Track Swap for MD+ SOR2 [infinest]

Hi all, I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong section. Here's the short explanation: I am looking to take infinest's Streets of Rage 2 tracks and swap them out with different songs. I am able to obviously replace the existing files with new songs by replacing/renaming the file. I can tell this is working on a basic level because the new song plays when I load the rom.

However, they are not looping. I used SoundForge to identify loop points using what it calls "Absolute Frames." I can tell this corresponds to the correct looping points by comparing the figures on the original cue file, which match exactly to infinest's songs. However, when I try to set a different frame looping section, it doesn't actually loop in game.

Then, just now I checked the original to double-check that they were indeed looping to begin with, and it appears they are not. I am using a Mega EverDrive Pro with 4.20 firmware.

Assuming stuff is looping properly, it really should be just as simple as changing that value, right?

Original:

FILE "14-Dreamer.wav" WAVE
TRACK 15 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 3

Replaced:

FILE "14-Dreamer.wav" WAVE
TRACK 15 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 1333

If it's the Remake soundtrack then they're my loop edits, not infinest's. They do the patches, I do the audio.

I can't help you with Mega Everdrive Pro issues as I don't have one. I have a MegaSD. Did you test it in Genesis Plus GX?

Relikk wrote:If it's the Remake soundtrack then they're my loop edits, not infinest's. They do the patches, I do the audio.

I can't help you with Mega Everdrive Pro issues as I don't have one. I have a MegaSD. Did you test it in Genesis Plus GX?

Thank you for the response, and for your efforts. Sorry for the misidentification. I just tried loading it in RetroArch 1.19.1 / Genesis Plus GX and I can't get it to work whatsoever. Here's what I tried:

KEGA Fusion v3.64 [Windows 10]
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).cue (sprites don't load, doesn't loop)
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).md (no music)

Mega EverDrive Pro v4.20 [Genesis 2]
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).cue (doesn't loop)
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).md (no music)

Retroarch v1.19.1 / Genesis Plus GX [Steam]
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).cue (doesn't load at all)
- MD+ Streets of Rage 2 (SoR Remake OST).md (no music)

Whenever I tried mine with modified songs, the same exact thing happens. I'm always happy to help you troubleshoot this on real hardware / MEDP if you are ever interested.

Fusion doesn't support MD+. Genesis Plus GX is the only emulator core that does (other "emulators" that support the use of Libretro cores, like BizHawk, will also work).

Put up a link to that particular WAV and CUE file and I'll check it out.

Relikk wrote:Fusion doesn't support MD+. Genesis Plus GX is the only emulator core that does (other "emulators" that support the use of Libretro cores, like BizHawk, will also work).

Put up a link to that particular WAV and CUE file and I'll check it out.

Thank you, here are the files.  The wav and cue file with '2' at the end are the edits I made.  rem loop 1333 for track 14 is the magic spot on the new song.

https://mega.nz/folder/tcVSSTBD#upQbOaT7F-OAAvN7bqKnhg

I was able to get the cue working on KEGA, just to test the audio levels/looping.  But yes, it obviously isn't really playable.

It works fine for me in G+GX (always load the MD file, not the CUE). The only issue I can think of is that you haven't got a full complement of tracks mapped in the CUE file. You can use empty, dummy files or just map all tracks to the same track, but whatever the CUE file is pointing to must be present.

Relikk wrote:It works fine for me in G+GX. The only issue I can think of is that you haven't got a full complement of tracks mapped in the CUE file. You can use empty, dummy files or just map all tracks to the same track, but whatever the CUE file is pointing to must be present.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions today. I'm obviously new to the scene and eager to make some stuff. I did get the files to load on G+GX ...sort of. I forgot to install the bios files for RetroArch separately (classic, right?) but when I load up cue files now, the system just boots to the CD player; I can't actually play games, only listen to songs. This happens on several MSU-MD and MD+ hacks on G+GX. I have attempted to fiddle with the CD add-on settings (changing each type, closing and rebooting the program) to no avail.

