How do I listen to the music in the Super Mario 64 Music section? - Super Mario 64 Hacking

I found this video. The music sounds amazing, but it links to this, which I believe is a Super Mario 64 MIDI sound font that I can listen to the songs in the Super Mario 64 Music section of SMWCentral with. But then, now what do I do? I downloaded a random song, this one, but the song is in .m64 file format. Is there something I'm supposed to do with the .m64 file and the sound font in order to listen to the 800+ songs in the Super Mario 64 Music section? I've always wanted to listen to the music in the Super Mario 64 Music section, and now I think I may be getting closer to being able to do that.

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You have to import it to the game yourself, with the right soundbank chosen, or else it'll sound wrong.

Well, is there a way to listen to the songs without using a ROM? I really don't want to set up 100+ ROMs, and I want to be able to use the songs in my own projects such as PC games I'm making. And I don't even know how to do what you said!

Why does simply listening to a darn SONG have to be so COMPLICATED! I should be able to just download the song, associate a program with the file type, and be able to double click on it to listen to it! Better yet, just implement a player for the songs into the website itself like in the Super Mario World music section! I think Super Mario 64 music sounds better than Super Mario World music, so it frustrates me to no end that I can't easily listen to them!

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Originally posted by DPBOX

Well, is there a way to listen to the songs without using a ROM? I don't want to set up 100+ ROMs, and I want to be able to use the songs in my projects such as PC games I'm making. And I don't even know how to do what you said!

Why does simply listening to a darn SONG have to be so COMPLICATED! I should be able to just download the song, associate a program with the file type, and be able to double click on it to listen to it! Better yet, just implement a player for the songs into the website itself like in the Super Mario World music section! I think Super Mario 64 music sounds better than Super Mario World music, so it frustrates me to no end that I can't easily listen to them!

The reason is because of how music on the Nintendo 64 works. The Super Nintendo has a dedicated sound chip, and the music for said console usually self contains everything that you need for it to work on the SNES, music, samples, and all. That's why you're able to preview the music on the website because the SPC has everything you need for it to work.

The Nintendo 64, on the other hand, has no dedicated sound chip. All of the music is taken care of on the software side, and it very much is dependant on the game it's made for, and for Super Mario 64 in particular, it uses the M64 format. That format, however, doesn't contain any sample data, and only contains music data, similar to a MIDI file. You need something to play that MIDI with, right? It's the same case with M64 files.

Hopefully, that explanation makes more sense, and why it is the way it is.

Well, since the only Nintendo 64 game this site focuses on is Super Mario 64, why not simply take those samples that are in the game and use them to make a player for the music on the site? Or are those samples copyrighted content like a ROM file and can't be used this way?

Click the character on the right side of my layout to visit my Discord server and discuss and play and look at and get updates and sneak peeks of the games and other things I'm making.

The authors of these 2 My Little Pony fan games have removed their games from the Internet.
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Originally posted by DPBOX

Well, since the only Nintendo 64 game this site focuses on is Super Mario 64, why not simply take those samples that are in the game and use them to make a player for the music on the site? Or are those samples copyrighted content like a ROM file and can't be used this way?

Because it would be a pain to rip each sample from each soundbank and make a player that can play those .m64 files, and on top of that, be accurate to how it would sound in-game as well.

In a nutshell, it's not as easy as you think it would be.

I believe I floated around the idea of an .mp3/.wav/.ogg file to be associated with each SM64 music file that was uploaded, with the .mp3/.wav/.ogg file uploaded to the site by the site staff (not necessarily by the uploader, as that would open up another wormhole of complications, plus it would be difficult to get it to sound accurate to the N64/emulator anyways) about a few years ago, but I believe that takes a lot of time and possibly a lot of bandwidth, last I checked?

Simply put, I've went down this avenue before, and from what I've gathered, there's no easy way to make SM64 music easily listenable.

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STELLA!

Originally posted by Arash

I believe I floated around the idea of an .mp3/.wav/.ogg file to be associated with each SM64 music file that was uploaded, with the .mp3/.wav/.ogg file uploaded to the site by the site staff (not necessarily by the uploader, as that would open up another wormhole of complications, plus it would be difficult to get it to sound accurate to the N64/emulator anyways) about a few years ago, but I believe that takes a lot of time and possibly a lot of bandwidth, last I checked?

Simply put, I've went down this avenue before, and from what I've gathered, there's no easy way to make SM64 music easily listenable.

I threw that idea around many years ago, but most people didn't want to bother recording their ports, so that idea fell through.

O.K., this makes absolutely no sense. So I tried using Seq64 to convert that Sprawling Savana song to a MIDI, I then loaded up that sound font in VLC, but I couldn't get it to work. The song would still play the using the regular MIDI instruments. However, I then went to listen to some of the songs on VGMusic, which are all MIDIs, and, to my surprise, they were all playing with Super Mario 64 instruments! I had to open them in Windows Media Player to listen to those properly. So then that means that I WAS able to get the Super Mario 64 sound font to work! But then, somehow, when I open up the Sprawling Savana song in VLC, the regular MIDI instruments play. I tried a few other songs from the Super Mario 64 music section, and, again, they would use the regular MIDI instruments. Well, what the heck? If the VGMusic songs were playing using Super Mario 64's instruments, then why won't the songs that actually matter play with the Super Mario 64 instruments? This doesn't make any sense at all! Do I have to enable certain settings in Seq64?

Click the character on the right side of my layout to visit my Discord server and discuss and play and look at and get updates and sneak peeks of the games and other things I'm making.

The authors of these 2 My Little Pony fan games have removed their games from the Internet.
Rise of the Clockwork Stallions has been updated! Download My Little Pony: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions DX: Director's Cut and My Little Pony: Magic Shards now! Spread this link!

Originally posted by DPBOX

O.K., this makes absolutely no sense. So I tried using Seq64 to convert that Sprawling Savana song to a MIDI, I then loaded up that sound font in VLC, but I couldn't get it to work. The song would still play the using the regular MIDI instruments. However, I then went to listen to some of the songs on VGMusic, which are all MIDIs, and, to my surprise, they were all playing with Super Mario 64 instruments! I had to open them in Windows Media Player to listen to those properly. So then that means that I WAS able to get the Super Mario 64 sound font to work! But then, somehow, when I open up the Sprawling Savana song in VLC, the regular MIDI instruments play. I tried a few other songs from the Super Mario 64 music section, and, again, they would use the regular MIDI instruments. Well, what the heck? If the VGMusic songs were playing using Super Mario 64's instruments, then why won't the songs that actually matter play with the Super Mario 64 instruments? This doesn't make any sense at all! Do I have to enable certain settings in Seq64?

If you're talking about my SoundFont, it's meant to work with regular MIDIs off the internet. Otherwise, the MIDIs that export from SM64 isn't gonna sound right because it wasn't made to work with the General MIDI standard, and it's not gonna export as such. You have to fix the MIDI itself for it to sound right.