SCD editing guide.docx

I've tried to format, adjust, and streamline the information in this document as much as I've been able, and give the more frequented parts the ability to stand on their own. As such, there may be a lot of repetition between sections. I apologise if anything feels odd, lacking, or isn't helpful.

Before I get into it, I do want to give massive thanks to ocealot for VFXEditor, goaaats for Quick Launcher, Fragmenterwork's FFXIV Explorer, all the driving forces behind Penumbra, ff-meli / perchbird for the Orchestrion plugin, and everyone else who's working behind the scenes. None of this would be possible without you all.

Contact info

If you have any questions, corrections, concerns, hate mail, want to share what you know, or simply wish to say thanks, reach out to @takonaut on Bluesky (18+). Responses may be slow, but I promise I do check my DMs there.

You may also wish to check the Students of Baldesion server and the official VFXEditor thread in the Dalamud server for additional support or to see if something has been answered before.

Getting started

This guide uses the VFXEditor plugin (and, by extension, XIV Quick Launcher); make sure you have this installed.

You also will want to find a good conversion software or website to turn your custom audio file into OGG or WAV, the formats that are usable by the game's native .scd container.

Highly recommended to install is the Orchestrion plugin. This helps with testing of any custom BGM.

Finally, I'll be referencing Audacity occasionally, but this program is mostly optional to install. If you're doing any manual edits to your sound - like custom loop points, trimming audio, or working with dynamic combat music - you'll want to have this or similar editing software on hand.

To navigate this document: in addition to the table of contents above, you can click the three-line (hamburger) icon to the left to quickly jump to a relevant section.

For those who wish to jump straight to how to work with BGM and sounds, go here.

Preparing audio with Audacity

For basic BGM, this is an optional step for manual and precise edits of your sound.

For dynamic combat music (e.g. PvP, ARR hard-mode dungeons, some alliances, Bozja/Eureka, and BGM unaffected by the Enable normal battle music. setting in FFXIV's System Configuration window), you will need to do these edits before moving on. Click here to move to the corresponding section.

If you wish to know about samples and where to find them - seen in programs like FFXIV Data Explorer or Sebastina's Voice Pack Creator - go here.

Standard BGM and sounds

Load your chosen file into the audio editor with File > Open...

Edit your file as necessary with cuts, fades, Paulstretches, or what have you. Please refer to Audacity's own manual if you're unsure of any specifics beyond what's mentioned here.

If you're doing cuts and you plan to loop at that cut point, do your best to trim where all available channels will have zero crossing, or near it, so you don't get pops in your audio. Zero crossing is where the wavelengths of the audio cross the 0.0 line; you may have to zoom in quite a bit to see this line.

In the zoomed-in example image below, the 0.0 line is boxed in red, and where both (stereo) channels cross it at the same time is the vertical orange:

For custom loops, I'd also suggest finding where your loop point would be the least conspicuous, while also preserving the original introduction in the song, which usually slightly differs from its repeated counterpart later on. It's recommended to mark your loop points with labels - Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection once you've clicked at the spot you want it. Labels will help to avoid having to search for these spots again. You can type something to give each label a name, if you want.

Important: If you're working with BGM that you don't want to loop, try your best to match the sample length of your file to the one you're changing, whether that be cutting out extraneous music or adding in silence as a buffer. This is because FFXIV sets the repeat timing specific to that non-looped BGM, and going over or under will cause issues in those forced repeats of your custom BGM.

For the quick and dirty of how to check the sample length:

- Go into VFXEditor, click the scd tab at the top, and click the icon to the right the Loaded Scd field to search for your BGM. Click the checkmark next to the file name once you've found it.

- Click Audio 0. Next to the built-in player that popped up to the right, there's a floppy disk button to its right. Click this button to bring up a window to save the audio, then open the audio up in Audacity.

- Click the arrow button to the right of the time field and click samples. Press the End button on your keyboard (or click at the end of the waveform of the audio). Now you have the target sample value to aim for.

For non-looped audio, feel free to skip ahead.

For looping audio, have your audio editor show the project in seconds + milliseconds. Click the arrow▾next to the time values and pick it from the dropdown menu:

We want to keep track of three values in particular - the starting loop point, the length of the loop, and then the end loop point. In our case, the top field is the start point and the bottom field is the loop length. We'll use them later when we're actually editing the SCD.

To get length, click your loop start point, hold Shift on your keyboard, then click where your loop end point is. This will highlight that selection and show the seconds value for it.

For the end point, either press End on your keyboard or click where your ending loop point is and read the top field. (Or add start and length together to get it. That works, too.)

Once you've done all you need to do in Audacity, export the final product (File > Export Audio) in one of the following formats:

- If you're not worried about custom loop points, then OGG at a quality of 6-7 at 44100 Hz is fine.

- If you want potentially more precise loops and you're not averse to text-only interfaces, export in any lossless format (WAV or FLAC recommended) and then refer to the following section on downloading and using FFmpeg.

- Or if you're just working with standard sound effects, you can export as WAV. The recommended encoding is currently Signed 16-bit PCM. Note that, since late 2024, WAV files have not been behaving consistently when used with loops. Therefore, it's recommended to use OGG for that purpose or see the following section on FFmpeg usage for the time being.

If it's OGG, and you have custom loop points and want to avoid the FFmpeg codec method, I would recommend choosing the highest available quality setting. You may also choose to make the Sample Rate 48000 Hz instead of the default 44100 Hz. While the size may turn out to be bigger (close to 320k .mp3 size, so keep this in mind for large mod packs), it'll help with managing how much we have to futz with some loop values later.

The more you know: The relevance of OGG quality and sample rate has to do with something called "pages" that this format creates for each unique file. In simple terms, for our purposes, pages establish the accuracy of where VFXEditor is able to set loop times. A lower quality and sample rate will reduce this accuracy, so it's - more often than not - better to have it higher. Upsampling is a point of contention all its own, whether it actually helps or hurts, but this is an argument best left for audiophiles and those with high-end sound systems.

Heads up: In FFXIV, music is a base Vorbis OGG file, while things like sound effects are MsAdPcm WAV. In VFXEditor, you can import an OGG into SFX or WAV into BGM with no problems, and WAV is definitely more accurate for loops; however, WAV will generally have significantly larger size depending on your encoding. Be sure to check the size of your sound in relation to how you're using it. Most people wouldn't want BGM packs that take up a gigabyte of space because it's encoded in lossless WAV, but if it's a 20-second song for an emote and it's WAV, it probably won't bug anyone that it's a few MB. Depends if someone's running a third-party sharing plugin and has to download/upload a gigantic file as well. Use your best judgement.

Non-standard BGM

Heads up: Replacements of this type in-game are limited to areas that already support dynamic combat music. This means you could replace Labyrinth of the Ancients with dynamic music, but not something like The Puppets' Bunker. This is currently a game limitation.

For our non-standard combat BGM, we'll be making it four-channel audio. Normally, this would be six channels to fit how the game does it, but import of six channels is currently broken in VFXEditor with no ETA on a solution.

Four channels often requires two separate songs, and I'll be working with that assumption for this example, so import both files you want to use for it. Use File > Import > Audio... to get them both in the same workspace; File > Open... will separate them, which we don't want.

Now we want to split stereo channels into mono. FFXIV has a unique setting that will mix these mono channels into stereo itself and also determine what plays in combat or not, according to what channels they're in. Your out-of-combat music will be the first two channels, while the combat music will be the second two channels. Before we do anything else, make sure the out-of-combat music is set above the combat music. Then, click the three dots ... (or right click that area) next to the file name to the left of your waveform to bring up a drop-down menu, and click Split Stereo to Mono. Do this for both of your songs. If you did it right, you'll have four separate tracks.

Side note: In FFXIV native files, the fifth and sixth mono channels would be something like a beat marker, most often a cymbal crash with a bass drum. These channels would overlap the others and provide a more natural transition, rather than cutting directly between them. If you really wanted, you could do something similar and just mix it into each song so you'd get the same effect.

Edit your file as necessary with cuts, fades, Paulstretches, or what have you. Please refer to Audacity's own manual if you're unsure of any specifics beyond what's mentioned here.

Make sure things are aligned how you want them to be, so that any transitions you had in mind don't come across as too awkward. We'll set where those transitions are later, although it most likely won't be exact in the final product. Not much you can do about that without SE's proprietary software.

In the example image below, the 0.0 line is boxed in red, and where two mono channels cross it at the same time is the vertical orange:

If you're planning on going the custom loop route, I'd also suggest finding where your loop point would be the least conspicuous, while also preserving the original introduction in the song, which usually slightly differs from its repeated counterpart later on. It's recommended to mark your loop points with labels - Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection once you've clicked at the spot you want it. Labels will help to avoid having to search for these spots again. You can type something to give each label a name, if you want.

You'll also want to put labels at each place you want the music to transition according to combat status. As a guideline, FFXIV marks them every 3-4 seconds, on average.

Labels aren't strictly necessary, but you'll save yourself a major headache later.

Now have your audio editor show the project in seconds + milliseconds. Click the arrow▾next to the time values and pick it from the dropdown menu:

To start with, we want to keep track of three values in particular - the starting loop point, the length of the loop, and then the end loop point. In our case, the top field is the start point and the bottom field is the loop length. We'll use them later when we're actually editing the SCD.

To get length, click your loop start point, hold Shift on your keyboard, then click where your loop end point is. This will highlight that selection and show the seconds value for it.

For the end point, just click where your ending loop point is and read the top field. (Or add start and length together to get it. That works, too.)

Also write down the values at each transition that you hopefully marked with labels. If they're not marked, well, maybe we've learned something.

Once you've done all you need to do in Audacity, export the final product as OGG or WAV (File > Export Audio). If you're not worried about custom loop points or custom transition points, then OGG at a quality of 6-7 at 44100 Hz is fine. If it's WAV, the recommended encoding is currently Signed 16-bit PCM. Note that, since late 2024, WAV files have not been behaving consistently when used with loops. Therefore, it's recommended to use OGG for that for the time being.

If it's OGG and you do have custom loop points, I would recommend choosing the highest available quality setting. You may also choose to make the Sample Rate 48000 Hz instead of the default 44100 Hz. While the size may turn out to be bigger (close to 320k MP3 size, so keep this in mind for large mod packs), it'll help with managing how much we have to futz with some loop values later.

Additionally, we need to click the Custom mapping radio button during the export process and set the Output Channels to 4 when clicking Configure. You may need to connect the tracks to the channels if they aren't: click the track and then the channel to tie it to in order to connect them. (They'll be in order already.) Deselect them both to avoid accidentally connecting to others, and repeat for the rest of the channels.

Side note: Because we're using more channels, that does mean the size will be double what you would normally have (or 2.5x or 3x, if six-channel comes into play later). Something like a four-minute song with four channels at the highest OGG quality could end up as 30MB, depending on initial imported bitrate. You'll have to decide if that extra size is worth it or acceptable with regards to the end user, as well as how much a lower-quality export will affect loop and transition points.

By the way, what are samples?

This section is entirely optional. Reading about this will clue you into what other FFXIV-adjacent programs like FFXIV Data Explorer or Voice Pack Creator mean by "samples", and will also let you set optional metadata for your audio within Audacity.

Heads up: This metadata is purely for OGG files. If you're exporting as WAV, it most likely won't be there afterwards, or at least not detected by VFXEditor.

If you've ever inspected an OGG exported from an SCD, you may have noticed that two metadata tags exist under Edit > Metadata Editor: LoopStart and LoopEnd. The numbers provided in those fields are represented by the start and end positions of the loop in samples, not milliseconds. In FFXIV's proprietary software, this sample data is likely used so that it can accurately and easily create a loop during the conversion process.

"Well, what the heck are samples?" you may be asking. To put it in simple terms, it's determined by those frequency values you see in audio tags, like 44.1kHz and 44kHz, which would be 44,100 and 44,000 samples per second, respectively. For example, with a file that's 44.1kHz, at 20 seconds the sample value would be 44100 samples * 20 seconds, or 882000 samples.

Even simpler, just tell your audio editor to display total track time in samples. In Audacity, this is found at the bottom of the window, when you click the arrow▾next to the marker time:

(The location of this may differ slightly if you have an older version or have customised it.) The other time values (labelled Selection in the newer Audacity version, or Audio Selection/Position in the old one) can also be modified to show samples.

Now that we have the information and the view set up, we can edit the file's metadata in Edit > Metadata Editor and add in two new fields - LoopStart and LoopEnd - with the appropriate sample numbers at the start and end loop points that you marked with labels. This will be detected by VFXEditor and it will automatically set some values for you.

Apart from that, this metadata won't have significant impact, if any. However, on the off-chance that, in a future update, the sample values can be read directly, this will save time. Or maybe you're like me and just have it because it'd feel weird without it and because SE does it themselves. That's cool, too. Welcome to the weird club.

Some games read a LoopLength field also, but for FFXIV this is set in the .scd container manually.

Small note: Interestingly, all original FFXIV SCD files imported - after doing a conversion to OGG - have their loops end where the music ends except for exactly one additional sample afterwards. I imagine this is a buffer of some sort. You may choose to do the same, but I find it makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Double click a blank field to type into it, and click Add to add more fields if necessary.

Preparing audio with FFmpeg

(Credit to floppy drive on the Students of Baldesion Discord for providing this method.)

This method is best used to tackle the looping system in OGG files, although it can additionally be used for basic file type conversions, outside of SCD.

You may wish to refer back to the Audacity preparation section if you haven't already so you can edit your audio as necessary before continuing. If you do so, make sure your saved audio is in a lossless format and not OGG, since we'll do that ourselves in a bit.

If you're willing to get your hands a little dirty with Windows' Command Manager/Terminal, there's an alternate method for establishing loops in your OGG-based audio, which has proven to be much, much nicer than the default OGG behaviour. I don't normally work with Linux environments, so I can't say at current how to do the right commands there, but I'll look into it if it's any different, you sudo users, you.

For this, you'll need to grab FFmpeg, a standalone codec. Normally, it's only available in source code format, but you can find current compiled builds here. You can pick either from the git master builds or the release builds; both are fine, though git master builds are more like alpha and may be slightly unstable in some aspects. Addtionally, you'll only need the one marked essentials for the purposes of this guide.

(7z and zip are the same files. 7z just has better compression, but needs 7-Zip or a similar program installed to extract it.)

Extract the archive somewhere once you have it.

You'll also want a lossless sound file to work with - this means something like WAV, FLAC, or ALAC. As of right now, VFXEditor cannot handle what FFmpeg does with MP3 to OGG and will crash your game if you try to import it. I'll show how to work around that in FFmpeg, but making it lossless in other programs is also acceptable and, more or less, the same result. Do what makes you comfortable. (You'll still ideally touch base with Audacity to find your loop points (easier), so keep that in mind.)

Open up the FFmpeg folder, then bin. Drop your audio file in this folder. Right click anywhere in this folder to open up a context menu, then either click Open in Terminal or Command Prompt Here.

If you wanted to do a conversion to lossless here instead of another program, the command is relatively simple: ffmpeg -i [file to convert] [converted file]

You'd type it in there or right click to paste if you copy it from elsewhere. Press Enter to execute the command. (If you're working in Powershell, you'll want to make it .\ffmpeg instead because of access permissions.)

In this example, we're taking nyancat.mp3 and converting it to nyancat.wav:

You should now have the converted file in the same folder.

For conversion from lossless to OGG, the command is a little more involved: ffmpeg -i [lossless file to convert] -b:a [bitrate] -page_duration 1 [converted file name].ogg

In choosing a bitrate, you may wish to read the section on file sizes for reference. If you want a quick-and-dirty answer, 160k is roughly equivalent to 192k MP3 files and is the recommended bitrate for general-use audio.

The more you know: -i in these commands establishes that you're doing a conversion. -b means you're specifying a bitrate, while the :a is specifying all available audio streams (you can specify further by appending :[number of the stream], but for standard audio you only have one). -page_duration is what makes this particular tool useful for us. Even though 1 is technically massively overkill and you could equally use anything below about 20000 to roughly the same effect, this will ensure that we're no longer using the default paging setup that makes loops awful to work with in the first place. If you wish to read more about FFmpeg and the extent of its codec, and have five hours on your hands, see their official documentation here and information on commands for specific formats here.

Optional: you can also add LoopStart and LoopEnd metadata to your OGG by inserting -metadata:s:0 LoopStart=[sample value here] and -metadata:s:0 LoopEnd=[sample value here] right after your [lossless file to convert]. (It can be anywhere in between file names, really, as long as it doesn't run into another command.) As this still needs to be manually tweaked in the editor as of September 2025, this step can be skipped.

For our example:

Or with the optional metadata addition:

You'll now have the specified OGG file in the bin folder, which you can safely move for use with VFXEditor, if you wish.

Note that you'll still need to specify any loop times through VFXEditor's interface. They will be second + millisecond values. However, since this method is somewhat unorthodox, any values you input for now will automatically round to the nearest hundredth of a millisecond (e.g. if you put in 6.144, it will shift to 6.100). Yes, we're still playing the numbers game, but they're more manageable numbers.

See the section on preparing audio with Audacity for finding loop points if need be.

File sizes, other conversion methods, and alternatives

This is an optional read. This section covers the disk size differences of relevant sound files methods of conversion to SCD outside of VFXEditor, and a small mention about Sebastina's Artemis Roleplaying Kit (ARK) and its use of MP3 files instead of SCD.

Comparison of sizes:

Note: While Microsoft ADPCM (sometimes referred to as 4-bit ADPCM), IMA ADPCM, and MP3 are listed here, these are currently not supported for import into VFXEditor. They're simply for general comparisons.

It is not recommended to use unsigned 8-bit PCM. This will add a noticeable degree of background hiss/static to your audio, especially during quieter sections.

There's also 24-bit and 32-bit PCM that I didn't list here (they'd be 14.3MB and 19MB, respectively), but there's zero reason to use these in FFXIV unless you hate your storage space. The quality gain is extremely negligible for everyday use. But I don't pay your sub, so if you want to use these encodings, that's entirely your decision.

For quality reference on OGG files:

160kbps = 5 192kbps = 6

224kbps = 7 256kbps = 8

320kbps = 9 500kbps = 10

In other words, a quality of 10 will essentially supersample a standard MP3 file. A regular user with $20 headphones from Walmart will normally not be able to discern too much of a difference, if any, between 192 kbps/quality 6 and 500 kbps/quality 10. The major reason to consider the higher qualities is to improve your own ability to set custom loop points. Even then, you can get away with lower qualities, assuming you're fine with spending a bit more time on finicking with loop times and that the source audio doesn't immediately fade right after the point it should loop.

Should you not be worried about loops outside of start and end, setting your OGG export to a quality of 6 is perfectly fine.

While Audacity is my go-to for edits, you may not need all that functionality and only want to turn your audio into something you can import into VFXEditor and be done with it. If that's the case, you have a few options:

- You can use an online converter. It's quick and does the job, albeit with slightly less control over how it does all that. There are plenty of sites if you just search for something like "mp3 to ogg" or "mp3 to wav" or whatever file type you're converting from.

- If you have VLC installed, go to Media > Convert/Save. Select your file with + Add... (or drag and drop), then click the Convert/Save button at the bottom. Next to Profile in the window that pops up, you can select their default Audio - Vorbis (OGG) profile (it's about a quality of 4), or click either the wrench button to modify that or the third button to make a custom profile. Encapsulation is just the file extension - so, this would either be Ogg/Ogm or WAV. Make sure, in the Audio Codec tab, that Audio is checked. Pick either Vorbis for OGG or WAV for, well, WAV. Specify your desired bitrate, channels (2 for stereo, 1 for mono), and sample rate (44.1k is fine). Click the Create (Save) button once you're done, scroll in the Profile dropdown until you find the it, select it, choose your Destination, and click Start.

- Foobar2000 also has conversion available and is more precise in its quality values for OGG. Drag and drop your audio in the program (or select it if it's there), right click it, then go to Convert > ... . You can click on Output Format on the right-hand side of the window to select your format. For WAV, the Auto Output bit depth will be 16-bit. For OGG, you can click Edit to modify its quality. Once done, click OK, then Back, and then finally Convert.

As stated elsewhere, you can also take an MP3 and convert it directly to SCD with programs like FFXIV Data Explorer (needs JRE/JDK 11) or Voice Pack Creator. That said, FFXIV Data Explorer doesn't always work or will do odd things like pitch shifting. Voice Pack Creator is fine for sound effects or voices, but for BGM this is not a software I can really point others to yet because of how it handles SCD creation. Loops will also not work properly with it. Both additionally use sample numbers for their BGM conversions, which requires some effort to find out, and even then it may not work as it should.

Lastly, from the same creator as Voice Pack Creator - Sebastina - there's the Artemis Roleplaying Kit plugin. This is mostly for taking your MP3s and replacing existing sound effects or voices with them. (I don't entirely know if it affects more than those.) It also comes with some additional features like playing Twitch stream audio, adjusting specific volumes that aren't covered by FFXIV's default volume sliders, or changing dance mod audio from the BGM channel to the performance channel.

A mini guide to finding in-game sounds

This is an optional read.

Maybe you wanted to edit an existing SCD pulled directly from the game. Or maybe you've always heard something playing in the background and thought it was just the coolest thing, wanted to use it, but got frustrated with finding it. Or perhaps there's a sound you want to check from an installed mod. Whatever the case may be, go ahead and open up the VFXEditor plugin with FFXIV running. You can use the chat command /vfxedit scd to open it right to the SCD Editor. (If you're using the beta version in its own custom repository, this command will be /vfxbeta scd instead). Or you can also find it directly in the Plugin Installer window provided by Dalamud.

