I'm trying to make a .sound file containing a bunch of music, I've followed tutoials and they don't work, all I get is an empty .sound file. I use the mp3 format for my music.

It must be a .wav.

Still nothing. I use this tool command:

tool sounds "sound\music\music\mymusic" ogg 1

eh?

Look at the tut I put on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0qwAISXmEk&feature=channel_page

Not my tut btw its By-{AHS}SONIC

it's hard to hear wtf he's saying O.O

btw It won't let me install the files, it says they haven't been checked for Microsoft Logo testing.
Edited by Sabre on Mar 23, 2009 at 09:13 AM

Well it worked fine for me thanks to that I made My UI map for Snake Team.

Well thanks anyway. (hell if someone would offer to make the sound tag for me I'd include them in credits lol)

Look up ILLEGALLcheatsman sound_looping tutorial I just look at it an found a better way to make songs in game.

.mp3 format will not work. It must be a .wav. On top of that, it must be mono, not stereo. Stereo tracks will not compile.

Using Audacity, Goldwave, whatever audio editor you have, split the .wav into two tracks - Left and Right. Delete the right track, and turn the Left track into a "Mono" track. Select the entire track now, and use the "Amplify" option in effects (I know it's in Audacity, so use that if you have to; it's free)... That'll raise the volume, and it will still play from both speakers, even though it's a Mono track.

Save that .wav, and use that to create the .sound file, with the exact command you typed in. If "1" is too high and it refuses to compile, try "0.1" at the end instead, but "1" should work.



If you want, I could easily reinstall Audacity (old computer screwed up, never bothered reinstalling everything yet), and make it for you.

My only disadvantage to making .sound and .sound_looping files, is that I have yet to figure out why they refuse to play in Sapien nor in-game. The .sound file works, plays in Guerilla and everything, so it's not the tag. *Shrug.* But yeah.
Edited by MF Boom on Mar 23, 2009 at 03:06 PM

No, stereo tracks can be compiled. You have to use specific sample rates for each channel option, however. For stereo, you need 44100 Hz sample rate. For mono, you need 22050 Hz sample rate.

Fascinating, because I've tried every sample rate possible and Tool encounters an error with stereo tracks; besides that, it doesn't lower the quality any to convert the .wav for a mono track, and it will still play from both speakers (which makes me wonder if it's really even "mono" in the first place).

Nonetheless, I've always used a 44100 Hz sample rate for every sound tag; I still haven't figured out why they won't play in-game nor in Sapien, though. That's another story, I guess.

Bah, still won't work -...-
Thanks guys for trying to help.
I sent you a pm Boom.

Mono doesn't mean that it plays from one speaker. It would be very odd to hear it from just the left or right speaker. Mono means one channel, and that means that the same sound is played from both speakers. This lowers the quality a lot. If you have a good ear, you'll notice the difference between the two. Stereo is two channels, which means that the left and right speakers have separate and usually different sounds.

Here's the difference:

Let's say you have a stereo track with the drums coming out of the left speaker and the guitar and bass coming out of the right speaker. The singing is split evenly between both speakers. Well, in stereo, you'll have a nice, surrounding sound that makes it sound like you as the listener are enveloped in the music because there are separate instruments coming out of each speaker.

However, mix the stereo channels down to a mono channel in the same song, and you'll notice the difference. All of the instruments that used to come out of their respective speakers now are coming equally out of both speakers. This means that the guitar, drums, bass, and the singing will all sound like they're constantly coming out of the center, which sounds really bad in comparison to the stereo because you lose the surrounding effect, and each instrument also becomes harder to distinguish.

So yeah, big quality hit.

For instance, listen to Never Gonna Give Your Up by Rick Astley with one headphone ear busted :\

Ohh, alright. That makes sense. I've always interpreted "Mono" to be one track, and that each track was played in seperate sides; because, when you split a Stereo track, it does become left/right -- not to mention that "stereo headphones" are two, whereas a "mono headset" for phones, is one speaker.

That's why I mixed it up. But that does make a lot more sense. Thanks, Me KS!

"The more you know!" <-- I lol'd.

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3489

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4046

You also might need to ensure you have the latest sound codecs for both OGG and Xbox. If you attempt to create a sound tag with tool, and the sound is NOT "16 bit Signed PCM" regardless of the bitrate sampling, or format in either mono or stereo, the result will be an empty tag/no sound. Save your file in PCM 16 bit, then choose what is appropriate stereo or mono. Once you are done making/converting the sound to the correct format and bitrate of 44100 for weapons/music in stereo or mono, or 22050/mono for dialogue - then, and only then do you begin to use tool to convert it for use in game.

Be careful what tuts you watch/read - there are about 10 which are complete crap and flat out wrong. For Tusken Raid - I made about 42 custom sounds - mostly in mono/ogg to save on map file size - without noticeable audio difference versus stereo. I processed Metalicas version of the Imperial March - but decided not to add an annoying music track that just looped and looped throughout the entire game.

Large audio/music tracks (longer than 19 seconds) that are not processed into permutations will result often in exception errors once the map is compiled and played - even if tool does not report an error. You don't need to process permutations on sounds shorter than this in most cases.

Keep at it until you learn it. Also - dont make the audio too loud both in the original audio, and the final tag. Look at other sound tags, and loops to see/learn how to do it.

A good, but simple free audio program is GoldWave (for PC), and it will update your codecs, and save to any format, convert from 85% of all formats.
Edited by Slap Happy on Mar 25, 2009 at 04:33 AM
Edited by Slap Happy on Mar 25, 2009 at 04:35 AM

^ What he said. Although, I disagree, Stereo to mono conversions noticeably lose quality, and aren't worth the saved file space. Especially because a stereo to mono conversion forces you to cut the sample rate to 22050 to compile through Tool, which lowers the quality some more. If you have a stereo song, keep it stereo.

Answers/Questions in bold.

Btw nice to see you again Slappy, thanks for helping.

Answers/Questions in bold.

Btw nice to see you again Slappy, thanks for helpibg.

Edit: It still gives me an empty file.
Edited by Sabre on Mar 25, 2009 at 08:51 PM