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Off-topic forums => Completely Unrelated => Topic started by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-18 23:42:27

Title: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-18 23:42:27
As many know I have been working on creating modern high-quality versions of songs from many Nintendo 64 games. These are all the actual songs from the games (not from the CD or USF, nor are they remixes).
My goal here is to be completely faithful to the original songs, but to produce the highest-quality versions so we can enjoy them in very crisp and clear detail.

Here is the full set:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCtX_wedtZ5BoyQBXEhnVZw/playlists (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCtX_wedtZ5BoyQBXEhnVZw/playlists)

Individual:
Banjo-Kazooie: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727OWhQxTNtrJFWvan9ENsowK (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727OWhQxTNtrJFWvan9ENsowK)
Mario Kart 64: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727N0kvUyaQ8bVsEw7PKIfZYi (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727N0kvUyaQ8bVsEw7PKIfZYi)
GoldenEye 007: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727PT17V5AzCkZYEQqeuVm01E (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727PT17V5AzCkZYEQqeuVm01E)
Star Fox 64: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727Ny5RG7siCJVaImhFg0d_pZ (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727Ny5RG7siCJVaImhFg0d_pZ)
Killer Instinct Gold: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727N6eMJQCouQ-UpAx3DlzpT0 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727N6eMJQCouQ-UpAx3DlzpT0)
Super Smash Bros.: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727NlIzmfwrm5qVORx7J9M8k_ (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727NlIzmfwrm5qVORx7J9M8k_)
Diddy Kong Racing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727OwZvkCbzk4zhHish0rt1DX (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727OwZvkCbzk4zhHish0rt1DX)
Super Mario 64: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727P3kRO3cVBODM2In05sHW5s (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727P3kRO3cVBODM2In05sHW5s)
Blast Corps: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727P409h_v2pItgObGSMxdZ1A (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWsnao9n727P409h_v2pItgObGSMxdZ1A)

Perfect Dark coming soon.


I would like to do the same thing with Final Fantasy VII.  Has anyone made a "best and most accurate" set of samples, MIDI files, and bank data for Final Fantasy VII?  The original PC release had some problems in that department and I didn't see this exact thing in the audio section here.


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: Covarr on 2018-10-18 23:47:25
You've pasted your links wrong. All of them got truncated in the middle with rogue ellipses inserted in their stead. Did you copy this from a post on another forum? If so, it's better to copy the post's source than the final rendered post, because many boards have a tendency to shorten URLs for display.
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 00:05:12
Fixed.
Do we have the original samples and MIDI files for the music on the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VII?  If so I can do this same thing to the entire Final Fantasy VII OST as well.


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: faulked on 2018-10-19 06:17:12
This is great work. Never heard Star Fox 64 sound as good! Could you possibly do Ogre Battle 64? I'd loved to hear it in HQ too.  ;D

Another question. Would it be feasible to apply this same technique to GBA games? All the GBA soundtracks are spoiled by the compressed samples which causes hissing. To hear GBA music in HQ would be remarkable.
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 06:39:50
I believe I can do this for GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, etc., and do have plans to look into it.
To do any given game I will need a copy of the game in some form.  Ogre Battle 64 is not a game I have.


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2018-10-19 06:52:31
I think you can get the midi of the psx from this site: https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/588
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 07:25:46
To be 1,000% clear, these are the actual samples from the PlayStation version?  And all the SoundFont parameters (pan, vibrato, fade times, etc.) are correct?
How does this compare to the SoundFonts used in the old PC version by Eidos?

How compatible are these with the PC SoundFont MIDI files?  Don’t the PC MIDI files have tracks missing and other alterations?  So shouldn’t I need a PlayStation rip of the MIDI as well, or are the PC versions good?


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2018-10-19 09:11:08
As far as I have investigated it, these are midi files converted from the PSX midi. I can't say if the parameters are correct since the PSX SPU does modify them in real time depending on the info it gets from the game (AKAO instructions I guess).
There are tools to rip them from the psx game, but honestly I have no experience with those things.
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/679/
https://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil/psound-soundreaver2.html
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 09:23:41
I am not seeing MIDI files on that site, just a SoundFont.


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: sithlord48 on 2018-10-19 17:22:35
Just wondering why not release as FLAC? I don't think that the youtube mp4a codec is using lossless mode.
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 17:36:28
I release as WAV instead of as FLAC with no particular preference for either other than to remain consistent, so they will continue being released as .WAV.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7jf2d5z3odqr7g/GoldenEye%20007.rar?dl=0


L. Spiro
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: Covarr on 2018-10-19 18:36:11
Would it be feasible to apply this same technique to GBA games?
GBA is really, REALLY weird for audio. It's got six sound channels. Four are literally chiptune stuff such as square waves carried over from the GB, present for backwards-compatibility, but also used in several GBA games. The other two channels don't have any sequencing capability. Rather, they are fed an audio stream from the CPU, which handles all sequencing and sample-based mixing in software. This means a few things:


That said, for games that DO use the Sappy engine, GBAMusRiper (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/881/) will create MIDIs and rip the samples to .sf2 soundfonts, which can make for VERY easy ripping. Here are several GBA soundtracks done like this (http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=29892) (as well as several dead links).
Title: Re: CD-Quality Video-Game Music Revisited
Post by: L. Spiro on 2018-10-19 19:49:23
I will see what I can do with that.


L. Spiro