Utility to rip chiptunes

[roflmao]

In case anyone missed the thread I started here, I have created a website at http://turbomusic.risemedia.org to make available for download the .mp3s of chiptunes I've converted from .hes files.  It also hosts CD/SCD soundtracks as well, in .mp3 format.  The site is still very much a WIP, but it currently has nearly three dozen soundtracks. tg-16.com is hosting the actual .zip files, so a big thanks goes out to esteban!

A link turbomusic can also be found in my sig.

[grahf]

Awesome, roflmao.

I was thinking about doing some recordings off of real hardware, just to compare them to what's produced by the PC players. That got me thinking about whether or not the PC Engine series has any variance in sound quality between revisions (such as with the Genesis/Megadrive). I couldn't find any info on this, but has anyone done any testing?

[roflmao]

Awesome, roflmao.

I was thinking about doing some recordings off of real hardware, just to compare them to what's produced by the PC players. That got me thinking about whether or not the PC Engine series has any variance in sound quality between revisions (such as with the Genesis/Megadrive). I couldn't find any info on this, but has anyone done any testing?

I have a TG-16/CD setup currently sitting next to a PC Engine Duo and I think there's a difference in volume, but I think there's a cap issue.  When a CD game uses both chiptunes and redbook audio the game sounds very different between the two systems (due to the different volume levels of the two audio sources), but I think that's cap related as well.  As far as the quality if the audio goes, they both sound about the same to me, though I don't have it hooked up to a high end system and don't play it very loud very often.

[Necromancer]

That got me thinking about whether or not the PC Engine series has any variance in sound quality between revisions (such as with the Genesis/Megadrive). I couldn't find any info on this, but has anyone done any testing?

The only thing I recall is this: clicky.

[grahf]

I have a TG-16/CD setup currently sitting next to a PC Engine Duo and I think there's a difference in volume, but I think there's a cap issue.  When a CD game uses both chiptunes and redbook audio the game sounds very different between the two systems (due to the different volume levels of the two audio sources), but I think that's cap related as well.  As far as the quality if the audio goes, they both sound about the same to me, though I don't have it hooked up to a high end system and don't play it very loud very often.

I guess that sounds about right. I would assume that the HuCard only machines would potentially sound clearer, due to the lack of mixing circuitry that the CD based systems have... I don't really know though. That's an interesting link, Necro. It sounds like what Bonknuts is saying is that the difference in the chip shouldn't cause any actual sound differences outside of that "pop", since no games really utilized that chips extra function(s).

I've decided to pick up an AV booster the next time I go to Akihabara, and test it out with my white PCE and CoreGrafx II (both through the AV booster and AV port). If I can find a cheap CoreGrafx I, i'll have to grab one of those too (to test out that 6280A). I'm going to do some line level recordings so I can look at them on the PC.

[esteban]

Awesome, roflmao.

I was thinking about doing some recordings off of real hardware, just to compare them to what's produced by the PC players. That got me thinking about whether or not the PC Engine series has any variance in sound quality between revisions (such as with the Genesis/Megadrive). I couldn't find any info on this, but has anyone done any testing?

The "real" vs. "emulated" comparisons would be great. A long time ago, Kaminari had a short audio clip that showed the differences (it was PSG music from a CD-ROM ARPG/RPG... Kabuki Den?) Now, I know some stuff has improved over the years, but it would be neat to see what the current state of emulation is. I spend a lot of time using a player based on GME, which, I think, does a decent job. That said, I haven't really looked into the subject, nor have I made any thorough comparisons (only quick, superficial ones) of real Duo vs GME.

[NightWolve]

Thanks, this'll help out with the games that I couldn't find .hes files for.  I've converted about 30 Turbo/PCE hucards' soundtracks to mp3, but there are still a bunch I couldn't find so this should work well.  Thanks!

Hey roflmao, FYI, I got a little bit of bad news... I hope you didn't go too far with using YAME to record PSG tracks... Basically, this fella zeromus was helping me with the SNES/Dolby surround question that arose in another thread and after passing him a WAVE file recording of the Blazing Lazers opening theme that I made with YAME, he quickly realized that it's in mono! You will need to learn how to use Ootake or #Mednafen (assuming there's a good front end) after all, any other emulator that has recording support because YAME, it seems, kills the stereo [effect] and thus records in mono. I dunno why, but that seems to be the case, so you don't wanna build an archive using it.

[roflmao]

Hey roflmao, FYI, I got a little bit of bad news... I hope you didn't go too far with using YAME to record PSG tracks... Basically, this fella zeromus was helping me with the SNES/Dolby surround question that arose in another thread and after passing him a WAVE file recording of the Blazing Lazers opening theme that I made with YAME, he quickly realized that it's in mono! You will need to learn how to use Ootake or #Mednafen (assuming there's a good front end) after all, any other emulator that has recording support because YAME, it seems, kills the stereo [effect] and thus records in mono. I dunno why, but that seems to be the case, so you don't wanna build an archive using it.

Thanks for the heads up!  I haven't gotten around to ripping any tunes via YAME, it's all good.  I've got Ootake installed, though I haven't really tinkered with it.  I'll see if it or Mednafen can record in stereo, one of these days.

[esteban]

Thanks, this'll help out with the games that I couldn't find .hes files for.  I've converted about 30 Turbo/PCE hucards' soundtracks to mp3, but there are still a bunch I couldn't find so this should work well.  Thanks!

Hey roflmao, FYI, I got a little bit of bad news... I hope you didn't go too far with using YAME to record PSG tracks... Basically, this fella zeromus was helping me with the SNES/Dolby surround question that arose in another thread and after passing him a WAVE file recording of the Blazing Lazers opening theme that I made with YAME, he quickly realized that it's in mono! You will need to learn how to use Ootake or #Mednafen (assuming there's a good front end) after all, any other emulator that has recording support because YAME, it seems, kills the stereo [effect] and thus records in mono. I dunno why, but that seems to be the case, so you don't wanna build an archive using it.

I appreciate "retro", but I don't want mono PCE tunes .

[NightWolve]

Just another FYI I thought of that'll be useful for this. Many HuCards have Sound Test modes so you'll wanna know how to access them rather than having to play the game to record the tune that you want. Here's a full list of cheats that BtGarner released many eons ago.

All Cheats: http://www.ysutopia.net/special/nec-cheats.html
Individual: http://www.pcecp.com

Alternatively, if the game isn't listed in the All Cheats page, check www.pcecp.com just in case. You'll have to individually look up the game. And finally, if there is no sound test support and you have to play the game, the other trick is to play with the sound channel enable/disable feature of the emulator. For example, by turning off the 6th PSG channel on SSS, that disabled most explosion sound effects when you shoot at enemies and so forth. So, you'll be able to shoot (or whatever) to stay alive long enough while playing whatever game, as the audio recording is occurring; with the right PSG sound channel turned off, those sound effects won't get recorded and you'll get a clean recording of just the background tune/music, etc. You get the idea.

Well, I think that about covers the subject on recording chip tunes without any programming knowledge. I can settle for something less than the "perfect" and complete HES library myself.

[roflmao]

Thanks!  I've been all sorts of busy with work lately, so haven't been able to come up with new soundtracks, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel here in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll be digging into this again then.