Revitalizing the music section

Keenan

Keenan

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FINALIZED SOUNDTRACKS

Download here.

Original post

I've been wanting to rework the music section of the site. This consists of offering more versions of the soundtracks.

Here is the breakdown.
  • Original .AMF files from the games' discs.
  • Converted .MOD files
  • Typical .MP3 format (In 320kbps and 192kbps VBR -2)
  • Lossless .FLAC format (Compression level 8.)

For the .MP3 and .FLAC formats, two options of sets will be available: a single loop version, and a double-loop with fade-out.

I can easily provide all the aforementioned files; the part I need help with is the tagging. To be thorough and complete will take some time, and I want to get the community's feedback and vote on how to go about it. Looking at the original .AMF files within an editor, we can determine the actual names of the songs given by their composer?most of the time, anyway. This is the route I feel we should go as to compiling the music. In addition, labeling each song's name alongside the mission during which they're played would be great.

This is what it would look like for the No Remorse theme.

Filename:
01 - The Traveler [No Remorse Theme].flac

Tagging:
Title: The Traveler [No Remorse Theme]
Artist: Straylight Productions
Album: Crusader: No Remorse soundtrack
Year: 1995
Track: 01
Genre: Video Game
Comment: Downloaded from EchoSector.com -- Crusader site
Composer: Andrew "Necros" Sega

Again, it's up to you guys what the "standard" is for the site, but this is how I would label and organize these.

So, the tasks are:
  • Determine "official" tagging and filename structure for the site's music section.
  • Find out what song plays where. (No Remorse should be easy since they play in order.
  • Examine game .AMF files for proper information. (I can probably do this.)
  • Mass file conversions. (I can do the looped versions.)

So who's up for it?
 
Another thing: Mission 7 and Mission 12's music from No Remorse have always sounded different from the game's .AMF file than from within the game. If anyone can get it sounding like it does in game, you're awesome.

Here are audio samples from the game. Compare them to the ones on the site.

Mission 7

Mission 12

Maybe we need to get the software that Straylight used to compose/edit the music?
 
Indeed, it always sounded "broken" to me.

As far to what plays where, No Regret has more music file than missions. I think the tune switches mid-mission. I can't really tell, I've always played Crusader: No Regret without music as I was introduced to the series through a ripped version (I redeemed myself and bought both Crusader games legit at some point when I discovered a thing called Ebay and PayPal; Crusader - No Regret was my very first Internet purchase ever) and I have done only one play through with my legit copy.

The only thing I remember is that "Ninth Crusade" (Ninth.mod) plays at the start of the first mission and that Phil.mod is the sound test music. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what plays where, I simply need my DosBox screen and winamp running and switch between windows. I can't guarantee I have time for it but I'll try to make some time in the weekend, maybe do a quick play through starting each mission with the command line parameter. That should give me all songs for the mission starts at least.
 
The Silencer link said:
Indeed, it always sounded \"broken\" to me.

As far to what plays where, No Regret has more music file than missions. I think the tune switches mid-mission. I can't really tell, I've always played Crusader: No Regret without music as I was introduced to the series through a ripped version (I redeemed myself and bought both Crusader games legit at some point when I discovered a thing called Ebay and PayPal; Crusader - No Regret was my very first Internet purchase ever) and I have done only one play through with my legit copy.

The only thing I remember is that \"Ninth Crusade\" (Ninth.mod) plays at the start of the first mission and that Phil.mod is the sound test music. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what plays where, I simply need my DosBox screen and winamp running and switch between windows. I can't guarantee I have time for it but I'll try to make some time in the weekend, maybe do a quick play through starting each mission with the command line parameter. That should give me all songs for the mission starts at least.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll look into the strange situation of Mission 7 and 12.
 
Here's the music list I have been able to put together so far. As I thought, the music switches mid mission to a different song:

Sound test: Phil.mod
Main menu: Regret.mod (Traveller remix)
Rebel Base: Phil.mod
Mission 1: Ninth.mod (Ninth Crusade), Space.mod
Mission 2: Phil.mod
Mission 3: Straight.mod, Rhythm.mod
Mission 4: Party.mod, Techno.mod
Mission 5: Demo.mod, Retro.mod
Mission 6: Stint.mod
Mission 7: Mk.mod, M03.mod (from No Remorse, I have no clue why this plays here, I can't find that mod file for No Regret; I just looked on the CD, the No Remorse AMF files are also there!)
Mission 8: Space2.mod, M01.mod
Mission 9: D3, Intent
Mission 10: Space.mod, M13.mod, Metal.mod, Mk.mod M13.mod

These are the songs I found. Note, these songs I haven't encountered: Dark, Distort, Silver, Third

Mission 2 and 6 didn't have a second music song as far as I was able to tell. For some reason, several No Remorse songs played and Space & Mk was played twice.
 
