Hello and Welcome! Ever since the release of Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge, players have been
enjoying the new MP3 music and the ability to use their own MP3s. There are some of us however that
still remember and enjoy the old MIDI music. I happen to be one of them. The old MIDIs in Ultima Online:
Renaissance may be outdated technology but they are still excellent musical compositions. I was
disappointed that EA did not use this music when they introduced MP3s in UO: LBR. The beautiful music of UO:R is now collecting dust and fading from our memories. It is a shame to see such good music going to waste. Fortunately, music composition is a hobby of mine. I too have been using MIDI to write my music and along with my compositions, I have also developed a unique way of recording MP3s from my MIDIs. So, to keep the music from UO:R alive, I have set out to make MP3s of its old MIDI files. This site contains the final results. I am very pleased with the quality of these recordings and hope the UO community enjoys them as well.

Since everyone asks how I make these MP3s, I will to give a brief description of the process. First of all,
this is NOT some program you can just go and download. It’s actually rather labor intensive. The bottom level
of the recording process uses a technology called SoundFonts. Basically, SoundFonts are recordings of
various qualities that reproduce the sounds of instruments using samples from real life (and that is
a real basic explanation). I have over many years collected and created a library of all kinds of instruments/sounds. As I listen to a MIDI file, I decide which instruments sound best with the music. For example, when listening to a part written for flute, I decide which type of flute is best: classical, Bolivian, renaissance, wooden, etc. I’ll do this for each instrument used in the composition. Then, I record one track (instrument) at a time. After all the instruments’ parts are recorded individually and I am satisfied with their quality, I “glue” them all together. The final result is the music you can download here. It can be quite a long process but then that’s why it’s a hobby.

I would like to thank the composers at Electronic Arts for the good music, UO Stratics for hosting the MP3s,
and the community for their support. Enjoy!

Safe Journey,

Dinaris Techarin

[email protected]

THE MUSIC HALL

NOTE: Most files are saved in ZIP Format. To Unzip, you will need to use the WinZip Utility. To save the file, simply left click on the title below and save to any directory. Exceptions are noted below.

FOREST THEME

[ 1:46, 2.4meg, 192 kbps MP3 ]

* MP3 File (Non-Zipped) – Left-Click to download and play in browser or Right-Click to save to computer

OCLLO – SPECIAL EDITION

[ 1:58, 2.7meg, 192 kbps MP3 ]

* MP3 File (Non-Zipped) – Left-Click to download and play in browser or Right-Click to save to computer

YEW

[ 2:00, 1.8meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

MINOC

[ 1:50, 1.72meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

NU’JELM

[ 1:23, 2.03meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

CAMPING

[ 0:57, .90meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

CITY THEME

[ 1:23, 1.27meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

VESPER

[ 2:01, 1.85meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

DUNGEON II THEME

[ 0:45, 0.71meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

DUNGEON III THEME

[ 3:53, 3.64meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

SWAMP THEME

[ 1:25, 1.34meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

TRINSIC THEME

[ 1:34, 1.44meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

LORD BRITISH’S CASTLE

[ 1:17, 1.18meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

WIND THEME

[ 2:08, 1.95meg, 128 kbps MP3 ]

OCLLO THEME

[ 1:55, 1.8 meg, 128 Kbps MP3 ]

BUCCANEER’S DEN

[ 1:33, 1.4 meg, 128 Kbps MP3 ]

Here’s some bits of info on how you can replace the existing MP3 files in UO with your own MP3s. I think we might be making a more comprehensive version of what I’m about to write about at some point, so I’ll just hit some of the high points.

Changing which MP3 is playing

Those who have registered and play either the 2D or 3D versions of UO:LBR will sometimes hear special MP3 music playing. These MP3 files are stored within the Ultima Online\music\Digital\ directory. Also within that directory is a config.txt file. Users of UO:LBR have the option of playing their own supplied MP3s, rather than the ones that are installed with UO:LBR, in one of two possible ways.

Swapping MP3s: Open the directory mentioned above and find the song you want to replace. Save that song in another directory, in case you want to replace it back where it started. Find the new song and place it into the music\Digital directory, and re-name it to be exactly the same as the one that it is replacing, and you’re done.

For example, if the official song file is “Bucsden.mp3″ and your replacement song is “Carmina Burana.mp3″ (by Carl Orff), save “Bucsden.mp3″ in some backup folder outside the UO directory, copy “Carmina Burana.mp3″ into the “Ultima Online\music\Digital\” directory, and rename that copy of “Carmina Burana.mp3″ to “Bucsden.mp3″

Changing the config.txt file: Open the “Ultima Online\music\Digitial\” directory and look for the “config.txt” file. Save that file in another directory, in case you want to revert everything back later to “square one.”

Copy your new song into this directory, and we’ll use as an example a file named “Carmina Burana.mp3.” You should simplify the song name before proceeding, removing any spaces or special characters, so that something like “Carmina Burana.mp3″ could become “carminaburana.mp3″ or something along those lines.

Open the config.txt file in that directory and look for the line which contains the name of the song you’d like to replace. For example, you might change the line that reads “22 vesper1″ to become “22 carminaburana”–and after doing so, restart your game client for the change to take effect.

Looping MP3s

I’ll need to refer back to that config.txt file for this one (at “Ultima Online\music\Digitial\config.txt”). If you want a certain song to playback forever in a loop, open that file and look for the song listing you’d like to change. Changing “22 vesper1″ to “22 vesper1,loop” will activate the looping process for the song “vesper1.mp3.” Without that extra “,loop” comment, the song will only play through once, and then end.

Note: When you leave the associated area or stop/complete the associated activity, the song will cease. We’re looking into somehow allowing such music events to fade the music rather than allow it to stop so abruptly.

=========

Sannio

Online Community Coordinator, UO

Origin Systems