Help with N64 music rip by Volkov73 at 2:35 AM EDT on April 28, 2017
Hey guys. I'm looking to rip some N64 songs. However, I would like each track as a seperate WAV so I can choose to mute certain instruments if I wish.
Does any software exist which allows muting of certain channels during playback, or direct WAV recording of each track? The only method I've found is using gameshark codes in the game/emulator, but this would be very tedious and would result in sub-par results (audio not lined up).
Doing it within the game itself will be hardly possible, since every N64 game mixes the audio internally before sending it out. Unlike SuperNintendo for instance, there is no place in hardware, where an emulator, music ripper or whatever could intervene. It might be possible using some simple GameShark codes, but this highly depends on the game and can get pretty complicated. It would be all manual work, at least I dont know an automatic way to do this (probably there is none).
A much easier, direct and more general approach is to use Subdrags's Sound and Midi Tool, to extract the midi and soundbank of a game (and creating e.g. a soundfont from it). Then playing it back with an external synth (e.g. fluidsynth).
This work might have already been done, which game are you looking for?
I'm looking to extract various songs from various games. I was able to use SubDrag's tools to extract some songs, and they sounded great. I was able to remove some tracks (like the melody line) and then ended up with quality tracks.
However, the more I tried to do this, the more problems I encountered. There were discrepancies with ADSR (I think)....sometimes playback did not match what was heard on the OST. Samples would not play for the correct length of time (reverb? adsr?) - this was main problem I found. Often the percussion sounds needed some manual work but that was fine to do myself.
Have you used Subdrag's tools yourself? I'm using Synthsoft 2 for playback.
Now.....when I extract MIDI and sf2 files from Nintendo DS roms, they all sound pretty much 100% during playback. I was able to get a few songs I wanted using this method, unfortunately not all great N64 games made an appearance on NDS.
So for ripping the N64 songs, I still need some guidance.
I use his tool for ripping some Rareware games (BK, BT, DK64, JFG, CBFD). You're right, getting ADSR correct is a mess. Reverb sounds different. And the way how the synth reacts to note velocity is different than the game does (that's why I prefer to use an opensource synth like fluidsynth to adjust that behaviour for my needs).
The ADSR times usually need to be extended all by some factor. If it still sounds wrong I analyze the original audio's spectrogram using sonic-visualizer, or simply do it by ear.
The ambiance tracks work fine for Rare games, havent tested Zelda games though.
Using the soundfonts and midi's extracted is very cool, but unfortunately requires a lot of manual work (not bothered) and they also sound a bit off.
The more songs I extract, the more I notice instruments being too loud or the timbre being a bit off.
What are my goals here? To make as accurate copies of the original music as possible but with the ability to exclude a chosen instrument (like the bass or melody)
I've been able to do this 100% accurately for nes, snes, gbx, genesis, and nds.
In my mind, if it possible for a program to extract this data from the roms (Subdrag tool), and it is able to seperate each instrument into it's own midi track with the correctly assigned sound - then it should be possible to eliminate it from playback in the first place.
Would it be possible to edit the exacted midi files to exclude the notes I don't want played, and then inject them back into the rom. Then playback through regular old emulation should result in what I am looking for.
I know this is probably a bigger feat then I am aware of, and I by no means have the skills or knowledge to program something like that myself. Am I on the right track or am I way off?
You want 100% accurate copies? Grab the N64 SDK (specifically libaudio) scratch out all that microcode stuff and create your own synth around it. Add a bunch of variables to it that allow you to control every aspect of rendering and for every game, then figure out what parameters are most suitable for accurate playback. Think of: - response to note velocity - ADSR envelopes (linear?, exp?) - reverb algorithm - reverb settings (roomsize, damping, etc.) - implementing custom effects (e.g. IIR filter of CBFD and JFG)
Even if you can make it, you'll probably have the audio rendered at a higher samplerate, which again creates a "brighter" sound.
In short: just say goodbye to the idea of replicating the audio with 100% accuracy.
If you still want 100% acc., your best option is indeed removing notes from exported midi and reimport it to the ROM. However this most likely involves more manual work than just setting up a proper soundfont once...
I really mean 100% accurate as far as the best emulators can already do. I cannot design anything from scratch.
Perhaps editing the rom somewhow so the notes simply do not play would be the simplest option? Do you think it would be that difficult to do the reverse of what Subdrag's tools already do?
Either that or edit the midi/soundfont to sound more reminiscent of the originals.