Ok, I'm in this argument with someone over the WA2 soundtrack at the moment and I wanted some other opinions on this.

I personally do not like the three large orchestral tracks on the second CD. I won't go into too much but I just think they feel and sound "overdone." Anyway, as anyone who has ever had access to the WA2 soundtrack knows the tracks don't loop before they fade. I find this quite annoying when I'm listening to a great tune like "Live Reflector." Yes, I know there is a thing called the "repeat" button on every player or stereo in existence but its annoying when the track has to restart every minute.

So, the argument is would you rather have the three orchestral tracks or every other track from the game looped twice (granted with the latter it might not fit on two CDs but ignoring that for the sake of argument)? (Note: I should use the PSF rip to see how many CDs would be needed if the in-game music looped, probably 3 regardless).

I myself rather have the music from the game loop because I bought the soundtrack for the music that is in the game itself, I didn't buy the OST for misc. extras. I guess what I'm saying is I'm ok with such "extras" as long as they don't infringe on the original music.

What are you thoughts?

Loop the tracks. I don't even carry the orchestral tracks on my iPod, as I prefer the ingame tracks and they don't cover a lot of favorites. WA2 (along with Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile 1) are the prime examples of soundtracks that simply need repeated tracks, but WA2 especially because the tracks are so short (most don't go over a minute long). WA2 had the best dungeon tracks in the series (and some of my favorites from any RPG, since I've played the game and have them stuck in my head) and great field/battle/town themes to boot.

Oh well, at least they looped the main battle music. And the fanfare. They get a brownie point for that...

A man after my own heart, I love Ruins Type 2!

Final Fantasy IV comes to mind as well.

I took care of that...I just converted the looped SPC set of that and Seiken Densetsu 2 to Wavs, then to AAC files. No detectable audio loss from what I can tell and loop heaven for two great OST's.

I'm going to do the game with WA2 here... of course I'll have the bring over the streamed tracks from the OST

*drools*  Is there any way you could zip 'em and upload them to sendspace or any other upload site?  I've been dying for a decent SD2 and FFIV release!

Ashley, you may find the PSF's easier to work with. They play continuously. I've dabbled with them a bit, but I'm not that familiar with them.

allyourbase...I was mistaken. The files were on my old computer and they went kaput with everything else. It's not a hard conversion (thanks to the good folks who timed the SPC sets), but I don't really have the time this weekend to tinker with it. Unless someone else wants to volunteer, I'll just do a thread bump next week with it. Basically, just set Winamp to output Wav files (have the SPC plugin), load in the SPC sets, then convert the Wavs that get outputted. I had a whole bunch made up that went down and I've put off redoing them forever...

There are output plugins for lame mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, monkey audio etc. (not aac it seems) so you might want to look for such before doing the extra wav step.

It shouldn't be a problem, I messed around with psf. and spc. sets a lot before I started to buy the albums... the various file conversions are pretty easy.

Here's what I would have:

1) keep the large orchestral tracks. I thought they were AWESOME. Just plain awesome.

2) make it more than two discs so you can loop the songs. Disc one was the problem: 75 tracks? No thank you.

Another idea, EVEN BETTER, is to loop the regular songs, and then release the three arranged tracks SEPARATELY as an arranged album (maybe add a few more tracks to make it longer). That would've been much better.

Ramza

GolfishX, thanks anyways.  I did something similar with the Earthbound soundtrack back when I had more time on my hands.  In general, I was pretty satisfied with the result. 

Do you think the same thing can be done with .gym files?  I'd like to put out a decent release of Dynamite Headdy's soundtrack and would like to do it that way instead of outputting a .wav file from the emulator.

You might want to consider .VGM files instead of .GYMs. From what I understand, and based on what I've heard myself, the sound is a lot more accurate.

To see for yourself, Project 2612 is the place to go:
http://project2612.org/
TONS of good Genesis music there, including Dynamite Headdy.

There is a WinAMP plugin for .VGMs, so it'll be easy to record your WAVs.

Thank you sir!!  I'll get started as soon as I get home.  (although it seems like they've done the work for me.) 

You're welcome. I remember I went on a feeding frenzy when I discovered the format.
And I think their policy requires looping, so you should be good to go.

Yes, the VGM log format allows one to set the numbers of play throughs before fading out.

Okay, so I've downloaded the obligatory Dynamite Headdy and Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks, but what else is there for the Genesis?  I'd really like to hear what the system has to offer.

*edit*  Picked up Streets of Rage 2 after hearing rave reviews about Yuzo Koshiro and also picked up Wonder Boy in Monster World (just bought it for the Wii and love it!)

I wish there was a way to split this discussion off to a new thread...I'm not TRYING to overrun Ashley's original subject!

Anyway, try giving the two Shining Force and Shining In The Darkness collections a spin. And the Phantasy Star titles as well, without a doubt.

And if you want to hear early Sakuraba, there are seven sets to enjoy. Try looking up Granada, click on his name in the composer column, and there you'll have it.