Rip

For Ripping, see Rip (disambiguation).
For Flash Archives Wiki:Manual of Style/Rips, see Rip (disambiguation).
A **rip**, in the context of video games, refers to a song or audio file extracted from the files of a game, completely un-modified.

On the Flash Archives channel, however, instead of being straight video game music, the songs (or "**high quality rips**") featured on the channel are generally remixed, or involved in a mashup with other songs or memes.

## Format

The objective of the channel is only for the sake of entertainment, and also an imitation of another "high quality ripping" channel called SiIvaGunner, which imitates an actual ripping channel called GilvaSunner.

### Video descriptions

Main page: Category:Rips with abnormal video description
Rips are, like GilvaSunner's uploads, YouTube video uploads that are titled in the format "Song Title - Game Name", with a description that usually reads:

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> This is a track titled [Song Name] from the Flash game, [Game Name]. This track was composed by [Composer].
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> Check out other [Game Name] tracks here! [Playlist]
> Thanks to [Ripper] for archiving this!
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> Click here if you want to submit a track! https://forms.gle/mSs7hfHY8cdeCBHN9
> Join our Discord server! https://discord.gg/JHhveJaBjz
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### Channel descriptions

The channel description almost never changes, with one exception: during any channel event that involves a character taking over the channel, the description will usually be changed to something befitting of the character in question. At any other time, the channel description will be this:

> Hello! In this channel, we upload archives of tracks from various Adobe Flash games and animations!
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> Banner artwork is Adobe Flash's logo gradient
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> (All content is willingly submitted by a team of content creators; if you use a video for your content, please credit the channel, and do not monetize it if said content consists primarily of/is centered around the video in question.)
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### Playlists

*See also: List of playlists*

Almost every rip is put into a playlist corresponding to the ripped game. Occasionally, some fake games are ripped as an excuse to upload non-video game music.

## Types of rips

### Streamed and sequenced music

The kinds of rips made for a given game are usually heavily dependent on whether its music is streamed or sequenced.

Due to technical limitations, many games (particularly on retro consoles) use **sequenced** music, which means that notes and other sounds are encoded as MIDI-like instructions. Often, this means that an exporter program that reverse-engineers the format can convert this data into an editable format, making it much easier to produce melody changes and arrangements. The ripper can also create a simultaneous melody swap and a mashup with sequenced music. The export format is usually either a tracker file or a combination of a MIDI sequence file and a SF2/DLS soundbank file that contains the sound samples. In some cases, PC games will directly use MIDI files in their soundtracks.

Other games use **streamed** music, which means that each track is stored as a complete audio file (analogous to a WAV, FLAC, MP3 or OGG file). In these cases, the process for making a mashup is the same as for sequenced music, but making a melody change or arrangement is typically much more difficult and either requires recreating the base track from scratch or scrubbing the lead melody from the track and replacing it with a similar sounding instrument.

Sometimes, the author of the game uses everyday methods available to the public in order to make their game's music. If the samples are known, it is possible to recreate the songs in an editable format from scratch, therefore allowing them to be used for melody-swap rips. Examples of this are *Undertale* and *Deltarune*, which were scored with FL Studio and free soundfonts that can simply be downloaded from the internet.

There are many exceptions to these general descriptions which are out of the scope of the overview provided in this section; for example, some games use a mixture of streamed and sequenced music (For example, the rendition of "Slider" from *Template:Category* is sequenced, while a majority of the other tracks are streamed), and some games' soundtracks (e.g. *Template:Category*) have been directly released by their composers or publishers in editable forms.

### Melody change

*See also: Category:Melody changes*

Introducing a **melody change** (or **melody swap**) in a rip involves modifying the notes of the advertised track, usually the lead instrument, to form the melody of another composition (though in some cases the inverse is done). Many rips contain multiple melody changes, and some rips that are primarily in a different format also contain melody changes. Most melody change rips are rips of sequenced music, and vice versa. Melody changes are also possible with streamed music, though they are much harder to produce.

### Mashup

*See also: Category:Mashups*

One of the most prominent bait-and-switch formats on the channel is **mashups**. Mashups consist of putting elements from another source along with the original source. It goes from adding simple sound effects to unharmoniously or incoordinatedly mixing several songs together, but most rips try to create a cohesive result. Mashups are most commonly made by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over what is typically the instrumental of the advertised track, changing the tempo and key where necessary.

Mashups, while often performed on tracks with no lyrics at all, can also be done with tracks with singing, provided there is a karaoke version available for use. If not, the ripper has to manually scrub the singer's voice from the song to acquire a clean slate, which can take patience and expensive software.

