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Post by MorningCoffee on Mar 28, 2015 14:49:35 GMT -5
I've been digging into the Rescue Team and Explorers games since last summer in search of the games' sound effects, whether it be raw sounds or by putting two-and-two together. So far, I've made very little progress in any kind of ripping. I've come close to finding some relevant stuff within the game's files, but breaking/working around the soundfile encryption has really stopped me dead in my tracks. Has anyone had or know anyone who has had success with getting PMD's sound effects, or have some information that could nudge me in the right direction? I've really been stumped on this as of recently, so I figured it's time to start looking for other solutions.
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BerryPi
PokéMusic Grunt
ooh saucy!
Posts: 38
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Post by BerryPi on Mar 28, 2015 17:43:39 GMT -5
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Post by MorningCoffee on Mar 29, 2015 11:18:28 GMT -5
I've already gotten what I can out of those in the past, unfortunately they don't have any of the move SFX. :/
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Post by psycommando on Mar 29, 2015 11:58:11 GMT -5
I've been digging into the Rescue Team and Explorers games since last summer in search of the games' sound effects, whether it be raw sounds or by putting two-and-two together. So far, I've made very little progress in any kind of ripping. I've come close to finding some relevant stuff within the game's files, but breaking/working around the soundfile encryption has really stopped me dead in my tracks. Has anyone had or know anyone who has had success with getting PMD's sound effects, or have some information that could nudge me in the right direction? I've really been stumped on this as of recently, so I figured it's time to start looking for other solutions. The sound sample aren't encrypted, they're just encoded as 4 bits ADPCMs. It could be using the standard nintendo DS ADPCM encoding, or a proprietary format. I haven't found the proper decoding table they're using to decode the sound yet. But by running the game in the no$gba debugger and isolating where sounds are loaded, and looking at the assembler code, someone should be able to figure out those. Its just pretty time consuming, and its really all about trial and error. Then, most sound effects for moves and such are basically sequences made by playing the sound samples in a certain order with varying pitches and etc. Those sequences are stored in the /SOUND/SE/ folder in Explorers of Sky, as SED files(SEDL). Moves sound effects are named "waza" which is the romaji form for the Japanese word for art/technique : jisho.org/words?jap=waza&eng=&dict=edictSED are very similar to the SMDs used for the game's music, but there are most likely differences. Though, on my side of things, with the research, music/sound is relatively low priority for now, given that there weren't any big breakthrough made on that side of the game for a while.. Figuring out the ADPCM tables would seriously help a ton though. However, I do know that, you can get relatively good decoding of the samples by using the raw ADPCM decoder in audacity. However, you gotta cut out the sound data with an hex editor and put it in its own file for that to work properly, because ADPCM basically bases each 16 bits samples it decodes on the value of the lasts, so feeding it random bytes can't be really good.. Also, here's the toolset the devs used for the music and sound effects in the Explorers of Sky/Time/Darkness games : www.procyon-studio.co.jp/dse/spec.htmlIf someone was able to translate what's in some of those pictures, it could help give a better idea of what might be stored in those SED files.
