Recording/extracting embedded audio from .exe's?

[hulland]

Hope this is the right place to ask this? I did searches, both here and net-wide. No results.

There are more and more nice pieces of music that are coming embedded ( invisible !) in various .exe files. Seems to be a fast growing trend lately.

I would like to record/extract this audio. I am assuming these pieces of music must be "recordable" as they play through the pc sound system automatcially on running the executables ?

However, I have tried about 12 applications--including Gold wave, but nothing seems to be recorded. Anyone have any advice as to how to go about this, or even what format these audios may be in?

Thanks for any pointers.

[DougDbug]

I doubt the audio can be "extracted"... Perhaps if you knew the format, and perhaps if it's not proprietary or encrypted... But even then, it might take a custom program...

But of course, it CAN be recorded. See the Recording FAQ for how to record What-U-Hear.

[hulland]

Thanks for the reply DougDBug--I tried that--the control window in Goldwave showed the block graph as well a s a wave profile, but when I saved it there was a WAV file, ----but, full of silence. Anyway you gave me a great pointer, so I shall experiment in the morning now. Many thanks again.

[hulland]

UPDATE;- OK I now have several WAV files of up to 50 mbytes, but they seem to "play" silently. In other words, data has been recorded of some type, but using several programs, no sound can be heard.

Any idea what I might be doing wrong please?

[DougDbug]

Hmmm.... If you see the waveform I think you're recording, but we need to figure-out if you've got a recording problem or a playback problem... And, we need to figure-out if it's a GoldWave set-up problem, or somewhere else...

...showed the block graph as well as a wave profile...

You're seeing a waveform like the top of this page, right?

When you record, you should see the "meters" moving, and you should again see the "meters" moving when you play-back. (I like to set-up the Control Panel Visual for "Analog Meter" or "VU Meter".) If you're seeing the meters move in both cases, we're almost there...

Have you tried playing these files with Windows Media Player? How about other/existing files with Media Player?

Can you open & play other/existing WAV files in GoldWave?

[DewDude420]

Well, for starters...it'd be nice if we knew what operating system you're using, along with what kind of sound card you've got.

After that..I'll tell you this. A lot of audio embedded in .exe's isnt' real audio..if anything they're similar to MIDI data in that they just contain instrumental data. This method is exceedingly popular in the demo scene...along with the underground software scene (underground as in aargh matey) releases that use modified installers or certain types of number-string generators.

Anyway...given that...sometimes these things aren't using a method that's capturable by normal methods...as strange as it seems...sometimes some very old methods of initalizing sound aren't either MME or DirectX can't be captured by windows drivers..it's somewhat akin to using the PC-speaker of sorts.

However, tell us what OS you're running and what type of sound card, if you know...and that should help us troubleshoot your issue.

[mh]

Best way to do this is using a Resource Editor. These let you open a .exe and view/edit/replace/extract bitmaps, icons, strings, and any other content type that may be embedded in it. There are many free ones available, so try this one for starters and see how you get on.

[hulland]

Many sincere thanks for all the comments and help guys.

However, I found an application that simply does this with a couple of clicks--works fast and has a small footprint so I have the answer to my question. (Audio Record Expert).

Thanks again.