### Melody addition

*See also: Category:Melody additions*

A **melody addition** involves taking any piece of music and layering instruments over the top of it, typically ones that sound similar to instruments in the advertised track. It is similar to a melody change, but without needing to rip the song from the game oneself. As such, it is much easier to attempt this sort of rip, since it doesn't limit the ripper's choice to sequenced music, and it doesn't involve physically extracting midi files and soundfonts from the game in question, which some may not have the tools or knowledge to do.

### Remix

*See also: Category:Remixes*

A **remix** of a song is a new take on that song using audio mixing techniques. The melody and instruments can also be altered and sampling may be used.

A remix can also be the practice of taking the isolated vocals from a song and building a new instrumental around them. The practice of dubbing instruments, most commonly Trap percussion, over the original track is called a "dub remix".

On the internet, the word is often used interchangeably with "Cover".

### Arrangement

*See also: Category:Arrangements*

**Arrangements** are rips featuring a song remade in a different style and instrumentation. Generally, this involves arranging a composition in the instrumentation and style of the advertised track, or vice versa. Compared to a melody change, an arrangement is much more likely to alter the chords, accompaniment and structure of the track that the arrangement is in the style of.

Arrangements, should they not sample the song directly and if they are made in their own distinct style, are also known as **covers**. More information can be found on this below.

### Midi swap

*See also: Category:Midi swaps*

A **midi swap** (also known as a midi slap) refers to the process of downloading a MIDI of a song from the internet and changing its soundfont without any other adjustments instead of rearranging the track to properly fit the game's style. Such rips are not recommended in user submissions and when the channel posts them, usually they are intentionally bad.

Another type of midi swap involves converting a streamed audio file of a song to a midi through an online MP3 to midi converter and then applying the relevant soundfont to it, resulting in a cluttered cacophony of notes that vaguely resemble the original file. Due to the converter only producing a singular track, this is typically performed on sequenced music containing only one instrument. If a track with lyrics is converted, this may cause an illusion where it's possible to make out the words, despite there only being one instrument in the rip. As with the main type of Midi swap, they are deliberately bad when the channel posts them.

### Medley rip

*See also: Category:Medley rips*

Rips are considered **medleys** when they feature modifications from at least 5 different sources.

### Switcheroo

*See also: Category:Switcheroos*

The **switcheroo** is bait-and-switch put to the extreme. It is when there is (almost) no trace of the original song whatsoever, switching it to a completely different track. The "Circus" rips are infamous examples of this.

Another type of switcheroo involves uploading two rips, each of them being of a similar name or context, and pairing the unaltered track with the wrong video.

### Cover

*See also: Category:Covers*

A **cover** is a new performance or recording by someone other than the original performer or composer of a song. Sometimes, contributors happen to do **covers** of the songs ripped themselves.

A cover can be as different as an entirely new performance of the track in question with no traces of the original recording left behind (commonly known as an **arrangement**), or, if the original track has vocals, it could simply involve singing the lyrics over the track's instrumental.

### Blue balls

*See also: Category:Blue balls rips*

**Blue balls** rips consist of looping one portion (commonly a portion that repeats a few times in the original track) of the song over and over, usually for the majority of the track. In some cases, however, the track returns to normal after some time and the rip continues, though this is usually right at the end of the rip.

The name of the rip type comes from a slang term for the uncomfortable testicular sensation that can occur during a state of male arousal.

### Sentence mixing

*See also: Category:Rips with sentence mixing*

**Sentence mixing** consists of mixing the lyrics of a song to create completely different lines for comedic effects.

### Pitch-shifting

*See also: Category:Rips with pitch-shifting*

**Pitch-shifting** consists of changing the pitch of a sample, most often with song vocals to match the key of the instrumental. This is a technique frequently used in YTPMV: the samples are arranged with pitch-shifting so that they are heard in a different melody.

## Memes

*See also: Category:Memes, Category:Rips featuring..., and List of Flash Archives memes*

Throughout the channel's history, it has incorporated hundreds of melodies and songs into rips, however the jokes fundamental to Flash Archives have always been its **memes**.

Template:Incomplete

## See also

* Category:Rips - for all documented rips on the Flash archive Wiki.
	+ Category:Rips by joke - for rips categorized by the jokes.
	+ Category:Rips featuring... - for rips categorized by the memes they feature.
* Uploads - for the uploads to the Flash Archives channel.
* Flash Archives - for behind-the-scenes information on the Flash Archives channel.
* Ripping - for information on making and submitting rips.