With the SCD window open, click on the magnifying glass to the right of Loaded SCD:

Here, you have direct access to a vast number of SCDs that can be found in the game's index files, in loaded Penumbra mods, or in any local folder. You're able to do searches by string, by category, or even get it directly, provided you know its file path in the index.

There is a known bug [as of Jan 2, '25] when accessing entries in Zone and Instance (specifically, the Lumina table that it reads) that will crash you.

Let's go back to the main SCD Editor window. Go to File > Tools.

Here we have the Tools window with the Resources tab. This shows you every asset in use in the current area, updated every ten seconds, along with its path. Opening up Sound > scd in this window here will show any sound effects. Likewise, Music > scd will show the currently playing music.

You can even do exports any raw files from the game's index in the Utilities tab, whether it be sounds, VFX, models, textures, etc. If it exists natively within the game, you can extract it here, provided you have the path to it.

Additionally, if you navigate to the Paths tab back in the SCD Select window, you'll notice you can log what's currently being used and played:

The problem here is that it logs everything, no matter how many times a single sound's been used in the span of a second. So, if you're looking for a specific sound in a busy place, you may not find this ideal, as you'll have a billion sounds zooming past. You also can't click to copy, if you need the file path. But it's here if you need it. There's also a similar resource logger built into Penumbra, but it suffers from a lot of the same issues, as well as degrading your game's performance while it runs.

This is where the nifty ResLogger2 plugin comes into play. It will pick up the files being used in real time and is significantly easier to parse through. It also prevents duplicate entries from showing if you click Settings > Log unique paths only in the plugin window. You can filter by search term (like .scd to restrict it to only sounds) like so:

In order to see custom paths (ones that don't exist in the game's index but are used by mods), you'll need to enable that in Settings > Log paths that don't exist.

Additionally, while this plugin actually lets you copy file paths, this also needs to be enabled at Settings > Show hash tooltip. This will give you a mini window that shows up when you hover over a path, but more importantly you can now right click to copy what's there. You'll end up with stuff like this when you paste it somewhere:

sound/vfx/ability: 6907F735 (1762129717)

SE_Vfx_Abi_Rrp_abi01_c.scd: 15E70AD3 (367463123)

sound/vfx/ability/SE_Vfx_Abi_Rrp_abi01_c.scd: 2A339E76 (708025974)

The path you want is the third part of it - sound/vfx/ability/SE_Vfx_Abi_Rrp_abi01_c.scd. Everything else is for development purposes and not necessary.

Lastly, you can copy all unique paths currently in the log so you can paste it elsewhere, by going to Edit > Copy unique paths. Just a general warning that, since it copies every asset, your output log can potentially be humongous.

The Sound Filter plugin is also a good option, as it pulls sounds along with each called index number every time something plays. However, it's a nightmare if you're not in an isolated spot or being careful, since (the same as the logging in VFXEditor or Penumbra) even a mini's every footstep and UI hover sound are recorded as individual entries.

Another resource I neglected to mention is the standalone .exe Anamnesis. Its main purpose is to preview things like weapons, hairstyles, skin/hair colour, dyes, and so on in a convenient fashion or for use with /gpose. By extension, any associated sounds with regards to special weapon skins or a change in voice will be reflected in-game (purely client side, so it's safe), making it easier to pinpoint certain sounds without actually having the requirement. Minions and mounts won't really change their sounds, unfortunately, although dismissing a mount will play its unique sound. The Glamourer plugin has a similar function, but the only sounds that get modified there (as far as I know) are weapons.

Additionally, the Orchestrion plugin can be pulled in for music searches if you know its general content location or official name.

Or you can check out my in-progress .scd list. Naturally, it won't have everything, and descriptions of sounds are somewhat sparse, but you may find what you're looking for or even see something that could spark inspiration.

Working with SCD by examples

- Basic looped BGM swap for an in-game BGM

- Basic non-looped BGM swap for an in-game zone

- Custom four-channel dynamic BGM swap for an in-game dynamic BGM

- Placing a (looped) custom song on a (looped) emote that doesn't have one

- Adding a sound to a skill, animation, or VFX

- Replacing an existing modded sound with your own

- Cropping sounds to only play specific sections

- Enabling the use of randomised BGM/SFX for animations/skills

Basic looped BGM swap for an in-game BGM, using a prepared song

Note: If you're just looking to swap vanilla BGM (except orchestrion rolls), this can be done through the Orchestrion plugin, no VFXEditor required.

Start by picking the SCD that you want to use as a template. In this example, I'm choosing the Limsa day theme BGM, as it natively includes looping.

Side note: You may not get intended results when you're replacing ARR (base game) dungeon or instanced music that doesn't loop or repeat by default. This is due to a technical limitation. However, replacing music that repeats after some silence (such as open-area zones like Western Thanalan or near aetherytes) should work just fine.

You can additionally search through the Orchestrion plugin if need be.

Click on Audio 0 back in the main window once you've selected the BGM, so that we can work with the loop points and replacements.

Your song ideally should be in OGG format. It can be WAV, but it will auto-convert to OGG when you import it into a BGM-type sound unless you delete Audio 0 and create a new one. Note that, since late 2024, WAV files have not been behaving consistently when used with loops. Therefore, it's recommended to use OGG for the time being.

If you have an .mp3/.flac/.m4a (etc.), convert it to OGG (or WAV) with any software or site you choose before you import it.

Now look for the rightmost button next to VFXEditor's built-in player and click it to begin searching for your song.

Navigate to where you have your song saved, select it, and click Ok.

Audio 0 will have closed itself to refresh the data; click it open again.

The left number is your loop's starting time, while the right is the loop's ending time. Both are measured in seconds. They are different for every unique OGG/WAV. If you choose to edit these, you may see your inputs change a bit after you type them in. Don't worry - this is normal. Due to how OGG files work with something called pages, the best that can be done is an approximation of time. The higher quality your OGG export is, the better this approximation ends up being. That means we'll still have to put in some elbow grease if we want to fine tune our loops, but we know where to start.

If you did nothing special with your OGG/WAV and it doesn't have any relevant LoopStart or LoopEnd metadata, the left one will be 0.000 because it's starting from the beginning of your song, while the right one should automatically be set to the end of your song. If the file was WAV, it may not automatically add the end time, so you'll have to look for it (in Audacity or the mini player in VFXEditor itself) and then add it in. Assuming you only want to loop your song from start to finish, you don't have to do anything else here.

If you skipped past the section on working with Audacity and want to make custom loop points, you'll probably want to check against the built-in player for some values to start with. Enable the Simulate Loop Start/End setting in the Settings dropdown to make this a little easier.

Click around to find some acceptable spots to start and end your loop; type those into the Loop Time fields - left for start, right for end. When you put the numbers in, the player will draw green and red lines to mark those points so you can see them better.

If you followed the Audacity preparation at the start of this guide, it's likely you'll want to fine tune the numbers that were filled out for you if your file is OGG. (If it's WAV, you probably don't have to worry, but it'd be a good idea to double check anyway in testing.)

Once you've done whatever you need to do with the Loop Time fields, let's pick the BGM being replaced.

For our example, let's say we're replacing the Gridania day theme. We'll use the same method as before to find it. It'll show up as [MUSIC] ffxiv/BGM_Town_Gri_Day once you select it.

Now we're at the testing phase. In order to have your song be heard in-game, the simplest method is to click the UPDATE button. It'll be above the Audio tab.

Important: if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin to do your tests, do not be in the same zone the replaced BGM affects when you click UPDATE or you will crash when it tries to loop.

If you're using the Orchestrion plugin (highly recommended), you have two methods available to avoid original BGM crashing you on update.

- Click to play two BGM that are completely different from the one you're modifying. Click UPDATE in VFXEditor. Then click Stop if you're in the right zone, or click the zone's BGM you want to test.

- Click the 1 - None entry. Wait about five seconds for the BGM to completely fade out. Click UPDATE in VFXEditor. Then click Stop if you're in the right zone or click the zone's BGM you want to test.

For testing, if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin, there are three methods to be sure the original BGM doesn't start playing again once you return to the affected zone.

- Teleport to two different areas first, click UPDATE, and then go back. Not recommended because it incurs a lot of gil cost, and some of us are living off the streets. But if you've got the money to burn, sure, you do you.

- Teleport somewhere else, click UPDATE, wait about 30 seconds, and teleport back. Also not recommended because you'll spend a lot of time twiddling your thumbs, but it's great if you have things to do on the side.

- Queue up for a solo unsynced or Explorer Mode duty, hop in there, click UPDATE, immediately leave. Takes maybe 10 seconds.

If the loop still isn't right, adjust the Loop Time values as necessary, then repeat the testing step you used above to ensure you don't crash. Yes, it's absolutely a hassle, but unfortunately there's no quick and simple way to do this yet. Maybe someday.

If you think the volume is too loud or soft, you can edit it in the Sounds tab.

This usually can only be between 0.000 and 1.000 - it normally won't respond to anything higher or lower than that range for BGM. If it still needs major adjustment beyond that, you'll have to manually edit the volume gain outside of VFXEditor. (There is a way to manipulate it, but it also changes how the sound plays, so I don't really recommend it unless you're desperate. Look for ADSR in this doc if you're curious.)

Side note: The Loop checkbox in Sounds > Sound # > Parameters helps to flag the sound for looping. There's additionally a Music checkbox, but contrary to what you might think, checking this box does nothing. Really. The Bus Number field in itself is what classifies it in-game as music or not. You're free to check it if you really want to. It doesn't hurt. But it still doesn't do anything. You do you, boo.

If your loop isn't being affected at all by Loop Time values or is doing strange things, I would additionally look into changing the Interval items in the Tracks tab. For looped BGM, the first Interval is the loop start time in milliseconds and the second Interval is the length of the loop in milliseconds.

Once you're satisfied, you're basically done, apart from exporting as a mod or what have you.

Even if it sounded fine in the test run, I would still take the time to enable the mod yourself and see if anything needs work in the actual environment. This can be especially true when it's gone through several loops of the song, as it may hiccup on the second or third time, or if the song doesn't feel balanced during combat.

While the game is running, VFXEditor keeps your (temporary) changes upon clicking UPDATE. Therefore, you'll likely want to revert the BGM to its vanilla state once you're done working with it. There are a couple ways to do this:

- File > New. This wipes your currently open window of all edits. For sounds, this should be all you need to do.

- In case the changes are being sticky: for the Scd Being Replaced field, choose the BGM you picked for Loaded Scd and click UPDATE, then click the X next to each field to unload them.

- In case it's still not cooperating, log out to character select and back in. You can also restart your game, as VFXEditor will not keep any changes after the game's been closed. Should something still be wrong, check that another plugin or program isn't interfering.

Basic non-looped BGM swap for an in-game zone, using a prepared song

Note: If you're just looking to swap vanilla BGM (except orchestrion rolls), this can be done through the Orchestrion plugin, no VFXEditor required.

Start by picking the SCD that you want to use as a template. In this example, I'm choosing a Thanalan field theme BGM - music/ffxiv/BGM_Field_Uru_06.scd - as it natively works without loops.

You can additionally search through the Orchestrion plugin if need be.

Click on Audio 0 back in the main window once you've selected the BGM.

Your song ideally should be in OGG format. It can be WAV, but it will auto-convert to OGG when you import it into a BGM-type sound unless you delete Audio 0 and create a new one.

If you have an .mp3/.flac/.m4a (etc.), convert it to OGG or WAV with any software or site you choose before you import it.

Now look for the rightmost button next to VFXEditor's built-in player and click it to begin searching for your song.

Navigate to where you have your song saved, select it, and click Ok.

Audio 0 will have closed itself to refresh the data; click it open again.

Make sure both Loop Time fields read 0.000. If they don't, be sure to change them.

Now we want to take a detour to the Tracks tab and click on Track 0. You'll see a series of items, and the ones we want are towards the bottom:

Sometimes the item numbers won't be exactly the same, and that's okay - as long as they're in this order. Specifically, though, we're interested in the Interval item. Click on it to open it up.

This Value is the length of your BGM in milliseconds. We want to change it to match our custom sound's length (found through the built-in player in VFXEditor by scrolling to the end of the sound when played, or a program like Audacity). What this field does is ensure that your sound doesn't get cut short or clip, and that it doesn't affect how it plays if there's a forced repeat (not loop) of the BGM.

Additionally, under Sounds > Sound 0 > Parameters, the checkbox for Loop should be unchecked, if it's not already.

Once you've done whatever you need to do with all of that, let's pick the BGM being replaced.

For our example, let's say we're replacing a Limsa field theme BGM. We'll use the same method as before to find it and select it.

Now we're at the testing phase. In order to have your song be heard in-game, the simplest method is to click the UPDATE button. It'll be above the Audio tab.

Important: if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin to do your tests, do not be in the same zone the replaced BGM affects when you click UPDATE or you might crash when it tries to access it again.

If you're using the Orchestrion plugin (highly recommended), you have two methods available to avoid original BGM crashing you on update.

- Click to play two BGM that are completely different from the one you're modifying. Click UPDATE in VFXEditor. Then click Stop if you're in the right zone, or click the zone's BGM you want to test.

For testing, if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin, there are three methods to be sure the original BGM doesn't start playing again once you return to the affected zone.

- Queue up for a solo unsynced or Explorer Mode duty, hop in there, click UPDATE, immediately leave. Takes maybe 10 seconds.

If you think the volume is too loud or soft, you can edit it in the Sounds tab.

Once you're satisfied, you're basically done, apart from exporting as a mod or what have you.

Even if it sounded fine in the test run, I would still take the time to enable the mod yourself and see if anything needs work in the actual environment. This can be especially true when it's gone through a repeat of the song, as it may hiccup then, or if the volume doesn't feel balanced overall.

- File > New. This wipes your currently open window of all edits. For sounds, this should be all you need to do.

- In case the changes are being sticky: for the Scd Being Replaced field, choose the BGM you picked for Loaded Scd and click UPDATE, then click the X next to each field to unload them.

Custom four-channel dynamic BGM swap for an in-game dynamic BGM

For use with BGM that detects combat status - like PvP, some alliances, the time stop mechanic in A12, and instanced operations like Bozja/Eureka - specifically those with the DynamixStream Type under Sounds > Sound # > Parameters. Note that combat in most open areas and some later alliances do not utilise this and are standard BGM.

Note: If you're just looking to swap vanilla BGM (except orchestrion rolls), this can be done through the Orchestrion plugin, no VFXEditor required.

Important: If you haven't gone through the corresponding section in Audacity on this topic, head over there now. Unless your audio already contains four channels, you will need to manually set it up through Audacity or a similar external program.

Start by picking the SCD that you want to use as a template. In this example, I'm choosing the main PvP battle theme.

You can additionally search through the Orchestrion plugin if need be.

Click on Audio 0 back in the main window once you've selected the BGM, so that we can work with the loop points and replacements.

Now look for the rightmost button next to VFXEditor's built-in player and click it to begin searching for your song.

Navigate to where you have your song saved, select it, and click Ok.

Audio 0 will have closed itself to refresh the data; click it open again.

If you didn't add the optional LoopStart or LoopEnd metadata, the left one will be 0.000 because it's starting from the beginning of your song, while the right one should automatically be set to the end of your song. If the file was WAV, it may not automatically add the end time, so you'll have to look for it (in Audacity or the mini player in VFXEditor itself) and then add it in. Assuming you only want to loop your song from start to finish, you don't have to do anything else in this tab.

If you did, it'll automatically set to the nearest approximation of each.

You'll probably want to fine tune the numbers that were filled out for you if your file is OGG. (If it's WAV, you probably don't have to worry, but it'd be a good idea to double check anyway in testing.)

Next, we want to take a detour to the Tracks tab and click on Track 0. You'll see a series of items, and the ones we want are towards the bottom:

Sometimes the item numbers won't be exactly the same, and that's okay - as long as they're in this order. Specifically, though, we're interested in the Interval items. Click on them to open them up.

For looped BGM, the first Interval is the loop start time in milliseconds and the second Interval is the length of the loop in milliseconds. Make sure you change these to what you wrote down to ensure the loop goes off without a hitch.

Now, this is where all those labels and transition time values come into play. You should see a tab called Markers in here - click on it.

You've probably guessed it all by now, but for each time value you have written down, you want to plug them in here - one field for one unique time value, going in order. You can delete entries as necessary, or add more with the + New button at the bottom of this tab. Make sure the Id field says MARK.

Important: If you accidentally change this Id, you cannot type MARK back in, as the editor currently has a forced limit of three characters, which means you'll have to reopen your template BGM and start over.

The Loop Start and Loop End fields generally should match what you set in the Loop Time fields from earlier, but doesn't necessarily have to - I need to verify this, but I have a feeling the markers' Loop Start sets where the BGM continues after it's been interrupted by something like boss BGM.

Side note: In vanilla BGM, there's some general discrepancy between the last marker time set, the Loop End value, and the loop Interval value set in the Tracks tab. (If you don't know about this Interval value yet, we'll get to it.) I'm unsure why this is, as the whole premise of markers is very new to the editor, but it may just be failsafes or things that didn't end up being used. In any case, don't worry too much about it.

Once you've done whatever you need to do with all of that, let's pick the BGM being replaced. As stated before, this will only work properly if you replace files with a similar function, so you cannot pick something that doesn't natively support dynamic BGM.

For our example, let's say we're replacing the Bozja field theme. We'll use the same method as before to find it.

Now we're at the testing phase. In order to have your song be heard in-game, the simplest method is to click the UPDATE button. It'll be above the Audio tab.

Important: if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin to do your tests, do not be in the same zone the replaced BGM affects when you click UPDATE or you will crash when it tries to loop.

If you're using the Orchestrion plugin (highly recommended), you have two methods available to avoid original BGM crashing you on update. Note that if you don't plan to test in the affected zone, you'll want to go into Orchestrion's settings window and make sure Handle special "in-combat" and mount movement BGM modes is checked so that you can hit a target to trigger the combat status.

- Click to play two BGM that are completely different from the one you're modifying. Click UPDATE in VFXEditor. Then click Stop if you're in the right zone, or click the zone's BGM you want to test.

For testing, if you're not using the Orchestrion plugin, there are three methods to be sure the original BGM doesn't start playing again once you return to the affected zone.

- Queue up for a solo unsynced or Explorer Mode duty, hop in there, click UPDATE, immediately leave. Takes maybe 10 seconds.

If the loops and marker placements still aren't right, adjust the Loop Time values as necessary, then repeat the testing step you used above to ensure you don't crash. Yes, it's absolutely a hassle, especially for this type of BGM replacement, but unfortunately there's no quick and simple way to do this yet. Maybe someday.

If you think the volume is too loud or soft, you can edit it in the Sounds tab.

Once you're satisfied, you're basically done, apart from exporting as a mod or what have you.

- File > New. This wipes your currently open window of all edits. For sounds, this should be all you need to do.

- In case the changes are being sticky: for the Scd Being Replaced field, choose the BGM you picked for Loaded Scd and click UPDATE, then click the X next to each field to unload them.

Placing a looped custom song on a (looped) emote that doesn't have one

If you wish it to be a non-looped song instead, look into the basic non-looped BGM swap section for how to set the base sound up, then continue on from here.

The popularity of doing this is very staggering, I have to say.

Pick a loaded SCD to start as a template. For this example, you want to choose an in-game song that loops by default (so something like Limsa's day theme - music/ffxiv/BGM_Town_Lim_Day.scd). You could manually set any BGM to loop, but it takes more effort and ain't nobody got time for that.

You can paste these paths directly into the Loaded SCD field and press Enter on your keyboard, and they should turn yellow and be recognized immediately. If nothing loads, double check that your path is a valid game path and typed correctly.

Click on Audio 0 back in the main window once you've selected the BGM, so that we can work with the loop points and replacements.

If you have an .mp3/.flac/.m4a (etc.), convert it to OGG or WAV with any software or site you choose before you import it.

Now look for the rightmost button next to VFXEditor's built-in player and click it to begin searching for your song.

Navigate to where you have your song saved, select it, and click Ok.

Audio 0 will have closed itself to refresh the data; click it open again.

Now, what a lot of people like to change is what volume channel the music will play on - such as on an orchestrion channel, BGM channel, system sounds, etc. Most have kept it on BGM, but I may be bold enough to recommend placing it on the performance track instead so it can be separately adjusted in volume without interfering with channels that are more frequently used.

Note: You may need BRD performance unlocked first or may have to swap to BRD once per game session in order to hear your custom sound set to that particular bus of 17. I didn't have that problem, but someone else did, so consider it a game limitation or whatever's happening with their spaghetti code.

Those channels are determined by Bus Number and Priority in the Sounds tab.

Here's a quick reference of what each bus number relates to:

You can always check these by opening up those kinds of sounds in the editor.

Additionally, a lot of modders have started using the Bus Ducking flag to avoid overlapping music. You can enable this by checking the Bus Ducking box under Sounds > Sound # > Parameters. It will create a new tab in this same window, with the following fields:

In all orchestrions, this is set with Number 1, Fade Time 1200, and Volume 0.000. What this does is mutes (Volume 0.000) the BGM channel (Number 1) for the set Fade Time in milliseconds.

You could equally fade or mute any other channel with the right settings. For example: Number 17 with Fade Time 2000 at Volume 0.300 would reduce the BRD performance channel to 0.300 volume over a period of two seconds and keep it there until the sound's finished.

Part of making dance/emote mods also means you'll be adopting a custom path for your SCD. You'll essentially be borrowing the original sound, so you can make all the changes you want in this custom SCD and the original SCD won't be affected.

