[Audio✓] Help with adding music

[bsdps7]

Hi, I am rather new to disassembly, and I'm not sure how to add background music for towns and such in pokeemerald. Also, is there a specific file format the music file has to be in to work? Thanks so much.

 

[Lyzo]

Hi, I'm also relatively new, I found this so far though..

You can change songs by replacing the .midi files in sound/songs/midi. You can also change the way songs sound by editing their .s files and modifying the voicegroup line (often line 3). In PokeEmerald there are 101 voicegroups in total. Each voicegroup has different instruments, that's why changing the voicegroup changes the way the song sounds. The .midi files are the notes, the voicegroups are the instruments.

I'm not entirely certain on how to add new songs or voicegroups though... So far I've tried adding new .midi files to the folder, editing the songs.h to include that file + adding a .s file that I generated with Mid2gbac. But I'm not getting the new songs to play just yet..

I found several threads that might get us in the right direction though:

• https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/121856
• https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/139156
• https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/148811
• https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/259264

They're all music hacking threads for binary hacking. This might give us an idea of how to add new voicegroups or how to properly implement new songs.

If you find anything new out, keep me updated!

 

[Zafnok]

Are there any updates for how to add music? I searched on here and this was the only relevant thread on the matter.

 

[manta]

Are there any updates for how to add music? I searched on here and this was the only relevant thread on the matter.

I'm currently in the midst of figuring out music in decomps too. Basicially...

1. Get the MIDI for the song you'd like to add, and put it in (sound/songs/midi)
2. Add the new midi file to songs.mk. You can reference the previous entries for info. By the way the, G is voicegroup and V is volume.
3. Add the new midi file to ld_script.txt (the linkerscript).
4. Add the midi into the song table (sound/song_table.inc)
5. Also for ease of use add a new constant in (include/constants/songs.h).

As for making new voicegroups, then simply

1. Create the actual voicegroup file (it's an .inc file) and put it in (sound/voicegroups)
2. Next include this new file in (sound/voicegroups_inc)

You have to bare in mind not all voicegroups are used for songs, some are used for keysplits in instruments such as the drums.

 

[Zafnok]

I'm currently in the midst of figuring out music in decomps too. Basicially...

1. Get the MIDI for the song you'd like to add, and put it in (sound/songs/midi)
2. Add the new midi file to songs.mk. You can reference the previous entries for info. By the way the, G is voicegroup and V is volume.
3. Add the new midi file to ld_script.txt (the linkerscript).
4. Add the midi into the song table (sound/song_table.inc)
5. Also for ease of use add a new constant in (include/constants/songs.h).

As for making new voicegroups, then simply

1. Create the actual voicegroup file (it's an .inc file) and put it in (sound/voicegroups)
2. Next include this new file in (sound/voicegroups_inc)

You have to bare in mind not all voicegroups are used for songs, some are used for keysplits in instruments such as the drums.

I've made about as much progress as you (well, perhaps a little less. I didn't really make any new voicegroups just yet). Anyway, I'm coming back to post a little more detailed of a tutorial than what you've posted thus far.

My journey started with wanting to import a song used from a mobile game into the ROM. The mobile game, I found out, was built using Unity. This meant that the songs were all packaged in a pretty strange way, but after some research, I came across this tool: https://github.com/DerPopo/UABE By pointing the tool to the AssetBundle, then clicking Info > Plugins > Extract Audio Plugin (something along those terms) it will then produce a .wav file holding the song requested.

Now comes the hard part. After a lot of research, I found the best tool to convert a .wav into a decent MIDI file is called Celemony Melodyne. There is a free trial available, and other ways of getting the program. Using the program, you need to set the algorithm to Polyphonic then Save As a MIDI file. Next, for editing the file, I found the Free Open Source Software, MidiEditor, most useful. In order to get the MIDI sounding correctly, you will need a VirtualSynth other than the built-in Microsoft one. Additionally, you will need a Soundfont that matches the GBA games. For the VirtualSynth, I found this worked best: https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth and it needs to be paired with this https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/midimapper and here is the Soundfont https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/579

The song I was attempting to add (and managed to, but it will need some more work in MidiEditor) would be used for a new battle music. For the sake of this post, I will assume that anyone using this as a guide is also wanting to add new battle music, as it was what I found the triggers for.

Optionally, add a new trainer class, so that any original trainer classes don't have their battle music changed. For my own testing, I made a trainer class "WEEB" but this can be called whatever you want. To add the trainer class, do the following:

Spoiler:

in include/constants/trainers.h
After #define TRAINER_CLASS_RS_PROTAG
Add a #define TRAINER_CLASS_WEEB
make sure that it is assigned the number following RS_PROTAG (for me, RS_PROTAG was 0x41, so I did 0x42)

To make sure the trainer class gives money, add an entry in src/battle_main.c
Search for const struct TrainerMoney gTrainerMoneyTable[]
at the bottom, before 0xFF, add {TRAINER_CLASS_WEEB, #} where # is a multiplier you like (I did 5)

in src/pokemon.c
Search for u16 GetBattleBGM(void)
Add a case in the switch block
case TRAINER_CLASS_WEEB:

return MUS_WHATEVER_YOUR_MUSIC_FILE_WILL_BE_NAMED;​

We will return here later, so keep this in mind.

Finally, the last step to adding a new trainer class is to make sure it has a display property set.
In src/data/text/trainer_class_names.h
Add an entry near the bottom
[TRAINER_CLASS_WEEB] = _("WEEB"),

That's all for this section, now onto adding and attaching music.

To add the music, it is much the same as is said above. I will just expand upon it.

Spoiler:

After getting a MIDI file that you are content with, edit the file using Anvil Studio to add cues for the looping. I highly recommend reading the relevant section in this guide: https://feuniverse.us/t/music-insertion-guide-for-beginners/3791

After getting the loops right, and exported in the correct format, then place the MIDI file in sound/songs/midi with a memorable and descriptive name (i.e. mus_new_battle_music).

Now in ld_script.txt place the reference to the song at the bottom of the song_data structure. For this example, it would be sound/songs/midi/mus_new_battle_music.o(.rodata);

In songs.mk, add a line for the song. The format will be much the same as other entries. Here is my entry:

$(MID_SUBDIR)/mus_new_battle_music.s: %.s: %.mid

$(MID) $< $@ -E -R$(STD_REVERB) -G005 -V100 -P1​

The things that will need to be changed are the file name, to whatever your file name is, G, to whatever voicegroup you wish to use, V, for whatever volume, and P, for whatever priority. I found that battle music will not play without a priority of 1, which is confirmed when looking at the other battle music entries. To find a voice group you like, search for the name of the instrument you used in MidiEditor. Here are a list of valid names: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/148811
The instrument I used was a bright acoustic piano, and so I searched piano in the project folder (in VSCode), and found in sound/voicegroups/voicegroup005.inc a reference to piano. I used -G005 in the command, and the sound turned out pretty good.

Next, in include/constants/songs.h, add
#define MUS_NEW_BATTLE_MUSIC #
Where # is the next number after the last entry in the file. For me, the last entry in the file was 609, so my entry had 610 assigned to it.

Now, add the entry to the bottom of gSongTable in sound/song_table.inc with an entry that looks like this:
song mus_new_battle_music, 0, 0

Unfortunately, I haven't yet figured out the purpose of the two numbers following the song are yet. I just added 0's since the other battle musics used 0's as well.

The last step, which I'm not entirely sure is necessary, is to add an entry to charmap.txt

Assign MUS_NEW_BATTLE_MUSIC to the next available number, which was, in my case, F9 FF. Again, not too sure what the purpose of this is, but some other music was in the charmap, so I added it just in case.

If you used the other spoiler section, go back to the case and change the return statement depending on what you named the constant.

Those are my findings so far, I am curious what progress you've made in the voicegroup area. Could you share some links or resources you've found?

 

[Heracross1991]

Huge thanks for this detailed response. Great work!