How Do I Extend a Track?

Hi; I came across the Silver Star Harmony version of the Ruid theme from Lunar, but I’d like to try and extend the track so it loops twice; I know how to fade it out and such, but I haven’t a clue how to do make it longer without damaging the music. I searched a bit and turned up no other mp3’s of this particular version, so my only choice is to extend it or stick to the lower quality version from SSSC. Here’s the vid in case anybody wishes to help; again, apologies for posting this in the wrong area, but I need to make sure the message is seen by as large an audience as possible. Thanks in advance.

Lunar Silver Star Harmony OST: Ruid – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXsdA_SfYKU)

I extended the track to loop for a run time of 3:30 (a tad longer than you had outlined in your post). Took me a while to get it without any "pop" sound when I looped it, but I think it turned out great.

1. LSSH – Ruid – short.mp3 (http://www.mediafire.com/?fa8kb7ssathqdsy)

Edit: Called it "short" because I also made a much longer version that I plan to upload to my youtube channel at some point.

Basically you just use Audacity or whatever music software you’re akin to, and just cut/paste loops sections that are so acute that the begin and end to the loop blends without audible difference. You may find yourself cutting and pasting several dozens of times per track, or even per loop.

Alternatively if this is from a game and you wish to go that route, you could rip the track into the associated format (PSF, USF, GSF, etc.) where loop points may be registered in the file/information, meaning it’s just matter of setting your foobar plugin to 2 loops.

I extended the track to loop for a run time of 3:30 (a tad longer than you had outlined in your post). Took me a while to get it without any "pop" sound when I looped it, but I think it turned out great.

1. LSSH – Ruid – short.mp3 (http://www.mediafire.com/?fa8kb7ssathqdsy)

Edit: Called it "short" because I also made a much longer version that I plan to upload to my youtube channel at some point.

Thanks a mil, Karnij! What program did you use to do this, and how? Quite an useful trick to know.

Thanks a mil, Karnij! What program did you use to do this, and how? Quite an useful trick to know.

You’re welcome! I love extending tracks, so I was more than happy to come across this and help out.

I use a program called MP3 Editor for Free (http://www.mp3-editor.net/). I got it since I usually find MP3s of tracks I want to edit over most other formats (not really a lossless FLAC kind of guy) and, while you cannot save your work as an MP3 unless you purchase the program, you can save as a WAV file without any problems.

I listen to the track a few times to get a feel for where the loop start and end point is (or where I am going to make my own if I can/have to) and then I zoom in quite a bit. Sometimes it truly comes down to getting the milliseconds just right for the loop so string together seamlessly (aka no pop or crackling sounds). For example, with the Ruid track, I tried a few different points before using the start point of 6.351 seconds and ending at 56.888 seconds turned out perfect. A little before or after that at either point produced a pop/crackle sounds that I hate to include in my extensions (though sometimes it is unavoidable) or there would have been a noticeable pitch change (this, too, is sometimes unavoidable if you are really itching to extend a track that clearly has no loop point you can work with. I mangled a few of the arranged tracks from Virtua Fighter 2 by trying to extend them, but ya never know until you try).

Honestly, the stuff I wrote above is probably confusing and my best suggestion would be to download the program I linked above and just mess around with a few tracks so you can get a feel for what it is like (after all, you don’t have to save them or anything). That is how I learned how to do this, and I feel like I’m still learning little tricks with every new track I try. The program crashes a lot if you are playing the track on it (but you have to to hear if the loop sounds right), so I would also suggest writing down your loop points if you feel you are in the right area but need to tweak them a bit just so you can go right back to them once the program is back up.

I hope this helps and that I have not dissuaded you from trying with my rambling explanations.

(Yep, shameless self-promotion in my sig)