Trying to rip the music from Summoner 2...

I figured I may as well rip the music from Summoner 2, having been successfull with the first. I bought the PS2 game and put it in my PC, hoping to open it with VP View, which is able to read the music from the first game, and red faction (which both use .VPP) For some reason it says invalid file when I open it, and the other programs such as VPP Builder also give errors. I guess it is only compatible with the first game, which is odd considering they use the same file formats.

Anyway, I am currently trying to use Cube Media Player to rip the music, it picks up the tracks but with loads of statics and glitches etc, I hear thats because of offsets and what not.
If I was to rip the music through line-in though, thing is my PC is upstairs and console/tv downstairs, so that only leaves me with my laptop, which has one of the built in soundcards. This'll mean crap quality right? or is it not dependant on the sound card (/end dumb question)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Talk about bad luck, eh?

In Cube Media Player, it's possible to adjust the interleave manually. When you find the correct value, the audio will play correctly. How can this value be found? Well, from my personal experience, trial and error, which you'll need a lot of patience for. But I'm under the impression some people who have done a lot of ripping by extraction know better ways to get the music out of PS2 (and other platforms) games. It would be interesting if they could share their knowledge with the rest of the community, but sadly, it seems these tricks are "top secret".

So, if in the end you can't go that way, recording the music could do the trick as well (although there'd be a relatively small loss of quality, but hey, better that than no music at all!). I wouldn't do it with a laptop since they are usually prone to generate a lot of static/noise since the sound card is very close to all other components (especially the screen and hard drive). If it's possible, I'd temporarily move the TV and console upstairs, and do the recording on this system instead of the laptop.

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Na, that'll be impossible to move it unfortunately. Oh well

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It's still possible to record with the laptop. Just do some tests first to determine how much static/noise it generates in the audio and if it's acceptable, rip Summoner 2 that way.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

That would be easier, a lot easier. I'm fine with PC rips, but have never done a console one before. I know it's a noob question but how does it work exactly? I mean the sound, does the sound card for my laptop matter when it comes to the recording, or is it all about how it's encoded, its all confusing to me. Obviously I encode the wavs fine in VBR 0, but say will there be any difference if I was to record the music from my PS2 to my desktop which has an XFi Gamer Edition, to recording from my PS2 to my laptop, which is a good enough laptop, but it has a soundMax something or other built in card. Sorry that's such a nooby question!

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What makes a difference in sound cards is the line-in port quality. For the common sound cards, there shouldn't be much of a difference, but there are high-end audiophile cards that have better ports (gold plated & such). Another difference is how the card handles audio. Some resample everything to 48 kHz, which is not ideal when you want to record to 44 kHz (the audio CD standard).

As for laptop sound cards, I don't think the problem would be the card itself, but the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, it is so close to the hard drive and screen, which would more than likely generate a certain "buzz" sound. But there are chances it might not, so test it by recording silence while having chosen "Line-In" as the source.

By the way, for recording PS2 and other modern consoles audio, the ideal would be to use the optical output, since in theory, there wouldn't be any noise and the quality is superior to line-in. However, you'd need a sound card with an optical input port to record that way.

So yeah, it's hard to achieve a "perfect" recording since there are so many factors influencing the audio quality, and I don't think most people who want to rip game music have professional studio equipment at their home. But, doing the best with what you have can most of the time produce good enough results to enjoy the music. And when nobody else are to rip said music better, having an "imperfect" rip still is more useful than having none at all.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Thanks for the info. My laptop is a HP 6715b, HD audio sound card etc. How would I go about doing a line in rip? I have one of those cables that looks the same on both sides, audio cable thingy, lol. Is that any use?

FELIPE NO

Here's a guide that explains the basic of it: X-treme Games Music - Only the best game MIDI, MOD, MP3, SID, SPC, GYM and TFMX files of your favourite games music

If you have any other questions, I'll try to help.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

OK, I just need to get my hands on one of those red and white on one end, and line in on the other cables, what are they called? I havn't seen a PS2 in ages to be honest, so can't remember the sockets etc they have, but I thought the cable goes from the PS2 to the PC, not the TV to the PC. Obviously i'm wrong

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Why is my status 'banned'? Is that what you get when you have 666 posts? Hehe.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

No, you can plug the PS2 directly to the computer. You won't get sound from the TV though, but this doesn't matter since you'll get it from the PC.

As for the cable, it'd be better to get one that has female plugs (a hole, and not a pin), since the PS2 output cable plugs are male.

This kind of cable could be referred to as "stereo female RCA to stereo 1/8" male jack".

There's nowhere I can't reach.

My friend gave me a cable with one of the green ends that goes into your sound card, and at the other end are two cables, red and white pinned. Will this do?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It will do, but you'll need female-female connectors to be able to connect the PS2 audio cables to it (two pins can't plug, or at least, not in the front ).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Sounds complicated, lol. What will they look like if I was to find them? This is if I was to connect the PS2 to the laptop, not the TV to the laptop right? Would the sound quality be any different between the two?

