The Official Emulation Audio Thread
 

What the heck. I figured it was time to revive this thread from before the crash, and since no one has made a replacement thread yet and since so many people still don't know....

Video games which play their music via a console's synthesizer can be stored in an emulation audio format. Think of these files as MIDI files playing back from a custom sound card. Currently, most emulation formats for these synthesized, or sequenced, songs, do so quite accurately, to a point where it may not be feasible (in consideration to bandwidth) to download a high-quality MP3 or lossless rip of a game's soundtrack if you can download the emulated songs for far less space.

I'm just going to list the major formats, the "best" source for getting files, and the "best" players. (Note: If I screwed up by listing something which isn't "best", or if you have something better, feel free to tell me so.)

All-in-one Emulated Music Player for Windows: http://www.chipamp.org/
If you don't want to manage a plugin for each console, this is for you.


Recommended Formats and Sources:
NSFe (for NES games) [Also See Below: NSF]
Music:
Slick Productions
Player:
NotSoFatso (Winamp plugin)
foo_gep (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac)

GBS (for Game Boy (Color) games)
Music:
Zophar's GBS Archive
kingshriek's rip page
Drag's Site
Player:
NEZPlug (Winamp plugin)
Meridian Advance (stand-alone program)
Audio Overload (Mac)

SPC (for SNES games)
Music:
SNESMusic v2
Player:
SNESAmp (Winamp and XMPlay plugin)
foo_gep (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac)

VGM (for Genesis/Mega Drive/Master System/Game Gear games)
Music:
Project 2612
SMS Power VGM Archive
Player:
in_vgm (Winamp and XMPlay plugin)
foo_gep (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac)

USF (for Nintendo 64 games)
Music:
USF Central
Player:
64th Note (Winamp plugin)

GSF (for Game Boy Advance games)
Music:
GSF Central
Player:
Highly Advanced (Winamp plugin)

PSF/PSF2 (for PlayStation/PS2 games)
Music:
Oddigy's PSF Archive
CaitSith2's PSF Mirror
plonk420's Pad
Lawrence Lin's PSF Mirror
Zophar's PSF Archive
Player:
Highly Experimental (Winamp plugin)
foo_psf (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac) (only supports PSF, not PSF2)

SID (for Commodore 64 games)
Music:
The High Voltage SID Collection (massive archive of SIDs)
Lemon (allows search and individual downloads of SIDS in the HVSC)
Player:
foo_sid (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
SIDPLAY (Mac)

HES (for TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine games)
Music:
Zophar's HES Archive
kingshriek's rip page
HES Music Archive
Player:
NEZPlug (Winamp plugin)
foo_gep (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac)

Not Recommended / Outdated Formats:
NSF (for NES games)
The NSF format is slowly being replaced by the NSFe format, since NSFe supports tags and times which NSF lacks. (see above) However, since there are still tons of NSF's which haven't been expanded into NSFe's, detailed links are listed.
Music:
Zophar's NSF Archive
kingshriek's rip page
Player:
NotSoFatso (Winamp plugin)
NEZPlug (Winamp plugin)
foo_gep (Foobar2000 0.9 plugin)
Audio Overload (Mac)

GYM (for Genesis games): The GYM format is infamously inaccurate in its reproduction of instrumentation. It is currently being replaced by the VGM format. (see above)



For the latest news on the emulated music community based on the PSF format (including USF and GSF), check out PSF Rippers at Yahoo! Groups. For anything else, just comment here.

Hmm, I talked briefly with Colonel Skills about this thread a while back, and how the thread before the crash was awesome, but I never did anything about it. :\

First off, there's a lack of Mac players in that list. Audio Overload will play all those formats except USF and PSF2 (and it doesn't play PSFs very well). We also have PSFPlay, which might be a little better, but hasn't been updated in ages.

I know you want to list the "best" sites, but Zophar is never updated, so here are a few places that actually DO get new soundtracks everyone once in a while, but don't have the same collection that Zophar does. Do with them what you will:

NSF
Music: kingshriek's rip page

NSFe (extended NSF format allowing more information)
Music: Slick Productions
Players: NotSo Fatso (WinAmp plugin), Audio Overload (Mac)

GBS
Music: kingshriek's rip page

VGM is also the format for Sega Master System/Game Gear soundtracks. So,

VGM
Music: SMS Power

The same players should work with SMS/GG VGMs too (although I might be mistaken about the Windows side).

