Picodrive Flink

[sapfke]

Hey,

now that i have read all suggestions to solving the music issue in Sega CD games,
im finding myself at a seemingly dead end.

The music just doesnt play, although i named the files correctly.

Does anyone have the same issues with Misadventures of Flink CD?

 

[punkrockserfer]

Hmmm, after having so much trouble with Shining Force CD, I assumed that was the only issue. I hadn't tried Flink yet. You're right though, as I just attempted to play Flink and I get no music either. I even attempted to play the music in the options menu and test the BGM there, but alas, no sound. That's really strange. I'll be sure to post here if I find some solution to this problem.

 

[Artax]

Wow, I though Flink was an Amiga game (I had/still have it on my Amiga CD32). I guess it was ported to the old Sega MD.

 

[dejunai]

It's not only the naming convention but the bitrate and frequency.
The Freq MUST BE [44100] the bitrate ~should be~ 128,
higher and there can be performance issues.
I use 192 and if that has issues dump it down to 128.
Tho as you said "No Sound", so bitrate is not the likely issue.
Check your Freq... 22050, and 11025 as far as I know, simply wont work.
( ALSO must be MP3, not WAV not OGG )
Hope this helps,
-DEJ

Edit: even if you find all these things to be set properly,
perhaps transcoding them again would help...
-DEJ

 

[punkrockserfer]

Hope this helps,
-DEJ

Edit: even if you find all these things to be set properly,
perhaps transcoding them again would help...
-DEJ

Hey DEJ, I have a quick question for you. First how are you checking the frequency of an individual mp3 file? Is there a quick way to do it? Or do you have to use some sort of program? And also, if it turns out my mp3's are set a different frequency, such as 22050, how do I change it to 44100?

Is it something I can do in Audacity?

 

[punkrockserfer]

dammit.... double post on accident... :-(

 

[dejunai]

Hey DEJ, I have a quick question for you. First how are you checking the frequency of an individual mp3 file? Is there a quick way to do it? Or do you have to use some sort of program? And also, if it turns out my mp3's are set a different frequency, such as 22050, how do I change it to 44100?

Is it something I can do in Audacity?

I use Media Player Classic on Windows as my main media player,
When the MP3 is playing I just simply right click the window of MPC,
and select properties, and the MPC tosses up a window describing the file that is currently playing.

I am certain other media players have similar menu items.

As far as transcoding the MP3 if it is not the proper Frequency...
There are numerous apps, scoot over to tucows find some freeware.
Or better yet, grab LAME and use a frontend...
Simply load up the offending MP3 and set the output to 44100 ( or in some cases 44.1 )...
It will all depend on the software you decide to use.
-DEJ

 

[punkrockserfer]

Hey DEJ, I have a quick question for you. First how are you checking the frequency of an individual mp3 file? Is there a quick way to do it? Or do you have to use some sort of program? And also, if it turns out my mp3's are set a different frequency, such as 22050, how do I change it to 44100?

Is it something I can do in Audacity?

I use Media Player Classic on Windows as my main media player,
When the MP3 is playing I just simply right click the window of MPC,
and select properties, and the MPC tosses up a window describing the file that is currently playing.

I am certain other media players have similar menu items.

As far as transcoding the MP3 if it is not the proper Frequency...
There are numerous apps, scoot over to tucows find some freeware.
Or better yet, grab LAME and use a frontend...
Simply load up the offending MP3 and set the output to 44100 ( or in some cases 44.1 "]...
It will all depend on the software you decide to use.
-DEJ[/quote]Well I looked into the frequency rate, and I KNOW for a fact that my mp3s are coded at 44100 freq and have a bitrate of 128kbps. They also are named Flink_02.mp3, Flink_03.mp3, etc. while my iso is Flink.iso. By all accounts, this SHOULD be working, but it's still not. By any chance, is the music in Flink actually working for you DEJ? Or are you just giving us possible solutions?

