[FF6] [OPEN BETA] Dancing Mad - FF6 Audio Replacement using MSU-1

[edale]

ChrystalChameleon's "Final Fantasy VI Orchestrated" (will go under the abbreviation "CRC")

A special thanks to ChrystalChameleon for giving their endorsement and giving edale2 high quality MP3s of their tracks to work with.

Once I asked ChrystalChameleon for permission, and explained what an MSU-1 mod was, she couldn't get the tracks fast enough, lol. Didn't want to wait for the tracks to make it into the installer, so got her a link to her converted tracks as soon as I was done converting them (and about 5 minutes before I sent the files to Insidious). Less than an hour later she was more than 1/2 an hour into the game, lol.

Definitely the most enthusiastic response I've gotten to asking if I could convert someone's remaster (though I can DEFINITELY see the appeal of hearing music you've remastered yourself in-game, I kinda vicariously get that with the music I've converted).

Also, HIGHLY recommend the CRC version of Dark World once the installer's updated, best version I've worked on by far.

------

One thing of note with FFAR, it has every* character's theme, and also has "Balance is Restored" which is the first half of the ending. This means that if you use all the FFAR character themes, as well as the FFAR ending... The music that played in the ending for each character's theme will actually match what you've been listening to throughout the game.

The second half of the FFAR Ending is the second half of the OST ending.

*Mog's Theme was actually not part of the album. So I took the chunk of Mog's Theme from Balance is Restored, and converted that into a separate track to use as Mog's Theme. This means Mog's Theme isn't as accurate a remaster as the rest of the character themes, still good though.

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ATM the only other Album that I plan to convert (unless I find an other really good one) is Dracula9AntiChapel's remasters. He's actually completed a remaster (ALL tracks), but asked me not to convert that one. He wants me to wait for him to finish his new version of the remasters, and convert those.

His new version is only about 1/2 done atm, and will probably be several months until it is finished; don't expect it to be included any time soon.


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*edit- It turns out FFAR actually is missing one character's theme. It doesn't contain Setzer's Theme unfortunately.

 

[edale]

So I made something. This is the first mod I've ever created.

https://mega.nz/#F!PJZg1IRb!kS3ECIgKhAkc-qHWkVGRAg

This is a patch meant to be applied on top of the Dancing Mad MSU-1 mod. This patch re-introduces 4 songs that were created for FFVI, but cut from the final game without removing any of the existing tracks. 2 of the songs are WoB only (WoB Mobliz, and WoB Nikeah), and 2 of the changes are available in both WoB and WoR (classroom in Narshe, but not at the very start of the game, and non-occupied South Figaro).

I wasn't shooting for a Christmas release when I started work on this, but that's how the timing worked out. Enjoy!

This patch might be offered as an option in the Dancing Mad installer at some point.

*edit- Mega link updated. Changed mod's name from "Alternate Tracks" to "Cut Songs Restoration" to better reflect what the mod actually does, no changes to the mod itself.

 

[insidious611]

Just letting people know, the server hosting the PCM files may be offline for a period of a few hours (up to maybe 5 at most) over the next couple of days, as I'm updating all of my servers to counter the recent Intel CPU security vulnerabilities.

Backup mirror has already been updated so the installer should still work.

 

[edale]

Another nice little addition to the Dancing Mad patch here:
https://mega.nz/#!3UR0nShJ!6V6FlV9kgMGIztJ5oGjS8C1QoojhaOrxtdtqZzP5crM

This is a modified version of Madsiur's FFVI Music Player patch, or more accurately 2 different modified versions of his patch.

Dancing Mad version: The 'exiting the main menu' music resume code from Madsiur's original patch has been removed, as it caused a conflict with a bit of code in the Dancing Mad patch that served the same function. Some of the tracks have been adjusted to match changes made in the Dancing Mad patch (things like getting all 4 parts of Dancing Mad to play the PCM tracks and removing the SPC versions from the list). This was created using using the code from the Ted Woolsey version of the patch to maintain full compatibility with the Ted Woolsey Uncensor patch.

Cut Songs Restoration version: Same as above, but with the 4 songs from my Cut Songs Restoration mod added into the song list.


Each patch has 3 options:

Menu: The music player will show up on the main menu screen.

Config1: The music player will replace the "mono" option for the mono/stereo selection (mono disabled)

Config2: The music player will  show up on the bottom of the first page of the config screen.


