High Quality SNES Soundtracks

[reversalmushroom]

How do you usually get your favorite SNES songs? Recording? Downloading? Winamp? I use Super Jukebox 3.2 for all of my SNES2MP3 needs. Why? Because it gives you a sound quality that you simply don't get from other sources, as those all more-or-less sound the same. This is because the SNES uses filtering on it's audio output and Super Jukebox gives you the option to turn it off. Once you do, the music sounds crisper, and it has this cool ambiance about it; all-around it's of a significantly higher quality than anything you've ever heard before. It's the difference between downloading MP3s and turning Youtube videos into MP3s (although with some games it's not that noticeable).

Now I know what you're thinking ("Super Jukebox, ewww!"), so let me stop you right there. You' re thinking of Super Jukebox 3.1 and Super Jukebox 3.3, which are the versions that everybody hates. There is a big difference between them and 3.2. Aside from 2 minor improvements, 3.3 is nothing but a big step back. It's instability makes it so inconvenient and time consuming to use, and it's nothing short of amazing that Marius Fodor could look at 3.2 and then look at 3.3 and not see any problems, actually be satisfied with the way that it turned out, decide that 3.3 is so adequate that it should be the final version of Super Jukebox, and still be able to delude himself into believing he's a developer. The point I'm trying to make is that 3.2 works just fine and it doesn't crash constantly.

Now that we're all on the same page about ̶M̶a̶r̶i̶u̶s̶ ̶F̶o̶d̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶o̶o̶l̶ which Super Jukebox you should be using, let's discuss the program itself. Super Jukebox 3.2 is without a doubt the best SPC player there is. In addition to the sound quality (which alone would make it the best SPC player out there) it's also easy to use and has a lot of neat features, such as being able to alter pitch, change playback speed, record to WAV, adjust sample rate, choose track and fade-out length, adjust volume, and create playlists. You can also toggle the individual SNES sound channels on or off.

Now let's discuss what you need to do to be on your way to recording your very own library of high quality SNES soundtracks.

1) Go to http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/ and download the desired soundtrack.

2a) The file will have a .RSN file extension, rename it to .RAR; for some reason, that site thought it would be a good idea to rename a file extension that everyone could use to one where people would have to go through the trouble of renaming each file in order to get it to work. If you have multiple files you'd like to rename, download Bulk Rename Utility to change all the file extensions simultaneously (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Download.php). The RAR file is full of files that have a .SPC file extension. SPC files can only be played by SPC players. Remember this.

2b) Super Jukebox can play SPC files that are inside of RAR and ZIP files, but if you'd like to extract them, 7-Zip is a good program (http://www.7-zip.org/).

3) Download Super Jukebox (http://www.4shared.com/rar/uAco9-oR/Sup ... ox_32.html) and extract the contents.

4) Use Super Jukebox to open the desired file(s).

5) You're almost there. Click on "Configure" and change "Interpolation" from whatever setting it's on to "None", and Viola! Now go to "WAV Output", click the "Output to WAV" box, and select the output folder (leaving the "Output with sound" box empty will make the recording/conversion process go by a lot faster). Swift Sound can be used to convert the WAV files into MP3s or WMAs (http://www.nch.com.au/components/switchsetup.exe).

When you hear what your favorite music sounds like now you will s--t a brick, and the hole in the back of your pants will be square-shaped. Before, I thought that my music was perfect (and it isn't bad, but music generated through Super Jukebox just sounds better), but that's because I couldn't compare it to something else. But I'd like to know what you think. Is it better? If so, how much better? Or do you think that your library sounds better the way it is?

[Blitz Lunar]

Super Jukebox, holy blast from the past.

The crispness you are referring to is actually aliasing due to the low sample rates of the samples. If you like how that sounds, that's cool, but most players use some antialiasing/interpolation to smooth out the sound (doesn't necessarily compromise the high end frequencies though.) The SNES does this too, you're right. Both GEP in foobar2000 and SNESamp in Winamp give you various options to change the interpolation and sample rate to your taste, so it isn't anything unique to Super Jukebox per se. To most people, aliased samples are undesirable.

Super Jukebox 3.2 is without a doubt the best SPC player there is

[Citation needed]

In terms of accuracy, there are more modern players that do a better job. Bear in mind that it's very old software and things have moved on quite a bit since. In terms of practicality I'd also beg to differ, as there's a whole raft of things I cannot do in Super Jukebox, which I'll explain.

it's also easy to use and has a lot of neat features, such as being able to alter pitch, change playback speed, record to WAV, adjust sample rate, choose track and fade-out length, adjust volume, and create playlists. You can also toggle the individual SNES sound channels on or off.

fb2k and Winamp's plugins do all this and more. GEP for instance has a visualiser in it similar to Super Jukebox, which is nice ot get all that detailed musical info. Or you can just use typical music visualisers like milkdrop, which I adore. Foobar2000 treats all filetypes the same way, meaning you can also use it with things like Last FM (not even Winamp does this), you can include SNES soundtracks in your media library so you can easily search for all soundtracks you have by a certain composer or franchise (for example), as well as take advantage of fb2k's own powerful tagging and sorting options. Converting to WAV, MP3, FLAC, whatever you want is possible within two clicks as well.

