Note: If you have FF7 Remix installed, you can skip down to step 2b!Ways to get FF7's internal MIDI to mute (only use one of these):*download
LoopBe1 and set that as your midi device in FF7 Configuration (note that if you've got
Aali's custom driver, you have to re-apply the registry key after running FF7 Configuration)
*Use
Aali's custom driver's "FakeMidi" option found in the OpenGL.cfg file (Note that older versions of the driver have been known to have a faulty "FakeMidi" device, make sure it's up to date)
*Use a blank midi.lgp file, like the
one Nero created and overwrite the old one with it (though keep in mind that you should back it up if you want to be able to listen to the old midi music whenever you want)
There have been a ton of people on the forums asking about how to get their mp3's to loop properly using Ficedula's FF7Music, so I figured I'd start this topic as a quick step-by-step tutorial on how to do it
Step 1: Acquire a complete soundtrack, properly named as shown below and with silence cropped out of beginning and end:
aseri = "Hurry!"
aseri2 = "Hurry Faster! (Hurry up!)"
ayasi = "Lurking in the Darkness"
barret = "Barret's Theme"
bat = "Fighting (Let the Battles Begin)"
bee = "Honeybee Manor"
bokujo = "Farm Boy"
boo = "Lifestream"
cannon = "The Makou Cannon is Fired~Shinra Explodes" (medley)
canyon = "Cosmo Canyon"
cephiros = "Those Chosen by the Planet"
chase = "Crazy Motorcycle"
chu = "Those Who Fight Further"
chu2 = "J-E-N-O-V-A"
cinco = "Cinco de Chocobo"
cintro = "Those Chosen by the Planet" (heartbeat intro only)
comical = [Unused in game]
condor = "Fortress of the Condor"
corel = "Mining Town"
corneo = "Don of the Slums"
costa = "Costa del Sol"
crlost = "Tango of Tears"
crwin = "A Great Success"
date = "Interrupted by Fireworks"
dokubo = "Underneath the Rotting Pizza"
dun2 = "Chasing the Black Caped Man"
earis = "Aerith's Theme"
earislo = "Flowers Blooming in the Church"
elec = "Electric de Chocobo"
fan2 = "Fanfare" (full)
fanfare = "Fanfare" (opening)
fiddle = "Fiddle de Chocobo"
fin = "World Crisis"
geki = "Debut"
gold1 = "Gold Saucer"
guitar2 = "On the Other Side of the Mountain"
gun = "Shinra Army Wages a Full Scale Attack"
hen = "Who Am I?"
hiku = "The Highwind Takes to the Skies"
horror = "Trail of Blood"
iseki = "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet"
jukai = "Forested Temple"
junon = "Off the Edge of Despair"
jyro = "Steal the Tiny Bronco"
ketc = "Cait Sith's Theme"
kita = "The Great Northern Cave"
kurai = "Anxious Heart"
lb1 = "Birth of a God"
lb2 = "One Winged Angel"
lb2_awe = "One Winged Angel" (AWE)
ld = "Judgement Day"
makoro = "Makou Reactor"
mati = "Ahead On Our Way"
mekyu = "Reunion"
mogu = "The Moogle Takes to the Skies" (first 15s of "The Highwind Takes to the Skies")
mura1 = "Parochial Town"
nointro = "Those Chosen by the Planet" (no heartbeat intro)
oa = "Opening~Bombing Mission" (medley)
ob = "Bombing Mission"
odds = "Place Your Bets! (Racing Chocobos)"
over2 = "Continue"
parade = "Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony"
pj = "Jenova Absolute"
pre = "Final Fantasy VII Prelude Theme"
red = "Red XIII's Theme"
rhythm = "Turks' Theme"
riku = "Shinra Explodes" (part 1)
ro = "The Countdown Begins"
rocket = "Oppressed People"
roll = "Staff Roll"
rukei = "Sandy Badlands"
sadbar = "Mark of the Traitor"
sadsid = "Sending a Dream into the Universe"
sea = "Secret of the Deep Sea"
seto = "Great Warrior"
si = "Shinra Explodes" (part 2)
sid2 = "Cid's Theme"
sido = "It's Difficult Standing on Both Feet, isn't it?"
siera = "If You Open Your Heart"
sinra = "Shinra Company"
sinraslo = "Infiltrating Shinra Tower"
snow = "Buried in the Snow"
ta = "Final Fantasy VII Main Theme"
tb = "Final Fantasy VII Main Theme" (from middle)
tender = "Holding my Thoughts in my Heart"
tifa = "Tifa's Theme"
tm = "On That Day, Five Years Ago"
utai = "Wutai"
vincent = "The Nightmare's Beginning (Vincent's Theme)"
walz = "Waltz de Chocobo"
weapon = "Weapon Raid"
yado = "Goodnight Until Tomorrow"
yufi = "Descendant of Shinobi"
yufi2 = "Stolen Materia"
yume = "Who Are You?"
You can get pre-cropped songs from
FFT (whenever he uploads them) or from
here (compliments of willis936) or you can use this
patch.
or if you prefer to do it yourself, grab Audacity from
hereand crop your audio files by opening up your mp3's, highlighting the horizontal areas (shown below), and cutting them out.
This can be done by clicking on an area between silence and sound, zooming in for precision, pressing shift+end or shift+home, and pressing ctrl+x.
...and repeat for all files.
*note that some songs (like Bombing Mission, for example) will require you to cut some of the track out in order to loop effectively, whereas some songs cannot really *loop* but only start over quickly (like Debut). Also remember that you cannot make any changes to the mp3 while it's playing or paused.
Step 2:Open \ficedula\ff7music.ini in your FF7 folder (assuming you've got
FF7Music Installed, if not, grab that before any of this) with notepad.
Check this line:
[Setup]
InputPlugin=C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\ficedula\in_xxx.dll
if this says in_mp3.dll and you're running a 64-bit OS, you need Covarr's or my version of FF7Music.
Step 2a:If you've got the old version of FF7Music and you have "in_mp3.dll" as your mp3 plugin and a 32-bit OS, this is what you do, otherwise scroll down to the next step
Under where it says "LoopFudge=2000" (shown below) change that to something lower but not considerably so. The optimal number for your machine will vary but I find that 250 works fine for me.
Step 2b:If you did step 2a, this part isn't necessary.
Hopefully, this will already be done in future versions of FF7 Remix. However, since the wave configuration data isn't stored in any of the FF7Music files, that'll be a little tricky to do...
Open FF7Music, and click the configure button, then, under the setup tab, click the configure button for the output plugin.
Your options should look like this:
Set your pre-buffer to something low, but not too low. (again, ~250 works fine for me...though you can only scroll in multiples of 4 so...248. You can actually scroll in multiples of 1 by hitting the left/right arrow keys, too, but meh.)
and set your buffer ahead to the difference between the buffer and the pre-buffer. (as shown in the screencap)
Close the window, and hit save and exit, and restart ff7music.
Step 3:Run your game, wait for a song to loop. If something bad happens (quality sucks, song doesn't loop, song doesn't play, song stutters, etc...) you went too low. If you can still hear a considerable silence (longer than ~0.3 sec) you should check steps 1 & 2.
Click Here to see the results. (and keep in mind that it can actually be reduced lower than this)