New Set: Mega SWIV (Sega Megadrive)

[Logan Jones]

My first VGM rip set: Mega SWIV!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hat5vzetbb7bh4f/Mega%20SWIV.zip?dl=0

A few songs were trimmed by Valley Bell, so I have to give credit where credit is due. He helped me out a lot. Thanks, man!

I hope to continue contributing to more VGM sites in the future.

-LoJo

[ValleyBell]

Just a few nitpicks:

• Please optimize the VGM using optvgm as it is described in the tutorial. This makes the VGMs a lot smaller.
• for the "Year" VGM tag, please use a machine-readable format like YYYY or YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD

[Logan Jones]

I thought the files looked too large. Back to the drawing board!

EDIT: I originally followed these steps: trim, vgm_cmp (optimize) and then tagged and VG-zipped them in the old VGM Tool from 2005. Is this why they are too large?

[ValleyBell]

Yeah, for MegaDrive VGMs you also have to use optvgm. Optvgm modifies the files in a way that makes the gzip compression a lot more efficient.

You may need to use optvgm before using vgm_cmp though, as optvgm's verification step sometimes fails on vgm_cmp'ed VGMs.

[Logan Jones]

OK. so it's three levels of compression: vgmopt, vgm_cmp, and then vgm zip.

[ValleyBell]

Yeah, that's right.
optvgm and VGMTool2 both do an automatic .vgz compression after finishing their job.
It's a bit ironic that vgm_cmp always outputs uncompressed VGMs. (It may even write uncompressed VGMs with .vgz extension.)

[Logan Jones]

Here's the revised VGM pack:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tk70sv88kjhx73p/Mega%20SWIV.zip?dl=0

Okay. So I managed to get the VGM files to be much smaller. I also updated the date tags to be in the YYYY-MM format. Unfortunately, these are still not as small as other typical VGM packs. Is this still normal? Because if it's not, I'm going to need more help. I followed the steps in this manner:

1) I tagged and named the trimmed VGM files in the VGMTool R5 and they were exported as uncompressed VGMs.
2) I then ran the optvgm app and the freshly-tagged VGMs were copied to the "optimised" folder in VGZ.
3) Lastly, I used vgm_cmp and the VGZ files were copied to have "_optimized" after each name. (I cut these off.)

Here are some anomalies I noticed:
Unlike other VGMs I play in Winamp, the kbps bitrate for the Mega SWIV playlist averages well into the double digits (take a look for yourself), while other VGM packs are usually a mere one or two kbps.

Furthermore, the VGM Folder for Mega SWIV no longer shows up in the "Playlists" tab in Winamp, even when I can clearly see it in the "Playlist Title" window. I right click the title to select "View Playlist" but nothing happens.

Other VGM folders have a total "Time" in one of the columns in the Playlist Title window. Mine, however, is oddly 0:00.

Also, since the VGZs are still not small enough, even after the multiple steps I took in the described order, I wonder: What am I doing wrong? Is there some crucial steps I missed? (I know you said that in Kega Fusion setting the VGM writing option in "Overdrive" mode will not affect the VGMs at all, but I can't help but feel that this is not the case. Still, this is just a silly hypothesis on my part.)

Thanks for your help, Valley Bell!

[Monkeymook]

Hello Logan, and thanks for stopping in to post this pack.

I might be able to take a peek at it sometime, after I get the backlog of uploads done!

[Logan Jones]

Thanks, Monkeymook. As soon as I get the clear on this one, I'm gonna begin on a new pack.

[ValleyBell]

The pack looks fine to me. (Aside from the VGMs being called "_optimized.vgz", that is.)
The rips being larger than usual seems to be an oddity of the sound driver. You did all to optimize it as far as possible.