High Quality GBA OSTs (Technically...)

That still didn't work. It'd be really helpful if anyone here could upload footage of this working, preferably on YouTube. It'll happen eventually, I'm sure, but I just can't figure this out.

 

I added links to MP3 and FLAC packs of the MOTHER 3 set (via BitTorrent) over on Starmen.net. Here's the link to the thread again so you don't have to search for it.

 

Can I just say that this is the coolest thing ever? Especially because of the soundfonts. I can make Sonic Advance-style rearrangements now! :v:

 

Am I led to believe that the higher quality sound from these midi files is what the music sounds like before the Gameboy Advance processes the music into an outputted form, via speaker or audio jack?
I've given some of them a listen and most of them sound higher quality in regards to samples and audio effects (such as Secret Base 1 from Sonic Advance which has an echo effect I've never heard before) and the drums are a lot clearer and cleaner.
I am also curious to know whether this occurs on all GBA models (such as the SP and the Micro) or whether it's a model exclusive problem.

 

I believe that, sadly, it happens in all models, Game Boy Player and Virtual Console included.

EDIT: Also in emulators.


EDIT 2: Doesn't the SNES do the same kind of prior downsampling, albeit in a not-as-excessive way? I remember there being an old SPC player with an option to play the music in a similar quality (much better than in emulators).

 

Don't the GBA (and by extension, Nintendo DS) platforms require the filtering due to how PWM works? Something about there being excessive whining if you don't filter it out (which has the side effect, of course, with distorting all the outputted sound). I'm not an expert, though.

Either way, much more justified than the SNES filtering.

 

Yes, PWM works by filtering - unfiltered PWM sounds horrible! The filter needs to be tailored to the expected range of audio output... too low a center pole and you get muffled audio, wasting high sample rate sounds; too high and the whine is noticeable at higher sample rates. Remember that PWM output is a square wave - a decent square wave requires the fundamental frequency and at least two harmonics (the third and fifth). It's those harmonics that result in the whine, particularly the third. Say you wish for "CD Quality" output - that means you want 44kHz sample rates, so you set your filter there. But what about the third harmonic? At a 44kHz sample rate, it's not a problem, but as you go lower on the sample rate, it becomes more of an issue. Given that 44kHz filter, at 14.7kHz, the third harmonic is 44kHz, and therefore passes through the filter. Clearly, you want to use higher sample rates so that third harmonic is suppressed by the filter to an extent as to be virtually unheard. Now consider that on the 32X, at 11kHz, a nasty whine is heard on all units, and at 14kHz, a few people report hearing a whine. So what does that tell you about the 32X filter?

By the way, how do we get that a 44kHz sample rate corresponds to 44kHz frequency? Doesn't PWM vary the duty cycle of the square wave? Yes, but consider a section of silence - on PWM, that's a duty cycle of 50%. That gives a perfect 44kHz square wave at a 44kHz sample rate. Audible sounds then modulate around that fundamental frequency, but the fundamental frequency is still 44kHz.

Anywho, I think the primary source of "muffling" on the SNES is the compression of the audio. Remember that SNES samples use 32:9 compression. Compression nearly always kills the high frequencies in whatever is being compressed. However, with only 64KB of sound ram, compression was called for.

 

Wow Mega Man & Bass sounds incredible. :D However Sonic Advance 3 sounds too squeaky IMO, and I prefer the GBA sound quality. I know it's been requested already, but how's it going with ripping music from the GBA Pokemon games?

 

Been going through these now. The sound effects that were consequently ripped with all the music is going to be immeasurably useful. Not only do I now have all Sonic Advance sound effects, but in unrivaled quality. That and sounds for all of these other games. It almost forces me to work on something just for being able to use these new sounds.
On top of that, I'm going to have a lot of fun playing with all the soundfonts by themselves, which on their own are incredibly useful.

 

Which reminds me. I was going through them and found a bunch of Chao voice clips. Something from multiplayer (which I never got to play) or scrapped content from the Tiny Chao Garden?

 

Where can I grab those soundfonts?

 

Just for fun, playing Wart's theme from SMA with the LttP Soundfont sounds pretty cool.

Ice Mountain 1 in Kirby Amazing Mirror Soundfont sounds pretty good too.

 

Crap, both Minish Cap sets crash Foobar2000 for me.

 

I took a look at the Mother 1+2 set you put up for download and some of the MIDI files weren't playing the proper instruments. I tried extracting it myself, and discovered that it's probably best to use the -sb flag to separate the sample banks. Sometimes different samples are applied to the same patch number in different banks, and compiling them all to one soundfont means some samples get excluded and some songs won't play right. Thankfully it extracts to individual folders with each folder containing the soundfont and all MIDI files that use it.

 

Could you add the stuff I ripped as well for convenience? I feel like people are gonna miss my posts once this thread gets longer :v:

EDIT: Also, Here's a fixed rip of Mega Man Zero using -sb.

 

Hmm, so ripping with -sb should be the way to go, just in case?


By the way, for those who haven't noticed, you can set all these to loop just like the original tracks by activating the loop detection, in Foobar2000's MIDI options.



EDIT:
I was wondering, does this ripping process actually convert some foreign music data into MIDI format, or is it just decompressing standard MIDIs that are already present in the ROM (and building their soundfonts)?

I know that at least Wario Ware uses standard uncompressed MIDIs for its music, so I'm curious about this.

 

Personally, I'd use both -sb and -rc. -rc ensures channel 10 is avoided since General MIDI uses it exclusively for drums and drum kit patches are handled differently than regular instrument patches in soundfonts. Some MIDI players might have a way around this, but I like to be safe just in case. (I have a Sound Blaster card which natively supports soundfonts and lets me use any MIDI player I want for playback, including novelty players like Synthesia.)

 

How many GBA games use non-Sappy formats? Is it really the 1-10% that I imagine?
No idea how common tracker format(s) would be in the non-Sappy percentage.

That said, I'm all but certain Atari/Webfoot's DragonBall Z games use the Impulse Tracker format. Less sure of how to go about ripping such audio.

 

Could somebody post the fixed Mother 1+2 set, pretty please?