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Custom Music

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Post Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:31 am

Custom Music

I'm attempting to add custom music to Freelancer. I have the file good to go, the ini entries are perfect too, but I encountered a problem.

To decrease the size of the file (in raw WAV it is 9.36 Megs) (I don't quite want to downsample it much more) I'd like to encode it into the mp3 format Freelancer uses. I've read the tutorial on the site and all the replies for it. Louva-Deus there recommended the use of CDex to compress the wav file into Fraunhofer mp3 and add the RIFF-WAV header.

I downloaded CDex, went to options, settings, encoder and under the encoder section I selected Windows mp3 codec (instead of the default LAME encoder version 1.30). Under encoder options, I picked the only possible choice: Fraunhofer IIS MPEG-Layer 3 Codec (advanced). Codec bitrate selection, I picked the best possible one: 56 kbps, 22050KHz, Stereo.

I encoded the music file and inserted it into Freelancer as a space music. Now, when entering the system, (first I flee from encounters to get rid of the danger music) I CAN hear the music playing - for a second or two. The amount played varies when I use Fraunhofer, LAME or others. After these one or two seconds of music played, the music loops back to its beginning and starts over - like if the file was only 2 seconds long!

By the by, the file is 56 seconds long. Has anyone managed to get encoded music into the game, and if so, where did I go wrong? Please, any ideas?

Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:44 am

The file size of your music seems horrendous for the length.

Less sampling is better, 22Khz is fine for most of us and the file size should be around 2 MB for 1 minute.

Here's Its Silver's way of adding new music:-
TUTORIAL-CHAPTER1: Adding new music in Freelancer

Have fun.

Roleplay: - the art of self-deceipt!

Edited by - StarTrader on 9/17/2007 2:46:48 AM

Edited by - StarTrader on 9/17/2007 2:48:49 AM

Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:25 am

I've managed to add a few "whole" pieces of music from (famous artists) keeping the sampling rate at 22khz(stereo) .
I had to make sure it was in the correct mp layer 3 format though.
Getting it to that particular state was a tricky task at best.
Had to rip it to a disc then burn it to another in the right format.
Once I did that, I pulled it off the disc onto the main drive and re-recorded it using the "Sound Recorder" . (Before that, the sound recorder had no idea what it was looking at)

Problem is, you have to be careful about how many times you "wash" the music or the quality starts deteriorating very quickly and badly.

Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:44 am

That is the tutorial I followed, but it does not include getting the file into Fraunhofer MP3 that Freelancer uses.

After some toying around, I managed to get the filesize down to 1.68 Megs - below that is just a terrible loss of quality. It is still a lot though.
Rankor, can you describe me in-detail what you did to the file to get it to the correct mp3 format? I've got a working wav file to begin with :p

Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:20 am

You're all making a mountain out of a molehill here. Just convert the wav file to MPEG Layer 3, 56kbit 22000 or 24000 Hz format. There are numerous free converters around, i run a recording studio so i use Sony SoundForge but plenty of free ones do the job.

Member of the HAVEN ADMINS community
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Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:01 pm

Gibbon, I used the tools I had available without going to download or buying a bunch of other stuff that only clogs up my cpu time and tries to make itself the default program. Besides, I don't think we're professionally employed as you with the same tools at your disposal.


Windows Media Player 10 (with rip and burn capability) works nicely.
A CD burner and a couple of burnable disks.
Then Windows Sound Recorder to format it correctly for Freelancer.

When ripping music to your PC, you don't have many choices in formats.
But when burning to a CD, your choices inprove to a point you can re-rip the new CD back into a useable and formattable content for the Windows Sound Recorder.

Take a look at your Freelancer Sound files with your Windows Sound Recorder.
It will tell you what format they are in and subsequently what format you must convert your new music to for it to work.
Simply, when converting your music with the sound recorder, just make sure it's the format as indicated in the file you wish to add to.
I've noticed there are two formats used in Freelancer Sound Files. MP layer 3 and PCM.
PCM seems to be mainly used for ambience and other "mechanical" sounds, where MP Layer 3 is used for most music files.

Burning music to a CD is easier when set to PCM format that matches those used in Freelancer sound file settings. Then, using the Sound Recorder you can convert that into the MP Layer 3 format with little loss of quality as long as you don't overwash it.
Overwashing is a term I use to mean re-recording the same file several times.
Try to set the format to it's best quality usable by Freelancer.

Aside from some of the tutorials I've read, my success came mainly from experimenting and using quite a few disks in the process.

Edited by - Rankor on 9/17/2007 2:05:19 PM

Post Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:56 pm

Not being funny, there's loads of free sound converters available, just use Google and it brings up a whole list of them, far easier than burning discs and messing about.

And if you're worried about using resources and intrusive programs, then get rid of media player, its a real process hog lol

Member of the HAVEN ADMINS community
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Post Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:21 pm

Pals,

Forget all converters, there is a lot of misleading info around and it cost me 2 days of hair-pulling, anger and aggravation.

Only the initial tutorial is correct but it doesn't cover how to compress wav files.

See this topic please:-
Easy Reliable Way to make New Music Files

Roleplay: - the art of self-deceipt!

Edited by - StarTrader on 9/18/2007 3:23:49 PM

Post Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:35 pm

I like the versatility of Sound Recorder, but hadn't considered using it at the same time to record something as it was being played in the media player.
That would have saved me a lot of time...had I just thought of that.
On a side note as you related, you're forced with piecing the recorded sounds together once they're recorded.

What I did in my case was edit the entire piece of music in one swoop using the Sound Recorder without having to worry about piecing it together. The trick was getting the music into a format that Sound Recorder would recognize. That's why I took the extra steps with the Media Player Rip/Burn processes.

Post Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:15 pm

Hi Rankor.

What do you mean, "piece it together"?

Sound recorder will record a whole track, and convert it.

Or if you mean when someone wants to mix two or three different tracks into one, then yes, they will need to stitch it with Audacity or another editor, but it will be one very big file and I'm not sure how FL will handle it instead of a typical 2-3 minute one.

But at least for my needs 2 minutes per track is plenty, and I limit it to that per track - since it loops its fine, just have to be careful in selecting appropriate music tracks.

All the best

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