ROM Hack DS code SSEQ player and new MID to SSEQ converter

[FAST6191]

Stumbled across this a few hours back and it did not appear to be linked up so we have this. Not had the chance to try it out yet but I thought I would share it as a new midi to SSEQ is always nice to have. I am not sure if it is based on the new lowlines stuff on SSEQ, the older kiwi.DS stuff (or even older) or something else entirely at this stage (the caitsith2 and snakemeat stuff perhaps but that looks to be more of a wrapper and emulator).

http://fincs.drunkencoders.com/category/ds-homebrew/ has the posts although the converter is http://fincs.drunkencoders.com/2011/07/03/...sseq-converter/ github has source https://github.com/fincs/midi2sseq which I believe makes this the first open source converter (forgot loveemu released source code too).
It might ask for a couple of DLL files.
http://sourceforge.net/settings/mirror_cho...gcc_s_dw2-1.dll
http://code.google.com/p/wtfu/downloads/de...mp;can=2&q=

As I said I have not tried it but give it a spin if you are into this sort of thing.
Links for stuff you might consider
http://jul.rustedlogic.net/thread.php?id=7518
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=122534&hl=
A few other games are starting to have tools as well.

Specs
http://www.romhacking.net/docs/%5B469%5Dnds_formats.htm#SDAT
http://kiwi.ds.googlepages.com/sdat.html

For those really new to this the vast vast majority of DS roms (in recent months several cropped up that used other formats but prior to that it was less than 30 roms and less with region dupes taken into account that did not use it) use a format for sound known as SDAT and SSEQ is the tracker format for it which most games rely heavily upon. This makes DS sound hacking somewhat easier than previous consoles which several hackers have taken advantage of over the years to create some nice hacks.

 

[Ray =D]

WOOO! Brilliant

I will test the new converter tomorrow

 

[loco365]

Ooh. I am big into sound hacking and this could call for some big changes to my Hacking Tutorial. I'll take a look-see.

EDIT: It seems that it cannot convert MIDIs from FL Studio.

 

[KazoWAR]

Ooh. I am big into sound hacking and this could call for some big changes to my Hacking Tutorial. I'll take a look-see.

EDIT: It seems that it cannot convert MIDIs from FL Studio.

My MIDIs from FL Studio are working fine.

 

[Ray =D]

I dont know if I'm making it right, because nothing happens o_0 I wrote: "midi2sseq test.mid bla" then nothing happens. If I do it in another way, it says, wrong midi

EDIT: Got it

 

[loco365]

Ooh. I am big into sound hacking and this could call for some big changes to my Hacking Tutorial. I'll take a look-see.

EDIT: It seems that it cannot convert MIDIs from FL Studio.

My MIDIs from FL Studio are working fine.

What are you doing? I put my midi on the desktop, MIDI2SSEQ and it's files. I can drag-and click, but no SSEQ appears. If I go into command prompt, get to my desktop through cd desktop, then type nameoffile.mid midi2sseq, it says wrong filetype. I'll try again.

 

[Ray =D]

Ooh. I am big into sound hacking and this could call for some big changes to my Hacking Tutorial. I'll take a look-see.

EDIT: It seems that it cannot convert MIDIs from FL Studio.

My MIDIs from FL Studio are working fine.

What are you doing? I put my midi on the desktop, MIDI2SSEQ and it's files. I can drag-and click, but no SSEQ appears. If I go into command prompt, get to my desktop through cd desktop, then type nameoffile.mid midi2sseq, it says wrong filetype. I'll try again.

You should put it all into your Username directory^^ And the for a test I downloaded a midi and wrote: midi2sseq test.mid bla

 

[loco365]

Ooh. I am big into sound hacking and this could call for some big changes to my Hacking Tutorial. I'll take a look-see.

EDIT: It seems that it cannot convert MIDIs from FL Studio.

My MIDIs from FL Studio are working fine.

What are you doing? I put my midi on the desktop, MIDI2SSEQ and it's files. I can drag-and click, but no SSEQ appears. If I go into command prompt, get to my desktop through cd desktop, then type nameoffile.mid midi2sseq, it says wrong filetype. I'll try again.

You should put it all into your Username directory^^ And the for a test I downloaded a midi and wrote: midi2sseq test.mid bla

Yup. Got it to work. IT IS A GODSEND. You don't have to use a hex editor at all. I must add this to my tutorial.

 

[Deleted User]

i quite enjoy this

 

[KazoWAR]

Yea like Ray said, this program uses the command line "midi2sseq infile.mid outfile.sseq" instead of just drag and drop like the old one did.

I read on the github that it supports looping but I do not know how to go about using it. I guess it is something you need to do with the midi but I always thought that midi files could not loop.

I am also interested in the SSEQ Player for homebrew.

 

[FAST6191]

Those that tried it any difference in quality between the two versions?

@KazoWAR We have a few mod trackers (granted compared to the GBA there are some issues there) and similar formats ( http://meraman.dip.jp/index.php?NDS_BGMFILER ) able to be used already and given there are no real high level SSEQ editors or conversion methods that work well/reliably when it comes to keeping a 1:1 or near enough sound quality.

 

[loco365]

Yea like Ray said, this program uses the command line "midi2sseq infile.mid outfile.sseq" instead of just drag and drop like the old one did.

I read on the github that it supports looping but I do not know how to go about using it. I guess it is something you need to do with the midi but I always thought that midi files could not loop.

I am also interested in the SSEQ Player for homebrew.

I'm interested in the SSEQ player myself, but I'm more interested in figuring out how to use other soundbanks. I tried replacing them using CrystalTile and it failed. I wonder if Kiwi DS might help.

