Super NES TOSLINK Digital FLAC Soundtracks:

Update April 4th, 2019: File links updated due to filetrip shutting down.

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On request, I’ve decided to make a dedicated thread for all my Super NES real hardware digital soundtracks:

These soundtracks are direct digital rips from original Super NES hardware that has been modified with a digital-to-digital transmitter board. The Super NES is actually rather unique among the old consoles in that it generates a digital sound signal before sending it to an analog converter, and as such, mod boards with a digital transmitter can output the digital music & sound of the SNES directly. Here’s my RW mod board that supports both coaxial and optical digital (installed in this SNES with a coaxial jack as a no-cut option):

So these digital output mods have the advantage of completely bypassing the analog converter, allowing for absolutely CRISP sounding music files with FLAWLESS stereo directional properties. My soundtracks are meant for the purists who would rather have music generated from original Super NES consoles without resorting to emulation, yet at the same time, has the clarity of pure digital sound. Pros and cons below:

Pros:
1. Taken from actual Super NES hardware (for the console purists).
2. 100% digital-to-digital transfer.
3. No downmixing or upmixing at any point (raw 32,000 Hz FLAC file output).
4. All files tagged with title, track, and composer data, as well as in-game screenshot cover art.
5. Lossless FLAC codec format.

Cons:
1. Files are considerably larger than SPC format (SPC often used in emulation addons for music players).

Below are the currently completed soundtracks:

http://www.firebrandx.com/snesdigitalcstrips.html

This is super interesting, thanks dude!

OK

So there appears to have been an error with filetrip miss-reporting the file size for Chrono Trigger CST as 278 MB, when it should be 478MB. I’ve uploaded another attempt on it, and it appears to be reporting the file size correctly now. My apologies for those that wasted their time downloading the previous 278 MB package. Bugs happen unfortunately. The OP has been edited with the new link.

Thanks, can you make 44100khz?

Resampling likely would dilute the original recording to where it no longer is ‘bit-perfect’. As such, I won’t do that, not to mention it is wasted space anyway.

However, you can easily do this yourself if you’re wanting to make audio CDs for example. Just have a sound program batch-process the tracks into 44.1Khz.

Also could you please remove the quote in your post? Your quote will show old download links that no longer work.

Thanks for everything.
And I agree, 32,055Khz is perfect, don’t use 44100khz! 🙂

The only other person I know besides you who did this was theIronGoat on ffshrine.
He did only 5 osts for the Super Famicom though, I think. (he did much more for the Megadrive)
I hope you’ll do many more! 🙂
We need more real hardware soundtracks! 🙂
What will you do next?

Thanks for everything.
And I agree, 32,055Khz is perfect, don’t use 44100khz! 🙂

What will you do next?

Thanks! Although I realized I used the term "KHz" when I meant to say "Hz" so I corrected the typo. 😉

I plan on knocking out FF 4, 5, and 6, as well as several personal favorites like Demons Crest, Contra III, Super Turrican, Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, Actraiser, and some others. Then I’ll start doing requests based on if the soundtrack appeals to me.

thank you

Damn, FirebrandX, you made me so damn happy with those Castlevania sets and especially Chrono Trigger!
Bring them all on!

If you take request then, would Plok possible?

This is amazing dude, thank you for sharing!

Just one question – I only barely looked into the s/pdif mod for the SNES, however I remember reading something about the sampling rate being non-standard and having to be resampled before adding a coax or toslink out – was there any truth to this ?

Thanks.

This is amazing dude, thank you for sharing!

Just one question – I only barely looked into the s/pdif mod for the SNES, however I remember reading something about the sampling rate being non-standard and having to be resampled before adding a coax or toslink out – was there any truth to this ?

The sample rate is in fact non-standard, but my TOSLINK mod does not resample/convert the signal. As such it wouldn’t work with most devices. I had to shop around until I found a device that would pass the signal unmolested to the recording software I use. This is why my recordings also come out a non-standard 32,055 Hz, which reflects the clock rate of my specific SNES console.

It’s been reported the variation ‘swing’ of Super NES console output rate is 32,020 to as high as 32,090. It just so happened my Super NES split the difference at 32,055.

The sample rate is in fact non-standard, but my TOSLINK mod does not resample/convert the signal. As such it wouldn’t work with most devices. I had to shop around until I found a device that would pass the signal unmolested to the recording software I use. This is why my recordings also come out a non-standard 32,055 Hz, which reflects the clock rate of my specific SNES console.

It’s been reported the variation ‘swing’ of Super NES console output rate is 32,020 to as high as 32,090. It just so happened my Super NES split the difference at 32,055.

