XBox 360 Custom Soundtracks...?

[-Mark-]

...how the hell do they work? D:

I have one game (I think, haven't checked them all for it) that allows the use of custom soundtracks- Mega Drive Ultimate Collection. I tried loading up some music from my external HDD to use last night, and all it did was play the music I'd chosen over the top of gameplay, drowning out everything entirely- in other words, no sound effects or anything else, just the MP3 I'd chosen to play.

That can't be right, surely? Is that really all that 'custom soundtracks' allow, or am I doing something wrong?

Also, is it normal when loading music from an external device, that it takes a couple of minutes before it'll even load up the directory/ folder where the MP3s actually are? Mine certainly seemed to.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Mahzes

[Blue Blood]

I thought that's exactly what custom soundtracks were? Could be wrong since I've only bothered with custom soundtracks for S4, but eh.The regular music is muted and your chosen track is played instead. Sound effects should always remain intact though. If you can't hear them then perhaps you need to mess around with the sound settings a bit or use a quieter track.

[DaBatGuy]

It depends on how certain games are programed. UMDC is essentially just a MD emulator made for the PS360. AFAIK these older titles didn't separate the SFX from the background music so getting custom soundtracks to work would require reprogramming all of them individually, which Sega obviously didn't do.

[bolt7]

I've listened to Custom Soundtracks when playing various games before- Geometry Wars and Sonic '06 to name a couple. BatGuy's right, it totally depends on the game. It usually keeps the sound effects in there without any problems- it must be a Mega Drive Ultimate Collection thing. =P

[-Mark-]

Yeah, just tried out Sonic 4 and it's fine. D:

Still then, that leaves the problem- is it normal for it to take about two minutes to load up a folder full of MP3s on an external HDD?

[JezMM]

I once made myself an ENTIRE custom soundtrack for Sonic Unleashed (like a song for each level - carefully chosen of course), and had to seperate them all into folders by game country because yes, a folder chock full of mp3s does take ages to load. So yeah.

[bolt7]

Still then, that leaves the problem- is it normal for it to take about two minutes to load up a folder full of MP3s on an external HDD?

Not entirely sure on that one, though it probably depends on the amount of .MP3's in the folder and how fast your external HDD communicates with the PC / Xbox. I've used just 4GB memory sticks in the past and, for the most part, they require no loading time at all. Haven't tried it with the new dashboard yet though. =X

[Carbo]

Still then, that leaves the problem- is it normal for it to take about two minutes to load up a folder full of MP3s on an external HDD?

Yes, cause essentially everything that isnt on the 360's default drive needs to be read through and analyzed. Depends on how much space your external drive uses. Two minutes is kind of a stretch though, I plug up my iPod and it takes about 8 seconds to read the thing and about the same to boot up a song, and I have over 60 gigs of shit on there.

Which is why I usually just do Mix CD's and rip them to the 360 HDD so it runs flawlessly.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Carbo

[eXtaticus]

The reason why all sound effects are muted on MegaDrive Ultimate Collection is that all in-game audio is done by emulation of a synthesizer - and this is emulation that can not distinguish between "sound effect" and "music". Additionally, seeing as the synthesizer in question only has a limited number of sounds that can be played at once, some channels have to continuously toggle between being used for sound effects and being used for music - this effectively means that shutting down that entire section of the emulator is the only way to ensure that no excess sound (in-game BGM) bleeds through into your music.

On games that use wave sound, however, you can just mute the active music channels with little to no difficulty whatsoever.

Edited November 7, 2010 by eXtaticus

[-Mark-]

Wait, so custom soundtracks work for 06 and Unleashed, even though it doesn't say so on the box?

Is that 'drown out everything' custom soundtracks in those, or do the sound effects stay intact?

How can you transfer MP3s to the XBox, then? I probably won't bother wasting the space (since I'll probably almost never use it anyway), but it'd be nice to know.

But yeah, it takes ages for me because I'm basically connecting a 250GB external HDD. My MP3s are meticulously organised into loads of subfolders and what have you, but there's still a good 20+ in each.

[Carbo]

As said above by Extaticus and Batguy, it only really does that to sound in emulation. I dont think there's any other game out there that'd drown out sound effects. It works in 06 and Unleashed, that's where I screw around with it most of the time personally. Only in some ocassions does certain games not allow you to play music that the dev chooses to implement, such as cutscenes. When that happens, the music automatically pauses and then resumes once it can pick up again. Games like Guitar Hero omit custom soundtracks entirely.

As for ripping music to the HDD, 360 seems to have the disadvantage the PS3 lacks of not being able to copy files from external drives, it only does so by ripping CD's. Either that or I'm completely missing out on something myself.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Carbo

[Tornado]

I thought the 360 could copy stuff from mp3 players as well?

