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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by Grunkles |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba                  Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, but not my first visit. I used to be a member a long time ago when I was hunting down sprite artists. I've used the search function already and couldn't find a page that would help me with my project I'm working on. What project you ask? Well, maybe if you knew what my burning desire at the moment was... Guitar. I love playing the guitar. I love effects pedals and getting songs to sound like their SNES counterparts. I also visit a site called Powertabs (www.powertabs.net) which has a whole community dedicated to creating guitar tablature for all of our favourite games (the Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger sections are fabulous). Sadly, there is no section yet for Secret of Mana. And this is where I come in. I want to create it. Now the tabbers (as we refer to them) on the site deconstruct their favourite songs by ear. They can actually tell notes by their ear alone, and that is a quality that I sadly do not possess. Yet, I still want to help them in their quest to make some of the most memorable and overall kick-ass music of the twentieth century available to the future generations of guitar and instrument players. Being unable to detect notes (or chords) by ear alone, I would need to have access to the "sheet music" of the games. Since sites such as VGMusic create good tributes to the songs, but often have errors (or are altogether of a much weaker quality) than the actual songs from the game (which the tabbers at Powertabs recreate most often perfectly - they tinker with the MIDI settings to create the exact same instrument tracks as the games). Having this desire for utter perfection, I would need to go to the source of the SNES music, which of course would be... The .spc files. I have several .spc players, but none which I can open the songs themselves and be able to see the notation. Seeing as you guys are (a pretty impressive) bunch of ROM creators and hackers that can change everything from level layouts, sprites, and coding, I'm guessing that you possess a tool within your backpacks that can open and tinker around with the music in games as well. This is what I would need to have access to. A utility that allows me to open .spc files and read how they are written down so that I can transfer them to a tab. Failing this, I would need a utility that transfers .spc files into MIDI. Anything along these lines would be of tremendous help. Thanking you guys in advance (and crossing my fingers); - Grunkles |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Wow guys! Thank you so much!
Having given me your time, I believe the least I could do is tell you how it turned out. Really odd. First I tried SPC Tool - which wouldn't get running (I am not the sharpest of PC drawer knives), so I decided I would give SPC2MIDI a shot. It installed itself and seemed straight-forward enough, so I tried to open up a .spc-esque document (it's a document labled "som" that I open with Super Jukebox (a .spc player) that gives me the entire Secret of Mana library of songs). Understandably, this failed, but then... When I tried it again (maybe I did some secondary step that I'm forgetting about now), it opened the song I last played with my Super Jukebox. And not only that, but it had all the instruments, settings, etc. Everything down to the smallest detail was there! I then transfered to it .midi and voila! I could open the song using my .midi composer and everything was laid out before me! The instruments and everything else too! I nearly pissed myself! But then! ... I couldn't get it work again with any other title. Whenever I tried to open it, it would just make this "blip" sound and would end right there. Being extremely disheartened, I got into that zone where I was just dicking around with all the options and seeing if anything would work. I somehow then ran across another .spc player that I had installed before Super Jukebox (long time ago) called ZD-SPC. After tinkering around with this baby for a bit, I found out I could save the .spc songs individually from the entire library. Upon trying to open the songs again in SPC2MIDI, it opened the file without a glitch and began playing it. The only difference was... everything was set to acoustic bass and acoustic piano. All the finer details of the instrumentation had disappeared, but regardless, the heart of the song is still there. Right now, I'm going to try to see if I can find any other .SPC players that would allow me to save the songs individually from the library while still keeping all the details. If you know of anything that do this (or just .spc players in general that you like), hit that reply button! And again guys. Thank you so much. You've been of tremendous help to me. I know now that I'm on my way. This is the starting point that I needed. You really came through for me and I really do appreciate it. - Grunkles |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Thank you so much for your offer Jen. Really, I do appreciate it.
