So recently I've made MP3 albums of my favorite Genesis, Master System and SNES soundtracks using Winamp and the necessary plug-ins. Tagging the MP3s has been a breeze thanks to the track listings included with the VGM and RSN files. It's been easy going but the NES soundtracks look like they will be a different story. I've tried reading up on the various NSF players to find out which is the best to use but I'm confused. Which ones are the easiest to use and sound the best? Am I pretty much on my own as far as naming each song? I appreciate any advice.

I'm not sure if you're already aware of this, but you definitely should check out NSFe's. They're like NSFs, but with track lengths and tags.

For playback I recommend foobar2k and foo_gep plugin, which plays GBS, GYM, HES, KSS, NSF, NSFE, SAP, SPC, and VGM files. Foobar can convert the songs to mp3 files too.

I hope this helps.

Yeah, that's what I think I'll be using. It doesn't look like there ar too many soundtracks in that format, though. I know there is an NSF to NSFe converter but that will still require me to name the songs. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for your help

I ended up doing the conversions blind with NSF's in Winamp...Seems most NES tracks loop after 30-40 seconds, so I give roughly around 2:30 of running time to them, depending on the track. Sloppy, but it works...I'm surprised how many I got right at the end of a loop just by guessing. Also nice having 3-4 loops for some of them!

I'll give myself more time than that, then just edit the track lengths in a wav editing program like CoolEdit, Sound Forge or Audacity. Some NES tunes have surprising long loop points!

NEZplug (and its improved NEZplug++) allow tagging/timing by the way of editing m3u playlist files (which can be edited with any text editor). I did that with a couple GBS files, those could easily be adapted to NSF files as well (there is a documentation of the "Extended Playlist" format).

One problem with NEZplug (and presumably its derivatives) is that it plays the DPCM channel out of tune. For 99% of NSF soundtracks that's not a big deal, because it's generally only used for drum samples if at all. But a lot of great Sunsoft soundtracks use the channel for bass, and Super C has some brass samples and both sound horrible in NEZplug.

I suggest you to check out NEZplug++ first before claiming it's the same (NEZplug++ primarily exists to resolve all the sound/compatibility issues and is updated very regularly).

Is there a guide to help me get started with NEZplug++?

I claim nothing! I presume.

What do you need to know?

It's a simple Winamp plugin. Drop in_nez.dll to your Winamp's plugin folder. If you want to create playlist files from scratch the best way to go about is is opening notepad, write:

yourfilename.nsf::NSF,1
yourfilename.nsf::NSF,2
yourfilename.nsf::NSF,3

etc. This will allow direct playlist access to all respective tracks with the default playtime of 5min and 5sec fade each (these default values can be changed in in_nez.ini, also in the plugin folder). If you want to add specific titles and times you write it like that:

yourfilename.nsf::NSF,1,title for track 1,playtime in hours:minutes:seconds

If you want to get even more elaborated you can also define the looptime (with the loopcount being set in in_nez.ini again) and a custom fade time (useful e.g. for jingles and songs which just stop and don't need a fade out, can be written like "yourfilename.nsf::NSF,1,5 seconds jingle with undefined looptime and 0 fade,5,,0").
Save this text as yourplaylistname.m3u to were yourfilename.nsf is located and open it Winamp, done. Use Nullsoft Disk Writer, LAME MP3 Writer or any other output plugin of your choice to get the desired output/files.

OK, thanks! Sorry I had to ask but I'm not the most computer savvy person around. I've never even made playlists before.

OK, I finally took the time to learn how to use Nezplug++ but I have one small problem. When I write WAVs, the first file is not named correctly. Instead of naming the track "Title", for example, Winamp named it "0:15," or something. Below is the playlist I have for Heavy Barrel. I have the same problem with the few other soundtracks I've messed with. Again, it's not a big deal but if you could tell me what I'm doing wrong that would be awesome!

Code:
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,29,Title,00:00:18,00:00:15,
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,30,Game Over,00:00:03,,0
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,31,Epilogue (Final Stage BGM),00:00:46,00:00:46,
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,32,Heavy Barrel Theme (Field BGM),00:01:15,00:01:08,
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,33,Wipeout the enemy base (Base BGM),00:01:05,00:01:05,
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,34,Impact (Boss BGM),00:00:31,00:00:31,
HEAVYBAR.nsf::NSF,35,Flight (Ending),00:01:33,00:01:33,