Hey everybody.

While helping a friend gather AJ-instrument samples to compose some new music, we discovered several tracks that were unused in the final game (which most were AA1 tracks with AJ-instruments, including a Cornered! 2001 remix) Here I have a line-in recording, since we were unable to rip it from the files. Cornered! 2001 AJ instruments Turn the volume down as this is a very poor quality.

My question was if anybody has ever successfully ripped these ghost tracks before?

Did you use vgmtrans?

Because it doesn't emulate tracks of alot of DS games correctly (since it misses some instruments in a soundbank that it doesn't understand, therefore relying on MIDI-instruments a fallback). I know this because I've personally ripped my own AJ soundfont and discovered that unused content.


As for what you found in AJ, this is really nothing. Unused yes, but they're from the AA versions. There's no "AJ" versions of some of those tracks (as i hear the original AA drums). Otherwise it'd be a waste of time for someone like me to figure out how to "port" an original PW track to an AJ-fied version.

Anyways, they're useless to make into a soundfont if you already ripped all the sound data from the original games.

Whaat? I could clearly hear AJ samples in that poor recording we did.

Make a proper "recording" and I'll re listen to it again (or send an mp3 file). I don't think what you're hearing is AJ music, but MIDI-fied instruments instead. It's easy to confuse the two. I'm not going to take your word from a really poor recording :P


So I'll ask again, did you use vgmtrans?

A message from my friend:

VGM Trans is a great tool, no matter the version... but still has its flaws, namely, in not catching/understand certain synth samples (a type of instrument that the original AA games uses HEAVILY). So it plays back a "placeholder" instrument to compensate for a specific channel (otherwise known as a sequence) in case it can't understand from a game's soundbank.

Be aware, different PC users, depending on what audio hardware they have installed on their computers, have different native .DLS systems that aren't just Microsoft's default GS .dls playback versions, so just because you don't think it sounds like it's from your MIDI soundchip, doesn't mean it's going to be the same for someone else if they went through the same process of ripping as you. :P


VGM Trans even fails to load any games not using the native Nintendo proprietary format of sequences+soundbnks, which I've run into a few times (mostly with some obscure wester/japanese games).


And again, I'll repeat, the "samples" (I'm not talking about just synth, I'm also talking about the drum samples), are based on the original AA DS game versions. You can clearly hear the AA drum samples used from that poor recording. Why bother only adding a few modifications of the instruments and call it an AJ remake? It's not.

Recall the AJ games did have part of a flashback case with music from the older days. Did you hear any *real* difference that placed those music into an AJ-quality track? I don't recall so.

So, as another "veteran sample user" (w/e that means :s), all I have to tell you Lumine and your friend is this:

If the unused tracks you find don't sound anything like this kind of quality, then you're simply hearing a placeholder imposed by VGMTrans.

Again, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you can just provide another recording (or you know, an mp3 file).

I checked out this track from an AJ rom myself today using the latest version of VGM Trans, and I can already tell it's the exact same sounding the way the OP's recording was (meaning, the lack of a proper synth channel).

Thanks for that information. And what he meant was simply that he's done tons of custom music using Megaman and other DS-related title samples.

That doesn't mean anything, Ive used ghost trick samples in some custom experiment productions, as not all roms are the same in terms of data.

which btw reminds me:

Ghost trick is an example of vgmtrans loading everything up pretty perfectly, including the synth instruments. If theres a game that uses a bunch of orchestra, they work perfectly fine too.


AA is an exception to these because of how the sound engineers implemented the instruments in the soundbanks that vgm trans doesn't understand for some reason.

Well, we got a better recording of it:
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/r5i1d7g ... MTrans.mp3

And he stated he found unique samples and were not based on his computer's midi files while uploading it. Might be easier if you sent him a message on this.

That's actually fascinating...Are there any other tracks that are of the slight variation? Not sarcastic, apologies, this is kinda interesting...I wonder why they exist/are unused.

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