NOTE: If installing Dancing Mad + Ted Woolsey Uncensor + the 'Menu' version of the music player, patch you MUST apply the music player AFTER the Ted Woolsey patch, not before. This only applies to the main menu version (this is due to a compatibility issue with the 255 clock mod included in the Ted Woosley patch).

A big thanks go out to Madsiur for coding this.

This is likely to be added to the Dancing Mad installer at a future point.

 

[insidious611]

A pretty major update to the installer is coming in the next hotfix. This should be available sometime in the next month, depending on my available time (it's nearly complete already).

The biggest new inclusions are the two new music sources mentioned earlier, as well as the ability to optionally apply any of the following:

 - the Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition patch
 - edale2's Cut Songs Restoration patch
 - Madsiur's Music Player (either the Dancing Mad or Cut Songs Restoration version, depending on whether or not you choose to apply edale2's CSR patch)

Other big changes (honestly the lion's share of the work) are under the hood and have already been completed. The installer now uses a much easier to maintain data format, enabling me to add new sources and mirrors with ease. I've added an Amazon AWS S3 store as a emergency fallback mirror. I would please ask anybody downloading the PCM files directly to *avoid* this mirror as I will be charged for bandwidth used, I want to leave it as a way to get the data guaranteed in case any of my other mirrors, for which I'm not charged for bandwidth usage, go down.

My recommended selection of songs (the Developer's Recommendation, or what's always been referred to internally as the Sid Selection) has also changed drastically for the upcoming version. If there's demand, I might provide a RAR of the old recommended PCMs for those curious or who don't like my new choices.

 

[Ackbar]

I just wanted to say thank you again. I'm sure I'm not the only one keeping a close eye on this thread - we really appreciate this!

 

[insidious611]

Hotfix One is now out, with all the above mentioned features! I don't need to big it up any further here, I don't think. Grab it here!

Only a minor bug or two and the fading support in the way of a final release.

 

[insidious611]

Hotfix Two is now out. This is a minor patch dealing with some download/install issues. Notably, the saika mirror has been removed as it's been dead for a while, and a 15 second timeout was added on initial connections. Also, on the backend, an issue with the Amazon Web Services mirror was fixed. Available here.

 

[F-Bomb]

I just used the installer for SD2SNES. I had initial problems with my virus protection not liking it. But once I was past that I had no issues.
I did it twice, once on a Vanilla rom, and then I did it again and added the TWUE which both appear to work great.
I then patched Brave New World over the vanilla rom and it also seems to work.
I went with the custom options, with the suggested files, then selected all the OTH that I could (assuming that these are Black Mages files)
I'm unsure about all the looping and fading that you are looking for but I can assure you upon initial inspection this patch works on SD2SNES.
it may take me a while but I will report back with my opera findings as soon as I can.

 

[edale]

I just used the installer for SD2SNES. I had initial problems with my virus protection not liking it. But once I was past that I had no issues.
I did it twice, once on a Vanilla rom, and then I did it again and added the TWUE which both appear to work great.
I then patched Brave New World over the vanilla rom and it also seems to work.
I went with the custom options, with the suggested files, then selected all the OTH that I could (assuming that these are Black Mages files)
I'm unsure about all the looping and fading that you are looking for but I can assure you upon initial inspection this patch works on SD2SNES.
it may take me a while but I will report back with my opera findings as soon as I can.

If you post what virus scanner you use, Insidious can report it as a false positive and get that fixed. IIRC he had a problem with this on AVG when he switched to Python 3.6 for coding the installer.

The Black Mages did the following FFVI tracks:
The Decisive Battle
Dancing Mad
The Opera (Darkness and Starlight / Maria and Draco)

The Decisive Battle and Dancing Mad are included in the installer under OTH, for the Opera... See my next post.

The other OTH tracks are either a few good single-track remasters (rather than them remastering the entire album/soundtrack), or in one or two cases one of the existing tracks that I fiddled around with enough to warrant keeping separate rather than replacing (an example would be the Phantom Train's OTH track is the SSC track with train effects added in, so you can hear the train moving on the tracks the entire time you're on the train, really enhances the immersion).

 

[edale]

So I spent a few days trying to figure out how to record video of gameplay at 720p/60fps so I could upload some videos of the opera in the MSU-1 mod, before finally giving up on various emulator's built-in video recorders, and got pointed to OBS Studio by Insidious.