I see, very interesting. Thanks for the info and all your hard work putting these together – these may well be the best SNES rips available. It’s a mod I have yet to do to my console (amongst many others… I procrastinate very badly with these things) but from what I can read up on this it seems the varying sample rates has to do with the ceramic oscillators Nintendo used as a cost cutting measure. One thing I’d want to look into is installing a more accurate crystal oscillator that gets the console clocked to the standard 32khz as intended – and then capture some game OSTs at that point. Those could prove to be definitive! (And have the additional benefit of being able to be played back with more standard gear without software resampling upon playback)

One thing I’d want to look into is installing a more accurate crystal oscillator that gets the console clocked to the standard 32khz as intended – and then capture some game OSTs at that point. Those could prove to be definitive! (And have the additional benefit of being able to be played back with more standard gear without software resampling upon playback)

If you want a flat 32,000 Hz playback rate, the tracks I have already recorded can easily be set to that speed in a sound editor program. The downside is they will sound ever-so-slightly slower than the current 32,055 hz. Most people wouldn’t notice the difference though. My OCD only caught it after several tracks I had listened to.

Now resampling on the other hand, would retain speed, but then you run into dilution/distortion of the original wave data.

At any rate, I’m perfectly happy with what I’m doing right now. Changing the SNES oscillators to output a perfect 32,000 Hz would no longer be faithful to the original sound IMO anyway.

Nice job !

good luck to you… there so many good SNES titles !!!

Pretty damn cool man. ( ◥▶ ͜ʖ ◀◤ )

If you want a flat 32,000 Hz playback rate, the tracks I have already recorded can easily be set to that speed in a sound editor program. The downside is they will sound ever-so-slightly slower than the current 32,055 hz. Most people wouldn’t notice the difference though. My OCD only caught it after several tracks I had listened to.

Now resampling on the other hand, would retain speed, but then you run into dilution/distortion of the original wave data.

At any rate, I’m perfectly happy with what I’m doing right now. Changing the SNES oscillators to output a perfect 32,000 Hz would no longer be faithful to the original sound IMO anyway.

Faithful to the original sound, but only for one console 😛 the clock speed drifts due to the cheap parts Nintendo used, I would presume there’s probably few consoles that still run at the intended 32khz today… maybe not even when they were new. Now I’m kinda curious to see how my console is actually running…

Is there a notable difference between a Super Nintendo and a Super Famicom?

Is there a notable difference between a Super Nintendo and a Super Famicom?

None. They use identical hardware. So much so in fact that the regional ‘lockout’ system employed is simply plastic tabs inside the cart interface slot. Remove those with a chisel, and you can play SFC games on your SNES.

At any rate, I’m currently working on Super Metroid. I’ll post here when I have it finished.

Alright and nice to hear that! ^^

Cheers mate! Looking forward to the future of this thread.
Edit: having issues playing the Chrono Trigger files on my android phone, despite .flac being what I normally listen to; was able to get them to play after converting them to . wav.

Any idea what happened?

Also is a different file host an option? Filetrip took an hour to download the CT zip.

Cheers mate! Looking forward to the future of this thread.
Edit: having issues playing the Chrono Trigger files on my android phone, despite .flac being what I normally listen to; was able to get them to play after converting them to . wav.

Any idea what happened?

Also is a different file host an option? Filetrip took an hour to download the CT zip.

Sounds like your phone had issues decompressing the FLAC files as they are currently written at maximum compression. They otherwise play perfectly fine in the software I’ve played them in.

Also just about any free download service is going to take a while to download half a gigabyte. If you want fast downloads, ya gotta pay up.

Thank you very much for the shared rips and the detailed technical explanation of the process! This sounds very interesting, reminds me to the older times when I played with wires connecting the console to a sound system machine to record my favorite soundtracks in cassetes. This was actually very simple and the cassete was never my favorite format haha, but it was the only way to enjoy this kind of music in these times because there was no place to buy the CDs in my country, no massification of internet as today, and as a little kid I didn’t even knew the existence of official releases. "It was just game music after all!". How cool is internet and the VGM community when we think about that 😀

Super! Thank you!

Thanks for the real hardware sountracks of snes… is possible to request some games??? =)

This is a great idea… I may download a few for the purist-factor. 😉 Thanks for your work!

Off the top of my head, one game with fantastic soundtrack that would benefit from crispness is Spider-Man & X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge. That’s just a suggestion, not a request.

Holy smokes this is cool.

I’ll throw in a request for Shadowrun.

thanks

Thanks!

This is amazing! Would love to see some difficult to find soundtracks ripped at this quality, like that Chrono Trigger sequel Radical Dreams and Ys IV: Mask of the Sun.

Thanks for sharing, escpecially for Akumajou Dracula X and Super Castlevania IV. Listening to F-Zero now and it sounds so clear, amazing work!

