This Tutorial shows how you can add your own music to a track so that everybody can hear it.

First you need three things:
- a program that converts the music to .ogg ( dbpoweramp )
- a place on the internet where you can store and download the file. It’s important that the filehoster provides the function of downloading without confirming the download over a special site.
(Update: the suggested site fileden.com is closing down. DO NOT USE FILEDEN!)
eyebo suggests Dropbox.com!!! Read this when using Dropbox: http://tm.mania-exchange.com/s/ft/1762
- your song as mp3
(in the following tutorial I will describe the procedure using dbpoweramp and fileden)

Let’s do it:

01) Convert the mp3 into ogg: click right mousebutton on mp3, “convert to”>opens poweramp, choose “converting to: ogg vorbis”, click convert

02) Convert the ogg to mux: open Maniaplanet, click on “Help”>”Custom Data”>”Convert Music”; select your ogg. Close ManiaPlanet. The mux-file is now stored under “…Documents/ManiaPlanet/Media/Music”. Remove the file (to desktop f.e.).

03) Upload the mux to the internet: register at fileden, “Upload”>"Browse Files”> “Start upload”. Go to “”Files”, click right on the file,>”properties”>”URL”>copy the URL (strg+C)

04) Make a locator: open the windows editor (or something similar), start> all programs> accessoirs>editor; paste the stored url into the empty document (strg+V). Save the document: it has to be the exact name (capitals, space) than the mux-file plus the ending .loc (f.e. “Beethoven Ninth.mux.loc) the editor will automatically add the ending .txt. Then rename the textfile by deleting the “.txt” (windows will now tell you that the file won’t work anymore, don’t mind). Move the file to “Documents/ManiaPlanet/Media/Musics”.

05) Select locator in editor: open TM, open your track in the editor, in the music selection you’ll find your song, select it and save the track. Close TM. Remove the .loc from the musics folder. Done!

06) Test the music: just open TM and start a local play on your map to see if it works

Please note: As far as I know it’s illegal to publish songs on the internet when you don’t own the rights to do that…

If you have any suggestions how to improve the understanding of the tutorial (I’m no native speaker) or add steps I should have explained better, please post and I will add them.

Any questions left? Don’t hesitate to ask!

Hans Holo

Song is not visible in editor:
- restart ManiaPlanet
- restart computer, try agian
- make sure locator is renamed to .mux.loc (not.txt)

I can select the song in the editor, but it won't work:
- check if the locator has the exact same name as the mux-file (+.loc)
- make sure you only have the locator in the musics folder and not the mux

Songname and artist are not displayed when song starts. Only questionmarks:
Edit the id3 tag of the mp3 or ogg (with winamp f.e.). You can add artist, song, album...
...

"Hans Holo" says:
Song is not visible in editor:
- restart computer, try agian

Restart ManiaPlanet, restarting computer is a waste of time

@metoxys: I've already written in the tutorial that a TM-restart is necessary. (maybe that was not clear: edited!)
I've had the problem that the locator wasn't found by TM (after restarting TM), but it worked after restarting the computer.

... says:
the editor will automatically add the ending .txt. Then rename the textfile by deleting the “.txt”

I use notepad and you just use the dropdown menu and change .txt to All files. Saves a little time



Otherwise this tutorial is great

One question, do you save space by making them .mux? So they load faster? I always keep them as .ogg but maybe im working against myself

Thx for the addition Tuta.
I think a ogg has the same size as a mux. Does it work online with keeping it in ogg?

Hans Holo says:

Does it work online with keeping it in ogg?

Yes.

I've been doing this for quite a while, but I would assume that it wouldn't matter if the .mux file was stored on an FTP server or an HTTP one. If you want I can test it out for you.

Edit: Looks like I'll need to download apache, it doesn't like my FTP server...

EDIT2: Bah... The internet hates me.

Although your tut is great, it's not complete..

Add title/artist/comments
open the mp3 (or .ogg) in winamp or any other tool that can edit the id3 tags
edit the title, artist and comments field. (you can use the $ variable just like naming stuff ingame)

Skip step 5 as it's useless

Always convert to .mux (sorry Tuta ^^)
Although .ogg still works, it's a non-encrypted file.. which means in almost every country people playing your track online are actually sharing illegal audio files through ingame p2p..
(even when using creative commons or other public domain songs, there can be a smallprint stating you are not able to share through p2p networks)


Alternative tool to dbpoweramp: I prefer to use Audacity (also freeware)

Thx for the additions Blinnemans.
I didn't say anything about the mp3-tag, because I wanted to keep the tutorial as small as possible. It starts with a "finished" mp3. I think there are some "How-to-do-mp3-tutorials" on the web. But the tag is possibly something you can forget when making a mp3.

Why skip step five? You have to select the song.