 

[dejunai]

No, I dont own a copy of Flink. So yeah, I was just tossing out possible solutions...
I had a lot of trouble early on with my ISOs and the music... but fixed most of my
issues with the transcodes. I suppose I could accidentally stumble across a flink ISO.
If I do, I'll report back.
-DEJ

 

[dejunai]

So, I , er, um, discovered :cough: I had a CD of Flink... er...
And I ripped it using specifications of ROM Hustler :wink:...
Indeed the music wont play... Tho the music will play normally thru an MP3 player.
After listening to the music tracks, I think I know what is wrong.
PicoDrive has taste. And the nasty synth music is just too unappealing to play.
Ok maybe not... I'll work on it, and if I figure it out, I'll report back.
-DEJ

 

[dejunai]

So, I transcoded the MP3s I have, the ones that did not play.
And I converted them using lame to WAV on -extreme settings,
then back down using CODE
lame.exe --cbr -b96 -q5 --resample 44.1 -o <input_file> <output_file>
The music plays fine now.

I noticed the MP3s had standardized ID3 tags in the headers.
Converting to WAV and back to MP3 effectively erased the tags.
PERHAPS this was all that was needed.
So I will now try and transcode without loss of Quality.
I'll report back shortly.
-DEJ

 

[dejunai]

Ok, so I did a few more tests, definately seems that the ID3 tags were bonking Pico.
I wrote up a batch file to fix the MP3s. You can grab it HERE, it includes a binary of LAME.
Just extract the contents of the RAR file to <any new folder>, copy the problem MP3s
to the same folder and run the batch file.

The MP3s MUST BE NAMED "Flink_02.mp3, Flink_03.mp3, Flink_<nn>.mp3"...
Also never execute a batch file you have not read first.
Second never trust that the EXE I say is "lame.exe" is really what I say it is.
Get your own copy of "lame.exe" to be safe. LOL
But you have my word, the "lame.exe" in the archive is authentic.

After you have run the batch file, the new mp3s will be in a folder called: NEW_MP3...
Copy these mp3s to your Flink Folder on your SD Card... And delete the folder you
used for the transcode, you dont need the old mp3s, nor the wavs, nor the batch, etc.

Good Luck,
-DEJ

 

[punkrockserfer]

Ok, so I did a few more tests, definately seems that the ID3 tags were bonking Pico.
I wrote up a batch file to fix the MP3s. You can grab it HERE, it includes a binary of LAME.
Just extract the contents of the RAR file to <any new folder>, copy the problem MP3s
to the same folder and run the batch file.

The MP3s MUST BE NAMED "Flink_02.mp3, Flink_03.mp3, Flink_<nn>.mp3"...
Also never execute a batch file you have not read first.
Second never trust that the EXE I say is "lame.exe" is really what I say it is.
Get your own copy of "lame.exe" to be safe. LOL
But you have my word, the "lame.exe" in the archive is authentic.

After you have run the batch file, the new mp3s will be in a folder called: NEW_MP3...
Copy these mp3s to your Flink Folder on your SD Card... And delete the folder you
used for the transcode, you dont need the old mp3s, nor the wavs, nor the batch, etc.

Good Luck,
-DEJ

Sweet, thanks for all the info DEJ. It worked great, however, in my search to find a universal ID3 tag remover, i found a program called simply "Tag" that will remove the ID3 tags from any mp3. Now if this problem crops up in some other game, I can quickly remove the offending ID3 tags, and have my sound back. Thanks for all your help though! It's strange how picky PicoDrive is with mp3s.

Oh and for anyone interested, a download of the Tag program I mentioned can be found here: http://members.home.nl/w.speek/tag.htm

 

[notaz]

It's strange how picky PicoDrive is with mp3s.

While it's picky on naming and encoded format, it should be able to skip those tags..

 

[dejunai]

It's strange how picky PicoDrive is with mp3s.

While it's picky on naming and encoded format, it should be able to skip those tags..

It was only a theory. and it could have been malformed tags. either way the transcode worked, and the only remarkable difference was the elimination of the tags in the Flink MP3s.

@punkrockserfer,

Glad I could help... I'll test your tag app against the original MP3s, and see if it is as effective as the transcode was.
Good Luck, Happy Gaming...
-DEJ