Fantastic !
Thanks for sharing !

i wonder how Super Aleste could sound like this ^_^
thanks much for these few good shares.

Added Actraiser CST to the link list. I also re-uploaded all the previous CST’s with corrected playback rates of 32,000Hz. This was something I had debated doing for a while, but ultimately after speaking with Byuu and others knowledgeable in the field, I realized this had to be done in order to align with the original artist’s intent. You see, each SNES console runs at a unique speed that is slightly different from the next SNES console. As such, a song may appear to sound slightly slower or faster depending on which console you rip it from. Since the original devs based their music on a fixed tempo rate of 32,000Hz, it makes sense that the playback rate should reflect this. Those of you who downloaded the 32,055Hz versions can simply download these new ones to replace your files if it matters to you. Going forward, all future CST’s I release here will be set to 32,000Hz playback rate.

Cheers!

Post these in Mp3. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

@TheMisterBill
Convert them to mp3 by yourself
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow…

Thanks, you’re a real purist!
I’m going to re-download everything! lol 🙂

welcome back !!!

thanks for the new one & the head-up about your updates,

i really love to listen them 🙂

Axelay added to the list. Also put nice title screen captures above each link. Attract mode! 😛

Thank you very much for your hard work!

Much love for all that you do with these amazing rips.

Added Contra III – The Alien Wars CST. I used the Mondo track listing, and did my own seamless edit of the 3 boss stage musics of the final level.

Added Demon’s Crest CST (where I got my netnick from). I combined the two "Challenge of Devils" tracks into one seamless edit, and also cleaned up a few track names.

Also you can follow me on Twitter for updates there as well to this thread. https://twitter.com/FBXGargoyle?lang=en

Just uploaded a new zip of the Demon’s Crest CST. I found two typos in track title info data, and also removed a pop-click edit from one of the tracks that was my fault. I’ve reviewed the entire soundtrack and everything looks & sounds kosher now. My apologies to those that already downloaded this soundtrack, but the link is already updated in the OP if you want the new corrected version.

I’m now starting on the Donkey Kong Country soundtracks today and will release the first one later today!

cheers dude, enjoying a lot the new ones 🙂

i am curious, how are you actually managing the soundtrack on the SNES ?
is it with game soundtest ? or do you have an Everdrive & you can reach any SNES gamemusic.
i really wonder :3

Donkey Kong Country added. This was a difficult pain in the ass that took over 6 hours to get right. Thankfully it’s done and passes my OCD test.

In answer to your question, Simon, I use an SD2SNES to pass the raw music files to the console and rip them as they are played. Sometimes I run into execution errors or sample errors, and I have to switch to the full game ROM in order to fill in the corrupted parts if that happens. Donkey Kong Country was especially finicky, which is why it took me 6 hours to knock out.

Thanks a lot for your efforts! These are pretty awesome!

Added Legend of Zelda – A Link to the Past CST.

Awesome, Sim City and Top Gear would be great adds.

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Legend of Mystical Ninja would be EPIC.

Awesome, Sim City and Top Gear would be great adds.

———- Post added at 01:23 PM ———- Previous post was at 01:23 PM ———-

Legend of Mystical Ninja would be EPIC.

I’ll add them to the list. Got a huge backlog of soundtracks, so it may take a while. I started working on Space Megaforce, but the soundtrack is surprisingly mute for the game. I know it sounds good with all the beefy explosions going on during gameplay, but when isolated by itself, it’s both low volume and a bit weak to be honest. However, it was requested, so it will come out next this weekend.

Thanks!

So glad to see you back! Thank you!!

Gradius III added

Cheers!

DO Super Mario World AND Super Mario RPG Soon!

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Super Mario World added. BTW I took some time off to develop my own digital audio mod board for the Super NES. This one uses a more efficient pinout assignment, and adds in coaxial support for no-cut modding solutions. It’s been sent off for fabrication which takes 2 to 3 weeks. Here’s the front and back of my board design:

So this will be really cool in that not only will the soldering job and installation be all my own work, but the mod board itself will be too! (tickles the nerd bone for me anyway)

Looks interesting 🙂
Hey, by the way, is Plok on your list?

Super Metroid added. So I need to point out that several of the tracks in Super Metroid have aliased edges on the attack and decay of notes. This will sound like subtle crackling noises in the music. This is the fault of the person coding the music in this game, not the mod or hardware used to record the data. The same crackling noises can be heard in emulators like Higan, so again, it’s just unfortunately poorly coded music sequences.

Thanks dude! This is awesome.

Followup to the Super Metroid crackling sound in many of the music tracks: I did a straight analog recording to compare against, and the same crackling can be heard even in the analog output of the SNES. It’s as I said: Poorly coded music from an otherwise beautifully composed soundtrack.

