Many people discard [video game] music as mere [background noise], but I've found that some game music is truly brilliant. For instance, the [soundtrack] to [Donkey Kong Country] has some mesmerizing ambient songs, and [Chrono Trigger] has a huge assortment of techno-orchestral pieces.

In the olden days, the only way I could listen to this music was by actually playing the game on the [Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]. Now, thanks to the joys of [emulation] (and despite some [poppycock] from [Nintendo] that "all emulation is [illegal]") there is a much more comfortable solution: [SPC] files, little 64kb (64.5kb, to be exact) [dump|dumps] of the [SPC-700|SNES sound core].

[SPC] files are still a rather [unnatural] medium for listening to music, and I'd much prefer to have the songs on a [CD]. Here's my method; it's admittedly rather twisted, but it [worksforme].

First, assuming you have a [ROM] of the game (of which you already own a physical copy, right? -- [SNES] [cart]s are dreadfully cheap now, so just suck it up, spend the five bucks, and [don't be a lamer]... I don't condone piracy) and an emulator capable of saving SPC files, [rip] the songs you're interested in. My emulator is [ZSNES], but [Snes9x] has a SPC save function as well and is also an [excellent] choice. Whatever you use, the results are essentially the same. It helps a lot to have a [sound test] screen in the game, as you'll have to play it otherwise to get to all the songs. ([Not that there's anything wrong with that]...)

Next, since SPCs are [nearly impossible] to deal with in their [native] states, you'll need to obtain a program to convert your freshly dumped tunes to a more suitable format. [AFAIK], the only program that offers such a function is [OpenSPC], which [automagically] converts the SPC data to an [Impulse Tracker] [module]. Being a [Linux] user, I naturally have the Linux version of OpenSPC, which works thusly:

> ospc -l -i [foo].spc

... creating a file "foo.it". Of course, most game music loops [ad infinitum], so you'll have to listen to the song and cut it off [manually]. No problem, because a single loop is generally short. [4'33"|Four minutes] is usually plenty; just leave a bit of room to [fade out] later.

Thirdly, open the .it file that OpenSPC created with [Modplug Tracker]. I'm saying [Modplug Tracker|MPT] because it offers actual [reverb], which is fairly important for some SNES music. Some songs sound disturbingly [flat] without a [copious] amount of reverb (the [Donkey Kong Country|DKC] cave music, for instance) so you'll want to turn it on. Go to View -> Setup -> Player and switch on the reverb, turn it [way up] toward "high", and pick one of the [preset|presets]. It might take some [fiddling] to find the best setting for the song (I think I finally went with "Stone Corridor" for the cave music, rather than the somewhat obvious "Cave"), but after a few songs it should become easier to pick a good-sounding preset. While you're at it: switch on the auto gain control, [noise reduction], and bass expansion, and set the resampling mode to "high quality". The more adventurous types might want to play with the [equalizer] settings as well. (Needless to say, if you're doing this, the equalizer should be on! ;)

Now it's time to write the [.wav] file. Go to File -> Save as Wave, and pick a filename. On the Wave Convert dialog, make sure the [Normalize Output] checkbox is OFF (I'll explain why in a moment) and hit Save... watch the [progress bar] tick by, and then...

Last step (besides actually [burn|burning] the disc, but that's beyond the [scope] here) - open the .wav in your favorite audio editor, take a look at the ending, and trim/fade to taste. Most songs will probably need at least a small fade, but this is all a matter of preference. Those looking to make a more "professional" sounding CD will likely want to [limit] and [normalize] the songs, but since these files were all created from the same source, the volumes should all be similar enough as they are. For this reason, normalizing the output in [Modplug Tracker|MPT] would actually be a [bad idea]: the quiet songs are really supposed to be quiet.

A sizable number of games have [original soundtrack]s available -- [Donkey Kong Country|DKC] and [Chrono Trigger|CT] both do (the latter being a three-disc set [IIRC]). The [mixing] and [post-processing] are, needless to say, much better quality than can be produced with an emulator and SPC ripper, and the "real" discs may even come with some neat extras. If you like the music to a certain game enough, your [best option] is undoubtedly to purchase the original soundtrack on CD if one is available. Try searching [Google] for "(name of game) [OST] CD". It's a good idea to look before you [roll your own] to spare yourself from going through this process unnecessarily, like I did [;)]

[Alternately], if you'd like to hear [something completely different], you might be interested in getting some [remix|remixes], for example from [OverClocked ReMix|http://www.ocremix.org/]. Many of these songs are well worth the time they take to download, and I suggest any game music [aficionado] take at least a short look at this site and others offering similar [wares].

Creating an audio CD from SNES game music