[Lanzer]

I've been holding off on this topic because I really didn't want to sound like I wanted a handout just some help as in information. But if your a gameripper or audio buff whos bored and got time to kill, I wouldn't mind if you want to lend your services in this little personal project. Just don't want you to feel like I'm using you guys . Ok now that is out of the way...btw, this post is long.

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Lately, I've been in a "completionist" mood with my sonic OSTs, I think its because of SEGA's so-called "20th anniversary" OSTs and how there soo horribly butchered compared to their originals. My intention is to complete the original OSTs by adding tracks that got cut, changed from their game versions, or small stuff like jingles and so forth. Maybe even rare stuff like vocal demos and beta tracks from demos/protos.

I'm starting with SA1 since well the Retro OSV project is covering everything else retro and henceforth. I found out that sometime ago during my ventures on S0nicfreak's tracker/Soniconthe.net, I downloaded a "Sonic Adventure Unreleased Tracks" by a "Reichu/RKC" which did help greatly in my hunt. everything was very through and treated with OST quality so I had to do very little work with this.

Heres what I have so far in my SA1 set:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/gzmvi6

I have renamed and re-ID3 tagged the files based on what my OST is like so it may not completely match what you have. I want to know if I'm missing anything more from SA1/DX? I also want to know if theres any changed or beta tracks from the E3 trial (SA1), Limited Edition (SA1), And the Preview & Review (DX) copies?

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I started SA2 as well but its becoming very tricky. Thanks to SOAH I found some tracks but not all. Again, during my ventures on S0nicfreak's tracker/Soniconthe.net, I downloaded a "Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Raw Gamerip" by a "Bomb Bloke" (if you guys are curious about it btw) but this is a raw gamerip like just converted from their .adx counterparts no names have been changed or anything. After reviewing each track I complied the tracks of what I think are not in the OST:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TRKSF0B3

Now heres where I need the real help.

~First, Anybody who really knows SA2/Battle like the back of their hand if they could help me identify those tracks I put in that one folder? I left a .txt file you could use or you can just tell me here whatever you feel like. Its mostly chao garden tracks so if you dicked around allot in that you should know these.
~Second, I like to learn how to loop tracks esp. the ones I labeled in the other folder. if its possible to find a idiots guide/easy tutorial I can follow that would be great. if not, just explain it here but dumb it down a bit since I'm new to this.
~Third, I want to know if theres anyway to up the audio quality of these raw rips? I like a at least 128kbits/s by 48khz standard with all of my tracks but these raw tracks are 96kbits/s by 32khz. if it isn't possible, I would like to know how to rip gamecube and dreamcast raw audio off the disk. I need to know how to do this anyways if I want to continue with any other games. again, dumb it down so I know how to do this.

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Really thanks again Retro for your help with this personal project.

[dsrb]

Sorry I can't offer much help, but I noticed a couple of things.

I'm starting with SA1 since well the Retro OSV project is covering everything else retro and henceforth.

The OSVs are by no means perfect. Some of them have issues such as the drums being too quiet, etc. I recall reading some previous discussion on this, but I don't think much was done in the end.

~Third, I want to know if theres anyway to up the audio quality of these raw rips? I like a at least 128kbits/s by 48khz standard with all of my tracks but these raw tracks are 96kbits/s by 32khz.

What do you mean by ‘raw rips' Where are you recording from? A console? An emulator? And 48 kHz isn't used a fraction as often as 44.1 kHz (the CDDA standard).

[Herm the Germ]

I may not be of much help, but, as for upping the quality, I am fairly certain the ADX-files found in SA2 were 32000 Hz to begin with, so, it wouldn't really change anything to convert or rip them at a higher frequency, afaik.

[Lanzer]

I may not be of much help, but, as for upping the quality, I am fairly certain the ADX-files found in SA2 were 32000 Hz to begin with, so, it wouldn't really change anything to convert or rip them at a higher frequency, afaik.

Ah ok is SA2B the same? I'm guessing yes since its overall a stright port. so even if I re-extracted the entire set the quality would still be the same?

Oh well then, just kind of bugs me I can't get these in a higher quality.

Sorry I can't offer much help, but I noticed a couple of things.

The OSVs are by no means perfect. Some of them have issues such as the drums being too quiet, etc. I recall reading some previous discussion on this, but I don't think much was done in the end.

What do you mean by ‘raw rips' Where are you recording from? A console? An emulator? And 48 kHz isn't used a fraction as often as 44.1 kHz (the CDDA standard).

Oh I know about the OSV project having to re-record some sets of music due to crap emulation at the time. Hopefully soon it will be worked on again.

This is what I ment:

Again, during my ventures on S0nicfreak's tracker/Soniconthe.net, I downloaded a "Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Raw Gamerip" by a "Bomb Bloke" (if you guys are curious about it btw) but this is a raw gamerip like just converted from their .adx counterparts no names have been changed or anything.

There "raw" as in extracted from the game itself via some extraction tool and converted from .adx into .mp3 format but not much else work was done on them.

[dsrb]

Ah, well—in that case, the only way to improve the quality would be to obtain the original ADX files and re-encode them yourself at a higher MP3 bitrate. Neither Bomb Bloke's nor your files would benefit from increasing the sample rate (or bit depth) beyond that of the source files.

