Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 PS2 .MIB and Interleaves - Help? by TheFonzie at 12:43 AM EDT on May 30, 2013
Okay, so, I'm attempting to rip music from that game, I extracted this file called UIMUSIC.VBK from the game's files, then unpacked it using ADPCM Player. Turns out, inside the .VBK file was 103 files. One of them is a .MIB file which has the first two seconds of the song. It's perfect quality, no stuttering, etc. The remaining 102 have the .PS2 extension and are apparently interleaves. What do I do now?
Here's a GENH header for that file. It is a single track. Run the .bat file in the same folder as the .VBK file. Other files may have similar settings, try experimenting with the GENH tool in VGMToolbox.
Most of the information is in the header of the file. Look at it in a hex editor. The information is in Little Endian byte order.
For example, at offset 0x20, you see 44AC, which is little endian for 0xAC44. Converting to decimal gives 44100 (frequency).
At offset 0x0D, you see 0008, which is little endian for 0x0800. Looking at offset 0x800 in the file you can see where the data starts (header skip).
At offset 0x24, you see 0010, which is little endian for 0x1000. Adding 0x1000, to 0x800, you'll see the start of another channel. So, the interleave is 0x1000.
For channels, I just eyeballed it from experience. It could be that the value at 0x28 is the number of channels - 1.
I created the genh.header file with VGMToolbox. You can just use the tool to create your GENH files. I sent a header since it takes up almost no disk space/bandwidth and I knew you already had the file.
Good luck, this is a nice set to learn from since most of the data is in the header and PS2 ADPCM is a pretty easy format to identify by eye (for me at least).
Thanks again, mate. :) I appreciate this information.
Awesome! by Sage Rosemary at 12:01 PM EDT on June 7, 2013
Hey, this is awesome! I've been searching for the music artist of this game's music for YEARS. I keep hearing the songs in the game being used elsewhere (like my favorite artist used one of the songs from their game as a sample in their song Ankoku Psychedelic). Because of that I assumed its royalty free music because the makers of the game didnt list an artist for the music, not even in the manual. I'm glad to know you are able to rip the music from the game. When you are done posting the soundtrack, can you post a download link, please? I am dying to have that music!
I forgot to mention I found a bunch of .vbk files when I went through the disk a few years ago. It seems the files correspond with the levels in the game. Interesting. Whenever I tried searching about VBK files, it would say its from Call Pilot programs.
Yay! by Sage Rosemary at 1:48 PM EDT on June 9, 2013
That's great, really great! but can a download link for the game music still be posted? The disk of the game that I have is badly scratched, plus it messes up my PC whenever I insert it into the DVD drive. I really really appreciate this~! :)
@Sage I'll be uploading it to FFShrine in FLAC once I take the time to match the tracks with the level names. I'll link you to it when it's ready, if you wish.
Is there a reason t to post the VBK files themselves? I'd be very surprised if the VBK is a lossless format, and thus I'd prefer the VBKs to FLACs. I realize that, technically, no audio data is lost by the FLAC, but I for one prefer the original files, in there original format, over a conversion (even if the conversion is lossless, I still prefer the original format).
So, if you're posting the files anyway, is there a good reason not to post them in their original format? Personally, I say post the original, non-converted data, and tell people how to convert it to the format of their choice. It's not hard, and it's worth learning how to use the command line anyway (though, even a BAT file would be perfectly fine).
That aside, I'm glad to see that you got it figured out. It sounds like it'll be an interesting set. Mouser X over and out.
Awesome! I'm glad to know the songs will be uploaded soon! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
What Mouser X said is interesting, but I'd rather not install anymore programs/use any technical programs on my PC. Its too risky for me considering my history with PCs. You can always post the soundtrack in both formats but I'll take the FLAC so I can convert it to mp3.
It's worth pointing out that to get VGMstream running, nothing needs fo be installed. Simply download VGMstream from the most recent link (should be first in the list, though since this variant (VBK) is probably not yet supported in VGMstream, you'll probably need snakemeat's version instead), and the external DLLs (here), and extract both ZIP files to the directory containing the audio files (*.VBK in this case).
Then, create/open an empty *.txt file, and copy/paste in the following line of text:
FOR %%a IN (*.VBK) DO test -l 2 -f 10 -o "%%a.wav" "%%a"
Save this file as "WAVconvert.bat", and then double click the resulting BAT file. This will produce lots of WAV files, which you can then convert to MP3, OGG, FLAC, and many other audio formats of your choice.
I realize you prefer FLAC files, but logistically, it doesn't make much sense. The VBK files are almost certainly smaller than the FLAC files (though, not always. But certainly most of the time), and they're the original, non-converted data. If you're going to make a copy of something, it's always best to use the origonal where possible.
For example, the FLAC conversion loses the looping information, thus making the FLAC files non-looping. Whereas the original VBK files likely contain loop points. If I find a favorite song, I won't be able to listen to it on loop. Also, possibly even more importantly, some files contain data/audio after the loop point (example: intro music, looped section, ending [as opposed to fade out]). Admittedly, VGMstream has no way to play this when in looping mode (everything after the loop point is ignored). To listen to it, you have to play the files with the loop points disabled. There is no way a FLAC conversion can relay this information.
So, my question still stands - Why not post the original files? It doesn't make sense not to, as far as I can see. The conversion process is very simple (see above), the VBKs are most likely smaller than FLACs, and the FLACs are most likely going to lose important information (loop points, if they loop, and extra data beyond the loop point, if any). I often convert files to ADX/LOGG, because they can be looped (thus not losing the looping information) and ADX can be played by my MP3/media player (so can FLAC, but FLACs don't loop. Even if they did, there's no program I know of that could play looping FLAC files). Mouser X over and out.
My goodness, that is very interesting! I didn't know audio files had loop information. Too bad my mp3 device cannot play advance file types like ADX and OGG. So if you don't need to install a program, how do you initiate the conversion? I know you said to double click the .bat file, but wouldn't Windows ask that it's a program that cannot be recognized and ask you to "search the web for supported programs"? I'm sorry for that odd question :/
by Sage Rosemary at 12:37 PM EDT on September 23, 2013
Any update on the game music? Is it ready?
Hello? by Sage Rosemary at 4:16 PM EDT on October 22, 2013
Hello? Any progress? Is it ready for download? I'm sorry to keep asking but I really really want/need the music. I looked on FFShrine and someone made a post for it, but there is no link of any kind.
I tried downloading the Vgstream r1014 for VBK files but the download has been deleted! Can someone repost it please or is there another source for obtaining the r1014 file?
I couldn't get the FLAC version uploaded because it's a gigabyte big. All I can provide for now is a 320 MP3 version. https://mega.co.nz/#!DcNlFZAb!RmNZFxxLlMxQpyPJcZIR4U06Clo8ZL18XlykjzEW1fY
Thank you thank you thank you!! FINALLY! After all these years!
In return for your efforts, I will try to rip the quiet/soft versions of those songs from the game.
This is really great and awesome! Thank you thank you!!!!
And don't worry about the FLACs.
FLAC by TheFonzie at 4:33 PM EST on January 7, 2014
FLAC upload, sorry for the delay https://mega.co.nz/#!fVsQ0YAI!bZoCBVLe1HTU4mKxM8GmUScbYQ5B8X379MkEclaOXtI
@Mouser X I can understand the desire for posting the original files, but anyone with a copy or ROM/ISO of Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 can get the files themselves. That and along with this thread, they should be able to figure out the conversion process. :)