Extracting Lyrics in One Winged Angel

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apz freak

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Okay, I'm not trying to be one of the constant question asking masses, but...

Is it possible to use FF7 Music or some other program to extract a single track from a psf? Like just the trumpets or, in my case, just the choir in One Winged Angel? I know that I'm proibably waisting you time, but I'm wondering if it's possible? I'm not the one with the programming flair. :oops: (Well, I'm sure it could be done, but I'm asking if it's possible for you guys to do this) 8)

I'm sure that it could be done, another question I'm asking is... has it been done? I know that playstation uses samples to generate the music the same as midi, except that midi always uses the default midi device.

I'm a midi sequencer, audio mixer, and musician. So I know full well the real difference between midi and audio. Audio is soft of FINAL, in the case of no musical information is stored in an mp3. The notes that are played, what key it's in, what the individual notes are... Audio doesn't offer this information, it's a waveform. Like real soundwaves in real life coming from a guitar, of course you know it's a certain note or chord, but the air doesn't tell you what it's time signature is! Midi is soft of... interactive sheet music. All the information that you can read from sheet music is saved in a midi file. (That's why it's preposterous and impossible to convert mp3 to midi, or mp3 to psf, but it IS possible to to bring midi and psf to mp3!)

Now to my point! I'm involved with a musical project that I'm completely rendering game music to the point where it sounds like it was played live. I know it sounds crazy but check THIS out, you can see that I'm not! THIS is the battle music from FF7, and I freakin LOVE this man! :D I can listen to it over and over again!

You can also check out my version of Motorcycle Chase HERE

But I'm requesting a way to get the choir from One Winged Angel, so that I can mix it and use it in a similar creation using Sephiroth's famous, awesome theme song.

Of course, if nobody's able to extract it, or has a program that can... please tell me right now! :wink: Thank you for your time!
 
Maybe I am not sure what the problem is.

The personal-computer version comes with SoundFonts that any Sound Blaster® Live! card (or any card capable of SoundFont technology) can open and allow you the user to play with your own external MIDI devices.

You just open the sf2 files and play the choirs by hitting notes on your keyboard (and I mean your digital music synthesizer keyboard).


In regards to your project.
I know you are very excited about it but take a step back and let the fog of enthusiasm clear.
Listen carefully to the battle song ask yourself, unsubjectively, if it sounds “real”.
The dynamics will need adjusting.  Specifically with how the instruments are played.  Right now, every instrument is as flat as they are in the original MIDI.  Real musicians hit notes at different velocities and slightly off the exact beat tick.
The sound quality will need to be higher—the instruments don’t sound real.
The reverb is inappropriate.  There are many types of reverb and a good digital music synthesizer will allow you to change every parameter of every type fo reverb.  This reverb sounds like “Stage” reverb turned up to its max.

The biggest oddity is the dynamics, however.
If my site was up, I could post an example you could use to study as an example of digital music that sounds absolutely real.


L. Spiro
 
Well, even if it does not sound totally 'real', it does sound like a slight improvement on the original.

What I would absolutely love is a remix of the main Shinra theme music (which plays whenever the President/Rufus is talking and stuff).

I've got one remix called Antitrust by SubstN, but it's very industrial/technological remix and it doesn't sound very appropriate for board-room meetings or confronting Rufus on top of the Shinra building.  I love everything Shinra and would like the to have the same tune but a little more 'real' sounding rather than sounding totally synthesised.

A remix of the Mako reactor music would be pretty cool - I've got a couple but they change the original sound too much and it no longer sounds appropriate for inside a Mako reactor!  Just using the tune to make a whole new sort of song, really.  The Turks music is my other favourite.
 
The personal-computer version comes with SoundFonts that any Sound Blaster® Live! card (or any card capable of SoundFont technology) can open and allow you the user to play with your own external MIDI devices.
Click to expand...

First off Spiro, I'd like to say that I'm very pleased with your REAL ACTUAL CONSTRUCTIVE criticism :D Which is more than I can say of most anything I've ever asked on the web. PERIOD!

Hmmm, very interesting, but I'm not sure exactly what your trying to say here. I'm looking for a way to extract the samples used in the playstation midi-type file. If I wanted a basic choir I could have used the program I ran the song through. I'm pretty well versed in this already, and I know what you talking about perfectly, but exactly how does it pertain to my question? If your talking about some-how rigging an external midi device to read playstation samples, I'd like to know more about it! But if that's not your meaning then I'm at a loss.