A few hours playing with the settings and practicing my google-fu to get everything recording and encoded properly, and I come to share the boon of my labor.

View at 720p/60 to listen without an audio fidelity decrease from Youtube's re-encoding, text is the updated opera text from TWUE 2.0:

Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version Remastered album's version of the Opera:

This is currently included in the Dancing Mad MSU-1 mod under the OST listing.
There's a slight fidelity increase, but overall you might as well use the SPC audio, it sounds the same.

Game Music Concert 4's version of the Opera:

This is the one currently included in the Dancing Mad MSU-1 mod under the OTH listing.

The Black Mages' version of the Opera:

https://mega.nz/#!KJRGVKKK!7z_LdxBntuB7EoXA2Z42dN-XO8eokvWH8Ny9PkuUPsY
This is probably my favorite version of the opera for multiple reasons.
-The narration is voiced, although it's too fast to be matched up to the on-screen lyrics.
-When racing to Ultros, the battle between Ralse and Draco, complete with spoken dialog, continues.
-The Black Mages is led by the lead music designer from FFVI.
-First version of the Opera to ever be released in its entirety, allowing fans to find out how it was supposed to end if Ultros/Setzer didn't interfere.
-Electric Guitar. Enough said.

More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy album's version of the Opera:

https://mega.nz/#!nYREHQTL!FuvrBjtOhUOChpa8KeAonCukCRtYG9NZzNu0uDPBsIE
-English.


And those are all the versions of the Opera I've converted so far.

*edit:

Distant Worlds version of the Opera:

https://mega.nz/#!CUR2iLRb!X2H5KQVbq6_dqGmE6KveKvf_UGNfVVRYAUYezdjjRw0
-English.

So I converted another one.

And with that, I've converted every professionally done voiced version of the opera I'm aware of (I won't touch the Balance and Ruin remix album's version with a 10-foot pole, as far as inclusion in the actual game goes, NOTHING matches up).

If anyone knows of another performance of the FULL Opera (not just the Aria) that I haven't converted, let me know.

 

[Madsiur]

Nice work on advancing the Beta to an almost final stage!

I tested the mod on a FF6 ExHiROM mod (RotDS more specifically) and the ExHiROM mapping break some instructions more specifically the way you coded JMLs and such. As an example JML 18FA72 will work but an ExHiROM cart or ROM will require it to be JML D8FA72 in order to jump at the same place. I'm not sure if there is an advantage to use first notation but while it work on regular HiROM + FastROM carts and ROM, it breaks on ExHiROM carts / ROMs.

I got the mod working by changing all bank bytes of all problematic instructions, what is to check are JML, JSL, LDA XXXXXX, etc. In vanilla FF3us, all instructions use the HiROM notation for banks.

I'll try to fiddle with the fadeout NMI code soon, I know you tried stuff but I'll try a few things, somebody will get it right eventually!   

 

[edale]

Nice work on advancing the Beta to an almost final stage!

I tested the mod on a FF6 ExHiROM mod (RotDS more specifically) and the ExHiROM mapping break some instructions more specifically the way you coded JMLs and such. As an example JML 18FA72 will work but an ExHiROM cart or ROM will require it to be JML D8FA72 in order to jump at the same place. I'm not sure if there is an advantage to use first notation but while it work on regular HiROM + FastROM carts and ROM, it breaks on ExHiROM carts / ROMs.

I got the mod working by changing all bank bytes of all problematic instructions, what is to check are JML, JSL, LDA XXXXXX, etc. In vanilla FF3us, all instructions use the HiROM notation for banks.

I'll try to fiddle with the fadeout NMI code soon, I know you tried stuff but I'll try a few things, somebody will get it right eventually!   

Opened a new issue at: https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/issues/71
and reposted this there.

This is far beyond what I know about, we'll see what Insidious says.

 

[Madsiur]

Opened a new issue at: https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/issues/71
This is far beyond what I know about, we'll see what Insidious says.

Thanks man! Yeah my message was aimed at insidious, I had the impression he visit daily or so this thread. Basically using HiROM notation for long instructions (bank number + 0xC00000) will make the mod work on every FF6 carts and roms possible, regular FF6 ROM type (HiROM + FastROM) or expanded 6MB ROM type (ExHiROM). I don't fully understand the technicalities underlying the mapping differences between both rom types but I tested both versions on debugger emulator and made a fix after seeing the JML instruction not jumping where it should.

