Using Custom Music

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Araxes, Nov 2, 2014.

  1. Araxes Active Member

    Since there is no longer a Look and Feel forum I thought I'd share this for anyone who might be interested in using custom music. I've recently started using a lot of custom music and it was hard to find recent, concise information on this all in one place, so, here.
    1. First, make a folder in your EQ2 directory called "custom_music" ...
    2. Most important - map out the path to the file you want to replace so that it is the same as it is in the regular "music" directory. For example: EQ2directory/music/zones/catacombs.mp3 is the original file path, then you want EQ2directory/custom_music/zones/catacombs.mp3 - so you will need to mimic the folder structure exactly under your custom_music folder, in other words. You will have to manually create these folders in your custom_music directory. Right-click and choose "new folder" then give it the exact same name - repeat until you have covered every level of the original directory and matched it to your custom_music directory. Be aware that some EQ2 music is buried 4 or 5 levels deep so you may even want a pen and paper to write down the file structure so you can recreate it in the custom_music folder.
    3. make an MP3 copy of the music track you want to use. For example, if you want to use Nine Inch Nails' "The Four of Us Are Dying" for your Lavastorm theme song, you first need to make sure it's in MP3 format. If you use iTunes, you can go to Edit > Preferences > Import Settings and select MP3 Format for your default, then back in your library, right-click on the song in your iTunes library and choose Convert to MP3 Format (if you have your default import setting on something else the other format will appear, so you need to change that preference first.) This is allowed by iTunes assuming the song you are converting is an iTunes Plus song, which they almost all are, nowadays. If you are not using iTunes then you will need to find some other software to do this for you, which is not hard to find.
    4. move the MP3 file into the custom_music directory (and again, be sure to make sure the path matches that of the original file.)
    5. rename the MP3 file to the exact same name as the file you are replacing. For example, "The Four of Us Are Dying" would be renamed "lavastorm.mp3"
    Now you have an exact duplicate of what the game sees as the song file, except it's the music you want instead of the default game music. The game looks first in the custom music directory and will play any songs there instead of the ones in the music directory. Just make sure the names are the same and the file paths are correct and you use an MP3 file format.
  2. Araxes Active Member

    Also if you don't find a music folder in your EQ2 directory, make sure you set the launcher to download all game assets, then run it. It will download several gigabytes of music. Not sure if this is the default setting now in the newer launcher but for some time it was not.
  3. Yachiru-san Well-Known Member

    What if you want costume music in your guild hall? Would you have GH location/Guild name?
  4. Conifur Well-Known Member

    You can also just add the song with the changed named right into the original folder; but I wonder if it will get over written on an update? but thanks for posting this, did not even know this was possible. Great tip.
  5. Feldon Well-Known Member

    It will be overwritten every time you patch the game. Thus the "custom_music" folder.
  6. Conifur Well-Known Member

    Thanks. I need to work on getting this set up.
  7. Anhari Active Member

    For a less invasive (pen and paper) method of setting up the file structure is to copy/paste the entire music folder to custom_music. You would either have to delete all the .mp3 files, or leave them there and just replace the files with you custom files. the inly problem with this is when the original music files change, or they add new ones on a GU update or expansion. You can manage this by either watching the patches (not the patch notes) or after updates run a compare utility to see what files are changed between your custom folder and the original.
    Jelloshot likes this.