The Lossless Video Game Soundtrack Thread (Links on First Page)

[wlmmn]

Great to finally be on this forum.

If someone could re-up the Dracula Battle Perfect Selection album I saw on page 15 I'd greatly appreciate it. I've had the mp3s for years but didn't know there was a lossless version floating around. Antraxx originally uploaded but I don't think he's posted in two years.

---------- Post added at 07:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

Great to finally be on this forum.

If someone could re-up the Dracula Battle Perfect Selection album I saw on page 15 I'd greatly appreciate it. I've had the mp3s for years but didn't know there was a lossless version floating around. Antraxx originally uploaded but I don't think he's posted in two years.

[melonofwater]

wlmmn
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] the site is in Russian and you have to make an account
you could try this haven't tested it though [Hidden link. Register to see links.]

[seph_luis_br]

Can anyone please re-upload the Chrono Cross OST ? I checked the post and the links are dead =(
Thanks in advance.

For the question about Shatter OST, instead of putting the links for download (since it's prohibited) why not link to [Hidden link. Register to see links.].

[marvinmc]

Oh wow, I didn't except that much negative response from my posts.

Well, for starters I should warn you that my main language is not English, so my post probably won't be grammatically perfect. Second, I'll quote byuu, creator of the most accurate snes emulator available, bsnes.

Video games are a piece of our history, and we need to respect the fact that there is a "true" form they had when released. Imagine if we only had a JPEG of the Mona Lisa, a RealVideo stream of the moon landing, or a MIDI rendition of "Walking in the Air." We have the ability to keep our past alive, and I feel like it's almost a duty to do so.

I guess the Chrono Trigger example wasn't the best possible, since it's not that obvious. Ok, ok.
I'll use Clayfighter as an better example,. Take in mind that the quality of the music (or the game's, for that matter) is not in question this time. It's about emulation. Even if the snes_spc emulation is cycle accurate, it depends on the rip created by another emulator, and even the spc format itself have its limitations. All of this things are abundantly clear in Clayfighter.
You see, Clayfighter is a very special game. It's really hard to run it perfectly on most emulators. Only bsnes can even run the thing without glitches. But there's something that really makes Clayfighter different for music's sake: Its opening have vocals, probably the first time someone tries that in a cartridge-based system.

So, let's hear it:
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]

Now, let's play it from an emulator
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]

The main difference? The vocals are horribly desynchronized. It's kinda painful to hear, actually, and it's most noticeable in the music's second loop, where the vocals starts very earlier, causing a horrible mess.

But okay, let's get a real audio emulator, the snes_spc one. Let's get the better possible spc rip, one available at [Hidden link. Register to see links.].
First things first, the "opening" is divided in 3 parts. You'll have to edit them together, but that's alright, that's not the real problem. It have no vocals. At all. Seem to be a a format limitation, since the [Hidden link. Register to see links.] suffers the same problem.

See, I'm not hating on the .spc format, or in emulation in general. I love emulators, and for the purpose of chip tune music storage, .spc is great. But, in any circumstances, should be used to substitute real recordings from video games, or treated as such. That's like using a sample of a guitar and treating someone actually playing a guitar.

Now I'll reply individually. I'm totally open for discussions, by the way. I'll not be a smartass because someone disagrees with me, and I'm sorry if it seemed that way. Likewise, I'll not reply to SmartOne. If you wanna a fight, buddy, go to a bar.


LiquidAcid (I can't really quote you, so it'll be plain text): I didn't really knew that snes_spc is cycle accurate. Last time I used a .spc player, it really wasn't. At all. interesting read.
But I'll tell you the truth, the (1) on your signature bothers me. I kinda need my lossless fix, =P

I'd be willing to bet my last dollar the 'differences' you're hearing between a cart rip and an SPC could be solved with something as simple as a 20-band graph EQ (also available as a FB2K plug-in) - provided the graph EQ is being used my someone who knows what they're doing...

I think you'd find it impossible to tell the difference in a blind listening test with a track that's been worked on in a quality DAW like: Ableton or Pro Tools (+ a final mastering with iZotope's Ozone) ... in fact, the audio would finish up sounding, astonishingly better.

