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Guide: How to Play or Rip Super Nintendo Video Game Music Losslessly

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:14:51 +0000

Super Nintendo (SNES) is probably one of the more memorable consoles oldschool gamers might remember. Some games even have some very memorable soundtracks. With this guide, you can get a great nostalgia fix again using WinAmp!

Thankfully, listening to Super Nintendo music is a lot easier than listening to N64 music. SNES differs from the N64 in that N64 music is more sample based. SNES music, on the other hand, is more based on the capabilities of an actual audio chip. The music, therefor, is a bit like MIDI music. It's merely a set of instructions on how the music is to be played. A good way to listen to SNES music is to simply use the SPC file format. This is basically data dumped from the games themselves in to a more convenient format that allows playback. Unlike N64 MiniUSF sets, a vast majority of all the games have an SPC set ready for listening. Great news since that very likely eliminates the need to manually rip each and every individual song because there is a very good chance you can simply find the SPC file for the game instead.

Playing SPC Songs

Step 1 - Get WinAmp When testing several methods of trying to get the music to play, the WinAmp plug-in was the first method that we've tested with success in Windows 7. So, you can download and install WinAmp from the WinAmp homepage. Step 2 - Install the SPC plugin The SPC plugin can be found via the this SPC website. It's the first bullet under Windows (we have not attempted the Mac and Linux versions, so this will have to be something you try out outside of this guide sadly. However, these options are available. The plugin is called SNESAmp. Click on that link, then click on "SNESAmp" on the next page. The page will scroll down to the SNESAmp plugin portion where it can be downloaded. Just click on SNESAmp to download the EXE installer. When you've downloaded the EXE file, double click on the file and allow it to run. The EXE file simply installs the necessary plug-in in your WinAmp directory. Just make sure it's pointed to the WinAmp directory. If you've installed WinAmp in the default directory, then by default, the EXE file should already be pointing to the directory. When you are ready, hit "Install" After you are done installing, the next step is to find the SPC sets. Step 3 - Obtaining the SPC Sets Via RSN Files There's two ways to obtain the SPC sets. The long and drawn out way is individually by browsing through the SPC sets, trying to find and download the music individually. Alternatively, and my preferred method, is to download all nearly 2,500 games in one large package. It sounds like a lot, but the package, since this is like listening to MIDI files, is a mere 147MB big. Not bad for thousands of hours of music in lossless format! Since I'm lazy, I'll just assume you've decided to simply download the .torrent. Step 4 - Renaming the RSN files You'll no doubt notice that all you got is a large list of RSN files. In reality, these are really RAR files. You can rename the extension to RAR if you have WinRAR installed and open the files to see the SPC files inside if you like, but just for general listening, this won't be necessary per-se. The other problem you'll no doubt notice is the fact that all of the files are extremely truncated. For example, BoF is actually Breath of Fire. Luckily, there is a utility that actually renames all of the RSN files to something that is way more readable. For this, you need two files which are available on the SNES Music Players website. Scroll to the bottom of the page and under the "Converting SPC files", there's some bullet points with links. we are after the third bullet point. The link contains "Renset v.0.6" and the "latest rsnsets dat file". Download both .zip files. Once you've downloaded both, you need to locate where you downloaded the .torrent to. Open that directory up manually. Now, you need to click and drag the "renset.exe" file to the directory with all of the RSN files from the "renset06.zip" file you downloaded. Now, in the "rsnsets.zip" file, you need to click and drag the "rsnsets.dat" into the same directory you placed the "renset.exe" file. In short, you need "renset.exe" and "rsnsets.dat" in the same directory as all of the RSN files you downloaded. Doubleclick on the "renset.exe" that you've extracted into the directory with all of the RSN files. You'll have a DOS prompt window open up. It may take a moment to read all of the RSN files since it is well over 1,000 files it's trying to read. If it hangs, close the DOS prompt window and stop seeding the files in your .torrent client and try again. Follow the prompts and it'll rename all of the RSN files for you into comprehensible file names. It'll tell you when it's done and you'll be able to exit DOS prompt window. If you are successful, you'll have a file directory that looks like this (paying attention to the file-names more than anything else): Step 5 - Associating RSN Files With WinAmp Easy step, especially if you've had WinAmp for a while. while easy, it's also an important step for easy playback in the future. Right click on any RSN file you have. Now, click on "Open" (should be bold and the first option if it's not already associated with another file type. If it is associated with another file type, then "Open With..." will work instead) Either way, you'll see a window similar to this: Click on the little arrow that my big red arrow is pointing at. You should see a list of programs. All the programs should be in alphabetical order, so you'll probably find WinAmp towards the bottom. If you don't find WinAmp, then click on the "Browse" button. In a default WinAmp install on Windows 7, you'll find it in "C:" > "Program Files (x86)" > "WinAmp". Doubleclick on "WinAmp.exe". This should make WinAmp pop up in the list of "Other Programs" list. In that list, click on WinAmp and click on "OK" The little WinAmp logo will appear within the files logo of all of the RSN files. Double click on any game to test to see if you are successful all the way up to now. If you successfully followed all of these steps, a list of songs will appear in WinAmp and being playing the first song of the game. All of the games in the game you chose to try will appear as a playlist. It'll look something like this (We're testing the game "Battle Cars" in this case): Now we're talking! A quick trick if you want to listen to a specific song only. Click on the song in the list, click on the "REM" button on the bottom of the list, then click on "Crop". You'll only have that song left in the playlist alone.