The file will have a .RSN file extension, rename it to .RAR; for some reason, that site thought it would be a good idea to rename a file extension that everyone could use to one where people would have to go through the trouble of renaming each file in order to get it to work.

SPC Tool, Winamp and foobar2000 all work with .RSN. It is just a RAR archive, but since it has a proprietary extension it means you don't have to worry about associating RAR archives with a media player. But then you'd ask, why not extract them? Keeping soundtracks archived not only saves on space but gives you playlists.

Plus, the other very nice thing is I can listen to soundtracks straight from SNESMUSIC without even saving them somewhere first.

If you have multiple files you'd like to rename, download Bulk Rename Utility to change all the file extensions simultaneously

You can do this with a batch command file too! Something like "ren *.rsn *.rar" in a directory will work fine. If you wanna change the filenames themselves from the weird generic titles snesmusic uses, that's possible in foobar as well.

There's really no comparison between a standalone emulated music player and a full size media player, because you can do so much more. Super Jukebox is great if you just want a standalone player that's easily portable, and the sound is customisable and not too bad, but there's no significant advantage over using SPC plugins in larger host software (especially not the versions that crash all the time.)

[reversalmushroom]

[Bregalad]

You're right that Super Jukebox 3.2 unofficial is amazing, and this is all thanks to BootGod who fixed the 3.1 version, not only it fixed the crashes, but also greatly improved the emulation accuracy.

I'm not sure what is the filter you can disable you're talking about. Is it the "Analog Simulation" checkbox ?

And yeah, I have a spc player Winamp plugin which is pretty great, it has equalizer, replays back at a higher sample rate that the real SNES (while most games will be unaffected by this music from a few games, such as Chrono Trigger, actually sounds better at 44.1kHz or 48kHz because the samples are sometimes internally at a higher rate than the nominal 32kHz).

When it comes to dumping wavs, SJ can only dump at the same rate as the music is playing while Winamp can dump a 1 minute wav in like 5 seconds, so you'd probably use winamp unless you feel lazy to change it's configuration.

[reversalmushroom]

I'm not sure what is the filter you can disable you're talking about. Is it the "Analog Simulation" checkbox ?

When it comes to dumping wavs, SJ can only dump at the same rate as the music is playing while Winamp can dump a 1 minute wav in like 5 seconds, so you'd probably use winamp unless you feel lazy too change it's configuration.

"Interpolation" is between "Sample rate" and "Mixing mode". And Super Jukebox records to WAV at least twice as fast when you leave the "Output with sound" check-box empty; but you're right in that Winamp still records the music at a much faster rate.

fb2k and Winamp's plugins do all this and more. GEP for instance has a visualiser in it similar to Super Jukebox, which is nice ot get all that detailed musical info. Or you can just use typical music visualisers like milkdrop, which I adore. Foobar2000 treats all filetypes the same way, meaning you can also use it with things like Last FM (not even Winamp does this), you can include SNES soundtracks in your media library so you can easily search for all soundtracks you have by a certain composer or franchise (for example), as well as take advantage of fb2k's own powerful tagging and sorting options. Converting to WAV, MP3, FLAC, whatever you want is possible within two clicks as well.

Actually, I used to use Winamp, but then I stumbled across Super Jukebox's sound and have been using Super Jukebox ever since. I get the impression that some people don't like that sound and think of it as being low quality. That's fine, but now that I've heard it, other SNES music almost sounds muffled to me, and I don't regard aliased samples as being the same thing as recording the music off my TV with my computer's mic, or turning Youtube videos into MP3s (which I stopped doing years ago). Generally, I tend to dislike filters being put on my music.

Blitz Lunar, when you that say Foobar's and Winamp's plugins can do all those things and more, were you referring to the programs together or individually? Even though Super Jukebox does everything that I want it to do, I might just give Winamp and Foobar another shot. Could you tell me all the plugins that I would need to do all of those things, especially in regards to interpolation, pitch, tempo, and volume, and maybe some instruction, if it's not too much trouble?

PS - Are there any USF players or plugins that allow you to toggle interpolation? If the SNES filters it's own audio, then the N64 probably does the same thing. And I downloaded this MP3 of the Cackletta theme: http://66.90.118.45/soundtracks/mario-l ... -theme.mp3, and it sort of has the same sound that a lack of interpolation will give SNES music. That specific page of music is the only set of GBA songs I've ever heard with that kind of sound about it, so I'd like to know how to achieve that effect with GBA music, as well as NES.

