VGM to OGG?

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Kage
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VGM to OGG?

Post by Kage »

Hey, does any one know any easy way I could transfer these VGM files to a format like OGG, for playing on my portable music player?

The only way I can think of, is to record and then export, and that'd take time... too much time...

Or have I seen this somewhere before?
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SmartOne
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Post by SmartOne »

If you want the most accuracy (quality, Fusion,) yes, it'll take time.
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nineko
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Post by nineko »

You can just throw all the VGMs in a suitable version of Winamp and have it batch convert them in background.
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Kage
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Post by Kage »

Thanks :)

I believe I need Winamp PRO to do that though...

Doing it the long way, I'd have to play in Winamp, and record in Audacity, haha...

EDIT:

I don't even have the Winamp PRO version, and used the Winamp Disk Writer :)
Wrote it as a WAVE, and then I have a choice to either convert to a OGG or FLAC using seperate programs.

I'm guessing OGG is a better solution since I'm guessing the VGM's don't need to be fully CD quality (if they even are), or would you use it?

I just tested with a Sonic 3 Credits, and got 14MB in WAVE, and when converted to FLAC, I got 6.8MB (48% compression)

But if you did use OGG, what bitrate would you use? I know OGG is better at lower bitrates than MP3, so what would suffice, as keeping the tracks as close as possible?

I just tested an output in OGG, at 256Kbps, or q setting 8.00, and got a 2.37MB file.
That too high for what I'm trying to convert?
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neologix
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Post by neologix »

basically, anything lower than 44100 Hz using 16-bit samples is "lower quality" for vgms, and anything higher is overkill. if you can find a quality setting that matches 44100 @ 16-bit, use that, but if you don't mind a "lower" quality, 22050 Hz should suffice; anything lower and it'll sound like out-of-tune radio quality.
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SmartOne
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SmartOne

Post by SmartOne »

Don't downsample. Keep them at 44100 Hz. VGM's are rendered with 16 bit samples, so they are exactly the same as "CD-quality."

Which VGM plugin do you use?
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Kage
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Post by Kage »

I didn't mean to downsample :p

I meant, bitrate, i.e an MP3 at 128kbps compared with 320kbps, but I'd rather avoid MP3.
I'm going for OGG/FLAC files in everything now pretty much.

I believe I'm using the GME VGM Plugin at the moment, which is what I believe worked best at the time of installing.

I'm wanting to convert these to play on a portable media player. I'm opting for a Iaudio, and they can play a whole wide range of formats.
Its possible I believe using an application on the newer S9, to probably make VGM and other modules playable in their current form.

But for now, I'm wanting to convert to either FLAC or OGG (FLAC being lossless but compressed, and OGG being compressed, but lossy).

So I will be using the same sample rate, but wondering what bitrate to use in OGG to not lose any quality by ear (but of course, be more lossy than the original), or to just render them all in FLAC, which will be around 6MB a file (around 1-3 in OGG format) if my tests are to be proved right.
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TmEE
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Post by TmEE »

Even 320kbit MP3 lose a lot of audio information, just look at a spectrogram of a MP3... whole higher freq area is pretty much gone, and even 140kbit OGG will cover all of the freq area... there is this MP3pro compressor, but there's not much support for MP3pro files which do cover whole freq area...
WAV/APE/FLAC/OGG is what I use.
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Kage
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Post by Kage »

Yeah, I've come to realise that MP3 does indeed suck...

So, what bitrate for OGG would you suggest for VGM's?

I'm going to try converting all my favourite tracks to FLAC, and see how much space it takes up.

If I get the Iaudio D2+, I can simply use SDHC cards, that are like 32GB, and store everything I need on a couple of cards if I get the 16GB built in version as well.
It'll only be a problem if I decide to get the newer S9 which is tempting, but has a max of 32GB, with no card slot to support more.
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SmartOne
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Post by SmartOne »

He seems to suggest 140 kbps for OGG. What's the nicest OGG encoder frontend?

TmEE, why do you use both APE and FLAC?
APE = slightly better (and faster?) compression but isn't portable (Windows-only?)

I use WAV when playing Sega CD games in Fusion. :sonic:
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