PROBLEM: System 7 Sound Exports

Can't be over 1 minute

I need to put more than one song into a plug. These songs are around 3-5 minutes long, each.

When exporting music in the System 7 Sound format, you can only export 1 minute chunks, or a nasty error occurs. Unfortunately, System 7 Sound format is the only audio format I know of that has a snd resource fork.

Furthermore, parsing raw sound data together in ResEdit doesn't work, due to the max character pasting limit of 32,000 characters.

Is there a much easier way of including music in-game? Or will I have to parse 1 minute blocks, in-game?

What program are you using?

Well I just tried with a program I found on version tracker and it seems to have a similar problem. If it helps though, you can record sounds within ResEdit for much longer 😛

You can use SoundEffects .98, still available for download in a few places, to record and edit System 7 sounds of any length. If you can't find it I can put it on my website. Really easy to use and powerful for a 68k program.

rmx256, on Nov 9 2005, 07:40 AM, said:

You can use SoundEffects .98, still available for download in a few places, to record and edit System 7 sounds of any length. If you can't find it I can put it on my website. Really easy to use and powerful for a 68k program.
View Post

Hmm, we're going to need an OS X and Windows solution to this kind of thing soon... In a couple years anybody with a new Mac won't be able to run a 68kk program...

Aha, here's a freeware program (OS 9) I used to use a lot: SoundApp (not the newest version there but all other links I found are dead). It doesn't seem to have problems with length.

This post has been edited by Guy : 09 November 2005 - 03:17 PM

Guy, on Nov 9 2005, 07:13 PM, said:

Aha, here's a freeware program (OS 9) I used to use a lot: SoundApp (not the newest version there but all other links I found are dead). It doesn't seem to have problems with length.
View Post

...unless the file is over 16 megs.

At least, that's the error I get running Classic environment. I'm going to try booting in Classic, and ramping the ram up- but if that's the only way to do this, then it means people running G5s are already out of luck, unless they know how to manually allocate additional ram using Terminal or something. 😕

You can allocate ram to classic apps in the info window (yes, in OS X).
Also, found the latest version here.

I tried:

Allocating 1 gig of RAM, and running SoundApp under classic environment.

Allocating 780 MB of RAM under System 9.

Using about 20 other old sound conversion apps.

SoundApp doesn't let you export if the exported file is > 16 MB. No matter the RAM.

All the other apps give you an error of -195 if you go over a 1 minute export.

I'm beginning to think the problem is one of those stupid caps on how big a resource file can be.

God damn this archaic architecture.

Hamster2, on Nov 9 2005, 04:13 PM, said:

I'm beginning to think the problem is one of those stupid caps on how big a resource file can be.
View Post

Since system 7 sounds are stored in a resource, yep, that'd be it.

Hamster, send me the file and I'll system7 it.

You should know my email adress. I'll throw in that other file I was talking about on IRC the other day.

Hamster2, on Nov 9 2005, 07:13 PM, said:

I'm beginning to think the problem is one of those stupid caps on how big a resource file can be.

If the cap is about 16 MB, then there's no question that this is it.

Is it possible to use some kind of compression with snd resources?

You could make it lower quality. I don't know about compression.

Yeah, I found a free OS X program which can save as system 7 sound: PlayerPRO
If you can work out how to use it that is...

So as orca says, you'll have to make it mono or use a lower sample rate if you want to fit it in the resource fork.

This post has been edited by Guy : 10 November 2005 - 04:47 AM

Hah!

It's mono. It's 8-bit. It's just over 5 minutes. BUT IT FITS!

...And sounds pretty crappy. 😕

Ah well. Problem somewhat solved. Mono 8-bit compressed songs can be exported in sys7 format up to about 9 minutes. They sound pretty fuzzy though.

I used Sound Studio, which is OS X native, and works very nicely.

Resource forks can't exceed 16 megabytes.

I assume this is an in-game sound, rather than the title music (in which case you'd be using an mp3 file). Are you triggering it with a weapon? If so, how about having it submunition every minute with a different weapon sound?