Maybe, maybe. the again, that would be a lot of trouble just to make a .spc sound like a console rip.
Then again, Konami released Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections Box set, the 18-cd box set. The NES music for the first game (I don't really know about the other NES games, since all of them are based on japanese versions) is way too much distorted. So distorted in fact, that the MSX soundtrack for the first game sounds NES-ier than the NES recordings.

[Neo_Chip]

For the question about Shatter OST, instead of putting the links for download (since it's prohibited) why not link to [Hidden link. Register to see links.].

Why? That would kill the reason of posting here. Besides I removed it publicly, but its still somewhere 'near' :hint:hint:

[tlrc]

Can anyone please re-upload the Chrono Cross OST ? I checked the post and the links are dead =(
.

here your links:
Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack

Disk 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?tds1p9z29dzbhpb
http://www.mediafire.com/?0rjpqj7dc3pqhvq
Disk 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?1u3rc2kidz11nvf
http://www.mediafire.com/?xf2pjxqbimxqen9
Disk 3
http://www.mediafire.com/?9j9dt8kpbdm8ft7
http://www.mediafire.com/?xt253hezyqxybcv

[neiax]

Oh wow, I didn't except that much negative response from my posts.

Well, for starters I should warn you that my main language is not English, so my post probably won't be grammatically perfect.

Well, join the gang. You'll find a lot of users here aren't native English speakers on this thread (myself included) - but only ad-hom troll's would point out grammatical errors in your posts. Relax.

Maybe, maybe. the again, that would be a lot of trouble just to make a .spc sound like a console rip.

Hmm, a lot of trouble? ...compared to the effort required to correctly set up -and- perfectly extract the audio directly from the console itself? (Which will definitely still need some kind of 'polishing' @ 32000Hz)

I think we need to treat each case individually, that is, game-by-game. My point was that it would be entirely possible to make an indistinguishable piece of audio from an SPC when juxtaposed with most game rips. I wouldn't do it - I'd rather something superior. Moreover, I wouldn't consider working on something I really want, 'trouble" - but more a labor of love. Actually, I find that type of thing enjoyable. But that's just me.

Then again, Konami released Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections Box set, the 18-cd box set. The NES music for the first game (I don't really know about the other NES games, since all of them are based on japanese versions) is way too much distorted. So distorted in fact, that the MSX soundtrack for the first game sounds NES-ier than the NES recordings.

Well, I have no idea about what went on in the production/mastering of that release (source material) - but I do own a lossless copy, and will say this... I will never align myself to one form of source material, as the 'be all and end all' to ascribe perfection to. Always keep an objective ear. Also, It's certainly not unusual for Japanese game soundtracks to contain mild clipping. But that's neither here nor there.

[alc123]

there's something that really makes Clayfighter different for music's sake: Its opening have vocals, probably the first time someone tries that in a cartridge-based system.

Just as a bit of trivia, voice was present in many cartridge based games prior to Clayfighter. The earliest I'm aware of is Major League Baseball for the Intellivision, from 1980.

[Vrantheo]

Not sure if anyone has noticed yet, but JSharer is partially done with its SURVIVAL STRATEGY so some of the links may have resumed.

[hellboundzero]

Would it still be emulation if you made one of these [Hidden link. Register to see links.] and then recorded into pro tools or adobe audition? It uses the sound processor for the snes.

[LiquidAcid]

Would it still be emulation if you made one of these [Hidden link. Register to see links.] and then recorded into pro tools or adobe audition? It uses the sound processor for the snes.

Read the posts again, carefully this time. Especially the one by SmartOne about analogue transfers.

[SmartOne]

Marvinmc, you say emulation cannot be perfect. You are wrong. Picking out edge cases like Clayfighter doesn't prove that emulation is always imperfect. You are simply pointing out a limitation of the SPC format.

[Hidden link. Register to see links.]

Drinking is stupid, buddy, and who's fighting?

[futaihikage]

I'm curious, with all the talk about creating a truly digital version of SNES music, with the pressed CDs that are released aren't they probably the closest your going to get to authentic audio? I'm basing the question on the assumption that when they press the silver CDs, that they are using digital information that came from the artist's equipment? I mean, the only way to get a truly authentic audio copy you'd have to get it straight from the source, which is music equipment, right?

[LiquidAcid]

I'm basing the question on the assumption that when they press the silver CDs, that they are using digital information that came from the artist's equipment?

