Please maximise the window to ensure proper display of the guide. The font you
are using should be set to "Courier New", or else the ASCII will look very
strange.
==============================================
IMPORTANT! Please read ALL of this!
==============================================
This guide is NOT for the Xbox or PC versions of Vice City. It ONLY works on
the PS2 version.
For the PC version: http://www.codenamevice.co.uk/file_category.asp?ID=57
With a little bit of luck, you should be able to use the tool, but there is no
support for it at the moment, so please do not email me asking how to use it.
Basically you need to use it to open the .ADF files in the install directory of
Vice City and convert them to MP3s.
I know of no way to rip the music from the Xbox version, sorry.
Also, you may have noticed that this guide is in the Vice City section. Yes,
VICE CITY. Not any other Rockstar game (except to some extent GTA3), not any
other PS2 game, and definitely not any other PC, GameCube or Xbox game!
Whilst it is possible to rip the music from most other PC and PS2 games, I am
not going to tell you how to do it. And as far as I know it is not possible to
rip Xbox music.
However, if you scroll down to the FAQs section there is a mini-FAQ on ripping
other PS2 games - however it WILL require lots more work on your part.
I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO RIP THE MUSIC FROM GTA: SAN ANDREAS. Don't message me
about this easier. I don't know. The files are .PAK packfiles and I can't
open them. If you know about video game packfiles, maybe you can hack it. Do
everyone a favour :-) Also, the radio stations are dynamic. That means each
individual song is stored separately. Good luck.
===========================
UPDATE: Ripping San Andreas
===========================
http://www.tinyted.net/eddie/SanAndreasRadio/
Read this page, this software allows you to rip music from San Andreas, albeit
in a rather strange way.
One last part, PLEASE. DO NOT EMAIL ME ABOUT THIS GUIDE UNLESS YOU HAVE READ
THROUGH THIS SECTION AND THE FAQS WHICH CAN BE FOUND IN PART FIVE, TOWARDS THE
BOTTOM OF THE GUIDE.
You can email me at [[email protected]].
==============================================
THANKYOU.
==============================================
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+=========================================================================+
+{ _ _ __ __ ______ ________ _______ }+
+{ | \ / | | | | | / _____| |___ ___| / _____| }+
+{ | \ / | | | | | | | | | | / }+
+{ | \_/ | | | | | \ \___ | | | | }+
+{ | |\ /| | | | | | \___ \ | | | | }+
+{ | | \_/ | | | | | | \ | | | | | }+
+{ | | | | \ \___/ / _____/ | ____| |__ | |_____ }+
+{ |_| |_| \_____/ |_____/ |________| \_______| }+
+{ }+
+{ _ _ __ _____ _ __ _________ _ _ ______ }+
+{ | | | | / \ / ____| | | / / |___ ___| | \ | | / ___ \ }+
+{ | |___| | / /\ \ | | | |/ / | | | \ | | | / \_| }+
+{ | ___ | | |_| | | | | | | | | |\ \ | | | | ____ }+
+{ | | | | | __ | | | | |\ \ | | | | \ \| | | | |_ | }+
+{ | | | | | | | | | |___ | | \ \ ___| |___ | | \ | | \____| | }+
+{ |_| |_| |_| |_| \_____| |_| \_| |________| |_| |__| \________| }+
+{ }+
+{ ______ __ __ _________ _____ ________ }+
+{ / ___ \ | | | | |___ ___| | _ \ | ______| }+
+{ | / \_| | | | | | | | | \ | | |__ }+
+{ | | ____ | | | | | | | | | | | __| }+
+{ | | |_ | | | | | | | | | | | | | }+
+{ | \____| | \ \___/ / ___| |__ | |_/ | | |_____ }+
+{ \________| \_____/ |________| |____/ |_______| v1.1.0 }+
+{ }+
+=========================================================================+
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ASCII by Splintax
Music Hacking Guide
by Splintax [[email protected]]
=================================================
Versions and Updates
=================================================
- version 1.2.2 uploaded to GameFAQs. Moved the ripkit elsewhere. I won't be
updating this guide any more -- just wanted to reduce the number of emails I
receive asking for the ripkit.
