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First post, by TomVDJ

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I have a CD image of a mixed mode CD (so there are audio tracks on there), but it's not in BIN/CUE format, but in IMG format. The data on the disk is only a few MB's, but the total IMG size is +300 MB, so I guess the audio tracks are on there somewhere too.

The data section of the image file also contains a file "audio.dir" which seems to include where the audio tracks are (something like a cue file). I have no clue if the game on the CD uses this file, or if this is some kind of dummy file that was generated by the application which created the IMG file of the original CD.

So my questions are:
1. Does somebody knows what application could have been used to create this? I tried opening the IMG file in WinImage, UltraISO, PowerISO, but none of them recognizes or displays the audio tracks, only the data part.
2. Can I use this IMG file in DosBox like a BIN/CUE image so DosBox recognizes the audio tracks? I tried mounting it, but DosBox only sees the data part, no audio tracks (while my DosBox configuration does recognize Audio tracks from other mixed mode CD's I had ripped as BIN/CUE.
3. Any idea how I could convert this IMG file to a BIN/CUE file where the audio tracks are preserved? I also tried WinImage, UltraISO, PowerISO for this, but since they don't recognize the audio to begin with, converting to BIN/CUE with these applications is pretty useless.

Any help would be welcome.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-02-28, 09:50. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 7, by Yesterplay80

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IMG files are images created with CloneCD. If they contain CD audio as well, they should come with a CCD file and maybe a SUB file, bot with the same name as the IMG file. The CCD file is important, it's basically the CloneCD version of a CUE file and contains the info, where to access the audio tracks in the image. The SUB file contains subchannel data and can contain copy protection measures, if applied. In most cases, it's not needed.

So, if you only have an IMG file, you're lacking the according CCD file, get that and it should at least open in tools like UltraISO and such, where you can convert th image to BIN/CUE.

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Reply 3 of 7, by TomVDJ

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In the meanwhile I heard that it should be possible to "generate" the CCD file when it's lacking, as long as you know where the audio tracks are located (I know how many there are and how long they are, more or less, so no idea if this can be done by trial and error). Somebody has experience with this?

Reply 4 of 7, by Jo22

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TomVDJ wrote on 2020-02-26, 12:23:
So my questions are: 1. Does somebody knows what application could have been used to create this? I tried opening the IMG file i […]
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So my questions are:
1. Does somebody knows what application could have been used to create this? I tried opening the IMG file in WinImage, UltraISO, PowerISO, but none of them recognizes or displays the audio tracks, only the data part.
2. Can I use this IMG file in DosBox like a BIN/CUE image so DosBox recognizes the audio tracks? I tried mounting it, but DosBox only sees the data part, no audio tracks (while my DosBox configuration does recognize Audio tracks from other mixed mode CD's I had ripped as BIN/CUE.
3. Any idea how I could convert this IMG file to a BIN/CUE file where the audio tracks are preserved? I also tried WinImage, UltraISO, PowerISO for this, but since they don't recognize the audio to begin with, converting to BIN/CUE with these applications is pretty useless.

Hi, you could Try MagicISO (virtual CD-ROM drive for Windows). It can read various formats, including *.IMG, *. NRG and so on. 😀
As for 2): DOSBox can m0unt any CD-ROM drives that are visible to the host OS, including virtual CD-ROM drives.
Personally, I mounted my CD-ROM backups in Nero NRG format that way. It also worked with mixed-mode CD-ROMs containing Red Book audio.

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 5 of 7, by leileilol

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TomVDJ wrote on 2020-02-28, 10:32:

In the meanwhile I heard that it should be possible to "generate" the CCD file when it's lacking, as long as you know where the audio tracks are located (I know how many there are and how long they are, more or less, so no idea if this can be done by trial and error). Somebody has experience with this?

You can get these files by dumping your own disc with CloneCD/CloneDVD.

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Reply 6 of 7, by SirNickity

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You've got some work ahead of you. Not everyone out there knows what they're doing ripping discs, so I agree with the above sentiment: If you can get hold of the original disc easily enough, then rip it yourself so at least if it isn't done correctly, you can just do it again until it is.

If it's unobtanium, what I would do is open the image file in a wave editor that lets you zoom to the sample level. I like Cool Edit / Adobe Audition for this, but anything sufficiently advanced (not Sound Recorder, for instance) will do. It helps if the program supports CD frames as a time scale. (Min / Sec / Frames)

You can isolate the audio and data portions of the disc pretty easily this way. One method would be to find the point where the waveform changes from full-scale digital noise to something that looks like audio. Then zoom in and try to find the exact sample where it transitions from chaos to digital silence. You could be looking at the lead-out of the data track -- I'm not sure if those are 0s or some other filler byte, or if there's a pattern you can determine. Another possibility would be to extract the data session using your ISO tools, then maybe trim that much from the start of your glued image.

In terms of splitting the tracks, the exact index points are gone, so all you can do is divide them on reasonable boundary points. If the game just plays music by track, and the tracks have a little wiggle room with silence between them, you'll be fine. If it accesses sounds by M/S/F relative to the start of the disc, you just need to get the padding right between data and audio. If it accesses sounds by M/S/F relative to the start of a track.... well, good luck.

When you write the cue file, the track points need to be on frame boundaries. That means every track ends modulo 1 frame. The best way to do this is to crop your audio files so that extending the cursor a single sample more would roll from M:S:F to M:S:(F+1). If you don't align them correctly, then it could offset the following tracks (because the burner / ISO mounter will have to pad the deficit with zeroes), depending on how you write the sheet.

Reply 7 of 7, by TomVDJ

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In the meanwhile I got my hands on a BIN/CUE image of the same CD, so for my particular case it's OK. Did learn a bit more about the different formats. I used cloneCD ages ago, so totally forgot about the fact that it creates different files and the "main" one was .img .