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by ArcticJaguar725 at 12:37 PM EST on February 23, 2021
I can provide an example of the track differences here. I've taken 6:00 AM and compared the result of the dump I compiled together before with the dump from the actual game. You'll notice the reverb effect is fairly subtle overall, but IMO it does make it a lot more pleasing to listen to. I chose this track because it's easier to notice through an A to B comparison, so it might not matter nearly as much for some other tracks. That being said, it is these subtle, less noticeable effects that can make a track that much better.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/7o71z3tzb98c01c/ACCF_-_6_AM.zip/file

I'm still not sure if there's an easier way to get proper dumps of these tracks without doing it through the main game. I don't foresee myself doing another full game dump like the first one, but I can at least leave you with a BRSAR that I made a while ago that has its sound effects wiped: http://www.mediafire.com/file/hknb7fwd20ndm2c/rv_forest_%2528no_sfx%2529.brsar/file

If you do mess around with this, let me know if you run into any issues or need help along the way, and I'll see if I have any more insight. :)

edited 12:38 PM EST February 23, 2021
by ArcticJaguar725 at 12:51 PM EST on February 23, 2021
Also quick note on the phase inverted track in the example. Even if it may sound like it, that's not a misalignment that you're hearing; that's the actual reverb effect itself.
by Chubby_Bub at 4:37 AM EST on February 24, 2021
Alright, here's something weird: I checked with a midi I got using hex editing and rseq2midi (which I've found to be more accurate than VGMTrans), and not only does the track have reverb, it has more reverb: https://mega.nz/file/XGo0DYCB#8zZiO5LTPyAq1z5T4t66rSo7TTM8ANUe1Wl3weBuI1w
by ArcticJaguar725 at 6:38 PM EST on February 24, 2021
It looks to me on my end that the reverb effect is actually linked to the soundfont itself and not the actual MIDI. I'm admittedly not exactly sure how that works, but maybe there's a way to find the accurate reverb data by looking at the game's bank information rather than the sequence.

Regardless, the MIDI+sf2 combo has some other issues, like poorly timed note releases and a bunch of other things. The MIDIs are really nice to have as a reference, but I don't see them being ideal for creating proper rips for listening purposes.
Missing Tracks by Golden_winged at 7:30 PM EST on February 28, 2021
Hello everyone! I happen to also be in the process of compiling the City Folk lossless OST using the files here and retagging and organizing them. I've been at it on and off for a couple of weeks now. I can't thank ArcticJaguar725 enough for their work with this soundtrack! In this process, I've noticed a few things when comparing ArcticJaguar725's files to PieJee1's ACCF soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/user/PieJee1).

There are a handful of tracks missing from ArcticJaguar725's, the most notable of which is the Bunny Day music (https://youtu.be/RIF04kCDP7A) that plays when the player approaches Zipper T. Bunny during the Bunny Day (Easter) event. Using VGMTrans, I've extracted every single MIDI, DLS, SF2, and WAV from the BRSAR, and I've been in the process of sorting these MIDIs with their banks into named folders, but as with some game music, I have been unable to find the Bunny Day music. It could be in there, as the file names are confusing, but I haven't seen it so far. It is in PieJee1's OST (in the comments he says he recorded in-game with a muted town tune).

The Museum (Bugs) track is missing (https://youtu.be/4pN3PkJSFyM). I think this is because the track is exactly the same as the Museum (Fish) track (https://youtu.be/XZ3CWbXh-Xw), so it was probably omitted intentionally (though I think it should still be included).

There are also some files that I found are missing but it's probably fine, as these may not belong in the OST anyway. The Channel Intro (https://youtu.be/ol6q4GE1Cc0) track, I could not find this so far in the files I extracted from ACCF, so I'm not sure where a lossless source for this would be. The Default Town Tune (https://youtu.be/lGICFxtOi3c), The City (New Hour) (https://youtu.be/oHq_ElGId5I), 10 TV tracks (one example: https://youtu.be/usFDyUQzogY), and 7 furniture tracks including Pinball Machine, Music Box, Master Sword, Triforce, Metroid, Starwing, and Pikmin (one example: https://youtu.be/gfvtGyUEBCo).

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts! Sorry for my lengthy post, I have a lot to say about this topic!

edited 11:48 PM EST February 28, 2021
by Chubby_Bub at 3:49 AM EST on March 1, 2021
So actually, ArcticJaguar725 did rip most of those tracks, but they were provided in this thread. Only the music box isn't lossless. I managed to get the .elf method they used working the other day, and also found all the tracks you mentioned, so they can be dumped.