Steam / RetroArch 1.19.1, G+GX v1.7.4 d2f1241

As to your other comment, I'm just using the ones in the same directory I downloaded initially. Not sure what would be missing?

~~~~~~~~~~

Directory of G:\SEGA\MEDP\MSU-MD\Streets of Rage 2

11/15/2022 12:05 AM

You missed a small edit I made there before you replied. Always load the ROM file, not the CUE file.

Relikk wrote:You missed a small edit I made there before you replied. Always load the ROM file, not the CUE file.

Thank you! I did manage to figure this out with your help. It appears there was some issues with older files that I had which were not set up correctly. My edits and all MD+ / MSU-MD that I'm sure are set up correctly work fine in G+GX, and presumably also the MEDP...I'll check that later.

Thank you again for taking the time today to walk through this with me. Between your suggestions/corrections and some tinkering on my end, I was able to figure out the problem. The looping appears to work fine now (just a matter of finding good looping spots obviously.

SeveredLegs wrote:The looping appears to work fine now (just a matter of finding good looping spots obviously.

Your loop seemed okay, to me, but I will suggest that when you have your loop marker set, find a way to make it a whole number and not ".365" etc. MD+ loops can only read from a whole number, and not fractional or with decimals after it.

It's easy to do without moving your original marker, so leave your original loop marker where it is, then set another marker to the next nearest frame. For example, let's say your loop point was at 1333.365, set another marker at 1334. Then make a double click selection between those two markers and change from "Absolute Frames" to "Samples". Whatever number of samples the selection is, add that number as silence to the start of your track. Then delete the second marker you made. Change back to absolute frames and you'll see that your original loop marker is now at a whole number, so when your loop is played back in-game it will be as accurate as you set it in the editor.

I explained it a little here, also: https://www.zeldix.net/t2158p25-the-difference-between-the-md-and-the-msu-md#36893

One last thing to do once you have written your loop value into your CUE file is to delete all of those markers and any kind of metadata from your WAV files, as it can sometimes cause issues.

Relikk wrote:

SeveredLegs wrote:The looping appears to work fine now (just a matter of finding good looping spots obviously.

Your loop seemed okay, to me, but I will suggest that when you have your loop marker set, find a way to make it a whole number and not ".365" etc. MD+ loops can only read from a whole number, and not fractional or with decimals after it.

It's easy to do without moving your original marker, so leave your original loop marker where it is, then set another marker to the next nearest frame. For example, let's say your loop point was at 1333.365, set another marker at 1334. Then make a double click selection between those two markers and change from "Absolute Frames" to "Samples". Whatever number of samples the selection is, add that number as silence to the start of your track. Then delete the second marker you made. Change back to absolute frames and you'll see that your original loop marker is now at a whole number, so when your loop is played back in-game it will be as accurate as you set it in the editor.

I explained it a little here, also: https://www.zeldix.net/t2158p25-the-difference-between-the-md-and-the-msu-md#36893

One last thing to do once you have written your loop value into your CUE file is to delete all of those markers and any kind of metadata from your WAV files, as it can sometimes cause issues.

Thanks for all of your assistance. I am making progress on this project, and the loops are working as intended. I'm finding that the trickier part is getting them to sound good on an old TV. A lot of the stuff I'm going for sounds too bass-y and 'thick' on my TV speakers, causing the songs to sound a bit distorted. Obviously it sounds just fine on my PC with nice speakers. I'm wondering if people use software to thin out the sound so it sounds better on older TV speakers?

I'm also noticing that the music sounds louder on RetroArch/G+GX than it does on actual hardware, so I guess when I'm testing this, I'll need to keep that in mind.

-Kevin

SeveredLegs wrote:I'm also noticing that the music sounds louder on RetroArch/G+GX than it does on actual hardware, so I guess when I'm testing this, I'll need to keep that in mind.

I covered that issue in this post.

https://www.zeldix.net/t2175-md-emulators-genesis-plus-gx-mame

Set your "CDDA Volume" option to 65 and you should have a better representation of real hardware volume levels.

Thanks the detailed response. Perhaps my last question all together is what frequencies of a song you would lower to get a little less bass and fullness so it sounds better on TV speakers? Just using EQ and the soundforge or audacity and lowering the levels of the lower ones or is there a certain processing technique to thin them out?

Generally from 0-120Hz is where you want to be cutting. Start with -0.5dB increments and go from there. You shouldn't need to be cutting any more than -3dB off.

Before doing all of that make sure all of your TV sound settings are as flat as they can be. No bass or treble boosts, or EQ effect settings applied etc.

Relikk wrote:Generally from 0-120Hz is where you want to be cutting. Start with -0.5dB increments and go from there. You shouldn't need to be cutting any more than -3dB off.

Before doing all of that make sure all of your TV sound settings are as flat as they can be. No bass or treble boosts, or EQ effect settings applied etc.

Thanks again. Also, I'm running into an issue when troubleshooting specifically the SOR2 cue file. For some reason, the intro music boots up, but when I go to the character select screen, it seems to continue where the intro music leaves off. If I go to the options menu and play a random BGM song, then exit and go to the character select screen, it continues where that song left off. I'm assuming I have messed something up in the cue file because it sometimes does this, and sometimes doesn't.

One thing I am wondering is if the duplicate tracks need to be exactly the same. For example, is this allowed?

FILE "21-22-ReadyFunk.wav" WAVE
TRACK 21 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 56
FILE "hypemode.wav" WAVE
TRACK 22 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 371

It originally looked like this: (ignore the modified looping points)

FILE "21-22-ReadyFunk.wav" WAVE
TRACK 21 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 56
FILE "21-22-ReadyFunk.wav" WAVE
TRACK 22 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
REM LOOP 56

Is the CUE completely filled and each entry is pointing to the correct track/file names? There may be track names you have renamed but haven't filled in, or tracks you have deleted that still have an entry in the CUE? The CUE sheet needs to be fully and correctly populated. It's the only thing I can think of, at the moment, that might cause that issue.

It can be a pain scanning through a CUE sheet looking for minor errors, but you can drag the CUE sheet into something like foobar2000 and question marks will show for tracks that are not correctly mapped.

Relikk wrote:Is the CUE completely filled and each entry is pointing to the correct track/file names? There may be track names you have renamed but haven't filled in, or tracks you have deleted that still have an entry in the CUE? The CUE sheet needs to be fully and correctly populated. It's the only thing I can think of, at the moment, that might cause that issue.

It can be a pain scanning through a CUE sheet looking for minor errors, but you can drag the CUE sheet into something like foobar2000 and question marks will show for tracks that are not correctly mapped.

Foobar2000 immediately showed me...you are seriously a hero with all this man. Thanks once again!