The equipment in the SNES days was probably just a hexeditor.

I mean, the only way to get a truly authentic audio copy you'd have to get it straight from the source, which is music equipment, right?

Define authentic.

[hellboundzero]

Read the posts again, carefully this time. Especially the one by SmartOne about analogue transfers.

I guess what I ment to ask was, would it be better to use that SPC music box to load the .spc files and record what it puts out since it is using the Snes audio processor, than using an .spc emulator such as winamp to go from .spc to .wav? If so, I wouldn't mind making one of those myself and using it for snes games that that don't have a soundtrack on CD. Come to think of it it would kind of be like recording from digital to analog, or analog to digital.

[futaihikage]

The equipment in the SNES days was probably just a hexeditor.

OK, so SNES music was programmed into the game like a mod tracker?

Define authentic.

I guess I would define authentic as the digital audio information Square got off their equipment as they would have higher end audio processing gear at their disposal and handed it to who ever pressed their CDs.

[Andrew Dustill]

What about Goldeneye N64? The complete rip..
Have been searching for this baby some days, and the rips I found were lesser quality, or had missing tracks -_-

[kuro_tenshi]

What about Goldeneye N64? The complete rip..
Have been searching for this baby some days, and the rips I found were lesser quality, or had missing tracks -_-

Can i use this opportunity to request Goldeneye Reloaded together, Andrew???

[LiquidAcid]

I guess what I ment to ask was, would it be better to use that SPC music box to load the .spc files and record what it puts out since it is using the Snes audio processor, than using an .spc emulator such as winamp to go from .spc to .wav? If so, I wouldn't mind making one of those myself and using it for snes games that that don't have a soundtrack on CD. Come to think of it it would kind of be like recording from digital to analog, or analog to digital.

And that's all answered in SmartOne's post, again here: [Hidden link. Register to see links.]

OK, so SNES music was programmed into the game like a mod tracker?

Uhm, is this a serious question? You might want to read these articles:
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]

I guess I would define authentic as the digital audio information Square got off their equipment as they would have higher end audio processing gear at their disposal and handed it to who ever pressed their CDs.

Ever listened to the Capcom Music Generation Rockman X1~6 boxset? That could be (and probably is) a simple line-in rip of the soundtest of the games. So no real magic involved here.

Anyway, this definition of authentic is flawed nonetheless. Let's take a newer console as example, e.g. NDS and the game Okamiden. Okamiden has a regular (retail) soundtrack release, which I would very much call authentic. However the soundtrack contains the tracks in the form before they were converted into a version suitable for the NDS synth. Technically the aforementioned album is not a soundtrack, at least not a soundtrack for that particular game (since the ingame music is different from what's on the album). Does that make the (native) SSEQ files inside the DS rom less "authentic". I don't think so.

[futaihikage]

Uhm, is this a serious question? You might want to read these articles:
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]
[Hidden link. Register to see links.]

Yes, that was a serious question, as you can see I'm not well versed in game music programming / sound engineering, but I have messed around with [Hidden link. Register to see links.] some years ago and when the discussion turned from posting lossless files to the conversion SPC files, I was just trying to see if they worked a similar fashion, so I could understand the discussion from my point of view and they do, from the articles you gave me. MOD files and SPC files both use pre-recorded voices or samples, you used some kind of editor to create patterns for recorded samples.

Ever listened to the Capcom Music Generation Rockman X1~6 boxset? That could be (and probably is) a simple line-in rip of the soundtest of the games. So no real magic involved here.

Anyway, this definition of authentic is flawed nonetheless. Let's take a newer console as example, e.g. NDS and the game Okamiden. Okamiden has a regular (retail) soundtrack release, which I would very much call authentic. However the soundtrack contains the tracks in the form before they were converted into a version suitable for the NDS synth. Technically the aforementioned album is not a soundtrack, at least not a soundtrack for that particular game (since the ingame music is different from what's on the album). Does that make the (native) SSEQ files inside the DS rom less "authentic". I don't think so.

Yeah, I've listened to the Rockman X1~6 boxset, I see your point, that it could simply be line rip.