At any rate, I’ll try to knock out another one today. I may finish up Space Megaforce, though as I mentioned before, the soundtrack isn’t as good as you think without all the beefy explosions going on during gameplay. The straight music tracks isolated by themselves are weak and low volume.

Added Space Megaforce (Super Aleste).

Added Space Megaforce (Super Aleste).

Oh my…. THANKS !
🙂

Can you play Super Famicom cartridges with an adapter (or tab-removed mod (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chLCH197XhQ)) on your console? I would love a crisp FLAC rip of Alcahest by Squaresoft. Your ripping method seems to be best by far for SNES rips, and thank you for all of your work!

No official soundtrack exists of this game yet and the actual SFC cartridges can be found pretty cheap on ebay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1sw1v4iic

Can you play Super Famicom cartridges on your console? I would love a crisp FLAC rip of Alcahest by Squaresoft. Your ripping method seems to be best by far for SNES rips, and thank you for all of your work!

I have the tabs removed, yes, but more importantly, I have the SD2SNES, which means I have access to almost the entire library for USA and Japan. I’ll add your request to the backlog. I’ll get another soundtrack knocked out today.

I imagine someone’s requested Terranigma, LIVE-A-LIVE, and/or Rudra no Hihou already?

I imagine someone’s requested Terranigma, LIVE-A-LIVE, and/or Rudra no Hihou already?

+1 for those nice games !

Heads-up: I’ll be posting a big new soundtrack file soon. I’ve got all the tracks recorded, but now the pain in the rear part of tagging and labeling each of the 45 tracks is left. I plan on knocking that out this evening.

Secret of Mana added! This is perhaps my favorite soundtrack on the Super NES, and a rather large one at 45 tracks and 400MB of FLAC files. Tracks use the OST naming convention, but are arranged in chronological order. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for Seiken Densetsu 2!

Nice !

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Nice !
🙂

Thanks for the rips!

I’m very curious to compare these to various SPC emulators and see if I can tell the difference.

By the way, I’m no expert on the matter, but, I’ve read somewhere that the SPC700 doesn’t do exact 32000Hz, but rather 32040Hz or something like that. Maybe it’s only some models? I don’t know.
Have you had to deal with this, and how? resampling? just adjusting the speed to standard 32000?

Also, what does CST stand for? Console SoundTrack?

EDIT: Nevermind the technical question, I already found the answer. You adjusted the playback rate, which is what I hoped for 🙂

What does CST stand for, anyway?
Console SoundTrack?

It’s standard abbreviation for "Complete SoundTrack". Much like "OST" is for "Original SoundTrack".

Anyway, I’m currently working on Star Fox for the next release. I’ll have it up tomorrow evening.

Star Fox CST added. Turned out to be quite the project at 42 tracks.

You’re becoming the 16-bit Audiophile of the Super Famicom. 🙂 he he
(I bet you’ve heard of that project: http://16bap.theclassicgamer.net/)

There would be countless osts to request, but would you be interested in trying to do Earthbound?

You’re becoming the 16-bit Audiophile of the Super Famicom. 🙂 he he
(I bet you’ve heard of that project: http://16bap.theclassicgamer.net/)

There would be countless osts to request, but would you be interested in trying to do Earthbound?

You don’t know the half of it with the lengths I go to. 😉

For example on the Neo Geo, I had a revision of the home console that SNK tried to save money on by omitting the audio decoupling caps. I ordered the best ceramic-dipped caps money can buy and soldered them back onto the audio ICs myself, and I ended up with the cleanest audio of any SNK hardware. Here’s a pic of my solder work with the decoupling and filter caps:

I then hooked the system up to a $500 Sony ADC rack (I bought from Crutchfield many years ago), and was able to send the digital feed directly into my audio recording software like I do the SNES. Below is a demo recording from Art of Fighting:

https://filetrip.net/dl?NUkFZJKp0H

For the Genesis I specifically bought a Model 1 VA3 revision for its superior amp circuitry over the VA2 (does not get overblown by loud games), and then I replaced the filter caps to give it the same fidelity as the VA2, effectively making it have better sound in total than any other revision. Here’s a pic of my work with arrows indicating the new cap value replacements:

And here’s a demo recording using the same Sony ADC rack I used for the Neo Geo:

https://filetrip.net/dl?pQLbjExNOU

Both tracks as you can hear for yourself are very clean and sound almost digital in quality. The only minor gripe I have with my equipment is my ADC only samples at 44.1Khz. I would liked to have had access to 48Khz, but the quality of the sampling job it does seems to make up for the loss in resolution.

Oh and yeah, Earthbound is on the list of soundtracks to rip.

Cheers!