But to be honest, I could save you a lot of trouble if I just found out exactly how I got that one file to sound so good (the first one that you suggest went directly from an .spc into a .mid). Do you have any idea how that was done? I can't seem to recreate it at all. You say that SPC2MIDI loses all the instruments and that seems to line up with what is happening. What's going on now though is that when SPC2MIDI converts an .spc into a .mid file, when I try to open up that file with Anvil Studios, it says there are several errors contained within and should I want to fix it? I say yes - but then the program just freezes on me. So... SPC2MIDI has gone from completely awesome to nearly useless in a rather short amount of time. Is there nothing else that can convert .spc to midi's? Is there any other tricks that I haven't thought of yet that I could perform? Any advice at this point in time would be extremely appreciated. Thanks. EDIT: I've got a program on my PC entitled: SPCDisasm. It's a SPC disassembler that produces a file extension entitled ".out". I put an SPC into it and it turns out the file, but I have no idea what good that file is for. Has anybody ever used this before and can tell me just what the point of it is (or if it would be any use to me at all)? Thanks again. (edited by Grunkles on 06-18-06 12:57 PM) |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| I downloaded OpenSPC and it wouldn't install itself on my machine. I double-clicked all the available files within the download and nothing seemed to work. I got two DOS-looking screens with no text written in them pop up for a second and then disappear.
Keep plugging away though. I'm open to all suggestions and ideas. I just need an SPC program that can save the song (preferably with the instrument tracks and sounds in-tact) to either a MIDI file, or a file that can then later be transfered into a MIDI file. I don't care how many loops I have to jump through, so long as I can open the file as a readable MIDI (as in, I see all the notation) in some program (Anvil Studios or otherwise). Thanks though Jen. You, along with DJBouche and Rich, are being a great help!  (edited by Grunkles on 06-18-06 01:45 PM) |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| NHLPA 93 was absolutely amazing on the SNES, except for the fact that you could do a wrap-around goal almost 70% of the time. Still though, for the time, it was amazing (Go Penguins!)
I would have never figured that Sport ROM hacks would be popular (semi-new here). Besides updating the roster, is there anything else you can do with them? |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba  Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| As far as the reworking of the text goes:
1) The new conversation bits are pretty good. And this is coming from someone who is incredibly harsh on most kinds of writing. However... 2) The ALL-CAPS are not. If you want to bring emphasis out in something, do it with your writing. It should sound natural. The minute you all-caps anything, it screams the following: a) amateur b) hack c) turd So please, go back to anywhere you used ALL-CAPS and rethink the scenario. 3) The swearing. It wasn't in FFIV, and it just doesn't have that good of a feel when I see it in there. "Bigass snail?" Lame. That soldier sounds like a dork. Also, and I'm sure this wasn't intentional, but didn't you mean to say that the "ship" was leaving the port? 
Lastly: 4) The Banon thing wasn't funny. It made me cringe. The idea in itself is good; draw Banon doing something embarrassing. But wouldn't it be neater if he were doing something embarrassing that actually was tied to the story or the plot? Or even better yet; to his character? Going the low-road can be fun at times, but it's also an easy out. I would really encourage that you don't have him "molesting a donkey." I mean, fifth graders might get some shits and giggles out of it, but I can't really even see that happening. --- And I'm not an RPG purist or anything. I'm credibly open-minded. I'm not holding you up to some ideal set by the canons or anything. I just want to give some advice from the perspective of somebody who writes a lot. What you are doing is really cool, and I like the idea of making the conversation in the game more conversational. Just be sure not to draw the player out of the experience and make him realize, "Oh, right, this is a hack." |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| As far as the snail thing goes; you guys seem pretty set. That's cool too; it's your thing. It's just a personal preference thing with me, and it doesn't sit well, but it's just one line in the end.
