Sounds and Music of Might and Magic (issues and questions)

[gravyluvr]

So I have some general sound questions...

For each of the HOMM games, how would you go about converting the sound files to MPG or WAV?

I'm especially interested in the opera music from HOMM2 and the original music from the 3do release of HOMM4, but since I'm a fan of all of the games, I think that I'd want all of the sounds.

I figure we can use this thread for all technical sound questions since they always seem to come up. Maybe newbs will find this thread before they make a New Topic.

For HOMM2... Kristo had some brilliant fixes (that I've used before) allthough I think a Microsoft Update actually fixed the issue so if your computer is up to date, I think that old issue won't appear again (Kristo... correct me if I'm wrong).

[berntie]

For each of the HOMM games, how would you go about converting the sound files to MPG or WAV?

Hmm, I think you mean "MP3" instead of "MPG", do you?

For HI: I don't know. I didn't even manage to play the music folder in Winamp. Does anybody know, how you can listen to the tracks without playing the game?

For HII: Since the music is on the normal audio track, you can use a program like MusicMatch to rip all tracks to mp3 files.

The only problem is: If you play the CD as an audio CD, there are some ugly *kkrrrkkss* sounds between the tracks. That's not an issue of my CDs; I tried it with two different (original) CDs and it was the same with both of them. This problem at least occurs on the expansion CDs, but maybe even with Succession Wars.

Anybody know how to fix that?

For HIII: The music should already be in mp3 format. Search your HIII directory.

For HIV: I don't know.

[Pol]

For myself I can say, that I usually let play music in winamp (will work with standart midi only) and simultaneously let run GoldWave to record it, finally cut out the music and let it convert to whatever I need. That's work fine with SBLive 5.1. On some simplier cards I assume that you will need to connect sound out to line in to get the same effect.

Here are programs to convert midi to wav or so, but all, according my knowledge, are payware.

Here is also timidity, which can do that, but it's eating so much powers.... and it's not easy to set all out. Or probably here is some way by using Jet Audio.... (free is here)

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Side Note: Usually most convenient is to let the game play the music and record it by other device, another PC or recorder. It's very simple but is giving the best results. And it's nice way how to solve are midi "uncompatible" problems.

[Kristo]

For HII: Since the music is on the normal audio track, you can use a program like MusicMatch to rip all tracks to mp3 files.

The only problem is: If you play the CD as an audio CD, there are some ugly *kkrrrkkss* sounds between the tracks. That's not an issue of my CDs; I tried it with two different (original) CDs and it was the same with both of them. This problem at least occurs on the expansion CDs, but maybe even with Succession Wars.

Anybody know how to fix that?

I haven't experienced that before. I've played both CDs in my car stereo without problems. Perhaps you could try ripping the tracks to MP3 and then burning a new CD from that.

For HOMM2... I think a Microsoft Update actually fixed the issue so if your computer is up to date, I think that old issue won't appear again (Kristo... correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm not aware of a Windows patch that fixed the lagging track problem. However, it's been so long since I played without my fix installed that I easily could have missed it. The trouble is that the CD audio doesn't lag on everyone's machine. It might depend on a number of factors (software, hardware, etc.). Can anyone confirm that a Windows patch has cleared up the problem? If so, we can add it to the Heroes II FAQ.

[berntie]

For HII: Since the music is on the normal audio track, you can use a program like MusicMatch to rip all tracks to mp3 files.

The only problem is: If you play the CD as an audio CD, there are some ugly *kkrrrkkss* sounds between the tracks. That's not an issue of my CDs; I tried it with two different (original) CDs and it was the same with both of them. This problem at least occurs on the expansion CDs, but maybe even with Succession Wars.

Anybody know how to fix that?

I haven't experienced that before. I've played both CDs in my car stereo without problems. Perhaps you could try ripping the tracks to MP3 and then burning a new CD from that.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either: If you rip the tracks, the *kkrrrkkkss* also occurs in the mp3s.

Have you played the original or the expansion CDs?

[Kristo]

I haven't experienced that before. I've played both CDs in my car stereo without problems. Perhaps you could try ripping the tracks to MP3 and then burning a new CD from that.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either: If you rip the tracks, the *kkrrrkkkss* also occurs in the mp3s.

Have you played the original or the expansion CDs?

I've played both without problems. Have you tried a different CD drive?

As a last resort, you could edit out the offending few seconds from the ripped files for each track. Windows Sound Recorder can handle it if you rip to WAV format.

[berntie]

Have you played the original or the expansion CDs?

I've played both without problems. Have you tried a different CD drive?

I'v tried three different CD players (two audio, one multi-session). Problem persisting on all of them, regardless of the CD.

However, if you say it works fine with you, I refuse to accept that I don't get it to work properly. I'll just keep trying.

As a last resort, you could edit out the offending few seconds from the ripped files for each track. Windows Sound Recorder can handle it if you rip to WAV format.

Yeah, but only as a last resort. I just don't like to perform surgery on multimedia files.

Finally, I just had the following (depressing) idea: It could be a problem with some localized (German) CDs ... Now that would suck big time.

Edit: Now that I also got my hands on a US CD, I've come to the conclusion that it really is a problem with the localized version. The US version plays just fine. But it remains a mystery to me how that discrepancy could be introduced. Especially since the *krks* doesn't appear ingame...