And some additions for you to consider. I can't offer Windows counterparts to the programs, though. :(

SID (for Commodore 64 games)
Music: The High Voltage SID Collection (massive archive of SIDs), Lemon (allows search and individual downloads of SIDS in the HVSC)
Player: SIDPLAY (Mac)

HES (for TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine games)
Music: Zophar's HES Archive, kingshriek's rip page, HES Music Archive
Player: Audio Overload (Mac)

how about gamecube emulation sound? is it available?

There's no emulated format, but the sound comes in different streamed formats: ADP, DSP, etc. It's possible to play these files with in_cube. I've never used it (there's no Mac version), so I don't know whether it also extracts the audio files from a Gamecube ISO or if you have to use another program to do that.

There's been some talk of making a sequenced format, but nothing concrete is planned, and there hasn't really been any substantial progress on the matter. There's also been talk of creating a container format for the GameCube streamed formats for tagging and timing purposes, but I don't believe that's being worked on either.

And yeah, I know Zophar is never updated, which is why I didn't list it when I had better sources. I'll go over the links I don't already have/know and modify the first post as needed.

for NES stuff, i'd stick with NSF. sure, NSFe is useful, but NSFs are more plentiful for now.

also, nsfplug is probably one of the better-sounding nsf plugins right now, and it has a keyboard view for playback!

I'm just saying that if someone is just starting, they may as well go with NSFe from the beginning. I left the NSF links there though, since I noticed that lots of great albums don't have tag and time information added yet (like Dragon Quest 2 and 3). Also, unless I'm mistaken, they DO play back the same way, right?

Can anyone tell me if Audio Overload is actually free(beer)/Free(speech)/OSS, or if Bannister pulled more of his trademark GPL-raping bullshit with it (see Emulator Enhancer)? I'm away from my Mac right now. Thanks.

Still free as in beer, as far as I know.

Audio Overload used to be free several years ago. Did he ever update that POS, or is it still running on that hideously outdated SNES9x core?

Also, more SID options exist for Windows than just Foobar. There's SIDplay2, which unfortunately only comes in standalone player form. There's also a new Winamp plugin, though I haven't tried it out myself.

I wish someone would come up with an alternative to just logging writes to the sound processor for Genesis music. It is a really crappy way of dumping music from games, since you can't loop anything and you still get stuck with the game sound effects.

AdLib: (An old PC sound board, many different formats for it.)
Player: AdPlug

Some tunes:
http://adlib.superfighter.com/

edit: And here's a good amount of AdLib tunes

---

Amiga: (Various music formats.)
Player: Deliplayer for windows users and UADE for UNIX/Linux users.

Hell of a lot of tunes:
http://www.exotica.org.uk

Sticky?

Yeah, would be nice if some mod or admin would sticky this thread.

By the way, this is the SID player I use.
sidplay2/w, it is standalone player but I like it more than some winamp/foobar plugin.

The USF Central link has changed and needs to be updated with this link here.

http://c9.servage.net/~sc19031-ZCPG/usf/

This site has a few GBS files, including Game & Watch Gallery 1-3.

http://drag.wootest.net/gbs/

HCS has finally found a permanent home. Updated site link.

http://hcs64.com/usf/

:edgarrock:

Is there a site that currently hosts the Gamecube emulation files, or at

least links to them? I've seen a couple so far that link to torrent sites.

I wish I had known about that site a few months ago. I was looking everywhere for rips of Kid Icarus (GB), Kirby's Block Ball, and Pokemon G/S/C. Ended up having to record the music myself.
At least now I can get the tracks I missed/couldn't record without sound effects.

Long-needed update to the first post.

Since nobody called me on it, I'm guessing few other people are aware. The VGM format really is a proper replacement for the old GYM format. I was pleasantly surprised. It's not just logging outputs - well it IS, but the format chains them together in a proper loop. Optimization makes the files a hell of a lot smaller than GYMs, too. The plugin's sound emulation has room for improvement, but that's forgiveable since it's relatively new.

I agree...recently I decided to check out the whole VGM craze and d/led the Earthworm Jim 2 set. The music goes at the correct speed in VGM, while it's sped up in the GYM version. Seriously, Lorenzen's Soil is supposed to be a slow steady beat, not something rushed. :D Yeah, I've gotta go with VGM replacing GYM.

Project 2612 has quality standards too, which is greatly appreciated. I remember getting the GYM pack of Phantasy Star 2, and finding footstep noises at the start of every track - the ripper apparently had no idea the game even had a sound test.

hcs64.com/bonus

The ADP, ADX, AFC, DSP, and PCM folders contain GC rips. ADX contains other stuff as well (PS2, DC, XBox).

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/loveemu/20060114

Anyone can explain to me what's this all about ? ;_;