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[Dragona Akehi]

First there was SPC, then PSF and NSF files. Finally there's the N64 sound file aptly named the USF. If you read their site it's quite interesting as how they've had to deal with the 64's "unique" (ie: shitty) method of storing music files. They've also created the "64th Note", a plugin for Winamp.

So far they've mentioned it's a little buggy on Windows 2000 or XP systems, but I haven't had a problem at all with Windows XP Home. Quality seems to be really nice, though there's sometimes a bit of a dip in tempo.

Go check it out!

 

[samusx]

Oh my god, I have been sent back in time, noooooooooo, oh god noooooooo. . . .




Oh wait, no I have not.

Bye the way. Welcome to like 3 months ago. But yea still cool.

 

[bjork]

Keen. As soon as they can rip GROOVY from Beetle Adventure Racing, I will be a happy dude

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Yeah they've mentioned it's tough to get the actual music files since the ROM is burned as one huge chunk of code. I think it's really interesting from a programming perspective because I heard from programmers that they thought there'd never be a N64 player anytime soon because of a few things:

There's no soundchip
The ROMs are burned as one big chunk of code (ie: no folders)

and something along the lines that they'd have to have an entire emulator up and running to get the sound working...

 

[snapty00]

While there's no dedicated sound chip, there is consistency among the code that roughly identifies the type of data it is. Otherwise, the Nintendo 64 itself wouldn't be able to figure it out, either.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Well obviously yes, but it isn't as easy as PSF files which seem to have their own folder given to them.

 

[GIR]

Cool, I've been waiting for a N64 sound format for years, woohoo!!!

 

[Dice]

Why would I want N64 music? It's some of the worst ever.

 

[teepo]

woohoo original zelda64 fire temple music!!!

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Why would I want N64 music? It's some of the worst ever.

Oh I won't deny that but it has some awesome music: Fzero, Mario 64, Majora's Mask, Diddy Kong (some of the music is quite good), Ogre Battle64 among others.

 

[shibbs]

Why would I want N64 music? It's some of the worst ever.

Die.

 

[GIR]

Why would I want N64 music? It's some of the worst ever.

That’s odd I never noticed this, oh wait I don’t have my anti Nintendo headphones on, just a sec.....
Wow you are right, Worst. Music. Ever. I'll delete my N64 music collection of Midi's Mod's and MP3's right away.

 

[dark10x]

That’s odd I never noticed this, oh wait I don’t have my anti Nintendo headphones on, just a sec.....
Wow you are right, Worst. Music. Ever. I'll delete my N64 music collection of Midi's Mod's and MP3's right away.

He was likely referring to the fact that the music is of very low quality, not that all of the tunes are badly composed. There are plenty of catchy tunes on the system, but the sound quality is pretty awful (worse than the SNES in many ways).

By and large, though, the system really didn't have a lot of memorable music for me...

 

[GIR]

He was likely referring to the fact that the music is of very low quality, not that all of the tunes are badly composed. There are plenty of catchy tunes on the system, but the sound quality is pretty awful (worse than the SNES in many ways).

By and large, though, the system really didn't have a lot of memorable music for me...

Ok, works for me dude, I was referring to the sound quality too

 

[dark10x]

Ok, works for me dude, I was referring to the sound quality too

Seriously? Well, that other poster wasn't too far from the truth, then. It isn't some of the worst ever, but it IS the worst ever for the generational standard. It was released after a whole slew of other systems with vastly superior sound abilities, afterall. Remember, a LOT of PSX games didn't rely on a pre-recorded form of audio either...

 

[djtiesto]

I was REALLY disappointed with the system's sound quality and instrument library... especially after seeing what some programmers did with the SNES's sound chip. Saturn and PSX had vastly superior sound systems.

 

[Dice]

Yes, I was talking about the sound quality and instruments. Composers could try plenty hard, and they may have made some songs that were catchy in concept, and you could appreciate the heart/intention behind them, but they were just about always marred by the horrible quality of the system itself. I take serious issues with it's graphics rendering as well. I don't doubt that it had plenty of good games on it, but the system was just horribly designed. The best music on the system is probably The New Tetris, Neil Voss pulled off some amazing stuff with the 64's crappy midi set.

That’s odd I never noticed this, oh wait I don’t have my anti Nintendo headphones on, just a sec.....

Dude I love Nintendo, I grew up with nothing but Nintendo systems (well, my first was Atari, but I was very very young). I didn't even get a Playstation until I had been playing N64 for a year or so, and it was mostly out of longing for my favorite genre (fighting games). I've come to appreciate all consoles now, but I certainly haven't grown to be anti-Nintendo. Part of supporting a company is that you are honest about their mistakes, this (ideally) helps them make a better product the next time. And you have to have some SERIOUS Nintendo biases to say that N64 was a well designed system, especially in the sound depertment which is it's weakest area.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

The best music on the system is probably The New Tetris, Neil Voss pulled off some amazing stuff with the 64's crappy midi set.

MIDI? I thought it was mp3 playback? Pretty amazing for MIDI if so.

 

[dark10x]

MIDI? I thought it was mp3 playback? Pretty amazing for MIDI if so.

MP3 playback?! Are you mad? Do you know how much space that would require?

Then again, people are always amazed when they realize that the music in games like Onimusha and Chrono Cross are not actually pre-recorded digital tunes. The N64 could have had games with soundtracks of this quality had they actually built a good sound chip...

 

[djtiesto]

MP3 playback?! Are you mad? Do you know how much space that would require?

Then again, people are always amazed when they realize that the music in games like Onimusha and Chrono Cross are not actually pre-recorded digital tunes. The N64 could have had games with soundtracks of this quality had they actually built a good sound chip...

I thought I remember hearing that Perfect Dark had a built in MP3 decompressor, and used MP3s as music... but I never bothered to play the game (brother got it for like $3), so I can't vouch for sure

 

[dark10x]

I thought I remember hearing that Perfect Dark had a built in MP3 decompressor, and used MP3s as music... but I never bothered to play the game (brother got it for like $3), so I can't vouch for sure

Well, Perfect Dark is exactly 32mb in size (32,786kb), so I highly doubt that they could have crammed in a full soundtrack of MP3s (no matter the bitrate) and still managed to keep the file size at 32mb. They may have used another digital music format of their own, however...but I do not know for sure. The music isn't of high enough quality to warrant such an idea, though.