vgmrips

(Please note that my english might not be perfect, as it isn't my native language)

Hey everyone! I've made an account to see if someone can help me with this...

I have a music channel on YouTube and I did a KOF 98-styled remix (with samples from that game recorded through Winamp using the VGM Plug-In and Audacity) and I plan to do more on the future. The thing is that I don't have all the samples I need and the process to extract them is VERY tedious and inconvenient (plus the length and quality of the samples vary too much, sometimes these are short and sometimes these are long). Are there any programs that allow me to extract the ADPCM samples and the Delta-T samples from the Neo-Geo VGZ files in a WAV format or something like that? (specifically those from KOF 98).

You should have a look at these converters.

Those only convert sample data though. You need to split them separately afterwards.
You can run the tools on either the ROMs from the ROM set that contain the sample data or on uncompressed VGMs. (rename .vgz to .vgm.gz and use 7z or WinRAR to decompress them)

My post in that topic also has a few details on how to extract samples from VGMs using a hex-editor. Extracting samples from the VGMs first and running the decompression tools on those extracted samples may reduce DC offsets.

Why not have someone someday create a tool for YM2610/YM2610B sample ripping? Not just for Neo-Geo games, but some arcades by Taito and their secondary developers under their umbrella. Even the first Beast Busters arcade was perhaps the only YM2610 game by SNK that's not on Neo-Geo.

The process isn't different for other games.

also, I have an ADPCM codec (encoder / decoder) here that handles most of the ADPCM formats found in VGM files. I recommend splitting the samples before decoding them (or do a test decode first to get the split offsets) , as ADPCM relies on the decoder state being reset at the beginning of each sample.

Hi buddy, that can be done. But at the end depends exactly on how advance is your requirement. On the basis of that I can suggest.

Regards,
Cisa Smith

I'm also interested in this, but the converters are really daunting to an absolute noob. I would gladly rip all the samples myself if someone could give a bit of guidance for dummies

If you don't want to use CLI apps you can use YM2610 Decoder found here. You can load the file and select the ADPCM type. However, if the ADPCM is set to ADPCM-B, you'll need to set the playback frequency. The files you load can have both ADPCM-A and ADPCM-B data.

Hey Dekyo thank you for the tips! I've just downloaded this, also I feel like I may be missing out some steps before using this program.

How exactly do I extract the ADPCM file that is readable by this decoder? Is there a tool to extract them from VGM files or do I need to do it from a ROM somehow?

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but this is a bit advanced for me lol

I usually extract them from the ROMs, but you can also extract it from VGM files (you need to decompress them if they're VGZipped).
If you choose the ROM path, you'll need to know which file has the samples. To find the file that has the ADPCM samples you can rely on the file extension. ADPCM files samples usually have the extension .v[number], i.e. Samurai Shodown V Special (samsh5sp) has two files that correspond to the ADPCM samples, 272-v1.v1 and 272-v2.v2. If the ROMs doesn't have file extension, then you simply need to know that the -v[number] part of the file name means it's the voice data.

Oh my gosh thank you so much!! This is exactly what I was looking for!

The only challenge now will be editing the samples to loop correctly but you just saved me a ton of stress and work

Thanks so much for all the help guys, I have one last question. In noticed that the ADPCM-B samples seem to have a varied HZ for each sample.

My question is, is there any way to know what the rate needs to be set at to not sound like a garbled mess of white noise, or does it just have to be trial and error?

Luckily most of the samples are in the ADPCM-A portion so it's not too much of an issue but would be nice to know.

Yes, ADPCM-A samples are fixed to about 18.5 KHz. The ADPCM-B / Delta-T unit allows for a variable sample rate.

In order to get proper sample rates, I'd probably just make a vgm2txt and then search for "DELTA-T: Playback Prescale"
You can get the internal chip frequency by combining the "Prescale High/Low" values.
results in a chip frequency value of 0x56B2. ("High" = upper 2 digits/high byte, "Low" = lower 2 digits/low byte)
The effective sample rate should be (chip sample rate * frequency value / 0x10000).
So in this example (Y8950 @ 3579545 Hz, sample rate 49716 Hz), we get a sample rate of 16837 Hz

Note: The YM2610's sample rate is going to be different. I had a Y8950 file at hand, so I took that as an example, as the DeltaT unit is the same.