This is a really good and simple way to think of it.

Optional steps to consider as well -

Step 12: Pay attention to how the sounds you are replacing interact with the game and other sounds. Using Audacity, you can take your sample and cut and splice it so it "loops" the part of the audio you want. So for example - with an OST soundtrack, you can have the initial part of the sound file be a dramatic cue and then have it settle into a part of the audio that is more looping in nature and lasts a long time so that you don't have it loop back to the original section if it reaches the end of the track before the next sound file is called up by the game.

Step 13: if you are replacing the soundtrack and don't like that the game doesn't pull in more voice or sound effects that would be appropriate in your opinion to what you want in your head for that section of gameplay, simply use Audacity to lay in extra audio tracks in your timeline for the music file you are creating and insert them into the timeline. It can all save as a single .wav file when you export it.

Step 14: Depending on how you create your audio, some of the files that the stock folder structure has may need moved around. Items that labeled as jingles may need to be moved to singles and vice versa.

I'm currently working on my version of a SWDE soundtrack. My goal is to get 100% away from all of the Data East files with the exception of a couple of the pinball specific voice files. So far, it's been incredibly fun to dive deep into 3 films worth of John Williams soundtracks and Ben Burtt's sound effects. The hard part is figuring out exactly which file is being called during gameplay as they aren't always labeled correctly. I'm tempted to replace all of the sound files I'm having trouble figuring out with .wav files of just a recording of the name of the track and then play a few simulated games to learn when and where they get called up.

Try the reorchestrated TZ mix. It's incredible and exactly what you are looking for - familiarity with higher fidelity.

Nope. The Granner mix is what he originally designed for the DCS sound system; but, when it was running late and TZ was running way over budget - he came up with the stock Golden Earing based version the game shipped with.

The one I'm referring to is this: http://pinsound-community.org/forum/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=73

It's a reworked version of the original.

Give it a whirl. It's my favorite.

If it's only the voices you don't like, just swap them out for the original ones. That's the beauty of the Pinsound architecture. Copy and paste.

I can confirm the random Data East issues (missed cues and delays) on my SWDE.

It's the only thing holding me back from finishing up my mix at this point. Trying to figure out what isn't working the way you intend when clips don't happen consistently is a pain.

Hopefully, new firmware will make an improvement.

Thanks for the quick fix. I'll report back if this resolves my SWDE issues. The changelog on your site mentions other miscellaneous fixes, so I'll install on my other games (IJ & TZ) as well.

Does the .bin file remove itself after extracting on the flash drive or should I manually remove it after the firmware is updated confirmation to prevent it from trying to install again at the next boot?

My thoughts on the items above...

You don't really need to use the software at all. After a psrec of a game has been made, all you need to work with is the "numbered" folders and maybe some moving of those folders around into the 5 named category folders and using some gain.txt files to balance things out.

What is needed is a better understanding of what the named category folders do along with an understanding of what the numbered folders the psrec file creates do for your actual game. The way the Pinsound tech works is pretty simple. Everything that gets recorded in the psrec gets a numbered folder associated with it. When the game starts up and the CPU calls for a sound, the numbered folder is referenced and the board plays anything that's in the numbered folder randomly. Where you stick the numbered folder changes how the clip is treated.

The category folders I think confuse people because their names don't do enough to describe what they accomplish. I try not to even think of "jingle" as something meaningful. Instead of that, I just try to think of the following:

jingle = clip that pauses anything that was playing in the music folder and once finished, resumes playing the music track.

music = CPU controlled tracks that play continually via looping repeat until either the CPU tells it to stop or a single is played.

sfx = CPU controlled clip that plays once when called and can play multiple tracks simultaneously. Behaves the same as voice.

single = clip that stops any music file that is playing and doesn't resume any music track when completed unless the CPU calls for it.

voice = CPU controlled clip that plays once when called and can play multiple tracks simultaneously. Behaves the same as sfx.

So, basically - you've got 2 "clip" folders that act the same in voice and sfx that when the game needs the file, it will play once over the top of anything else that's playing. The three other folders differ in terms of how they interact with each other in terms of playing once, pausing and then resuming what was playing, or looping indefinitely until the CPU tells it to do something else.

The "hard part" of making your own mixes isn't how the Pinsound works... it's figuring out how your specific game references its sounds.

In short... this part sucks.

For my SWDE remix, you can't really rely consistently on what the numbered folder is labeled. Through trial and error, you've got to slowly figure out how and when each sound gets called. For example, something labeled "multiball" may not be what actually gets called up. Although, I haven't gotten stuck and done this yet - I've thought about making short audio clips with the difficult to figure out how they get used folder names so that when I play the game it would simply say the name of the folder and I can make note of it.

Of course, you then add the extra steps of getting all of your replacement sound clips made. Using Audacity is a good way to get things extracted and converted from a CD/DVD rip. I go ahead and normalize the clips volume at this point. I then can use the Pinsound gain files to increase/decrease the specific folders effects if needed.

My SWDE remix is getting close to being finished. The firmware update has made a huge improvement. I'm still getting some minor delays; but, they aren't too bad.

I've got a bit more tweaking to do before I upload a copy. I want to add some more Return of the Jedi clips and do some gain changes to balance things out a bit.

Making the mixes are really fun. I've already got ideas about trying to do something massive with Funhouse and I've even been tempted to pick up a Shadow just to make an OST mix for it.

Sorry for the delayed response. I didn't see this when it bumped the other day.

Unfortunately, the way the Pinsound system has to work is to rely on the CPU action from the game, so it's hard to keep things from running into each other. You've only got so many actions to work with in the folder structure to influence the way the sounds get called up.

What I'm trying to do with my mix, is separate out the things that run interference with each other. Some folders, I think I'll end up just leaving blank to get around this. For others, I'm going to shorten up the cues significantly.

Unfortunately, I lost a couple of days working on my mix because of a hardware gremlin that I wasn't aware of. I had a switch that went bad (Obi-Wan trough) and I replaced it. Unfortunately, I didn't notice when I soldered the diode back on that while the wire was solidly seated, the diode had a little bit of wiggle room inside of the hole on the switch leg. It would occasionally cause that switch to fire and that was triggering all sorts of cues to seemingly randomly fire off.

I can't stress how important it is to have a 100% functioning game before you try locking down your custom mix.

Regarding the gain files, what I've been trying to do with my mix is to normalize the .wav files in Audacity and then use the gain files to raise or lower the overall folder. For example, I've got my music folder with a gain file to lower it below the average for the rest of the game (I think I have it at 6... remember 10 is normal, below 10 is volume down and above 10 is volume up). Using this approach of normalization then allows me to only use the occasional file to boost a specific cue - for example, the cue for the stormtrooper shooter lane button sequence I've got a few audio callouts that are boosted to the max to play above the other effects - like "It's them! blast them!"

My SWDE mix is about finished. I'm going to let a couple of people test it and then I'll upload for everyone to enjoy.