[Lanzer]

Ah, well—in that case, the only way to improve the quality would be to obtain the original ADX files and re-encode them yourself at a higher MP3 bitrate. Neither Bomb Bloke's nor your files would benefit from increasing the sample rate (or bit depth) beyond that of the source files.

Ok then, Re-extraction it is!

How would I go about doing this? I have both SA2 and SA2B. I would like to know how to do both gamecube and dreamcast extraction.

This post has been edited by Lanzer: 12 June 2011 - 12:10 PM

[dsrb]

I'm sure those in with experience can provide far better answers, but I imagine you have to get the ADX files off the discs/out of the disc images and then convert them to a regular format using a program such as this (no prizes for deducing I didn't search too hard!).

[Lanzer]

That program looks pretty basic, does it work good?

Now the problem being is how do I extract off both gamecube and dreamcast discs?...

[dsrb]

As I heavily implied, I have no idea! There are probably better programs and methods. Surely someone else here has knowledge about this.

[Alexbt]

Sorry, I've only skimmed this topic so far, but if you want to do this the right way, I must highly suggest using the best sources available.

That said -- if you're focusing on Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, I believe both soundtracks were officially released on CD. I may even still have them somewhere, but I can't vouch for quality of the encoding.

I think this is what you really want, and in theory would probably be superior to anything you might rip from the game that needs to be looped or is encoded at a lower standard.

There is no way to upconvert audio and gain anything. It's just like taking a small JPEG and trying to blow it up. You can't increase resolution on something that's not there.

Furthermore, I have to feel a bit of guilt as I look at the OSV page and see my name on there promising to do hardware rips for Genesis games. I remember starting this years ago but I never finished. I wonder how far I got and if I even finished.

The point here is that many emulators do not properly emulate or mix Genesis audio properly -- the best way I found is to get a Genesis with RCA audio connectors and go direct into a good quality soundcard and record at level... then maybe do some light mastering to get everything up to a normalized level. Maybe some day I'll actually pull out the Genesis and do this!

[dsrb]

Then there are things like TmEE's clear audio mod or whatever it was called. I dunno; wouldn't something like Kega or Regen be so accurate by now that it would be (almost) as good and a heck of a lot easier?

[Alexbt]

I'd have to A/B them, but I feel like the actual thing is going to produce the best possible result.

[Breeze]

That said -- if you're focusing on Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, I believe both soundtracks were officially released on CD. I may even still have them somewhere, but I can't vouch for quality of the encoding.

I think this is what you really want, and in theory would probably be superior to anything you might rip from the game that needs to be looped or is encoded at a lower standard.

Definitely. The official soundtracks are gonna have way better quality.

I have the Sonic Adventure OST, the Songs With Attitude Vocal mini-Album, and The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs. I was comparing each album's version of "Open Your Heart" and noticed that each one is actually mixed differently (with the exception of Super Sonic Songs, as it tells you that it's a new mix). If it's just a different mix, you might not care to add them to your personal OST. But since you said your intention is to add tracks that got changed from their game versions, it might be worth your time to check out songs that got released on multiple albums. Also, don't forget to snag Jun Senoue's demo of "Open Your Heart" where he actually performed the vocals

That brings it four different versions of that song. Five if you count the gamerip.

You also might be interested in this: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CLJBZQ45

It's mostly just the boost versions of the level tracks in Unleashed. But it does have one thing worth noting–Windmill Isle Act 1, from the 360/PS3 version, which wasn't included in Planetary Pieces. It was ripped from the 360 ISO by a guy at the FF Shrine forums.

EDIT: I found this quote by SoA of the Jun Senoue forums.

When Jun was writing and recording music for Sonic Adventure, he was using the old analogue tapes system. The same is true of the Sons of Angels album. To be able to do anything with the tracks, he has to have them converted to a digital Pro-Tools system, which costs a lot of money and studio time. There are a few Crush 40 tracks that have been converted (Open Your Heart, Live and Learn and Watch Me Fly), but there was more of a good reason to spend the money to do so and the chance the songs would appear again and again. The same really can't be said for the Sonic Adventure soundtrack, unfortunately. Especially the instrumentals.

So I guess there are only a few songs that have been remastered

This post has been edited by Breeze: 19 June 2011 - 08:54 PM

[Lanzer]

Ooook, I'll give you the short version. I kind of knew typing that long first post would leave people skipping it:

I already have the original soundtracks.

My goal is to expand on the original soundtracks by adding tracks that are not in the original soundtrack.

My SA1 soundtrack feels complete, but I want you to check my unreleased SA1 tracks and see if I'm missing anything.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/gzmvi6

I need to know what tracks are these here.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TRKSF0B3

And since my tracks for SA2 are in low quality, I'm looking to re-rip the audio from the GC version BUT I want to learn how to rip audio from the DC version as well. I need a tool that rips .adx files from the GC games and can convert them into HQ .mp3s.

I also want to learn how to loop tracks.

There, now your cought up. didn't mean to confuse you all, I just can't tl;dr it sometimes.

This post has been edited by Lanzer: 19 June 2011 - 10:17 PM