Help With N64 Sound Tool? by Kurausukun at 5:16 PM EDT on September 10, 2014
I'm trying to use N64 Sound Tool to rip some voice samples from Majora's Mask, but the pitch of the rips depends on the sample rate you input, and none of the standard ones (16000, 22050, 32000, etc) seem to give the proper pitch. At about 20000, it starts sounding correct-ish, but I'd like to know how to find the exact sample rate of the clips, or better yet, if a different program exists that does it for me.
You could just rip the sound, then change the sample rate in audacity. As far as I know, there is no way of finding the real sample rate. Anyway, how'd you get sounds from that thing? I tried using it for one game, but only got instruments.
by Kurausukun at 7:57 PM EDT on September 10, 2014
The problem isn't that I can't change it in the program--I can, it lets you type whatever you want for the rate. The problem is that I need to know the exact sample rate so it sounds correct. I'm not sure what game you tried it with, but for me it was just a lot of searching through the banks until I got to the voices--they're treated pretty much the same as instruments from what I gather.
If you're using Audacity, you're going to have to use "Change Speed" in the Effects menu and (literally) play it by ear to get the pitch that sounds correct to you. Just changing the sample rate in Audacity only affects what quality your output file is saved at, not the pitch.
You're correct in thinking that voice samples are treated like instruments. Like instrument samples, they're adjusted on-the-fly to make the correct pitch when called for by the game. Take the Lizalfos in OoT for example: though they make multiple roar-squeak sounds, it's really just the one sample generated multiple times at different rates of speed to make them sound higher and lower.
by Kurausukun at 9:53 PM EDT on September 10, 2014
What I'm saying is that doing it by ear isn't good enough for me--I want to know exactly what sample rate they are rendered at ingame.
Just wanted to expand on JudgeIto's suggestion.. If you're using foobar2000, there's a DSP component for it that allows you to play stuff at a different rate. The DSP is called "Playback Rate Shift" and is part of foo_dsp_effect. I actually use it all the time, great time saver.
I tried it for Mario Party 2. There are certain voices you can't get from the soundtest menu, so I tried that tool. Used the "dump all sound banks" setting or whatever, and got nothing but instruments. No sound effects whatsoever unless they were used as an instrument. Maybe i did something wrong.