Custom Music

Importing custom music is one of the easiest types of mods, as it simply involves taking any song and converting it to a format that the game can read. New Super Mario Bros. Wii makes use of the BRSTM format, which is also used by several other Nintendo games.

Prerequisites

 * Audacity (or any other sound editor)
 * BrawlBox
 * BRSAR Patcher

Preparing for the Conversion
Open Audacity and press File > Import > Audio.



Now, on the bottom toolbar, change Selection Start, Selection End and Audio Position to Samples. This is important for the later steps.



First, apply the Normalize effect by pressing Effect > Normalize. This will make the audio as loud as possible (roughly similar to the original game's volume) without causing distortions and fixing any volume discrepancy between the two channels in the process. In the dialog that opens, leave the settings as default and press OK. Below is the difference before and after applying the effect:



If you need to make further improvements to the audio, such as cuts or tempo changes, do them before proceeding to the next section. If the audio quality is poor, you can find some tips to improve it here.

Finding the Loop
''Please note that not every song needs a loop (you can find this information here). If this is the case, skip to the next section.''

A loop is a section of the song that replays over and over, preventing it from ending too early and leaving the game without bacgkround music. The loop is defined by two points, the start point and the end point. To find a loop, listen to the song very carefully, until you find a portion that can be looped seamlessly. This is easier when using videogame music, as it is already intended to be looped. Below is an example:



As you can see from the image, the sound in the circled areas are similar, which hints at possible loop points. Further tips on this topic can be found here. Once you have found a suitable loop, click on the start point and press Tracks > Add Label at Selection. Name the label whatever you want, then look at the number of samples in Audio Position and write it down. Repeat for the end point.



Creating the Fast Variant
''If you already have the BRSTM ready and you're lazy, see this alternative method. Additionally, not all songs have a faster variant (see here for a list); if this is the case, skip to the next section.''

For the faster version of the song, which is played when the timer is running low, you can either choose an entirely new song or speed up the normal one. First, export the current song by pressing File > Export Audio. In the window that opens, choose WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM as the format, as it's the only one supported by BrawlBox.



To speed up the song, press Effect > Change Tempo (if you also want to change the pitch, use Change Speed instead). In the window that opens, type the percentage you want to speed up by in Percentage Change. If you want to follow Nintendo's standard, do not change the pitch and use a value of 15. Press the Preview button to preview the effect, and once you're satisfied, press OK to apply the change.



As you might have noticed, the labels (and therefore the loop points) have moved. Click again on each label and write down the new Audio Position values, which will serve as loop points for the faster variant. You can now export the modified song as a second WAV file (pay attention not to overwrite the first one).

Converting to BRSTM
If the song you want to replace has more than two channels, move to this tutorial instead.

It is finally time to convert the song(s) to a format that the game can read. Open BrawlBox and press File > New > Audio > BRSTM Audio Stream.



Choose the WAV file exported earlier on. In the window that opens you can set the loop points. If you want the song to loop, make sure that the Loop tickbox on the top left is enabled, otherwise disable it. Afterwards, insert the loop start and end points that you had written down before in their respective fields. You can preview your song one last time (check the other Loop tickbox on bottom left to make the player loop the song). Once you are ready, press Okay to convert the song to BRSTM.



Once the encoding is complete, press File > Save As and save the file. Repeat this section's steps for the faster variant, if present. It is recommended to save the file with the same name as the one that will be replaced, the full list can be found here.

Patching the BRSAR
If you're replacing a sound file not present in the original game (such as the ones in Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii), you don't need to follow this section.

The final step is to patch the game's BRSAR (which you can find in the sound folder). This file, other than containing all the game's sound effects, manages the loop points and maximum size for all the BRSTM files in the game. If this file isn't updated, the new songs will cut off.

Proceed by placing the BRSAR Patcher in a folder together with the BRSAR and all the BRSTMs that you want to patch (make sure they have the same name as the files they will replace, see here for those). Run Patch.bat to apply the patch and wait until the process is completed, then press any button to close the window.



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