Done, note, I didn't do a full "play through". I moved through the levels with cheats and hack mover. Also I didn't finish all missions, when the songs skipped on earlier missions, I wrote down the change and restarted with command line to the next level. I had a hunch at later levels so I played through levels 7-10 fully. Level 10 changed a few times. It switches to Metal.mod when you enter Draygan's level, switches to MK when you fight him and reverts to M13 when you teleport out.

Some of the mod files have alternative titles in their description:
Demo.mod: End4
Ninth.mod: Ninth Crusade
Retro.mod: Darkened Fantasies
Silver.mod: Carnage & Mayhem
Space: Misc12
 
Fantastic! Thanks for the help.

I might contact Jason Ely, the creator of .AMF, to take a look at the screwed up No Remorse songs. Upon opening them in Foobar, you can see it spread out amongst many different smaller files. For the correct sounding songs, they're all one file.

http://keenanweaver.com/dump/screwedupcrumusic.png

The latest Modplug Tracker makes the music sound all screwed up, too. Maybe some protocol changes occurred or something, but you can't properly listen to the song with it.
 
It might be worth finding out if those four music files (Dark, Distort, Silver, Third) are used at all in the game. It's possible some of the earlier levels have more than one change in music (or perhaps mission 2 and 6 do have a second music part if you take an alternate route). I also wonder why some No Remorse files were re-used.
 
Talked to Jason. Probably will be getting the .AMF source code. This could be really handy. Gonna see if Andrew Sega/Dan Grandpre have any other information/tunes about the Crusader music.

Also, having some weird problems converting .MOD to .FLAC?the volume is incredibly high and adds some static to the output. I'm sort of a Foobar noob, so maybe I have to do some tinkering.

EDIT: Solved the issue of static.

Can anyone go through No Regret and confirm if those songs Silencer listed as played in game?
 
I tried playing those two songs in Modplug as well, as you said, even Modplug can't handle them. I found a amf to mod converter, sadly the output is the same screwed up mod file already available. Hopefully Jason Ely can help.

I would want to volunteer to confirm, but there's no point in my verifying myself; if I made a mistake or overlooked something, I'm bound to repeat that and not catch it. I'm going to give it another try nonetheless, see if I missed something and play through all the level parts this time. I'll just cheat hack move myself through the level again.

However if someone else would do the same, that would be great. I have a weird version for my No Regret (it says 1.06, a legit copy) so maybe someone with version 1.01 gets different results.
 
crumusic.png


Here's the nearly finished No Remorse music. The three files at the bottom either are screwed up (M07, M12) or have no discernible tag info (M16B).

Now, for the ones with info named "Misc. 4", etc., I'm thinking of getting their info from the composer. Hopefully he has "proper" names instead of "misc."

No Regret's isn't going to be as smooth, I think.
 
Got back into this; might have to restructure my method. Compared original ASF and MOD formats across several programs, and sometimes the rips aren't identical. For instance, Ninth Crusade from No Regret ends four seconds early than what is offered on the site. I'm not sure exactly the loop pattern by which the songs follow, so I should figure that out.

Is there any other tracker software that would open ASF files?
 
Great news! Mission 7 and 12 have been fixed with the latest foo_dumb update for foobar. Progress can continue. I'll finish these as soon as I can.

Some questions: What would you guys like the album art to be? I'm thinking just the game manual.
 
The work is finished! I've decided that the official site update will be when the new site is opened, but for now, I've uploaded the MP3 compilation of the soundtracks:

No Remorse [MP3-320CBR] - 178mb
No Regret [MP3-320CBR] - 256mb

I chose to do a single loop with a 10 second fade out. I tagged all I could as accurately as I could. Along with the MP3 versions, I will upload modified .AMF files with the tagging information from the FLAC/MP3 versions. This way, people can employ the benefit of the tags and use a program to create their own files if they wish. Or just listen to the raw AMFs and specify how many loops they want.

The sound quality is a lot better than the ones currently on the site. Hope everyone enjoys these!
 
Downloading them now. Great job mate!

Btw what about this new website and everything. Not sure if you read my reply here - http://cyberionsystems.com/echosector/index.php?topic=1592.msg7988#msg7988

SO any info? Maybe via PM or something?
 
Just letting everyone know I'm redoing this project with better methods. Basically, I want to include every comment that was in the original AMF files, plus add in a track from the demo of No Remorse. Also, tagging will be different.
 
It is complete... again. You can download them in the Music folder here: http://www.mediafire.com/echosector

Tag changes, re-ripped, album art, plus a text file reference.
 
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