Music Help?!

Discussion in 'Discussion and Q&A Archive' started by TheHated, Dec 3, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    Dear... well... Anyone...

    I need extreme help with the music for my new hack. I am too inexperienced to do this, for I am 13 years old. My hack is OK... currently a palette/level hack, but stuff like Sonic in Eggland and even The Hack of Shame had music edited.

    If anyone can help me with either a simple tool that ports music from .bin to .bin, or if anyone can hack in music for me, that would be a great help!

    From, that incredibly stupid 13 year-old, with love,

    Josef Master. :)
     
  2. fdswerty

    fdswerty Well-Known Member Member

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2013
    Messages:
    138
    You know, changing music ain't really too hard but ain't too easy either, but I'll drop a few links if you'd like to know how to work with music;
    MarkeyJester's SMPS guide
    The music hacking guide at Retro
     
    Now, looking for a good tool for porting music? I'd recommend using SMPSConv, which makes acceptable ports, but they need a bit of PSG and DAC fixing depending on which song you've ported.

    Good luck, and I hope this information helps you.
     
  3. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,372
    Location:
    your mom
    Here is a guide for music hacking.

    There is also the Music Pointer Fixer, which is a tool that fixes music to be ported to other games. There is a guide on how to use it on the page. In the music hacking guide, go here for music locations.

    EDIT: @Electroball, SMPSConv is great for porting S3K and S3D into S1, but he may want to port music from Sonic 2 to Sonic 1, or vice versa.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  4. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    Music Pointer Fixer doesn't work for some inane reason.

    Although, thanks for the reference.

    It should be noted I'm hacking Sonic 2, which I've heard is notoriously hard to convert music to.
     
  5. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,372
    Location:
    your mom
    Try porting music to Sonic 1 first, then work your way up so you can port Music to Sonic 2. The Sonic 1 sound driver is very easy to work with, so start with that. It's a nice way to begin hacking music.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  6. fdswerty

    fdswerty Well-Known Member Member

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2013
    Messages:
    138
    The music in Sonic 2 is Saxman-compressed, so after porting the song, you'll need to compress it into Saxman format using a tool like The Sega Data compressor.
     
  7. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    Maybe I'm just not cut out for hacking. 

    I think I'll just quit this thing.
     
  8. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,372
    Location:
    your mom
    Music Pointer Fixer doesn't work for some inane reason.

    Although, thanks for the reference.

    It should be noted I'm hacking Sonic 2, which I've heard is notoriously hard to convert music to.




    It does work, I just did it right now. I ported GHZ music to Sonic 2. Just do what Electroball said, compress the music to saxman. Plus, if you get a error that says that the music goes over $8000, try to make room. For me, I just commented out the MTZ and made the pointer point to the EHZ (GHZ) music.

    Comment out or delete: 


    Mus_MTZ: BINCLUDE "sound/music/MTZ.bin"
    and go to MusicPoint2 and change:


    MusPtr_MTZ: rom_ptr_z80 Mus_MTZ
    to:


    MusPtr_MTZ: rom_ptr_z80 Mus_EHZ
    You should then hear GHZ in EHZ (and MTZ).

    Make sure that S1 to S2F is chosen and that the addresses are scanned and that S2F voice conversion and Tempo fix is checked in Music Pointer Fixer.

    EDIT: Just keep trying, don't give up, try try again.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  9. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    It keeps saying crap about Channel Setups and stuff...

    I don't know how to fix that.
     
  10. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,372
    Location:
    your mom
    Are looking at the music guide? If you are, then that is for music hacking in general. You want to port music, so you don't need that for this. Like I said above, that is how you use Music Pointer Fixer, when porting S1 music to S2F.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  11. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    Screw it, I'll just keep it as a level/palette hack.

    It's way to complicated for me.
     
  12. JoenickROS

    JoenickROS ROS (bug fixing in progress) Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2012
    Messages:
    929
    or you could use Alriightyman's: Flamewings Sonic 3 driver in Sonic 2 guide, its in the submission forums under tutorials. Sorry I cant provide a link, the website isn't working correctly for me. It can play music from any of the 4 games in asm format, among other things.
     
  13. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    Maybe someone could put it in for me?

    PLEASE?

    PLEASE?!
     
  14. rika_chou

    rika_chou Adopt Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2007
    Messages:
    689
    Do it yourself. Following a tutorial isn't difficult, just takes some time and is actually a good way to start learning how things work.

    Hacking these games to make something worthwhile takes effort. You shouldn't automatically give up whenever you get to a bump in the road. Also, you don't need to have new music to make a good hack.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  15. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,372
    Location:
    your mom
    If we do it for you, you won't learn. Please, we are trying to HELP you. We won't make the music for you. Let me go through how to port Sonic 1 music to Sonic 2:

    1. Open Music Pointer Fixer and load up the Sonic 1 song you're trying to port.

    2. Click on the 'S1 to S2F' option.

    3. Press 'SCAN'. Choose the format 'SONIC 1' (It should already be chosen), you should get a bunch of addresses in the list.

    4. Check 'S2F voice conversion' and 'Tempo fix' (sometimes S2F voice conversion doesn't work)

    5. Press 'FIX' and save it somewhere.

    6. Get the Sega Data Compressor and open it. Go under 'Compress' and press 'Saxman'.

    7. Load the converted music from Music Pointer Fixer into 'Source Data', choose your destination file to save.

    8. Keep 'No Size (Snd Driver)' unchecked and press 'Compress', you should get your Sonic 2 song ready to be used. Look up 7 posts and you should see how to make room for that song.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
  16. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester ♡ ! Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2009
    Messages:
    2,867
    Don't be discouraged by the heavy learning curve, it's definately worth going for.

    You will fail multiple times, there's no doubt about that, but it's when you fail that you'll begin to understand "why" it doesn't work the way you want it to. Using that, you'll then be able to understand the right way of doing things, and then eventually better ways of doing things. It's a slow progression though I won't lie, but definately worth it.

    Take your time.
     
  17. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2008
    Messages:
    1,902
    Location:
    italy
    What MarkeyJester said.


    Sometimes I wonder if I should post a VGM of the first song I ever converted when I was developing xm2smps, but doing so would result into me being moved to Exile here and to Misfit on Sonic Retro guilty of permanently damaging your ears, and I don't want that.
     
  18. TheHated

    TheHated Newcomer Exiled

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2013
    Messages:
    19
    Location:
    Land of the Exiled
    SWEET BLOODY HELL. I finally did it, And I think that I'm almost dead, but I did it!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.