Help wanted - Identifying an unknown song (likely from a game or VN)

[NM64]

This chair song:

• https://ttm.sh/Sy2.mp3

Its original source has eluded me, and AHA Music's Song Finder didn't help. Does anybody know what this song's original source is? The fact that the file can seamlessly loop strongly implies that it was originally from a video game or a visual novel.



For reference, this MP3 presumably has been re-encoded from a different format used by the original source (likely OGG vorbis or some proprietary ADPCM format).

Therefore, if the source you know of just matches this MP3 exactly in terms of file size and bit rate and such, then that's likely not the true original source and Gilgamesh would be disappointed (but you're still welcome to share your information and I can look into it).


EDIT: The goal is to find a higher-fidelity copy of this song, so a "similar-sounding different song" isn't going to cut it Deathhappens.

[Deathhappens]

Does it have to be the same one? Because this sounds so painfully generic I can probably find a half dozen tunes using the same motif, instruments, and progression just by looking at a VN asset store. In the free section.

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I mean, no offense if you're fixated on finding this exact one for your own reasons. But it's probably not gonna be easy.

[NM64]

Does it have to be the same one?

Yes, considering that my goal is to get a higher-fidelity copy of this song.

[Zurvan]

Not that you haven't scoured the place yet, but where did you stumble onto this one in the first place?

Might help, probably won't

[NM64]

Not that you haven't scoured the place yet, but where did you stumble onto this one in the first place?

A free amateur VN that "borrows" media assets from other games/VNs/anime/etc.

It has a single developer that admitted to hating audio work who was unresponsive to my inquiries regarding the source of this song (and looking at the other songs that this free amateur VN "borrows" didn't help either because I actually already was able to source all of its other songs, and this one aforementioned MP3 wasn't from any of the sources for the other songs and is therefore the single remaining song I've been unable to source).

This is also a big reason why this MP3 is presumably re-encoded because, despite the free amateur VN in question using MP3 for all of its music, the original sources for all of the other songs I found were either OGG vorbis or straight-up lossless OSTs.

[Deathhappens]

Why would anyone (sane) re-encode vorbis or flac into mp3's though

[NM64]

Why would anyone (sane) re-encode vorbis or flac into mp3's though

I'm not sure the creator of the free amateur VN in question even knows what OGG vorbis or FLAC even are... so there's a non-zero chance they did the usual "convert this unknown file into a format that I actually recognize" (MP3).

Now while Windows 10 supports FLAC by default, it certainly doesn't support OGG vorbis, so they wouldn't even able to play OGG vorbis audio files as-is (and presumably didn't know the trick that many web browsers nowadays can play back OGG vorbis audio if you drag the file into the browser window).

And, if they don't know what FLAC is then, if it's ripped from an OST, there's also a non-zero chance that they either ripped directly to MP3 or ripped to WAV, and you obviously wouldn't use WAV in software you can download if you can help it, in which case they would have then converted to quite possibly the only compressed format they know... MP3.

[Deathhappens]

Would someone that obviously gives so few fucks about audio quality borher downloading a lossless version of the OST they were using in the first place, though?

[NM64]

Would someone that obviously gives so few fucks about audio quality borher downloading a lossless version of the OST they were using in the first place, though?

I did say rip, as in from a physical CD. There are many people that just see MP3s as "more convenient CDs" if you will without any care or understanding of the fidelity differences. See also: the amount of "convert YouTube to MP3" stuff out there despite YouTube literally having AAC/M4A audio streams already encoded (you know, the format that freaking itunes uses).

...at least, under the assumption that the dev isn't someone young enough that hasn't even used a music CD.

But even using your "yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee" download example, there's a shocking amount of that stuff in recent years that are still just MP3. You'd think that, if you were ripping a CD, you'd use a format that prioritizes quality rather than convenience considering that, if convenience is important, you'd stream your music instead of going the "yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee" route?

