Music replacement guide

Most of PSO's music can be replaced with a few simple steps in Audacity, a free program available for every popular computer operating system. This guide will go through these steps.

Choosing a track

The music tracks in PSO are all designed to loop perfectly smoothly, so any tracks that replace them should do the same thing. It's best to find a track with a section that repeats the same section over and over; longer repetitions are generally better, as listening to the same ten seconds of music on loop can get boring.

For this tutorial, we'll be using Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Editing the track

Use Audacity to open the chosen track.

Play the whole track, and make a mental note of where the song tends to repeat a lot. The bottom of the window will indicate the position of the audio - make sure the unit of measurement is set to "samples" for the most precise loop selection possible.

Once some starting and stopping points have been located, zoom in on both of them using either Ctrl+1 or Ctrl+Mouse Wheel. Clicking anywhere in the track and pressing either the Play button or the Space key will start the track from the chosen point.

After zooming in and finding a more precise starting or stopping point, it is very important to make sure that the point is on or very close to a zero value. This means choosing a point that's very near or directly on the horizontal line that goes across the entire track. If a loop point is chosen that's too far from this line, an audible click sound will play every time the track loops in game.

Make a note of the exact sample position shown in Audio Position for both the starting and stopping points - they'll be needed soon.

Put the values for the starting and stopping loop points in the two boxes to the right of Audio Position. Make sure "Start and End of Selection" is selected.

Shift-clicking the Play button or pressing Shift+Space will allow the selected portion of the track to be played in a loop. Pressing the right arrow key will advance the track by a second, and pressing Shift with the right arrow key will advance it by 15 seconds. Listen to the track as it passes the loop point to ensure the transition is smooth.

Once the loop is silky smooth, it's time to cut off the end of the track. PSO supports setting a starting loop point, but not an ending one, meaning it simply uses the end of the track as the end of the loop. Type the end loop point into the "Start Selection" box and an absurdly large number like 999,999,999 into the "End Selection" box. Delete the portion of the track that follows the end of the loop.

Nice.

Saving the track

Now all that's left to do is save the track. Select File > Export > Export Audio... or press Ctrl+Shift+E to begin the process. The file should be saved as an Ogg Vorbis file type, or .ogg.

Audacity will display a prompt to edit the metadata of the track before saving it. This is important. Add a new tag called LOOP_START to the end of the tags, with the value matching the sample of the start of the loop. Once you've done that, hit OK.

That's the end of the hard part!

Renaming the track

PSO's tracks all have unique file names. Once the track has been saved, it needs to be given a name that matches one of PSO's in-game tracks, or it won't play in game. A list of tracks is provided here. Make sure the file extension is still .ogg after the file's been renamed.

Once it's been renamed, put the track in the data\ogg folder and test it out in game!

ADVR - Character select

BASS - Telepipe SFX (bass)

CARNAVAL - Vamos a Carnaval (from Samba de Amigo)

CHARA - Character creation

CHU_F - Mouse Mania! (from ChuChu Rocket!)

CITY - Pioneer 2 music

clear - Quest clear music

CLEAR_ST - Higher quality quest clear music

CUBE_ENDING - World with me (Episode 2 ending theme)

CUBE_ENDING_LOOP - World with me (looped version)

CUBE_OPENING - The whole new world (opening theme, GameCube ver.?)

DARK1 - Dark Falz (first/second form)

DARK2 - Dark Falz (third form)

DEATH - Olga Flow death SFX

DELDEATH - De Rol Le death SFX

DELO2 - Barba Ray

DELO - De Rol Le

DELORURE - De Rol Le(?)

DFDEATH - Dark Falz death SFX

DRADEATH - Dragon death SFX

DRAGON2 - Gol Dragon

DRAGON - Dragon

DRAROAR - Dragon roar

DREAMS - Dreams Dreams (from NiGHTS)

DREAMS_KIDS - Dreams Dreams (Kids Version) (from NiGHTS)

DUEL1 - Battle Palace

DUEL2 - Battle Spaceship

EASTER - Easter Lobby

ED_PIANO - Ending Theme (Piano ver.)

END - Battle Finish SFX

ENDING - Ending Theme (Vocal ver.)

ENDING_LOOP - Ending Theme (looped version, no vocals)

EPI1 - Quest completion music (Upbeat ver.)

EPI2 - Quest completion music (Mourning ver.)

ESCAPE - City Escape (from Sonic Adventure 2)

ESTLA2 - Estlla attack SFX

ESTRA - Estlla summon SFX

EVENT - Quest music

FARLA2 - Farlla attack SFX

FARLA - Farlla summon SFX

GOLDEATH - Gol Dragon death SFX

GOULA2 - Golla attack SFX

GOULA - Golla summon SFX

GRYPHON - Gal Gryphon

HALL - Olga Flow second form, pre-fight

HALLOWEEN - Halloween Lobby

HEARTS - Burning Hearts (Burning ANGEL) (from Burning Rangers)

J_KANTEI - Tekking SFX

j_levelup - Level up SFX

JINGLEBELL - Christmas Lobby

LABO - Lab

LIVE - Live and Learn (from Sonic Adventure)

LOBBY - Lobby

LOSE - Battle Loss SFX

MAILA2 - Mylla and Youlla attack SFX

MAILA - Mylla and Youlla summon SFX

MAMBO - Al Comap Del Mambo (from Samba de Amigo)

MAP1 - Telepipe SFX (going up?)

MAP2 - Telepipe SFX (going down?)

MATTER - It Doesn't Matter (from Sonic Adventure)

MEDICAL - Medical Center

MILES - Believe in Myself (from Sonic Adventure)

MINICLEAR - Quest clear SFX

NOMAL - Multiplayer theme (from ChuChu Rocket!)

OPEN - Open Your Heart (from Sonic Adventure)

OPENING - The whole new world (opening theme)

PAILA2 - Pilla attack SFX

PAILA - Pilla summon SFX

PROTO1 - Olga Flow (first form)

PROTO2 - Olga Flow (second form)

QUEST - Quest loading screen

REILA2 - Leilla attack SFX

REILA - Leilla summon SFX

SHOP - Shops

slbgm_ancient - Ruins

slbgm_boss09 - Saint-Milion/Kondrieu

slbgm_boss09b - Shambertin

slbgm_cave - Cave

slbgm_dark - The nearest place to the heaven (Dark Falz, pre-fight)

slbgm_desert - Subterranean Desert

slbgm_forest - Forest

slbgm_jungle - Central Control Area, Seaside, Jungle, Mountain, Control Tower

slbgm_machine - Mine

slbgm_ruin - VR Temple

slbgm_seabed - Seabed

slbgm_space - VR Spaceship

slbgm_wilds - Crater

SMILE - I Just Smile

SOUTOKU - Principal's Office

START - Battle Start SFX

T1 - Meeting Rico

T2 - Meeting Flowen

TITLE - A song for eternal story (title screen)

VALENTINE - Valentine's Day Lobby

VOL_OPT1 - Vol Opt (first form)

VOL_OPT2 - Vol Opt (second form)

WEDDING - Wedding March

WIN - Battle Win SFX

ZARATHUSTRA - New Year's Lobby