Wow… Gee, I bet I wouldn’t have soldered the right capacitors, or at the right place. XD

Art of Fighting sure sounds nice. Love that typical NeoGeo bass, the same we can hear in Last Resort… 🙂
I’ll have to listen to it again with my hi-fi headphones, to spot the differences with the vgz files.

About the Megadrive though…
I didn’t even know about "VA2" and "VA3".. All I knew was that model 1 had some kind of weak lowpass filter or something.
I listened once to model 2 and it was horrible, the sounds were too harsh and aggressive, it gave me a headache.
Model 1 is way more smooth and pleasant to listen to.
I always try to download only line-out recordings made with model 1. he he 🙂
Now you make me wonder if my own Megadrive is VA2 or 3… XD (got it around autumn 1991 – it’s a model 1, and still working perfectly 😀 )

Recently, I was blown away by Rymcast though.
https://www.mathieudemange.fr/rymcast/
This really sounds like the real thing to me.

Can’t wait for earthbound! 🙂
Thanks for everything you do.

Now you make me wonder if my own Megadrive is VA2 or 3… XD (got it around autumn 1991 – it’s a model 1, and still working perfectly 😀 )

That would be about two years into the Genesis release date, so you likely have a later revision. Only way to know is to open it up and take the metal shroud off and read the stamp on the board.

Added Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. I decided to go with the original Japanese naming assignments for the bosses.

What’s your gripe with 44.1kHz? it’s already overkill for the 20kHz limit of the human hearing that most people don’t reach anyway.
Are you concerned about the transition band of the bandlimiter or something?
One thing I would be concerned about would be the sample depth if it was limited to 16 bit. Not that I can hear beyond properly noiseshaped 16-bit, but for capturing and later processing a higher depth is definitelly recommended.
To a certain extent, higher sampling rate can also be beneficial during processing, and possibly capture too if we are suspicious of the ADC quality, I guess.
From what I read, many ADCs and DACs already work internally at higher rates anyway, and perform resampling on the host-ward input or output. Maybe you are concerned about the quality of that resampler?

What’s your gripe with 44.1kHz? it’s already overkill for the 20kHz limit of the human hearing that most people don’t reach anyway.

Two things:

1. Hardware like the Neo Geo has the capability to sample well above 50 Khz. Audiophiles have told me that 48 Khz is close enough, but you don’t want to go any lower than that in order to retain as much of the original source quality as you can.

2. In regards to point 1, the better playback equipment you own, the more the sample rate becomes a factor. Otherwise, 48Khz wouldn’t be a ‘thing’ like DVD audio, or hell, now things are going up to 192Khz. If it were really as simple as everyone having ‘crappy human ears’ there would be no need to waste time or money on developing higher and higher sample rates.

Now you can choose to argue with me on this, but at the end of the day, you’d be arguing against the ENTIRE audio industry and experts in that field I’ve already talked to. Go tell them 44.1Khz is plenty fine and there’s no need for anything higher when doing digital preservation of analogue sources.

Thanks for this!

Can you do DKC 2 and 3 maybe?

I recommend you take a look at these from Monty, one of the main guys at Xiph, who are responsible for Vorbis and Opus, among other projects.
https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://xiph.org/video/

I used to be an audiophool too, not knowing even the very basics of how audio actually works, and holding flawed technical conceptions. I’m not saying you are one, but you just mentioned them as an authority, and they most definitely are not so.

Ultrasonic sampling rates are a technical compromise that’s useful for processing, but has absolutely zero benefit for content delivery. You will not hear any frequency avobe 20kHz, period. Most people can’t hear anything avobe 16 or even lower. Only very young children can have a perception of just under 20kHz. The 20kHz mark is a generous range at the very peak of human perception under optimal conditions (including the age of your ears). This is data resulting from exhaustive tests. Empirical facts.
I can personally attest to it, as surely many others can: Do you have an analog tube TV? When I was younger I used to be able to know when a TV was powered on, even if silent, even from another room, because I could clearly hear the deflection coil’s whine at 15625 Hz (PAL). Now I’m about to turn 33 and, for quite a few years now, I have lost the ability to hear it. Maybe if I put my ear really close against the grate of the TV’s case, and the ambient is very silent I can hear a faint whine, but that’s about it. I’ll probably lose the ability to listen to that soon too.
A sample rate of 44100 can represent frequencies just under 22.5kHz, which is more than enough to cover the peak of human perception plus enough headroom for an adequate transition band. 48kHz, i’ve been told, is another practical rate for other technical reasons.
Higher sampling rates like 96, 192, 384 and others are useful in the realm of digital audio processing only, and there’s absolutely no benefit to them as a means of carrying audible signals. They can even introduce problems due to the technical limitations of speakers and amplifiers.