- version 1.2.1 uploaded to GameFAQs. Added some info about San Andreas, fixed
the ripkit AGAIN (wow these updates happen a lot..)..
- version 1.2.0 uploaded to GameFAQs. Added a notice about San Andreas, fixed
my email address, and fixed the ripkit (again...)
- version 1.1.1 uploaded to GameFAQs. Took my email out, too much spammage.
Also I moved the server for the ripkit.
- version 1.1.0 uploaded to GameFAQs. There was a little confusion about using
the Xbox / PC games with the guide (you can't do this), as well as the
double-packs. Also a lot of people were asking me how to rip music from other
games.
- version 1.0.3 uploaded on GameFAQs. For some reason although I was told the
FAQ was rejected you can still (obviously) download it here. More contributors
registered and a few typos fixed.
- Version 1.0.2 posted on GameFAQs - slightly different to 1.0.1, with a few
contributors added.
Version 1.0.1 released! This is the first version of the Music Hacking Guide.
It will be updated when I get user comments. I also have a few more things to
add that I am working on at the moment:
- A guide on burning the files to CD
- A complete update to allow this guide to be used for GTA3 as well.
- The MFAudio section (Part Three of the Hacking Walkthrough) will be far
easier to do...I'm going to completely change the method.
The latest version of this guide should always be found at
[http://www.gamefaqs.com].
=================================================
Table of Contents
=================================================
1. Introduction
2. Legal Matters
3. System Requirements
4. Hacking Walkthrough
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Thankyou
=================================================
1. Introduction
=================================================
Welcome to my first FAQ. Yes, that's my first ever attempt at ASCII art. ;-)
Vice City, a great game by Rockstar Games, has one of the best soundtracks
I've ever seen (or rather heard) in a game. I decided that I'd like to get the
music that you can listen to on the radio in the various cars of Vice City on
CD, so I could listen to it whilst working or doing things other than playing
Vice City, which, unlike some people who use the GameFAQs message boards, does
not take up ALL of my time. ;-) So I had a look on the Internet for some of
the sound files...and I found that Rockstar had already published a 7-CD
soundtrack. I didn't want to pay for this soundtrack when I already had the
music on my Vice City disc, so I looked around some more, and learned how to
hack the game files and get the radio stations, as MP3s, on my hard drive. And
this is what I've produced.
=================================================
2. Legal Matters
=================================================
A: Regarding copying the music off the Vice City disc.
As far as I know, this is perfectly legal. You are merely making a backup copy
of what you already own and leaving it on your hard drive for future use.
However, it is ILLEGAL for you to put any of the music you have copied onto the
Internet. This includes, but is not limited to, placing the sound files as
downloads on your personal homepage or a corporate music collection or sharing
the files on a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing network such as Kazaa, iMesh and
Grokster. You may NOT distribute these files between you and other
acquaintances through an electronic file transfer (via a network or the
Internet), or removable media such as CDs, DVDs and floppy disks.
I have now ascertained that the legality of this MAY depend on your country's
piracy laws. You should check out all relevant laws in your country before
attempting anything in this guide.
### NOTE: I have NOT confirmed this information with a qualified legal
advisor. Until I can do this, you should assume that anything you do as a
result of this guide is ILLEGAL and you are assuming all responsibility for
your actions.
### Any help you can provide with the above matter would be much appreciated.
If you have a legal problem with this guide please notify me and I will attempt
to sort out the problem.
B: Regarding the use of this guide.
As mentioned above, at this stage, anything you do as a result of this guide is
completely your responsibility, and neither the author or any other third party
will take responsibility for your actions.
Further, this guide is for HOME USE ONLY. You MAY NOT use this guide in a
corporate, government or educational facility without notice from the author.
Please, if you want to use this guide for any other purpose than home use,
please send me an email at [[email protected]]. I will be more than happy
to grant you permission, but I would like to know what my guide is being used
for.