Since he coded this with an ASM file it could even be something not wanted in the first place but that was working with vanilla FF6 ROM type. As I said no instruction in FF6 use absolute bank notation, it's all in HiROM notation.

 

[edale]

Thanks man! Yeah my message was aimed at insidious, I had the impression he visit daily or so this thread. Basically using HiROM notation for long instructions (bank number + 0xC00000) will make the mod work on every FF6 carts and roms possible, regular FF6 ROM type (HiROM + FastROM) or expanded 6MB ROM type (ExHiROM). I don't fully understand the technicalities underlying the mapping differences between both rom types but I tested both versions on debugger emulator and made a fix after seeing the JML instruction not jumping where it should.

Since he coded this with an ASM file it could even be something not wanted in the first place but that was working with vanilla FF6 ROM type. As I said no instruction in FF6 use absolute bank notation, it's all in HiROM notation.

Always best to centralize the info about any problems with a project like this, rather than it being spread around 6-7 threads on as many forums. Given I check every thread I've ever found about this patch (including a few Insidious probably doesn't know about) frequently, I've taken to moving the relevant info over there when something pops up... Well something that's not fixed by "did you select the right option for your emulator in the installer? No, OK, rename the files like so..." (was quite surprised when I read the credits for the newest version, and saw myself credited with "community outreach" on top of the audio work I've done, lol). Also, I'm pretty sure Insidious gets an email from every post to the GitHub, so he should get the message pretty quick. I can't comment on how often Insidious checks the thread, because I have no idea, lol.

So if I'm understanding this right (I'm not, lol), the patch is coded with LoROM, so it won't work with ExHiROM (but does work with HiROM?) patches? And if Insidious changes the ASM coding to HiROM, it'll work with all other patch types?

 

[Madsiur]

So if I'm understanding this right (I'm not, lol), the patch is coded with LoROM, so it won't work with ExHiROM (but does work with HiROM?) patches? And if Insidious changes the ASM coding to HiROM, it'll work with all other patch types?

It is something like this... Bank $D8 can be accessed with $18 or $D8 on regular FF6 (I guess loROM work on HiROM) but ExHiROM can only deal correctly with $D8.

 

[edale]

I get the jist of what he's saying at least. I'll attempt the change myself when I get time. My only concern is whether or not that notation will cause issues on the actual hardware, but tbh I doubt it will.

Well... Insidious knows what you're talking about, lol.

And I don't know if the mod is using HiROM or LoROM notation, but I know the mod works with the Ted Woolsey Uncencor patch, which has a 4MB expanded ROM (which I think you're explanation earlier said would mean HiROM).

Maybe I should just stick to the audio side of things, lol.

 

[Madsiur]

Well... Insidious knows what you're talking about, lol.

Good news! To answer his concern, all ASM instructions in vanilla FF6 code use HiROM notation, as an example there is never something like JSL 186040 but always JSL D86040. Same goes for all instructions requiring a bank byte (3 bytes offset).

And I don't know if the mod is using HiROM or LoROM notation, but I know the mod works with the Ted Woolsey Uncencor patch, which has a 4MB expanded ROM (which I think you're explanation earlier said would mean HiROM).

A regular FF6 ROM or one expanded to 4MB is HiROM + FastROM type. Once you expand beyond 4MB to like 6MB, you need ExHiROM mapping change because you now need and can access banks $40 to $5F, that are the continuation of $C0 to $FF ($00 to $3F in LoROM / absolute format). I'm no expert in ROM mapping so I'll stop here

 

[F-Bomb]

If you post what virus scanner you use, Insidious can report it as a false positive and get that fixed. IIRC he had a problem with this on AVG when he switched to Python 3.6 for coding the installer.

The Black Mages did the following FFVI tracks:
The Decisive Battle
Dancing Mad
The Opera (Darkness and Starlight / Maria and Draco)

The Decisive Battle and Dancing Mad are included in the installer under OTH, for the Opera... See my next post.

The other OTH tracks are either a few good single-track remasters (rather than them remastering the entire album/soundtrack), or in one or two cases one of the existing tracks that I fiddled around with enough to warrant keeping separate rather than replacing (an example would be the Phantom Train's OTH track is the SSC track with train effects added in, so you can hear the train moving on the tracks the entire time you're on the train, really enhances the immersion).

I was using avast free antivirus.

