What is the best way to dump SPC files?

Tek · Post by **Tek** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:53 pm

I just tried this out yesterday for the first time. As I understand you simply load up a game in ZSNES and dump the SPC data just before the music starts. But then you have to play through the entire game and time it just right, unless the game has sound testing in the options.

I was hoping that there was another method where you can just rip all the sound data from a rom at once. Would this be impossible, or perhaps a waste of time?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 2:16 am

Tek wrote:I just tried this out yesterday for the first time. As I understand you simply load up a game in ZSNES and dump the SPC data just before the music starts. But then you have to play through the entire game and time it just right, unless the game has sound testing in the options.

Correct.

Tek wrote:I was hoping that there was another method where you can just rip all the sound data from a rom at once. Would this be impossible, or perhaps a waste of time?

You would need to use game specific tools to do this...

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:17 am

Tek wrote:I was hoping that there was another method where you can just rip all the sound data from a rom at once. Would this be impossible, or perhaps a waste of time?

Don't you think it would be done by now if that was possible ? ¬_¬

kode54 · Post by **kode54** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:23 am

grinvader wrote:
Tek wrote:I was hoping that there was another method where you can just rip all the sound data from a rom at once. Would this be impossible, or perhaps a waste of time?
Don't you think it would be done by now if that was possible ? ¬_¬

Such a thing is possible for SNSF rips, but it cannot be done automatically.

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:29 am

Keyword: not automatic

Tek · Post by **Tek** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:09 pm

Alrighty sounds cool enough, thanks guys. Its tedious but I can at least get the music!

Also I understand some games cannot be dumped because they apparently require the actual SNES to be played. Is this simply because they have certain chipsets that can't be emulated yet?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:29 pm

Some games have each audio sample streamed in real-time. So you can't dump a whole song, just a very small part... and you would need to do that for each and every part then join them... o_O

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:10 pm

Franpa's example is only one in many. The SPC format is not able to properly store what's needed for those. You want SNSF, already mentionned in this thread.

Tek · Post by **Tek** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:58 am

Some tracks are hard to catch at the beginning. For example in Mortal Kombat II its difficult to capture the fighter select music because it starts immediately. I end up capturing a bit of the title screen music, or I'm a few seconds late with fighter select music. So when I play it in winamp its missing a bit of the intro.

So I tried slowing the emulator down to the lowest setting and dumped SPC like 10 times in a row, and it seemed to work nicely!

Francis64 · Post by **Francis64** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:46 am

The MK2 soundtrack is already available on the SPC section at Zophar. Have you been there?

Rashidi · Post by **Rashidi** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:03 am

there also snesmusic

ah, the .rsn ....

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:33 pm

snesmusic.org. I remember dumping Prince of Persion a long time ago and contributing the set there. Konami did the best version of the game ever in my opinion. I later played the PC Engine CD rom version and it wasn't anywhere near as good.

Tek · Post by **Tek** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:55 pm

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I know they've been done perfectly before, I just like to understand how its done.

Post by **grinvader** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:22 pm

For introless looping music, you can also time the dump properly on the various loops.

I used that to dump most ToP tracks before caitsith2 solved the main issue.

Tek · Post by **Tek** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:36 pm

Yeah I notice also that sometimes when I dump spc at the end of a song, just before the next one starts, it will still capture the next one nicely.

Seems to happen randomly, I guess you just got to keep retrying.

Post by **grinvader** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:44 pm

The spc grabbing code waits for an event called 'key on', which is typically used to make a channel produce sounds.

At the end of the previous tune, the various used channels are already keyed on and don't trigger the capture. Then the next tune is sent to the spc700, and it keys on to play it. Capture successful ! or not - depending the game (some start playing before the data is completely sent).

Rashidi · Post by **Rashidi** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:18 am

grinvader wrote:looping music

yeah, i having hard time to determine when the earliest time when the spc exit the looping segment in Chrono Trigger intro music.

if i try to capture too early, the result .spc will looping forever ...

anyway, i still haven't find .spc that contain the 'last part (non-looping)' of CT's intro.

Post by **grinvader** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:56 am

Rashidi wrote:anyway, i still haven't find .spc that contain the 'last part (non-looping)' of CT's intro.

snesmusic.org has it. 'ct-102b.spc'

102a.spc being the loop.

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What is the best way to dump SPC files?

What is the best way to dump SPC files?

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