How to disable music in Final Fantasy IX with ePSXe

[ViVi[Ornitier]]

Hello there!

Me and a friend of mine are gonna record some ingame videos from Final Fantasy IX - but we want to have the ingame sounds in it but NOT the MUSIC. So is there a way to disable only the music via the options? Ingame there is no way - we are currently using SPU Eternal Plugin 1.41 and I'm trying to configure it somehow for our needs but it doesn't want to work right. So has anyone there an ideo how to make it work or what plugin i have to use for this?

ViVi

[Titus03]

I've been thinking about your question for several days and I know one method, but it may sound difficult and it costs you some time. This method is based on OOPS, which means Out Of Phase Stereo. The idea is quite simple: In a stereo track, there are two channels, left and right. OOPS is secret third channel which can be gained by eliminating inverted left or right channel from track, for example simply mixing normal left channel and inverted right into mono. This means that you can get in-game sound effects only as mono in your video. Easier method could exist, but unfortunately I don't know any other.

For this method you'll need Cool Edit 96, 2000 or a similar program for wave recording, (Windows sound recorder is too simple for this one.) and a tool called PSSound. The idea is to get the waveform only to the left or only to the right channel, so eliminating the game music will give you only the wave!
I tested this method today with a couple of sound clips and it worked fine.

Important note: Make sure you have echo turned off from your PSX SPU plugin before step 1.

1. Record the audio from your Final Fantasy IX video with Cool Edit or other recorder.
2. Rip same music files involved in video you are making with PSSound.
(I recommend recording videos in clips that contains music from only one music file.)
3. Now convert sample type to "mono" in your Cool Edit waveform and then back to "stereo".
4. Open another Cool Edit and open the ripped music file.
5. In first Cool Edit, silence the right channel.
6. Convert sample type to "mono" in second Cool Edit.
7. Copy music from second to first Cool Edit's right channel and make sure that the music waveforms are exactly on the same position. If they aren't you'll fail with getting correct OOPS-signal.

EDIT: Normalize both channels amplitude to same level, if they aren't.

8. Now activate left channel only and from "transform"-menu, choose "invert".
9. When left channel is inverted, convert sample type to "mono" and...
10. You can see only the sound effects on the waveform screen! Listen and enjoy. (This happens if you have made all steps flawlessly.)
11. Save and add new waveform to your video with your movie maker software and of course, delete the older one.

[Loveless]

Just thinking off the top of my head, is there not an option in the game's menus where you can control the BGM volume perhaps?

[Titus03]

I'm sorry to say this, but there is not any options for volume in FFIX. Only thing you can do is choose between "mono" and "stereo".

[ViVi[Ornitier]]

Hello there!

Well first, very thank you for your help! But i have to tell you that i didn't worked, i don't know why. With several testing i got 2 different results: Really Nothing or just the same audiotrack(including music and sounds) in mono quality. I don't know if it was my mistake or something else :/

I used cool edit pro 2.1 to record the sound of the game (it was from a battle inside the game) and followed your Instructions step by step. But it didn't worked

Maybe you know something about it ?

Btw, great work!

[Titus03]

I checked it out yesterday. I wrote that instructions by theory and yesterday I tested it with ePSXe and FFIX. You have done it right, but the problem seems to be with plugins or emulator. I recorded two waveforms: with sounds and without sounds. PSSound was no use, so I did both with FFIX itself. Then I carefully putted other waveform to left channel and another one to right. Then I tried to take OOPS-signal, but it didn't worked as you said in your reply. Then I zoomed it and noticed that frequencies have different timings, even if I runned FFIX with same settings. I started to think if it's my computer's fault, so I tried to take OOPS with Quake III Arena. It worked! I made also another test with music and it worked again! So the problem is either in ePSXe or in the plugin.

I can't say how to correct emu's or plugin's timing to get both waveforms with exactly same frequencies. You can try to use other plugins or ask Eternal SPU's team for suggestions.

Here are three example waveforms I made:

FF9 - You have already similar clips on your HD, but this is just my example. Zoom it and you can see the difference between frequencies. That's why OOPS failed.

Quake III Arena - This is my test with a PC-game. Invert left channel and mix both channels into mono and you can hear only the sounds of the game. Background music will be vanished.

Example - This is a music example from Mozart's Don Giovanni. Invert left channel and mix both channels into mono and you can hear only the aria.

OOPS is a great thing but it can be problematic in times. If changing plugins don't help, let me (and others) know. We'll think about another solutions, but it may take time. Let's hope that moderators won't blame us if we reply very late, after weeks or months.

[Ziegfried]

Why do you want to record them? You want to make an AMV?

[ViVi[Ornitier]]

@Ziegfried: We are making a Movie of Final Fantasy IX and because of cutting out the original music and using own, we need only the sounds. But i think we won't have much time, because the release will be very soon and we can't wait any longer with it, because of some facts.

@Titus03: Very thank you! Thank you for your efford. I will try it when we got more time, but now we will use own sounds. But...maybe i got a little surprise for when the vid is released