Ripping SPC Songs

Step 1 - Locating the Ripping Option in the Preferences This part of the guide presumes you've followed the first part of the guide successfully. Doubleclick the song you want to rip in the playlist. When you hear it play, hit the stop button so you know you've got the right song. To make sure you only rip one particular song, click on the "REM" and "Crop" on the bottom of the playlist. Click on the little symbol on the top left hand side of WinAmp. Then click "Options", then "Preferences" I've highlighted this below: In the new window, there's a list of options on the left hand side of the window. Scroll down to the bottom until you find "Plug-ins". Under that, select "Output". In the list on the right hand side, click on "Nullsoft Disk Writer" Now, click on "Configure" I've highlighted this below: In the new window, the only thing you should be concerned about is where you want to save the WAV files to. Click on the file directory button if you want to change this as I've highlighted below: Browse to the directory you want to save the files to if you have chosen to change this directory. Now, just click on "OK". Close the "WinAmp" preferences. You are now ready for ripping. Step 2 - Ripping Simply press the play button. You won't hear anything, but you'll be able to see the scrubber go across at a fast speed as if a song is playing. When it's done, you should have a nicely rendered out WAV file in whatever directory you have chosen. Now, remember, if you want to go back to just listening to these files, you have to change one option back. Go back to the preferences by clicking on the symbol on the top of WinAmp, click on "Options", then "Preferences". Then, in the new window, click on the OutPut option again if you are not already on that. Now, simply click on "Nullsoft WavOut Output". Close the window and you should be able to listen to the music again just like before. If you don't complete this part, you'll just keep ripping whatever is dropped in the playlist instead of just listening to it normally. Now that you have the WAV file, you can do whatever you'd like with it. As an added bonus, there's no loss of quality that one would otherwise get if they were to get the same song in MP3 format or ripped off of YouTube videos. That's always a bonus. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Guide: How to Rip N64 Video Game Music Via Audio Logging

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:29:04 +0000

We've already discussed how to get N64 game music with the MiniUSF format (and included an FAQ as a bonus. However, not all music on the N64 can be obtained this way. Today, we'll introduce a second line of attack at getting N64 music - audio logging.

