Soundtrack Modding Laboratory

[Mahmood]

Hi guys! I've been working tirelessly to get down to the bottom of the soundtrack modding issue. It's a weird one, and I'd appreciate some help from the community.

Firstly, the wavs that we export from 2k21 don't even open in Audacity anymore, EVEN IF you have the ffmpeg library installed. (Which I Do)

I've been looking around the web for days for an answer, and have nothing so far. I have tried using my mod from last year and it only results in songs being blanks and my game crashing.

Please post your discoveries, inquiries, or leads down below so we can get down to the bottom of it! Being able to open the files and find out what type they are would be a start!

[Mahmood]

With further research, I can't open any file in Audacity besides 029. Even with this, Audacity shows that the file has the same properties that files had in 2K20, which we know isn't the case, because 2K20 soundtrack files don't play in 2K21, they only play as blanks and or crash your game. So either there's a header on the file or I'm missing something. We're gonna need Looyh to work his magic as always on this, because I'm currently at a loss.

[cujomatty]

I got the majority of them open I'm just working on getting them back into the game. I didnt do any work with soundtracks last year so I'm having to do a bit of research. I'll update here.

[cujomatty]

This is a tough one. The wave file is in an ogg container and I have no idea how to get the game to recognize the OGG header.

if you want to keep messing around the majority of the exported wave files will open and play in Goldwave.

[Mahmood]

This is a tough one. The wave file is in an ogg container and I have no idea how to get the game to recognize the OGG header.

if you want to keep messing around the majority of the exported wave files will open and play in Goldwave.

For whatever reason, if I open the file in Goldwave it still opens as just white noise. Am I missing a Plug-In or something?

[cujomatty]

This is a tough one. The wave file is in an ogg container and I have no idea how to get the game to recognize the OGG header.

if you want to keep messing around the majority of the exported wave files will open and play in Goldwave.

For whatever reason, if I open the file in Goldwave it still opens as just white noise. Am I missing a Plug-In or something?

I dont have any plug ins.

heres what I did so you can replicate.

i extracted all the jukebox files using the manifest for 2k21 and looyhs export tool.

i then opened Goldwave.

highlighted all the wav files I exported and dragged into the Goldwave window.

any of the files that gave an error I just selected cancel. 25 of the 39 I dragged were usable in Goldwave. By usable I mean it was the music file. I could listen to it, edit it and save. The default format it says when you select "save as" is .ogg which is correct.

[Mahmood]

This is a tough one. The wave file is in an ogg container and I have no idea how to get the game to recognize the OGG header.

if you want to keep messing around the majority of the exported wave files will open and play in Goldwave.

For whatever reason, if I open the file in Goldwave it still opens as just white noise. Am I missing a Plug-In or something?

I dont have any plug ins.

heres what I did so you can replicate.

i extracted all the jukebox files using the manifest for 2k21 and looyhs export tool.

i then opened Goldwave.

highlighted all the wav files I exported and dragged into the Goldwave window.

any of the files that gave an error I just selected cancel. 25 of the 39 I dragged were usable in Goldwave. By usable I mean it was the music file. I could listen to it, edit it and save. The default format it says when you select "save as" is .ogg which is correct.

Thanks again, Cujo. Looking back into this today. Do you by any chance have any updates of your own? I've figured out how to change the soundtrack list in-game and art associated with it (which I'm pretty sure DaInfamousNY found last year)

[Mahmood]

Upon opening the files in Goldwave, the program says that they are Ogg's saved at 48000Hz at 143kbs stereo. Not sure what others could do with this information, but anyone who knows their way around audio files could surely do something with this and the files themselves.

[cujomatty]

A couple things are throwing me off.
1. The format makes no sense. In the manifest the file says wav but like you said, when you import the file in Goldwave it says ogg which makes sense as often video game sounds are ogg. I've never heard of a wav file stored in an ogg file though so I'm struggling to figure out what format the game wants.

2. Even if you save a replacement file in the right format I'm not at all confident it would play by putting it into the mods folder. The reason I say that is if you export one of the jukebox songs using the manifest, change its file name to a different track number, it doesnt play in game. It really should. I dont have 2k20 anymore but I would be curious to know if that works in 20. could someone export one of the jukebox files from 2k20, rename it and place in waguia or mods and let me know if it plays. DONT RUN ANYTHING THROUGH LOOYHS TOOL.

[cujomatty]

looking at Looyhs tool from last year, it converts mp3s to ogg. My guess is they changed the ogg header this year and that's why it wont play but again, not sure why you cant just rename one you extracted and have it work in game. There are tools to look at ogg headers like vorbis toolz or ogg tools. I would think that might be where this needs to go.

[Mahmood]

looking at Looyhs tool from last year, it converts mp3s to ogg. My guess is they changed the ogg header this year and that's why it wont play but again, not sure why you cant just rename one you extracted and have it work in game. There are tools to look at ogg headers like vorbis toolz or ogg tools. I would think that might be where this needs to go.

My guess as well. We need someone to look at the header (or I grow some balls and look at it myself ) and whenever I put a 2K20 Jukebox File into the Mods folder, it is just a blank and crashes my game. It MUST have something to do with the OGG Header as the files seemed to be saved in the same exact format as last year's iteration.