ChanServ changed the topic of ##yamahasynths to: Channel dedicated to questions and discussion of Yamaha FM Synthesizer internals and corresponding REing. Discussion of synthesis methods similar to the Yamaha line of chips, Sound Blasters + clones, PCM chips like RF5C68, and CD theory of operation are also on-topic. Channel logs: https://freenode.irclog.whitequark.org/~h~yamahasynths
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<ValleyBell>
cr1901_modern: You can also use NewRisingSun's DOSBox VGM mod
<ValleyBell>
This way you get higher accuracy logs (44100 Hz instead of 1000 Hz resolution) and you can skip the dro2vgm conversion.
<ValleyBell>
There is also a series of VGM ripping tutorials on SMSPower. On vgmrips we have slightly different rules at a few spots though. https://www.smspower.org/Music/HowToMakeVGMs
<ValleyBell>
The SMSPower tutorials are very detailed and often fill in gaps that the other tutorials don't explain.
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<cr1901_modern>
ValleyBell: Tyvm, making an acct to see the forum post
<cr1901_modern>
Ahhh cool, there's a chatbox widget for #vgmrips IRC channel on another network
<cr1901_modern>
I recognize a few names
<cr1901_modern>
superctr_: Why are things like mdx2vgm not allowed? Just curious
<cr1901_modern>
(Submission rules post)
<cr1901_modern>
This is an interesting constraint for Kyrandia, since AFAICT it doesn't have a sound test
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: ^When you're around, can you confirm?
<cr1901_modern>
So I have to play the ADL files in a player that understands ADL _written for DOS_ to get the music w/o SFX playing, and log that.
<cr1901_modern>
Converting the ADL files to VGM would be easier (in principle- a converter doesn't exist)
<cr1901_modern>
ValleyBell: The DOSbox-VGM binary provided does not work on my system. Complains about missing SDL_net, but when I download _either_ SDL_net.dll or SDL2_net.dll
<cr1901_modern>
it fails to run with 0xc000007b (invalid image format), complaining about mixed DLLs
<cr1901_modern>
(meaning I tried both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions)
<cr1901_modern>
Okay I fixed it... wrong copy of SDL was being picked up
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<cr1901_modern>
Aaand RDOSPLAY can't find the sound card with DOSBOX-VGM. Great.
<cr1901_modern>
(manually specifying port works)
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<cr1901_modern>
Okay last q for now... why can't vgm_trim autodetect silence at the beginning of the capture? dosbox-x avoids this problem by capturing each program individually
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<superctr_>
cr1901_modern, we don't allow converters because we want rips to be generated using an emulator using the original code
<superctr_>
we would probably allow VGM rips done with real hardware (with bus snooping), but tbh that is really hard to do
<cr1901_modern>
Is there a quick way to trim the beginning of a file without needing to load it into audacity?
<cr1901_modern>
ack re: converters
<superctr_>
also, many MDX rips were in fact converted from other sound formats, introducing possible inaccuracies in the process of converting them to MDX in the first place
<superctr_>
cr1901_modern, you can do "vgm_trim myfile.vgm <samples to trim> -2 -1"
<superctr_>
this keeps the loop and end positions intact
<cr1901_modern>
right, I don't know the number of samples to trim
<superctr_>
but it's probably best to check the first few seconds with vgm2txt to make sure you don't miss any important reg writes and that you have an accurate starting point
<cr1901_modern>
and when I trim the first file I know loops, with vgmlpfind, the entire track is silent. No doubt because I took out the cmds to set up the channels. Oops
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<superctr_>
when using vgmlpfnd, make sure to always use the loop points marked with ! or f
<cr1901_modern>
If I trim a file w/o a loop, is it normal for vgmplay's progress bar to jump to like 13% immediately after I start playing?
<cr1901_modern>
Or did I trim the file incorrectly?
<cr1901_modern>
superctr_: What if I don't have a loop point marked with ! or f?
<cr1901_modern>
(I deliberately stopped the VGM before the second loop completed
<superctr_>
then vgmlpfnd can't guarantee that the loop point is OK
<superctr_>
you should log the full second loop for this reason too
<cr1901_modern>
Well at least I get to listen to good music while doing this
<superctr_>
if your emulator supports fast forward just use that
<ValleyBell>
cr1901_modern: In most cases with emulator VGM mods, I recommend to unpack (or install) the official distribution and just unpack the archive with the modded emulator over it.
<ValleyBell>
We don't always repack all the files
<ValleyBell>
For MAME I even used to make "EXE only" and "additional data" packages.
<ValleyBell>
In order to trim silence off from the beginning, I usually just make a vgm2txt and look for "Wait: XX samples" lines with larger values.
<ValleyBell>
i.e. something like 500 ms or more
<cr1901_modern>
yes, I figured out that trick and wrote a script
<cr1901_modern>
As long as vgmlpfind works, there seems to be a way to almost completely automate this
<cr1901_modern>
(but there's still a lot of VGMs to convert)
<ValleyBell>
As ctr already said, the "no converter" rule is to prevent "cheap" VGM rips with converters that possibly screw stuff up.
<ValleyBell>
(There are some exceptions - for example NewRisingSun's CMF2VGM tool would be allowed, because it uses the original SBFMDRV.COM executable to do the playback.)
<ValleyBell>
vgmlpfnd often doesn't work, btw.
<ValleyBell>
As soon as dynamic channel allocation or software envelopes come into play, it fails to find any loop at all.
<cr1901_modern>
It's working so far, thankfully
<cr1901_modern>
aaargh, RDOSPLAY loses sync with one of the tunes so the two channels that are supposed to be playing at the same time slowly drift further apart
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<ValleyBell>
cr1901_modern: Are you sure that RDOSPLAY isn't just a player that attempts to play the original files by reverse-engineering the sound format?
<ValleyBell>
Those hacking notes were written by Doommaster1994. He is not someone who REs stuff.
<ValleyBell>
I RE'd just enough parts of the format for him to allow him to swap ingame songs.
<cr1901_modern>
ahhh okay, well, that's fine
<whitequark>
cr1901_modern: absolutely no idea re sound test, i never even thought that it would be a thing
<cr1901_modern>
Ack. I'm gonna have to do some mild RE to create this pack. ValleyBell did most of the work for me.
<whitequark>
cool!
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: I tried using an OPL2 player for DOS that understands the music format that Kyrandia uses, but for at least one song the player's channels go out of sync after each loop. >>
<cr1901_modern>
On another captured VGM, the loop detector doesn't detect a loop at all even though it's obvious where the loop is from listening.
<cr1901_modern>
I hope it's b/c the player doesn't parse the music format properly whereas the game engine actually does
<cr1901_modern>
(game enginer sound driver*)
<whitequark>
ah
<cr1901_modern>
First thing to try: Change the music playing during the intro... if I can change the file that's loaded as well as the track that's played, I can get all the music in the game to play during the intro
<cr1901_modern>
and record/trim the leading silence from that