Music Mods for SF4 - Please add your work with youtube examples

Stage Music Editing Breakthrough

I've worked out a way to create Stage Music files (for the normal stages) that will play a single song all the way through from start to finish without cutting out at all. This will allow people to create Stage music using any of their favourite songs - since the music doesn't cut out or change tempo it means you can use songs with lyrics and it won't sound odd... i've already been playing matches to some Coheed and Cambria.

You'll need the original song in MP3 format (which most people probably have) and you're good to go.

You'll also need some of the encoding and packing tools mentioned earlier in this thread, but it's actually really easy to do so don't worry if you're not very good at editing music (i'm certainly not). Everything you need is in this Zip file,

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8N9JJT1W
(Even if you've got hardly any experience editing I would recommend giving this a try as it is very easy, just follow the instructions)

First of all you need to open your MP3 with Audacity, then simply choose to 'Export as Wav' from the menu - this will create a .Wav file of your song.

Next you need to use adxencd.exe to convert your .wav song into .adx format - again this is very easy. Just drag the wav file onto the adxencd.exe file (in Windows) and it should automatically create the same song in .adx format. Make a note of the file name and location.

Now you need to use CSB_Packer.exe to create your final Stage music file. It's best if all your files are in the same folder for this next bit, as it will be easier to find them.

Run CSB_Packer and you will see 7 slots that you need to fill with files - I've included 2 of the files you need for this so all you need is your choice of song in .adx format (which you have already created). In the first slot (called Sound Bank) browse and select the BGM_Stage.csb file (included).

Now we have 6 audio slots to fill.

In slot 1 choose the file 'nothing.adx' (included)
In slot 2 choose your song in .adx format (the file you created)
In slot 3 you should again choose the file 'nothing.adx' (included)
In slot 4 you should again choose your song in .adx format (the file you created)
In slot 5 yet again choose the file 'nothing.adx' (included)
In slot 6 yet again choose your song in .adx format (the file you created)

Now click on 'Create CSB' and it will create a file called 'BGM_Stage.csb.new' - this is your stage music. (If you can't see the .new part of the filename you might need to change a windows folder option to allow you to see file extensions).
All you need to do now is rename this file so that it matches the stage you want your music to play on and then copy it to the correct SF4 folder.

The stage music is located in this folder C:\Streetfighter4\Battle\System\

In order to explain which file relates to which stage I will list them in the same order they appear on the stage select screen in VS mode - if you imagine the 3 rows of stages on this screen you'll understand what I mean, so looking at the VS stage select screen from left to right these are the stage music files,

*RANDOM* BGM_USA.csb, BGM_CHN.csb, BGM_RUS.csb, BGM_BRA.csb, BGM_AFR.csb
BGM_VIE.csb, BGM_JPN.csb, BGM_EUR.csb, BGM_SCO.csb, BGM_JPX.csb, BGM_LAB.csb
BGM_RVR.csb, BGM_VCN.csb, BGM_CNX.csb, BGM_VNX.csb, BGM_BRX.csb, BGM_TRN.csb

So if you want your song to play on the USA stage (the one with the cars in the background) you would simply rename BGM_Stage.csb.new to BGM_USA.csb (making sure to delete the .new file extension so that the file ends with .csb) and then copy it to the correct SF4 folder - C:\SF4\Battle\System\ (Remember to back up your original sound files from this folder in case you want to change back to the original music).

Now you should be able to fight along to your favourite songs!

Wow this turned into a long post.

Most of the credit for this should go to 'goshanes' as he created the CSB_Packer program, and without that we wouldn't be able to do anything. So a huge thank you to him for creating it!

P.s.
I think this discovery deserves it's own thread as it allows fully custom music on all the stages (I think a lot of people would like to know about this), but I don't have the ability to post new threads yet. If anyone wants to copy what i've written and post it in a new thread on my behalf they are more than welcome to. Thanks.


As a final and more technical side note - the reason this works is because sound clips 2,4 and 6 are all loops and they all start playing at the same time (at the start of the fight). My 'nothing.adx' file is simply 1 second of silence - i used this so that the intro sound clips 1,3 and 5 don't do anything. When the song changes (due to 2 ultras being ready or low health) the game simply switches to sound clip 4 or 6, but because I put the exact same song for those clips it just continues playing as if nothing happened. Obviously this wouldn't work if the loop sound clips started playing at different times (the song would probably restart), but it seems we got lucky for once. lol
The only downside are the rather large sound files that you end up with doing it this way, but that can't be helped.

The second Tutorial is to change your menu music and is from me, but without goshanes we would have nothing !