I agree whole-heartedly that Terra's character in the game was about as flat as a diving board and that it could definately use some improvement. However, that whole incident with the Banon thing - is there no way you could change the script? I really don't know the specifics about what it takes to change the lay-out of the game, but I assume that once you find/change something, you can always return to that spot and re-write it. It's just the whole "molesting a donkey" bit. It's definately cringe-worthy. I mean, I'm a normal guy. There's a few gigs on my drive dedicated to porn, like every red-blooded North American. But still... there are some things that are sacrosanct. Like bringing a dildo into church. You don't do that. Some people could probably make a good argument as to why it indeed should be there, but in the end, it's a comfort thing. There are certain things you don't mess with. And that is the key! That is the knowledge one must carry with him when one carries out a project like this. That it will be inevitably held up against the original. Being so, you can stretch certain things, you can change others, but boundaries do exist. Almost everything else in the game reminds the gamer of the original. You are still bound to made to pay homage to the original, whether or not you like it. Acknowledging this (and thereby respecting the original) is the first step to making a really good hack of it. There have been several people who have tried to rewrite Mozart's operas, adding in their own flourishes and inevitably trying to label it their own. The problem with this is that the piece of work as a whole has a certain rhythm to it, a certain flow that made it so great in the first place. Like a great work of beauty, but one scratch would be enough to make it topple to the ground. That is not to say that Final Fantasy VI was flawless, but one always has to concentrate very deeply on the changes one makes and sees how they fit into the overall whole. Often, the little scratches you make can further a work's beauty. Other times, you don't end up making a scratch, but instead end up making a gash. And I'm afraid that this Banon deal comes off as a gash. As I said before, the idea in itself is good; have Banon doing something silly in the picture. Having him molest a donkey... I dunno. It just doesn't fit. Best of luck to you guys. Really. It looks like it's coming along superbly, it's just that Banon bit... it needs to be changed. If I remembered the game better myself (it's been a year or two since I've touched it), I might be able to call forth Banon's character a bit better. I don't honestly remember him being a tool, I just remember that he was pretty weak sauce all around (defense and character wise) and that it would indeed be difficult to make a joke involving him. Regardless, he deserves one greater than the one assigned, and I make it your duty to find something more suitable not only for him and Terra, but for the game as a whole. (edited by Grunkles on 07-11-06 02:51 PM) |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba  Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Anvil Studios is definately awesome.
If you're using SPC2MIDI (which is what I use), every instrument gets reset to the Grand Piano. However, if you open the file in Anvil Studios, all the different instruments will be displayed in their own seperate score. Meaning, while they will all be Grand Piano's, the different parts of the music will be seperated onto their individual scores, making it super easy to understand and even easier to edit. Sometimes though, Anvil Studios might have a problem recognizing and transcribing the file that SPC2MIDI has created. This was the case with nearly all the songs from Secret of Mana. What I did when I discovered this was scour the net for a program that could read the MIDI that SPC2MIDI had created, and re-save it again (as a MIDI) so that Anvil could in turn read it. The answer came with MidiNotate Composer. http://www.notation.com/midinotatedownload.htm Remember to get composer and not musician, as composer has tons more options. But again, Anvil Studios is hands down the best out there. Freeware anyways. But regardless of being freeware, Anvil Studios is where it's at! Remember though, once you create a file with Anvil Studios - it's a MIDI. I don't know how you would get that back into being an SPC file, or if you even could (or for that sake, if you even have to). Regardless, best of luck! |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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Originally posted by Celice Anvil has that. Here's a photo from the Anvil Lay-out: 
This is actually one of the songs from Breath of Fire. You can see what I meant by how everything was set to the Acoustic Grand. The lay-out and the set-up are extremely intuitive. I mean, I suck at most computer programs, but it took me about five minutes to be working Anvil Studios in and out when I first got it. You can insert notes by using the keyboard at the bottom and you can move them around on the actual score itself. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.  |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Here's a question for ya!
Is there an Ogre Battle editor? I'm guessing not. But a creative mind could do wonders with a game like that. |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| I think the question Spiroth10 has to ask himself here is whether or not he really wants a girlfriend.