MiniUSF sets are an excellent way of getting music losslessly from N64 games. However, there is no complete archive of every N64 game soundtrack available in this format. In fact, some sets aren't even properly named or timed in some cases even if a set for a particular game exists. There is an alternative option for getting the audio, but it involves a little more work. Audio Logging Audio logging is different from doing a sound chip rip. A sound chip rip records sounds produced by your computer. While there are many instances in which a sound chip rip is one recommended way of obtaining music, ripping music from an N64 emulator in this fashion is not. The simple reason is that emulated N64 games tend to introduce a large amount of skipping. Whether this is because the video is slow in the emulation process or your computer is simply not fast enough, a sound chip rip will most likely result in a very poor quality version of the track you are after. So what is audio logging? Audio logging is a feature in the N64 emulator known as Project 64. What it does is take all audio from the emulator and logs it. If the video is slow, or emulation otherwise introduces numerous skips, audio logging will actually remove those skips as it's going, thus, increasing the quality of the music in the final file. In short, it obtains the audio within the emulator, practically skipping the process of the audio reaching the sound chip on your computer. The only downside to this is the fact that audio needs to play at least somewhat correctly in the game in question before you can log the audio. If the game in question doesn't have a supported plug-in for the audio, then this process won't work. Fortunately, there is a very select few games that still have this problem. Step 1 - Getting the Emulator You need the Project 64 emulator to accomplish this task. For that, you need to download and install the emulator. This can be found on official Project 64 download page. Step 2 - Obtaining a ROM Emulators do not come with the games usually. So if you have a particular game you want to rip the audio from, you need to track down the ROM in question. We'll let you figure out how to get it. Step 3 - Open the Rom and Getting Ready for Audio Capture Once you get a ROM, create a directory and place the ROM inside somewhere on your hard drive. As long as there's a fixed folder on your hard drive that the emulator can read, you should be fine. Just know how to browse to it in your emulator settings. Double click on that ROM. Once the game is running, click on "Options" in the emulator menu and select "Configure Controller Plugin": You should see a new window with a list of controls. These are the controls that correspond with N64 input controls. Some of the controls on the left of each box is short form, so just remember: L is Left, U is up, D is down and R is Right in all but the cases in the bottom left quadrant of the window. Each box shows you what key on the keyboard corresponds to that standard N64 controller input. If you'd like to change any of these values, click on the small box on the right of the value you want to change and press that key on your keyboard. You should see the value change in the larger box between the N64 button and the clickable box. As an example, the following is the relevant portion of the screen for the "B" button typically found on an N64 controller: Once you are happy with the controls, you can hit the "Save Profile" button. You'll be saving this in a file so the emulator will remember the control functions next time you want to open the emulator. Now, the next thing you want to do is locate the song in question in the game. Fortunately, many games have an audio options menu which allows you to play the song in question. If the game you want to rip the music from has this option, go to the audio options. In our example, we'll use a game I personally spent way too much time playing years ago - Destruction Derby 64. In this example, the first thing we did was turn to turn down all the sound effects to nothing so that there are no extra sounds heard - remember, audio logging records all sounds, not just the music. The next thing we did was select the first track as the track we want to log. Since we want to log the first track, we've selected track number two so that track 1 doesn't play right away as we can see here: Now, we are set to log the audio! Step 4 - Logging the Audio The next step is to simply go back in to "Options" This time, we want to select "Configure Audio Plugin": This will open up a new window which is really mostly just about the audio logging feature: The "Sync Game to Audio" is about one of the few options you have for experimentation purposes. Sometimes, the audio isn't quite right, you might get better logging results if you tick this option. By default, this is unticked and it's probably fine unticked. For experimentation purposes, I've ticked this option. Volume really is just how loud the audio will record at. Most of the time, it's fine the way it is, but if you experience any distortion from the audio being too loud in the logging, you can turn this down in a later attempt. If you are ready, then click "Start" This will bring up another dialogue box asking you where it wants to save the WAV file. Just name the file and save it somewhere on your hard drive where you can find it later. Hit save when you are done naming and finding a place for that file. Now, in the remaining dialogue box, hit "Close" When the emulation is resumed, this will start the logging. I quickly selected "Playsong 1" in the game to start the song I wanted. This is the tedious part of the process. Since it is logging the audio, you are only going at a 1x speed - meaning you are recording as fast as you are listening to the song. For most video games, most songs have an intro part, then it starts looping through the rest of the song. Wait for the song to fully loop once and wait a few seconds after it loops again. When you do this, you'll have a fully captured song! Go back in to options and "Configure Audio Plugin" In the new window, click on the "Stop". This will terminate the audio logging. Click on "Close" to get out of the dialogue box. Minimize the emulator