FF8 wav format

[Shard]

Long time viewer, first time poster.

Using Qhimm's FF8SND I've been able to write a program that reads and writes FF8's sound effect data (audio.fmt and audio.dat) and has the capability to add or replace sounds. However, the waveform format that FF8 uses seems to be archaic (or uses some compression I don't know about). I'm not talking about the wav file format, just the waveform data.

I was foolish enough to write my program in java, and java has trouble playing the sound files (reading and writing them works fine, and WMP opens extracted sound files perfectly fine). I've been messing with each wav's format data, trying to trick java into playing them correctly, but haven't had much luck yet. The files sound distorted and scratchy, but I can hear remnants of the original sound in each file, which suggests that the correct data is playing, just in the wrong format. Being able to play sounds isn't really necessary of the program, but it led me to another problem. . .

I'm not sure if adding/replacing sounds will be possible, if the imported sounds aren't of the exact same format that FF8 uses for wavs. I really wouldn't know where to start, and was hoping someone else knows more about waveform data than me. At the very least, it would be nice to have a program that can convert any sound to FF8's wave format (opening and saving one of FF8's wavs in audacity about quadruples the size of the data segment).

[Kaldarasha]

I'm not completly sure but maybe it use the same wav format that FF7 uses.

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[quote author=Armorvil link=topic=10237.msg142799#msg142799 date=1277670065]
I'm surprised no one tried to improve the sound effects in FFVII, yet. I took a look today, and it appears it's very easy to do.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyAqBCoTSEc]Here is a youtube video I just uploaded[/url]. Quality is bad, but it should be sufficient. I willingly silenced the music so you'd hear the effects more easily. You can hear Tifa's critical attack at around 3:35.

I don't think this punch sound is perfect for Tifa anyway... ...too loud, maybe. The thing is, it's quite hard to find sound effects on the web. I came accross this website though : http://www.freesound.org . Download is free and there is no copyright enfringement, as far as I know (I read the terms of service). My sfx come out of there. You just need to create an account, and to give them credit if you are to publicly release something.

Here is a little step by step tutorial to replace sound effects :

1- get Ficedula's Cosmo

2- select Tools, then Audio Editor

3- find a sfx you like and want in-game. It must be a .wav file. If it's not, you can always convert it back to .wav with a program like Audacity.

4- go into your Start menu, select Programs, then Accessories, entertainment (?), and click on the recorder (my windows is in French, so I'm not sure how these things are called in English).

5- open your sound into the recorder, and choose File then Properties.

6- Select "Convert Now"

7- in the format, choose "Microsoft ADPCM", and just below : 44100 Khz, 4bits, Mono.

8 - save your sound. You can play it before though, to make sure it can be read after those changes. It looks like very short sounds cannot be read after being changed into an ADPCM with these attributs. You can work around this by editing your file in Audacity and add some silence to increase its length.

9 - apparently, Cosmo doesn't mind if the new sound is larger than the original. Just click on the sound ID you wish to replace, and click on "Replace" (duh...). Now go get the new sound, and TADAH ! It's in-game now :)

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I'm thinking about replacing most sound-effects with higher quality ones. Wish me luck !  ;D

[b]EDIT:[/b]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZici5hmBGA]And here is Bolt ![/url] :D

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[b][u]Download links[/u][/b]

[url=http://www.mediafire.com/?q5rmzmjhtrm]FFVII-SFX_0.02a.rar[/url]
[url=http://www.mediafire.com/?2q3qyzqqzcd]FFVII-SFX_0.02b.rar[/url]
[url=http://www.mediafire.com/?53nrwz2psj84v4t]FFVII-SFX_0.1.rar[/url] (too lazy to make a readme file in this one, but this is - for now - the one you want to download)
[/quote]

[luksy]

If it's anything like the FF7 wavs it'll be ADPCM, most sound editing apps should be able to export this.

Incidentally I wrote this ages ago for a similar purpose

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=12755.0

If the FF8 formats are the same it should work, keep in mind some of the tracks in FF7 have looping info too so you'll need to take that into account if you want to make your own sfx to replace any similar effects in FF8. The way I handled it in the dump was to add an extra RIFF section for the looping info.

[Shard]

Thanks guys. It turns out FF8's sound effects are ADPCM just like FF7. It looks like I'll have to find a library for java that plays them. At least I can freely edit the audio dat now.

[DLPB_]

From what I can remember they are sadly mono in PC ff7 and 8, and stereo in PSX.

[luksy]

If that's the case then I shouldn't it be fairly easy to copy them over? The psx sfx should be PCM too after all.

[halkun]

PSX actually ADPCM is it's native sound format. PCM is just a raw digital sample of an analog waveform. ADPCM is adaptive allowing samples at different time lengths....

Oh wait, do you mean the sound effects. Careful, the system had a waveform mixer so they might be digitally mixed from raw tones.

[DLPB_]

Yup. They did.  The PSX comes with a set of data that tells the PSX hardware how to play the effects.  Nothing more,

[Covarr]

Shard I'll warn you about this now instead of letting you figure it out the hard way. If your goal is to fix the summon sounds, replacing the actual audio files is likely not the correct way to go about it at all. If I understand correctly, the problem is that summons are actually calling the wrong sounds. For example, Quezacotl plays Phoenix's sound, but if you just replace the clip, it'll replace it for EVERYTHING that uses it, even those that use it correctly.

This is what I've gleaned from a few other people who looked into this; I haven't actually done the research myself, so I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's something to keep in mind if that's the reason you're looking into the sounds.

[Shard]

That's interesting, but luckily that's not what I'm doing. I'm only trying to add new sounds.