[Carbo]

Last I remember it couldn't, but maybe it's just me not lurking around with it enough or being extremely blind cause I think I was going out of my way to find out if it worked. I'll give it a check again, maybe the new dashboard might have even added such a function.

EDIT: Nope, can't do that through the menu here, HOWEVER, its possible to configure USB devices or the like to work with 360 storage, but I'm not going to do that since I have too much shit on my drives to sort out since it wipes out everything on the storage, so if anyone else has the way to go through with that then maybe someone can try it out.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Carbo

[Agent York]

I wish I had my old SonicWorldAdventure account since I know at least the Custom Soundtrack thing worked perfectly in Sonic Unleashed 360 version, I had a video up of me facing the Egg Beetle with the Sonic & Knuckles Boss Theme (official remix). Sound effects and voices worked perfectly, and it only replaced the music.

(can find that official remix HERE.)

I just got my music from music CDs though.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Dusk the Horror Keeper

[-Mark-]

As said above by Extaticus and Batguy, it only really does that to sound in emulation. I dont think there's any other game out there that'd drown out sound effects. It works in 06 and Unleashed, that's where I screw around with it most of the time personally.

So wait, you can custom-soundtrack most games?

In that case, if it's such a standard feature, why do some games even bother to mention it on the back of the box?

[Agent York]

So wait, you can custom-soundtrack most games?

In that case, if it's such a standard feature, why do some games even bother to mention it on the back of the box?

Because it doesn't have to do with the games allowing them too, it's a built-in 360 feature. Some games it works with, others it does not. You just have to test them and see what works, but it should attempt to work with most games and does work with most games.

[eXtaticus]

So wait, you can custom-soundtrack most games?

All that I've come across work perfectly with it. You can actually remove all music by loading your MP3 file and pausing it, though this is generally only good for audio analysts and game reviewers.

In that case, if it's such a standard feature, why do some games even bother to mention it on the back of the box?

To make them look good. That's it.

[Blue Blood]

So wait, you can custom-soundtrack most games?

In that case, if it's such a standard feature, why do some games even bother to mention it on the back of the box?

IIRC, not every game had the custom soundtrack ability at the start of the 360s life. An update added it to every game.

[DaBatGuy]

It could also be relevant for multiplatform titles since PS3/PC games don't always support custom soundtracks.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Da Goddamn BatGuy

[JezMM]

For the record, in Sonic Unleashed, custom music works at all times except FMVs. The FMVs have all their sound bound to the video file, so it can't mute the in-game music (it'll pause yours then resume after). However your custom music will continue through all the regular cut-scenes.

If you're nerdy like me and want to use specific tracks for specific levels, you'll be pleased to know the loading screens are perfect times to switch tracks, as once the game loads in it'll automatically pause until you're done on the home menu. 8D

[SHAX Hedgefox]

I used to own Dead or Alive 4 for Xbox 360, and it just muted the in-game music, not the sound effects. So It just depends on the game.

While we're talking about custom soundtracks, R.E.M is really good music to play when you're running through loops in Sonic Unleashed or making a CAW in Svr2009

[JezMM]

My personal track list for Sonic Unleashed Day stages are:

Crack The Shutters - Snow Patrol for Windmill Isle Act 1

Just A Day - Feeder for Windmill Isle Act 2

Volver A Comenzar - Café Tacuba for Savannah Citadel (LittleBigPlanet players will know this song - it's the spanish one from the wedding level)

Clocks - Coldplay for Cool Edge

Nefi+Girly - Asobi Seksu for Rooftop Run

Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love - Coldplay for Dragon Road

Viva La Vida - Coldplay for Arid Sands

Black And White Town - Doves for Skyscraper Scamper

Salt Water - Chicane for Jungle Joyride

Head Down - Nine Inch Nails for Eggmanland (at least, part 5 anyway, I use two instrumental tracks from some soundtracks for part 1 and 3, but it's this NIN song I use for the whole level in the Wii version so I consider that the "main" choice for the level).

Of course I also have tracks for all the little acts (including DLC), and all the bosses, and the night time levels and hub worlds... 8D My playlist in total reaches something like 100 tracks. But I won't be lame and nerdy enough to share all those unless there's someone as lame and nerdy as me out there who wants to know for whatever reason.

(Incidentally I am so nerdy about making alternative soundtracks I actually edited every song I used in audacity to make looping versions as if they were video-game music, so I don't have to hear the track fade out and start again if the level is longer than the music - I am a hardcore custom soundtracker 8D).

[eXtaticus]

I don't have a personal favourite Custom Tracklist for Sonic Unleashed, as I traded the bastard atrocity back to the store from whence it came before I had time to experiment with such things.