So yeah, my point about ripping the CD to an MP3 could also apply to a "yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee" source as well, i.e. they could have easily just got it in MP3 in the first place from their aforementioned "yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee".



EDIT: Alternative scenario: the VN dev does know what a "FLAC" is but not what an "OGG" or a "vorbis" is (nor what an "opus" is for that matter other than a cartoon penguin), so they could have easily "yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee"-ed a FLAC OST and then converted it to MP3 because you wouldn't typically include 50+ songs in your freely-available downloadable amateur VN with them all encoded in FLAC due to file size reasons.

Thing is, while nowhere near as well-known as MP3, FLAC has definitely been gaining mindshare in the last decade or so as the go-to archival format even among more "normie" types that would still very much have no clue what an "OGG" or "vorbis" is (again, consider that even Windows 10 natively supports FLAC but not OGG vorbis; heck, my sister even had some no-name bluetooth speaker that supports FLAC along with MP3 and WAV from a USB drive yet lacks support for AAC/M4A oddly enough not to mention of course lacks support for OGG vorbis).

[Mattias]

I'm guessing you already looked at every media source they were "inspired" by? Those kind of projects always have a "I've always loved FSN and Saya no Uta" bit in the mission statement.

[NM64]

I'm guessing you already looked at every media source they were "inspired" by?

Technically no, but the rest of the music is from completely unrelated stuff genre-wise other than being from things that would be categorizes as "weeb"

...that being said, I am at least already familiar with the music from the few commercial VN predecessors that existed in its genre, and the song doesn't exist in any of those (I'm one of those weirdos that will remember a song I enjoy even if I've not heard it for decades and, if one couldn't tell from the context, this elusive song in question is indeed a song that I enjoy).

[Mattias]

I'd still say that you might be served looking into things he's already pulled from or has a stated appreciation of. Kind of like how you can always find Nier Automata, Kingdom Hearts and Persona OSTs all over nerd youtube videos.

Unfortunately I can only say where it isn't from.

[NM64]

If not to at least prove my point of the hodgepodge of music sources that's (mostly) weeb stuff, here are the sources for all of the other songs in this aforementioned free amateur VN:

• Angel Beats! (anime)
• Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (anime)
• Ever17: the out of infinity
• Full Metal Daemon Muramasa
• Hanasaki Work Spring!
• H2O Footprints in the Sand (anime)
• Issac Shepard - Swept Away
• James Blunt - Some Kind of Trouble
• Katahane
• Marconi Union - Weightless (Ambient Transmissions Vol.2)
• Myriad Colors Phantom World
• Ryuudouji Shimon no Inbou
• Shivers 2
• Skye Sweetnam - Noise From The Basement

[Deathhappens]

Quite an eclectic list.

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Have you checked any of the most famous potential culprits? Grisaia, Little Busters, Anohana, etc?

[Random]

At the very least, we can rule Grisaia out from the get-go. The instrumental makeup and tone aren't even in the same solar system.

Was there any metadata attached to this file, NM64? Literally anything would be a lead.

[Deathhappens]

It's been many years since I played Grisaia but I'm sure it had at least some light-hearted tracks that probably nobody paid any attention to.

[Random]

Oh yeah, it has a ton of lighthearted tracks. I listen to them while I write.

[Mattias]

You can definitely cross off Katawa Shoujo, I know that OST top to bottom.

[NM64]

Was there any metadata attached to this file, NM64? Literally anything would be a lead.

There was not unfortunately, but some of the songs actually had incorrect metadata (for example, there was only one "Marconi Union" song, yet several of the songs had that as their metadata)

Again, proving the point that the dev really does not seem to have an affinity towards audio stuff.

[Random]

What the hell? Doesn't that kind of fuck-up take effort?

Anyway, I asked a friend of mine who's basically the big VN guy in our circles - he's gone through literally hundreds - and he didn't recognise it either. It's looking less like a VN and more like a game, at least by my count.

It's probably a fool's errand, but I wonder if we can source the soundfont or something...