In the Scd Being Replaced field at the top of the SCD Editor window, type a custom path - for example, sound/thisisasong.scd - and then press Enter on your keyboard. It should turn yellow to let you know it's been accepted. For simplicity's sake, as long as your path starts with sound/ and ends with .scd, it'll work as a custom path.

For further details and clarification on custom paths, and what is and isn't allowable, refer to Appendix F.

Once you've got all that how you want, click UPDATE to set your sound.

Now it's time to move to another part of VFXEditor that deals with the emote itself. You'll often get better results if you edit the .pap file - the one that governs things tied to animation - instead of .tmb, at least in the case of dance mods, so we'll go with that.

Go ahead and navigate to the emote's PAP you want to use, in the same manner as you did with finding an SCD. The catch, however, is that you have several to choose from because, very often, emotes will differ for certain races (or even all of them). That does mean you'll have to edit all of them the same way if you want to release this for everyone, but we can worry about that after all's said and done. In general, also, you just want the files in the tab that's marked with _loop, unless you specifically want to have a separate intro song for your emote.

For our example, I'm going with Lali Hop:

Ignore the movement abilities warning back in the main window, as this doesn't apply to any known emotes. It's strictly for the TMBs of forced movement skills like gap closers.

Open the tabs up in your selected emote as follows:

Add a new track under this actor.

The more you know: Adding a new track isn't actually required. You can work with any existing track and have as many entries as you want in each one, but this helps to keep everything more organised.

Click + New to add an entry to the track. In the menu that pops up, you want to click the one that says C063 Sound.

You should now have this when you open up the entry:

First things first, let's add in our custom path that we established in the SCD editor. Type it in the Path field (or copy and paste it from earlier).

If you've glanced at other guides before this, they may have mentioned that the Loop field (previously Unknown 1) should be set to the length of your song in frames (30 frames per second). This is also a viable option, and can be used to shorten your sound if necessary, but Loop at -1 - meaning an infinite duration - will default to using the SCD's loop length automatically without needing to calculate anything.

So, for the sake of simplicity here, change the value of Loop to -1 and then Sound Position to 3. These settings will enable the music to continue/loop for as long as the animation plays, while also allowing the music to stop when the emote stops. Leaving Sound Position at 1 won't stop your sound when you move, so changing this is important. I still see people not actually doing it and then wonder why they're having problems. Don't make me come over there and slap you on the wrist.

Side note: If your song path changes a bit in upper/lowercase (like going from sound/MySongName24.scd to sound/mysongname24.scd), this is intentional. It's to make it compatible in programs like TexTools that are case sensitive. Your sound will still play like normal.

The more you know: Sound Position can actually additionally be 2, or 7 (equivalent to 3) and a Bind Id value. The main difference is that 3 makes the sound gradually fade the further you are from its source, while 2 will drop its volume at a set distance - usually quite far - so 3 is recommended. How that fade works is defined in the Min Range, Max Range, and Range Volume values of the SCD itself, found in Sounds > Sound # > Layout.

You can also change the Time field if you want your song to have a delayed start. Be aware this is measured in animation frames and not seconds. There are 30 frames per second. If you want to align it with precision, you can go to the Motion tab of this editor and play the animation there to see what frame you need to use. The - and + will move the skeleton in the player below, frame by frame.

After you're satisfied, set the replacement PAP. For most cases, this will just be the same one that you picked in Loaded Pap.

If you wanted to put it on a different looped emote (it needs to loop as well in order to work), we have to go a step further and make the animation codes match. Otherwise, the game won't recognise the emote and refuse to play it.

If you don't need to do this, feel free to skip ahead.

Let's open up a new tab so we don't overwrite our current emote:

In this new tab, load the PAP of the emote you want to change it to. I'll go with Bee's Knees (Roegadyn M) as an example.

Side note: You generally want to use the same race and gender combination for animation replacements. If you don't, there's a good chance that your character will deform because it's trying to adjust the skeleton size to match. The exception is if the base animation is Midlander M. All skeletons share this base skeleton and will have no problems adjusting to it. In other words, you can swap something like Lali Hop (Midlander M) to Bee's Knees (Roegadyn M) and it'll be fine, but putting Lali Hop (Lalafell M) on Bee's Knees (Roegadyn M) will probably make that Roegadyn or Hrothgar look like Mario.

Open the tabs in this PAP to Animations > (animation name). It's this animation name that we need, so go ahead and copy it. Feel free to close this new tab once you have it.

Head back to the emote you were editing. Paste the animation name over the one in here in the same place, under Animations > (animation name). For our Lali Hop example, this will change cbem_dance18_2lp into cbem_dance16_2lp. You'll see the dropdown menu name change to it as well.

Now in TMB > Actors > Actor 0, find the track that contains Animation (PAP Only) (C009) and open it up.

See the field called Path? Do the same thing as you did above and replace the animation name. For our example, again, it'll be changed from cbem_dance18_2lp to cbem_dance16_2lp.

And that should be all you need to do here. Repeat these steps for other race and gender combinations, if you want, then customise and export the complete mod using Export > Penumbra, making sure to select all the files that you need for it to work.

Or if you want to check if it works beforehand, press UPDATE to enact the change, which will refresh your character and allow testing in-game.

For fixing your song's loop, volume, or the sound possibly being cut short, look through the basic looped BGM swap testing section, but you can safely ignore the warnings about being in the same zone when you test. As you have a custom path for your sound, that won't matter. If you run into other issues, please reference the troubleshooting section of the guide.

At this point, you may consider saving all your work into a workspace, in case you need to edit it again later. This is simply done with File > Save.

More importantly, though, it'd be a good idea to reset all your changes back to the vanilla versions. You can do this with File > New, then changing zones or redrawing your character.

Adding a sound to a skill, animation, or VFX

This method will cover adding a new, non-looping sound to any given skill, animation, or VFX. (For looping, please see the previous methods.) I will assume you've either set up a custom SCD to use or have a sound path ready. If you haven't made a custom SCD - in other words, if you want to use a purely custom sound - please check the section on basic non-looped BGM swapping and then Appendix F on how to do so.

Method 1: TMB / PAP

This is arguably the easiest way to add, or even remove, a sound. However, this comes with a few caveats:

- A few TMB are used across multiple skills. This is especially true for some more recent AoE skills, where they have chara/action/normal_hit/normal_hit.tmb instead of one that's unique. Take care that you're not replacing a generic TMB.

- Some TMB need special attention so as to not disturb some server-side data. This is only a concern if the TMB has a yellow or red entry in it. (Examples: RDM's leap and backflip; skills that briefly lock your movement; enemy skills where they become untargetable.) If it does, you can still edit it, but please consult the TMB/PAP document or contact me directly so you can stay safe while doing so.

- There is a very specific PAP that's shared by a lot of skills across almost all jobs - this is action.pap. In the event you're editing an animation that has this, you will either want to edit the TMB instead or try the VFX method. You can also refer to this guide by Alchemic Potato/Excesum for circumventing action.pap. The reason for this is mainly that quite a few mods already edit action.pap (like teleport mods or some large-scale job reworks) and you can only have a single action.pap active across all mods; and action.pap will have to be updated every time a new job is added to the game, or else the new job's animations will be broken while trying to reference your old action.pap that didn't have those.

- For PAP that loop (like channelled skills or infinitely long emotes), and with a sound that doesn't loop, that sound will play each time the animation loops back to the start. VFX will act the same way. Thus, you may want to place it on the TMB instead, as that will only be called when you first use it.

First things first, load up your TMB/PAP in the Tmb Editor/Pap Editor. For our example, we'll go with Fast Blade on the TMB side. While we're at it, set your replaced TMB/PAP as well. Generally, you want to find the End TMB/PAP. Start only matters for casting loops, while Hit only matters for AoE skills.

If working with TMB, it's heavily advised to keep it the same; this is because of the third caveat above - replacing with a different TMB can get you in trouble if you don't double check its contents to make sure it won't affect server data in some way.

In the Actors tab, go to Actor 0 if you want the sound to apply to yourself or Actor 1 for the sound to apply to a target. PAP never has Actor 1, since animations apply only to the character that used it. Also, some TMBs won't have Actor 1, namely skills that don't require a target. In those cases, a unique Hit TMB may exist that has an Actor 0, which in that case will apply to all characters hit by that particular skill - an example would be Holy or Quick Nock.

With the following image as a guide, (1) go to your desired actor and (2) click the + to add a new track (3). (4) Click + New in that new track to open up a dropdown menu. (5) Click on C063 (Sound) to add a new sound to that track. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each additional sound.

The more you know: You can also use an existing track to add your sound. Additionally, there is no limit to how many or what kind of items are in a single track, although it's recommended to keep functionally similar items together as a way to keep things orderly.

Click open the new C063 entry to reveal this:

Paste your path in the Path field and press Enter. Your path will become all lowercase if it wasn't already; this is intended for compatibility and will not change how it works. Modify other fields as you wish - check the TMB/PAP document for what these do. Repeat for any additional sounds. An example of a modified C063 entry:

At this point, if you want to specify if something should be user-only or everyone-but-user, you'll want to add a Lua condition. As it's fairly involved, please see Appendix G for an explanation, but we'll keep going here.

Click the green UPDATE button to update your changes and refresh your character. For TMB, click the Play button to preview the TMB. Be sure you're on the job it affects or you'll run into playback issues. For PAP, the only way to preview is to manually use the animation you've modified.

Repeat for any additional TMBs/PAPs. Click the + button at the top of the Tmb Editor/Pap Editor window to add a new tab and keep your changes in the previous TMB/PAP.

Once you're satisfied, click Export at the top of the editor to turn your edits into a mod. Note that if you don't export your changes in some way, it'll all revert back to the vanilla game version on restarting the game or the plugin, so be sure to do that.

Method 2: VFX

Be aware that attaching sounds in this manner can cause them to be cut short or not play in certain situations. As of patch 7.3, sound handling changed slightly, so you may also find that certain third-party sharing plugins don't behave with looped SCDs attached to VFX - try through PAP/TMB instead.

This method gets into the nitty-gritty of VFXEditor and is recommended for either more advanced users or those that don't mind if the explanations become jargon-heavy.

Find the VFX that you wish to attach the sound to. You can do so in the Loaded pop-up in the Vfx Editor window. Pressing the ▸button should display it on your character. If it doesn't, it's lacking a binder (and that's fine), although you can still preview it with the Spawn button if there's something in both the loaded and replaced fields.

In case you haven't already, set your desired VFX to loaded and replaced. For our example, we're sticking with Fast Blade #1:

Our goal is to add the sound on an emitter, but the question is which emitter? Well, it depends. For starters, you might want to check the Timelines tab. Find Timeline # > Items. There can occasionally be multiple timelines, but we want to find the ones that have emitter entries and not ones with clips. You'll likely notice that each emitter is offset differently, assuming they're not infinite bars. These are according to what frame they should start. (Remember: 30 frames per second.) You can find out the exact start and end frame if you click on the emitter here and look below.

If you think one of these will fit the bill in terms of start time (and possibly length), then you've found the emitter you want to attach the sound to. If not, then we can just make our own with a little extra effort.

For the sake of our example, let's make a new emitter and leave the rest intact. However, if you want to work with an existing emitter, it's basically the same except you'll just be selecting that emitter to work with in the dropdown in the Emitters tab.

In the Emitters tab, click the + button next to the dropdown where you'd choose the emitter to edit. Click Default in the pop-up. This will have created a new, empty point emitter in the dropdown, and it will always be the very last one in the list. Go ahead and click it.

Under the Parameters tab, you'll notice the following below the node graph:

To add a sound, click that + Sound button and change the Sound Index value to 0.

Side note: If you happen to be working with an SCD that has multiple sound indices inside of it (like SE_VFX_Common or SE_UI), you'd instead make Sound Index's value, well, the sound index that the audio index uses. Otherwise, single-audio SCDs will always use 0, and anything higher than 0 will default to 0. Also, -1 in this particular field means that it's not being used (which the little i tells you if you hover over it).

In the newly created Sound field, simply paste the path to the sound you want to use. It will automatically convert to lowercase; this is for compatibility reasons and doesn't affect how it plays.

For Loop Start and Loop End, we are doing nothing with this. Despite the name and its proximity, it is only for looping the emitter and not the sound itself. If you wish to establish a loop for the sound akin to BGM, you want to do that through SCD metadata and/or PAP/TMB C063 manipulation.

If you were using one of the existing emitters, you're done here. Test by clicking the UPDATE button and then the Spawn button. If it's what you like, you can move on to exporting your mod or changing additional stuff in the editor.

However, for our example where we made a custom emitter, now we need to actually tell the VFX to use this emitter. Head back to Timelines > Timeline # > Items. Click the + button there to add an empty item in that timeline. (You'll see a red ! pop up above, but it'll resolve itself once we input some values, so don't worry about it.) Click that new item and look below. We want to change its Target Binder, Target Emitter, and double-click the Enabled checkbox so that it turns into a checkmark. If you really felt like it, you could give this timeline entry a name so you can identify it easier; otherwise, it'll default to Emitter #.

Simple explanation of everything: Binders are used to bind an emitter to a specific point. Emitters call particles (which are basically the meat of VFX, all the shiny stuff), and emitters need binders so that they know where to emit from. Sometimes emitters call emitters, but we're not going to go into that rabbit hole. And while we're not concerning ourselves with effectors for sounds, those things can provide VFX-based lights, camera shakes, and radial blur.

For the binder, there's normally just one and that's what we'd use, but if you have multiple, you can check what they do in the Binders tab. Mostly, you'll want to concern yourself with the fields in Binders > Binder # > Properties. In the Parameters tab here, it'll tell you if the binder's being placed on caster or target, as well as what bind point ID it should adhere to (defined in the EID, another file type that defines binder locations according to a skeleton). Pick the one that you think would work best. You could make your own binder, too, if you felt like it.

Side note: VFX for ground AoEs and objects typically don't have a binder, and so you wouldn't need to add one to your emitter either. Even if the editor's complaining about it, it's fine, since that binder is specified for the VFX elsewhere.

For the emitter, just choose the one we've made.

Lastly, we want to modify the Start Time and End Time. In case you've forgotten, 30 FPS. Make sure that End Time lasts as long as you need it to, or else your sound will be cut short - unless that's your intention.

You can also do the same thing by dragging the bar in the timeline. Drag the middle to shift its place, and drag the ends of the bar to adjust its length.

Test by clicking the UPDATE button and then the Spawn button. If it's what you like, you can move on to exporting your mod or changing additional stuff in the editor.

Replacing an existing modded sound with your own

This example assumes you only want to change the sound internally and don't particularly care about doing much else to it. If you feel like going the extra mile and making the SCD file from scratch with some extra settings, you can refer back to the first example about BGM swaps. It's basically the same idea with a slightly different end result.

Load up the sound on the mod you want to edit. Click the button next to the Loaded SCD field and navigate to your mod. You can do this by going to the Paths tab and typing in the path or finding the local path with the folder button; or going to the Penumbra tab and searching that way. Click ✓ (or SELECT in the Paths tab) once you've found the sound you want.

For Penumbra:

For local files:

Side note: Some mods may make use of an intro sound that's not looped and then a normal sound that's looped. These go along with animations that have both a start and loop. If you don't want to keep the start SCD and just replace the loop SCD, you can just delete the start SCD path in the redirects; I'll get to this concept near the end. Or you can manually move/rename/delete the physical file so that the mod doesn't run it. That also works.

If you want to replace both, you'll have to manually split your sound to have both. However, you may run into an issue if the start sound isn't of identical length - the sound can be cut short, overlap, or leave a noticeable gap, due to how the original mod had things set up.

Solution one: Adjust the start PAP (animation) to have a duration to match your new start sound. It will mean the animation altogether will look strange or freeze a bit, but it works.

Solution two: Make a start sound of equal length to the original start sound, then set up your loop points of the looped sound manually. Not to sound like a broken record at this point, but the first example, the Audacity section, and the SCD prep section cover how to do that, with the latter two links being a little more technical/wordy in nature.

For some imported sounds from mods, you may see this:

It just means the conversion was done outside of VFXEditor and has the potential to run into issues. It's still entirely functional. However, if you find the sound isn't working how it should be, it's recommended to go back to the first example and make your own SCD.

Click on Audio 0 to bring up the built-in player.

Then click on the rightmost button next to the player to import your custom sound. The editor will take care of any possible conversion.

Side note: For music/BGM, it's recommended your file be OGG with the highest quality setting. For things like battle sounds/SFX, it's recommended to be WAV. You can import whichever type you want, really, but keep in mind the overall size. If the SCD's original sound was OGG, VFXEditor will automatically convert WAV into OGG upon import, unless you delete Audio # and make a new default template to force it to be WAV. Note that, since late 2024, WAV files have not been behaving consistently when used with loops. Therefore, it's recommended to use OGG for any looped sounds for the time being.

Any other file type besides WAV and OGG is not supported, so you need to use an external software or website to convert it.

If you're unsure what type of sound the SCD has, look below the built-in player. If it says Vorbis, that means it's OGG. Otherwise, if it says MsAdPcm, that means it's WAV.

The player will disappear as it loads the new sound. If it's a large file, give it a few seconds. Once it's done, just click on Audio 0 again to bring it back. For some folks, Loop Time may have changed.

This is the editor adjusting the length to match the end of your custom sound. For the most part, you don't need to worry about it unless you want to specifically adjust your loop points. Please refer back to the first example about what to do in that case.

If it hasn't changed and you need the sound to loop back from end to start, type in a very large number into the rightmost field of Loop Time. It should automatically set it to the end of your sound. It may not match up exactly, depending on your sound's overall quality, but it will work as intended.

If it hasn't changed and you don't want a looped sound, you don't need to do anything. Both Loop Time fields at 0.000 will default to a non-loop status.

If you're having problems during testing, with it not looping when it should or looping when it shouldn't, double check the following:

- the Loop flag in Sounds > Sound # > Parameters. Check it for loops, uncheck to disable loops. This may or may not be necessary.

- the correct sequence of KeyOn, (LoopStart), Interval, and KeyOff/LoopEnd exists in Tracks > Track #. For what you should be looking for, check here.

- the file that's calling the sound isn't affecting it. A PAP or AVFX can force looping status sometimes. Assuming this file exists, check for a -1 in the PAP's C063 entry or a relevant field in the AVFX. (AVFX files have a lot of influencing factors, which can make finding the culprit difficult on occasion, so if this is the case, you may want to ask for assistance.)

When working with a mod loaded and active in Penumbra, you can test your sound if you wish by navigating to the mod's sound again for the SCD Being Replaced field. Click UPDATE once you do that, then use the mod in question to hear it. If you're replacing BGM, make sure the old one isn't playing when you click UPDATE or you risk crashing.

Side note: In case you're curious or worried, the UPDATE button itself won't actually overwrite your mod's sound yet. VFXEditor stores it as a temporary file and references that until you choose to export it.

Additionally, if you plan to work with multiple sounds or files, you need to have them open in multiple tabs. You can add more tabs like so:

Clearing the Loaded SCD with X in the same tab will also clear your temporary file and revert all your changes.

In order for the sound to actually be more permanent, you need to export it. Click the button to the right of the UPDATE button to do so. Pick somewhere to save the file and give it a name. It can be the same name as the original mod if you just want to overwrite, or you can give it a new one if you want to give the mod toggle options. We'll get to how to do that in a second.

Find your newly created SCD file, wherever you saved it, then copy and paste it into the mod's folder where the old sound is. For doing a straight replacement of the mod's sound, simply change the new sound's name to match the old one (overwriting the old sound or making a renamed backup somewhere) and you're done. Otherwise, if you're making options, keep the name how you had it.

With creating a new mod option, we have just a bit further to go. I'm going to assume you have the mod imported into Penumbra already for this, as that's the way to add extra options. I don't know how to do any of this with Textools, and I don't particularly encourage the use of Textools anyhow because it does bad things to your index files by directly modifying them, but I digress.

Open up Penumbra and find the mod you're editing. Go to the Edit Mod tab in that mod.

Find the field that says Add new option group..., type in anything you want for the new option group name, then press the + next to it to add it.

Make sure the group is listed as type Single Group so that you don't get conflicting or overwriting sounds in your mod. Basically, it just forces you to only have one of the options active at any one time. Then, type in an option name in the Add new option... field, and press + to add it. Since we have at least two sounds - the old and the new - make an option for each of them. I also add an extra option in the event I or any other user doesn't want a modded sound at all.

With that done, go to the Advanced Editing tab.

To set up a sound for each option, click the dropdown to the right in the File Redirections tab (it should be opened to this tab by default) and click the option you want to add the first sound to.

You should see all the sounds that exist in your mod's folder(s). If you don't see the one you just added, click the Refresh Data button.

Side note: Red means you haven't assigned a path to the file yet to make it usable in-game. Yellow means there's at least one option that has a path assigned already. Green means the path is assigned for the option you selected in the dropdown menu.

If your mod didn't have any options established yet, the original sound will have its path already set in the Default Option in the dropdown. That just means it'll be loaded regardless of whatever option you pick. It also means you'll need to cut the path from there and paste it into the option you want to avoid conflicts. Note that, if you changed any path redirect in an option, you'll need to click Apply Changes at the top before moving on to a different option, or else everything will revert to how it was.

For basic mods, you really only need to use the same path but just in different options.

And if you did what I suggested, by making an extra option to disable the modded sound, you don't have to add any paths in that option in the dropdown. It will assume that nothing will be used and will default to either what's in the Default Option or what's in the game, if anything.

And there you have it - new sounds and options for your mod.