Really all my question was is... Is there a way to get the recording of the choir from One Winged Angel separate from the rest of the song. Tangible, so that I can use it. Since playstation uses it's own sampling system, the choir samples are obviously stored in the file. (and because of that I can see why the there aren't a ton of lyrics) :P

But really thanks for your input!

Listen carefully to the battle song ask yourself, unsubjectively, if it sounds “real”.
The dynamics will need adjusting. Specifically with how the instruments are played. Right now, every instrument is as flat as they are in the original MIDI. Real musicians hit notes at different velocities and slightly off the exact beat tick.
Click to expand...

Ahh, yes you hit the spot right there, but of course admittedly maybe I was a bit blunt to get my point across. Call it arrogence! 8)  But I must say that I'm fully aware of dynamics and note pitch and also the sampling quality. While I certainly am exited! :D  I'm also very analytical and self-judgemental. Looking at my songs unsubjectivly is actually something I'm very persistent about. This is a stepping-stool, and a learning arc. Hardly a finished product in my eyes, yet I cannot deny my enthusiasm. I accept your point with a smile! Finally somebody that knows what the hell they are talking about! And alot more than me! :)

Soundfonts, I've never heard any that I liked, or anything that used them to the quality I'm looking for without dishing out allot of cash. I know the awesome ones sound great if I had money to spend on it! If you have any suggestions, please! I would be happy to look into it! (Ironically the reverb in the soundfonts creations I've heard is usually the thing that turns me off, too much, oversaturated)

As far as the reverb in the song is concerned, wow! I find it pleasing, but really what do I know? It's an attempt at mimicking and imitating the recordings of my favorite orchestral pieces. Which aren't by todays standards professionally recorded and mixed. I listen to the the local classical station quite often. I find this interesting! (and I'm powerfully invigorated by this)

If I really wanted to finish the fighting song though, I would not use grouped (Strings) or grouped (Brass) instrumental samples because they are not as pleasing as the right notes played from the right instruments. and of course I would use the exported high quality 320kb/s waveforms, and not the 128kb/s compressed lossy mp3's that are used to mix down. Not to mention the tweaking of the raw data to include natural vibrato, decay, pressure time, and velocity of notes... such things don't happen by themselves digitally... :sigh: The samples I use are actually taken from real life recordings of instruments, and more than one recording is used for any one instrument in the natural range it is to be played. The problem for me consist of my not agreeing with nearly all of the brass samples -_-

In any case, you obviously know more than I do! But I'm confident in my capibility, and just to let you know that I'm learning with every step! I have an open mind for suggestions, I'd like to see that example of digital music that sounds really real! :wink:

Well NeoS, threadjack accepted! :D Awesome job man! How'd you go about getting it? Tweaking out the certain frequencies? That's always hard!

Mod Edit: You've already edited your post 4 times, so why did you double-post anyway?
 
In regards to getting the sounds off the PlayStation version, no.
I would not suggest that.
All you need is lb2.SF2 (C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\midi\sf2\lb2.SF2) from the computer version.
Then a SoundFont-enabled card.
I am sure someone here can upload that file for you; I can not because my site is down, and I am very angry about that.  It goes down without warning and people are wondering where to get my software.

If you still could not get it to work, I WOULD be able to just record the voices (just the voices and nothing else) into a .wav and send it, but my Sound Blaster Live! and Sound Blaster Audigy II cards are in America and I don’t have sound fonts on my computers in Thailand.

Get again, just borrow someone’s file and play the voices.


For now I guess I have no choice but to use mirex’s bin.
http://bin.mypage.sk/FILES/RealityTV[1].rar
It is not the style you want but there are elements you should be able to borrow and use to make your digital recordings sound great.
One thing to note is the clarity of the sounds.
They seem to jump into your ear.
This is very difficult to achieve, and especially since you aren’t willing to put forth some major bucks.
I’ve never heard any sound fonts I’ve liked and personally have little faith in them, but that is just me.
But it seems you will be stuck with them since they are certainly better than the MIDI devices that come standard on sound cards.
One very irritating thing though is that many sound fonts are inconsistent in their quality throughout the various patches they include and even worse is trying to find two sound fonts that collectively have the sounds you want, but are of the same quality as well.

But unfortunately I can’t help you with sound fonts.
Because of these annoyances I have distanced myself from them over several years and no longer know where one would go to find them aside from Google.


