ROM Hack Objection! Change music, is it possible?

[Peterster]

I am a big fan of the phoenix wright series. I own all the games.
Yet I've never finished playing Phoenix Wright 2, because of the subpar music (A few key songs)

I want to hack the game and replace those songs with music from phoenix wright 3.
Note: I am a complete noob at hacking at the moment.

Please tell me:

1) Is it possible?
2) If so, What programs do I need?
3) Where I can find some tutorials to learn the required skills?
4) If you can help me in any other way please don't be shy

It concerns the following songs:

PW2 --------------------------------------> PW3
Replace BGM069.SSEQ With BGM118.SSEQ
Replace BGM070.SSEQ With BGM121.SSEQ
Replace BGM072.SSEQ With BGM119.SSEQ
Replace BGM073.SSEQ With BGM120.SSEQ
Replace BGM074.SSEQ With BGM002.SSEQ
Replace BGM075.SSEQ With BGM003.SSEQ
Replace BGM078.SSEQ With BGM122.SSEQ

 

[FAST6191]

Cross game is often a bit more difficult but same series (especially one like phoenix wright) can make life easier.

Have a read of http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=195905 and the links there.

 

[Peterster]

Thank you for the quick reply I will look into it.
I am a complete noob at hacking but I learn fast and I am passionate about this.

Update1:

I can get the sound_data.sdat from both games.
Now to edit them, no clue how to do it yet but I am going to continue reading your post

Update2:

I extracted the sound_data.sdat to a map with the files:
Bank, Seq, SeqArc, Strm, WaveArc and sound_data.smap

how should I proceed?

 

[Peterster]

Okay I have transformed all the BGMXXX.sseq into midi's and now I know which of the BGM.sseg's I need to replace.
If I am able to replace the correct songs how do I get integrate the *edited* sound_data.sdat back into the PW2 game?

 

[FAST6191]

If you have a rebuilt SDAT file and associated banks then to "integrate the *edited* sound_data.sdat back into the PW2 game" is the easiest thing in all of DS rom hacking:

Disassemble rom
find old sdat
replace with new
rebuilt rom

It is the classic undub hack.

 

[Peterster]

Sorry I spoke too soon, how do I transform:

(Map)sound_data --> sound_data.sdat?

I used nitro explorer 1.2 to extract the the data from sound_data.sdat into
the map "sound_data"
but I can't recompile the map back into sound_data.sdat file (Not with Nitro Explorer)

What do I do?

 

[FAST6191]

The only tool built for anything extensive SDAT rebuilding is http://tahaxan.arcnor.com/forums/index.php?topic=66.0 I might have a copy around here somewhere if you really want it but most just use a hex editor and http://kiwi.ds.googlepages.com/sdat.html as it works far better; while we pretty much totally understand the sdat format everyone who does anything with it tends to want something obscure that 30 seconds in a hex editor can do but would take 5 minutes with GUI apps and probably not spit out as clean a result (indeed I mention ndstool down below and in other threads; the fact it is not 100% accurate has caused several problems in the past).

You have the files in sseq format; you need to find the sseq files you want to replace and either point the sdat at the new file (most people here will stick it on the end of the sdat file) or replace the old file and alter the pointers. Remember the file also has a header value for final file size and going over that without changing it could cause troubles.
SSEQ is but a music sequencer and the big work comes into play with the bank files which act as instrument repositories. If you already understood how SSEQ replacement works then this is simple enough.
I am far too lazy to do a blow by blow example right now but in one of the threads linked I detail how to change pointers to play another file.

Getting the file back into the DS file is different though; nitro explorer is a great app but it lacks this functionality if you going to change file sizes (and you will have if you have done a hack like this). For basic testing ndstool which has frontends in dsbuff and dslazy works well enough.

If you are going to rebuild it then have a read of
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=99814
and
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=127411
and perhaps:
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=457

It is a truly simple process once you have the tool.

 

[Peterster]

I thank you kindly for the reply's.
I used the editor.exe and made (Map)sound_data --> sound_data.sdat
But the sound_data.sdat was 0 bytes? :S

I think I will do it the hex-way.
I've extracted all the files from phoenix wright 2 & 3 with ndstool.
can you tell me in 2-3 sentences how I can open my "sound_data.sdat" with an hex editor?
So I can start editing it.

I tried

/ndstool -d C:\Users\Peter\data

But it didn't work or shouldn't I open it with nsdtool?

EDIT: I can open it with crystaltile2. Seems like an amazing and easy to use program.
I'll report soon If I am making any progress

 

[Peterster]

*Deleted Comment*

 

[Peterster]

Just out of curiosity how long would it take on average for an experienced nds hacker to
replace the following 7 SSEQ files?

PW2 --------------------------------------> PW3
Replace BGM069.SSEQ With BGM118.SSEQ
Replace BGM070.SSEQ With BGM121.SSEQ
Replace BGM072.SSEQ With BGM119.SSEQ
Replace BGM073.SSEQ With BGM120.SSEQ
Replace BGM074.SSEQ With BGM002.SSEQ
Replace BGM075.SSEQ With BGM003.SSEQ
Replace BGM078.SSEQ With BGM122.SSEQ

 

[Peterster]

Okay I am one step further I opened both the PW2 SEQQ file
and the PW3 SEQQ file that is going to replace it.
I am using XVI32 Hex editor for it.

Someone said:
"Copy the exact amount of bytes from the replacement .sseq that will overwrite the original .sseq. Then overwrite it in your Hex Editor."

I don't understand can someone please explain to me exactly what I need to do?
I am so close now