Modding Discussion Sound Modding Tutorial & Discussion Redux

Intro:
Hey everyone,

There's not many sound mods out there, and what's been done often hasn't been updated to SDV1.1

I'm figuring out how to use XACT properly and I am finding the sound mod tutorials to be all over the place, so I thought I'd start a new thread

@Drogean 's original tutorial (slightly outdated): http://community.playstarbound.com/...modding-discussion.106868/page-7#post-2795638

Please follow the tutorial I have created in the second post of this thread.

What is outdated about the original tutorial:

1. You CAN use XACT on Windows 10; just run the installer in compatibility mode for Windows 7 and check "run as administrator." Ignore the error at the end of installation.
2. The link to the terraria sound modding guide was broken (has useful info): http://forums.terraria.org/index.ph...stallation-1-3-4-x-beyond.51635/#post-1138629
   
3. NEW.xap does not include the new sound files added to the game for 1.1; neither does the tutorial. It has also been corrupted for some reason. Please use the updated NEW.xap file on this thread.
4. The photo of the wave bank in XACT shows the files out-of-order. Click the "name" column header to sort them alphanumerically (aka "literally").

What is still valid in the original tutorial/file made by @Drogean:

• The extraction tool is important! It makes sure the wav files are extracted AND converted to 16-bit so that XACT can read them.
• The second half of the tutorial (regarding compression/repacking) is still valid.

Other music mods I am aware of which use the method by @Drogean:

• @Drogean's More Music Mod [Works with 1.1]
  • 1.1 Update Courtesy of @Rhapsodes: http://www.mediafire.com/file/6kwux1908290spm/Wave+Bank.xwb
  • Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/85/?
  • Chucklefish Forum Thread: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/more-music-mod.107929/
• @Davi.'s Just Another Music Mod (JAMM) [Works with 1.1]
  • Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/269/?
  • Chucklefish: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/just-another-music-mod.112750/
• literallybyronic's Mythic Music Mod [Works with 1.1]
  • Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/285/?
• @EpicAdventure's Chrono Mod [Updated to 1.1 by Moi]
  • For 1.1: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/786/?
  • OLD Version: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/306/?
• @Haend's Ragnarok Online Sountrack Replacement [Updated to 1.1 by Moi]
  • For 1.1: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/783/?
  • OLD Version: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/ragnarok-online-soundtrack-replacement.110785/
• @SonoTheHedge's Harvest Moon + Rune Factory Music Pack [NOT Updated to 1.1]
  • Chucklefish: http://community.playstarbound.com/...une-factory-music-soundpacks-wav-list.114034/
• @vroomsegway's Harvest Moon Music [NOT Upated to 1.1]
  • Chucklefish: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/moved-harvest-moon-season-soundtracks-extras.111799/

There is another method to music modding created by Alpha_Omegasis.
Stardew Symphony is a music modding API, which means it is NOT compatible with SMAPI. As such, I have not tried to learn how to use it. I will simply link to it here. It also, to my knowledge, has NOT been updated to SDV 1.1

• Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/425/?

I hope that covers everything and helps some modders out!

-Ariella

 

~Sound Modding Tutorial~​

Step 1: Setup
Download the file that contains the tools you will need:
http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/782/?

Unzip using WinRar, 7zip, or similar program.

• WinRar: http://www.rarlab.com/
• 7zip: http://www.7-zip.org/

Install the three items in the parent folder. For DXSDK, you only need to install the "Utilities" package.

NOTE: For Windows 10 (and probably 8), you may find an issue installing DXSDK. If you have trouble, you will need to install DXSDK in compatibility mode.

• Right click on the DXSDK_Jun10.exe --> click Properties --> click the Compatibility tab --> check "Run this program in compatibility mode for" (the default should be Windows 7) and check "Run this program as administrator" --> click Apply --> click OK.
• Install the program and ignore the error at the end.