Cropping sounds to only play specific sections

Be aware that this example is a little more technical in nature. If you find it difficult to wrap your head around, you can just use Audacity or something to cut your sound how you like before importing it to replace another. Doing manual cropping in an outside program is preferred for this sort of thing anyway, especially in cases where you want the desired section of sound to play immediately. While you can manipulate the SCD internally to achieve that with some clever pitch additions - I'll cover that concept near the end - it's usually more effort than it's worth. But for those of you that are feeling lazy or daring, we're off to see the wizard.

Let's say we want to change Flash's SFX to only play the second half of it. Go ahead and load the sound (sound/vfx/magic/SE_VFX_Magic_Flash_c.scd), set its replacement to be the same, and go to the Tracks tab, then click on Track 0.

You'll notice quite a few item listings here. If you want to read about what they all do, check the Tracks section of the guide, but for our purposes, we're only interested in working with Interval and Volume.

Interval you may have read about or tinkered with already. It's how the SCD determines when to start, what modulations to activate at that time (pitch, panning, volume, reverb, etc.), and how long to play parts of the sound. The placement of the Interval field is crucial to how it functions, but we'll get to that in a second.

Every entry before Interval is what will be used when the sound is called. In Flash's SCD, the ones that currently hold usable values are RandomPitch (1.059 to 0.944), Volume (1.000), and Pitch (1.000). The rest are either set to off with ModulationOff or by having a 0 value.

The important part is the Volume listing at Item 6. Since we don't want to hear the first half of the sound, we set Volume to 0.000 (i.e. silent). This won't negate any of the modulations that come before or after it, so don't worry about that.

Now, let's hop to the Interval at Item 12. Right now, it's set to 2703, the length of the sound in milliseconds. If you preview the sound with the editor's built-in audio player back in the Audio tab, you'll notice the elapsed time in seconds in the middle of the bar. This will help you find about when your desired crop will be. Since it's seconds, just remove the decimal place and you have your millisecond value.

For our example purpose, let's say we just want the pop sound and everything after. That happens at roughly 900 milliseconds. Therefore, that'll be our Interval value.

Side note: any variation in Pitch or RandomPitch outside of 1.000 will also affect overall play speed independently of any millisecond values set in the SCD, so keep that in mind.

And then we want to change our volume. But wait, there is no Volume entry after it!

Okay, see that fancy + New button?

Go ahead and click it. Now we have a new item.

"But it's not the right one!" Patience, young Padawan.

This is where order is important. You always want a KeyOn before Interval, and you (almost) always want KeyOff followed by End at the end of your series of items. I say "almost" because you might sometimes see CutOff or LoopEnd instead, but we won't get into that here. If you don't have those four items, your sound won't play. The exception is with sounds crafted in XIV File Explorer, in which they only have ReleaseRate, KeyOn, and End and yet still miraculously work. I don't know how, but it does. In any case, that's definitely not ideal for what we're trying to do. Moving on.

So, in order to rectify our current situation to have both Volume and the correct order, we'll want to adjust the Type of each item using the dropdowns to eventually end up with this:

At this point, that should be all you have to do. Flash will only play the second half. You can, of course, go even further by alternating more Interval and Volume items inside KeyOn and KeyOff, hacking and cutting away at your sound until it doesn't even sound like the original anymore. Or you might slap in some Pitch and ADSR in between. It's entirely up to you. The world's your special, little oyster.

Since we're here, we might as well get into how to skip sections of sound entirely without having to sit through silence. You've likely intuited how to do it by now, but I'll go over it in case. I'll use the same example sound - Flash.

Basically, the gist is to increase Pitch by a large amount and then bring it back to normal. And since it also affects speed, we're abusing that to fast forward through the silent bits.

Keep the first Volume at 0.000. The very first item we want to change is Pitch, Item 7. Since this is before an Interval, it'll apply right at the start. The problem is ascertaining what value this should be. I'm sure you could do a calculation if you really wanted to, but I like the scuffed approach of trying until I get it right.

However, I'll save you some time and say a Pitch of 4.500 will do just fine.

Then we want to adjust the first Interval at Item 12. Instead of the 900 we decided on earlier, we'll make this 200 to account for the speed change.

This is where we want to add another new item, Pitch, and change the last few to maintain working order. We can leave the second Volume of 1.000 at Item 13. As long as it's after the Interval (and before another one, if you choose to add more), it's fine where it is.

We want our speed back to normal, so that means this new Pitch will be 1.000. If you did it right, it'll look like this:

And now if you try it out, your cropped sound should play almost immediately. Or, more accurately, after 200 milliseconds, but close enough for our cheap example. Adjust values as necessary to achieve your desired result.

Enabling the use of randomised BGM/SFX for animations/skills

Note that this can only be done for animations (and maybe VFX or non-BGM sounds; I haven't tested that far). I don't know that there's a way to randomise actual BGM. Attempting to replace one and force random will mute the BGM altogether, so until I or someone else finds a way to get around that, I'm calling it a game limitation.

While this method works by editing the SCD itself, you can also choose to do randomisation through a VFX with its emitters using separate SCDs. There's a video guide for that process here.

For the SCD trick, we need to borrow a sound that already has a Type of GroupRandom set up in Sounds > Sound # > Parameters, as well as one that has premade audio tracks. Trying to add a new audio track and using that will end up with that track being silent; this is an editor bug with no current ETA for a fix.

As an example, we'll be using bgcommon/sound/fst/fst_spot_drop.scd as our base sound, since it has ten available audio tracks. Paste the path into Loaded SCD and press Enter. And since we want to use this in an animation, we'll go ahead and enter our custom path. Type what you want it to be in SCD Being Replaced - like sound/test.scd - and press Enter.

For a quick explanation of what GroupRandom does, it defines a series of sounds in Sounds > Sound # > Entries and gives each one a Limit, which is a somewhat fancy term that means it'll assign a random chance of playing that particular audio in that set.

The first column in Limit is our % chance. The second column you might think of as the order.

Testing note: As this Limit field is particularly new (at least in its current form), I haven't really dug into it in earnest, so I don't have a ready explanation as to why it can skip around, just that it can. In any case, we don't have to worry about that bit, just that we should stay in incremental order.

As you might have surmised, Track Index is tied to which track number in the Tracks tab that the Audio Index uses, while Audio Index is tied to which audio is used in the Audio tab. These don't necessarily have to be in order, and quite often they aren't, but it's a good idea to keep them in order anyway to avoid general confusion.

Now, unless you're actually planning to use all ten sounds, we'd probably want to trim all of this down. For our example, let's go ahead and do that, and only keep three sounds. That means we'll delete everything after Track Index 2 in Sounds > Sound 0 > Entries and delete all the audio after Audio 2 in the Audio tab. While we're at it, we can get rid of everything after Track 2 as well in the Tracks tab; this one isn't required, but it'll be cleaner.

With that out of the way, go ahead and import the sounds you want in whatever format (OGG or WAV) you'd like. Since we're working with base audio that's already MsAdPcm WAV, we don't have to worry about WAV being auto-converted to OGG, if applicable.

For each audio, set up loops (or no loops, whichever) as you would normally.

Then let's take a little trip to the Tracks tab. For now, check what's in Track 0, which is tied to Audio 0.

If you're already familiar with this tab, then you'll have noticed a couple things that we need to fix for our needs. First and foremost, we want to get rid of two items: RandomVolume and RandomPitch. As their names suggest, they'll apply randomised volumes and pitches to your sounds when they're played. Unless you really want that, it's best to delete them. Click the items open and press Delete in them.

Our second goal is dependent on your needs.

If you don't want your sounds to loop, we don't need to do much here, since it's already set up how we want. The only thing I would suggest is changing the millisecond value inside Interval to match your sound's length so that it doesn't get cut short.

If you want your sounds to loop, we need to add a couple items - specifically, we're adding two new items, so click the + New button twice to add them. Each new item will default to End, but we can easily change that. To give you a quick idea of what we want our items to look like after we're done, refer to this image:

In some cases, the item numbers won't match up. That's perfectly fine. What matters is the order of them.

Going by this image, we want to change Item 12, 13, and 14. To do this, click open the item you want to change, then open the Type dropdown menu, scroll in that menu until you find the Type you need, and click it to set it. Repeat until you have the items in the right order.

The last thing we want to do is modify both Interval items. To refresh, the first Interval is the start time of your audio's loop, while the second Interval is the length of the audio loop. Both are measured in milliseconds.

You'll have to repeat this process for each Track # you have. Thankfully, each track has exactly the same format, so it's just a matter of doing the exact same thing twice, but for some files you'll have to pay special attention to other things being silently modified - like if Pitch has been adjusted from 1.000 or there's some Panning going on outside of its default of 0.000.

Side note: you can just have one Track 0 and set all your audio indices to draw from that. The problem is that you're likely to have each audio track being different lengths. Interval usually won't play nicely with some of them as a result.

Now let's head to Sounds > Sound 0. Since we deleted all but three entries here, we need to modify the Limit values to behave like we want them to. To further explain on Limit, it'd help to think of the first column also as "if % chance fails, go to next entry". In other words, in our example, the first audio we have is 12% chance. If that 12% fails, it tries the 22% chance. If that 22% chance fails, it tries the 26% chance.

You're welcome to make these any percentages between 1 and 100. There's only one requirement: Limits should be unique percentages. Your last Limit should ideally be 100 so that something will always play regardless if the others fail, but you can choose to have it be less if you want there to be a chance of nothing playing. Anyway, something like this would be fine:

The more you know: SE has somewhat of a convention in terms of setting these. They like to space it out to be even amounts between percentages, so something like 32, 63, and 100; or 22, 43, 67, 85, and 100 - roughly average spacing to give them equal chances.

We're almost done. Hang in there.

Under Sounds > Sound 0 > Parameters, you'll most likely want to adjust the Loop checkbox accordingly, change the Bus Number (if 5 for the ambient channel isn't your jam), and maybe add Extra Desc or Bus Ducking.

Additionally, in Sounds > Sound 0 > Layout, changing Max Range and Min Range to match your target sound type wouldn't go amiss. (For BGM, the default is 0.000 Max Range and 30.000 Min Range.)

If you're unfamiliar with some of the above concepts, you may consider reading this introductory section on relevant metadata.

The very last thing I want to point out is that some of the stuff in the Attributes tab is a little different than usual, mostly that Attribute Id, First Condition, and Argument Count have values (and subsequently Extend 1 has values because of Argument Count). For general use, I wouldn't really pay this too much mind. Your sound will still act mostly like it should. The only possible difference is that it can define how many instances of this particular sound can exist at one time. At least, as far as I know. Attributes is still a pretty big mystery. If you find your sound is getting cut out randomly when other sounds are being played at the same time, this may be something to adjust. As for what to adjust it to, just find an SCD that matches what you're going for and copy what's there.

Okay, that should more or less do it for setting up your SCD to randomise sounds. The only thing left to do is to attach it to something. If you're unsure how to do that in general, please see the fourth example in this section for slapping a sound on an emote.

As a gentle reminder, this does not work for standard BGM replacements. It must be called elsewhere.

I've got my music and/or sound(s) ready! Now what?

This will be the basics of basics. If you already know how to do file swaps and mod creation with selectable options in Penumbra, there won't be much for you here.

(I've opted to remove the mini section on TexTools mod creation. Use of TexTools is overall not recommended due to how it interacts with the game's index files and its incompatibility with plugins like Penumbra that largely prefer clean indices. Creating .ttmp2 through VFXEditor is still possible with Export > Textools, but giving it options requires direct interface with TexTools or making each sound a separate TT file, and I'm not invested enough there to do a write-up. I apologise for the inconvenience.)

If you're exporting as a Penumbra mod from VFXEditor, this method will need a little extra work if you want to add things like mod/group/option descriptions, mod tags, or if you have custom paths for non-emote BGM. Those have to be manually modified in Penumbra itself. However, this is a good starting point, rather than making the mod entirely from scratch.

Click Export > Penumbra in the editor if you haven't already. A new mod creation window will pop up:

Here, you can give the mod a name, an author, and change its version from 1.0.0, if you want.

To select all files of a given type for exporting, click the checkbox next to the type. To select specific files of that type, click that type's bar to open it up and show individual checkboxes for each file you have available for export.

You'll notice it says Default Mod near the top. This corresponds to Penumbra's Default Mod setting when you enable any given mod - in other words, it's what will be active as soon as you click to enable the mod in Penumbra. If you don't care about options, this is where you'll select everything you need.

If you do want options, click the + next to the Default Mod dropdown menu to add a new group (or multiple groups). To swap between created groups, click that dropdown menu.

Below that, you can change the group name from its default name of New Group.

The bottommost + will add options for the selected group. Click on New Option to show everything you can do for that option: changing its name, making it active by default (with the Default checkbox), adjusting that option's Priority in relation to the other options, and selecting the files you want to add to that option.

The dropdown below the group name tells the mod how the options should work. Single will make it so that you can only have one option active in that group at a time. Multi will allow multiple options to be active in the group at a time.

Make your mod how you want and then click Export at the top right of this window. It will save as a .pmp, Penumbra's mod package. If you wanted to add descriptions to the mod or redirect a custom path, you will have to import this .pmp into Penumbra, edit things there, and export it again through Penumbra.

For the custom path, since its folder and file have already been created for you, you can just use the Advanced Editing tab in your imported Penumbra mod to change the established path(s) to what you want it to be. Like if it was created as music/choco.scd and it's meant to replace the standard chocobo mount BGM, you'd change the redirected path to be music/ffxiv/bgm_ride_chocobo.scd instead, press Enter on your keyboard, and click the Apply Changes button above it.

If you've exported your SCDs as raw SCDs and you're editing an existing mod, find the mod you want to edit in Penumbra. Click it, and in the Edit Mod tab of that mod, click Open Mod Directory. Navigate to the file you want to replace, make a backup of it if you want, and then overwrite the original. That'd be all you have to do.

Or if you're not replacing and just adding an option, put it inside a folder in that mod. Then, in the Advanced Editing tab of that mod, click Refresh Data to force Penumbra to recognise the new file. You can add a new group and/or option specifically for that file in the Edit Mod tab, towards the bottom. Back in Advanced Editing, assuming you want your new file to modify the same sound as the mod's old one, copy the path from the other sound. Use the dropdown menu on the right of that window to select your group and option combo you made. Then, for the Add New Path... field below that file (should be marked in red), paste the path you copied. Click Apply Changes to save it.

If you haven't exported your SCDs as a full mod and instead as raw SCDs, and you're making a new mod, we'll need to create a mod template in Penumbra. Open up the plugin and go to the Mods tab. At the bottom left, click the + to create a mod. Give it a good name.

In this new mod, go over to the Edit Mod tab and click Open Mod Directory. Create a new folder in this directory. Generally, it doesn't matter what you call it or if you have a ton of subfolders within it (C:/User/Penumbra mods/music/never/gonna/give/you/up/). The one thing you must have is one folder that FFXIV can recognise as "valid", with your file somewhere in that folder. That means naming the folder something like sound, music, or chara. If it's not there, you'll either crash or a file won't be read.

The more you know: While you could make a zillion subfolders and put a file in the very last folder of that directory, it can impact read speed when your computer tries to reach that file after having to go through all those folders. It's much more obvious on hard disks than on solid state drives. This is part of the reason, if not the entire reason, that Penumbra suggests you put your mod directory as close to a drive's root folder as possible.

Place your exported file(s) in that folder (or relevant subfolder) you created.

The more you know: If you're wondering about any .json files and if you need to edit them, the quick answer is you don't. That's all managed within the Penumbra mod. JSON files, more or less, define the editable properties, including your mod name, its description, options, and what files are going to be swapped. These JSONs also need to exist at your mod's root directory (e.g. C:/User/Penumbra mods/new mod/) so that Penumbra recognises that folder as a mod folder.

Now, there are three ways to go about actually implementing a file swap and making your mod work. The first and easiest is to establish it by clicking the Advanced Editing tab in your mod. You'll want to make note that it says Default Option in the top-right. That means, the way we're setting it up right now, when you click to enable your mod in the main Penumbra window, everything you've changed will become active by default. We'll get to the other more specific methods in a minute if you want a little more control over it.

You should see your file (or files, if you want to do multiple swaps) listed in red. If you don't, click Refresh Data at the top.

This is where you'll want to use the file paths you (hopefully) copied earlier somewhere. Paste the file path that you want to swap into the Add New Path... field below the custom path. Press Enter and you should see it turn green. Repeat for any other files you want. You can add additional paths to the same file, if you so wish. If you're satisfied with what you have, be sure to click the Apply Changes button and then shift back to the main mod window.

Edit anything else you feel you need to and then enable the mod. For BGM, make sure it's set in your default collection and that you're not currently playing the affected track. You may also need to click Reload Mod to get Penumbra to reestablish the modified paths, more so if it's BGM-based.

Your mod should be functional! :tada: You can even export it into a single file to share or save by going back to the Edit Mod tab and clicking Export Mod, which will save a Penumbra-based .pmp file in your base Penumbra mod folder.

The second option for file swapping is to allow the user to enable or disable a specific SCD without having to be stuck with the whole batch. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone wants "Anaconda" playing for every possible orchestrion. (But you know someone's going to now.) So, let's work on giving them a choice, shall we?

Go back to the Edit Mod tab. You'll see at the bottom you can add a new option group.

Type in what you want to name the group and click the +. You'll see something like this:

The dropdown menu below your group name will either be Single Group or Multi Group.

Single Group lets you establish multiple options for the group, where only one option can be active at a time. You'd want to use this if you have a single in-game file you want to change with multiple custom files. Be aware that you need at least two options available.

Multi Group does the opposite, letting you have multiple options active simultaneously, so you'd use it for changing multiple in-game files with a single custom file, or multiple in-game files with multiple custom files that fit into a nice category.

Note you have to click + for your options to actually be added to the group.

You may have noticed the numbers to the side of your group name, and next to the options if you went for Multi Group.

This is the priority your group and option will take over other groups and options. For most things, there's usually not much reason to have these at anything but 0 (default priority). Keep in mind that these numbers are different from the actual Priority setting in the Settings tab of the mod, which governs the entire mod's priority over other mods within Penumbra.

With that said, you can add as many groups and options as you want. Go ham.

Back in the Advanced Editing window, click on the Default Option dropdown in the top-right. Now you can see all the options you've added to your mod, listed as Group: Option. Clicking on each one will let you set new changes specific to that group/option combo. If you see a name that's gold, that's just reminding you that you've used that file already in a different group/option. You can use that file for as many options as you desire. It'll tell you on the right how many times you've used it, or you can hover over that line to find out within which options it's enabled. Additionally, ticking the Overview Mode checkbox tells you this same information, just in a different format.

If you went with Single Group, and have something like On for one option and Off for another, On would then be your implemented change, while Off would be blank without any listed changes. Anything that's left blank automatically defaults to it not being active.

The third and final file swap option is more if you just want to swap an in-game sound/BGM for another in-game sound/BGM and have no need to change anything about them otherwise. Ideally, you do this for SCDs that are similar in nature: BGM for BGM, SFX for SFX, and orchestrion for orchestrion. Swapping unlike files may result in things not playing as intended.

This is done in the File Swaps tab of Advanced Editing in your mod. You simply enter your desired file in the left field and then the file to swap in the right field, then you click the + to add it. Be sure to click Apply Changes to save any swaps you make. As before, this can be tied to options with the dropdown in the upper right.

A quick introduction to the other SCD Editor tabs

For the purposes of keeping it relevant to this main part of the guide, I'll only go over what I believe to be the most important bits here and skip the rest. The bulkier, more comprehensive information will be in its own appendices.

Audio > Parameters

Right now, there are three checkboxes:

Enabled Marker lets you use the Markers tab. This is relevant mostly to BGM that changes in combat, but can also be used in specific SFX. The Markers tab then allows you to set times at which the BGM transition occurs. The file must be four or six channels in order to take advantage of this, and needs the Dynamix Plus and DynamixStream settings active. These will be explained in the Sounds tab section.

Mono Split is untested. However, isn't used on four- and six-channel BGM for combat or on any file I've checked yet, so we'll leave this one be for now.

Version Shift is placed mainly on SFX. As to what it does, I haven't tested it, since it's new, but it's likely related to the other Version fields elsewhere in the SCD.

Sounds

There's one field right at the top of a Sound # when you open it up, and that's Volume. It does what it sounds like it does - adjusts the volume of your file. Usually, SE sets this at 0.650 or lower (even sometimes 0.200). You'd probably want to do the same so you can still hear that you're being stabbed in-game.

For BGM, at least, Volume has a minimum of 0.000 and a maximum of 1.000 - you cannot go beyond those. For SFX, it's possible to go beyond the max of 1.000, but there's a chance it won't register. You can abuse specific fields in the Tracks tab - check the appendix for ADSR - but it'll also affect other aspects of the sound. It's recommended to use an external editor like Audacity to adjust the decibel range instead.

Sounds > Entries

You've probably noticed Sounds: 0 when opening Audio #.

This is so you can immediately tell which Sound # entry in the Sounds tab uses this particular audio entry. For most files, this will just be 0 since there's normally only Sound 0. Specifically, it's determined by the Audio Index value here, in the Entries tab under Sounds:

Track Index then indicates which Track # entry in the Tracks tab that Sound # uses. For most common sounds, this will just be 0 as well. If you open up a file like sound/vfx/SE_VFX_common.scd, though, you'll quickly notice how many entries there are in each tab, to which Entries will help figure out how they all tie together. Because they can't just be in order, apparently.

Sounds > Parameters

Loop, while checked, will flag your file as having a loop; if it's not a looper, leave it unchecked. It's possible that a file can still loop without this flag, as long as it has the Loop Time metadata set, but I'd check it anyway to be on the safe side. Be careful about applying this to music that only plays once. I'm talking mostly about early ARR dungeons that transition into silence after the BGM is done. (Specifically, it'll call the music/ffxiv/BGM_Null.scd track because that's how it's defined in one of the game's .exd datasheets.)