It IS really as simple as everyone having "crappy human ears", and there’s no need to waste time or money in higher sample rates and bitdepths and exotic audio formats. But there are people that benefit from audiophools wasting time and squandering their money buying snake oil in the form of exotic and very expensive supposedly superior formats and equipment that promise to produce sounds only your dog will ever be able to perceive, and frequently they don’t even deliver what they promise, and their deluded customers don’t complain because, well, despite their claims, their ears can’t tell them that they are beign scammed.

Now, about the NEOGEO’s higher than 50kHz rates, perhaps there is something to argue for in that case, at least for the purposes of preservation if it is possible to tap into the digital output of the chips. But I’m telling you, even if there’s something up there, first, you won’t be able to listen to it, and even if you had super-human golden ears, it’s very likey NOT something worth listening to, because no audio engineer or musician involved in the making of these chips and the music played with them would have been able to assess with their ears the quality of that part of the signal’s bandwidth to sound any good. It’s pretty safe to assume that anything up there will probably be just harmonics and aliasing. The reason these chips have such high sampling rates is probably so that they didn’t have to implement good quality interpolation for the generated data and when things aliase in the top of the audio band they do in an area that won’t be heard anyway, or that will be removed by a lowpass filter before going to the speakers.
There might be a reason to preserve the original sampling rate of these chips if you can capture the digital output, but as far as listening to audio is concerned, they are useless. But as far as recordign the analog output, there’s little to no point in going beyond the audible band.

Now, depending on how your ADC processes your audio input to arrive to the 44.1kHz stream that it gives to you, there may or may not be a reason to use other hardware that will probably use higher sampling rates for capture and processing, but I can definitely tell you that there’s nothing about 44.1kHz itself that hampers the reproduction of audible signals.
What I mean is that if there’s something ruining or making less of your audio recordings it definitelly is not having them in the form of a digital signal sampled at 44.1kHz.

I’m not an expert on what hardware is out there and how good the conversion on 44100-only ADCs tends to be. Maybe they are terrible, I don’t know. But if that were to be the case, the 44100 sampling rate itself wouldn’t be the culprit. But you already said it sounds great so…

If I were you, if your current ADC is good (maybe you’d want to check with non-audiophiles in boards like www.hydrogenaud.io about your particular model), I wouldn’t worry about it just because it "only" does 44.1kHz. If the conversion is good, 44.1 is plenty. Now if there’s some specific problem with your current equipment (noise, frequency response, distorsion, …) then it may be worth going for something that addresses the specific problem/s. But if it’s just for the higher sampling rate you get in your recording, I would tell you that it’s just a number and doesn’t mean anything in the realm of the audible.

RESUMING AGAIN: There’s nothing wrong with 44.1kHz itself nor will it cause you to miss any audible signals. Unless your current ADC has real performance problems, like noise, distorsion, aliasing, etc, I recommend you save the money 😉

Thanks!!

@ Radorn, again, I’m not going to hash out a debate with someone that claims there’s no need for anything higher than 44.1 Khz. That’s your stance, and you’re welcome to it. I ‘d recommend writing an article or thesis to prove your point and share it with experts in the field. Maybe the audio industry as a whole will change its mind. I will definitely read it provided comments are open so other experts can weigh in on your work.

I was just trying to explain to you why there’s a good chance you won’t get any better performance from newer and more expensive "audiophile" products compared to what you currently have. I’m not saying you can’t find anything better, but the decisive factor certainly won’t be the higher sampling rates they’ll deliver to you. Most modern DACs and ADCs do oversampling anyway, and then digitally resample that down to whatever they deliver to the user. Very probably yours does it too.

I may be wrong, but, given your reply, you sound like you didn’t read any of what I wrote nor paid any attention to the linked information.
So you know, it’s not my info nor my particular opinion, nor is it "radorn vs the industry", as you insist in putting it.
I’m relaying to you information from actual experts without an interest to extort money from you with audiophile snake oil.

But, in the end, it’s your money, so, go nuts.

Props to you on the rips so far, and have a nice day.

All I know is lossless is better than lossy, technicals are mostly there as a side effect of legacy tech. Hope we’re not killing all the bees with our 96 Khz music tho.

Are you doing releases of NeoGeo games too?

Super Turrican added. Factlet: Super Turrican is one of the very loudest soundtracks on the SNES. It uses the entire envelope range peak-to-peak.

Are you doing releases of NeoGeo games too?

Eventually I will. I need to finish Super NES first, and I’ve still got a large backlog on that.

Oh wait, the Music of Turrican is not allowed here.

music that may NOT be posted for legal reasons. (Thread 214356)
Chris Huelsbeck | His music for Turrican. (Reason (Thread 165085))

Oh wait, the Music of Turrican is not allowed here.