You may save ONE copy of this guide to your computer's local hard drive,
providing that hard drive is not accessed by a third party through the Internet
or antoher network. You may also print as many copies of this guide as you
wish for your own use, but these copies MUST NOT be distributed to a third
party. Each person who uses this guide must download it separately.
You MAY NOT place this guide on your website without first asking me permission.
If you modify this guide, you MUST NOT distribute it to a third party without
first getting my permission as described above. If you have fixed typos, etc.
please send your updated version to me and if I feel that the changes you have
made are useful then I will upload a new version to GameFAQs.
If you see this guide on any website apart from www.GameFAQs.com please notify
me. It is important to me that I know where my guide is being displayed. I am
NOT going to grant permission to upload this guide to any other websites as it
is too much trouble to keep it updated.
=================================================
3. System Requirements
=================================================
Before you can follow the instructions give in this guide, you need several
things on your computer, as well as the Vice City DVD. These are listed below:
1. A DVD-ROM drive, or any other optical drive that is able to read DVD data
discs (no, NOT a CD-RW. It MUST be able to read DVD movies.)
2. Internet access, in order to download my ripkit (obviously you have this
already - you downloaded my guide)
3. At least 600MB of free space on your hard drive. Leave as much as you can,
though.
4. Microsoft Windows OS - Windows 98 or higher
=================================================
4. Hacking Walkthrough
=================================================
I've tried to keep this guide as simple and automated as possible. More
advanced users might see easier or more efficient ways to do this, but I'm
trying to make this easy for newbies too. Later I will split this guide into
an easy and a more advanced method. At the moment it's somewhere in
between...I could easily have completely automated the process so that you run
one program to get all the music...but that's not as fun, and some more
advanced users may want to do the whole thing themselves.
++++++++++++
Part One
++++++++++++
Before you can rip any music from the Vice City disc, you'll need to install
some software. Rather than sending you to various sites to download programs,
I have created a simple ripkit for you to use. Download it at
http://splintax.ucc.asn.au/ripkit.rar
- there should be no spaces; GameFAQs auto-truncates the URL.
- file size is about 130KB. You
must extract this ZIP file to a directory of your choice. Keep ALL of the
files in it intact. Once they are all safe in a separate folder on your hard
drive, double click the "install.bat" file to copy the neccesary files to your
computer for the rip - it copies files to a folder called "C:\VCRIP\files".
NOTE: On some computers, you may not see "install.bat", just "install". Make
sure that the file you are double-clicking has a small picture of a cog in the
icon. Remember this in future, because you will need to run more ".bat" files
later on. The same rule applies for all of them.
++++++++++++
Part Two
++++++++++++
Now you need to decide which stations / tracks you want to copy to your hard
drive. The following stations can be copied:
Name of station Station filename
Stadium Backing Music D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\DIRTRING.VB
Emotion FM D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\EMOTION.VB
Radio Espantoso D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\ESPANT.VB
Fever 105 D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\FEVER.VB
Flash FM D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\FLASH.VB
"The Ocean View" Hotel's Music D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\HOTEL.VB
KChat D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\KCHAT.VB
North Point Mall Backing music D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\MALLAMB.VB
"The Malibu" Club's Music D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\MALIBU.VB
"Mission Complete" tune D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\MISCOM.VB
Police scanner D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\POLICE.VB
"The Pole Position" Club's Music D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\STRIP.VB
Taxi scanner D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\TAXI.VB
VCPR D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\VCPR.VB
VRock D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\VROCK.VB
Wave 103 D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\WAVE.VB
Wildstyle Pirate Radio D:\AUDIO\MUSIC\WILD.VB
Note that D represents the usual letter for a DVD-ROM drive. However, you may
wish to double-check - if you have multiple drives, etc. it could be different.
There are a few more, but I considered them all to be negligible - they were
things like the backing wind and waves when you're standing at the beach, etc.
