How to extract video game soundtracks from CDs??

[Deepak]

As almost all soundtrack are in some custom format!!! Is there any program which can convert them is mp3....?

Btw, I could somehow convert/copy soundtrack from Vrally2 (DC)/UT (DC) and some more games even when they were in some custom format!

For exp I want to extract SH2 (PC) soundtracks (beautiful!) from CD...is there any way out??

 

[Ozymandis]

I usually just output the sound to my computer and record it to wav, and then convert to mp3. It's time-consuming, but AFAIK there's no easy way to do it by converting the actual files on the game discs

It took me several hours to record and encode the soundtrack of Phantom Crash

 

[zurich]

It took me a month searching everyday to track down the majority of the Rez soundtrack Wish there was an easier way.. (btw the remixes rule)

 

[Deepak]

I usually just output the sound to my computer and record it to wav, and then convert to mp3. It's time-consuming, but AFAIK there's no easy way to do it by converting the actual files on the game discs

It took me several hours to record and encode the soundtrack of Phantom Crash

How do you do it???

Can you explain the procedure?

 

[zurich]

Buy an RCA-to-stereo adapter (or have a sound card with an optical spdif line in [for PS2/xbox]). Plug it into the line in on your sound card.. open up wav recorder, play whatever on the console, sound comes to your PC, hit record. Encode the .wav file to MP3, voila.

Quality is somewhat crap, unless you use the spdif...

 

[Deepak]

my nforce mobo has spdif output!

 

[zurich]

my nforce mobo has spdif output!

Too bad you need spdif input

no big, just fire up Kazaa, I got the entire SH2 soundtrack in a few hours.

edit: oh, you're talking PC SH2.. wouldn't know how to do that, unless the music is stored in an obscure directory on the CD or HD.. as I said, just download 'em.

 

[Deepak]

if I try to download tracks....I will have to commit suicide when I receive bills from my ISP ....btw I dont remember if my mobo has spdif input or output!!!

 

[ChryZ]

How about buying those soundtracks on CD? SH2 and Rez are available:

Rez, THIRD-EAR/Musicmine (an imprint of Universal/Victor), 2730 yen
SH2, ASIN: B00005NO3D, 2427 yen

Many more are available via import ...

 

[Ozymandis]

Quality is somewhat crap, unless you use the spdif...

I wouldn't say that regular stereo output through RCA/minijack is "crap" as far as recording game music goes... it's not as good as if you just ripped from the OST CD or game itself but if you know what you're doing it can still turn out well

 

[Reznor007]

http://lfx.org/~corlett/psf/

That is for PS1 games. It emulates the CPU and SPU enough to produce the music pretty much identical to the original. It's somewhat hard to rip the music, as you have to know R3000 assembly enough to find the music code. I don't know of any players for the newer systems though.

There is also the SPC sound format for SNES games, NSF for NES, and GYM for Genesis(a better format is being worked on). You can find players and music files at www.zophar.net

Also, for arcade music go to www.emuhype.com and download M1, the arcade music player. It currently supports over 700 games, and a new version is to be released soon.

 

[Deepak]

I was trying my old PSX cds....I found that all music files are in .XA format and all FMV movies are in .str format....is there any way to convert...

XA-->mp3
str-->mpeg

 

[Reznor007]

Look on www.zophar.net under media players or something. There are several .xa audio players, and .str video players.

 

[London Geezer]

slightly off-topic... but believe it or not, this is what my former french teacher does to record on tapes:

-put the CD on
-play the CD
-take a microphone
-put the microphone near the speakers
-record the sound on a tape as it comes out of the speakers....

and she was surprised when my friends and i told her she was nuts for doing such a stupid thing......

 

[DeanoC]

As almost all soundtrack are in some custom format!!! Is there any program which can convert them is mp3....?

Btw, I could somehow convert/copy soundtrack from Vrally2 (DC)/UT (DC) and some more games even when they were in some custom format!

For exp I want to extract SH2 (PC) soundtracks (beautiful!) from CD...is there any way out??

First their is legal issues, that I won't get into but it may be illegal to extract the sound tracks from games. Just so everybody knows and understands the dubious legality of what your attempting. Obviously I can't recommand you do anything illegal.

With SH2PC, the first obvious but expensive option is to buy it. It was sold in Japan (at least). For most of the develpment we were hoping to ship the audio CD with SH2PC but due to contract reasons we couldn't. As a standard AudioCD there may be 'alternative' sources (I'm sure you can guess where to get mp3's from).

There is no easy way of extracting the in-game audio, without physically rerecording. The SH2PC soundtrack is stored in a custom format that goes with the CRI middleware we used for the sound system (unless you have access to CRI sound tools, which I doubt you will have you won't be able to extract the audio). But the movie audio is a bit different, if I tell you that all movies are stored in Bink format (some with muilti-track audio), which is a public format (tools are on the net for manipulating), you may get some mileage.

And yes I have had them in wave format and no I can't distrubute them.

 

[Deepak]

And yes I have had them in wave format and no I can't distrubute them.

not to mention the zumbo size of wav files!

Btw, I am surprised that we have such music composers in video games

 

[Deepak]

But the movie audio is a bit different, if I tell you that all movies are stored in Bink format (some with muilti-track audio), which is a public format (tools are on the net for manipulating), you may get some mileage.

And yes I have had them in wave format and no I can't distrubute them.

I ve been able to convert movie audios in mp3....I first converted them into wav format using Bink RAD Video Tools and then used FreeRIP to convert them into mp3.....all soundtracks are gr8....

btw I saw DOG ending....pretty funny....with James showing Arnold Swarznneger style biceps.. and it end with MAria in a sexy BIKINI...