Author Topic: [FF9 PC] Re-mastered music (Read 28669 times)

NetHead · « **on:** 2015-12-31 17:38:24 »

Hello fellow modders and maestros,

With the announcement of FF9 PC and Smartphone, I'm thinking we should start a project to update FF9's tracks. I'm down to do some of 'em. I'm hoping the more programmatically-talented among us will eventually find a way to replace the port's audio files.

(I'm also assuming that Square-Enix is using the original tracks.)

Covarr · « **Reply #1 on:** 2015-12-31 18:16:22 »

This might be a bit premature, since we don't know how the port is going to be handled. There is a strong chance that it will be emulated, in which case streaming music will be impossible without significant hacking.

I'd love to be wrong about this, but I'm fairly certain they don't have the original source code they'd need to do a proper port.

NetHead · « **Reply #2 on:** 2016-01-01 02:22:21 »

Yes. Also consider we won't have MIDIs for reference, which means we may have to rely on good ol' ear training. And many of the tracks sound quite fine already. Time will tell... Keeping my hopes up for a solid port!

Fischkopf · « **Reply #3 on:** 2016-01-01 19:51:50 »

Quote from: NetHead on 2016-01-01 02:22:21

Yes. Also consider we won't have MIDIs for reference, which means we may have to rely on good ol' ear training. And many of the tracks sound quite fine already. Time will tell... Keeping my hopes up for a solid port!

We don't have the MIDIs? As far as I know, FF IX uses the same format for it's music as the previous two games, which is the Playstation-native "psf" format. It's basically MIDI data+samples, you can get the whole soundtrack in it's native format from here which can be converted to .mid files using VGMTrans.

NetHead · « **Reply #4 on:** 2016-01-04 01:44:00 »

@Fisch,

Oh, brilliant! It's been a while since I've kept up with PSF developments. Figured that the nature of PSF meant that any utility would be game-specific and specialized. That's a nice surprise.

Mrluketee · « **Reply #5 on:** 2016-04-15 10:55:34 »

Hi guys, first post here.

With FFIX now released there is actually audio issues. This steam forum thread is discussing it now:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/377840/discussions/0/361787186420618685/#p2

We have no idea if it's possible to mod in higher quality audio or not but would appreciate any help, no matter how small. Does anyone know whether this is feasible or not?

Edit: Grammar

jammy2001 · « **Reply #6 on:** 2016-04-15 12:56:08 »

Uses the same audio type as FFIV. (.akb.ogg files)

Managed to extract/reimport the audio files from the game using UnityEX 1.1.5:

Spoiler: show

Captain Epic · « **Reply #7 on:** 2016-04-15 13:25:30 »

Quote from: jammy2001 on 2016-04-15 12:56:08

Managed to extract/reimport the audio files from the game using UnityEX 1.1.5:

How on earth did you do that? I use UnityEx 1.1.6 and I've had no luck extracting the files. I have successfully extracted the other assets, but not the audio.

jammy2001 · « **Reply #8 on:** 2016-04-15 15:06:57 »

Something was changed in 1.1.6 and it doesn't work anymore. Guy on steam forums hit me up with a DL link for 1.1.5 which works flawlessly.

Link to UnityEx 1.1.5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ximkx2l4a3bu9mc/UnityEX.exe?dl=0 (remove link if this isn't allowed)

Captain Epic · « **Reply #9 on:** 2016-04-15 17:30:05 »

Quote from: jammy2001 on 2016-04-15 15:06:57

Something was changed in 1.1.6 and it doesn't work anymore. Guy on steam forums hit me up with a DL link for 1.1.5 which works flawlessly.

Link to UnityEx 1.1.5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ximkx2l4a3bu9mc/UnityEX.exe?dl=0 (remove link if this isn't allowed)

Massive thanks for that!

Squoty · « **Reply #10 on:** 2016-04-15 19:53:21 »

Thank you guys so much for bringing attention to this issue. The sound/music for the new FF9 PC port bothers me so much I don't really wanna play until there is a solution for it, I just can't stop hearing the "noise" and the "tin-can" effect. I am having nightmares about all the nay-sayers and trolls on the internet claiming the audio does not have issues and is the exact same!

Love you all.

jammy2001 · « **Reply #11 on:** 2016-04-15 21:38:21 »

Well what I need is a way to encode the .akb easilly. At the moment I'm just copying the header hex off one of the original files which isn't the most effective/safe way.

Would also like tips on how to create loops for .ogg files, know you can view LoopStart/LoopEnd in the metadata however not sure what the value is based off.

Captain Epic · « **Reply #12 on:** 2016-04-17 06:56:33 »

Quote from: jammy2001 on 2016-04-15 21:38:21

Would also like tips on how to create loops for .ogg files, know you can view LoopStart/LoopEnd in the metadata however not sure what the value is based off.

The numbers are the samples. So, for the loopstart the loop begins at sample <number> and the sample number for loopend determines when the loop finishes and then goes back to the loopstart sample location. To get the ogg to loop seamlessly you need the sample numbers to be perfectly on the beat. I've been putting in my own remasters of the soundtrack - I use Cubase Pro to produce my music and I can also use it to get hold of the exact sample number I need. So, if the loop begins at bar 4, I can go to bar 4 and copy the sample number for that exact location and then I go into a program called "audacity" (it's a free program), import my audio file, put in the metadata, then export it as ogg. There are probably other programs out there which can help you find exact bar locations and sample numbers, but since I use cubase I've never had to look around for any.