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Post by MorningCoffee on Mar 29, 2015 15:50:04 GMT -5
I've been digging into the Rescue Team and Explorers games since last summer in search of the games' sound effects, whether it be raw sounds or by putting two-and-two together. So far, I've made very little progress in any kind of ripping. I've come close to finding some relevant stuff within the game's files, but breaking/working around the soundfile encryption has really stopped me dead in my tracks. Has anyone had or know anyone who has had success with getting PMD's sound effects, or have some information that could nudge me in the right direction? I've really been stumped on this as of recently, so I figured it's time to start looking for other solutions. The sound sample aren't encrypted, they're just encoded as 4 bits ADPCMs. It could be using the standard nintendo DS ADPCM encoding, or a proprietary format. I haven't found the proper decoding table they're using to decode the sound yet. But by running the game in the no$gba debugger and isolating where sounds are loaded, and looking at the assembler code, someone should be able to figure out those. Its just pretty time consuming, and its really all about trial and error. Then, most sound effects for moves and such are basically sequences made by playing the sound samples in a certain order with varying pitches and etc. Those sequences are stored in the /SOUND/SE/ folder in Explorers of Sky, as SED files(SEDL). Moves sound effects are named "waza" which is the romaji form for the Japanese word for art/technique : jisho.org/words?jap=waza&eng=&dict=edictSED are very similar to the SMDs used for the game's music, but there are most likely differences. Though, on my side of things, with the research, music/sound is relatively low priority for now, given that there weren't any big breakthrough made on that side of the game for a while.. Figuring out the ADPCM tables would seriously help a ton though. However, I do know that, you can get relatively good decoding of the samples by using the raw ADPCM decoder in audacity. However, you gotta cut out the sound data with an hex editor and put it in its own file for that to work properly, because ADPCM basically bases each 16 bits samples it decodes on the value of the lasts, so feeding it random bytes can't be really good.. Also, here's the toolset the devs used for the music and sound effects in the Explorers of Sky/Time/Darkness games : www.procyon-studio.co.jp/dse/spec.htmlIf someone was able to translate what's in some of those pictures, it could help give a better idea of what might be stored in those SED files. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to share, psy. I see I've taken some wrong turns, and this has gotten me back in the sort-of right direction. I was on track with the sequences for the most part, but I admittedly made some pretty goofy assumptions that took me to plenty of dead ends. I'll save the ADPCM tables for a rainy day, but for now I need to do some research to get a better grasp on what I'm actually working with. (to be frank, I don't think I comprehend PCM as well as I should; didn't even cross my mind that audacity has a raw decoder) As for translating the program screencaps, I know someone who might be able to assist with that--I'll keep you posted. Again, thanks for the help!
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Post by psycommando on Mar 29, 2015 17:13:19 GMT -5
No problems Its probably the only thing I can help with around these forums anyways XD But don't think PCM and ADPCM are the same thing. PCM is a bunch of raw samples most of the time stored as 16 bits, and ADPCM is a bunch of sample encoded on 4 bits instead of 16. Samples are fairly easy to understand though. Let's take a look at mono, 44,000hz , 16 bits PCM data for example. That's what's used in most WAV files really, its as basic as it gets. Its literally 16 bits integers one after the other. The sample rate, 44,000hz, literally only means that there are 44,000 such sample for every seconds of that sample playing. As for what the data represents, some article I read in the past had a nice way to put it. You can think of it as if each of those integers is the strength of the electric current sent to your headphones when listening to that audio data. The membrane that makes the sound would change position 44,000 times a second(in a perfect world), and in turn reproduce the waveform that was recorded into the file's PCM data. ADPCM on the other hand, is basically a way to compress that same PCM data into only 4 bits ! That's literally only enough to count from 0 to 15.. And it does that at a pretty big cost in audio quality! I'll admit I'm not 100% sure what's the general idea behind it, even after reading the official specs for the format.. But decoding it involves applying a mathematical formula on each 4 bits sample, where the value is compared against a table. And then at the end of that process, you get a 16 bits integer / 16 bits PCM sample. And thanks for offering help with those ! I'd have translated them myself, but it takes you much longer when you're not fluent at all, or can't even write/read Japanese XD
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Post by psycommando on May 14, 2015 12:31:12 GMT -5
Hey, MorningCoffee, I just realized something that you'll probably like a lot XD
The debug menu in Explorers of Time and Darkness has a sound test menu, and you can play all sound effects from the game, with no music in the background! So you can just run it in desmume, use the record wav feature and record all sound effects one after the other, and cut them individually.
And, here's the action replay cheat you need to add to desmume to get access to the menu : 0202A09C A3A01000 92FFFFA8 FE7F0000 0202A09C E3A01008 D2000000 00000000
On the main screen just scroll all the way down until the description reads "cringed!" and press A. You should now be in the debug menu!
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Post by MorningCoffee on May 16, 2015 17:50:38 GMT -5
Holy nuts, this is absolutely perfect; I can't thank you enough for this. It works like a charm! my 8 month quest has been completed
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Post by psycommando on May 16, 2015 18:49:41 GMT -5
You're welcome !
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