SPC Dumping by Samuel at 1:11 AM EDT on March 12, 2007
I've always wanted to know how people take an original SNES cartridge and dump the SPC files from it. I did some googling and saw something about a device that plugs into your cartridge and to your PC. If so, where can I get one and is it hard to use? Please let me know, thanks.
That's certainly not the way I would do it... No, get the SNES ROM in question, and play the game in ZSNES, or Snes9X. Check their various features, and use the "Dump SPC" key. For ZSNES, it's on one of their menu's near the far right.
You can also go to http://www.snesmusic.org and ask the people there (you'd have to email them, I think). I'm sure they could help you a lot more than we could here. Mouser X over and out.
The reason I asked was because I have the Super Conflict game now. All the roms I've downloaded for this game were defected in sound quality. You probably remember my previous topic about converting a WAV or MP3 to a SPC file. I thought if I dumped it from the original game itself, I could contribute it to SNES music and Zophar for other people to download. I can rip the files from the game to my PC, but they will be in WAV format. It's a shame there's no good Super Conflict rom out there. I thought maybe I could create a good one. -_-
I'm assuming you've checked the GoodSNES sets? I've got the GoodSNES set 2.04, and there's one called "Super Conflict - The Mideast." If that's the game in question, why not dump some SPCs from the ROMs you've found, and record a WAV from the cartridge you've got, so that we can tell the difference. I'm interested to know what it is you're referring to. If you do this, you should send an email to Caitsith2 as well, with the links, so that he can see the difference. I know he's done a fair amount of SPC hacking to get sets improved.
Anyway, sorry I couldn't help more than that. Hopefully you can get this taken care of. Either way, I'd like to hear some comparisons between the ROMs, and the cartridge (recorded to WAV, converted to MP3, OGG, or your format of choice). Mouser X over and out.
"Super Conflict - The Mideast." is the game in question.
Where can I get "GoodSNES set 2.04"? Maybe it's better quality than my dumps from the defected roms I downloaded. Does that set play using Meridian Advance and Winamp? If so, maybe you could link me to the torrent or whatever it is. I'm planning on recording the files from the SNES itself in a couple of days. I will compare the quality and let you know.
I just read your post again and I got a little confused, lol. I guessing "GoodSNES set 2.04" is a rom set, right? That would be great. Maybe it contains a good Super Conflict rom. Let me know, thanks again.
I tried dumping SPC's from the "Super Conflict - The Mideast" rom, (U) and (E), and had no problem. Here are 3 songs (they're not tagged and timed, I just dumped them to test). They play fine in Winamp with the Alpha-II SPC Player plug-in (in_snes.dll).
Do they sound ok, or do they sound like the SPC dumps you made?
I had no problems creating them either... They sound the same as mine. I also use the Winamp plugin: Alpha-II SPC Player v3.2 (x86) [in_snes.dll]. It may be hard to hear, but if you listen to the tracks with headphones on, you can hear the clicks/pops and even some background hissing in the music on Initial Contact (first stage). Maybe I'm too picky, but I do hear defects in the tracks. I just wanna make it right. When I record the tracks from the SNES itself and compare, hopefully they will be clear. If not, I give up.
Yeah, that one sounds like mine. That's the one that kinda hisses, but not that big of a deal. If you wanna hear more of the pops/clicks, try the title screen (opening theme) and also the battle music. Just move one of your blue units right beside a red one and select battle. Save that SPC data. The beginning pops pretty bad. Maybe the music is suppose to sound like that??? Beats the hell out of me... My other roms sound perfectly clear. If you don't mind, upload those two and I'll compare mine to yours. Thanks for taking the time to help. That goes for Mouser X too. :)
The majority of those said "bad rom" when loading up. Anyway, I was playing around with the sound options, using the rom I already had and it sounded different, but still defected. My question is...maybe I need to change some settings to make the rom perform right. Here's my default sound options. They sound great with the other roms I have, but Super Conflict sounds like ****. Here's a screenshot I uploaded...