I have basically installed the developer recommended files with dancing mad and decisive battle under OTH.

3 Issues I have found so far.

After the Sabin intro scene the music swapped back to the spc track untill I left the room.

During the Phantom train exit the music kept playing.

Spoiler

 I remember it being silent while Cyan mourns the loss of his family.

When I recruited Shadow in Cohlingen after Battle of Narshe, I slept straight away and the town music was still playing in the background

Spoiler

while the 1st dream sequence was happening.

I'm doing the opera tonight. I'm going to record it and upload to youtube to see if it is all good.

The rom I'm playing is dancing mad with Brave New World 1.9.0 patched over the top, with some additional changes.
But it still appears to be working mostly fine.

Also if you are interested, I have recorded the intro and ending scenes from the ps1 version. I think I have converted them correctly to msu1 files, but have no real way of testing (other than trying them out in zelda msu1).

If you are interested I'll see if I can upload them somewhere.

 

[edale]

Good news! To answer his concern, all ASM instructions in vanilla FF6 code use HiROM notation, as an example there is never something like JSL 186040 but always JSL D86040. Same goes for all instructions requiring a bank byte (3 bytes offset).

A regular FF6 ROM or one expanded to 4MB is HiROM + FastROM type. Once you expand beyond 4MB to like 6MB, you need ExHiROM mapping change because you now need and can access banks $40 to $5F, that are the continuation of $C0 to $FF ($00 to $3F in LoROM / absolute format). I'm no expert in ROM mapping so I'll stop here

Whelp, Insidius posted a bunch of coding stuff I don't understand, and it'd take like 20 min to convert the formatting for this forum, so just read the last few posts by Insidius at: https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/issues/71

Long story short, test build!
https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/blob/master/patch/ff3msu.ips
Could you try that out and see if everything's working on your ExHiROM game? I have some extensive testing to do on this, but if all goes well it'll be released as hotfix 3.

I was using avast free antivirus.

I have basically installed the developer recommended files with dancing mad and decisive battle under OTH.

3 Issues I have found so far.

After the Sabin intro scene the music swapped back to the spc track untill I left the room.

During the Phantom train exit the music kept playing.

Spoiler

 I remember it being silent while Cyan mourns the loss of his family.

When I recruited Shadow in Cohlingen after Battle of Narshe, I slept straight away and the town music was still playing in the background

Spoiler

while the 1st dream sequence was happening.

I'm doing the opera tonight. I'm going to record it and upload to youtube to see if it is all good.

The rom I'm playing is dancing mad with Brave New World 1.9.0 patched over the top, with some additional changes.
But it still appears to be working mostly fine.

Also if you are interested, I have recorded the intro and ending scenes from the ps1 version. I think I have converted them correctly to msu1 files, but have no real way of testing (other than trying them out in zelda msu1).

If you are interested I'll see if I can upload them somewhere.

Avast false-positive reported on GitHub:https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/issues/72

Town music playing during Shadows dream sequence reported on GitHub: https://github.com/Insidious611/DancingMadFF6/issues/73

I'll test the end of the Phantom Train on a vanilla ROM to see how the music is handled there. If it is silent, then it's probably silenced through a fade, if that's the case it'll likely remain broken until Insidious figures out fading.

The Sabin intro scene you're referring to is the one in Figaro Castle? If so it's a known issue, there's something unique about how the game handles the music there that Insidious hasn't been able to pin down as of yet. The brief bit of SPC audio is the best fix we have atm.

Please use this tool: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1080/
Or this tool: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1386/ (newer and better program just released a month or two ago, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, so can't comment)
To check and make sure all the patches you're using are compatible with each other and the MSU-1 mod.

I've already uploaded video of every version of the Opera I've converted for this project to youtube: https://www.ff7catalog.com/posts/212398/
So the only changes will be the ones Brave New World made. (I make no claims the Opera's lyrics will line up with the text in the BNW mod, I timed the audio to match TWUE 2.0's Updated Opera)

I actually have the raw video files from the PSX version sitting on my HDD somewhere, picked them up when I converted the PSX soundtrack for this mod. Actually finished the conversion, every last track, but I couldn't find a full rip of PSX's Dancing Mad ANYWHERE, just the first movement, so had to scrap the whole thing. That said, video is likely not going to be added to the mod by Insidious any time soon; maybe he'll consider it once he figures out fading and gets the audio working 100%.