Everblue PS2 by Locke_gb7 at 7:55 AM EDT on August 21, 2024
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to extract the music from the PS2 game Everblue. The underwater music has sound effects mixed in, and the PSF2 file I found is missing most of the music tracks. I can't manually record the music due to the sound effects, and tools like PSound only seem to find tones, which suggests the music might be generated by a script.
Does anyone have experience with extracting music from PS2 games that use scripts to generate music? Any guidance or advice on tools or methods that could help with this would be greatly appreciated!
Hi! I'm not familiar with the Everblue game or it's soundtrack, but I do want to try and help.
Where did you find this PSF2 file? Is it from the actual game you extracted?
If it's sequenced and it's in generic format, you may be able to use VGMTrans to pull up 3 sections that are Samples, Instrument Header, and Sequences that can be converted to music .MIDI files.
PSound is efficient in finding samples and playing them without exporting them to 44100HZ first and THEN playing them at lower pitch like VGMTrans forces you to do. However like you said, PSound can only pull up the sample sounds. And because these samples are stored in different soundbanks to load separately upon scene change in RAM and aren't define in the program, you won't get much organization either.
It's best to have both PSound and VGMTrans for efficient use. If you haven't installed VGMTrans already, see if you can pull up any music data.
RE: by Locke_gb7 at 10:08 AM EDT on August 22, 2024
I got the PSF2 here https://psf2.joshw.info/e/
I got out of the ISO/bin/cue a PS2.DAT and ARIKA.dat
I did extract wav using psound but yeah its a library of seemingly music tones?
Theres a lot of compressed date files and a lot of file types, I am not sure what could be used how, any info I could provide you that might help?
I'm gonna give you another link to the VGMTrans I have. It is VGMTrans Preview 1.1. It shouldn't need compiling of any sort, or at least that I know of for the newer versions.
See if you can open it and try dragging ARIKA.DAT or PS2.DAT in VGMTrans.
(There is also VGMToolBox, which you could try using to separate the SQ/HD/BD banks from the .DAT file, but I'd say don't bother downloading. You don't need it for this game since I assume it's soundbanks are very small for it's amount of content.)
i see these files ARIKA.DAT IOPDRV.IRX IOPRP224.IMG LIBSD.IRX LISTFILES.BAT list_of_files.txt MCMAN.IRX MCSERV.IRX MODHSYN.IRX MODMIDI.IRX MODSESQ.IRX PADMAN.IRX PS2.DAT SIO2MAN.IRX SLES_506.39 SYSTEM.CNF
when I useed i think psound? i forget to extract the DAT files i got LISTFILES.BAT list_of_files.txt Unnamed File 000001.empty Unnamed File 000002.empty Unnamed File 000003.unknown Unnamed File 000004.empty Unnamed File 000005.empty Unnamed File 000006.empty Unnamed File 000007.unknown Unnamed File 000008.empty Unnamed File 000009.empty Unnamed File 000010.empty
which file might work with VGMTrans ? one of these files must have the sequences ? the tones seem to have been extracted as wav by psound from i think the ps2.dat
Ok. Big update on Everblue. I changed the video commentary explanation I was originally gonna make cause I had general trouble extracting from both Everblue 1 and 2.
Here's the Video to add on this explanation: https://youtu.be/wV_NyY4KwuU
To explain right here, Everblue 1 and 2's files ARE using a generic format of SQ/HD/BD. However, it's the file itself, the .DAT file that hosts all of these duplicated banks and generic headers that won't work with VGMTrans.
As far as I know, VGMTrans is the best way to make soundfonts and MIDI files from PS1/PS2 games.
Normally, I'd be able to drag the file onto VGMTrans, it'd take a while to open it, but it'd open with all of the files unorganized, but generic, I'd be able to extract MIDI and SF2 from them. Done.
But since I guess because the file format is too weird for VGMTrans to understand, VGMTrans doesn't process it right and the whole thing just crashes. It happened on PS2.DAT, and it happened on Everblue 2's .DAT file simply named "DATA.DAT".