There's a Music checkbox, but I'm telling you right now it has no effect and is never used. Even BGM doesn't toggle this. You're welcome to check it if you really, really want to, but it won't do anything. At least, not that I know of yet. Same with Music Surround.

BusDucking allows a specific system channel like BGM or voices to change in volume, most often so it doesn't play over any other system channel. Checking this will create a Bus Ducking tab that you can click on:

Number determines which bus number's volume to affect. You can check or change which one your SCD uses with the Bus Number field back in the Parameters tab here. As a quick reference, here's a handy list of bus numbers used across the board:

There's a special bus number of 0 used occasionally, but I've yet to fully demystify it.

Fade Time is how long it takes to reduce the volume of Number, measured in milliseconds.

Volume specifies the ending volume Number should have. This can be anywhere from 0.000 to 1.000. In case it wasn't obvious, make sure Number and Bus Number in Parameters aren't equal if Volume is 0.000 or you'll just mute your file altogether (unless that's what you want).

For an example of bus ducking: orchestrion BGM, by nature, will have the values of 1 for Number, 1200 for Fade Time, and 0.000 for Volume. This means any BGM playing (or anything else that shares that bus value of 1) will be muted (volume at 0) after 1.2 seconds, which is why something like the Orchestrion plugin won't play over any current orchestrion music, because all the songs have a bus of 1. The irony is real.

Acceleration determines how sounds will change volume according to movement. This is normally applied to mounts. When checked, it creates a corresponding subtab of Acceleration.

Version, whether at the top or in each dropdown, is currently an unknown. To be honest, I've not tested this at all, but it's always at 0.

Acceleration Count is normally set to 2, meaning the SCD will only pay attention to the first two Acceleration # entries. (Note that these entries cannot be manually added yet.) The first entry pays attention to when you stop moving or are idle, and the second notes when you move. Brutally honest again - never tested with anything other than two. I've also never seen anything with more than two, so there's that.

As such, Volume in Acceleration #0 is the overall volume when you don't move, while Volume in Acceleration #1 is the target volume when you move. As an example, setting the first Volume to 0.000 and the second Volume to 1.000 will mute the BGM when you're not moving and make it full volume when you do. These fields act proportionally to the volume of the sound in general, so if your main volume in the Sounds tab is 0.200, having any Volume in Acceleration at 1.000 will max out at 0.200.

Up Time is used by Acceleration #0 and fades in for that set millisecond time, according to its Volume. Down Time, conversely, is used by Acceleration #1 and fades out for the set time, according to its Volume. The opposite field won't be read if swapped, only the one that was meant for that particular Acceleration #.

Extra Desc, when checked, will create an Extra tab.

The purpose of Extra Desc is to affect overall frequencies slightly by dampening sharper sounds for a subjectively better auditory experience. (You can get a feel for this if you remove Extra Desc on a SAM skill.) Almost all of the more recent sounds in-game use this, including BGM. This is, by no means, a required flag, but may be something to consider using.

Version is, more or less, what version of this frequency dampening code to use. Earlier sounds have 0, some later sounds have 1, while Dawntrail sounds will have 2. There's a slight difference in how the sound plays according to version, so test them if you wish, but my recommendation would be to use their latest versions, 1 or 2, since they're theoretically an improvement.

Play Time Length is where you'd want to insert your file's length in milliseconds. For looped files, this extends only to the end of your loop. For multiple sounds using the same Sound #, it's the length of the longest sound in the group.

And now for the main section in Parameters:

Bus Number, as discussed in the Bus Ducking section, is what system channel the SCD will use to play its sound. The most common ones you'll see are 1 for BGM, 2 for SFX, and 16 for orchestrions.

Priority functions like you'd think. If two SCDs of the same Bus Number play simultaneously, it then falls on Priority to determine which should play over the other or take priority on its metadata.

Side note: For the most part, regardless of this setting, there can only be a certain amount of unique sounds at one time per system channel, which is why a lot of combat SFX will end up cancelling each other out. There's a way to circumvent this on a sound-by-sound basis, at least.

Type is generally how the sound will behave and has the potential to unlock specific metadata to support that behaviour.

The most common type is Normal. This is the catch-all type, where you don't need anything really specific happening, just what's provided by default.

Invalid is something you shouldn't see unless you've just created a new Sound #. If it's set to this, you may want to make it Normal so the sound actually works.

Empty is somewhat common, and just means that there's no audio to be used for this particular Sound #. While it may seem like an oxymoron to have sound but no sound, it still adheres to any metadata like Reverb or Bus Ducking, so it has its niche uses.

Cycle is mostly for ambient SFX. It uses set of sounds to cycle through at set times. An example of this would be the thunder cracks you might hear while it's raining, or the birdsongs during the day.

GroupRandom determines which sound should play from a defined group of sounds in the SCD, and uses a Limit field to determine % chance of each. As of writing, this unfortunately cannot be applied to randomise BGM, unless the editor fixed it overnight. Someday, perhaps.

Finally, DynamixStream is what allows a BGM to transition while in combat. This is for stuff like PvP music, Bozja, pre-Stormblood alliances, or some hard-mode dungeons. The combat music out in the field - like if you run into something in Il Mheg - is a separate file and doesn't utilise this type. If this Type is used, then Dynamix Plus must also be checked above it. There's additionally Dynamix End, but I don't know what it does and I've never seen it used. Maybe for another BGM to end the one using DynamixStream, possibly.

Sounds > Layout

We don't need to concern ourselves with a majority of this, unless you're heavy into audio edits, and, even then, it's mostly with SFX.

Volume (the one with four values) scales off of every other volume setting. Only the first value makes an actual difference in standard gameplay. There's probably a reason for the others (axes, perhaps?), and maybe it's to do with the Immerse sound pack thing, but I've no idea.

Volume (the one with the single value) scales off of every other volume setting. Not too much reason to change it. Like the other volume settings, this can only hold a value between 0.000 and 1.000.

Pitch will adjust the overall pitch of your sound. This can be above 1.000. It will also timestretch it. Does not affect BGM. There's a pitch value in the Tracks tab as well, so be aware of that if you find your sound does that still.

Very important: do not set any Pitch value below 0.000. You will crash.

Fade In Time and Fade Out Time relate to how long it takes for the audio to fade in or fade out when swapping to or from another audio track. Still, though, having them at the default 2000 (milliseconds) is perfectly fine.

Tracks

First off, you can change what each of these items will determine (for example, switching ModulationOff to ModulationSpeed, or ReleaseRate to Transpose) by opening them up and clicking the Type dropdown inside. Additionally, you can add or delete items if the current ones aren't sufficient. The problem lies in how FFXIV wants to read these fields and what general order they're in. Always remember what you changed and what the original was, in case everything explodes.

Volume and Pitch work the same as they do elsewhere. Pitch can be above 1.000. Volume cannot. Below 0.000, bad things happen, like crashes. We don't like crashes.

Panning will pan your sound to the left or right. Between 0 and -2 will pan to the left, while between 0 and 2 will pan to the right. Keep this at 0 if you don't want to pan anything.

RandomVolume/RandomPitch/RandomPan work as described. The Upper value is the maximum it's allowed to go, while Lower is the minimum.

ModulationOff I'm still not sure, but intuition tells me it helps to reset the Carrier specified (tied to Type) on each successive call of that Track #. Probably best to have these here in case.

Interval, as previously explained, helps to establish loops or prevent sounds from cutting off early. It can also define how long to do something or wait before doing something else. Always measured in milliseconds.

RandomWait works somewhat similar to Interval, but lets you randomise the length. Value 1 is the shortest amount of time to wait, while Value 2 is the longest amount. This is most often found in ambient files, like spacing out raindrops at random times so it seems more natural.

KeyOn is mainly to establish Interval items that relate to total length in some way. There can be other cases, like putting in Pitch or Volume in between Intervals to modify them at specific times. But after setting all values that are needed here, it needs to be followed by one of three items: LoopEnd for loops, KeyOff for most other sounds, or CutOff for specific cases. CutOff is (probably) used to end a sound prematurely if something interrupts it, like a cutscene. I'm unsure if KeyOn needs to exist in general, but something tells me it does.

End is always at the very end of all items. Be sure to include it.

In some cases (probably not with BGM, just SFX), you may find an Interval value established before any KeyOn. This is usually accompanied by its presence in a group within the Sounds tab, and would then dictate the millisecond time at which that sound would play, using the Play Time Length value in the Extra subtab as the base length (equivalent to the longest sound in that set). The reason this exists is so specific parts of the sound can carry modulations like Pitch and Volume. You're most likely to find instances of this with weapon draw and sheathe sounds (e.g. book draw, book open, and then a special SFX for unique ones).

Attributes

This tab is relatively technical and generally has no bearing on common sound uses, so we can ignore it at this juncture. If you're curious, check Appendix E. I also have done moderate research on what shows up there in general, which can be found in a separate document listed in its own section.

Appendix A: SFX swap and modulation for mounts (and weapons or items)

This section describes mount sound manipulation, but the same general process can be used for weapon and item SFX with multiple audio entries, as long as you know what your original sound path is.

Let's use sound/battle/mon/3854.scd as a running example - the magitek death claw sounds. Say you want that buzz-like sound that occurs when you move to be on a different mount. (Hi, friend that I helped with this exact same thing.) In this case, it's listed as Index 21. You'll now want to look for the index number under the Sounds tab, which is easier said than done when there are almost always 29 listed. A recent VFXEditor update does show sound indices when checking Audio #, but only sometimes (related to something called Limit). This is a minor bug, so for now, we'll have to do it the hard way.

Thankfully, most of these Sound # entries should have a Type of Empty, so you can skip searching those for relevant metadata. For the others, you want to check the Tracks subtab and look for the matching value in the Audio Index field. To save you time on this one, it's Sound 12. Keep note of the Play Time Length value in the Extra subtab - we'll get to that soon. Here, it's 4039 (measured in milliseconds). The more important value is that within Track Index, which is referenced directly in the main Tracks tab. Here, it's 0.

Moving to said Tracks tab, we can now check Track 0, as mentioned. You'll see there's Item #2 (RandomPitch):

Upper tells us how high the pitch of the sound can be at any given play of it, while Lower tells us how low. You can, of course, change these as you will, so long as Upper has a higher value than Lower. Item #7 (Pitch) seems to designate the base value for the sound. While some files have this equivalent to the Upper value, others have it set to 1. As always, the safest bet is to match the original.

If you open up one of the items marked (ModulationOff), there are quite a few options to pick if you click the dropdown inside of it. Many of these are untested so far. Mostly, you just tend to see RandomPitch used. I'll go into further detail at another time, once I've discerned what more of them do.

For right now, make note of the Upper and Lower numbers (and the Pitch value, by extension), as we'll be doing a sound swap for testing soon. Go back to the main Audio tab and extract WAV (as this is a MsAdPcm file).

Now open up sound/battle/mon/13135.scd - sounds for the lunar whale mount. Assuming we want to change its movement sounds, these will be Index 4 through Index 6. (Note that it won't be the same every time, so you have to check around.)

This is more of a rough-and-ready solution, but I chose to replace all three with the same file that was extracted just a second ago. They all deal with movement, but there's a slight difference in when they're used. Anyway, we'll do the same thing with finding audio indices in the Sounds tab.

Here's where you want to be a little careful - some of these sounds are used more than once. For this mount specifically, our corresponding entries are under Sound 12 and Sound 14. Same as before, note each track index. Don't worry about the Limit values; they doesn't need to be changed, so best to leave it as is. You'll additionally see Track #3 has a very large value for its Audio Index (20479). It's likely related to Track 3 having (PlayInnerSound) and a bank number, but you're safe to leave and ignore it.

Let's shift over to the main Tracks tab. The ones we want to edit will be Track 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. Should this be applicable in the future, we'd want to change our Item #11 (Interval) to reflect our replaced audio's length (4039 in this example) for each Track entry. The Item # might be different for other mounts, but just remember the one you want to modify will be between KeyOn and KeyOff.

Since we probably want to retain the original mount's pitch modulations, let's go ahead and add those. For each track, open up the first ModulationOff and switch the dropdown to RandomPitch. This should look familiar, so go ahead and input those values you wrote down earlier. Additionally, where you see (Pitch), change that to the Upper value.

While I'm unsure if this makes a difference (wow, I'm really unsure of myself in general, huh), I like to change the other (ModulationOff) entries to have Pan and Volume respectively in their Carrier dropdowns if those are unused elsewhere, just to be safe. Likewise, if you modify a pan effect and don't use the other two, change those Carrier entries to Pitch and Volume. Same deal with Volume changed. The one thing you don't want to do is have those at None. Absolutely do not do that unless you like crashing.

Now we can export the raw SCD and use it (or slot in the sound to be replaced and export as a mod, if that's your preference). Your lunar whale mount should have the same movement sounds and effect as the magitek death claw, save for what we didn't modify. Note that this might not work if you've modified your lunar whale (or whatever mount you changed) to use a different PAP or AVFX. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out why that is, but it's a little out of my depth. My guess is something's missing or there's an overwriting sound. But for vanilla mount purposes, it should be functional.

Appendix B: Audio / Sounds > Parameters

Audio > Parameters

Enabled Marker does what it says - enables the use of markers and creates a Markers tab. This mostly has known use for dynamic combat BGM, to tell the game at what times to shift it when combat status changes. However, some skill sounds will also choose to use this. It's unknown at this time what the latter one does, or why it can be 0 or some incredibly small value. Could be related to how Version Shift functions.

Mono Split possibly acts to change a stereo sound into separate mono channels. Not that I've seen anything use this yet, nor do I know why you'd want to use it. I'll test this sometime.

Version Shift is also a little bit of an unknown, although a good number of sounds use this setting. Has something to do with all the Version fields you find in an SCD. The question is which one and what the purpose is.

Audio > Markers

This tab is created as a result of checking the Enabled Marker flag.

Id only seems to hold the string "MARK" in it in every file I've seen. Note that, at this time, you cannot manually type this in; you must find a file that already has this included. If trying to type it in, you can only insert a maximum of three characters. Also, if the Id field is blank, you will crash when you play the sound.

Loop Start / Loop End are ways to establish the loop points for the marker set. It's possible this acts independently of other loop values and will continue the sound at the given Loop Start value after its interruption, while Loop End is for the marker stop point only. (For example: in LotA, you'll notice the BGM doesn't begin from the start again, rather at a set point.) If you don't want to use loop values, just set both to 0.000.

The more you know: In Dynamix Plus-type BGM, markers are, on average, two to three seconds apart, landing at the start of each measure. You may also see marker values go beyond the determined Loop End value or have several repeating values after it. I don't really know why this is, but it seems likely it's some scrapped plan for the sound.

Below this, you can add or remove marker values. These are measured in seconds.

Sounds > Parameters

Side note: if you're working with BGM, you'll likely only see a single Sound 0 collection. Anything else and you'll get quite a few Sound # entries - these help to group multiple sounds for a single action, or it can occasionally carry an argument on its own with no sound attached.

Bus Number ranges from 0-18, from my research. In general, each subset of sound is routed to a specific channel, which allows careful overlap of multitudes of sounds and the ability to reduce (or increase) a certain channel's volume as necessary without affecting the others. You can view my spreadsheet for a list of which sounds carry which bus numbers. It should be noted that 0 seems to be a special case in terms of Bus Ducking, where it can reduce volume of most other bus numbers. An example would be banners that have sounds attached, like those for quest accepts - it has a base bus of 9, but uses the Bus Ducking flag with a number of 0. For some reason, orchestrion songs remain unaffected.

Priority works together with Bus Number to allow a sound to overlap, cancel another out, or naturally reduce its volume, depending on its value and bus placement. While it may sound like I'm confident in that assertion, I am extremely not and completely guessing. <laughs> I'm so predictable.

Type defines how the affected sound group as a whole should be handled. The five you'll see almost everywhere are Normal, Cycle, Empty, DynamixStream, and GroupRandom. Atomosgear is also notable. Let's get crackin' on what they are. Or at least what I guess they are. (You shouldn't be surprised by this.)

Normal is just that - normal. The sound group will behave normally. How normal.

Invalid I haven't seen, unless you're adding a new Sound entry. Setting something to this will make the sound not play.

Random theoretically should make the sound that plays to be random. However, I haven't seen this realistically used; instead, SE opts for GroupRandom.

Stereo doesn't do what it says, or at least on my test file that's an MsAdPcm mono. It just mutes it. I've also yet to see this used.

Cycle is more or less reserved for SFX. The SCD will have sounds that play at set intervals which are placed in the main Tracks tab. There may sometimes be a base file included that plays along with it. Sometimes this is in its own SCD. The Tracks subtab in Sounds contains preset entries for each available sound in the SCD. Cycle Interval, Cycle Play Track, and Cycle Range are unknowns at this time. Track Index corresponds to the main Tracks tab entries, while Audio Index corresponds to the Audio tab entries. Limit defines % chance of audio play.

Order might be to play each sound directly after each other in regard to audio index. I just don't know because I haven't seen it used. Might do a full-on ambient SFX test run later.

FourChannelSurround most likely follows its namesake, to mark a file as 4.1 surround.

Engine. I got nothing.

Dialog is unrelated to actual voice files. That's all I have for you.

FixedPosition seems a weird one. That flag already exists under attributes below, yet, even when it's checked, this Type isn't selected. TBD.

DynamixStream - again, rehashing - relates to six-channel BGM that switches between combat and out-of-combat status. You can replace the file with something that isn't six-channel and it won't break, but you also won't receive the benefit of this Type selection unless it's four- or six-channel.

GroupRandom sets a random sound play from a group of sounds. In preset files, the Tracks subtab will have entries for each possible sound. Track Index and Audio Index are as usual. For Limit, the first field is % chance that the track will play on each call of the SCD, but it's more of a "if the lowest chance fails, try the next one" situation. In other words, limits of 30, 70, and 100 mean that the first has 30% chance, the second has a 70% chance if the 30% fails, and the 100% will play if both 30% and 70% fail.

The second of these limit fields (the 0, 1, and 2 in this current example) is just the order of limits, and (should always?) increase by 1 for each.

As a final note, this does work to randomise BGM (for attaching to animations or VFX, not for actual BGM (likely a limitation)), but you must use a file that already has the audio set up. Trying to add new ones will fail to be recognised for the Type.

GroupOrder is not as advertised. I enabled this on a set of tracks that were originally GroupRandom and made the game freeze. :)

Atomosgear directly relates to its flag below. Also, see below for that explanation.

ConditionalJump is another I haven't seen used. Quite possible that it can act as a switch. Impossible to know for certain without the extra provided information in the Tracks subtab to guide us.

Empty is reserved for SCDs that have no sound. They instead carry their own arguments within Layouts and Attributes. Those tend to be IsLittleEndian, UseDistanceFilters, IsWooferOnly, and [NoPlay].

MidiMusic, to hazard a guess, is called for MIDI files. Not that I've seen them, but you know.

Volume is volume. This has a general cap of 1.000 (and a minimum of 0.000). This has a higher cap in certain situations - mainly SFX, which can be maybe 4.000 at max, but I haven't done a lot of research into it. BGM is still capped at 1.000.

Local Number is essentially a way to uniquely identify a sound within a related set of sounds, but it also determines if a sound (with the same local number) should duck on subsequent overlapping plays. (Thanks, Max, for mentioning this.) Thus, you could alter the local number to others if you wanted to have the same sound play multiple times with no clips, but this is better achieved by modifying First Condition under the Attributes tab, as a changed Local Number may interfere with other unmodified sounds as a result. See Appendix E for more info.

User Id is a big question mark. Never seen this at anything besides 0.

Play History seems to imply that you've personally heard it before. But that's also objectively untrue because some things I've heard before are set to 0. The other values it can carry are 4 and 255. (255 example: sound/vfx/lbk/SE_VFX_LBK_Squad_Lv2_NPCHatsudo_c.scd)

Loop is simply to flag the file for looping. That's all it does. Can sometimes not hold weight for if a file actually loops. May just be a failsafe.

Reverb should apply that effect to your file. I can never personally tell if something has that, so I'm just guessing that's correct. It'd be odd if it wasn't, but I've certainly been proved wrong many-a-time.

Fixed Volume and Fixed Position work in tandem with in-game objects that don't move on their own, and do as their name implies - keeping volume the same and playing the file only at the position it was placed. These are both checked for most dedicated cutscene .scds. Fixed Position, in particular, can help to even out volume when the camera's panned around the source.

Music does... not what it says on the box. This is never ticked for any music files. In fact, I've never seen it used (except in custom BGM SCDs in dance mods, but I'm 99.9% sure it's a pseudo effect). Ticking it with an SFX doesn't break my game, so...

Bypass PLIIz is assumedly concerned with bypassing Dolby Pro Logic IIz and part of its surround-sound capabilities. The only places it's been seen so far is with the generic air whoosh sound you hear while flying a mount, and some cutscene SFX. (Example: sound/battle/etc/SE_Fly_AC_Sound.scd)

Use External Attr could be tied into the ExternalId attribute tag. If I could find it being used.

Exist Routing Setting - Clicking this does create a new subtab called Routing. Currently it's marked as [WIP] and has some filtering/EQ stuff to select from, along with an adjustable filter count. Filter Count > 1 will kind of muffle the sound, no matter which Type is selected.

Music Surround probably does what it says. Not that I've seen it exist.

Bus Ducking I've explained in the main document, but I'll rehash for those that skipped it. Checking this flag will give you a Bus Ducking subtab. Inside you have three fields. Number is what bus number will be affected for the length of your file. This includes looping. Fade Time is how long it takes for the sounds on that bus number to fade out and then back in (not total, but separately). Volume determines to what level that fade stops. Although I haven't tested because I'm not keen on hurting myself, there's a very, very good chance that setting Volume to a negative value will launch your game into orbit. We may be walking on the moon and enjoying it, but ffxiv.exe will despise you with a burning passion.

Acceleration is also another I've covered beforehand. This governs mount behaviour for stop/start music volumes. In the Acceleration subtab, there's Version (unknown what it does, but if it exists with a number already in your base file, best to use that) and then Acceleration Count. This latter field's value is usually set to 2 - one for Acceleration #0's velocity increase and another for Acceleration #1's velocity decrease. While four total Accelerations exist, I don't know how the other two function or where that would be used; if you find them, absolutely let me know. Note that in the current version of VFXEditor, adding the Acceleration flag does not automatically include these extra # fields.

Quick rundown for Acceleration fields. Version, same deal - unknown. No real reason to change it. Volume - the amount your sound/music will increase (#0) or decrease (#1). Up Time for how long your sound will take to increase, measured in milliseconds. Down Time for how long it takes to decrease, also milliseconds. These values are, by default, set to 0.300 and 1.000 respectively, with any volume adjustments made in the main header instead. If you plan to change the acceleration volumes themselves, it's recommended to only change #0's Up Time. #1's Down Time you should probably leave at 1.000 since it works at a percentage of your #0 value.

Dynamix End is unknown. I haven't seen a file use it, not even in conjunction with one that has Dynamix Plus active.

Extra Desc always has two fields that pop up in the corresponding Extra subtab: Version and Play Time Length. Version, like all the others that exist in SCDs, is there to tease me for not figuring out precisely what it does. There have been two values I've seen so far: 0 on somewhat older sounds, 1 on some newer, and 2 for ones introduced in Dawntrail. Play Time Length is the sound group's largest file's length. Recent research leads to the conclusion that Extra Desc acts as an audio frequency (Hz) modifier if the flag is checked and Version is set to 1 (or higher, but is there a difference?). In simpler terms, your sound/music will be slightly muffled if you enable it. While this can be seen as a negative, it can help if there's a particular sound that may be too sharp/hurts your ears if played extensively or in particular environments, such as a sword slash or high-pitched ring. (Thanks to Hoshi for figuring this out.)

A note on Dynamix Plus: I've done several tests on replacing separate channels and exporting different channel numbers. Doing the standard six-channel audio export in Audacity (which you can enable in Preferences > Import/Export > Use custom mix) and importing registers all channels (meaning you can see it labelled as 6ch Vorbis in VFXEditor) but mutes the entire game's audio. It remains like that for a good chunk of time after changing BGM. Importing as three-channel won't play it, but game audio is fine. Importing as two-channel treats it like you just did a straight replacement: it ignores combat status and, naturally, shoves the music into left/right channel. Importing as four-channel works fine so far, but lacks the natural transition six-channel has. Multichannel support is still being ironed out.

Atomosgear has its own sub-tab, which has a couple interesting fields: Version, Minimum Number of People, and Maximum Number of People. This correlates to specific SFX that rely on a set amount of player characters to exist in an area in order to play, i.e. ambient crowd sounds. Minimum Number of People is as it says - this is the minimum threshold for how many players need to exist in an area before it starts playing. Maximum Number of People does a calculation to determine % volume increase, with 100% being the value typed into this field. In other words, Minimum Number ÷ Maximum Number = volume %. Atomosgear only applies when attached to sound/strm/gaya_* files - unknown why.

Appendix C: Sounds > Layout

Type will let you set how many emitters (points where sound emits from) are in a given space, determined by what shape it is or direction it goes. For example, if you pick Surface, the bottom half of the window will update to show four positional entries with four fields each (axes and... something else that I'll look into), and you'll get a series of other determiners. Unsure if Flag3D would need to be checked if it's a polygonal shape. I have also never seen anything but Point being used for Type, and I can't really get any other types to work on general sounds (or they'll crash you with no warning). If anyone finds something besides Point for Type, please send me a message. I've been looking forever and I'd like to know if it actually exists.

Version is a question mark, as usual. I'm guessing it's a bit like if SE made several versions/revisions of a particular item and chose to use that one in particular. Anyway, it's always 1 here.

Used Fixed Direction I guess just doesn't change how the sound is perceived depending on camera/character direction related to the source.

Unbounded Distance is something I'm not sure on yet. Maybe allows the sound to play at any distance on the X and Y axis. Possibly related to Bottom/Top Infinity.

First Inactive is always checked. Literally always. If you uncheck this, anything set in Height will be read, otherwise it's ignored.

Bottom Infinity/Top Infinity appears rather like your sound shouldn't be bound to a range on the Z axis. Haven't really tested.

Flag3D is here. It exists. Why is it here? *shrugs into infinity*

Point Expansion seems to ignore Max Range and Min Range when checked. Plays at about 50% of total volume if First Inactive is unchecked. Found in some voice files. Example: cut/ex3/sound/VOICEM/VOICEMAN_05002/vo_VOICEMAN_05002_001800_m_en.scd

Is Little Endian is if your file has the little-endian encoding, which, from what I gather, makes byte positions differ in that it stores them in reverse, as opposed to big-endian. It shouldn't really be applicable for most imported music that I know of, and I haven't had something be unreadable in that regard, but it's there if you need it. (The only place I've seen it thus far is in cutscene audio.)

Group Number, Local Id, and Bank Id tend to be utilised with certain ambient sounds. TBD on what these are drawing from. (Maybe EXD?)

Is MaxRange Interior could be self-explanatory. But it's also never used. One day.

Use Distance Filters - example: sound/vfx/monster6/SE_Vfx_Monster_ETC_Eureka_Ether_c.scd

Use Dir First Pos - use first direction position as the sound's origin. This setting can allow a sound to play if it's indoors while the camera is outside. Example: cut/ex3/sound/VOICEM/VOICEMAN_05002/vo_VOICEMAN_05002_001800_m_en.scd

(A sound would normally mute if your camera was set like this outside of a door while your character was inside, so Use Dir First Pos would counteract that behaviour.)

Is Woofer Only I've seen with things like the aura pulsing around Nidhogg's eye and the flying mount whooshes. This flag also exists in general cutscene audio. My best guess is it goes hand-in-hand with sound modulation and altering only the lower frequencies of a given audio track.

Is Fixed Volume will play the sound at a flat volume up to Min Range, at which it will begin fading. That volume is determined by what it would have been at Min Range.

Is Ignore Obstruction probably relates to, well, if the source of the sound shouldn't be obstructed by things like walls or solid objects. (Untested)

Volume (the one with four values) I'm still trying to figure out. The first value is the only one that seems to make a difference so far and appears to function off of another set value.

Max Range is how far you can be before the sound will start fading out. Most player skills have this set at 10, which is about the maximum manual camera distance you can set. Orchestrion BGM has this at 3, which is the maximum manual zoom-in distance (first-person view). This may also depend on the Listening Position setting under the game's System Configuration - the default position is 10. I have not run a test yet on if this actually makes a difference.

Min Range appears to determine how close the camera(?) (listening position) has to be to the sound's emitter in order to hear it. Note how this differs from Max Range: Min will mute the sound at x units, while Max will begin to fade the sound at y units. The reason for this is the value set in Lower Limit. Additionally, the variance between Max and Min is calculated as a percentage of volume fade. Ergo, if they're equal, you'll get a flat volume at the value, and moving your camera even a tiny bit beyond that will immediately mute it. If Min happens to be less than Max, you won't crash, but it does appear to overwrite your Max value. Setting it to anything lower than 2 renders the sound inaudible on your own character, even in first-person mode.

Height is defaulted to 10 for the first field and 0 for the second. This only seems to make a difference is First Inactive is disabled. The first field affects the vertical (and somewhat horizontal) distance that a sound can be heard. Second field is still unknown. To clarify, if First Inactive plays the sound like it's a sphere, then unchecking it turns it into a tall ring. Note that this will heavily distort the affected sound in first-person view when you shift the camera around.

Range Volume appears to work as a subset of Max Range, affecting the volume percentage only if it's beyond that Max value. While Lower Limit is vertical for Height, Range Volume is horizontal.

Near Fade Start/End seems to be like setting a separate fade distance within the confines of Min Range. The Start value additionally has a distance limiter attached to it, meaning any distance lower than what's defined will mute audio. This overwrites Max Range.

Volume (the one with the single value, not four) is additive with any other volume changes. A total volume over 1.000 will be negated.

Pitch modifies both pitch and the rate at which the sound plays. Using this in conjunction with Pitch in Tracks will make a rough average of the two. Do not set this to 0. You will crash.

Center FAC determines the total increase in volume from Min Range, with a max of 1.000. Usually turns out to be quieter at max than the sound's actual volume. If set to 0.000, this setting is ignored.

Interior FAC is most often 0, but Orchestrion BGM uses 0.200. Can sometimes increase audio volume, but not always. Perhaps it's a way to adjust for what something might sound like in a closed space.

Direction - Most SCDs that make use of this have it at 1.571. This is measured in radians; the degree equivalent would be 90. An example is found in sound/vfx/monster4/SE_Vfx_Monster_ETC_OverpowerOld_c.scd with 4.712, or 270°. Not that I know how angle makes a discernible difference. Seems tied to spatial and/or surround sound. A value of 0.000 will be standard (no pan), while 4.712 will be somewhere off to the side (left?) and 1.571 is slightly closer to the centre (right?). I suppose it would help to have an actual surround setup, or even the spatial audio pack to test (but I ain't payin' for that).

Is FireWorks isn't used on actual fireworks VFX. Appears to do something similar to Extra Desc by dampening some frequencies.

Lower Limit is the lowest the volume is allowed to go at distances beyond Min Range or Height. Usually, you want to keep this at 0.000. If you set this above 0.000 (with a max value of 1.000), your sound will (probably) play anywhere beyond Min Range, so you want to be careful on doing that.

Fade In/Out Time really only makes a difference when attached to BGM, I believe. Default is 2000 (milliseconds). 0 is also seen in older files. Doesn't seem to be any variance otherwise.

Convergence FAC is currently unknown.

Appendix D: Tracks

Same as the other tabs, you can add a new track or new entries within a track, or delete things entirely. Unfortunately, you can't add new ones in between at this point in time, so if you want to preserve the runtime order, you'll either have to remember what was there and start from scratch, remember everything that you replaced so you can add it in underneath, or build what you want in a new track and add in those fields where you need them before deleting the original.

There are far more entries available than I have listed, as they either haven't been tested or aren't seen in any files so far.

ADSR stands for "attack, delay, sustain, release". There's probably some nuance to how this affects the game's sound, but you can think of this as a way to circumvent the 1.000 volume limit imposed by the game if you set its value between 1.000 and 2.000. Or you can try Velocity.

AutoADSREnvelope is ADSR but with full control over its options.

ChannelVolumeZeroOne is one that can also show up with values occasionally - see sound/battle/etc/SE_Fly_Kinsetu_Whoosh.scd in Track 5 for an example, or sound/strm/GAYA_LestArea_01.scd. I'll look more into it. Note that you can't actually add any fields in for this, so you need it supplied for you. Has alternating fields of Version, Zero One, and Value.

Config - contains subtypes of IntervalType and IntervalTypeFloat. Untested.

CutOff seems mostly a way to cut a sound short upon user input or perhaps on cutscene start/end. It exists, for example, on one of E9's Cloud of Darkness' skills (sound/vfx/monster7/SE_Vfx_Monster_m0684_sp16_c.scd), cutscene voice lines, and on some ambient sounds.

End is used at the end of all items to mark the end of it. How unexpected.

EndForLoop is equally a little mysterious. The name suggests it could end a "for" loop clause, but none of the available fields establish that loop.

Expression works somewhat like randomised volume. Haven't tested much on this.

ExternalAudio requires a value for its Bank Number. For a file like bgcommon/sound/sea/sea_bg_sea_d_rain_coast_spot.scd, there are multiple tracks that have the same Bank Number of 5011. There's also 5001 in another ambient spot file. Difficult to say what these refer to. 5011 will replace your sound with crickets, though, so that's something.

Filter contains several subtypes like Bypass, LowPass, HighPass, and LowShelving. A frequency, InvQ (inverse quantile function value), and gain can also be set. Untested.

FrPanning doesn't appear to change anything in my test file. Will try others later.

Interval has quite a lot to it. The first instance you use it outside of KeyOn determines when a sound will play after it's been called. Any use of Interval outside the key flags after the first shows the duration that any potential modulations will occur. Interval inside of KeyOn and KeyOff tells the game how long to play the sound uninterrupted by any previous or following modulations. Interval along with the LoopStart and LoopEnd flags, preceded by at least a KeyOn, as explained before, works to establish loop values. I'll go over it again in the corresponding section. Generally, though, you want the sum of Interval values (RandomWait is included in the total as well) to equal your sound's length so that it doesn't get cut short.

Jump - contains Condition with of LZE and LNZ (and [UNKNOWN - 0]). Also an Offset field. Unknown and untested. (Why do those acronyms seem familiar?)

MidiExternalAudio - contains a Bank Number field. Probably needs to be used in conjunction with MidiKeyOn.

MidiKeyOn - contains dual float Value fields. Likely disabled with MidiEnd. Looks to be a depreciated MidiKeyOnOld item as well. Untested.

Modulation opens up more options for base modulations of volume, pitch, pan, and FRPan. You set the carrier type, what modulator it'll use to change the affected effect, and the curve of the waveform. Depth and rate are, I assume, to do with bit depth and bitrate. Note: do not set carrier to None and play the sound while you have arguments active below that. Your game will crash.

ModulationDepthFade / ModulationSpeedFade - contains Carrier, Depth, and Fade Time. Untested.

ModulationOff you may think of as a safety net. Whichever modulation you don't plan to use, place that as its carrier. Don't double up and don't set it to None or you will absolutely crash and burn to the desktop as I just did.

Panning does, well, speaker/headphone panning. Broadly, set this between 0 and -2 if you want left pans, positives for right pans. You can still get left panning with other negative values, but there's not much reason to make the numbers larger. Time is how long the panning takes to occur.

Pitch does the same as that in Layouts, modifying the overall pitch and speed, but with the added benefit of the Time field, which determines the speed (in milliseconds) the pitch will change to match the value above. Same as above: do not set the pitch value to 0 or you will crash. If you wish to modify pitch without changing speed, it looks like the method SE uses is to make a RandomPitch flag and set both to the same value. This Pitch field and the one in Layouts may not work together. In addition, it works independently of any Interval or RandomWait value set in the KeyOn/KeyOff section, meaning even if your sound is slowed down into oblivion, the Interval and RandomWait values will run as if the sound played at normal speed.

PitchBend appears to function exactly the same as RandomPitch.

PlayInnerSound - example: sound/battle/mon/13135.scd (lunar whale mount), Track 3. Contains a Bank Number and Sound Index. May relate to if something should play inside of a model only?

PortamentoOn - Portamento itself refers to pitch shifting from one note to another. Contains Portamento Time and Pitch fields. Untested, but likely extremely similar to the various other Pitch items. PortamentoOff exists to disable the effect.

RandomPan, unlike the previous, accepts negative values. See the above Panning for what numbers do what.

RandomPitch = PitchBend?

RandomVolume is like the name says. Upper for highest value, Lower for lowest value. I'm sure I don't have to mention this, but I will anyway - do not set either of these below 0 or, as the infamous Mizzteq would say, you will die. RandomPitch, same deal.

RandomWait applies a randomised delay in a set interval. Value 1 is the minimum, while Value 2 is the maximum. You might think of this as a RandomInterval flag, if it helps.

ReleaseRate might be used together with another effect, but so far I haven't gotten a response on standard audio. A value of 50 can be seen in cutscene voice lines.

Sweep ≈ Pitch, I guess? More info here.

Transpose = RandomPitch = PitchBend?

Unknown64 - As said on the tin, just a big unknown right now. Contains Version and Unknown 1. Untested.

Velocity is essentially how fast a sound travels in a given space and medium. This affects overall volume and has a higher allowable threshold than ADSR. Note that if you stick it on long sounds or music, it will also affect its rate of decay (i.e. its fade time).

Version changes with each SCD. Certain types appear to have the same number, if I recall correctly, but this doesn't match with the version number in Sounds > Sound # > Extra or of that in Attributes. This remains a large unknown. In the case of sound/vfx/ability/SE_VFX_Rol_Range_SpeedUp_c.scd (Peloton), setting this value any higher than 11 or any lower than 0 will mute the sound entirely.

Volume changes volume, perhaps percentage-based in conjunction with the other volumes elsewhere. This field almost always exists and has a base/max value of 1.000. It has its use if you have a starting volume set in the main Sounds tab and want to change this after a certain amount of time has passed (e.g. after an Interval flag). You can additionally have more than one in a single track if you want to adjust volume over a specific duration. The first way is to have it in succession: one Volume with 0.000 and Time 0 to start, and then a second Volume with 1.000 and Time # to end. Another way is to have them separated by Intervals - a similar result but with this additional option to wait for a set duration. You could also do a RandomWait instead of Interval.

Appendix E: Attributes

You can't add attributes, unlike the other tabs. Some files do have additional attributes - see sound/voice/Vo_Battle/Vo_NPC27_Battle_ja.scd (Y'shtola's combat voices) as an example.

Attribute #

Version changes depending on what kind of sound it is. Although it doesn't make a difference in casual testing, I'm sure it does something specific. Most have this set to 2.

Attribute Id works as an identifier for that particular SCD, more so than something like Local Number. Search Attribute Id can then reference Attribute Id and apply certain arguments to it, done via the Result and Extend tabs.

Example: if one SCD specifies a Search Attribute Id of 4 with a Result Target Command of Stop in the Result tab, that means it's looking for an SCD with Attribute Id of 4 in order to tell that SCD to stop playing.

First Condition's number generally seems to match whatever First Condition under Extend # is, meaning 0 for None/Unknown and 4 for Equal. Exceptions exist, and it tends to have its own function, I guess, so this will need to be investigated.

Argument Count refers to how many Extend # tabs are being used.

Sound Label Low / High are TBD. I believe these are new fields. Most will have this at 0 / 0, but SE_VFX_common has it at 2011039 / 2011039 in Attribute 3.

Result

The Result tab on its own will always apply to the given Search Attribute Id. When seen in conjunction with Extend # fields, it'll only apply when Extend # is being used.

Result Select Command [unknown]

Result Target Command contains a series of commands that the SCD will follow upon being called. If None, then nothing special happens.

Stop / PriorityStop / OldStop / LowExternalIdOldStop / MinVolumeStop seem to be generally equivalent in test cases, functioning to stop the affected SCD.

Extend #

First Condition is usually set to Equal. This lets a sound overlap on repeated use (if applicable) and is dependent on the value set in Number of Conditions.

The default for Number of Conditions is 1, meaning only one other sound is allowed to play simultaneously on the skill in question. This includes from all sources - VFX, TMB, and PAP sounds. If you wish to have a certain sound play fully, you want to increase this value to be one higher than the maximum number of sounds that will play in that skill at a given moment. For example, should you be using a skill with a number of charges that can be pressed in quick succession - let's take, for example, Onslaught with three charges - and you have five sounds per use of it, you'd probably want to set the Number of Conditions to 16. That assumes all the sounds will last across all three uses of the skill.

If First Condition is anything besides Equal or Bank, the sound will overwrite itself by default, though this is possibly as a result of incorrect settings during tests.

External Id First can be found on any of the sound/strm/gaya/* files. It seems to suggest that it'll check for the Search Attribute Id in an external SCD before trying to apply to itself.

Second Condition pulls a series of Lua-based conditions and variables directly from game code in order to connect arguments. While what everything does as a whole is still beyond my ken at this point, I can at least expound on some of the abbreviations: GT is greater than, LT is less than, LE is less than or equal to, EQ is equal to, and NE is not equal to.

Join Type seems to work in tandem with Second Condition (and First Condition?), although how it does it still a mystery to me. (Example of Join Type Or [with Attribute ID of 51]: sound/battle/etc/SE_Bt_Etc_AOZ_Score_Start_loop.scd)

Self Argument is generally just 3 if there's a Condition specified above it, or 0 if there's nothing (or sometimes if there's something, I guess?). I don't know what this does specifically. Some files do use other numbers and it can be sequential if there is more than one Extend #.

The Result subsection in an Extend # tab still needs to be experimented with. I assume from its nomenclature that it'll activate based on the condition/argument specified. So, something like Result Target Command of FadeOut with a Result Target Argument of 20 will mean that if the conditions are fulfilled, the sound will fade out over a duration of 20 frames. Perhaps this means that if a normal battle sound has MinVolumeStop and you change it to None, it'll let the sound be uninterrupted. Maybe. Again, it'll need to be tested.

OldStop example: sound/battle/etc/SE_Bt_Etc_MG_7thPazzle_AutoSet.scd

The following settings will disallow immediate repetition and mute its sound temporarily on reuse (i.e. until the original sound's length has expired):

Equal / EQ / Or / 2 / 3 / 0 / ChgVolume / 0 / 3 / 0

Example file for multiple Extend # and ChgVolume attributes: bgcommon/sound/spot_wtr/spot_wtr_Sticky_Mud_On5_c.scd.

Appendix F: Using custom paths

Given the massive hullabaloo over SE's internal renaming of textures and some VFX files in patch 6.5, I believe it's becoming far more important to adopt the idea of using fully custom paths (where possible) in order to future-proof your edits. Thus, I would recommend looking this section over and learning how it works. The below explanation applies to sounds - as this is a sound-based document - but it can be applied to all manner of file types.