so that it pauses emulation (and you year nothing). Step 5 - Testing and Editing the Logged File It is highly unlikely you'll be able to get a perfect logging of the song right off the bat, so we'll need to do some quick editing of the song. First, of course, open the WAV file in any music player you use to listen to music normally and give it a listen to see if it sounds OK. Don't worry if there's a little bit of extra sound at the beginning, this can be edited out. If it sounds good to you quality-wise, you can go on to the next part of this step, otherwise, you can go back and re-log the song using different settings we mentioned earlier. In our case, it sounded good. Editing out the beginning of the file is very easy. You can download a free application called Audacity. If you don't have Audacity, this can be downloaded and installed from the official home page for free. Once you have Audacity installed, have it open. Click on "file" and "open": Browse to the WAV file you created when you logged the song of your choice and open it up. In our case, our logged file will look like this after it is opened: Use the zoom tools I've highlighted in the screen shot and zoom in a little and scroll to the left side of the file. We're going to take care of that legacy sound. After you zoom in, hit the play button and listen to when the song you want starts playing. Pay particular attention to the little line as it moves across as this will help you determine where to edit. When your song starts playing, hit the stop button, noting where the song you want starts. Use the tool that looks like an insertion point (highlighted in picture) and highlight the area that is not the song you want like so: Since this is a bit of a picky process, you can simply move your cursor to the edge of the highlighted area (where the blue stuff is, not where the numbers are) and click and drag to expand or contract the highlighted area to make finer adjustments. Click play. It should only play the highlighted area. I like to go a little bit after the beginning of the song I want to check and make sure I'm editing all of the legacy sound out and stretching it back to the point where the song begins. Once I have it down to the very moment that the legacy sound ends, I click on the cut button (the button with the scissors right next to the master button) This will delete the highlighted area. Play it back and see if it sounds right. If it doesn't sound right, you can always hold down "Ctrl" and hit "Z" on your keyboard to bring back the deleted area for any additional attempts you need to make. If it sounds good, you should only hear the song you want beginning. We are almost there! Next part is determining where the song begins to loop. For that, you need to listen to the first little bit of the beginning of the song. Then, go to the end of your file and listen to the last minute or so. When does the song sound exactly like the beginning? In my case, there was an affect added at the end of the song, so it actually loops right at the symbol crash after the highlight point I've inserted in the picture (the line in the blue stuff): The next part is a lot like editing out the beginning, only now, we are inserting a fadeout (why we wanted to wait a little while after the sound looped when we initially logged the file). A fadeout is simply making the music seem like it's fading out in to the distance and going quiet. This makes the song not seem like it's just cutting out and makes it sound like a professional recording. To accomplish this, we want to highlight the area that is merely looped portions of the song (again, using that insertion point looking tool like we did before). Lucky for us, it doesn't matter as much if it's exact. Chances are, you won't notice it fading out too early if you are using the zoom tools to be reasonably accurate. You'll probably have something like this: Now comes the easy part. Click on "Effect" in the toolbar and click on "Fade Out" This will create a fade out effect within the highlighted area. The result should look like this: Now, deselect the area by clicking anywhere in the blue stuff and we're done editing! Step 6 - Saving the File Audacity likes saving it in its own file format, but chances are, we need to save it to a format that is compatible with other programs. You can save the file in the Audacity project file format, but that also takes up disc space. Besides, you can always open up the WAV file in Audacity at a later time anyway if you want to do some more things to the file. So to save it in WAV format, just click on "File" and "Export": Save the file wherever you like on the hard drive. In fact, I highly recommend saving over top of the old WAV file you used to log the original audio. This will also save on disc space. If you choose to do so, you'll be asked if you want to replace the file. Select "Yes". Another dialogue box will appear. You can insert metadata here like artist and track name, but I just hit "OK". If you close Audacity, you'll be asked if you want to save the file. This will create some project files on the hard drive if you choose yes, but since I won't be using this anymore in Audacity, I just click on "No" to save on disc space. Now, you'll have two WAV files. The new file you created and a legacy file. The file that ends in "-old" (or "-old.wav") is actually the original WAV file when you first started. I personally choose to delete the file - again, to save on disc space. Some Final Thoughts This is a time consuming way of obtaining music from the game. Not all games have the option to go in to a menu and select the song you want. Sometimes, you might have to simply go to the level in question and log the file that way. You might be forced to have some beginning sound effects and you might even have some other sound effects polluting your logging. This is why it's best to just stick to MiniUSF files if they are available as this is just direct data from the game instead of an audio log. Still, with a combination of this guide and the MiniUSF guide, you should have access to just about every song ever made for the N64 with only a very rare exception. Happy listening! Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

