How to transfer SEQ between games?

Audio and Music (Sound Processing Unit) based area of development, including VAB, XA, etc
Post Reply
Jabba
What is PSXDEV?
What is PSXDEV?
Posts: 3
Joined: Jul 24, 2022

How to transfer SEQ between games?

Post by Jabba » July 28th, 2022, 2:48 am

Hi everyone, new here. I barely know ps1 sound/spu, yet I wanted to replace freely SEQ files between games (fixing pointers of course) like playing ff7 bgm in ff8, just to put an example.

I thought (wrongly) that a SEQ file had all the information to be played by the SPU, however it is not. There many spu reverb parameters and spu control (volume) to be adjusted in order to properly play a SEQ file (picture of parameters).

Back to the point, one way to transfer SEQ files between games could be to include the SPU parameters with the SEQ file and change them accordingly before playing the SEQ file (a coder way). Another way (I don't know if its possible) could be to remake the SEQ file for another spu parameters.

Anyone has been through this? Ideas are welcome.

Thanks in advance
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Jabba
What is PSXDEV?
What is PSXDEV?
Posts: 3
Joined: Jul 24, 2022

Post by Jabba » July 28th, 2022, 9:33 am

Nevermind, it worse than i thought. Usually there is a VB file that contains the instrument sample (i guess? or something like that) so i order to play another game SEQ file u need the VB, plus almost all sound custom sound routines from the source game...

I guess it will be easy to use xa (heavy on file size) or make a new SEQ which is not easy since u will have to adjust sequence to use the destination VB file.

User avatar
Administrator
Verified
Admin / PSXDEV
Admin / PSXDEV
Posts: 2689
Joined: Dec 31, 2012
I am a: Shadow
PlayStation Model: H2000/5502

Post by Administrator » September 5th, 2022, 5:32 pm

The VB file is the data file with all the sound data. The VH is the header. SEQ is different as it's more like MIDI data which actually tells the data file which data bank to play so you can actually hear a song constructed from different elements.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

Jabba
What is PSXDEV?
What is PSXDEV?
Posts: 3
Joined: Jul 24, 2022

Post by Jabba » September 6th, 2022, 1:48 am

Shadow wrote: September 5th, 2022, 5:32 pm The VB file is the data file with all the sound data. The VH is the header. SEQ is different as it's more like MIDI data which actually tells the data file which data bank to play so you can actually hear a song constructed from different elements.
Thank you for the explanation. Didn't know the VH part.

User avatar
Administrator
Verified
Admin / PSXDEV
Admin / PSXDEV
Posts: 2689
Joined: Dec 31, 2012
I am a: Shadow
PlayStation Model: H2000/5502

Post by Administrator » September 6th, 2022, 1:52 am

Jabba wrote: September 6th, 2022, 1:48 am
Shadow wrote: September 5th, 2022, 5:32 pm The VB file is the data file with all the sound data. The VH is the header. SEQ is different as it's more like MIDI data which actually tells the data file which data bank to play so you can actually hear a song constructed from different elements.
Thank you for the explanation. Didn't know the VH part.
No problem.

VB is also known as VAB. They are basically identical however if I recall the VAB file includes the header information so there is no VH file needed for it. Both the VB and VH files can be extracted from a VAB by using VABTOOL.EXE from Sony.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

User avatar
Squaresoft74
Verified
/// PSXDEV | ELITE ///
/// PSXDEV | ELITE ///
Posts: 310
Joined: Jan 07, 2016
PlayStation Model: SCPH-7502
Location: France
Contact:

Post by Squaresoft74 » September 6th, 2022, 2:16 am

.VAB files are .VH (VAB header) and .VB (VAB body) files merged in a single file.
Jabba wrote: July 28th, 2022, 2:48 am like playing ff7 bgm in ff8, just to put an example.
Afaik it wouldn't work in this example.
While both games use the custom AKAO format (which had many different revisions), specs aren't the same.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests