Adding Your Personal Soundtrack

You can also add your own favorite audio tracks. You can have up to 20 music tracks of your choice, and they will play in the game just like any other music tracks you have installed. Of course, it's up to you to provide the source audio files.

Keep in mind that for music to sound the best during this type of game, it should have a fairly constant volume level throughout. Periods of soft music or long fade-ins or fade-outs might sound great when listening under ideal conditions, but during a battle you simply won't hear the music. Consider editing your selections by increasing the volume of some sections of your selections, general normalizing, and shortening fade durations, as needed.

After any and all editing, you'll need to convert your audio files to 22.050 kHz WAV IMA ADPCM format, since this is the only format the game will recognize. So you will likely need a program capable of converting audio files from one format to another. See the Tools page for suggestions.

The game is not capable of reading some sort of embedded title from the audio file itself. Therefore, your music selections will appear on the playlist as "Personal Track #1", "Personal Track #2", etc. I regret there is no good alternative to this, but it shouldn't interfere with your listening enjoyment during the game.

Don't worry if you don't have 20 music selections that you want to use. Even if you only have just one, feel free to use it. You can always add new tracks later if you wish.


Creating your Personal Music Pack:

  1. Refer to the following table to perform the directions below. Be sure to name the music pack filenames exactly, or the game will not find them; and name the mix file exactly as well, or the YR Playlist Modifier will not recognize that you have the Personal music pack installed.
     
    ecachethemeUSER.mix
    Track Title:Music Pack File:
    Personal Track #1user01.wav
    Personal Track #2user02.wav
    Personal Track #3user03.wav
    Personal Track #4user04.wav
    Personal Track #5user05.wav
    Personal Track #6user06.wav
    Personal Track #7user07.wav
    Personal Track #8user08.wav
    Personal Track #9user09.wav
    Personal Track #10user10.wav
    Personal Track #11user11.wav
    Personal Track #12user12.wav
    Personal Track #13user13.wav
    Personal Track #14user14.wav
    Personal Track #15user15.wav
    Personal Track #16user16.wav
    Personal Track #17user17.wav
    Personal Track #18user18.wav
    Personal Track #19user19.wav
    Personal Track #20user20.wav

     
  2. Edit your audio selections, as needed and/or desired. You don't need to have 20 tracks; you can do this for any number, up to 20.
     
  3. Convert the source files to 22.050 kHz WAV IMA ADPCM format. Save the files using the filenames specified in the 'Music Pack File' column of the table. [Help]
     
  4. Create a new MIX file, and name it ecachethemeUSER.mix. Insert any tracks you may have (up to 20) into this MIX. [Help]
     
  5. Ensure that the new MIX file you have created is in your Red Alert 2 folder so the game can find it.
     
  6. If you wish, you can now delete the loose audio files you've been working with to create this music pack.
     
  7. Enable the Custom User soundtrack using the Playlist Modifier. During the game, your personal music selections will be available.