Music is life

sorab · 05-20-2003, 03:36 AM

Hello again!!!
i was wondering how can i extract baldur's gate music to a readable format by my media player...i have tried almost everything and i want to use that music while playing dnd?
and last but not least i lost from my bagback the string of a bow that throws lightnings(how is that possible?)...so i load a previous game but i cant remember where i got it in the first place!!!!!!!any ideas?

ShadowChild · 05-20-2003, 03:39 AM

*Spoiler-ish*
~
~
~
~
~
~
The Gesen bow string by any chance? yeah i lost that when i came out of the Underdark! don't know if its a bug or if some nasty minion nicked it off me or not - best way is to stick it back in with Shadowkeeper (you've earned so it ain't cheatin really) - as for the music...hmmm not sure on that one sorry!

Oooh sorry! i think the string is in Spellhold ain't it? anyone know for sure?

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-20-2003, 03:42 AM: Message edited by: ShadowChild ]

sorab · 05-20-2003, 03:45 AM

Yes that string and i ve lost it in the same exactly when i came out of the underdark.any clua to get it back?

anyone willing to tell me about baldur's gate music(originally posted)

Glorfindel · 05-20-2003, 04:45 AM

Spoilers
-
-
-

Yes the gesen bow string is in the chest that is in the room with the clay golems, which you get to by going through the Umber Hulk painting wall. Ahh yes I have a clua how to get it back

.. you can CLUA it in... uhh... the code is bow19B, dont use that unless your willing to cheat, of course

, otherwise reload sometime before or while your in spellhold. (But that will take you back a fair bit if you in the underdark.

As for the music I doubt it but there might be a program that you could search for which could do it.... Possibly near infinity could do it... Ive never tried it with NF, otherwise you could try looking through the BG2:SOA folders for the music files, they should be in a format which you could use.

sorab · 05-21-2003, 06:53 AM

i ve already searched the folders but there i cant figure out which are the music files.Althought i have tried everyone in case i was lucky but there is not a sigle file readable by media player.

sorab · 05-21-2003, 08:32 PM

any ideas?about the music?

Mahlennacht · 05-22-2003, 05:55 AM

I've done it - I found out from this little article; forgot where I got it from so I guess I'll reproduce it here:

Note - it may be convenient to use Near Infinity (w/ Java Runtime Environment), but note that I personally never had to use it to actually extract the music, I guess I did it the long way, using only the acm2wav.exe tool. Kind of have to play with it and figure it out yourself, I'm no expert at it but I still managed to get it done somehow... I love to use a loop of selected music like the romance soundtracks, etc. and run it in the background, also love the character-creation music as a loop... Good luck!

Extracting Music from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal by T. Malasri - Aug. 10, 2001

1. Software Tools You Need

- Near Infinity
An Infinity engine browser and editor.
http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/download.html
- acm2wav.exe
Not surprisingly, converts ACM files to WAV. This is actually
all you need to make WAVs of the game music, but I prefer using
it with Near Infinity because it makes browsing and converting
large numbers of files MUCH easier.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte985m/files/acm2wav.exe
- General audio player
Winamp recommended
- WAV sound editor
Windows Sound Recorder is fine.
- MPEG encoder (if desired)
I used SCMPX, a nice little free program that you can get from
CNET Downloads (http://downloads.cnet.com/). Just do a search
for "SCMPX."

Note that Near Infinity is a Java program, so if you don't have the Java
Runtime Environment (or SDK), you will need to go download it from Sun at
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/. More information can be found at the
Near Infinity homepage given above.

2. Getting Started

Place acm2wav.exe in your install directory for BG2. Place the Near
Infinity jar archive anywhere convenient, and double-click on it to run
it. When it asks for a keyfile, use "Chitin.key" from your BG2 folder.

You will see a large window with a listing of game resources on the
left. Find and expand the "Music" tab. Note that the MUS files you see
here are not the actual music data. They are essentially just playlists
telling the game how to play the actual files (which are ACMs scattered
throughout the subfolders in BG2\music\).

3. Previewing and Extracting Sound Files

To browse through the game's music, simply click on any of the files
within the Music tab. Whenever you click on a file, Near Infinity will
show the associated playlist and automatically use acm2wav to convert
the needed ACM files to WAV. These WAVs will show up in the same folder
that you put the "NearInfinity.jar" archive in. You can use the built-
in player to preview them, but I recommend Winamp (or any other audio
player) for one major reason.

The Near Infinity player doesn't seem to allow you to choose files to
play from the playlist. This isn't really a problem in itself, but a
lot of the MUS files contain references to "SPC1" BEFORE anything else.
It turns out that SPC1 is about a minute or so of silence. So, if you
use the built-in player, you have to sit through this before hearing
anything!

(My guess is that SPC1 is used for padding in the game, to prevent the
music from audibly looping as soon as it's finished with one cycle. Most
of the melodies are pretty short, so hearing them over and over without
any breaks probably WOULD get old very fast =P)

Near Infinity deletes the WAV files it generates when you select a
different MUS file, so move aside and/or rename any WAVs that you want
to keep as you browse. Assuming that you don't have gobs of hard drive
space to waste, convert them to MP3, and voila -- new additions to your
Winamp playlist!

4. Note on Putting Together Battle Music

You'll notice that all of the battle music (logically enough, it
generally begins with "B" in the MUS file list) consists of a lot of
small files. This is because unlike regular background music, the game
has to be able to start/stop the battle music to correspond with what
the player is doing. So, in order to allow for smoother transitions,
the music is chopped up into small parts.

Use Windows Sound Recorder (or something similar) to string together the
individual WAVs in alphabetical order so that you have a single WAV
file. Be careful, however... you may not need every WAV that Near
Infinity generates for you. The files toward the end can be alternate
endings that are used to stop the music at various locations. Thus,
it's a good idea to play these files individually first, so that you
don't end up with 3 or 4 different endings tacked on to the music.

5. List of Known Music

A few of the MUS files are pretty self-explanatory; MXAERIE, for
instance, is obviously the Aerie romance music. Unfortunately, most of
the files are rather cryptically named. Following is a list of the ones
I've extracted and kept. (I don't particularly care for the dark
brooding music that plays in dungeons and sewers, so if you want those
files you'll have to look on your own =P)

BJR Battle - Irenicus (also Demogorgon in ToB)
BRD Battle - Various dragons
BSD Battle - Various dragons
DREAM2 Watcher's Keep exterior
HARP_V2 Harper Hold
HARP_V6 Harper Hold
MB Battle - Melissan
MX0015 Inside noble houses
MX0020 City Gates
MX0021 Crooked Crane
MX0313 Crooked Crane (?)
MX0406 Copper Coronet
MX0500 Bridge District
MX0512 Inside various temples
MX0700 Waukeen's Promenade
MX0900 Temple District (also game launcher)
MX1300 de'Arnise Keep
MX1304 de'Arnise Keep (?)
MX1600 Brynnlaw
MX1900 Druid Grove
MX2000 Trademeet
MX4500 Pocket Plane
MX5200 Yaga-Shura's lair
MX5500 Amkethran
MX6000 Abazigal's lair
MX6100 Sendai's lair
MX6200 Throne of Bhaal
MXAERIE Romance - Aerie
MXANOM Romance - Anomen
MXJAHIR Romance - Jaheira
MXMELIS Melissan dialogs, character endings
MXVICON Romance - Viconia
TAV1 Tavern (from BG1)
TAV2 Tavern (from BG1)
TAV3 Tavern (from BG1)
TAV4 Tavern (from BG1)
THEME Main menu (SoA)
THEMET Main menu (ToB)
VB Battle - Various Bhaalspawn

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mahlennacht · 05-22-2003, 07:02 AM

(comment)
...um, let me see... OK, yeah, I made a Winamp playlist which has:

promenade theme
trademeet theme
bridge theme
brynnlaw theme
d'arnise keep theme
crooked crane theme
anomen romance theme
aerie romance theme
jaheira romance theme
viconia romance theme
Harper headquarters themes
two Tavern themes (#3 and #4)

...played in a mixed-up order - I LOVE IT! Definitely worth the trouble to learn how to extract it, Michael Hoenig did an outstanding job with the score.

The only thing that REALLY bugs me is that I can't find that beautiful haunting ambient background loop that you hear in the Lathander temple - I think it's treated as a "sound" than a music file, I guess, so it's probably integrated into the level area, not a separate element...

vesselle · 05-22-2003, 08:10 AM

[img]graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img]

V***V

05-20-2003, 03:36 AM	#1
sorab Dungeon Master Join Date: April 15, 2003 Location: Greece Age: 40 Posts: 80	Hello again!!! i was wondering how can i extract baldur's gate music to a readable format by my media player...i have tried almost everything and i want to use that music while playing dnd? and last but not least i lost from my bagback the string of a bow that throws lightnings(how is that possible?)...so i load a previous game but i cant remember where i got it in the first place!!!!!!!any ideas? __________________ All the world is blind to my passing

05-20-2003, 03:39 AM	#2
ShadowChild Manshoon Join Date: February 19, 2003 Location: Scouse Land... Age: 43 Posts: 230	Spoiler-ish ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Gesen bow string by any chance? yeah i lost that when i came out of the Underdark! don't know if its a bug or if some nasty minion nicked it off me or not - best way is to stick it back in with Shadowkeeper (you've earned so it ain't cheatin really) - as for the music...hmmm not sure on that one sorry! Oooh sorry! i think the string is in Spellhold ain't it? anyone know for sure? [img]smile.gif[/img] [ 05-20-2003, 03:42 AM: Message edited by: ShadowChild ] __________________ Never violate a woman nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil.<br /><br /><i>Druss The Legend</i>

05-21-2003, 06:53 AM	#5
sorab Dungeon Master Join Date: April 15, 2003 Location: Greece Age: 40 Posts: 80	i ve already searched the folders but there i cant figure out which are the music files.Althought i have tried everyone in case i was lucky but there is not a sigle file readable by media player. __________________ All the world is blind to my passing

05-21-2003, 08:32 PM	#6
sorab Dungeon Master Join Date: April 15, 2003 Location: Greece Age: 40 Posts: 80	any ideas?about the music? __________________ All the world is blind to my passing

05-22-2003, 08:10 AM	#9
vesselle Hathor Join Date: April 6, 2001 Location: the desert Posts: 2,296	[img]graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] V***V __________________ my best friend is a junkie. what does your best friend do?

05-20-2003, 03:45 AM	#3
sorab Dungeon Master Join Date: April 15, 2003 Location: Greece Age: 40 Posts: 80	Yes that string and i ve lost it in the same exactly when i came out of the underdark.any clua to get it back? anyone willing to tell me about baldur's gate music(originally posted) __________________ All the world is blind to my passing

05-20-2003, 04:45 AM	#4
Glorfindel Ma'at - Goddess of Truth & Justice Join Date: January 9, 2002 Location: Mt. Gambier, Australia Age: 36 Posts: 3,337	Spoilers - - - Yes the gesen bow string is in the chest that is in the room with the clay golems, which you get to by going through the Umber Hulk painting wall. Ahh yes I have a clua how to get it back .. you can CLUA it in... uhh... the code is bow19B, dont use that unless your willing to cheat, of course , otherwise reload sometime before or while your in spellhold. (But that will take you back a fair bit if you in the underdark. As for the music I doubt it but there might be a program that you could search for which could do it.... Possibly near infinity could do it... Ive never tried it with NF, otherwise you could try looking through the BG2:SOA folders for the music files, they should be in a format which you could use.

05-22-2003, 05:55 AM	#7
Mahlennacht Drow Warrior Join Date: September 10, 2001 Location: CA, USA Age: 60 Posts: 298	I've done it - I found out from this little article; forgot where I got it from so I guess I'll reproduce it here: Note - it may be convenient to use Near Infinity (w/ Java Runtime Environment), but note that I personally never had to use it to actually extract the music, I guess I did it the long way, using only the acm2wav.exe tool. Kind of have to play with it and figure it out yourself, I'm no expert at it but I still managed to get it done somehow... I love to use a loop of selected music like the romance soundtracks, etc. and run it in the background, also love the character-creation music as a loop... Good luck! Extracting Music from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal by T. Malasri - Aug. 10, 2001 1. Software Tools You Need - Near Infinity An Infinity engine browser and editor. http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/download.html - acm2wav.exe Not surprisingly, converts ACM files to WAV. This is actually all you need to make WAVs of the game music, but I prefer using it with Near Infinity because it makes browsing and converting large numbers of files MUCH easier. http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte985m/files/acm2wav.exe - General audio player Winamp recommended - WAV sound editor Windows Sound Recorder is fine. - MPEG encoder (if desired) I used SCMPX, a nice little free program that you can get from CNET Downloads (http://downloads.cnet.com/). Just do a search for "SCMPX." Note that Near Infinity is a Java program, so if you don't have the Java Runtime Environment (or SDK), you will need to go download it from Sun at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/. More information can be found at the Near Infinity homepage given above. 2. Getting Started Place acm2wav.exe in your install directory for BG2. Place the Near Infinity jar archive anywhere convenient, and double-click on it to run it. When it asks for a keyfile, use "Chitin.key" from your BG2 folder. You will see a large window with a listing of game resources on the left. Find and expand the "Music" tab. Note that the MUS files you see here are not the actual music data. They are essentially just playlists telling the game how to play the actual files (which are ACMs scattered throughout the subfolders in BG2\music\). 3. Previewing and Extracting Sound Files To browse through the game's music, simply click on any of the files within the Music tab. Whenever you click on a file, Near Infinity will show the associated playlist and automatically use acm2wav to convert the needed ACM files to WAV. These WAVs will show up in the same folder that you put the "NearInfinity.jar" archive in. You can use the built- in player to preview them, but I recommend Winamp (or any other audio player) for one major reason. The Near Infinity player doesn't seem to allow you to choose files to play from the playlist. This isn't really a problem in itself, but a lot of the MUS files contain references to "SPC1" BEFORE anything else. It turns out that SPC1 is about a minute or so of silence. So, if you use the built-in player, you have to sit through this before hearing anything! (My guess is that SPC1 is used for padding in the game, to prevent the music from audibly looping as soon as it's finished with one cycle. Most of the melodies are pretty short, so hearing them over and over without any breaks probably WOULD get old very fast =P) Near Infinity deletes the WAV files it generates when you select a different MUS file, so move aside and/or rename any WAVs that you want to keep as you browse. Assuming that you don't have gobs of hard drive space to waste, convert them to MP3, and voila -- new additions to your Winamp playlist! 4. Note on Putting Together Battle Music You'll notice that all of the battle music (logically enough, it generally begins with "B" in the MUS file list) consists of a lot of small files. This is because unlike regular background music, the game has to be able to start/stop the battle music to correspond with what the player is doing. So, in order to allow for smoother transitions, the music is chopped up into small parts. Use Windows Sound Recorder (or something similar) to string together the individual WAVs in alphabetical order so that you have a single WAV file. Be careful, however... you may not need every WAV that Near Infinity generates for you. The files toward the end can be alternate endings that are used to stop the music at various locations. Thus, it's a good idea to play these files individually first, so that you don't end up with 3 or 4 different endings tacked on to the music. 5. List of Known Music A few of the MUS files are pretty self-explanatory; MXAERIE, for instance, is obviously the Aerie romance music. Unfortunately, most of the files are rather cryptically named. Following is a list of the ones I've extracted and kept. (I don't particularly care for the dark brooding music that plays in dungeons and sewers, so if you want those files you'll have to look on your own =P) BJR Battle - Irenicus (also Demogorgon in ToB) BRD Battle - Various dragons BSD Battle - Various dragons DREAM2 Watcher's Keep exterior HARP_V2 Harper Hold HARP_V6 Harper Hold MB Battle - Melissan MX0015 Inside noble houses MX0020 City Gates MX0021 Crooked Crane MX0313 Crooked Crane (?) MX0406 Copper Coronet MX0500 Bridge District MX0512 Inside various temples MX0700 Waukeen's Promenade MX0900 Temple District (also game launcher) MX1300 de'Arnise Keep MX1304 de'Arnise Keep (?) MX1600 Brynnlaw MX1900 Druid Grove MX2000 Trademeet MX4500 Pocket Plane MX5200 Yaga-Shura's lair MX5500 Amkethran MX6000 Abazigal's lair MX6100 Sendai's lair MX6200 Throne of Bhaal MXAERIE Romance - Aerie MXANOM Romance - Anomen MXJAHIR Romance - Jaheira MXMELIS Melissan dialogs, character endings MXVICON Romance - Viconia TAV1 Tavern (from BG1) TAV2 Tavern (from BG1) TAV3 Tavern (from BG1) TAV4 Tavern (from BG1) THEME Main menu (SoA) THEMET Main menu (ToB) VB Battle - Various Bhaalspawn ------------------------------------------------------------------------

05-22-2003, 07:02 AM	#8
Mahlennacht Drow Warrior Join Date: September 10, 2001 Location: CA, USA Age: 60 Posts: 298	(comment) ...um, let me see... OK, yeah, I made a Winamp playlist which has: promenade theme trademeet theme bridge theme brynnlaw theme d'arnise keep theme crooked crane theme anomen romance theme aerie romance theme jaheira romance theme viconia romance theme Harper headquarters themes two Tavern themes (#3 and #4) ...played in a mixed-up order - I LOVE IT! Definitely worth the trouble to learn how to extract it, Michael Hoenig did an outstanding job with the score. The only thing that REALLY bugs me is that I can't find that beautiful haunting ambient background loop that you hear in the Lathander temple - I think it's treated as a "sound" than a music file, I guess, so it's probably integrated into the level area, not a separate element...

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