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Let's see if I can explain this....
Lunar for the Sega CD requires pregaps [a.k.a. pregap indices] on its audio tracks. For the rarely informed, a pregap is just a length of time (two seconds, commonly) before an audio track officially starts. The pregap can contain any audio but, for Sega CD games, should contain silence.
The reason that Lunar freezes when pregaps are missing is quite peculiar. The program uses a seek command to cue an audio track and then waits for the track number to match the one requested (i.e., seek to track 03, wait until track number equals 03). But it never will. Why?
When it seeks to track 03, the drive is pointing just *before* the start of the track. When the pregap exists, the drive points to the end of the pregap within track 03. When the pregap is missing, it's actually pointing to the end of track 02! So while the program is waiting for track 03, the drive is holding on track 02.
That explains why it freezes, but the other complaint is that the audio is out of sync.
When ripping a disc into separate audio tracks (whether it's MP3 or WAV or whatever), there are basically two methods:
Method A : Rip each track so the pregap is at the start of the file.
Method B : Rip each track so the pregap is at the end of the previous file.
Since the official start of a track comes *after* the pregap, Method B would seem to make more sense, especially for the emulators. However, the prefered method for burning is Method A because it's much easier to create the CUE sheet.
For Method A, the CUE sheet should look something like this:
Code:
| | | FILE LUNAR.ISO BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2048
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE LUNAR-02.WAV WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE LUNAR-03.WAV WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE LUNAR-04.WAV WAVE
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
... |
To make an accurate CUE sheet for Method B, you would need to find the length of each track, subtract two seconds to get your INDEX 00 time, put each TRACK and INDEX 00 reference before the FILE reference of the coresponding... uh, nevermind.
For Method B, just make it look something like this:
Code:
| | | FILE LUNAR.ISO BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2048
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE LUNAR-02.WAV WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:02:00
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE LUNAR-03.WAV WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:02:00
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE LUNAR-04.WAV WAVE
TRACK 04 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:02:00
INDEX 01 00:00:00
... |
It won't be accurate but it should be in sync. It will also extend each track by two seconds but hopefully you won't do something stupid, like burn it, rip it again (Method B), burn it, rip it again, burn it, rip it again, etc.... then wonder why there are ten second gaps between each track.
So, which Method was your copy ripped with? Don't know?
Just play the audio files. If each one begins with two seconds of silence, then congratulations, it's Method A. If the music or dialogue starts immediately, it's Method B.
Now you know why everyone prefers the BIN/CUE format. |
