Just thought I'd let you know the Rayman 2 rip you have up is version 1 of my "DC-analog-out-to-soundcard-line-in" recording (except for the "extras" tracks, I do not claim credit for those). I am that "unknown hero" I later revised the arrangement using my original wav files, which I posted to underground-gamer in 2007.
I think a couple of you figured out the mechanics behind the rip already, but I thought the recording method, as well as the pattern/loop order deserved some explanation... Here is the information I posted along with the v2 rip at UG:
Code: Select all
-Album Details-
Title: Rayman 2: The Great Escape Original Soundtrack
Composer: Eric Chevalier
Publisher: Ubi Soft, Inc.
Release Date: 2000
-Rip Details-
Source: Sega Dreamcast NTSC(U)
Method: Analog via console audio-out
Hardware: SB Audigy4 Pro
Software: Adobe Audition 2.0
MP3 Encoder: LAME 3.97
Command Line: -V 0 --vbr-new
ID3 Tags: ID3v2.3.0 - complete, ID3v1.1 - abbreviated
Ripped by kooz on 8/1/02, encoded on 10/4/07
Included Files: NFO, SFV, M3U
-Tracklist-
[DISC 1]
01. Prologue
02. Globox, My Friend
03. The Woods of Light
04. King of the Teensies
05. Overworld
06. The Fairy Glade - Part 1
07. Pirates! - Part 1
08. Entering the Pirate Ship
09. The Machine
10. Freeing Ly
11. The Fairy Glade - Part 2
12. Bonus Level
13. The Marshes of Awakening
14. Surfing Through the Marshes
15. I'll Miss You, My Friend
16. Meanwhile, In the Pirate Prison Ship
17. The Bayou - Part 1
18. Pirates! - Part 2
19. The Bayou - Part 2
20. The Sanctuary of Water and Ice
21. The Attack Run
22. Axel - Guardian of the Sanctuary of Water and Ice
23. The First Mask
24. Polokus - Spirit of the World
25. Riding the Shell
26. Pirates! - Part 3
27. Clark
-------------------------
Play Time: 1:03:40
[DISC 2]
01. The Cave of Bad Dreams
02. The Chase
03. Spider Attack
04. The Canopy
05. Pirates! Part 4
06. Whale Bay - Part 1
07. Whale Bay - Part 2
08. The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire - Part 1
09. Riding the Lava
10. The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire - Part 2
11. The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire - Part 3
12. The Slide
13. Umber - Guardian of The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire
14. The Flying Barrel
15. The Precipice
16. The Top of the World
17. The Sanctuary of Rock and Lava
18. Flower Ride
19. Lava Tower
20. Beneath the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava
21. The Tomb of the Ancients
22. The Iron Mountain
23. The Prison Ship
24. Freeing the Slaves
25. Pyralums
26. The Disk - Intro
27. The Disk
28. The Final Battle
29. One Last Surprise
30. Ending Sequence
31. Staff Roll
-------------------------
Play Time: 1:05:40
-Final Notes-
A labor of love. This was an extremely difficult soundtrack
to rip. It started out simple enough: the OST isn't available
on CD, so I knew what I had to do. However, soon after I began
recording, it became readily apparent that this would be no
easy task. This game's music evolves as you progress through
each stage.
This meant I would need to record each "section" of every stage
individually, waiting for an obvious loop. I would then
progress to the next part of the stage where the music changed,
and repeat this process. I kept track of my progress by simply
numbering each recording. I played through the game completely,
achieving 100% completion to ensure every track was recorded. I
ended up with roughly 5 or 6 hours worth of raw material.
Next up was editing. Luckily for me, the Dreamcast (or maybe
the developer) was not completely seamless in transitions
between loops. This made finding the beginning and ending
points for each segment relatively easy, by pinpointing an
audible click, or possible imperfection in synchronization.
My original idea was to let each "segment" of each stage loop
twice before continuing on to the next, repeating this process
until the stage was complete. For this early build I had also
decided to leave the original system-generated loop points
alone, along with the minor click or sync issue one would hear
while playing the game, striving to keep the original sound as
intact as possible. This version was completed shortly after
the tracks were ripped, around 11/02, and was 3 full CDs long.
After several listens through, I decided that the problem with
my original edit was two-fold... First, the tracks were too
lengthy, with far too much repetition. Secondly, the idea of
retaining the original system's loop edit points was much more
justifiable in theory than in practice. From an archival or
purist standpoint, it makes sense. From a listener's
perspective, however, it creates a slight disconnection from the
music, which is really what I had been recording this for.
These observations brought upon my final edit, years later.
From 7/23 to 7/26/06, I re-edited the soundtrack a final time,
to create what you have here. This time, each segment is
played once, then continues on to the next, seamlessly. The
original edit points were smoothed out/deleted/lengthened/etc.
to accomodate for sync issues that may detract from the flow
of the tracks. You should find each one to be seamless, as if
it were originally recorded that way. At this point, I am
fairly confident that this OST is as close to the way the
composer originally intended for his score to play out.
Tracks are in chronological order, named according to the stage
or event they represent as closely as possible.
One last note, for the purists out there. It is obvious to me
that this is a type of transcode. The source of this material
is certainly not MIDI, nor CDDA. There are times when, to the
trained ear, compression artifacts are apparent. These are part
of the orignal source, and unfortunately unavoidable. Sometime
later down the line, I may consider doing a rip of the PS2
version, as the quality of that source may be better.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this soundtrack. I have
poured many hours into it.
-kooz
If nobody here has an underground-gamer account, I can upload this revised version somewhere. In addition to a more natural/seamless track flow, the encode is at V0 VBR rather than 192kbps CBR. If a FLAC version is still desired I can dig out my old archive DVD-R and re-encode the WAVs... Unfortunately, the quality issues you're trying to sidestep are not introduced by the MP3 bitrate/encoder (think about it... LAME 3.93 @ 192 CBR / LAME 3.97 V0 VBR will both produce great sounding files), its the source material.
That brings me to why I'm revisiting the idea of doing a PS2 rip: the source material is higher quality/less compressed than any other platform (correct me if I'm wrong). The PC version seems to have an aliased/low-bit-depth hissy-ness, the PSX version is abridged all to hell, the N64 is basically a different soundtrack altogether, and the portable versions just combine these issues in various forms...
This time around there are PC tools available to bypass the need for manual analog recording, which I can see has been discussed to some extent. From what I'm reading, it looks like the arrangement/flow of the segments is the primary problem... in other words, someone needs to meticulously arrange them with the same care that had been taken with the DC rip... Well, I've already extracted the raw streams and decoded to WAV... its a royal mess, but it's not much worse than what I had after my recording session in '02, so I'm gonna get started.