Ripping MIDIs from GBA games

[Dr. Tremolo]

Hmm, I might use of of those programs too.
I tried ripping music directly from the rom of Lego Island 2 on GBA (another nostalgic game that probably no one but me cares about) with some program once but it came out as a jumbled mess of sounds from hell.

 

[Silver]

I've ripped complete soundtracks from GBA ROMs several times.

I used this guide: http://www.vg-resource.com/thread-21591.html

However I think for my unpacker I also used: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dragonunpacker/

You can also extract sound effects as a SF2 file. Have fun.
If you still have trouble I could do it for you when I get some free time. Let me know.

That's GBAMusRiper isn't it? As far as I can tell that specific program only works on games with the Sappy engine.

 

[Splendid]

Yeah, the problem here is that these games were some of the few GBA games that didn't use this specific sound engine, and nobody really seems to give a shit about these games. The sounds are probably going to have to be removed manually by recording the game's audio while playing it in an emulator. The trick is to get rid of the sound effects, which a good emulator might allow. Like I said, I'll look into it tomorrow and tell you if it's feasible.

 

[Silver]

The problem is, recording directly from the emulator isn't going to work in this case. See, what I'm trying to do is upload the soundtracks from all four localized Hamtaro games to Youtube. For the GBC game Ham-Hams Unite, I did just that, record all the tracks directly from the emulator, crop out unnecessary stuff and then upload it to Youtube. The problem with the Ham-Ham Games soundtrack is that there's, like, at least twenty ambient soundtracks that play in the overworld and I have 0 idea what they all are. To make things worse, they're not given titles in-game. Well, they are, in the sense that you can do a function where you can pick from a list of songs and it will change the music. But it doesn't change the music to something with that title, it just randomizes it. And the ones you can pick are not all the songs that can play as ambient background music. So I feel like I need to get the soundtrack ripped directly just to be sure I have every song, and maybe even the titles as they are in the data for them. I could do it myself but it'd probably turn out very unprofessional and probably lacking compared to the other two soundtracks I uploaded, and the titles will be really wrong which I'm picky about. That's why I'm here asking for soundtrack rips and not info on how to record directly from emulator - I already know how to do that. :/

 

[Splendid]

The problem is, recording directly from the emulator isn't going to work in this case. See, what I'm trying to do is upload the soundtracks from all four localized Hamtaro games to Youtube. For the GBC game Ham-Hams Unite, I did just that, record all the tracks directly from the emulator, crop out unnecessary stuff and then upload it to Youtube. The problem with the Ham-Ham Games soundtrack is that there's, like, at least twenty ambient soundtracks that play in the overworld and I have 0 idea what they all are. To make things worse, they're not given titles in-game. Well, they are, in the sense that you can do a function where you can pick from a list of songs and it will change the music. But it doesn't change the music to something with that title, it just randomizes it. And the ones you can pick are not all the songs that can play as ambient background music. So I feel like I need to get the soundtrack ripped directly just to be sure I have every song, and maybe even the titles as they are in the data for them. I could do it myself but it'd probably turn out very unprofessional and probably lacking compared to the other two soundtracks I uploaded, and the titles will be really wrong which I'm picky about. That's why I'm here asking for soundtrack rips and not info on how to record directly from emulator - I already know how to do that. :/

That's actually a pretty big problem. Getting those soundtracks would involve dissasembling the entire game and looking for the soundtracks. If the game uses an audio engine that includes some sort of headers to indicate where tracks are, how long they are, etc, then it still might be possible to get the sound out, but that's not guaranteed. And I doubt that anyone's going to be interested in a full dissasembly. You could try asking at a specialist GBA hacking forum, they might have some ideas. We're getting into the point where you need some pretty in-depth knowledge of the GBA to proceed.

Did you ever figure out what audio engine the game uses?

 

[DH 384]

If it's on an undocumented engine, then I really don't know what to tell you - The Sappy engine's already known to a point where the program Glaive linked can output better quality than the actual GBA and other sound drivers have specific tools, but at this point the only way to see if it's possible is to figure out the audio engine. If it's the same as one that has tools to rip from it then you might be able to adapt some tools to rip from the Hamtaro game.

Otherwise, you're pretty much out of luck. GBA music ripping is a lot different than how it works for SNES SPC, N64, PS1, or even Genesis FM ripping, even though it logically should be a lot similar. There's a lot less hardware documentation and the reason Sappy is so doable is because the file format has been reverse-engineered to straight-up midi files. I'm not so sure you're going to be able to get much help, either: did any of the Hamtaro games really have a fanbase?

 

[Silver]

Very little fanbase, which is the reason I feel it's My Civic Duty to upload the soundtracks since *nobody else has*

 

[Silver]

Anyway if there's anyone who wants to help me out with this. I don't know what sound engine the games use (indeed, I don't know what sound engines are options beyond Sappy and Krawall) but a friend is going to help me check for Krawall later today so I'll report on that later.

It should also be noticed that I don't need the soundtrack from Rainbow Rescue ripped as much as I need Ham-Ham Games. Listing Rainbow Rescue was only so I could see if I could get a shortcut in the form of ripping, since I've only played that game once and don't have an idea of how many tracks are in the game. But that doesn't mean I can't make my own soundtrack recorded off the emulator, it just means it will take longer. But really, the only game I really need ripped is Ham-Ham Games.

If it helps any, both games were made by Alpha Dream, the same company responsible for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Which does run on Sappy but the point is it's not a completely obscure studio which means maybe the sound engine won't be completely obscure either.

 

[Splendid]

Anyway if there's anyone who wants to help me out with this. I don't know what sound engine the games use (indeed, I don't know what sound engines are options beyond Sappy and Krawall) but a friend is going to help me check for Krawall later today so I'll report on that later.

It should also be noticed that I don't need the soundtrack from Rainbow Rescue ripped as much as I need Ham-Ham Games. Listing Rainbow Rescue was only so I could see if I could get a shortcut in the form of ripping, since I've only played that game once and don't have an idea of how many tracks are in the game. But that doesn't mean I can't make my own soundtrack recorded off the emulator, it just means it will take longer. But really, the only game I really need ripped is Ham-Ham Games.

If it helps any, both games were made by Alpha Dream, the same company responsible for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Which does run on Sappy but the point is it's not a completely obscure studio which means maybe the sound engine won't be completely obscure either.

We really can't do anything if it's an undocumented engine. If it is, you're going to have to ask at a specialist forum or try asking the studio itself. The game is pretty old and stuff, so some ex-employee might be willing to help you out.

 

[Silver]

Update: it's not GAX. Still checking for Krawall.

@Splendid Meat Sticks : Contacting the studio would probably be helpful. Unfortunately, AlphaDream is a Japanese company and doesn't seem to have an English section on their website so I don't know how far I can go with that.