NSF to MP3 conversion help, please!

Hi there. Relatively new here and have only posted a couple of times, so please be gentle.:) I’ve found that there are several classic NES games that presently have no MP3s here at the message board, or Galbadia. I was going to try my hand at converting my NSF files to MP3 then putting them at a file share site, and was hoping for a guide to making the conversions. I already ran a search and found a link to such info at gamingforceaudio, but it was expired and redirected me to google. Thank you for any help. I’ll try to make it worth while with some good MP3s! Would like to see links to any help for converting other formats too.

I’ve been looking for a converter too, for NSF (NES), SPC (SNES), VGM (Master System ESPECIALLY) and VGZ (Mega Drive/Genesis). I hope someone here knows anything to help with that.

– Download Winamp.
– Download one of the plugins for Winamp that’s compatible with NSFs at "http://www.zophar.net/utilities/nsf.html."
– Open Winamp.
– Click "Options," then "Preferences," then "Configure."
– In the "Output file type" drop down box, click on "Force WAV file."
– Select a directory for the file to go into, such as your desktop.
– Add the file to your playlist.
– Click play.

The NSF file will be converted to a WAV file silently and will appear in the chosen directory.

– Then download a free program like Audacity, which can be found at "http://audacity.sourceforge.net/," open the program, open the WAV file you’ve created, click on "File," then click on "Export as Mp3."

The mp3 will appear in the directory you’ve chosen. Now you’ve got an NES song in mp3 format.

Is that easy? Only once you’ve got the hang of it. Is it worth it? Yes. Make it worth our while. Please. The NES is still a goldmine of songs that haven’t gotten sufficient recognition.

For SPCs, do the same thing, only find a plugin for Winamp that’s compatible with SPCs through google. The rest is the same. You’ll end up with a WAV file, which you’ll need to open in a different program like Audacity to convert to an mp3.

Uhhh I can’t find any such Force WAV File command on my Winamp.

There was Options – Preferences and then a list of all the various preferences. Output didn’t have it and neither did File Types. My Winamp is version 5.5

It’s been a while since I’ve used WinAmp 5x but you have to configure the options for the Nullsoft diskWriter (Or whatever it’s called now, should be something like that). It should be in the output plugins section. Make sure the plugin is selected when you play the file too, and unselect it when you’re finished converting.

It’s been awhile since I tinkered around with this. But see if this works: after clicking on "Options," then "Preferences," you should have a list on the left side of the Winamp window. The list should include "General Preferences," "Media Library," "Skins," and "Plug-ins." Under "Plug-ins," there should be an "Output" option. Click on that. If you have already downloaded the NSF plug-in and placed it in the plug-ins folder for Winamp, then the name of your NSF writer should appear in the list on the right side of the window. One popular example is "Nullsoft Disk Writer." If you click on the name of the NSF writer so that it’s highlighted, and then click on "Configure," you should get a new window that has the "Output file type" drop down menu that holds the "Force wav file" option.

See if that works.

Thank you, arthurgolden and Master Jace, for the instructions (for them to be simple enough for me to follow, they were good ones;))! After messing around with it some last night I was able to make some MP3s for Code Name: Viper! Even learned to use Audacity to cut unneeded time off the track and fade out at the end. I’ve got a couple of days till my weekend. Then I’m going to try my hand at finishing that or sme other soundtrack, hosting it and linking it here. Arthur, I’m going out on a limb and assuming your moniker is from the Ghosts n’ Goblins series, and the NES Ghosts n’ Goblins is one soundtrack I want to make.:) Problem I’m going to have is finding the proper names of tracks, and the sountrack composers. I was going to use vgmusic.com as a resource, but are there other sites out there with a lot of that information? Thanks again!

Cool. You’re welcome! I have used Wikipedia pretty successfully to find the names of video game soundtrack composers. When that fails, I can usually google something like "Ghosts n’ Goblins composer" or "Ghosts n’ Goblins music" and find an answer.

My moniker is actually a reference to a short story called "Servant of Culture" by the American author Tom Piazza. It’s in his book Blues and Trouble.

Part of the story is about how the character Arthur Golden works for a record label that has been bought out by a mega corporation. The problem is that for years Arthur has been working on re-releases for all this classic jazz music that no one’s ever taken notice of before. He’s an advocate of the old, good stuff (for me that would be NES, SNES, Playstation music). But the stuff he likes isn’t appreciated by the culture he lives in. Even though he’s been working for years to get these recordings re-released, his projects are cancelled as soon as the mega corporation takes ownership. They say they’re taking the label in a new direction. They’re forgetting about all of their back catalogue of old, good stuff and replacing it with new, meaningless, disposable pop music (for me that resonates with the state of video game music today).

That’s not all the story’s about, but that conflict echoed with the way I look at the last two decades or so of video game music.

So there’s the extremely long, potentially boring, potentially pretentious explanation of the name.

Good luck with the conversions.

YES! Ohhh happy day, it works! Thank you so much, I really owe you one for finally teaching me how to work these!
Might even be able to upload some Master System music onto this site in the future too or so. Cheers!

You’re very welcome. Hopefully, other people are using this information to plan uploads. . .

I guess that goes to show how centered I can be on video games that I would take what I did out of "arthurgolden".;) I appreciate the explanation you gave. It has me ready to go out and find this short story.

And it’s good to reflect on where something we love has been, and where it’s going. Made me start to think. While there are exceptions (Final Fantasy, Zelda, Castlevania games), I’m not happy with the recent history of video game music. I even felt there was some drop off in quality in the Zelda: Twilight Princess soundtrack. While I don’t see the slump as having lasted as long as that in film and more mainstream music, but it is there.

I know this isn’t the topic of the thread and I won’t stay on it long, but somehow I think having sophistocated hardware to work with has spoiled video game music composers. I think the limitations of NSF, for example, required more creativity and it resulted in some great soundtracks. Toward the end of the NES’ run, quality seemed to drop off again, but picked back up with the SNES.

A recent soundtrack I am happy with that returned more to a series’ roots is the Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles soundtrack. Loved hearing some remixes from the original NES Castlevania!

Sorry to get off the thread’s track, but wanted to say I share a lot of your thoughts on game music. On my weekend now, so I’ll have more time to work on some game rip albums. Was still disappointed to find that a lot of NES soundtracks haven’t had NSF rips either.

Cool. You’re welcome! I have used Wikipedia pretty successfully to find the names of video game soundtrack composers. When that fails, I can usually google something like "Ghosts n’ Goblins composer" or "Ghosts n’ Goblins music" and find an answer.

My moniker is actually a reference to a short story called "Servant of Culture" by the American author Tom Piazza. It’s in his book Blues and Trouble.

Part of the story is about how the character Arthur Golden works for a record label that has been bought out by a mega corporation. The problem is that for years Arthur has been working on re-releases for all this classic jazz music that no one’s ever taken notice of before. He’s an advocate of the old, good stuff (for me that would be NES, SNES, Playstation music). But the stuff he likes isn’t appreciated by the culture he lives in. Even though he’s been working for years to get these recordings re-released, his projects are cancelled as soon as the mega corporation takes ownership. They say they’re taking the label in a new direction. They’re forgetting about all of their back catalogue of old, good stuff and replacing it with new, meaningless, disposable pop music (for me that resonates with the state of video game music today).

That’s not all the story’s about, but that conflict echoed with the way I look at the last two decades or so of video game music.

So there’s the extremely long, potentially boring, potentially pretentious explanation of the name.

Good luck with the conversions.