SS2 Music Mod, thelovebat's Alternate Music Additions

[66471692add7cthelovebat]

Hey there everyone, not new to the forum here but finally signed up recently so I could go ahead and post about a music mod I had made for myself some time back, when I was first getting into playing System Shock 2 (I was quite excited to see it come to GOG with their big reveal).

Basically I had kinda thought some of the spots in the game like the main menu and options menu seemed a bit barren with just a background sound effect playing, so I went through my music library and tried finding some things that may possibly fit.  After finding a few songs I felt fit for the atmosphere and mood of the game, I did some simple editing in Audacity to try and use some different portions of the music (making the music loopable where needed), as well as adding in the original background sound (at a lower volume) to the new music loops for the two menus.  As an extra song for fun I tried finding something fitting for the elevator music as well and used just a small portion of the music while doing my best to make it loopable during editing.

The Main Menu music tune is basically the full song being used (slightly shortened but most of the song being intact), while the Options Menu and Elevator music use shortened selections of the original song to cut down on uneeded length and make the included music sound most appropriate and loopable.  The Options Menu music also happens to play during loading screens as well.

I'll list the song credits down below and what they're used for, with more info and sources listed in the attached txt file (txt file also included in full download link).  Filenames for each music track shown in parenthesis, if you don't wish to use all the songs when manually placing them in the mod folder.  Simply remove songs with the relevant filename that you don't want to include in your mod folder.  There are download links for each individual song further down for those using a mod manager instead, or for those wanting to download the songs separately.

• Main Menu music (mloop1):  Ambiente Dolce by Adam-Beilgard
• Options Menu music (mloop2):  Meteors by Stardate
• Elevator music (elevator):  Fly Me to the Moon instrumental version (from Neon Genesis Evangelion)

7/10/15 Edit: Fly Me to the Moon link changed to include correct song link, since numerous instrumental versions exist.  This link contains the version of the song contained in the mod.

9/9/16 Edit: I'll return to this thread from time to time to update the one click download links for the Mediafire mirrors listed.  After a certain amount of time the links seem to give a download error and the site forces you to go to the download page with ads and possibly a captcha to fill out, instead of being able to utilize the one click download.

Mirror Download Link for newly updated setup to the mod.  New download mirror has OGG audio and is compressed in the proper format to use with a mod manager.  Thanks Kolya. 

Below are download links for each individual song, if you're using a mod manager instead of doing things manually and don't want to use all of them in your mod loadout.

• Main Menu music
• Options Menu music
• Elevator music

Hope everyone enjoys the music.  Let me know what you guys think, all sorts of criticism and comments welcome.

[66471692adff8Kolya]

Welcome lovebat and thanks for your work. I converted your music mod from WAV files (60 MB) to OGG (6 MB) and restructured the archive a bit to comply with our standard and make it work with the mod manager. Sounds good.

[66471692ae168voodoo47]

SS2 Alternate music selections for main menu, options menu, and elevator music maybe?

[66471692ae633thelovebat]

Welcome lovebat and thanks for your work. I converted your music mod from WAV files (60 MB) to OGG (6 MB) and restructured the archive a bit to comply with our standard and make it work with the mod manager. Sounds good.

Thanks for the assistance.    I hadn't realized that you could use OGG audio files for these sorts of mods or I would have likely done that instead of wav.  The Options Menu music (Meteors) was sourced from FLAC audio so that track was high enough quality to begin with, while the only sources I have for the other two songs are MP3.  I can go ahead and upload the updated OGG file pack to Mediafire to serve as a mirror download link in case something should happen to the site.

Glad you enjoy the music.

SS2 Alternate music selections for main menu, options menu, and elevator music maybe?

I'm fine with any of the site admins altering the topic title as needed to sound most appropriate.  I just put down a general title I could think of at the time since it was for more than one song.  Alternate Music Selections or Alternate Music Additions would sound fine, I wish I could think of a fancy name for it though that didn't sound plain.

[66471692ae946Olfred]

I haven't checked out the mod (yet) but that name given really is quite long.
What about "Ambient Music Mod"?

Oh and I really like the NGE fly me to the moon. For me it's the loveliest version of that title.

[66471692aebb1thelovebat]

I haven't checked out the mod (yet) but that name given really is quite long.
What about "Ambient Music Mod"?

Oh and I really like the NGE fly me to the moon. For me it's the loveliest version of that title.

Hiya.  After a few noted that the topic title seemed to need altering I shortened it up a bit to sound better.  Hope it reads better now and doesn't sound too lengthy.

And yeah I agree, Evangelion's renditions of Fly Me to the Moon are great and probably my favorites of the song too.

[66471692aecf9ZylonBane]

A single mod that changes both in-game music and out-of-game background sound seems like perhaps a bad idea.

[66471692aee0aYankee Clipper]

The Bjork mod did the same thing. I think it is now a tradition.

[66471692af078Olfred]

A single mod that changes both in-game music and out-of-game background sound seems like perhaps a bad idea.

Well, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what to delete as you can see in here which song is played where and you can actually play them outside of the game.
To easen it up the filenames could be added to the list of the first post.

[66471692af521thelovebat]

A single mod that changes both in-game music and out-of-game background sound seems like perhaps a bad idea.

