Note: This project was discontinued several years ago, and the content of this page is very old. I'm keeping it online, I suppose for entertainment purposes, if nothing else. :)

Hi, my name is PJ Barnes, and I am creating a utility that can create midis of songs directly from SNES Rom data (Super Nintendo game data).

Where can I get this wonderful utility?  Do you have it?  Does anyone else?

Now don't get too excited!  As far as I know, nobody has created a utility yet which can extract midis directly from SNES game data.  I hope to become the first person to perform this accomplishment.  I'm not finished yet, so you'll just have to wait.

When will one be available, then? How far have you gotten?

I hate to disappoint you, but I have no earthly idea when I or anyone else will release such a utility.  Creating one is not an easy task, and I don't know anyone else who is trying to do it.  I'm guessing that it will be at least a month or two before I'm finished.

To see how much I've done (and how much still needs to be done), look at the bottom of this page, under Current Progress.

What does SPC2MID mean?  What is an SPC?  What is a MID?

SPC2MID is the name that I plan to give to my software program, because it essentially changes an SPC to a MID.

An SPC file is a special type of file that, in a nutshell, contains information about how the SNES plays a particular song.  The name SPC comes from the SPC700, which is the name of the SNES's sound hardware.  A good thing about SPC files is that they contain official, legitimate, original Super Nintendo music information, including the original sound waveforms.  They have the best potential for imitating the Super Nintendo's music.  A bad thing about SPC files is that they are relatively hard to get and to play, and they take up a substantial amount of storage.

A MID or MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file contains music which is stored in a standardized format which makes it possible to easily exchange musical data between computers, sound cards, and other electronic musical instruments.  A good thing about MIDI files is that just about everybody can play them.  Also, they take up very little storage space.  Plus, with the help of a good program, the music from MIDI files can be displayed as notes on a staff.  A bad thing about MIDI files is that they don't contain wave information, which means that the quality of the sound is limited by the user's sound card.

How do I get and play SPC files and MID files?

The easiest way to create an SPC music file of a song from an SNES game is to use an emulator like ZSNES to make one for you.  The easiest way to play the music from an SPC file is to use a utility like WinSPC or SPCPlay to do it.

MIDI files are usually hand-made.  The Media Player program in Windows (and many other programs) can play MIDI files.

If you're looking specifically for a website that has a large collection of music from video game systems, then you'll definitely want to visit VGMusic.com.

Why convert a music file to a MIDI file?

The MIDI file format has become the leading standard for a wide variety of musical applications.  This is not surprising, because the MIDI file format has many advantages, which I've already mentioned in the answer to the previous question.  Sony and Nintendo have incorporated this music format in their newer game systems (PlayStation and N64, respectively).  It is the format that is most compatible with electronic instruments, importantly computers (with sound cards) and many keyboards.

Things that I have done:

• Researched the file formats of both .SPC and .MID files. (The .SPC file format is very simple, and is explained in one of ZSNES's readme files. The .MID file format is a little complex, but I manually edited .MID files at the binary level a year ago, and I feel very comfortable with creating them from scratch.)
• Obtained DJGPP, an excellent C/C++/Asm compiler and linker for DOS, which I plan to use to write my program.
• Experimented a little bit with Allegro, a tremendously helpful package of multimedia libraries and examples (written specifically for DJGPP) which will practically do all of the sound card configuration stuff for me.
• Hunted down the SPC700 specification (documentation on how the SNES hardware works), read it in some detail, and currently feel confident that I can come to a sufficient understanding of how SNES sound works at a low level.
• Obtained the source code for WinSPC, an excellent Windows .SPC player written by CitiZen X.
• Played a lot with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 to learn how C++ Windows programming is typically done. (I've even written my own shareware program called AlephBet.) It turns out that this will pay off a LOT, because this basic knowledge will save me the hassle of trying to decipher which part of WinSPC is emulation and which part of WinSPC is just Windows stuff.
• Compiled WinSPC from scratch using Microsoft Visual Basic C++ 6.0 to see if the source code was complete and valid. (It ran perfectly.)
• Read all of CitiZen X's notes concerning how WinSPC works, and how to port it to DOS.
• Examined the purposes of the main functions in WinSPC and looked at some of the source code in detail.

• Study CitiZen X's WinSPC source code in greater detail to determine how the data in the .SPC files are interpreted and converted to sound wave data.
• Port WinSPC to DOS, at least partially.
• Learn more about DJGPP and Allegro in the process.
• Learn more about the SPC700 in the process.
• Begin writing code to convert commands to note events.
• Create a program that actually compiles. :)
• Fix bugs in this program until I can successfully create at least one simple .MID file from one .SPC file. I might only try to do one channel/voice at a time at first.
• Release first version of SPC2MID and continue to improve it

That's all for this page!

My main home page is  PJBarnes.com