Hope that helps.

jammy2001 · « **Reply #13 on:** 2016-04-17 14:05:30 »

Yeah cheers. Figured it out however certain tracks seem to just crash just game such as changing the menu theme, can't seem to pinpoint the cause of the crashes. Had other tracks work fine.

Captain Epic · « **Reply #14 on:** 2016-04-17 15:45:27 »

Quote from: jammy2001 on 2016-04-17 14:05:30

Yeah cheers. Figured it out however certain tracks seem to just crash just game such as changing the menu theme, can't seem to pinpoint the cause of the crashes. Had other tracks work fine.

Yeah, I had trouble with the menu theme. I somehow got it working after some work, but I have no idea what I did differently to make it work, lol. In fact, I'm pretty sure I just did something I had already tried before and then it suddenly worked. If I figure out what I did differently, I'll let you know.

EDIT: Okay, I see what happened now. I did try something I had before and now I realise why it's working this time. I don't know if it's doing this for you, but for me I have to repack the music files twice before they are heard in game. If I repack just once I get no music whatsoever.

Anyway, regarding your crashing (I apologise if you've already done these - just offering potential solutions!). One reason could be because of the akb header you are copying. You need to copy the entire header (everything before the first "OggS" in the hex code). In the menu theme, music033, that's everything up to offset 00000130.

I notice you said "certain tracks", so it's not just happening to you on the menu? The only other reason it would crash (besides not copying the full header code), that I'm aware of, is the file size. This is something I discovered while audio modding Final Fantasy IV - if you replace an audio track with one which has a smaller file size, the game will crash when it tries to play it. For example, the meeting theme (music018) is 1372kb. If you replace this with something smaller (even by 1kb) the game WILL crash when it tries to play it back. Therefore, all audio tracks you put into the game must be either the exact same size or larger than the original so they will play in game. I have still not figured out how to get around this, so I just work with it and make my files as close to the original as possible (making them slightly larger).

If you figure out a solution, let me know! Likewise, if I figure it out I'll post here.

The thing I'm trying to work out now is why the game butchers the audio quality. The tracks I'm putting in don't sound anything like what they do in-game, so there's something weird going on. It's likely an issue with the audio engine itself, meaning it's very unlikely we can fix it.

jammy2001 · « **Reply #15 on:** 2016-04-17 21:59:47 »

Well noticed an issue with a track I was trying, after converting it from .flac to .ogg and adding the header it no longer plays in VLC. Most tracks even with the ABK header will work in vlc as long as the extension is .ogg but this one just stops working.

Squoty · « **Reply #16 on:** 2016-04-19 16:10:35 »

Is it hopeless?

Captain Epic · « **Reply #17 on:** 2016-04-19 17:55:09 »

Quote from: Squoty on 2016-04-19 16:10:35

Is it hopeless?

I haven't had any luck yet.

Kaldarasha · « **Reply #18 on:** 2016-04-21 21:05:17 »

Jesus the sound is entirely mono. However I'm confident that the sound plugin will be replaced with a better one someday.

Damned · « **Reply #19 on:** 2016-04-22 18:59:44 »

Would someone be willing to do a OST rip replacement for IX similar to what DLPB did for VII and VIII?

squarealex · « **Reply #20 on:** 2016-05-10 17:21:12 »

So ? No possibility to change ?
Could be possible is a CAB file when we extract audio file with UnityEX cause crash ?

Mastrius · « **Reply #21 on:** 2016-06-03 19:37:11 »

I hope this isn't a dead thread/project. I really want to play the new Steam version of this, but the current quality of the music on the steam version is a real bummer.

midgarsfinest · « **Reply #22 on:** 2016-06-07 03:30:15 »

Quote from: Captain Epic on 2016-04-17 06:56:33

The numbers are the samples. So, for the loopstart the loop begins at sample <number> and the sample number for loopend determines when the loop finishes and then goes back to the loopstart sample location. To get the ogg to loop seamlessly you need the sample numbers to be perfectly on the beat. I've been putting in my own remasters of the soundtrack - I use Cubase Pro to produce my music and I can also use it to get hold of the exact sample number I need. So, if the loop begins at bar 4, I can go to bar 4 and copy the sample number for that exact location and then I go into a program called "audacity" (it's a free program), import my audio file, put in the metadata, then export it as ogg. There are probably other programs out there which can help you find exact bar locations and sample numbers, but since I use cubase I've never had to look around for any.

Hope that helps.

I can confirm that Audacity is a great tool for creating .ogg files, and the above-mentioned tutorial is exactly how I produced my own music for FFVII (Cubase 5).

TheMathKing · « **Reply #23 on:** 2016-12-07 17:09:44 »

Hi all. I actually need help with my FF6 Music overhaul. I took all the music .akb files, found orchestral music, converted those to .obb, looped them by samples (LoopStart= and LoopEnd=) in audacity, created an .obb that has the same type of content in the file (looked at an .akb file and noticed it only had LoopStart= and LoopEnd= , no authors or comments, etc), took the akb header info for all the files and put them in the new.obb files, renamed file.obb to file.akb, and put them in the game.

The result is that everything works, but the looping doesn't! It loops flawlessly in audacity, but the game doesn't seem to care where I put my LoopEnd=. Could I get some advice from the sages here? Please feel free to email me too. I can also give you all my work if you like and you could alter\continue the effort.

nex86 · « **Reply #24 on:** 2017-07-23 21:27:56 »

I'm trying to make my own music mod for the Steam version of FFIX using Hade's Workshop to import assets.
My only struggle is the AKB header, is there a way to reconstruct or generate them and automatically add them to the BGM file you want to add?
right now I only see a way to do this manually with an hex editor, but that's gonna be a bit of a tedious work to do this with 100+ files.