Background Music

[Redcoat22]

Has anyone figured out how to add or replace the background music yet? I like the violin music but it does get old. I want to play my Napoleonic stuff!

[bluemonday]

You can simply turn it off in Options and leave the sound on - then you can play your Napoleonic music in the background via iTunes or whatever your mp3 player of choice is.

[nukkxx5058]

ORIGINAL: bluemonday

You can simply turn it off in Options and leave the sound on - then you can play your Napoleonic music in the background via iTunes or whatever your mp3 player of choice is.

I play an online classical music Radio station to try to keep the atmosphere.

I hardly understand the choice of the game's soundtrack ..lol I didn't know that it is possible to listen to a vioin to play alone without any orchester. It makes me grind one's teeth LOL

[sol_invictus]

That's the one thing that EU has over CoG; EU had excellent background music.

[Franz von G]

use winamp (or another music prog) and let it run under CoG..
Master and Commander OST, "Il Giardino Armonico" by Vivaldi and Kingdom of Heaven OST are now my soundtrack [;)]

[HobbesACW]

It might be a bit unethical but I would have thought any game could simply look at a
particular folder and play everything there in alphabetical order. Then one could simply
copy all the sound files from EUII or any other game into that folder.

[Redcoat22]

You can simply turn it off in Options and leave the sound on - then you can play your Napoleonic music in the background via iTunes or whatever your mp3 player of choice is.

Did you actually think that was the intent of my question? That I could not figure out how to play background music in my room on a seperate player and needed to join/post the question in a game forum?

Let me clarify... If one wanted to integrate music into the game files to replace the stock music could it be done?

[Hanal]

I think you can by importing mp3s and changing them to .wma files...I have tinkered alittle bit with this but I cannot find the text file which has a playlist, as could be found in the HOI series...for now I made a copy of the original music folder as a backup and started to replace the original .wma files but I have only done a few of them, msc1.wma for example, and naming them exactly as the original file, but have yet to hear my replacements.....I also am not sure where the msc.wma files play as compared with the sad.wma files....perhaps when I replace more files it will work, otherwise I'll just put the original music folder back in....

[ericbabe]

In the Music directory there are files named Msc1.wma to Msc31.wma, Sad1.wma to Sad8.wma, Win1.wma to Win4.wma, and also LoseBattle, WinGame, Eroica2. Replace these with other .wma files to change the music.

We are hoping to find some martial Napoleonic era music to license for the battles, but haven't had any luck so far.

I think the solo violin music is perfect for the strategic mode -- I would only change it by adding some solo Handel and Boccherini. We tried many full orchestral scratch tracks but to my aesthetic sense they seemed canned and distracting. I have some other strong opinions about how music should work, opinions which I shan't inflict upon these forums; suffice to say, I went with my own preferences. Since it's trivial to substitute your own prefered music for the COG scores this shouldn't ruffle anyone too much.

I would, however, infinitely prefer drums and horns for the battles. If anyone knows where I can license some quality period Napoleonic martial music, please to let me know (email ericbabe@west-civ.com.)


Eric

[Hanal]

Naxos Records is supposed to have a very fair licensing fee and they have a massive library.....If I knew which file plays when you open up the tactical map, I would have Beethoven's Wellington's Victory playing and while I like the violin music, a bit of Berlioz, Gossec, or Beethoven would not hurt....[:)]



http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp#

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Naxos Records is supposed to have a very fair licensing fee and they have a massive library.....If I knew which file plays when you open up the tactical map, I would have Beethoven's Wellington's Victory playing and while I like the violin music, a bit of Berlioz, Gossec, or Beethoven would not hurt....[:)]



http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp#

We made about 10 calls and emails. They are very expensive relative to the expected returns of the game. (As in, it would have cost about 1/3rd of our expected gross to license our music from Naxos.)


Eric

[Hanal]

I'm surprised by that and I understand your financial concerns...could you explain the difference in the two sets of music files, msc and sad, and how they are related to gameplay?....in other words, if I wanted to replace one of the files with Wellington's Victory, where would you recommend it be placed?

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

I'm surprised by that and I understand your financial concerns...could you explain the difference in the two sets of music files, msc and sad, and how they are related to gameplay?....in other words, if I wanted to replace one of the files with Wellington's Victory, where would you recommend it be placed?

Sad.wma is what you get when your national morale is low.

Win.wma is what you get when you win a detailed battle.

Msc.wma is the regular game background music.

LoseBattle / WinGame are what you get when you lose a battle and win the game ... respectively.

[nukkxx5058]

what are wma files ? how can I convert mp3 to wma ?
thx

[Franz von G]

there are many mp3/wma converter, many shareware, some freeware.. search with google [;)]

[Erik Rutins]

wma = Windows Media Audio format.

[EarlPembroke]

Love Handel. Perhaps we could also get some Mozart as he was from this time period? As was Beethoven ... Of course I like Palestrina / Monteverdi (choral works) too though they were earlier.

Pity it costs so much to license. Especially seeing as the composers don't exactly care whether there are royalty payments. [:D]

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: Franz von G

there are many mp3/wma converter, many shareware, some freeware.. search with google [;)]

Doesn't WINDOWS automatically convert the file from .mp3 to .wma when you change the extention? It provides a prompt indicating such, so I thought this was so......

[talon54]

Ode to St Cecelias Day by Handel has a great battle music in the part with the trumpet and drum.Don't know if you would do part of a piece or not.

[Reg Pither]

I would play the background music all the time if it were just that - in the background. Without a separate volume control for sound effects and music I have to turn it off as it's too intrusive when set at the same level as the FX. [:(]