I'd also invite both of you (and anyone else interested) to join the Animal Crossing Modding Discord server, where we have a channel dedicated to our project for creating comprehensive soundtracks for not only ACCF but all games in the series. (New Leaf is almost done!) (Edit: as a note I feel I should mention this is not the main focus of the server, in fact if anything that's the ongoing translation of the Japan-only Doubutsu no Mori e+. But it is still one of the server's projects and you will no doubt be welcome there.)

While the BRSAR dumps have no doubt proven valuable, with this project I believe we will be recording in-game using the modified BRSAR for most tracks, because, as has been demonstrated, there is a significant difference, at least for some tracks. In my opinion, it will be tedious, but it will be worth it.

edited 3:56 AM EST March 1, 2021
by Golden_winged at 11:20 PM EST on March 1, 2021
Chubby Bub, ok, I'm dumb, lol. I actually did find that thread in my searches but I was mostly interested in reading about ArcticJaguar725's "sketchy methods" and didn't read the whole thing. But I see now! And I definitely agree about recording in-game (or in-emulator). Making recordings using the MIDIs and soundbanks clearly has innumerous problems (not to mention it apparently is not truly lossless, according to Arctic). I joined the Discord! I hope to see this project reach a completion.

edited 3:50 AM EST March 2, 2021
by ArcticJaguar725 at 11:44 PM EST on March 1, 2021
Okay, I've done some more close research, and it looks like the reverb and other effect information probably isn't even stored in the brsar. While I don't know this for certain, I think what we need is contained somewhere deep in the actual game's code, likely somewhere in the main.dol. I am pretty sure if we could find a way to disassemble the code and grab the reverb parameters being used for the BGM, we should also be able to replicate it perfectly using the dvdroot method.

Problem is, that's way easier said than done. I have some experience hex editing and writing my own Gecko codes for use with Dolphin, but I think it may be a bit beyond me at this time to disassemble this game's code and find what I need. If anybody else is experienced enough to take a shot at it, that would be extremely helpful to getting these rips, since getting every last piece of BGM through normal game dumps really can't be too fun either.


EDIT: It's probably also worth mentioning I believe this is the case for every single Wii game that uses a brsar with sequences. This means an xsf format would probably not fix the Reverb/FX issues either unless somebody generated the files considering said game's code file as well.


EDIT 2: For anyone that decides to look into this further, here are some keywords to look out for:

• FxBase
• FxReverbHi
• FxReverbStd
• FxChorus
• FxDelay

I'm not sure if the last three are used at all in ACCF, but the first two are definitely present in some form. You can trace them somewhat either through a memory editor in Dolphin or by hex editing the main.dol file. What I need is the parameters associated with the first two classes, and that should be sufficient (hopefully). There are some other details related to the effects like auxillary outputs, but that in itself is less important.

edited 12:13 AM EST March 2, 2021
by Chubby_Bub at 2:52 AM EST on March 2, 2021
This tool for Ghidra could possibly prove useful. It can disassemble .rel and .dol files. While it is mainly for GameCube, I’m pretty sure it will work with Wii games.
by ArcticJaguar725 at 4:25 PM EST on March 2, 2021
So I finally managed to figure out where the reverb parameters were stored in memory, and I was able to translate them over to the dvdroot application. Although I did ultimately find them via hex editing the memory of Dolphin, the Ghidra disassembly ended up being still helpful for getting info, so thank you for bringing the GameCube extension to my attention. Anyway, to replicate the effect using the dvdroot, you will need to set the AuxA-0 effect to REVERB HI and set the parameters as follows:



In the SoundArchivePlayer, you will also need to navigate to SEND PARAMS and set 'fx send a' to 0.25.


I have verified through phase inversion that these parameters do in fact match the dump of the game exactly. There are only a couple of issues left to deal with. The first issue is that I don't know with certainty that these parameters never change. I've tried using them on a few random tracks and found them all to match, but I don't know if say, some of the K.K. Slider stuff is different for example. If you come across something that you think might possibly use different parameters, I would recommend trying a phase version just to verify that it is indeed the same. If it is, you can probably safely assume everything else related will match.

The second thing that I'm worried about is getting the channel information. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the channel information (for things like rain, snow, etc.) is stored in the form of code rather than in the BRSAR. However, I still have a text file I preserved here that contains said information. The problem with this text file is it was created through careful listening rather than a proper dump, so don't take it completely for granted. I would expect it to be at least 99% correct, but it's not impossible that I missed something in there.


So even with the discovery of the reverb parameters, I still don't know if I have it in me to do another full game dump on my own. At the very least, I hope this will benefit anybody that does attempt to make a proper music dump of the game, and I'll hopefully still be around here every so often if anybody wants to ask me anything else. :)

edited 5:06 PM EST March 2, 2021

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