Feel free to listen to the other files on the disc too (with MFAudio in the
next step), if you want, but in my opinion, they're really not worth your time
(and hard drive space).
++++++++++++
Part Three
++++++++++++
Now, rip the music to your hard drive. To do this:
1. Click Start, then click Run.
2. Type in "C:\VCRIP\files\mfaudio.exe" (WITH the quotes), then press Enter.
3. The MFAudio window opens. Click Options at the bottom left and set yours
like so:
Sony ADPCM - Use Extended Flagging? YES
PSS - Scan whole file for streams? NO
PSS - Scan up to ? MB? 8
VAG - VAG version number? 0x3
RAW - Default PCM frequency? 32000
RAW - Default ADPCM frequency? 32000
Set as default player for? None of the options.
Setting these options like so will make it faster for you to convert Vice City
music.
3. The MFAudio window appears. Click "Open" at the top right, and navigate to
your DVD-ROM drive. You'll see the folder "AUDIO". Open it. You'll then see
the folder "MUSIC". Open that. Now double-click the file for the radio
station you want to copy - refer to the list above for filename details.
NOTE: If you could not find the AUDIO folder, only a VIDEO folder, you have
the Xbox version of the game. As I said before, the guide won't work for Xbox.
Or PC.
4. Now, replace the other values in the dialog box with the following (under
"Input Audio File"):
File Format: For all files, "RAW - Raw Sound Data - Compressed ADPCM".
Frequency: For all files except POLICE.VB, VCPR.VB and KCHAT.VB, it should be
set to 32000, but for the three exceptions, set it to 16000.
Samples: For all files, 16 bits.
Channels: For all files, 2.
Interleave: For all files, 2000. >>> Double-check this one, it is often
incorrectly entered as 20000 (twenty thousand, not two thousand).
Offset: For all files, 0.
Stream: Should be greyed out. If it isn't, then check your settings - you've
done something wrong.
Click Play, and if the music sounds right, click Stop. If it sounds wrong,
click Stop and review your settings - you've done something wrong.
5. Then, fill in the values in the "Output Audio File" section:
File Format: For all files, "WAV - Microsoft RIFF - Uncompressed PCM".
Frequency, Samples, Channels and Interleave should be the same as what you
chose for the input file - EXCEPT you should ALWAYS choose the output frequency
as 32000Hz, even for KChat and VCPR. Interleave will be greyed out if you
chose WAV as instructed above, so you shouldn't have to worry about it.
Click "Save As" and navigate to the folder "C:\VCRIP" (it was created by the
"install.bat" file previously). All of your Vice City rips will go here for
the time being for simplicity's sake when encoding, later. You can move them
and delete VCRIP if you wish, once encoding is complete. Go into VCRIP and
type in a filename for the station or music track, then click Save.
NOTE: If you don't place the files in VCRIP, the encoding process will NOT
work and you will have to encode the WAV files that MFAudio produced yourself.
6. Now, finally, click Process. When the blue bar reaches the end, your file
conversion is complete. This time varies greatly depending on your computer's
specs and the length of the track you are copying.
WARNING: This will save a .WAV file to your VCRIP folder. This file is very
large - the VRock one is 562MB, for example. So, make sure you have the room.
Don't rip any more music until you are sure you have the space - assume each
track could use up 700MB for safety. If you don't, before copying any more
music, skip to Part Four and run "encode.bat" as described below after ripping
every music file from MFAudio. This brings them down to a much more reasonable
size - about 80 - 90 MB. This is the reason I reccomended you have a large
amount of hard drive space available, as it is easiest to run the "encode.bat"
file that is described in Part Four once, and encode all the WAVs in one go.
7. Rinse and repeat for each file you want to copy, staying aware of what I
just said about hard drive space.
++++++++++++
Part Three
++++++++++++
The next step is to encode the .WAV files into MP3, reducing the file size
dramatically. This ONLY works if you placed all the files form MFAudio in the
C:\VCRIP folder. First, SHUT DOWN ALL OTHER PROGRAMS. Then, double-click the
"encode.bat" file that you got out of the ripkit you downloaded.