L. Spiro
 
if there are soundfonts to look for, I think some of the more famous ones are personal copy 51 (pc51c) and Fluid (this is from back in 2001/2 when I was looking for soundfonts.) Personal Copy weighs in at about 50Megs, and Fluid at about 150megs.
Not sure what is hip at the moment though or what is best suited to FF7PC
 
Well apz freak, I think its great what you are doing, and best of luck in your project.  One program that may give you the ease of use and sound quality you are looking for is a little program called fruity loops.  It is easy to find and purchase on the internet, or by other means   :wicked: ....such as purchasing it from a local guitar center!  :wink:   Anyways you can make full tracks using sound bits from any wav mp3 or others source file with the right plugins.  Best of all there is a great community online that create and distribute free addon syth, beats, and effects packs for free!  Maybe you're an uber l33t dj and know of this program and scoff at the idea, but hey just thought I would put that out there.  Let me know what you think and once again good luck in your project!  :D
 
Really, Thank you all for your advice. :love:

Thank you Otokoshi, I actually own Fruity Loops 4, and I kind of neglect it due to it's less than sheet music oriented format. Plus I have a program that already has all the sounds I need! I need only to find to RIGHT way to use them.  :P An uber l33t DJ huh? Check THIS out. It's actually not all that written though, lol. I used loops, but I like it! (Hey, come on, I had to stretch and bend and alter them!... yeah! lol )

Yeah, I don't really trust soundfonts either. Infact, I think Spiro that we both agree on that point completely!!! I actually use a French sequencer program called Melody Assistant that uses it's own sound effect database (of course it costs money, but it was cheap!) instead of standard midi, and I do not not use the standard midi device. The trick is formatting the notes in the program to play correctly. Which as you know is not a given!  :roll: Or when I mix the single tracks down, I could tweak them even farther (and a lot easier and not as time consuming) For now anyways, I've put my faith in them, and it seems that the possibilities are great. You need only to know how to use them appropriatly. but Yes, sounds jumping at you is not something these samples have the distinct quality of. But they really do fool most people, I've found, if you only spend the time! (The brass is my only conplaint so far)

In regards to getting the sounds off the PlayStation version, no.
I would not suggest that.
All you need is lb2.SF2 (C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\midi\sf2\lb2.SF2) from the computer version.
Then a SoundFont-enabled card.
I am sure someone here can upload that file for you; I can not because my site is down, and I am very angry about that. It goes down without warning and people are wondering where to get my software.
Click to expand...
Thank you Spiro, that is exactly what I needed to hear, and exactly the answer I was looking for! Ahh, I don't have the PC FFVII, or a Soundfont enabled card....  :isee:  unfortunatly... I'm actually using a 'temporary' computer until I can save the money to buy one of my own, then I'll add to it from there! If someone would be able to record the voices for me, I would be in your debt. If no one can or has the time, I'll live! 8)  Sorry about your site. I'll check into it when you get it up! lol I noticed it said that your location is in Thailand!

Thanks guys!
 
apz  freak: I loaded a lowpass and a highpass filter and raised the high frequencies a bit, while lowering the volume on the low frequencies. Then I used a compressor to tune in on the high frequencies of the vocals and, voila. You can still hear the original music throughout the mix though, so it's not that great. The secrect of this mix is the music overrules the vocals a bit, because I also compressed the mix apart from the vocals.
That's it. (Working on a CT remix now, by the way. :wink: )
 
yeah that's what alwasy happens when tuning into certain frequencies. Ya know? I was filtering this terrible recording of a live concert, and I found that after editing this one song, he hilariously was singing ... uhhh.. naughty words. :roll: But you couldn't tell until I cleaned it up! :wink:
 
Actually I have shifted to a new site (http://www.memoryhacking.com/index.php) however I can not upload the voices because my work computer does not handle SoundFont technology.
I can not record them.

Because I am so anal regarding perfection (could you guess from my typing?) I wrote a program that clips silence from the front and end of wave files.
Too bad I can not record them for you, because if I do it, you would be guaranteed a 100% perfect recording, clipped perfectly to the actual sound of their voices.


lol I noticed it said that your location is in Thailand!
Click to expand...
That is where I live.  Bangkok, Thailand.


L. Spiro
 
:D Well, Thank you anyways! Hey, there's nothing wrong with perfection! I'm a visual artist that does ink work and oil paints, no piece can ever be perfect until every detail has been paid attention to! Music is sort of a side hobby :wink: Thanks anyways, I'll write down what you said and I may be able to do it myself someday!
 
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