Many times I felt down on myself and equated my feelings of depression with loneliness. It wasn't until a bit later that I realized that regardless of whether or not I was in a relationship, those problems would still exist. Furthermore, I would probably just be dumping that baggage off on that other person. Therefore, a relationship wasn't the answer to my problems. When it comes to yourself; always keep a tidy house. Know what's going on. Be honest with yourself. Be willing to face problems and challanges (no matter how ugly) and confront them. Being straight-forward with yourself will build character. You will show strength on the outside because of it as well. And soon, you'll find that girls will actually be coming up to you. Confidence; it's stronger than cologne. When a girl sees that you're cool with yourself, she'll go out of her way to be with you. Funny how that works, huh? Besides, I realized that I take a ton of joy in music, writing, and gaming in general. I like sitting back and enjoying my hobbies. Truth be told, once I became comfortable with who I was, I realized that I didn't really even need a relationship at the moment. I was just enjoying life for what it was. And there's some advice that you can take from that as well: enjoy life for what it is. All those hobbies that you think classify you as some kind of geek or nerd; that's totally the wrong outlook. You should appreciate the fact that you have the ability, intelligence, and zeal to take interest (as well as participate) in many of the things you do. And if you don't feel that way about what you do; maybe it's time for a new hobby. 
Regardless; take it easy. Take it from someone who knows; depression takes you no-where. It's easy to sit and feel sorry about your circumstances; it's another thing to take charge and try to change them. And oddly enough, even if you fail, you'll stop being depressed regardless. 'Cause you tried. And that'll give you the confidence you need to try and try again. The world is an amazing place. Explore it. Understand it. Become it. Don't feel bad about the things you cannot change, just realize that they probably don't have as much weight as you give 'em. |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Every woman I've ever met in my life (that I can recall) has been... truthfully, a complete and utter bitch to me. My mum starts off as the prime example. She is evil incarnate herself. Then from my group of friends, I've seen some pretty disturbing things from the girl side of the group. Stuff that makes you shake your head and wonder, "What the hell is wrong with these people?"
So, I pretty much go day to day witnessing one travesty after another. There is one girl though. She is brilliant, funny, kind, warm, and caring. Thing is, she lives in England. I spend a lot of time chatting to her over MSN (well, I did, until I told her that I loved her and never logged on again... but let's not go there today (laughs)). I guess the point I'm trying to get across here, before I blew all my help-giving credability, is that... Well, you should be happy that you had her company. Remember her with fondness. Just because she's moved away doesn't mean that you have to forget about her, or that you have to deny ever having liked her. Just know that she is gone now, and it is time to move on. That doesn't mean you have to put aside the impact she has had on your life. You do have to make sure it doesn't strike you immobile though. It's a tricky balance, but you seem to be doing alright. Hang in there. |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| Hello everyone,
Those of you who are familiar with Anvil Studios (free MIDI composer program) know that it updates frequently. Well, certain options get changed with each update and others get defaulted back to normal (annoying as hell). Well, an option I used to be able to access, and for the dear life of me cannot find again, is the one that enables me to see the note that I have my cursor over on the staff (where all the notes are kept) on the piano roll (a giant print out of a piano on which you can insert notes on the bottom of the screen). It used to be that when you held your cursor over a note located on the staff, a little red dot would appear on the same note on the keyboard. So, if you're in a hurry, you can just flick the cursor over the note and see that... voila! It's an A flat. Well, that option doesn't appear to be there anymore. I've scoured the options the program has and have yet to find it. I'm guessing it's something really simple, but for the life of me, I cannot find it. If anybody here knows where that option is, I would really appreciate the heads-up. Thanks a bundle! |
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Grunkles Micro-Goomba Since: 06-12-06 Last post: 6506 days Last view: 6506 days |
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| I read the help section pretty thoroughly. It wasn't in there.
Even worse, when I take the program off my PC and try to install the version I had before it, it just installs the latest version. I don't know how or why it does it, but now I'm stuck with an inferior, up-to-date version of one of my favourite programs.  |
| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by Grunkles |