Well that’s unfortunate. I’ll remove the link then.

Could you send me a private link to Super Turrican, please? 🙂

As for the debate about 44, 96khz(and above), all I know from experience is that we DO feel the difference on a highly professional hardware.(whether they’re speakers or headphones)
I don’t deny the fact that most humans can’t hear higher than 20khz, but still, I tried the comparisons and definitely, the higher the better, usually.
Lots of people will confirm you this on forums.stevehoffman.tv. (I’m a vinyl freak and we especially talk about this there)
But yeah, bad resampling can change everything… 🙁

Could you send a private link for Super Turrican, please?

@"Lily Ferrari" I replied to you in private as to not disturb the thread any further. In the meanwhile, please, check the URLs I linked before.

Added Final Fantasy IV. 60 tracks, 12 hours of editing. That’s one of the 3 massive FF soundtracks done. Next up will be FF V.

Added Final Fantasy V. 67 tracks this time. Now only the Mt. Everest of SNES soundtracks remains: Final Fantasy VI. That one will probably take me 5 days to finish, but it’s up next.

Listening to these pristine collections brings back so many memories of playing these games ! ! !
I was going to come in and recommend some new games to add to this amazing collection, but I think you have already completed all my favorites that I can remember ! ! !

Super Mario World added. BTW I took some time off to develop my own digital audio mod board for the Super NES. This one uses a more efficient pinout assignment, and adds in coaxial support for no-cut modding solutions. It’s been sent off for fabrication which takes 2 to 3 weeks. Here’s the front and back of my board design:

So this will be really cool in that not only will the soldering job and installation be all my own work, but the mod board itself will be too! (tickles the nerd bone for me anyway)

This is awesome! I like the fact that it keeps the existing coax connector which means there shouldn�t be any changes to the outward appearance of the console and keeps the original hardware as intact as possible. Nobody needs RF anymore anyway. I assume you�ll be selling these boards eventually?

Yes just got the final revision in yesterday. I’m going to send a couple boards out to independent modders just to make sure they function properly with no issues in different SNES revisions. While they do that, I’ll be soldering up the first batch to sell. I should have them ready to sell in a few weeks.

BTW sorry for the delay on FF VI. Just got busy the past few days with other more pressing stuff.

Posted a new package download for Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts CST. The ending music track had its own completion, whereas I thought it looped indefinitely. The new package has the full track recording. My apologies for the oversight. I’m now at work on FF VI today.

Thanks for these! Super awesome. Currently downloading Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World, and the FF soundtracks. Only a few soundtracks that I can think of that I’d love to see here – DKC2 (probably the best SNES soundtrack of all) and Super Mario RPG. Thanks again, and if you should decide to add these additional soundtracks down the road I’ll definitely be by to grab them.

EDIT: Just noticed Secret of Mana is already here 🙂

DKC 2 is planned, but I’m working on FF VI. I’m on track 30 right now (which would be in the 2nd disc of the OST).

Thanks for the quick reply! FFVI is awesome too. Thanks again for doing these, and I hope selling the hardware you were working on is successful!

Final Fantasy VI has been added! 70 tracks, over 3 hours of pure digital music. I compared it to "Kefka’s Domain" 3-CD OST and I believe this rip sounds even better. There’s no over-amping, and it’s a tad clearer.

Great job with all this! When will ActRaiser2 and S.M.RPG be done?

Final Fantasy VI has been added! 70 tracks, over 3 hours of pure digital music. I compared it to "Kefka’s Domain" 3-CD OST and I believe this rip sounds even better. There’s no over-amping, and it’s a tad clearer.

Thanks so much for this, and all your work. It sounds great on my Astell & Kern AK70!

I confirm this is the best – real hardware, which is better – version of FFVI we can find on the whole internet.
And I’m angry at ffshrine cos I didn’t get an email notification about it, so I’m late. lol 🙂
I already said it, but your Super Nes rips are definitely the best, and I’m really enjoying this collection!
(the only one I didn’t download is Demon’s Crest, I just think it’s a boring soundtrack XD)

I was listening to my old .spc files and I’m not too happy about the way "Tales of Phantasia" sounds.
I think this game might need your magical treatment! he he 🙂 Quite a huge soundtrack though.
Anyway, can’t wait for DKC2! 🙂

Thanks for the absolutely amazing work!

Any chance of a UN Squadron rip in the future?

Amazing! Thank you! <3

You are a true lord. Thanks for adding FFVI to this amazing archive and taking the time to do all of this!

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest added. This one was a complex mess, so I consolidated all track ‘extras’ in their own track for each stage track.

I’m blown away by the quality here.

