audio edit

[Razor]

Hi does anybody know how to successfully edit gta2 audio files (not radio)? When i tried to put some my audio by GTA Wave 4.0 there was no efect also there was no audio at all. Did anybody successfully put any cutom audio by this software?

[Sektor]

I haven't tried it recently but it worked long ago. It was annoying having to keep the sample sizes small.

[Razor]

and convertion... can you tell me a bitrate etc

[B-$hep]

Razor.
GTA2 needs very specific bitrates and stuff. You could actually extract the sample you want to modify and look at it's properties. What Windows shows about kHZ and stuff.
Then you must convert your wav to exactly same format and it must be as small as possible.

I had an idea for a long time actually, write the new audio editor for GTA2 that is smarter and tells user if the wav he is importing will actually work or not before actually even saving the new RAW and SDT file and if not it will convert it to right format and make it as small as possible. Just to fit to exactly what GTA2 needs.

Is there any point to create new editor or not?
It's easy to code new editor and i could take little side project to my map editor and STY tool.

[Razor]

yes it is becouse this editor is difficult to use and now i think it will be common when gh 1.5 will be relased

[B-$hep]

Hmm.
What exactly is difficult?

And i wonder why some people talk when playing MP with GTA2 11.x (?) that they need some special (?) audio files to be included. What is that?

[Gustavob]

That is when you create new .sty files for your map, you need a .sdt and a .raw file with same name of the sty file. GTA2 11.3 uses ste.sdt and ste.raw when no .sdt and .raw files with the name of the sty file are found

[Cuban-Pete]

Audacity is free sound editor and you can select precise bit-rate.

[Cuban-Pete]

Audacity is free sound editor and you can select precise bit-rate.

I edited pistol sound when you pick a pistol (with Audacity) to a high pitch voice. lol

Try it, it works (don't forget to back up your old pistol sound).

Or is this not what you people meant?

[B-$hep]

No need for custom wav for changing pitch. You can do that in GTA Wave already.
What Razor meant is that GTA2 doesn't play every wav you put in there.
It must have specific format (bitrate, size) etc.

Seems that GTA2 has crappy audio engine, that doesn't play every wav.

[BenMillard]

I increased the speed of GT-A1 by 200% and it sounded a bit like an F1 car. Editing existing sounds is best since they actually have a lot of detail and depth to them.

I remember making car sounds for GTA1 by burbling, screeching and growling into a microphone. I think increased or decreased speed, merged them over each other, all using the super-simple "Sound Editor" which comes with Windows. (GTA Wave 4 uses this editor by default.)

For example, I growled and sped it up, then slowed it down, then merged it with a slightly offset version of the same sound. This produced a nice V8 noise. Then I whistled into distant microphone and slowed it down a lot. Merged the two sounds and it was like a supercharged V8. I used it on a hot rod for my GTA1 level, City in Crisis.

I also recorded a tin being dropped on the floor and modified it to sound like empty bullet cases hitting the floor when you shoot machine gun or pistol. This was years before those scenes in the first Matrix, when Agent Smith shoots Neo. Oh and when Neo is using the cannon on the helicopter (piloted by Trinity) against a bunch of Agents to try and save Morpheus.

Ahhh...brings back memories.

[Razor]

What Razor meant is that GTA2 doesn't play every wav you put in there.

indeed

and Ben yes i would like to add some custom f1 sounds to Golden Lap map

[Sektor]

I noticed it won't let you import if the file has read only attribute and it won't show the names of the sounds unless the files are named like the defaults (bil, ste, wil).

[elypter]

I have the same problem. I wanted to import the radio tune from Portal into Rocket Chamber http://gtamp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=185 .
i wanted the sound to play when kicking the radio which replaces the football. The sound for this is SFX_COLLISION_PLASTIC . The only i could get something working was by reducing either the length or the bitrate of the sound. It does not need to be the same bitrate as the original one. This way it is possible to reduce the sample size without making the sound shorter. The original sample size was ~2400. The maximum is ~14000. Only for this one i figured out the maximum sample size.
There was also another problem with that sound(only with this one(but i haven't tried out many)): The samplerate seems to be hardcoded. It doesn't matter which value or variation i select in gtawave.

If someone else has found some limits(or sounds where no limit exists) please post them. Maybe we could find out the reason for this limitation this way. Do we actually know whether this is a bug in gta2 or in gtawave4?

[BenMillard]

There was a total audio filesize limit in GTA1. It was quite tight to what the original game used, so you had to replace things like-for-like.

[B-$hep]

Ben, Sektor or anybody.

Is there a point to make new improved audio editor?
Something "smarter" than GTAWAVE. Automatically checking your audio track is suitable for GTA2 at all, converting if needed to correct format etc.

More features?

[Sektor]

Maybe but I personally wouldn't use it. Years ago I wasted days converting/importing South Park, Quarantine and other sounds to GTA1/GTA2 but I was never happy with the results and don't know if I still have them anymore.

[Razor]

idea is good i will use it for sure if that software will be created

[elypter]

Although i would prefer having no limitations for audio file length it would definitely be a great help not having to test and modify every file 10 times until it fits. And if you find out the exact reason for the limitations maybe vike could achieve a little wonder please