I'm guessing your 'rise about it' status is inspired by the Afro Celts huh? Good song

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hmm, if you were to plug your PS2 to your TV, and then use this cable from your TV to your PC, you wouldn't need the connectors I mentioned. I'm not certain if there'd be a sound quality difference since I never tested it myself, but I would guess there might be since the signal is not as direct as if you'd plug your PS2 to your PC.

The female-female connectors would look something like this: RadioShack.com - Cables, Parts & Connectors: Connectors & connectivity: A/V connectors & adapters: Belkin® PureAV AV24002 Audio Cable Coupler (2-Pack)

Originally Posted by Thalin

I'm guessing your 'rise about it' status is inspired by the Afro Celts huh? Good song

Indeed, it refers to this awesome song. But also to the idea behind the term, as in don't let anything get you down; rise above it! I find it inspirational.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well i'll definately be going the PS2 - laptop route, rather than the TV - laptop route.

It is a great song, I prefer the melody in 'Rise' though I have you to thank for getting me into the Afro Celts all those years ago, thank you. Totally agree with you about the phrase too

FELIPE NO

OK, well unfortunately I got no where with the laptop. I tried connecting the wire to the headphone and microphone port, neither picked up anything with line in selected. I'm guessing it dosn't have what I need.

Tried my PC instead, everything's fine. Bit confused about this 'peak' thing I think rippers refer to. I thought at first I needed the line in volume selected to max, but found that gave some bad quality. I had it halfway and its a bit quiet. I guess it's trial and error. This is half way. Bit quiet to me - Send big files the easy way. Files too large for email attachments? No problem!

Another thing, i'm using Sound Forge, everything correctly set etc 44.1 etc the usual settings. I save to wav, and I used to be fine encoding that to VBR with Razorlame, but for some reason it won't encode. Gives an unknown error. Everything's set up correctly :/

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The audio 'peak' amplitude refers to how far it is from 0 dB. If you record and it peaks over this level, the audio will clip, which isn't good since you lose details (and it usually distorts the sound). So, you should record at a volume at which your highest peak is very close to 0dB, but never over it. The volume you need to set depends of the source material. What I usually do to determine it is record a few tracks and then see if any of them clip or are too far from 0 dB. Then I adjust the line-in volume approximately and test again until I'm satisfied, then proceed to the real thing.

If you record at a too low volume (like the sample you provided), the problem is that if you increase the amplitude afterwards, the background noise will also get amplified, and in this case, a lot more than if you would have recorded at a higher volume and only needed to amplify it a little afterwards.

As for encoding the wave file to MP3, I had no problem with Razorlame whatsoever. Maybe it has something to do with your settings?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Razorlame seems fine now. I'm using the 'use only custom options' option, and have it -V 0. This works, although it was set before to -V 0 --vbr-new %s %d (this was set years ago when I last used it!). Is -V 0 all I need to have in the settings box?

I'm guessing by 0db thats the max it goes up to? Like it Sound Forge it goes up from ... 9, 6, 3 then i'm guessing 0 is the top red mark? So i'm aiming just below that?

Also, when I install (got around this) and open Sound Forge it says I need .NET 1.1 installed. I have 2.0 installed, I can OK this message and carry on but am unsure on whether i'm missing out on features.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

You could add "--vbr-new" in the command line since it will make the encoding process go faster. The "%s %d" aren't required in Razorlame, but they are in EAC, so that must be why you had them in there.

0 dB is indeed the maximum. A bit confusing at first since it looks like a 'minimum', but the fact is that the values shown in a sound editor are negative (e.g. -10 dB, -5 dB, ...) up until it reaches 0. It's very hard to record with the max peak being exactly at 0 or extremely close like -0.000000000001 dB and the likes, so you better adjust the volume a little lower to make sure the peak won't go over this value, yet not too low either too avoid having to raise the volume (and noise) too much after the recording. From my experience, the max peak in my recordings were around more or less -5 dB, which is a reasonable value in my opinion.

.NET is the Microsoft software, right? I don't know why it asks for it, and I don't think you're missing on anything if you can record and edit without any problems. Personally, I use Adobe Audition, but Sound Forge is an excellent sound editor as well (heck, the free "Audacity" gets the job done too!).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I just had a brainwave. My MP3 player can record line in. And by that I don't mean a cheap value one, but my IAudio X5 COWON America

It can record in PCM or PAC wav, or MP3 etc but that's best dont after, 44.1 less or more, etc, so it has everything as far as I can tell. Just of course not as user friendly as if I was to record through the PC!

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Also able to set the peak left and right, ... 6, 3, 1.5, 0 ... as well as volume etc. Quality seems nice too. This'll save me moving my PC up and downstairs haha

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?