Vice city radio

[SPLAT....opps]

Hello,I have a question on some downloads from tinyteds site

http://www.tinyted.net/eddie/decode.html.

Explain how to do this please,I dont know how to run tihs(is simple minded).

 

[Spuds725]

What don't you understand-- the instructions are on the page you linked to--they look pretty easy.

 

The only think that looks like it might be hard would be "opening a comand prompt window"--

 

To do this, go to your start and click on programs then accessories-- on this menu there should be a thing that says "c:\ command prompt

 

click on this and it will open up a window-- this window will run stuff with MS dos type commands...

 

CD = change directory

 

go into the proper directory and then run that program the way it says to...

 

I recommend before you start you copy all the files to a simple directory so you can get to it easier-- example c:\music

 

thats it.

[SPLAT....opps]

I know this is simple,but I dont understand how-what is a dierectory?Whats a ''comand prompt line and what is a command-line window

CD to the directory containing the .VB files

Convert each VB file with the Decode program''

Im a moron on comps please help.

 

 

 

[Spuds725]

I'll walk you through this tomorrow if I get time (its too late for me to do this right now-- I gotta get up for work in 6 hours).

 

Hopefully someone else can hold your hand through this.... its easier then you think, but you do have to be familiar with msdos commands (which take a little getting used to the little ins and outs)

 

If you want to try an muddle your way through this yourself-- here are plenty of MSDOS command references.

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=msdos...G=Google+Search

 

As I said before, run msdos commands you have to open a command prompt window--

 

Click on START, then select programs, then select accesories-- then select... c:\ command prompt

 

If you can't do this, then everything else is moot--- this is your homework...

[SPLAT....opps]

I get this everytime I try this:

Windows Can not open this file

File:VROCK.VB

 

To open this file windows needs to know what program created it.Windows can go online and look it up automaticlly,or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer.

 

What do you want to do?

{}Use web service to find apporiate program

{}Select the Program from the list

 

 

I choose the list,then the decoder,than a little window appears for like half a sec and disappears.What is happening about this?

[Justin]

OK, I'm going to do this myself, and walk you through it step by step.

 

1. Insert the GTA Vice City DVD into your disc drive on your computer. Your drive must be a DVD drive.

2. Open up My Computer, and right click the disc drive you insterted the Vice City disc into (on my computer, this was named VICE_CITY). On the menu that pops up, click 'Explore'.

3. You should be in a folder called whatever your disc drive was named - in my case it was called VICE_CITY (D:). Double click on the 'AUDIO' folder.

4. Right click on the 'MUSIC' folder, and select 'Copy' from the pop-up menu.

5. Go back to your desktop.

6. Right click anywhere on the desktop, and click 'Paste' on the pop-up menu.

7. Download the decode program available from that site. Save this program into the MUSIC folder you just copied onto your desktop.

8. Double click the MUSIC folder, and delete the following files - 'AMBSIL.VB', 'BCLOSED.VB', 'BEACHAMB.VB', 'BOPEN.VB', 'CITY.VB', 'DIRTRING.VB', 'FIST.VB', 'GLIGHT.VB', 'HBEACH.VB', 'HCITY.VB', 'HOTEL.VB', 'HWATER.VB', 'LAW4RIOT.VB', 'MALIBU.VB', 'MALLAMB.VB', 'MISCOM.VB', 'POLICE.VB', 'ROCKAMB.VB', 'STRIP.VB', 'TAXI.VB', and 'WATER.VB'.

9. Open up the command prompt (START --> RUN, and type in the box 'cmd') or (START --> Accessories --> Command Prompt).

10. In the open Command Prompt, type 'cd ', and then the folder path to the MUSIC folder on your desktop. In my case (and yours, if you're using Windows XP), I typed 'cd C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\MUSIC' (without the ', obviously).

11. Hit enter.

12. Then type 'decode ', and then the name of the file you wish to convert. For example, 'decode flash'.

12. Hit enter.

13. After typing the decode command, your computer will take a little while to decode the file into a playable format. You will know when it's done, as the command prompt will display a new line waiting for you to type a further command.

14. Repeat step 12 and 13, with each file you wish to convert.

 

That should be it. From what I've read, you're problem was with the command prompt - you weren't using it at all, let alone properly.

 

[EDIT] Or, you could just use a simple program that does all the work for you. ADF converter.

Edited September 25, 2005 by Fuzzy Juzzy

[Spuds725]

Thanks fuzzy---

 

what Fuzzy says is right on.

 

You have to open up a command prompt window to do ANYTHING with that decoder--windows cannot run that directly-- the command prompt window will run stuff outside of windows (although you still have windows running) you cannot run that decoder program or the radio files (.vb) with windows--

 

the command prompt window is just a way to run DOS (Disk Operating System) commands directly-- rather then using windows (Windows is really just an big user friendly (I use friendly very loosely ) interface from which programs are run from)--- MSDOS is what was used on PC machines prior to the windows operating system being created-- it actually runs programs alot faster then windows can-- windows has always been a big memory hog for what it does (IMO).

 

 

[SPLAT....opps]

Oh im mad,that thing fuzzy gave me worked,I got the vrock file out and it is converted to wmp form but it wont play it.

