A Sound Mod

[Memnon]

Hi all, while we wait for updates to the game I wanted to share a sound mod I've been working on (off and on) for some time now. The goal was to have a specific sound for as many nations as possible.

The changes of note are:
1. Replaced country sounds for France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden.
2. Added sounds for Bavaria, Poland, Hesse Darmstadt, Naples, Italy, Saxony, Westphalia, Wurttemberg, Baden, Denmark, Cleve Berg, and Nassau. Granted, the German States are just recycled Austria and Prussia, but at least they sound German.
3. Tried to make unique country specific marches for each country. It didn't work out as expected (not enough knowledge or examples that sounded live-ish) so, you may notice infantry marching to music that may not be from their country or may not be the right time period. Know that it is just for atmosphere For example: Polish infantry march to a 'March' from WWI.
4. Replaced the battle sound effects like cannon, muskets and unit movement. I'm not satisfied with the weapon sounds and they are to be considered a work in progress. If there is enough interest, I'll update them here if something better comes along.

That's the extent of it. I hope everyone that tries the mod enjoys the changes, and if anyone has any recommendations for improvement, please let me know.

Sound Mod dropbox. Included in .zip: Sounds folder, Sons.txt and Readme.

The 'Sounds' folder is meant to completely replace the original. I highly recommend backing up the 'Sounds' folder by renaming the original folder to save it for a backup. The same goes for the 'Sons.txt' file, back it up or rename the original file before you replace. This mod will conflict with other sound mods that has nations other than those listed above. If you already have other nation sounds modded they will not work until you re add them to the game.

Note. The Sounds folder is a bit bloated with sounds for all the German States and that may not be necessary, but after inconstant results in testing, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

[[NBC]Friant]

Oh Memnon, what a pleasure to see a mod for this game...
It is an absolute joy to hear all those sounds and marching tunes that seem to have been lost over a period of time.
Please do continue with this great work, fantastic, I really am so grateful.
You are a star... 

If I may suggest, different marching sounds for different units, the marching sound for the French I always associate with the old guard, but many different drum beats going on should all go to add to the cacophony of battle 
Would like to hear more individual artillery fire, rather than the salvo type...
https://youtu.be/mD9fIz_uO1k?t=143

[Memnon]

Thanks for the kind words Friant. 

If I may suggest, different marching sounds for different units, the marching sound for the French I always associate with the old guard, but

many different drum beats going on should all go to add to the cacophony of battle 

Ideally, that is what I would prefer. I had been focusing on why some units are absent drummers and therefore have no active marching music and how I could change this for other units. Without any luck in figuring it out I moved on to other things, I figured it just may be something that couldn't be modded by the player base. Until your post yesterday that is...I decided to look into it again and it looks like it is possible. Thanks to the fine mod work of bibouba for pointing me in the right direction.

I'll start playing around with it.

Would like to hear more individual artillery fire, rather than the salvo type...
https://youtu.be/mD9fIz_uO1k?t=143

All the artillery sound effects are single shots. Do you mean because the artillery usually fires simultaneously so they sound like a loud salvo? or is it the sound effect itself? The 12lbs gun sound effect has a metal echo after it fires (looking to replace), the 8lbs gun is a YouTube rip sounds decent and less intense, the 4lbs is way less intense.

[[NBC]Friant]

Do you mean because the artillery usually fires simultaneously so they sound like a loud salvo?

Yes, personally I would prefer to hear a more fire a will, sound where all the artillery would be firing, as fast as they loaded...
Below is probably the best example of many guns firing at different rates is the best I could find, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about, listen to whats going on the background as well, would sound good on the field? There are lot of positive comments on the artillery sounds in this game, which proves that sound is very important to people when playing games. Take away the sound of the water and piper and you wouldn't be far from what a battlefield would sound like??
https://youtu.be/54G7DBGcJKI?t=215

Until your post yesterday that is...I decided to look into it again and it looks like it is possible. Thanks to the fine mod work of bibouba for pointing me in the right direction.

imo your sounds are better than the default ones... The battlefield seems alive once more.
I think older people play this game in general and probably would not be tempted to change the files, but you have made it very easy and I hope more people give this a try and comment.

I'll start playing around with it.

Look forward to hearing more of this great mod, please, please continue cannot wait to see what you come up with.
Strangely it is very difficult to find sounds from this era on the net, I looked when trying to play around with the artillery sounds, but it would be great to find more drums, bugles and gun sounds... The more the better because I should imagine the Napoleonic battlefield would have been deafening... and it is fantastic for immersion when playing the game, good luck and looking forward to your work. 

[zu Pferd]

Thank You Memnon for your sound mod. I've downloaded it and tried it out :
I'm going to enjoy it    and be looking forward to your updates.

may I suggest any 'incidental' music from living composers of the time for
ambiance music : Friant had recorded this on one of its videos a long way back...
this would work for the Editors very well.

Best Regards

zu

[thilio]

Thanks Memnon for this mod.
It would be nice to have it available on the depot as well as your elevation mod

[Sidney77]

It looks good. I can finally hear even marching music, it's great. Why there wasn' t any before when in original file there are several marching music samples, too?. When there is volley musket shot it still sounds like it goes from toilet bowl, but I assume this is problem of mixing too many samples at the same time, isn' t it?

[Théodoricus]

Hi all,

Memnon, thank you for your Sound Mod and your Elevations Mod for the maps.
The latter works with the current Map Editor but would it be the when JMM will improve it too ?

I agree with thilio : it would be nice to have these two Mods available on the depot.
http://www.histwar.org/mods/

Théo

[Waldi]

I would like to thank Memnom for sonorizing our battles. The tunes are very interesting and fit the atmosphere very well.

Nevertheless, I would like to report two mistakes :

The austrians actually march on a french tune here. It must be a french march written in 1797, in order to celebrate the "storming of Mantoue" (this is the title of the tune: "la prise de Mantoue").

The prussians march on another french tune, called "aux champs" , played here by fife and drums. (It is not a march, but only a military signal for honors).

[Memnon]

Hi All, Thanks for the comments.

I currently have an issue preventing me to upload to the depot. As soon as it is fixed, I'll upload the elevation mod. The sound mod is a bit too large to go thru the depot, at least in one piece.

[Memnon]

Nevertheless, I would like to report two mistakes :

The austrians actually march on a french tune here. It must be a french march written in 1797, in order to celebrate the "storming of Mantoue" (this is the title of the tune: "la prise de Mantoue").

The prussians march on another french tune, called "aux champs" , played here by fife and drums. (It is not a march, but only a military signal for honors).

For the Austrians it came down to sounding close enough. I found it on YouTube from a french movie that applied it to the Prussians. Close enough. There is an Austrian sound mod in the depot by bibouba that has other options, I didn't want to include them without his permission.

I have to disagree on the Prussian march. I believe it is a version of Hohenfriedberger March. That one was already in the Prussian sound folder, I just switched it to the marching music.

[Waldi]

As regards the Prussians, I spoke about the tune referenced in your basis " sound 04 - unknow music - Prussia ". It is well the french napoleonics signal "Aux champs".

[Memnon]

As regards the Prussians, I spoke about the tune referenced in your basis " sound 04 - unknow music - Prussia ". It is well the french napoleonics signal "Aux champs".

I see now. That is another file already in the Prussian sound folder I converted to match the same bit-rate as the other files. I'm not sure when or if it plays in game. Thanks for the name of the tune, maybe I can find somewhere to use it with the French.

I've been putting info in the .wav files when I convert them for easy identification. If the Title and Album columns aren't already visible in your sound folders, you can make them visible by right clicking somewhere on the column and checking Title and Album. If anyone knows the name of a piece of music that isn't already identified or thinks it might be a different piece, please let me know.

[Waldi]

For the Swedes (but also all the not Austrian Germans) I propose "Schwedischer Reitermarsch". It is a classic for the period. Even the Frenchs  played her, (we find track in a novel of Erckman-Chatrian). She  is easy to find on "YouTube".

[MarshalJean]

Memnon,

I've been running some tests with your mod.  I REALLY like the new sounds, especially for infantry fire and canon fire, and the new marching music. 

But what I've found is that my game regularly gets stuck for a moment with units moving very slowly and the music/sound frozen...then, all of a sudden, the game begins chugging along as before with sound and movement in sync.  It's almost like the processing of sound, along with the action, will come to some kind of information overload, work through it, and then keep moving.  But it happens enough that it is very annoying and slows the game down considerably. 

To test this, I've removed your mod, replaced the original sound files, returned to the same scenario by reloading the saved battle, and do not experience the same problems with original sound/music.  Then, upon re-installing your mod, the problems immediately return.  The specs on my computer are quite good (the laptop is not even a year old yet with a high end graphics card and plenty of SDRAM), so it's not the computer, I don't think.  If others have not experienced this, then I wonder if I've installed it incorrectly.  If so, then I've installed it correctly enough to notice the new sounds (and to enjoy them!), but incorrectly in such a way that it regularly freezes the game at various times.

Would love your thoughts on this, or anyone else's in the community.  Thanks!

MJ