I'm curious, can anyone recommend any programs that can directly extract a Wii game's sound data directly from disc?  I suppose this stems from my original desire in wanting to do up a complete and fully edited rip of the Punch-Out!! Wii music score.  (I'm aware that there's a rip available out there, but at an encoded 160kbps, I'd much rather prefer to work off of original wave data.)

So, people are doing it, I just wish I knew how.  Help, anyone?

Isn't it likely that whoever created the existing recording just plugged their Wii sound output into their PC's soundcard?

I've ruled out that possibility based on a number of reasons.  The hierarchy of the current rip looks too broken down and "organized" to be just a recording.  The sheer number of tracks, short as many of them are, strongly indicates that it was a straight rip, and not a direct recording of the suite-based sound test in the game itself.  On top of which, the files are still originally labeled as .brstm (for instance "BGM 001.brstm.mp3", "BGM 002.brstm.mp3", etc), an apparent sound data extension designated specifically for Gamecube and Wii games.

More evidence is that the in-game sound test has the unfortunate habit of stream-playing its songs off the disc, yet does so by beginning or ending many tracks prematurely.  This was proven not just from myself, but a few others who had attempted to make a direct recording.  In other words, a rip appears to be the only way to get the fully played renditions.

In any case, rips are certainly possible.  I mean, look at those massive Super Smash Bros. Brawl music projects that are available.

Rips of streamed music are very easy to do once the format is known, usually you just decrypt and extract the disks and look for file with specific attributes. hcs64.com is the place to go for up-to-date native VGM file playback (i.e. vgmstream plugin for streamed music), a stream pack of Punchout Wii was linked at the forums there at 10:51 PM EDT on May 26, 2009.

I think the step that was stopping me cold was the first one; learning how to even extract a Wii iso.  I couldn't tell my WiiScrubber from my WiiTools. o_O

Anyway, I managed to grab the stream pack and did up the proper conversion.  Now I can finally get to work.   Danke, Dats!