[Justin]

Oh im mad,that thing fuzzy gave me worked,I got the vrock file out and it is converted to wmp form but it wont play it.

Are you talking about the ADF converter I posted earlier in the topic? If so, I must apologise. It was late at night, and I forgot you were wanting to extract the audio from the PS2 version - the ADF converter will only work with the PC version. My apologies.

 

But if you follow the instructions I gave in that same post, it will work. I can vouch for this.

 

@hater404 - The feeling's mutual mate.

[SPLAT....opps]

9. Open up the command prompt (START --> RUN, and type in the box 'cmd') or (START --> Accessories --> Command Prompt).

10. In the open Command Prompt, type 'cd ', and then the folder path to the MUSIC folder on your desktop. In my case (and yours, if you're using Windows XP), I typed 'cd C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\MUSIC' (without the ', obviously).

11. Hit enter.

12. Then type 'decode ', and then the name of the file you wish to convert. For example, 'decode flash'.

 

-----------

One problem-what is a comand prompt?What it look like(picture maybe)and how do I pull this up?

[Spuds725]

This shows the path (how to open it) and a pic of it....

 

http://www.cs.wright.edu/~jslater/winprompt.png

 

Google image search is great--

[SPLAT....opps]

HOLY HELL I GOT IT!I did it,can I burn it?To a cd I mean

[Justin]

HOLY HELL I GOT IT!I did it,can I burn it?To a cd I mean

Although it took a little longer than expected, congratulations.

 

And yes, you can burn it to a CD. The files you have on your PC will all be .WAV's. Probably the best practice would be to first convert them to MP3's, by using a basic converter program such as WMA to MP3 Converter (yes, I know it says WMA, but it can also convert WAV's). If that doesn't appeal to you, just Google Search something along the lines of 'wav to mp3 converter'.

 

Once you've converted the files to MP3's, you can use any basic CD writing program to put them on an audio CD. If you have Windows XP, simply insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW into your CD drive. Double click the appropriate drive in My Computer, and paste the MP3 files there. Once done, Click 'Write these files to CD' in the CD Writing Taks menu on the left. From there, just follow the basic instructions.

[Demarest]

CD Burning software used to not support MP3 conversion on the fly and required all audio targeted for a CDA to be in WAV format. If you already have it in WAV and are burning an audio CD, going to MP3 first is just an extra step that technically will strip some audio quality whether noticeable or not.

[seasam114]

K so I decoded all of the radio stations... now the problem is that KCHAT and VCPR sound like alvin the chipmunks! Whats the malfunction?? Those are the only 2 that act like that. thanks fot the reply.

[Suitengu]

does anybody have an answer to this guy's last response as i am getting the same problem as well?

[Heihachi_73]

Only a slap on the hand this time (not a report) as the bump actually has something to do with the topic.

 

You have to open the WAV file in a program like Cool Edit and change the speed from 44100 to 22050 or 11025hz (they were recorded that way to save space, as a 44KHz file is 2 to 4x the size of the other files). You're not changing the sample rate to make it smaller, you're slowing the playback speed, like changing a 45RPM vinyl record to 33RPM.

 

You can't do this in the Windows Sound Recorder as it is one of the biggest pieces of crap ever left in a version of Windows, basically untouched since Windows 3.1 (the only difference is it was made 32-bit for Windows 95). The Vista version is even more toward the titties and bull theory...

[Spuds725]

If you read the page linked to in the first post of the thread, it gives you instructions and even tells you that K-chat and VCPR are recorded at different speeds... and the command line to use to decode them correctly-- see bolded text below.

 

 

  1.  Copy the files from the GTA DVD (directory AUDIO) into a directory on your hard drive - the radio stations are the larger .VB files (90MB or more)

  2. Save the Decode program to the same directory (right-click and select Save Target As ...)

  3. To decode each .VB file into a 32 kHz .WAV file, use the Decode program from the command line:

          * Open a command-line window

          * CD to the directory containing the .VB files

          * Convert each VB file with the Decode program like this:

 

                decode vrock

 

# The 32kHz .WAV files can be played using WinAmp or Windows Media Player

# Use another program (e.g. CoolEdit) to convert the .WAV files to 44.1kHz if you wish to burn CDs

# You can create .WAV files directly from a DVD using a command line like this:

 

    decode E:\AUDIO\VROCK.VB C:\ViceCityRadio\VROCK.WAV

 

# The files POLICE.VB, KCHAT.VB and VCPR.VB are recorded at 16kHz. Use this command line to set the correct speed in the .WAV file:

 

    decode -r 16000 KCHAT

 

# The program also works for the music from Grand Theft Auto 3! In this case, CHAT.VB is recorded at 16kHz and the rest at 32kHz.

# There is also source code if you want it.

Enjoy!

 

If you check the guide at gamefaqs.com for this in the VC section, it has another program that will convert the .wav files to MP3s to compress them down quite a bit-- you are still looking at quite a bit to convert all the radio stations... I want to say it took me half a gig to hold them all-- I did fit them all on a flash drive.

 

Obviously this is flirting with our no Warez rule.. please don't ask for the cracked files to be distributed/shared-- the above is only meant for you to personally enjoy the music from the game you purchased, outside of the game.

Edited May 29, 2007 by Spuds725