For our example, let's say you're using Limsa's day theme as a template for your custom sound. You have it set in Loaded Scd. You've already changed the internal sound to a custom OGG or WAV. But you don't want to overwrite Limsa's sound or any other vanilla sound with your custom sound here. You'd like to keep those the same. This is where custom paths come in handy.

In the Scd Being Replaced field, directly type in the path you'd like to use and press enter.

But what should the path be? Well, there are a couple ground rules:

1. It needs to be contained in at least one folder. In other words, it can't just be, for example, mysound.scd. It must be, at the very least, sound/mysound.scd. You can have as many folders as you'd like for the path - like sound/sound1/sound2/sound3/sound4/mysound.scd - but the less there are, the less the hard drive has to work to access it.

Note: You should not be physically creating these folders unless your mod is imported into Penumbra already and you need to edit it to include a new folder. The editor takes care of any and all folder creation in its export process, if you choose to go that route.

2. One of these folders in the path must be something the game recognises as valid according to its database. This is to prevent a potential crash.

A short list of accepted folder names:

vfx/ music/ sound/ chara/ bgcommon/

Example paths with valid structures:

sound/test.scd

chara/hello.scd

chara/vfx/sound/happyisayuppieword.scd

custom/sound/taco/hemlo.scd

3. When you're establishing a custom path, this is not its full local path. In other words, it should not be something like C:\Penumbra mods\Fortnite Dance Mod\sound\fortnite.scd. This will crash you immediately if you try to play it. It should instead be the last part of that local path, the part that's inside the folder of your mod: sound/fortnite.scd. The direction of the slashes probably doesn't matter, but it's best to have it as / to be safe.

4. Your custom path will not cross-reference with other mods. If you try to access a path from a different mod, it won't work. The custom paths may look the same, but they are functionally entirely different. However, that does mean you can have the same custom path for every single mod, if you so choose.

5. This one is semi-optional, but best to consider for compatibility across mod loaders. You ideally want to keep your custom path in lowercase and not mixed/camel case; and avoid special characters. You might also possibly refrain from using underscores and dashes, although I imagine it shouldn't cause too many problems these days.

Examples of path structures to potentially avoid:

sound/ThisIsMySound.scd

Sound/VFX/Custom/helloThere.scd

chara/jedi_lightsaber_sound-new16.scd

Example of a special character path structure to avoid:

sound/my$sound^newsound#@.scd

Once you've established your custom path in the editor, now you can use it in other parts of the editor.

PAP/TMB example:

VFX example:

Appendix G: Using Lua conditions

Lua conditions are a way for FF14 to interpret how to deal with a track in a TMB or PAP file. The most common is one that will let you limit a track to the person that's currently using a given TMB/PAP. In other words, you can make it so something like a sound or VFX will only show on that player's screen. FF14 tends to place this condition on VFX like screen shakes or radial blurs, although it can show up on some mount skill sounds as well (like the Moon-Hopper one).

While there are several known conditions besides that (of which you can read all about those in the TMB/PAP document), we'll focus on just the user-based one for now - Is Player Character == 1. To enable this condition, you'll click the Use Lua Condition checkbox in the track you wish to user-limit:

Side note: If you hover over the i next to the checkbox, it'll tell you where to find what's being used for Lua conditions.

Click the + New button that appeared below it - three times if you only want to use it on one track, or five times if you plan to do this on multiple tracks in the same TMB/PAP. You'll now have this:

I'll try to guide you through this as simply as possible, since it can get rather technical.

Click on the first None entry. If you have five None, click the second entry. In the window that popped up, click on the dropdown next to Operation and pick the list item that says Variable. Then type in 1 in the Pool field, and then 17 in the Index field. You should have something like this, where what was once None is now green and reads Is Player Character:

Side note: These operation colours may differ if you've customised your VFXEditor interface in File > Settings > Tmb. If they don't, well, now you know how to make them different.

For the second None (or third if you have five None), make its Operation Equal. It will show up as ==.

For the third None (or fourth if you have five None), make its Operation Int_Value and its Value 1. You should have this if you've done it right and only had three None to start with:

If you had five None, let's deal with the bookends. For the first None, make its Operation Open_Parens and its Value 1. For the last None, make its Operation Close_Parens and its Value 1. You'll have this:

That's all there is to establishing a track to be user-only. If you wish for something to be everyone but the user, you can try making it Is Player Character == 0. Although I have not taken the time yet to verify if this works or how it affects things, theoretically it should be as expected.

(Incomplete) list of SCDs and what they affect

Below, I've gone into small detail about possible .scd paths within FF14 index files.

For a more comprehensive list (which is mostly obsolete now, but meh), check here. If you'd rather have the full dump of the known database list without descriptions, including files beyond .scds, check perchbird's RL2 site. They have options for both the current game version and the entire database, in .txt and .csv formats, and the ability to use a .gz in conjunction with coding languages.

I've also been given permission to share Vulonsulin's spreadsheet collection, which contains quite a few SFX/voice lines that I haven't had a chance to document yet - as well as a large assortment of VFX and animation paths, and a raw path list dump.

general .scd path descriptions (within XIV Explorer):

Note that a few .scds (or files and folders in general) are listed as ~(random string) (e.g. ~2defad7d). This is due to a missing hash - i.e. it hasn't been found in-game yet and subsequently recorded with Reslogger2, so the path hasn't been established. It's recommended to download the latest paths, which you should be able to do easily in goats' FFXIV Explorer fork (you will need JRE/JDK 11 to use this program). If you're still unable to see what their actual name is in XIV Explorer, they do show up in VFXEditor's Tools > Resources or ResLogger2, provided you run into them within the game.

Also, if you're lacking a million brain cells like I've been for the past year, be sure you're looking in more than just the base ffxiv index folder for files beyond ARR. Yes, you can, in fact, go up in the folder tree to find the other expansions' index files.

ffxiv (ARR and shared) indices

index 010000

bgcommon/sound/abr/ - environmental sounds (e.g. fountains, airships, rivers, windmills), as well as a couple instance-specific ones. seems mostly tied to Azys Lla or Allagan areas

bgcommon/sound/bg_wth01/ - Shadowbringers and Endwalker content

bgcommon/sound/dra/ - Dravanian areas and dungeons

bgcommon/sound/emp/ - Garlean empire-based

bgcommon/sound/est/ - Othard/Hingashi/Far East areas and dungeons

bgcommon/sound/fst/ - Black Shroud sounds. some also extend to any other zone (e.g. aetherytes and instance markers). might think of this as a catch-all for reused assets

bgcommon/sound/gyr/ - contains three "melt" sounds

bgcommon/sound/hou/ - housing item sounds

bgcommon/sound/lak/ - lake-like areas

bgcommon/sound/mgc_blk/ - NPC BLM stuff?

bgcommon/sound/mgc_chm/ - one found placement is the radar in Base Omicron. difficult to say what the shorthand is, then. might be "chemical", but it doesn't match the aforementioned example

bgcommon/sound/mgc_oth/ - anything that doesn't fit cleanly in the other mgc_ folders

bgcommon/sound/mgc_set/ - unsure

bgcommon/sound/mgc_vid/ - void-based SFX. Apparently, there are enough of them to have a separate folder

bgcommon/sound/mgc_wht/ - NPC WHM stuff?

bgcommon/sound/ocn/ - ocean-based SFX

bgcommon/sound/roc/ - includes doors, caves, snow, rivers, and Garuda-related sounds. generally, Coerthas or mountainous/cavernous areas

bgcommon/sound/sea/ - sea-based sounds, but also has things related to jungles, coasts, towns, kobolds, doors, cooking, and rivers. La Noscea is the main affected area, but I've seen some places like Radz-at-Han and general locations with water also use these files

bgcommon/sound/spot_crt/ - creature sounds. also includes some moving objects, which is, in a game-design sense, sort of like an ambient creature, I guess?

bgcommon/sound/spot_dor/ - door sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_elc/ - electricity-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_etc/ - sounds that don't fit cleanly in other spot_ folders. includes fans, chains, windmills, glass breaking, creaking, and impacts

bgcommon/sound/spot_evt/ - sounds for specific events (e.g. some Gold Saucer and seasonal)

bgcommon/sound/spot_fir/ - fire-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_mtl/ - metal and machine-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_plt/ - plant and wood-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_stn/ - rock, sand, and stone-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_wnd/ - wind, gas, and steam-based sounds

bgcommon/sound/spot_wtr/ - water and aqueous sounds

bgcommon/sound/wil/ - seems to be anything Thanalan. extends to Gyr Abania and desert areas

bgcommon/sound/zon/ - mostly alliance-based sounds, sometimes broadly used areas (jail ambience and airship ambience for cutscenes)

index 030000

cut/ffxiv/sound/* - ARR cutscene sounds and dialogue

index 0c0000

music/ffxiv/ - general zone music, mount music, leves, fishing voyage, events, seasonal events, Gold Saucer, ARR dungeons and trials

music/ffxiv/movie/ - music for dedicated CGI cutscenes and movies

music/ffxiv/orchestrion/ - just like it says. orchestrion songs

index 070000

sound/battle/wep/ - general weapon sounds for any job and also any NPC

sound/battle/live/ - DoH/DoL skills

sound/battle/mon/ - minion/mount/monster/enemy sounds + steps (listed only as numbers)

sound/battle/enpc/ - NPC sounds (encounter NPC)

sound/battle/etc/ - mostly mount sounds, but can include misc. things related to combat

sound/battle/pc/ - player character/NPC sounds

sound/bg_obj/sea - only contains s_oast_i_aqualium.scd. I assume it's just the aquarium for housing, but then wouldn't it be with the other housing sounds…?

sound/cut/* - cutscene stuff

sound/cut/arrangement/ - door sounds

sound/cut/ascian/ - reserved for only two sounds: when ascians warp in and out

sound/cut/battle/ - generic battle hit sounds (for cutscenes)

sound/cut/boss/ - a couple generic boss sounds like the cutscene zoom-in before a fight or when they die in the cutscene after

sound/cut/camera/ - camera whooshing sounds

sound/cut/effect/ - any effects in cutscenes

sound/cut/explosion/ - explosions in cutscenes

sound/cut/hdb/ - Hildibrand-specific sounds

sound/cut/kako/ - sounds for Echo cutscenes

sound/cut/movement/ - any movement-based cutscene sounds like falling, clothes, jumping, putting things on

sound/cut/props/ - general props like books, dishes, machines, and linkshell

sound/cut/roar/ - unsurprisingly, roars

sound/event/ - highly varied sounds (doors, water, dog barking, jingle bells, rumbles) probably tied specifically to seasonal events

sound/foot/dev/ - footsteps, but labelled with numbers, and only from 6994 to 6999

sound/foot/foot/ - footsteps for all terrain types

sound/instruments/ - for BRD performance (several sounds per .scd, each generally an octave apart)

sound/nc/general_ex1/ - sounds specifically for the first expansion, Heavensward. may be some repeats from other folders

sound/score/ - seem to be only test beeps (in .msb format)

sound/strm/ - ambient crowd sounds for highly populated areas. includes a blank gaya_nosound.scd

sound/system/ - system sounds for the UI, Gold Saucer, Doman mahjong, Triple Triad. additionally, a few test sounds

sound/vfx/ - contains a single se_vfx_common.scd for generic player-based sounds like shield pings, buffs, debuffs, teleport/return, as well as some harp jingle things

sound/vfx/ability/ - any DoW/DoM abilities not specifically listed as a spell or weaponskill. also includes role skills

sound/vfx/etc/ - many, many random sounds for things that don't fit cleanly in other folders. examples are some special emotes gained through items, aetheryte channelling sounds, splashing sounds while flying a mount on water, Bozja/Eureka skills, and the sound an NPC makes when they spawn

sound/vfx/guild/ - aside from se_vfx_lvup.scd, which is the swoosh sound when you level up, and some levequest ones, most seem only to be test beeps when played in VFXEditor. Perhaps they're placeholders for unreleased content?

sound/vfx/item/ - item-based sounds, specifically deep dungeon items and seasonal ones

sound/vfx/lbk/ - limit breaks

sound/vfx/live/ - DoH/DoL sounds not tied to specific skills

sound/vfx/magic/ - skills specifically labelled as magic

sound/vfx/monster[#]/ - enemy and combat-object sounds

sound/vfx/weponskill/ - skills (marked as weaponskill) for jobs

sound/vibration/live/ - vibration sounds specifically for FSH line tugs

sound/vibration/preset/ - vibration sounds for specific presets

sound/voice/vo_battle/ - battle voices for each race and for NPCs in all available languages

sound/voice/vo_cm/ - sample voices you hear in character creation in each language

sound/voice/vo_emote/ - very, very large database of emote sounds (listed only as numbers)

sound/voice/vo_line/ - every voiced NPC dialogue line in every language (listed as numbers)

sound/zingle/ - things like quest/raid/FATE start/finish sounds, grand company sounds, leve sounds, PVP sounds. anything that could be classified as a jingle

ex1 (HW) indices

0c0100

music/ex1 - HW-specific BGM

music/ex1/movie - a singular file for the opening HW movie

030100

cut/ex1/sound/* - HW-specific cutscene sounds

ex2 (SB) indices

0c0200

music/ex2 - SB-specific BGM

music/ex2/movie - singular file for the opening SB movie

030200

cut/ex2/sound/* - SB-specific cutscene sounds

ex3 (ShB) indices

0c0300

music/ex3 - ShB-specific BGM

music/ex3/movie - four files for language-specific variants of the ShB movie

030300

cut/ex3/sound/* - ShB-specific cutscene sounds

ex4 (EW) indices

0c0400

music/ex4 - EW-specific BGM

music/ex4/movie - four files for language-specific variants of the EW movie

030400

cut/ex4/sound/* - EW-specific cutscene sounds

ex5 (DT) indices

0c0400

music/ex5 - DT-specific BGM

music/ex5/movie - four files for language-specific variants of the DT movie

030400

cut/ex5/sound/* - DT-specific cutscene sounds

SCD research for SFX and BGM (for possibly insane users)

My research has been moved here, as it was getting far too long and beyond the intended depth of this document. I've enabled comments there, in case someone catches something or has an answer to a problem within.

There is also a minor section for FFXVI assets, since I was curious about it.

Troubleshooting: I've got 99 problems and this is one

I'm getting strange pitch and speed changes in my converted sound!

This seems to be a very common problem that I get frequent messages about, and the cause is the same. The answer is simple: don't do your conversions through XIV Explorer. I have no idea what settings it's trying to use or if it's an outdated Ogg2Scd version with a bug, but 80% of the time your output file will be botched somehow. 50% of the time that's due to a frequency mismatch, but that also happens even when the frequencies are the same. It also does this weird thing where it deletes a bunch of track items that the game would prefer to have in order to read correctly.

It also hardcodes a loop or something. Basically, it's being a problem child. We don't like problem children here.

Thus, conversions through VFXEditor are highly recommended, but Sebastina's Voice Pack Creator is also acceptable. Just note that the latter method will produce an SCD that'll be marked as unsupported in the editor and could do unpredictable things when messed with further (and may also do the same thing as XIV Explorer with metadata). There are a couple other things about VPC that aren't overly friendly when you're working with music (its original intent was for voice swaps, after all), but generally it's fine.

I imported a WAV file and crashed!

[VFXEditor bug as of 1.8.3.7] Make sure your WAV encoding is not Microsoft ADPCM (some programs may say 4-bit ADPCM) or IMA ADPCM. If it's 16-bit, you're fine. If you still crash, you may also try deleting the Audio # that contains the sound you want to replace and then adding a new Audio # with the + button before importing.

Following this, note that with Microsoft ADPCM or IMA ADPCM, the resulting SCD will mute all sounds for its duration. I don't know why this is (container unable to be read properly by the game? even though MS ADPCM is natively supported???). That means, unfortunately, you need to use one of the large-sized WAV encodings instead. I mean, you could go for U-Law (μ-law) or A-Law, but those are a bit stinky in terms of quality, mostly for telecommunication stuff.

What does the editor mean by "! Unsupported"?

Basically, this means the file can't be properly verified. Something or other is non-standard with how it was made, and the editor can't guarantee that it will work flawlessly. This boils down to three common sources for this error: 1) it's an old SCD that contains metadata that's no longer used in some manner; 2) the SCD was processed in an outside program like FFXIV Data Explorer or Voice Pack Creator, where some unexpected data has been removed or hardcoded; or 3) a WAV file has been imported in a recent version of the editor (more or less, since early-mid 2024), is conflicting with new metadata additions under Audio > Parameters, and thus has not been coded yet to be verified in that file type.

While usually you can ignore this type of error, sometimes it can cause problems when edited again, akin to when you see "X Parsing Error". Therefore, to ensure maximum compatibility at this time, be sure to work with SCDs only through the editor, and with OGG. (The main person behind VFXEditor is currently on hiatus, so try not to expect a fix for this anytime soon.)

If you have some decent programming know-how, you can additionally revert back to before the Audio > Parameters information was added (before March 3, 2024 - the Github commit marked as scd parsing overhaul is roughly when this started happening, and when samples changed to second values, although note that you will lose out on the marker metadata for multi-channel audio), and then update the old signatures and API level to the current ones so the plugin can run. This will at least fix the constant Unsupported error thrown by custom WAV files on re-opening the SCD, and perhaps also fix their loop issues.

My mod music isn't playing in my Penumbra character collection.

You need it in the default collection. It's just Penumbra being Penumbra and has nothing to do with any particular mod. Penumbra used to allow character-specific BGM (which was great for altoholics like me that like themes to match their character), but has since chosen not to because I don't know.

I just created/imported a new mod into Penumbra and its sound isn't playing.

If you've just created or imported a mod that swaps an .scd path that hasn't been swapped anywhere else before that, you may run into a problem where the mod won't properly switch it. For most cases, clicking Reload Mod under the Edit Mod tab in that Penumbra mod will take care of this. (Make sure you're not currently trying to play this sound while you do this, especially with BGM.) Otherwise, going to a different map or logging to character select and back should allow it to work. If even that's failing you, try a hard restart of the game.

I still can't get my modded music or modded UI sound to play.

For all intents and purposes, music and non-character/non-job-specific SFX mods should be enabled in your default collection. Even if it seems like they might be tied to the interface collection (such as the FF7R Test Pack for UI sounds), it won't be read there, as it's meant for textures.

Another thing to be wary of is sometimes using the wrong audio format in your SCD. OGG for BGM/music; and WAV for basically everything else, like SFX/sound effects. While it's less likely now, mismatched type and format can still potentially cause silent audio in the game, so try this first.

If you've done that all that already and also tried relogging or restarting your game, look through the rest of the troubleshooting points.

If you still have issues, I am always happy to assist you personally.

TexTools is having issues recognising an .scd path.

At current, there seems to be a general error when using mixed-case .scd names within TexTools, as it only accepts lowercase. (Example: you want a file path to be saved as music/ffxiv/bgm_season_easter.scd and not music/ffxiv/BGM_Season_Easter.scd.) This issue doesn't exist in Penumbra or XIVLauncher plugins, and direct pulls with resource-reading plugins show their original mixed cases, although Penumbra does automatically change it to lowercase on refresh. Please keep that in mind if you choose to work in TexTools.

TexTools still doesn't recognise it or won't let me swap paths!

I've heard that if you're working with BGM outside of the index files located in the base ffxiv folder (like those specific to other expansions), it's unsupported by TexTools and you'll have to use Penumbra. I don't personally futz with anything outside of Penumbra nowadays, so if you have further TexTools issues, please visit their Discord server and ask in one of the designated help channels.

I crashed after I turned my music mod off, disabled an option, or removed it from VFXEditor while it was still playing.

FFXIV will remember the last played music SCD for somewhere between 15-30 seconds after you play a different one. This is so it can go back to its stopped position if you return to it quick enough. Playing another music SCD (that isn't the original or the second) will replace the original stored SCD with the second. Therefore, in case you need to turn off a mod that modifies music or you need to do a quick edit, it's recommended to swap unique BGM twice before playing the original affected one again.

Or you can use the Orchestrion plugin's 1 None entry; this completely stops the BGM and lets it restart. Be sure to let the music fade completely and wait about five seconds before doing anything else. Otherwise, once the BGM reaches its (original) cached loop point, it will fail to read/check against the SCD properly and subsequently crash your game. This doesn't apply to something like non-looped SFX. Those can be safely turned on/off, swapped, or edited once the sound has completed. For looping SFX, it may be safest to swap zones first (to one that doesn't use it) before doing anything else to it.

When I replace PvP, Eureka/Bozja, or 50/60 alliance music, strange things happen!

If you plan on replacing a BGM with the DynamixStream property (where it contains both a standard and combat BGM in the same track), keep in mind that a straight swap using "Replace sound file" in VFXEditor won't have the intended effect. As of March 10, 2024, importing any audio with six channels turns the entire file into a garbled mess of static after the conversion process. An imported mono or stereo file will play, but also will not dynamically change in combat. However, four-channel audio is now functional and works almost the same as six-channel audio in these cases, so this is the recommended approach at this time.

Also, please note that, insofar as I know, you can only get the intended result if you replace areas/BGM that natively support dynamic combat music. For example, 50/60 alliance raids and Bozja are possible, but standard dungeons and higher-level alliances that don't use it will only play the first two channels of your audio, regardless if all the settings are correct. I'm still trying to ascertain if this is a limitation that can be bypassed only with a dedicated plugin or there's metadata in the SCD that can circumvent it. But considering that even doing a straight replacement of something like the dynamic LotA theme onto the Tower of Babil BGM will have the same result, it's likely the former case.