This could take a while. After the black window disappears, the WAV files will
be gone and they will be replaced with much smaller MP3 files.
++++++++++++
Part Four
++++++++++++
Now, the files are ripped onto your computer. Remember, these files should NOT
be shared with friends, uploaded to the Internet or shared on peer-to-peer
networks. If you like, you can now move the files to another folder for
whatever reason, and you can delete the VCRIP folder. (If you do this, you
will no longer be able to use BladeEnc and MFAudio and thus this guide).
=================================================
5. Frequently Asked Questions
=================================================
Here I'll post some of the frequently asked questions regarding Vice City and
the music ripping process that I receive.
Q: How do I rip the music from <another game>/<a DVD>/<any other
technology-related object>?
A: Well, it depends. To rip the music from another PS2 game, you just need to
follow the process above...with a couple of changes. First, you'll need to
find the AUDIO folder (or similarly named folder) and the MUSIC folder, these
could be anywhere so you may have some exploring on your hands. (Usually they
are in a reasonable place, though). Then you need to find out which type of
file the music is. Yes, it could be ANY of the file types such as "RAW - Raw
Sound Data - Compressed ADPCM" and the other ones in the drop-down menu. Then,
you also need to guess the other settings. A couple of hints:
- If you're trying to rip the music from GTA3, follow the exact same process
above. The only trouble you may encounter is when choosing which files to rip,
but you can always preview them. Also, note that CHAT.VB is the ONLY file in
the music directory with a frequency of 16000Hz, because it's a chat station.
(Note that all the chat stations in Vice City are at 16000Hz as well).
- Remember to try ALL of the sound filetypes, some of them don't need as many
settings to be tried.
- Usually the offset is 0.
- If you get stuck, try holding the mouse over one of the white boxes that you
enter data in and the hints may help you.
- Make sure you read the hint (as described above) for the Interleave box.
- Usually the Freqency is set to 8000, 11025, 12000, 16000, 22050, 24000,
32000, 44100, or 48000.
- Samples is always set to 16 bits.
- If the sound is too high-pitched or too low-pitched you should adjust the
frequency (higher frequency = higher pitch).
- Usually the Channels is set to 2, if the below options don't work adjust the
interleave and leave it at 2.
- If everything is playing TWICE, eg: "It's LazlowIt's Lazlow on VRockonVrock,
the homethe home of all rebellionof all rebellion", try changing the Channels
from 1 to 2.
- If some things are missing out, eg: "It's Lazlow, the home of all rebellion",
try changing the Channels from 1 to 2.
- If its similar to this but none of the above options work, try adjusting the
Interleave to the recommended settings in the balloon that pops up when you
hold the mouse over the box.
- If you get something that sounds like the games music but its all messed up
and intersects with other tracks, ALL the music is combined into one file.
Annoying, eh? You need to adjust the offset, and that's as difficult as the
ripping gets.
- If all else fails, go to the message board for that game, see if there are
any audio buffs there and tell them you're trying to rip the tracks from the
game, does anybody know what the frequency, interleave, file format, etc is?
Good luck, you're going to need it!
Q: How do I split the radio station up into separate sections?
A: What you need is called an "MP3 Splitter". The best (free) tool that I've
found would have to be Audacity, an open-source project that can be downloaded
for free from [http://www.sourceforge.net]. You're going to need to look a
little while for it, though. Also you'll need to download an MP3 encoding DLL
file from somewhere to export the split files to new MP3s, or else you can save
WAV files into your VCRIP directory and run encode.bat again.
Q: I don't have a DVD-ROM/My DVD-ROM is broken/Other excuse, so can you send
the music to me?
A: NO, only if you have the Vice City PS2 disc. And you can't prove that to
me. Besides, even if I could do that legally, it would take ages. My
connection only uploads at 128Kbps, which equates to roughly the time it would
take to listen to the track to send it, providing you have broadband. Your
best chance is to do it at a friend's place, providing you have any friends
with a DVD-ROM.