Step 2: Extracting the Game's Sound Files
Copy the game's Wave Bank to the "unxwb" folder. It will be in one of the following places depending on where you bought the game:

Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stardew Valley\Content\XACT\Wave Bank.xwb
GOG: C:\GOG Games\Stardew Valley\Content\XACT\Wave Bank.wxb​

1. Run unxwb.exe.
2. It will prompt you to select a Wave Bank file.
3. Navigate to the one you copied over.
4. It will prompt you for a location to save the extracted files.

Step 3: Converting the Sound Files to the Proper Format
This needs to be done both for the game's original sound files AND any sound files that you want to use in your mod.

1. Run LameXP.
2. Drag and drop the extracted WAV files to it.
3. Click output directory to tell it where to put the converted files.
4. Click compression and make sure that PCM/Wave is checked.
5. Click the "Encode Now!" button in the lower left corner.

Step 4: Replacing Sounds
EDIT: Found a partial list of .wav files and what sounds they are
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/130V7GsDjUN1zBZF2AtG7D5p6aFI1zouD6q--MXeeKwI/edit#gid=0

There is also a partial list of .wav files at this thread: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/moved-harvest-moon-season-soundtracks-extras.111799/

Now comes the *fun* part. I say that sarcastically.

The game currently has 362 sounds, unlabeled. So in order to replace something, you have to listen to each sound file and then listen for it in-game to figure out what it is. Some are obvious if you have played the game (the OoooOOOooo when a ghost is killed, for example). Others are not. Some are just menu noises, which most people don't want to replace.

As I figure out which sounds are which, I will probably make a track list and add it to this tutorial.

If you can't open and listen to .wav files, you can download and install a free program to do so. Here are some that I know of (which nicely allow for audio editing):

• Audacity: http://www.audacityteam.org/
• Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/

Once you have found out which file you want to replace, take your new sound file, make sure it is in the proper format (use LameXP and follow Step 3 if needed), and rename it to match the file you wish to replace. Drag and drop and overwrite the old one.

Note: this is where people can make mistakes. Make sure you are working in the folder with the converted files, not the ones extracted by unwxb.

Step 5: Build the New Wave Bank
Go to the XACT folder and double click on NEW.xap to open it in XACT.


1. Double click on Wave Bank:



It should look like this:

ORDER IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! If the order is not like above, click on the "Name" column header to order them alphanumerically as shown. Look at the folder you have your converted & replaced sound files in and make sure it has the same order.

2. Right-click on Wave Bank and update the source path. Navigate to where you have your converted & replaced sound files.


3. Make sure that the Compression Preset for the Wave Bank says "GOOD" (like above). If it says "<none>" then simply choose "GOOD" from the drop down menu.

4. Click the Build button to compile your new sounds. It will automatically be exported to the XACT folder which contains NEW.xap in a folder called "Win"



Step 6: The Final Move (and some Notes)
Make a copy of the vanilla Wave Bank.xwb for backup (you will already have a copy in the unxwb folder if you followed these instructions). Copy over the new Wave Bank and overwrite the old one.

Notes:
1. SMAPI is unable to handle larger sound files due to the memory it takes to read them.

• 
  
  
  • The vanilla file size is 374 MB as of SDV 1.11
  • I have been able to successfully run SMAPI 1.4 with a modified wave bank that is 390 MB.
  • SMAPI crashed when I tried to run it with a modified wave bank that was 543 MB, but I was able to successfully run the vanilla game with this. Just kidding it crashed the vanilla game too, so I am unsure of the size limit.

 

Miscellanous Info

Old tutorial on general XWB modding: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=479930548
It mentoins that it is extremely important to have all your files in "literal" order as opposed to "numeric," otherwise they won't be read correctly. I was having huge issues with this on Windows 10 Home but I FINALLY discovered how to change the sorting algorithm. I will post a tutorial shortly.

FILE SIZE IS IMPORTANT!

 

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful!