I'm not sure if I follow you on that one.  Two of the three songs are additions to menus where there previously wasn't any music (while still retaining the sound effects as described in the OP at adjusted volume).  They're also optional and all of these songs can be used separately of one another, as I list the filenames of each music track in the included txt file.  The third song is only replacing Elevator music which I doubt anyone is going to miss and is still optional should people not want to change any of the in-game music.  It's very easy to only use 1 of 3 or 2 of 3 songs if you wish by knowing the filenames of each track.

Well, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what to delete as you can see in here which song is played where and you can actually play them outside of the game.
To easen it up the filenames could be added to the list of the first post.

Sure, I can add that so people can more easily know which one is which in the folders of the download if they don't want to use all of them (was included in the txt file but the OP is more convenient to read).  All of these songs are optional and I did my best to find ones that fit the mood and style of the game/context of where they were being used.

[66471692af653Olfred]

I guess what ZylonBane wanted to say that it may be better to host each song (or just menu and elevator) individually so anyone is free to choose which one he wants instead of changing stuff at two places at a time.

But in my opinion this seems fine as you see the song replacement as a whole tuned together thing. And if anyone don't want a specific aspect of it he is free to delete it.

[66471692af7b9ZylonBane]

For the last few years we've been pushing toward allowing people to install and remove SS2 mods using a mod manager, which is much more user-friendly. Going back to the old "well, just copy whatever files you want" model feels like a regression. That's why it's important for mod packages to be a single conceptual unit, not a grab-bag. What we have here is really two mods: an elevator muzak mod, and an interface sound mod.

[66471692afb62thelovebat]

For the last few years we've been pushing toward allowing people to install and remove SS2 mods using a mod manager, which is much more user-friendly. Going back to the old "well, just copy whatever files you want" model feels like a regression. That's why it's important for mod packages to be a single conceptual unit, not a grab-bag. What we have here is really two mods: an elevator muzak mod, and an interface sound mod.

I can update the OP then to include downloads for each individual song along with the download of all 3, so everyone has the options of whatever they'd like.  The attachment limit may not allow me to though so I may need to use download mirrors for that.

[66471692afc80Olfred]

That's up to you and Kolya how you want it hosted.
I just wanted to clarify the situation.

[66471692afd8aKolya]

I think it's fine as is. Separating a single file into it's own mod doesn't seem very practical.

[66471692afe8fSystem Shocked]

Downloaded/installed your elevator music. To quote Kramer from the Seinfeld TV show, ". . . and I'm lovin' every minute of it!"

I appreciate your efforts, and thanks for the mod.

[66471692affc7VanZant]

I would use this if it was part of the volume for sounds instead of music, since I turn off that awful music that plays when you're supposed to be concentrating. I would pick a different elevator track and filter it to sound like it's playing from a small overhead speaker. Different track, like the real Fly Me to the Moon Sinatra track! Good idea

[66471692b00abOlfred]

Frank Sinatra wasn't the first one to sing it.

[66471692b048aSystem Shocked]

. . . and filter it to sound like it's playing from a small overhead speaker. . .

C'mon, its far in the future. Elevator's probably outfitted with Dolby Infini-MAX®  11.1 surround. TriOp spares no expense. 

[66471692b087aKolya]

I would use this if ...

That's too bad, because A) that would require inappropriately deep game changes instead of simply replacing the sound files and B) since you don't like System Shock 2's music in the first place, your opinion on music mods is automatically disqualified. Because I said so.   

[66471692b0b65Yankee Clipper]

I would use this if it was part of the volume for sounds instead of music, since I turn off that awful music that plays when you're supposed to be concentrating. I would pick a different elevator track and filter it to sound like it's playing from a small overhead speaker. Different track, like the real Fly Me to the Moon Sinatra track! Good idea

The elevator muzak is part of the sound effects and not part of the background music. I have the background music completely shut off but I hear the muzak no problem.

ps Kolya sniffs glue so his opinion on music should be weighed accordingly.

[66471692b0c54Kolya]

With enough glue I could fix the world... Just like the old gypsy woman said!

[66471692b0d8cVanZant]

Ok, soundly agree that Sinatra wasn't the first, I know now thanks to you, but he sung it damn well. It's my favorite song in his collection.
Also agree the future would have some heck of a speaker setup, or at if people are cybornetically enhanced, the music would play in the mind through the implants as they inch closer to the elevator, also giving them options to disable or add filters to the muzak. Even change the track to something else. That would be a neat future... Customizing your visuals too, how you see NPCs. Like Skyrim hahahaha

[66471692b0f16thelovebat]

Hey everyone, just posting again to let you guys know I'll jump in to update the mirror download links with the one click download Mediafire links every now and again.  I noticed after a long enough period of time that the one click download would stop working as intended and would end up taking you to the traditional Mediafire download page present with the usual ads, and potentially a captcha depending how many things you intended to download.  So to make sure the one click links stay up and running especially for those who want to use just one or two songs and not all three in their mod setup, I'll try and remember to return to this thread once every couple months to check in on the download links so people have the convenient option available of the one click download.

Hope everyone has been enjoying the mod in their playthroughs.