How to Rip Video from Facebook

Jared Moya — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:16:10 +0000

Easy-to-use guide will show you how to rip, download, and convert video from Facebook or simply embed on other websites.

Many times we see a video uploaded by a friend or family member to Facebook and would love to be able to embed it elsewhere or to simply download a copy to save for personal use. Facebook obviously doesn't offer either of these options and so people have to figure out a way to do it on their own. The easiest method I've come across so far is by using a Firefox add-on called Facebook Video 2.1.8, and with it I'll show you step by step how to get started downloading video from Facebook in no time at all.

STEP #1

Firstly, you must use Mozilla's Firefox Internet browser.

STEP #2

Secondly, install the Facbook Video 2.1.8 add-on for Firefox.

STEP #3

Now find a video you want to work with. We'll go over the three options which are to embed, download, or convert to other formats. Notice the options available before installing Facebook Video 2.1.8.

Now notice those available afterwards.

Embedding and Customizing Video

If you want to embed the video on a another website simply select the "Embed this Video" link on the right and then copy and past the code wherever you choose. Note that you can also customize this code by selecting the "Customize Code" link and entering desired width and length dimensions.

Downloading Video

Select the "Download Video" link. The video will then open up as an .mp4 object, filling the window in its entirety. Now select "Save Page As" from the File tab in the Firefox menu and choose where you want to save it on your PC.

Converting Video

To convert the video to another format select "Convert Video." You'll be taken to the Zamzar free file conversion website where you can then choose the format you want to convert it to: 3gp, .avi, iPhone, .flv, .wmv, or even .flac, .mp3, or .wav if you just want the audio from the video. Enter the email address of where you want to receive the converted file and press "Convert" to complete the process.

How to Rip Music From MySpace

Jared Moya — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:04:32 +0000

A quick step guide that will show you how to rip audio from MySpace and any other site that allows you to stream music on your PC.

There are many audio files available for playback on the venerable MySpace site yet, very few are available as downloads. There’s a number of ways to bypass this problem and I will cover two of best the methods here for you to use, the first being the easiest.

A. FreeMusicZilla
B. Audacity

FreeMusicZilla

1. Download and install FreeMusicZilla.

2. Open FreeMusicZilla, visit the desired MySpace page, and play the song you want to download. Whatever music track you select will then automatically be grabbed by FreeMusicZilla.

3. Select the grabbed music track and press the DOWNLOAD button. Your download should then begin. Make sure you begin downloading the track before the “Leech Timeout” counter runs out otherwise you’ll have to refresh the page.

EXAMPLE:

In the picture below I used the MySpace page of my buddy DJ Destructo Bunny. He’s a local up and coming hip-hop artist and I urge you to show some support if you like what you hear by either buying a track or two or by trying to check out one of his upcoming shows.

NOTE: FreeMusicZilla places your downloads in the location “C:downloads” by default.

Audacity

1. Download and install Audacity.

2. Now we need to install a LAME MP3 encoding driver so you can save tracks in the .mp3 format.

First download the driver, which you can do here. It’s in ZIP file format, so for those of you who are unfamiliar with what ZIP files are, there’s a guide here at Zeropaid you can take a look at.

Now drag and drop the driver in the location shown below, “C:/WINDOWS/system.”

3. Select “Wave Out Mix” as the audio recording device.

EXAMPLE:

Now it’s time to find some audio tracks to rip.

A good friend of mine is the lead-singer for a band called The Wagon here in San Diego and has been kind enough to allow me to use his band’s music on MySpace for this tutorial.

The image below is of the band’s page. Notice how the top two songs are available for download and the bottom two are not. We’re going to rip the second song from the top titled “End of Summer,” a personal favorite of mine not to mention timely with Summer drawing to a close.

Now with Audacity and the MySpace page open, click the “record button” on Audacity as shown below and then quickly press the “play button” on the End of Summer track. The track should begin to play and thereby be displayed as eloquent peaks and valleys of music in the Audacity track window.

When the song is finished playing press the “stop button” on Audacity. This will of course stop the recording and allow us to go back and edit the song.

The reason we need to edit the song is because there will be periods of silence in both the beginning and end of our recording. This silence is the delay in reaction time it took for us to both start and stop the process.

Using the scrollbar on the bottom of the track window, scroll back to the beginning of the recording as pictured below.

Using the mouse place your cursor as close to the beginning of the song as possible, then click and drag it all the way to the left and release. We have just selected the silence in the front of the track, which we will now discard by pressing the “delete button” on your keyboard.

Now we need to do the same thing for the end of the recording. To do so simply scroll to the end of the track and then select and delete the silence as you did with the beginning of the track. It’s that easy.

From the “File” tab select “Export as MP3″ as shown below.

It will then prompt you to select a name to save it as, which in this case will be “End of Summer.”

After clicking on the “Save” tab, it will then ask you to “locate the LAME MP3 encoder” we just installed.

Hopefully you remember where we just put it but, just in case I’ll show you where to go.

Once this is done it’ll begin to encode the track and turn it into an MP3, the music file type necessary to play on your iPod or whatever media player of choice.

And with this ladies and gentleman the track is ready to go.

Admittedly, configuring the Audacity program to perform as necessary initially takes a little while, but once this is done future recordings or “ripping” of audio files will be a breeze.