 

NP

 

Damn the file size restriction is really annoying.... I got the game working with a 600MB one but the problem was well....

All the sounds played at the same time so my ears literally exploded....
*sigh* XACT why...

I figured it out. Its quite simple actually....
The WAV files can not be larger than 50MB or the game wont work. By keeping the file size of the music under 50MB I was able to get a 529MB wave bank to work

 

Literally what happened to me. Gotta say even though it was ear rape to the extreme, it was funny to hear the music and the dying ghost oooooOoooo at the same time lol

 

I had my volume on 100% at 3am....
spooked the hell outta me lol

 

Thank you A lot 33 finally i could make my own "soundtrack" . Thank you

 

What are you thinking of making?

 

Changed the silence moments to ambient music's, and also replace some season music to Harvest moon musics . You can check it here: http://community.playstarbound.com/resources/a-lot-more-music.4479/

And again, thank you very much Joyous.Ariella, without you this couldn't be possible.

 

Thank you for this guide/tutorial.
I finally managed to remove the eating sound, and silence those friggen squeaky storage chests. I can finally enjoy the game without twitching in my seat**

I had some issues figuring out where/how to launch anything in XACT on windows. It's a binary in the dxsdk directory \Utilities\bin\x86\Xact3.exe

Method used: I just copied and renamed more pleasant soundfiles to replace the offending soundfiles.
000000a1.wav : Opening storage container (SQUEEEAK)
00000019.wav : Eating sound (Open mouth crunch)
0000013f.wav : Similar to 000000a1, less intense (squeeak). Not sure where used.

Note: I was unable to replace the sound when closing a storage container. I double checked that the reverse squeaky sound is not in the Wave Bank.xwb and it still plays in-game. Perhaps it got stuck in memory?

**(Reminds me of this scene from shaun the sheep, with the squeaky windmill
At 2:15
)

 

Okay, so, thank you, first of all. This is a great guide even if I can't make it work for me.
But I've been trying to do this for hours and I always get the same error


(trying to make it GOOD)

and


when I try to Build.

and I also get this message????:


(which I just have no clue what to do with)

I've tried to make sure they're 16-bit when I export the files in Audacity, but when I open them again they're 32-bit again. I also can't seem to make the files 16-bit any other way. It always reverts to 32-bit float

At least I think this is the problem *sigh* It's almost 3am

Anyway, THANKS!!!

Edit:

Okay, nevermind, I fixed it

This post instructs on how to compress audio files to 16-bit AND IT WORKED!!!

 

Hello, hopefully this thread isn't dead yet... I've been trying to do exactly these steps and found out that if I do the ADPCM compression, SMAPI will send me to hell for even trying to load the game with this wave bank. So I used xWMA instead and it works, but first I need to open a Sound Bank and switch from Default to Music, then I can process the Wave Bank.

No wav file is over 50 MB and the Wave Bank itself has about 80 MB and the game will load (whoa, after two days of trying), but all the sounds will play at once, as you mentioned here before. Has anybody had to go through the same process, and what steps should I take now to actually have only one track play at a time?

 

Someone knows how to use this? https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/1410/ (Simple Sound Manager)
I was planning to make some script to play a sound while mounting, so I don't need to edit the game sound bank. Is it possible with this tool?

 

I know this is way late, but if people want to know the dog is 0000014a and 0000014b, the cat is 0000014c and 0000014d, and the rooster crow is 00000149.

 

never too late to add helpful stuff =3

 

Thank you for this. I was struggling with making wave bank mods, and after using your tool kit and guide, I got it working!

Also, 00000087- 00000089 is the rain ghost noises, and 0000008a is the rainy day frog... thing... SFX you hear. Everything else I had written down, is already in the links above.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/127o-7u6MSz0XxRkoU0LEpJ8opp9H2QwVEznKzWyU8VE/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a google doc i made that has almost all of the sounds labeled

 

Awesome, thank you!