And if it does support looping, I'm all ears to know of this new technique.

I also think it goes about looping by looking for something certain in the track and creates a pointer at the end of the track. I don't think I'll be able to figure it out at the moment, though. Maybe we could shoot whoever said that a question as to how it's done. I'm tired of staring at a hex editor. :/

EDIT: I totally forgot about this, but I dropped a comment and got this:

Team Fail Says:
July 15th, 2011 at 1:17 am
I like this little program. However, is it possible to edit the soundbanks and sequences and wave archives to allow people to test their own sequences? I see that it uses a filesystem, but I attempted to replace them and it ruined it.

fincs Says:
July 15th, 2011 at 11:45 am
This converter allows you to make your own SSEQ sequences. As for custom soundbanks and wave archives, I plan on making a tool to make them.

So, this might not be all that we'll be seeing short-term.

 

[Ray =D]

EDIT: I totally forgot about this, but I dropped a comment and got this:

Team Fail Says:
July 15th, 2011 at 1:17 am
I like this little program. However, is it possible to edit the soundbanks and sequences and wave archives to allow people to test their own sequences? I see that it uses a filesystem, but I attempted to replace them and it ruined it.

fincs Says:
July 15th, 2011 at 11:45 am
This converter allows you to make your own SSEQ sequences. As for custom soundbanks and wave archives, I plan on making a tool to make them.

So, this might not be all that we'll be seeing short-term.

WOW! THAT WOULD BE SOOOOO AWESOME!

 

[KazoWAR]

Those that tried it any difference in quality between the two versions?

@KazoWAR We have a few mod trackers (granted compared to the GBA there are some issues there) and similar formats ( http://meraman.dip.jp/index.php?NDS_BGMFILER ) able to be used already and given there are no real high level SSEQ editors or conversion methods that work well/reliably when it comes to keeping a 1:1 or near enough sound quality.

I know about that, was more thinking about using it to use music ripped from other DS games or even make a music player that would play the music from nds files right on the flashcart it self.

 

[FAST6191]

Hmm... in that case it make take some work but have a look at some of the stuff caitsith2 did with his DS rip kit (it sits alongside VGMtoolbox). Part of that I understand to be a rom tweaked to allow simple access to the sound engine/code.

Failing that the above does a good line in ripping which should be good unless you use the music as part of your game (adding or removing layers/increasing speed depending on what goes on in the game).

 

[loco365]

I replied and got another comment back.

Team Fail Says:
July 19th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Well, I’ll be looking forward to that. It will be very useful. Now, if there was something for looping SSEQ files, that would be amazing.

fincs Says:
July 19th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
There is, just add loopStart and loopEnd markers to your MIDI.

After toying around and talking with people, I managed to figure out what this means. I'll explain it if anyone needs me to.

 

[applemaster9]

Can you explain it? I found a link to a MIDI looping tutorial in this thread, but it doesn't work for me.

 

[andibad]

Go to pokemoncomunity, search team fail thread about SSEQ, is working for me XD yeah is easy for looping but my problem is customize instrument/font sound ....

 

[applemaster9]

Go to pokemoncomunity, search team fail thread about SSEQ, is working for me XD yeah is easy for looping but my problem is customize instrument/font sound ....

Are you referring to the bit where it talks about manually adding in the loop points? The one time I tried that, it screwed up my song.

If anyone's gotten the midi2sseq + loopStart/loopEnd method to work, can they please post a tutorial?

As for your customization problem, andibad, it depends on what you're trying to do.

If you want to assign instrument patches...
1. Drag and drop your rom into VGMTrans.
2. Find the song you want. (Use VGMTrans to listen to it.)
3. Find the second file for the song in the lower-left hand corner. Right-click it and choose "Convert to DLS".
4. Open your midi up in FL Studio.
5. Hit F9 to turn on the Mixer, if it isn't already on.
6. Go to the slot labeled "1" on the right side of the Mixer, click the down arrow, and select "Fruity LSD".
7. In the Fruity LSD window, click on the folder, and select the DLS file you extracted.
8. Set the port to 0 in Fruity LSD (click on the number and mouse wheel down).
9. Play the song, and find an instrument that's at the beginning.
10. Click on it and assign an instrument patch. Make a note of what the instrument sounds like, and what number it is.
11. Edit your tracks in your midi editor of choice (I use Tuxguitar ). Find the number of the instrument patch you want to use and convert it to midi instruments. (For instance, if you wanted to use instrument patch 1 on a channel, set that channel's instrument to Piano, since it's the first midi instrument. A list of what instruments correspond to what numbers)
12. Convert with midi2sseq and enjoy!

If it's about getting percussion to work right...
I know how to do it, but I'm too lazy to write a tutorial right now. If anyone needs it, I'll write a tutorial tomorrow.

If it's about using a different DLS bank than the one the game uses...
I don't know, but I'm sure it's possible. Try Google.

 

[loco365]

Pshaa, that's all old now. You don't need a hex editor anymore for this. Open your MIDI in Anvil Studio and use markers. To do so...

1. Go to the point in the song where the song jumps to.
2. Go Edit --> Insert MIDI event
3. Make sure both boxes are checkmarked and look for Marker.
4. Type in "loopStart" in the field below.
5. At the end of the song, insert a Marker called "loopEnd" using the same technique.
6. Export as a MIDI (File --> Export MIDI-format 0 file) and convert using midi2sseq.

What's great is that you just need to do it on one track- It adds loop points CORRECTLY to all the other tracks!