PPS - What do you mean by accuracy? Super Jukebox plays SPCs just fine, there aren't any notes that are cut out or mis-timed.

[Blitz Lunar]

Blitz Lunar, when you that say Foobar's and Winamp's plugins can do all those things and more, were you referring to the programs together or individually? Even though Super Jukebox does everything that I want it to do, I might just give Winamp and Foobar another shot. Could you tell me all the plugins that I would need to do all of those things, especially in regards to interpolation, pitch, tempo, and volume, and maybe some instruction, if it's not too much trouble?

foobar2000 needs foo_gep and foo_unpack. Winamp needs in_snes/SNESamp. I'd say Winamp has more control over sound output (foo_gep annoyingly locks the sample rate at 32KHz, I have tried to get kode54 to change that many times but I don't think he will), and it also has tempo+pitch while foo_gep only has tempo at the moment (although foo_gep does have the Super Jukebox visualiser.) So you might want to give SNESamp a try, if you're particular about the sound.

If the SNES filters it's own audio, then the N64 probably does the same thing

I don't believe so. I imagine the N64 uses higher sample rates anyway. And yeah, NDS and GBA will also be very aliased without interpolation. I have to admit though, with those soundtracks, I prefer the lack of interpolation, because they are a lot muddier than SNES soundtracks when interpolation is enabled, particularly the GBA where the PSG channels sound like ass.

PPS - What do you mean by accuracy? Super Jukebox plays SPCs just fine, there aren't any notes that are cut out or mis-timed.

I just mean the general likeness of the sound output to the SNES itself.
There is also a slight possibility some SPC sets won't play in Super Jukebox, some of the ones that employ hacks to make them work properly. I know this set seems to cause problems on some players.

When it comes to dumping wavs, SJ can only dump at the same rate as the music is playing while Winamp can dump a 1 minute wav in like 5 seconds, so you'd probably use winamp unless you feel lazy to change it's configuration.

Urrrgh, yes, it's okay for the occasional song but doing entire soundtracks that way would be a nightmare.

[Bregalad]

"Interpolation" is between "Sample rate" and "Mixing mode". And Super Jukebox records to WAV at least twice as fast when you leave the "Output with sound" check-box empty; but you're right in that Winamp still records the music at a much faster rate.

Interpolation is not filtering - it is interpolation. You should not mix those things up.

Disabling interpolation is probably a bad idea 'cause those "staircases" sounds really horrible (technically I think it is something like the spectrum repeats itself indefinitely in the frequency domain - in all cases it sounds bad). However cubic interpolation can lead to better quality than the SNES' built-in Gaussian interpolation, especially in the trebles.

I'm also pretty sure my Winamp plugin can change interpolation styles anyways.

If some SPC sets work badly on some players that's probably because of inaccurate SPC emulation, if the SPC uses some rare/obscure instructions.

Another bad effect of poor accuracy is wrong ADSR times, or wrong sample decoding. This was especially notable in Square games, all sound effects were decoded completely wrong and didn't sound nearly the same in the earlier days of SNES emulation.

[P3nエsXpert]

Note: I haven't read the entire thread.

But anyway, wow. I'm surprised that there's someone else in the world still using Super Jukebox. I actually use it too, though I've been using version 3.1 (3.3 was messed up and 3.1 was the only other version I could find).
I've been using it for similar reasons such as it has options that other players didn't seem to have, all the other players I could find (Audio Overload, game music decoder plugin for audacious) seemed to sound very muddy, and the interface is really nice.

I'll probably start using version 3.2 now you've linked it.

[reversalmushroom]

Well, I'm glad that there's at least one person out there that can comprehend Super Jukebox's awesomeness.

There is also a slight possibility some SPC sets won't play in Super Jukebox, some of the ones that employ hacks to make them work properly. I know this set seems to cause problems on some players.

Emerald Dragon is one such set.

[Blitz Lunar]

P3nエsXpert: is that on Linux or Windows, out of interest? (presumed it was Windows-only; if it is Linux then I can certainly see the appeal vs. the other players.)

[P3nエsXpert]

Blitz Lunar: Yeah, I've been running it on Linux through wine.

[reversalmushroom]

Have you begun using 3.2 yet? Does it have any improvements over 3.1?

[P3nエsXpert]

Yes, it has some improvements. Most notable is the "SPC ports" thing in the control panel (ctrl+6). I've had hours of fun sending random values and observing the effects.

[reversalmushroom]

What do the SPC ports do?

[reversalmushroom]

Quick question: Is it possible to transfer save files and savestates between different versions of SNES9X? I put the data I tried loading the data generated whilst using version 1.51 into version 1.53 and it won't load it. It keeps saying "File not in SNES9X snapshot format". How do I make my old old save data work in the new SNES9X?

PS - The actual save data is the file with the .SRM extension, right?