Creating your original menu music :

You will first need the packer from go shane get it here :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=76T3RCEL

Once you have it, create a wave of 48000 hz from an mp3. You can use audacity or soundforge. If you have your own cds great if not most music can be taken from :www.idesktop.tv

It's a mirror of youtube but allows you to save videos, then just import video in soundforge and save as wave.

Once you have your wave, convert it in adx with the tools in the packer zip.

Then, just open the packer programm, select the first slot and set the original bgm_main_om.csb in there. The four next slots will contain your new compressed song you created above.

Execute the software, and there you go, you now have a new bgm, for the menu screem. Just replace your original and you got new music ! (make sure to rename it as the original)

Here is a sample of the one I made :

[media=youtube]dU0MZ9ONxw4[/media]

here is the file :

http://filebeam.com/8ececc76f2d84a8f966b5e6e21008164

Installation : Just go in street fighter 4 dir, go into the game and sound dirs
backup BGM_MAIN_OM.csb and replace it with the new one from my rar.

This version supports modifiyng Stage-specific music and rival themes.
And also the "undestructible" tune.

I did not test it with all sound banks, but I believe, it should work with these:

\Street Fighter IV\Game\Sound\
BGM_LOBBY.csb
BGM_MAIN_OM.csb

\Street Fighter IV\Battle\System\
BGM_AFR.csb
BGM_AGL.csb
BGM_AVX_E.csb
BGM_AVX_J.csb
BGM_BOS.csb
BGM_BRA.csb
BGM_BRX.csb
BGM_CHB.csb
BGM_CHN.csb
BGM_CLX.csb
BGM_CMY.csb
BGM_CNL.csb
BGM_CNX.csb
BGM_EUR.csb
BGM_GAG.csb
BGM_GKI.csb
BGM_GKN.csb
BGM_GUL.csb
BGM_JHA.csb
BGM_JPN.csb
BGM_JPX.csb
BGM_KEN.csb
BGM_LAB.csb
BGM_RIC.csb
BGM_ROS.csb
BGM_RUS.csb
BGM_RVR.csb
BGM_RYU.csb
BGM_RYX.csb
BGM_SCO.csb
BGM_SGT.csb
BGM_SKR.csb
BGM_TRN.csb
BGM_USA.csb
BGM_VCN.csb
BGM_VEG.csb
BGM_VIE.csb
BGM_VNX.csb
BGM_ZGF.csb

Guidelines for building clips:

For stage music:
Clip1: Intro: 20-30 seconds long.
Clip2: Main loop: 60-90 seconds
Clip3: Intensive v.1 (intro) // 4-16 beats
Clip4: Intensive v.1 loop // 10-20 seconds
Clip5: Intensive v.2 (intro) // 4-16 beats
Clip6: Intensive v.2 loop // 10-20 seconds

For rival music:
Clip1: Intro: 10-30 seconds long
Clip2: Main loop: make it as long as you like
Clip3: Surrond sound version of Clip1
Clip4: Surrond sound version of Clip2

Notes:

*
Rival music (or Character-specific) CSBs use surround sound. Clips 1. & 2. store the front stereo channel, while 3. & 4. - rear stereo/effects/. So where to get that clips from? You have three options:
a) Master a surround sound version for 1. & 2. I cannot tell you how...
b) Duplicate 1. & 2. and use their copy as surround sound.
c) Create silent/muted clips.
Just make sure the duration of 1. & 2. equals 3. & 4. respectively.
clip1 = clip3, clip2 = clip4.
BGM_LOBBY.csb also carries surround tracks.

**
Some CSBs contain two different versions of one theme:
BGM_BOS.csb: Clips 1 & 2 represent Seth's 1st "easy" round, 3 & 4 - the more epic/dynamic version.
BGM_MAIN_OM.csb: the "Indestructible" main menu music: Clips 1 & 2 - Japanese, Clips 3 & 4 - English. You don't like them? Well, Ayumi Hamasaki is a good choice, because you keep the option to switch between English & Japanese version of one song.

extra info from goshanes :

So if I had to split up a song into 6 parts, 1st and 2nd are the verse+chorus part, 3rd & 4th - culmination/bridge/interlude, 5th & 6th - outro-like culmination. In most stages length of 3+4 = 5+6 = about 20-30 seconds. Even numbered clips are being replayed over and over.
But in CNX stage 3rd & 5th clips are 144 bytes in wav format (say, nothing). 4th & 6th are being looped, despite the fact, that 3rd & 5th are empty.

To admins : You might want to sticky this so it doesn t get lost in the posts !