From what I understood about the conversation regarding the ripping or converting SPCs, there was talk about the existence or non-existence of problems that emulation may or may not produce and also was discussed whether digital to analog conversion would produce artifacts when trying to make a proper lossless rip. That's why I mentioned a digital audio copy from the maker of the game and handing digital tracks to the maker of the CDs being "authenticate". I was hoping it wasn't just a line rip, that there would have been some kind of optical or digital signaling cable involved. If that was the case there would be less chance of any of the above mentioned problems being a factor when creating the CDs. Well, unless something goes wrong when the disc is actually being made. That was my idea of an "authentic" reproduction of the SNES game sounds. I do understand that there is a some downward conversion involved to get what the artist created down to whats actually playable on a cartridge, which is probably why you mentioned the Okamiden game and its music, am I right?

[UltimatePaladin]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Game rip?

[alc123]

I was hoping it wasn't just a line rip, that there would have been some kind of optical or digital signaling cable involved.

As I mentioned before, this is possible with the SNES, as the SPC700 can be tapped for S/PDIF. I don't know if anyone's taken the time to produce soundtracks this way, but they would be "perfect" in that there would be no analogue phase so nothing lost.

You're also actually not that far off base with the mod/tracker question, the SNES was one of the first consoles to have a development environment where you didn't need to be an engineer to make music (the dev kit could be controlled via MIDI, I can't remember further details but there are interviews out there that cover this).

[LiquidAcid]

From what I understood about the conversation regarding the ripping or converting SPCs, there was talk about the existence or non-existence of problems that emulation may or may not produce and also was discussed whether digital to analog conversion would produce artifacts when trying to make a proper lossless rip.

(1) Like already pointed out by me, the snes_spc code (written by blargg) is as accurate as it can be (cycle-accuracy). AFAIK you can't emulate a piece of hardware more precisely than that. alc123 might want to comment on that.
(2) We don't have to discuss ADC/DAC here. Conversion between the two domains are always lossy, period.

That's why I mentioned a digital audio copy from the maker of the game and handing digital tracks to the maker of the CDs being "authenticate".

That's a lot of guesswork about a process we don't know nothing about. Do we know that the composer wrote the music with real instruments first? Maybe he directly programmed the music into the correspondong SPC machine code (which would make him also sound programmer)? We just don't know these details for most of the music from the SNES era.

I was hoping it wasn't just a line rip, that there would have been some kind of optical or digital signaling cable involved.

Like alc123 pointed out, this is certainly possible and would yield a accurate digital copy. The main argument against this is, that this severely blows up the size of the media. Speaking in terms of module (MOD) formats, that's rendering a MOD to a waveform with certain parameters (loop count, etc.) set. Poeple than usually also apply some filters, resample the output to 44.1kHz and whatnot. The result is one possible interpretation of the original source.

I do understand that there is a some downward conversion involved to get what the artist created down to whats actually playable on a cartridge, which is probably why you mentioned the Okamiden game and its music, am I right?

I just wanted to point out that the "original source" of a piece of game music doesn't have to be what we think it is. In fact it might not be known at all. Or the "original source" might be largely different from the piece found on the catridge. Take for example the Sonic 1 & 2 album which was released in 2011. The nice thing about the album is, that it gives us a deep insight about that happened between the actual music composition and the transfer to the Genesis synth. Again the question: What is authentic here? The version of the music used ingame, or the original demos by Nakamura?

[WolfSoul79]

• Dear Snkhero.
• Please re-upload this OST: The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Original Soundtrack [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

---------- Post added at 01:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 AM ----------

• Dear Jessie.
• Please re-upload this OST: X-Men: Children of the Atom Arcade Gametrack [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

---------- Post added at 01:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:43 AM ----------

• Dear yasunori kato.
• Please re-upload this OST: Konami MSX Super Best Antiques [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

---------- Post added at 01:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 AM ----------

• Dear Executable.
• Please re-upload this OST: Parasite Eve I & II Original Soundtrack BOX [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

---------- Post added at 02:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 AM ----------

• Dear bakabakabaka.
• Please re-upload this OST: Street Fighter EX2 [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

---------- Post added at 02:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 AM ----------

• Dear MiLØ.
• Please re-upload this OST: Segacon -The Best of Sega Game Music- Vol.2 [Hidden link. Register to see links.] not active.
• THX!!!

[Neo_Chip]

Purchased beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle, can't wait W00t!