In the event you're curious, this limitation is defined in bgm.exd, one of many datasheets that are the bane of many a modder's existence. One column in this EXD is SpecialMode - 0 is standard BGM, 1 is combat- or special-status-dependent BGM, and 2 is for mount BGM. There's also one set to 3 (music/ffxiv/BGM_EX1_PvP01.scd), although I can't place what this one does in particular right now.

Note that the ones marked with SpecialMode of 1 (possibly 3) here are the only ones in current existence that can be manipulated for dynamic BGM.

I'm trying to substitute an orchestrion song for another BGM and it's not working.

Since I see people often wanting to make orchestrion songs into BGM: in order for it to successfully play, you need to either export it as OGG and replace it in your intended BGM's file, or change your bus number and priority number to reflect that of BGM (i.e. instead of bus of 16 and priority of 194, you should make it bus of 1 and priority of 180). If you're doing the latter, I would also uncheck BusDucking in the Tracks tab. As the base file is mixed down to mono with a considerable loss in fidelity and reduced overall volume (which makes sense for its medium), I recommend finding a proper version of it instead, if you're able. Unless you like that sort of thing. No judgement.

I replaced a non-looping BGM with one that loops and it cuts out early.

If your looped file cuts out after a while when replacing a non-looped file in an SCD, try to match sample length of your custom file to the one you're changing. Samples values can be checked through Audacity or similar programs. You may have to cut extra audio or add in some silence as a buffer. I have not personally tested this, but, in theory, it should alleviate any issue that could arise.

If it's still causing problems, message me and I'll do my best to assist.

The game stops playing sounds altogether when my BGM reaches the end of the loop.

This usually happens as a result of an incorrect seconds value specified at the loop's supposed end, which ends up defining a point beyond the actual file length, mostly with songs that go from the end of the file right back to the start. VFXEditor may sometimes put in a value that doesn't match, especially if you're defining LoopStart and LoopEnd manually in the metadata of an OGG. In this case, I would advise importing the OGG without that metadata (if applicable) so VFXEditor will set an acceptable file end point itself.

I can't get my music to continue playing in some instanced ARR content. It always gets muted after combat BGM interrupts it!

This is a technical limitation. For some reason, the FF devs decided to keep early ARR music non-looping. It's hard-coded. (Remember when there was a "bug" that made them loop for a brief few days before they patched it? I sure do.) This cannot be reversed without doing hex edits of .exd files, which is incredibly difficult, would require constant updating, may venture into foot-gun territory, or is downright infeasible. I share your pain. To that end, the best you can do right now is use the Orchestrion plugin and play something over the original music, or replace the original with your own music and play that through the plugin. Copium at its best.

Is it possible to make mount BGM unique and not shared with another?

As I've seen a couple people ask about replacing mount BGM in the case where it's shared with other mounts, the answer is sort of yes, but mostly no. (For the yes part, please see the last paragraph in this troubleshooting point.)

The pertinent information for what governs mount BGM is a specific flag in the mount_0_en.exd file (and the other three language-specific files by replacing _en), which uses an index number to tell the game what to use. In this sense, you're limited to what exists in-game, unless you also edit bgm_0.exd, add in a new entry, and then point your custom BGM path to that established path.

Two things with this now:

1. Currently, this path addition is difficult/tedious to achieve, as the game reads this file strictly at startup (meaning TexTools injection only) and you'd need to dive into hex code editing. There are very specific values that have to be edited to avoid outright crashing, and then you need to manually change any offsets so that they match.

2. If you chose not to do that and work with the indices/paths you have, you would have to manually update the .exd every time the developers made a change to it. Ergo, if you chose to stop playing the game at some point, anyone who uses the mod would be stuck with it being nonfunctional after a server-side change and would crash their game if they tried to use the old .exd. All that said, a plugin would be the best bet for this (of which there are none for this datasheet yet), but it would still need to be regularly updated for every patch.

A second method would be to stick the .scd onto an .avfx or .pap specific to the mount, and then use the BusDucking flag to mute mount BGM while placing your new file in a different bus.

Two things with this (again):

1. Penumbra in its current state is forcing music to be used in the default collection, thereby limiting your mod to be nonspecific to a character. Therefore, anyone who uses that same mount nearby will override your own BGM (mount or otherwise, since both of these originally use the same bus number) and force you to hear theirs. If you can deal with the nyan cat song zooming by and interrupting your favourite zone's music, by all means, but there's a very good chance that most users wouldn't want that. While this could normally be overcome with something called a Lua condition that you can include in a .pap or .tmb (the condition would be Is Player Character == 1) , it's not possible or friendly in the case of mounts because:

2. A .pap (animation) file has multiple entries for each possible state of the mount - flying, jumping, idling, etc. Even the player-based mount .pap will have at least two. Trying to place a BGM on it will then have to be restricted to that specific part of the animation. If there's an .avfx already, this is no longer a consideration and you can just slap the BGM on that, since it's tied to the model and not the animations. If there's no .avfx, you may have to do an IMC edit to force one and then use that .avfx to host a sound. I don't know the specifics of IMC editing, if it's possible to give a mount a VFX if it didn't have it already (might be datasheet-related), or if that kind of thing can carry over in a third-party sharing plugin, but that's another potential. Just note that VFX will not keep the last-played position of sounds, so every time you dismount it'll start the BGM all over again. (Or maybe it can and there's a flag in the SCD that can allow it? Maybe? The container's already immeasurably complex, so I wouldn't doubt it that there's some obscure value that can be messed with.)

Some SFX get interrupted whenever they're played repeatedly. Is there a way to change this behaviour so I can always hear the full sound?

You might try the solution listed in Appendix E at the section labelled First Condition. I'd advise doing it sparingly, as it could become difficult to discern other sounds, depending on what you're trying to edit. (Or could potentially even cause a crash if placed on a highly spammable skill or emote, such as certain lalafell voices that tend to pollute the air in Limsa. While it'd probably take an exorbitant number of sounds to do that, it's better to err on the safe side.) This is especially true for sounds in combat. I would also recommend taking the custom path approach as well if you're borrowing sounds from sources like enemies, in order to preserve their integrity.

My music doesn't want to loop nicely, no matter what I do!

Same. For real, though, I have a series of related solutions that may help with this. The quickest way is to try signed 16-bit ADPCM. It makes the audio lossless and loop points should be exact; however, this will triple/quadruple your file size, so this is not recommended for long audio. You may also find that the editor handles the file type strangely in some cases.

Barring that, here are a few options to mess with loop times, if you continue with OGG:

- Check the section on preparing audio with FFmpeg. This is your first go-to if you don't mind foregoing a comfy UI for a text interface.

- Nudge both your Loop Start and Loop End values a bit. Usually, if your OGG was converted in a standard manner, your Loop Start is more sensitive to value changes, especially if there's less going on there [in the waveform].

- Adjust the length of the audio by a small amount, whether by trimming some of it or by adding extra silence/sound at the end. (If you have one of those songs that fades a second after the loop starts again, maybe consider duplicating a part of the earlier loop start to splice onto the end and give yourself more wiggle room.) If you've added audio to the end or start of your file and it'll fall outside of the loop, try adding post-effects to it like pitch shifting, volume boosts, or fades, something that will change the audio's size on the disk when exported. I believe this last bit is the least likely to help, but still worth a shot.

- Adjust the volume slightly outside of VFXEditor. Even a +/- 0.1dB change can help.

- Change audio quality and/or frequency.

- Try a different spot for looping, if at all possible. If it ain't working, don't force it.

Since VFXEditor/the game uses variable-size OGG pages to establish where to split its seek positions, these methods can allow the program to slightly change where these pages are split. Less technically, if you edit the overall size of a file, there's a chance that loops will turn out cleaner because of how the program will read how it should separate the sections of the file. The FFmpeg method can work around this to a degree; although you will still have some amount of finagling to do, it will be much less than normal.

Finally, if you went the route I suggested at the beginning of the document, with finding zero crossings in Audacity and placing loop points there, I have a rather sneaky way to give yourself more of these zero crossings instead of relying on where the music/sound has it by default:

The left-hand side is the untouched file. I've zoomed in on the track just enough to where Audacity places these little dots on the waveform. Using what's called the Draw Tool - shown at the right, the pencil icon - you can actually move these dots in your favour and make your own zero crossing instead of hunting for one in a spot you may not like. Generally, what I do in these cases is shift the dot I want to the zero line, and then I also shift a couple dots on either side of that dot I moved at the start in a curved pattern so it's less likely to be apparent when you play the music. (Think of it as a smooth transition and not a sudden spike in a music note.) I don't recommend this as your first or even second option, as there's a slim chance you'd notice something off when you listen to it, although it's not as big of a problem as you'd think, provided the dots you move are close to the zero line to begin with. It's just something to consider if the loops are driving you nuts as they are. Mostly, you'll resort to this if the instruments are more live than programmed or if the music wasn't intended to be looped.

Addendum: if you wish to go insane, there's a possible hex solution, but to put it simply it's not entirely viable. Still, I'll leave this here if you want to be educated.

There's a small section right before the first OggS in a standard custom Vorbis OGG-based SCD:

Aside from the very first two values, these appear to be sample numbers (i.e. how the OGG determines where to establish points to seek to), determined/seen in the 24- or 32-bit integer fields of your hex reader. Changing these does manipulate loop points to a degree, but it's still not accurate in the sense that you could change a specific one to exactly the sample you want and it'll make the loop perfect. The seek table has some very specific reason it populates with these particular values, although changing them won't break the sound functionally. Additionally, VFXEditor's interface displays loop points in seconds now, and these seconds don't correlate with what a program like Audacity will show at the same time (because VFXEditor works on an estimate of some kind).

So, where does that leave us? Well, staying in hex mode, we can manipulate our loop points ourselves without messing with the actual interface:

Right before the start of the sample metadata (where it starts below the yellow line) are a few determining values, but the important ones for us are three lines above the sample data. The red block is our loop start sample value, while the green block is our loop end sample value. Note that even if you try to make the loop start/end values your exact samples, this will round up or down to the nearest sample value established in the sample metadata block.

Now you see why VFXEditor's more recent change makes more sense, hopefully. It's not VFXEditor forcing you to specific values, per se, but how FF14's internal code in tandem with OGG handles the samples being set; and so VFXEditor has chosen to reflect that forced rounding in its interface.

If you're confused on where all this is found in the mess of hex, look for a series of four-column bytes above the aforementioned OggS. (These can be pairs of bytes or even possibly sets of three in each column, depending on overall length of the sound, so be aware.) Where the sample metadata ends is right before this OggS string, while where it starts is always the very first 00 00 00 00 when you're reading from the bottom up of that metadata block. With FFXIV native files, this OggS header data doesn't exist, so try to orient yourself from either the top of the file or where you see the columns end. If the 24-bit integer field loses its gradual incrementality, you've gone too far.

My issue isn't listed here!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP???????

Mostly, I'm not aware of issues unless I have them myself or see someone talking about it. However, you are more than welcome to message me for direct support. There are also plenty of Discord servers available for specific help, if you're not one for private chats or want to figure things out yourself. I won't list all of them here, simply because there are too many, but the main ones will have links somewhere within their interface or - more in the case of solo creators - their own Twitter accounts. I encourage joining Students of Baldesion (this link should be permanent now, but if it's not, just DM me) not just for help with sound modding, but for advice on all types of mods. They're a very helpful bunch. As I'm also a member there, you can ping me on the server if you need to.

Changelog (because things get changed a lot)

07/09/25: Added a section on using the FFmpeg standalone codec in order to further manipulate OGG page structure. Thanks to floppy drive on Discord for mentioning this method. Let me know if this helps in any way. Also fixed/removed some old comments about TMB leaking and the funny moon plugin, since those no longer apply; and updated a couple screenshots for C063 to be more accurate.

05/01/25: Added a troubleshooting point about the "Unsupported" error brought about by custom WAV and SCDs created in non-native programs.

02/01/25: Reworked the document a bit to remove that clunky primer example and make each of the other examples self-sufficient. Tried my very best to improve some readability and remove crossed wires. That did mean a lot of repetition in examples, but it's probably fine.

04/10/24: Clarified in a couple spots about a common misconception on custom path folder creation. Removed a small section in the looped emote section about it so it wouldn't cause additional confusion. In a nutshell, manual folder creation only matters if you have a finalised, exported mod in Penumbra and you want to edit it further. Any path established in the Being Replaced field in VFXEditor is temporary and isolated to the editor, meaning it cannot read local paths unless you tell it so by clicking the magnifying glass and searching for it in the Penumbra tab. (Note that these changes are also temporary, so clicking UPDATE doesn't actually edit the mod's file or create it in the spot you specified; it just provides a temp file for testing purposes. These changes will be gone once you clear the tab/editor, although the temp file will remain in the folder the editor uses, specified in its settings menu.) I should put this explanation elsewhere, once I find a good spot for it. :^)

01/09/24: Some hex nonsense for another slightly improbable solution in the "music doesn't want to loop nicely" troubleshooting point. Or at least you'll see why VFXEditor behaves with loop times as it does, and how it's not possible to change that. Please don't bombard the Github with complaints. Small pops of colour for subheadings. Reordered stuff in the tracks appendix so it's alphabetical instead of frequency-based. Minor addition to the attribute appendix. Added an appendix on Lua conditions. Deleted the TMB/PAP/VFX appendix and made it an example section instead because I'm getting a lot of messages about how to add just SFX and not music, even though it's the same concept. Y'all want to be hand-fed. I get it. :salt:

18/05/24: Fixed an erroneous mention of Loop in C063 being restricted to three states, when in fact it can be set as Duration. I have seen the error of my ways.

12/05/24: Added a small-ish section on encoding size comparisons, alternate methods of conversion, and alternate options for SCD implementation or lack thereof. Tiny rework of the loop point troubleshooting section for clarity's sake.

03/04/24-04/04/24: Some minor testing updates for content in Layout, specifically Use Dir First Pos and some FAC settings. Added a section on the newer stuff in the Audio tab. Changed info on Local Number to reflect user research.

10/03/24-14/03/24: Extensive rework of the document. A lot of information has been reworded, removed, or changed entirely to reflect VFXEditor's GUI updates in v1.8.2.x, or just because I've decided to use my brain for once. Four-channel combat-based BGM is now viable. Did a write-up for randomising BGM for non-BGM replacements (I'm sorry - I really wanted that to work, but I'm stumped, so you might look into third-party plugins or just use an external player). I've also added a lot of colours, pictures, and indentations to bring attention to certain points or make things potentially less obtuse. Gone is the yesteryear of writing being fully black and pictureless. Soon, novels will be just pictures and tiny bites of words. ...No, wait, those are films with subtitles. There's also a font change because I can. Some things haven't been given a facelift, but I'm getting there. This all took a lot of time. Y'all better be grateful. (I'm joking. Kind of. If I actually used my Kofi, I'd ask for tips or peppermint mochas, but I don't because taxes suck.)

01/03/24: Explained about limits in GroupRandom. Will probably do a write-up soon about random BGM per play. Note that you must be on the VFXEditor beta build to try it. The main branch isn't yet at that stage.

04/01/24: Did minor research on the Unknown tab for Fixed Volume/Bypass PLIIz. Possibly confirmed what First Inactive does, at least in relation to Height.

14/12/23: Added a fourth example to cover sound cropping. Moved the example section to be congruent with its placement in the table of contents.

12/12/23: Adjusted some explanations to be less obtuse and confusing (hopefully). Eschewing obfuscation and espousing elucidation.

29/11/23: Added a couple mentions about the vgmstream player on the interwebs. Intial tests seemed good, but I got a little ahead of myself. :)

12/11/23: Did some more research and changed/added where applicable (mostly Layouts/Tracks).

07/11/23: Added another (hopefully) simple example on sound replacement for existing mods because I hear a lot of secondhand comments about this document being a little confusing. I'm an English major and novelist. I like to word vomit. 本当にごめん.

03/11/23: Added a section on Upper Limit use in the GroupRandom category.

10/10/23: Added a series of examples to try to simplify workflow for the end user. This is in-progress and subject to change.

29/09/23: Rectified notes about some .scds done with outside conversions being unreadable. This has now been fixed in the editor, albeit marked as unsupported. Be wary when messing with these files further.

12/09/23: Added a troubleshooting section about why people are getting weird playback issues in-game with conversions.

26/08/23: Cleaned up some of Appendix F to be more intuitive and inclusive.

21/08/23: Included notes about how Volume fields are handled in VFXEditor, mostly that there is a set minimum and maximum value that the game allows on its own. There's also an additional troubleshooting point now for anyone who has a hell of a time getting their .scd loops right.

24/07/23: Added headings in the document structure to allow for jumping in the outline menu, upon request (which I should have done in the first place, but (complete honesty) I had no idea it existed).

11/07/23: A small addition to the FAQ section to reflect some brief testing found in Appendix E.

07/05/23: Continuation of research in various tabs.

27/04/23: Small edit for Sound (C063) to reflect a recent VFXEditor change.

13/04/23: Expanded on the Min Range and Max Range values in the Layouts tab. This should help for anyone who needs to clearly define the distance at which sounds play.

10/04/23: Made the troubleshooting section more legible by adding subheaders, and slapped on a couple small points here and there.

07/04/23: Included a small segment on multi-channel audio for the built-in player. Changed other minor details regarding 6ch files to reflect testing, but overall it's the same, for the time being. Added a troubleshooting point about making BGM unique in places where it uses one that's shared. tl;dr - suffer.

04/04/23: Changed small parts of the document to reflect the April 4th VFXEditor update.

02/04/23: Removed the rickroll meme from the changelog link. It's old but I still love doing it. I've also tacked Vulonsulin's Google Drive spreadsheet collection onto the .scd resources section of the guide. "Credit's not necessary." Gurl, please.

01/04/23: Decided to do a write-up for .ttmp2 creation because I saw a lot of modders on XMA saying they had no clue on how to do it. That was also me before yesterday.

30/03/23: Finally used my pea-sized intellect to discover there's more than one expansion folder you can search. Updated the FFXIV Explorer listings to reflect my galaxy brain moment.

29/03/23: Compiled some late-night-into-"oh, god, is it daytime already???" .exd research. Probably reached a dead end there with the errors I'm getting and searches turning up very little.

27/03/23: Did a quick write-up of .scd for .pap as well as applying a custom path there.

24/03/23: Did research on Voiceline (C053) and put the results in the corresponding section. Fixed incorrect information in a couple areas.

22/03/23: Edited the document to reflect the newest Scd Editor update. Additionally, shifted other information around, deleted redundancies, and corrected potentially misleading points. Gave "all systems go" on looping field BGM. Probably was fine in the first place and was just a specific subset in dungeons, so that's on me. I'm sorry. If something seems contradictory, please contact me because very often I'm blind and don't realise until a month later. お疲れ様ッス.

18/03/23: Included another appendix on changing .scds (and related options) for .tmb and .avfx files. Fixed bookmark links. How long has that been broken? I'm sorry.

16/03/23: Shifted large chunks of tab info into their own sections to avoid clutter in the scope of the guide's original purpose. Added more in the appendices.

15/03/23: Added a troubleshooting point about converting orchestrion songs to BGM. Fixed my well-intentioned, but ultimately incorrect, point on the BusDucking attribute in the Tracks tab. I'm welcome. Included an appendix on mount sounds and SFX modulations. Started two appendices on the Tracks and Layouts tabs. Largely WIP, mostly because I continually crash to the desktop and half the time I want to chuck my computer out the window.

09/03/23: Added more description for the Acceleration metadata and fixed some erroneous information in BusDucking. Included a couple more troubleshooting points.

27/02/23: Added a small paragraph in the intro that mentions the oft-linked guide on editing a dance mod's music. Link included.

26/02/23: Small clarifications here and there. Added a segment on the DynamixPlus attribute (tl;dr - layered .scd for smooth combat music transition).

23/02/23: Shifted sections and moved research to a separate document to reduce clutter. Added a minor bit about using Anamnesis to find certain sounds.

20/02/23: Did a tiny bit more research. Added a minor bit about the ResLogger2 plugin and its use for finding .scds. I'm considering doing a fair bit of condensing later on for the guide as a whole, or at least appending it with a simpler walkthrough.

02/02/23: Blocked in a bunch of XIV Explorer path descriptions to eliminate some guesswork. There is still a lot of guesswork, though. :)

30/01/23: Added some preliminary (very technical) VFX research. Started working on the full list of .scds in game. I am very insane. [Both of these segments have been moved - links in the appropriate sections.]

27/01/23: Minor clarification on the singular troubleshooting point. General apology if things are extra-super scuffed (and if things change, the document will be updated ASAP).

22/01/23: Added another method for finding loop points with bytes. Established that Interval values seemingly have no tangible effect. Fixed grammar mistakes because I'm a bad English major.

Concluding remarks (a.k.a. You've reached the end! Finally.)

Thank goodness. I'm exhausted.

Hopefully, this guide was of some help to you and wasn't too much of a slog. It turned out a lot more technical than I thought it would, but I felt like I needed to cover bases and clear up any potential questions that could arise. As stated in the beginning, if you have questions, concerns, corrections, or something's on your mind, head to @takonaut on Twitter (if you call it X, I will hurt you) or taco1932 on Discord. There's also my Tumblr handle - takonaut - should that be your preferred social site, but I don't check it too often. I do have other places I'm active, but there's less guarantee of a quick response. I may be invisible on occasion, but I promise I'll reply when I'm not working or planking in bed.

Thanks for reading!

Anyway, have one last meme.

(Also, random tidbit: the chanting in the Ramuh track is also sampled in a Firefly episode. I don't know why you'd want to know that, but now you do.)