How to Acquire: The Audio of Mass Effect

[Bizargh]

DETAILS

Game Availability (PC)
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mass_Effect#Availability

Bring Down the Sky & Pinnacle Station downloadable content only included with the EA Origin release. Both available for free via here: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/download-dlc-for-classic-origin-games/#masseffect

Both Steam & Origin releases are patched to latest version (1.02). See here for the patch if installing disc or other copies: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mass_Effect#Patches

Format(s):
- OGG, WAV

Credits:
- BioWare (Developer)
- Demiurge Studios (Developer, PC)
- Microsoft Game Studios (Publisher, 2007, Xbox 360)
- Electronic Arts (Publisher, 2008-Present)

Music:
- Score composed by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, with additional music composed by Richard Jacques and David Kates.
- "M4 (part II)" Written and Performed by Faunts (Available here: https://fauntsmusic.bandcamp.com/music).
- More artist information available at VGMDB[vgmdb.net].

Terms of Use:

EA appreciates the passion that players have for our games, and we’re always excited to see the creativity that comes from our community. EA does not object to fair uses of video footage or screenshots on video sharing sites, including YouTube channels that are commercialized, as long as the footage is a version of the game that we have released to the public.

We do reserve the right to address any inappropriate use of EA content. Additionally, because many EA games include content that is licensed from a third-party company or may otherwise have usage restrictions, and because of the large number of video-related questions we get from the community, we aren’t able to grant specific approvals or respond to all follow up inquiries. For additional permissions and terms of service information, read the EA Terms of Service."
- http://help.ea.com/uk/article/how-to-request-permission-for-ea-games-content/

NOTE

Although I can safely assume I have come across all of the dialogue & music, my exploration & extraction attempts to attain any of the game's sound effects have mostly been scripted/cutscene SFX, having not successfully located commonplace gameplay SFX such as weaponry, powers, UI, etc.

GUIDE

Extracting from this old gem of a game is much less difficult than it is more time-consuming if you're looking to extract it's total collection, depending on your choice of tool. That said, I intend to point you in the right direction of both methods I have used and give you what information you will need to best decide for yourself.

If you're looking for the rest of the trilogy's audio library, I have personal extractions from Mass Effect 2 & Mass Effect 3's complete content collections here:
Sound Collection: Mass Effect 2 & Mass Effect 3

METHOD ONE: PSYCHONAUTS EXPLORER

It may strike you as unusual that a tool specifically designed for Psychonauts would be ideal for use with Mass Effect, but that would be the case.

I'm mostly going to quote this forum post[www.shsforums.net] on the tool's process, and edit it to account for downloadable content:

1. Download the Psychonauts Explorer[quickandeasysoftware.net] by Ben Gorman[quickandeasysoftware.net].
   
2. Extract the zip archive into an empty folder and run the program.
   
3. Click the "Open" button.
   
4. Navigate to your Mass Effect game folder to find the .ISB files at these locations
   • Main Game: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > BioGame > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
     
   • Bring Down The Sky: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > DLC > DLC_UNC > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
     
   • Pinnacle Station: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > DLC > DLC_Vegas > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
5. Select an .ISB file of choice (Ex. "music_bank.isb", "music_knossos.isb", "music_bunker.isb", "music_unc.isb", etc).
   
6. Click the "Save All Audio Files" button to extract the music as .OGG files. Alternatively, click the "Dump All" button to extract the music as .WAV files.
   
7. Choose a folder for the program to extract the files into.

What must be noted is that regarding the voice files (Ex. "cha00_asari_liara.isb" "codex.isb", etc), they're all natively OGG format, so I highly recommend choosing "Save All Audio Files" as your extraction option. While they can be extracted as WAV, they appear to have problems such as having no detectable properties & are exactly the same size, meaning this could cause potential problems if trying to use these for video/audio editing, game modding, etc (They are not playable via Windows Media Player, but appear to be still playable via VLC Media Player & accepted by Audacity, just to name one example).

Meanwhile regarding music, while the recommendation is largely the same (Particularly as extracting in WAV appears to produce less files than with OGG), I must warn you that for some unknown reason playing back the OGG extractions of the music with VLC Media Player can often greet you with loud static, so proceed with caution there. Maybe try extracting with both formats to be on the safe side. Proceed at your discretion. Thankfully, the music files & all SFX files I've encountered are all extracted with pretty self-explanatory file names, so navigation won't be difficult.

One other major benefit to using Psychonauts Explorer[quickandeasysoftware.net] is that while the dialogue isn't extracted with clear names, the tool retains the ending "_M" & "_F" symbolising Male/Female, making navigating the dialogue much more easier than without them.
The notable drawback is that you can only do this process one at a time for each .ISB file, and with the base game having 604 of them, this will naturally take a very long time if you're looking to make a complete collection. In addition, Psychonauts Explorer doesn't have any option to create any subdirectories for your extractions so that they're all neatly put into their own named folder, which will naturally slow down any bulk extraction even further.

In conclusion, Psychonauts Explorer is an option that favours detailed results rather than speed.

METHOD TWO: OGGEXTRACT.EXE

Another method at your disposal is to make use of oggextract.exe, a simple .exe program that can extract OGG files typically from Unreal Engine 3 UPKs, but in this case also works for Mass Effect's ISB files.

• Download oggextract from Github: https://github.com/arkeet/oggextract. I recommend the "Windows Binary" option so that you can make use of the .exe: https://moriya.ca/oggextract/oggextract.zip
  
• Extract the zip archive into an empty folder.
  
• Navigate to your Mass Effect game folder to find the .ISB files at these locations
  • Main Game: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > BioGame > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
    
  • Bring Down The Sky: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > DLC > DLC_UNC > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
    
  • Pinnacle Station: [Your Steam Library/Origin Library/Mass Effect Installation location] > Mass Effect > DLC > DLC_Vegas > CookedPC > Packages > ISACT
• Select an .ISB file of choice (Ex. "music_bank.isb", "music_knossos.isb", "music_bunker.isb", "music_unc.isb", etc), and copy & paste it into the same location as oggextract.exe.
  
• Drag & drop your chosen .ISB file(s) over oggextract.exe, and it will do the rest.

What makes this choice an attractive one is that oggextract can extract multiple .ISB files at once, maybe even all of them (Although you may have to write a .BAT file for a "Convert All" command if you want to dare try to throw all 604 base game .ISB files at it at once).

What is worth noting that unlike Psychonauts Explorer, oggextract.exe doesn't extract voice files with their "_M" & "_F" (symbolising Male/Female) distinction, making navigating the dialogue more complicated. However, they do retain their unique file-names/numbers, so if you were to put them side-by-side with a Psychonauts Explorer extraction, they'd probably be of the exact same consistency, but trying to sort your files that way sounds like much harder work than it should be.

In conclusion, oggextract.exe is an option that favours fast results rather than more detailed ones.

CONCLUSION

Personally speaking, I'd recommend Psychonauts Explorer as the preferred method of choice. It provides highly detailed results, and is much easier to use for those less familiar with more command-based tools as oggextract.exe is. Nevertheless, the guide highlights the process of both so you can make the choice that suits you best.


That's all for now. I should go.