I'm gonna link a .ZIP file in the description of the video with what I used and explain it the best I can.
I can INDEED see samples. I simply opened PS2.DAT and DATA.DAT in PSound, searched it, and it didn't take any time at all to find the samples. It's just that the samples are too encrypted/different for any generic export to be made with my current VGMTrans.
So what I did was I used VGMToolbox and went "Misc. Tools/xSF Tools/PSF2/PSF2 Data Finder" and then I just dragged both .DAT files onto the section and waited. I eventually got all the files in SQ/HD/BD. This whole step separated them from the encrypted .DAT file. You'd think that now it'd be possible to make an extraction with a small set of files. But NO.
VGMToolbox actually gets rid of the HEX data on the samples (not sure if it applies for PS1 or anything else too) and no matter how hard you try, you can't make a soundfont extraction.
If the Script data is all you want, just drag an .SQ file onto VGMTrans, click "Export as MIDI" and find any location to save. It's done. But if you want the soundfonts and the sample data IN the soundfonts, you're out of luck.
The way I got soundfonts from this game is by taking a completely different file from MGS2 PC Port "pk000000", dragged it into VGMTrans (because it has readable hex data and not anything BLANK), dragged the .HD and .SQ file, clicked "Create collection manually", and then checked all of the Sample/Instrument/Script data, clicked "Export as MIDI and SF2", and I was done.
The result is a script file (which I could've easily just dragged and exported separately), but more importantly I got the SF2. The only problem? It doesn't have the actual samples OR transposing from Everblue. All I did was just use a separate bank because I couldn't get the other banks that had blank hex data to work. So THOSE files acted as a way of bypassing VGMTrans limitations since you can't convert HD Files without a properly working BD File (sample file).
So even if you use MGS2's samples, replace them after the export, you're going to have to manually change each value for the PSF or whatever you may wish to make for those extra tracks.
I have no knowledge of how to make PSF's or PSF2's. I've only just made SF2's and other things. And again, if all you want are the Script files, then just separate them using VGMTool box, PSF2 Data Finder, drag the .SQ files onto VGMTrans, click "Export as MIDI", done.
But if you want the actual music to work, it's gonna be hell because if you've followed along, you'll get the soundfont with the instrument and sequence data, but NOT the actual sample data.
Does my video and this lengthy wall make sense at all?
Yeah, all I wanted was the music, but I am in way over my head now. I got some of what you wrote, but even if it was a simple one I don't think I could handle it, I don't know how to use hex and extract data and most of the terminology :/ I wish I did, I only learned bits and pieces of years.
@bpunk7890-2 the link is for everblue 2, I was trying to get music from the first game, and manually recording proved impossible because of sound samples overlapping music.
the Everblue 1 PSF seems latest and is not functional.
And from the information above, I will not be able to use technical knowledge to extract the music from it either. :(
@DunksLovesSounds I studied the files punk sent me and checked out your method, but yeah, from what i get, you would need to replace all the samples from the metal gear to the ones extracted from the Everblue files using psound?
yeah seems impossible for me right now i really tried messing around but yeh :(
@Locke_gb7 Unfortunately yes. It was the only method I could find since for some reason, Everblue 1 and 2 crashes when opening with VGMTrans.
And since VGMToolbox wipes the Hex Data from separating BD files from the .DAT file, I'm not sure how you could get accurate sample data for SF2 extraction.
Maybe someone else can guide us or a newer VGMTrans version can help, but right now that's the only way I can see working. And yeah, it's tedious.
I could only give you .BD because MGS1/2 have a unique music format called MDX/SDX that encrypts the generic instruments/sequences. Meaning, you wouldn't see them pop up on VGMTrans.
I could give you Silent Hill 2 tho. Those are generic and aren't unique/encrypted files.
yeah that be good im looking for a header to compare to everblue, I want to try to take a header readable by vgm trans and change some of the header data so it may be readable by vgm trans, but this is pretty advance for me, so yeah i would need another game that has a readable hd bd sq