I’ve downloaded some specialized rips like this before but rarely kept em in place of other versions. These are different and sound incredible.

Thank you for your work!

This may seem like asking for too much, but will you be planning on doing Kirby Super Star?

My apologies for the absense, but I’ve been focused on the sale of the digital audio mod boards that make these soundtrack rips possible. If you’re into console modding and good with a soldering iron, check out the sale page here:

http://www.firebrandx.com/snesdarwmod.html

I will get back to doing more SNES rips soon!

Literally came in to ask where I could buy the mod, and BAM! right there. Thank you so much!

Any chance for Kirby game RIPs?

Do you know when your boards will be back in stock? I desperately want one, but had to wait for things to clear. Now they’re gone. 🙁

Do you know when your boards will be back in stock? I desperately want one, but had to wait for things to clear. Now they’re gone. 🙁

I’ll be ordering the parts to make more this week. Tomorrow is my birthday, and then Tuesday I will place the order. Sorry about that!

Also my apologies for no new soundtracks recently. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now doing Framemeister and OCCS profiles work.

I’ll be ordering the parts to make more this week. Tomorrow is my birthday, and then Tuesday I will place the order. Sorry about that!

Also my apologies for no new soundtracks recently. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now doing Framemeister and OCCS profiles work.

Happy birthday! I’m excited to get one, thanks again, and no worries on not giving us all stuff for free, haha. I just appreciate what you’ve done! 😀

RW boards back in stock!

http://www.firebrandx.com/snesdarwmod.html

This is my favorite thread, great to see some classics added since I last looked. I’d say the top 10 SNES soundtracks are all here now since DKC2 and FFVI were added, amazing work.

This really does sound better than some of the other flacs I downloaded. Thanks. 😀 😀 🙂

THANKs FOR DEMON’S CREST!! You have no idea how many emulated rips even on Flac I have download from this game and none satisfied me that much. This rocks!
Listening on Sennheiser HD 6XX, sounds wonderful. If you come back in the future I would be interested in TMNT4 turtles in time.

Cool thanks for Final Fantasy VI

Could you also add Super Mario All Stars?

I’m getting a Trojan notification from Malwarebytes when I try to download the FF6 OST. Can you re-up to a different site please?

@FirebrandX
Just found your thread. Thank you for providing direct (as possible) digital soundtracks to such beloved classics! My first sample was Chrono Trigger and while I patiently waited for it to download I read through the entire thread and crossed my mental fingers that the files would have headroom and not be clipped; especially given the amount of research and diligence explained in you post. I am happy and relieved that the files have more than enough headroom and clipping is not even remotely an issue. I find it strange that over the years digital files have been mastered louder and louder and with more and more compression. Not many share my sentiment that I would much rather adjust the volume dial than simply have the digital file louder. When well-mastered with plenty of headroom, digital files can exhibit an almost analog sound quality. Much of this is due to, IMO, to having the amplifier amplify the sound. Go figure! What we get with modern mastering techniques is a loud digital clip-fest as the warmth of the amplification is skipped. So that’s my long winded way of saying thank you for really caring!

———- Post added at 04:13 PM ———- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ———-

Just curious, have you tried comparing the signal quality of the HDMI out on the Analogue Super NT to your modded SNES?

GREAT WORK!!!! I�m Fan!!! More OST of snes please! :D:D:D:D ( megaman X, Turrican, Pocky and Rocky , etc)

I’ve had to move all the files due to filetrip shutting down. I’ve edited the OP to a link to my web page with updated links. Sorry about this. I wish filetrip had sent me an email warning me about this impending shutdown, but they never did.

These are really great rips! Do you plan on making more?

Fantastic work! I’d love a Lufia 2 / Lufia OST if you have time. Thank you so much for your hard work!!

Would be cool if you re-do demon’s crest with your new creative sound card.

Would be cool if you re-do demon’s crest with your new creative sound card.

The new sound card does not alter the data compared to the old USB solution I used. They are identical data files. However, I recently did help someone troubleshoot a different USB device they were having trouble getting good recordings from, and ultimately had them switch to the Sound Blaster Z to ensure proper data transfer. It’s also important to set the SBZ to 32KHz recording rate, and the base recording track to 16-bit signed resolution. This prevents any interpolation of the original digital audio transmission.

If you ever start to ship your digital mod kit to the uk, please let me know as I’d love to purchase one 🙂

I’ve been organizing my music collection, and finding/replacing/cleaning up cover art as needed. Had some free time today and made a large cover for Zelda. Might do more titles as I have time. It’s a 4096×4096 original at about 12Mb. It’s compressed in whatever way Imgur does here. Not sure if this is the best way to post it.

Full size here: https://imgur.com/isP3Epp

Wow, thank you so much! Do you plan on doing anymore games?