Q: How can I get the music off the double-pack/Xbox/PC version off the game?
OR I don't have a AUDIO folder/All I can see is ADF files.
A: Sorry, this guide is for the original PS2 version only.
<quote from above section that you should already have read>
For the PC version: http://www.codenamevice.co.uk/file_category.asp?ID=57
With a little bit of luck, you should be able to use the tool, but there is no
support for it at the moment, so please do not email me asking how to use it.
Basically you need to use it to open the .ADF files in the install directory of
Vice City and convert them to MP3s.
I know of no way to rip the music from the Xbox version, sorry.
</end quote>
Q: How can I get the music from Vice City / VCPR / any other radio station
onto a CD?
A: If you had read this guide you would have some idea of the answer to this
question. If you read what's above you'll learn how to rip the music and talk
radio shows off the Vice City DVD and create MP3 files of them on your hard
disk. I'll expect that you know how to burn an audio CD from the MP3 files, if
you don't, read up on it on the internet. A future version of this guide may
include a section on burning the music to audio CD, but don't hang out for it.
NOTE: Newbies to burning MP3s to CDs will find Acoustica MP3 CD Burner very
helpful. It costs about $30AUD to buy (that's about $22, $23 in the US), but
it has a free trial that lasts for 14 days - enough to get your VC MP3s onto a
CD! Get it at:
http://www.acoustica.com
Q: Does ripping the music damage the disc?
A: No, ripping the music does no more damage than playing the game normally.
Even if you do that to the Xbox or PC disc (which the guide is not designed
for), while you won't gain any music, you won't lose anything on the disc
either.
Q: Don't I have to buy the Vice City Soundtrack?
A: No, you don't, that is a waste of $40 or so if you already own the game and
have access to a PC with a DVD-ROM.
Q: Is this legal?
A: I believe so, at this time I am not sure, so you assume all responsibility
for your actions as a result of the use of this guide.
Q: Can I post this guide on my site?
A: No, I am not going to accept any more requests for guides to be placed on
your site. It is too much trouble to keep it updated, and I don't care if you
say that you'll check for an update every day on GameFAQs. If you see a site
with this guide on it or run a site with this guide on it please remove it ASAP
(unless you run GameFAQs =) )
Q: I don't understand how to do the stuff in Part Three. Can you help?
A: Please send me an email with the question in detail, and I will do my best
to help you.
Q: This guide is stupid. Why don't you tell me how you ripped the music
instead of insulting my intelligence by giving me poorly-written batch files?
A: First of all, some people find it more difficult to understand this whole
ripping thing and I'm trying to make it easier for them. If you don't like my
batch files, write your own or don't use the guide at all.
Q: How do you rip the music from GTA: San Andreas?
A: See the top of the FAQ. I don't know. :-(
Q: Some guy ripped off your guide and put it on the Vice City page.
A: PRudoff produced an "Audio Extraction Guide" for Vice City on GameFAQs.
I know of his guide and endorse it, it explains how to rip the voice clips
from the game, though why you would want to do that I don't know.
As I get more questions from people, I'll post them up here.
=================================================
6. Thankyou
=================================================
Thanks to all the people below for helping to make this guide possible.
garcha2 - for finding a few mistakes
magmafox - for providing an alternate place to host the guide
Gibby - for confirming that the guide works on Windows 98
Marco - for confirming that the guide works on Windows ME
Martin Laursen - for confirming that the guide works on Windows 2000 and for
assistance with the legality of the guide
Lots of other people for sending me questions. All though you annoyed me, you
gave me valuable assistance with the FAQs section.
Rockstar Games for producing this great game
Tord Janssen for the great MP3 encoder "BladeEnc", which is what you've used to
create the Vice City MP3s
MuzzleFlash for producing MFAudio
Anybody who took the time to read this guide or supported it
If you contribute to this guide in any way, I'll put your name up here.
Copyright (c) 2003 Scott Young [[email protected]]
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
=================================================
END OF DOCUMENT
=================================================
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