I'm currently in the process of ripping the music from a few Sega Genesis games and I've kind off hit a wall with a few of the games, so I was hoping somebody on here might be able to give me a tip or two to get by.

I've been using Kega Fusion, the emulator, which can supposedly emulate the Sega's soundchip accurately (and it appears to do so, so far). Using it's sound logging function, ripping music is as easy as exporting it in a WAV and opening it up in audacity or something and exporting it as an mp3.

The problem comes in with the Ecco The Dolphin series. The music there is much more quiet, and when you import into audacity, you end up amplifying a small signal, meaning it gets blown up alot. This isn't so bad on computer speakers, or possibly a small stereo, but problems arise with headphones and, say, a car stereo. Like I said, you've taken a small signal, blown it up a ton, then proceed (with headphones) to place sound that's usually heard 10 feet away or so from you through the tv right into your ear. The problem? Because sega used a soundchip, the sounds come out...well...."plucky" is how I describe it, and the fade out from those "pluck" noises is usually kind of "buzzy." The other problem is sounds that have long fadeouts but shift pitches, it's not actually there, but it practically sounds like you can hear a click between it shifting.

Now, if this was Streets of Rage, or Gunstar Heroes or something, there'd be so much more noise within the song that it'd hardly be noticable, but with Ecco, more ambient based tracks, it stands out quite a bit. Yeah, I could just amplify it a little less, but that only dims the "pluck" and shifting noises, not hide them. So I was hoping somebody would either know a way around this, or perhaps know what to input into Audacity's equalizer or something to tone them down slightly. I say Equalizer because, frankly, the only tool in audacity I know how to use is amplify, or bass boost, simple things, and I have no idea what other tool would really help out here.

So, uh.....please and thankyou?

I remember when I first heard about Kega Fusion I did this, but this isn't the best way to get music.

Now I just download vgz sets from here: http://project2612.org/

And then I use foobar2000: http://www.foobar2000.org/

After you download foobar and get the vgz files, you can convert the vgz files into wav. Can't get any simpler :)

I remember when I first heard about Kega Fusion I did this, but this isn't the best way to get music.

Now I just download vgz sets from here: http://project2612.org/

And then I use foobar2000: http://www.foobar2000.org/

After you download foobar and get the vgz files, you can convert the vgz files into wav. Can't get any simpler :)

VGZ files were originally dumped from using the same method Despair mentioned. You could try their rip of Ecco and convert it and see if its any better.

VGZ files were originally dumped from using the same method Despair mentioned. You could try their rip of Ecco and convert it and see if its any better.

It's not. Their method is why I decided to use the wav rips instead of the vgm's, the vgm isn't perfect in its emulation, and thus distorts the sound. It's widely aparrent if you take their ripped version and compare to the wav. Though the wav has the added "buzz" and "pluck" noises (which the vgm does too, just filtered to fit with the quieter sound), it makes up for it when you hear the difference.

Specifically I was hoping somebody might know a filter effect for audacity or something that I could apply to "soften" the sound or "add distance" to it (as if the speaker is 5 feet away instead of right next to you)

You could apply some kind of room ambience or reverb to it. Though I'm not sure how since I don't use Audacity.

You could apply some kind of room ambience or reverb to it. Though I'm not sure how since I don't use Audacity.

I did fiddle with the reverb, but I'm unsure how to accurately use it myself. The audacity wiki had a few stat examples but they're mostly for a hallway type of effect, I can't seem to pin down a way to add distance without confining it to a "small room"

It's not. Their method is why I decided to use the wav rips instead of the vgm's, the vgm isn't perfect in its emulation, and thus distorts the sound. It's widely aparrent if you take their ripped version and compare to the wav. Though the wav has the added "buzz" and "pluck" noises (which the vgm does too, just filtered to fit with the quieter sound), it makes up for it when you hear the difference.

Specifically I was hoping somebody might know a filter effect for audacity or something that I could apply to "soften" the sound or "add distance" to it (as if the speaker is 5 feet away instead of right next to you)

I dunno, you should try playing around with the "effects" section in audacity to see what you want. There should be an option there in which you can lower the volume of whatever you want to do.

I dunno, you should try playing around with the "effects" section in audacity to see what you want. There should be an option there in which you can lower the volume of whatever you want to do.

About the only effects that could accomplish that is either altering the reverb somehow, or equalizing it and lowering those frequencies. But the most I can do with either of those is just guess.