I have the same settings, but my Sampling Rate is set at 32000Hz. Have you tried to use SNES9x? That's what I used to dump the 3 SPCs.
The 2 roms I used to test the sound can be found here. I'm not sure if they are 'Good' or not.
I doubt this could be the problem or fix the problem, but it's worth a try. Have you tried to reduce the resolution the game is displayed at. Maybe the emulator is putting more processing power into the higher resolution and less into the sound.
SNES9x does the same thing. All the roms are the same and some worse. I also made the video screen very little to medium and it all sounds the same. -_- I'm gonna record those files from my SNES later on today or tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be clear. Thanks again for trying to help.
I recorded the Super Conflict (original SNES cartridge) songs to my PC as WAV files. The funny thing is that the files sounded the same as the SPC files (defected). I was like... Well, ain't that a crock of ****! So, I deleted my WAV files that I recorded from the cartridge. I played back the SPC files and recorded them as WAV files, remastered them and then converted them to MP3 files at CD quality. I did a great job, but they're not SPC files, so I can't contribute them to SNES Music and Zophar for other people to download and enjoy. Oh well, atleast I got the sound quality fixed. :)
I figured that the music probably sounded that way on the cartridge.
If you converted your MP3s from SPCs, why not submit the SPCs to SNESMusic.org anyway? You have already ripped them, and SNESMusic.org will only be interested in the original sound, not remastered music.
If the music in the actual game does not sound right, it is the developer's fault. I would say that if the rip sounds the same as the real SNES output, then the rip is "good".
"Teacher says, every time an SPC is ripped, and angel gets its wings!"
^XDXDXD I remember hearing that from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. "Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings!". Great movie, btw. Funny as hell...
I think there should be a psf format for SPC, to make SNES music esier to dump, especially unused songs and songs that cannot be dumped to SPC, like Wario's Woods.
This has been mildly discussed in the past. The biggest problem is that SPC is so successful/widespread that a xSF styled format would be more pain than it's worth. Also, it's *FAR* easier to rip SPCs (most likely even unused ones) than it would be rip SNES audio in a xSF form. The only reason worth considering a xSF SNES format, is for those songs which can't be ripped to SPC. And as I said, the general consensus (as I recall it) is that it'd be too much effort with not enough gain.
Sure, you'd be able to get a few more songs/games ripped, but not enough to compete with SPCs. In other words, even if someone did develop the format, the amount of people willing to rip the SNES audio would be few and limited. Especially because SPCs are so much easier to rip. People would most likely be discouraged once they realized how difficult it was to rip SNES audio, that they'd go to SPC dumping instead.
Anyway, that's what I've heard on the subject. This doesn't mean it won't happen. But it does mean that whoever does it will have to be one very dedicated person, who enjoys getting very little in return for the work they've put forth. Mouser X over and out.
Concerning Wario's Woods, some so-called "undumpable" SPCs have been ripped using hacks. Is it possible that Wario's Woods could be ripped using a hack, or has it been tried already?
CaitSith2 in #PSF wrote: Not rippable, not without the 65816 code running along side of it.
So apparently it has been looked into, but is definitely not rippable. I've noticed that CaitSith2 has done a lot of ROM hacking to get at hidden, or hard to get, SPCs. If he says it's not rippable, I'd be in favor of believing him.
If a xSF version of SPCs existed, then it could be ripped. But as said, I'm not sure it'd be worth the effort. Even if someone did do it, it'd be awhile.
I did rip super gameboy 2 using a game genie code i got from nesdev from ugetab i think it was. And i also found two unused songs in Yoshi's Island i also submitted to snesmusic.org
I'm curious how these hard-to-rip games would sound in bsnes.. The latest release, 0.020, has sub-sample accurate sound emulation. Unfortunately there aren't yet any players that use blargg's SMP core (though hopefully kode54 will update his foobar2000 plugin soon).