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Prisoner416

Most complete music collection? Help an audiophile?

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I have most of the music from C&C, but I'm trying to get my collection as complete as possible, and could use some help.

C&C is REALLY hard, given that there's multiple versions of the songs (some in SFX versions, some without), and I'm trying to get them in as high quality as possible.

Years ago, I had a tool to extract audio from most of the games. I could use that again, if anyone still has it. I'd like to rip everything from the game into .wav and convert it to Flac for my personal use if there's no higher quality available outside of what the game uses.

 

Looking at my music folder of rips, it's got some that aren't in my "high bitrate" . My player has them in vbr ogg, iron fist going up to 233k.

Red alert big foot goes to 214.

Ra2 destroy goes to 202.

But for my rip folder, tracks like great shot only go to 83 kbps mono.

Were the early tracks ever released in stereo high quality?

Or perhaps I just need to rerip them again, in which case does anyone still have the audio/video unpacker?

 

 

 

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The Saturn version of C&C1 has higher-quality tracks for sure. The PSX version of RA1 could have better quality to. Frank Klepaki has some tracks on his website, not sure about their quality.

You could also get the soundtrack CDs for the older games, which should have better quality too. The C&C1 OST CD also comes with a second disc with remixes from various artists.

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Extracting the audio from the games leaves you with mono files at low bitrates.

9 hours ago, TaxOwlbear said:

The C&C1 OST CD also comes with a second disc with remixes from various artists.

You mean the special blue version of the RA1 soundtrack, not C&C1.

The way to get the best quality versions of the soundtracks is to acquire the OST CD's. As the OST CD's miss some tracks and the expansion music you must also acquire some game discs.

- The Saturn version of C&C has some missing tracks in CD quality,
- The Covert Operations has tracks in CD quality, 
- The Aftermath has some tracks from Counterstrike in CD quality (CS has those too, but a track has some issues).

As for tracks from FS, YR, AM and other missing tracks you can acquire those in stereo mp3 format from Franks site if you are clever.

Edit: forgot Sole Survivor which has tracks in CD quality on the disc 

If I remember correctly RA: Retaliation might have some unique tracks too.

Edited by Tore

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8 hours ago, TaxOwlbear said:

The Saturn version of C&C1 has higher-quality tracks for sure. The PSX version of RA1 could have better quality to. Frank Klepaki has some tracks on his website, not sure about their quality.

You could also get the soundtrack CDs for the older games, which should have better quality too. The C&C1 OST CD also comes with a second disc with remixes from various artists.

Someone gave me an Exact Audio Copy flac version of the C&C soundtrack, but it must have been disc one, because it was only the originals. However, it's missing a lot of tracks I'd like in high quality, like Great Shot, some of the non-vocal mixes (which I prefer in a few cases)...

I didn't know Red Alert had one though. Kinda wish I had bought it back in the day.

I have a flac copy of Sole Survivor from... somewhere.

You'd think that someone would have made a music pack by now.

Edited by Prisoner416

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The non-vocal versions of C&C1 tracks are only ingame on the PC version. No CD quality or stereo versions of those exist.

Edited by Tore

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2 minutes ago, Tore said:

The non-vocal versions of C&C1 tracks are only ingame on the PC version. No CD quality or stereo versions of those exist.

Guessing the same applies to Great Shot, then. It's a short tune but I'm a completest.

If anyone actually owns the RA1 soundtrack, or even better the 2-disc version, would they be willing to do a Flac rip?

I must have had it at some point... because now that I check my player, I only have 15 songs in my folder, and they match the cd.

Looks like I might have to find the audio extractor after all, because I KNOW there was music in the game not on there, not even including the expansions.

I have The First Decade edition, and the CD for RA1 somewhere, not the expansions though.

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A CD quality version of great shot exists on the Saturn version. Did you read my first post on this thread?

Edited by Tore

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31 minutes ago, Tore said:

A CD quality version of great shot exists on the Saturn version. Did you read my post above?

I did, but you said some tracks were missing, so I wasn't sure. I don't own the Saturn version and wouldn't know how to extract the audio.

Ages ago, as I mentioned, I extracted a bunch from the .mix files, but I lost the tool for that.

I have an OCD issue where I try to keep things as complete as possible. Thankfully, it looks like my old extracts are still on a backup drive. They were converted to .ogg, so I might rerip them if anyone still has a tool. Looks like I'll have to, since the RA2 soundtrack isn't as complete as I thought. Going to have to rip 3 missing songs.

To sum up, it looks like what I'm missing is the Saturn version music, the second remix disc of the RA soundtrack, and anything not on the soundtracks.

I have the C&C1, RA1, RA2, and Sole Survivor soundtracks, and files ripped from the game, like I mentioned before.

I'm looking into buying some of these things used if I have to, unless someone feels like sharing.

I tried a while back to nab some stuff from Frank's page with media grabbing tools I have, but no luck. The site might have changed since then, though.

You mentioned Aftermath... how are the files stored on there? I've found buying old games on Amazon is a crapshoot, my postal carriers suck and I've gotten things damaged, either via post or scuffed to start with.

Sorry if I seem needy or obsessive posting so much about this. I'm just trying to make as complete a set as I can. I'm 30 and trying to recapture some old memories while I'm out and about.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Prisoner416

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If you really want to extract the music from the games themselves there is XCC Mixer. For music CD's or CD's with CD audio there is Exact Audio Copy.

What I was trying to say in the first post is to start with the OST CD's and then piece together the complete soundtrack from game CD's with has CD quality audio and then the rest of the missing tracks are on Frank's site.

Game discs with CD quality audio are:
- C&C: The Covert Operations
- Saturn version of C&C (GDI and Nod discs have different tracks on them)
- RA: Counterstrike
- RA: Aftermath (CS music in better quality)
- C&C: Sole Survivor

Edited by Tore

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XCC Mixer! That's what I used back in the day. And yes, I'm familiar with Exact Audio Copy, it's my mainstay for archiving music.

So I'm assuming this is redbook audio then on the cds, for Aftermath and Covert ops. Those are the only ones missing on my end.

I think a local shop had the Saturn version used... I don't trust getting the others online since I've ordered used cds before that EAC has returned errors on thanks to scuffs or scratches. Perhaps someone here that owns them can do a rip?

If anyone has a guide to getting the music from Frank's page it'd be grand.

Eventually, if I get a "complete" set, I hope to share with the community.

 

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All the games I listed as having CD quality audio are red book audio.

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