump it, you only get the current millisecond of music. 
How exactly do people make SPCs out of those? I imagine it involves creating your own SPC file, but wouldn't they take up more memory then the chip has? (Or else why stream them in the first place?  ) |
Surlent
Posts: 952/1077 |
Originally posted by Priere
However, on the off-chance you're trying to get music from things like -any- Compile game (Puyo Puyo, Kirby's Avalanche) [...]
Ah, now I realize - the Kirby's Avalanche (Kirby's Ghost Trap in Europe) SPC seemed broken - but I didn't realize it wasn't just my computer ... until now 
Also being added. unfortunately the opening song "The Dream Will Never Die" from Tales of Phantasia (SFC) also cannot be recorded with the female singer's voice - I think the voice actually is actually a sound effect if I'm not mistaken. |
Prier
Posts: 6946/8392 |
However, on the off-chance you're trying to get music from things like -any- Compile game (Puyo Puyo, Kirby's Avalanche) or a game like Wolfenstein 3D...there is the error that you will only get the first note back when you create the SPC. Only a few sets have been made that I know of on SNESMusic that goes beyond that (like Sailor Moon ~Another Story~ RPG) but that's because people took the time out to get the music into SPC format by more...extreme means.
If all else fails, use Goldwave. Have the emulator (ZSNES for me) up and running and start the record the MIXER input from Goldwave, making sure that there isn't any music being played, go to the sound test or where you can to make sure you get the music you want, hopefully without SFX hence the sound test and well...record it. Crop what you need and use it. I realize it doesn't give you an SPC which is way better, but there are some games where you really can't do it and it's a nice backup if nothing else. |
Dish
Posts: 490/596 |
Most games can have their sound dumped in SPC format.
ZSNES and SNES9x probably both have SPC dumping ability -- although it can be a hassle to dump SPCs yourself -- since you have to time them right.
Besides... most games have their soundtrack dumped already and are available on archive sites.
http://www.snesmusic.org <--- probably the largest/best SPC archive in existence. Whatever game you're looking for is probably there
http://www.alpha-ii.com/ <--- get SNESamp -- or some other SPC player (though SNESamp is the best, imo). (click on the arrow on that page to get to the downloads)
http://www.winamp.com <--- SNESamp is a winamp plugin, so you'll need Winamp to run it. There are standalone SPC players, although Winamp has the added benefit of iZotope and .wav, .ogg converters (yes you can also convert to .mp3, but ogg is superior ;P ) |
Ten
Posts: 191/198 |
Is there a way to get Music off a SNES ROM in a format (.wav will do) I can later convert to MP3? Hopfully though ZSNES? |
