Any way to mod/customise sounds?

I know where the sound files are, but could there be any way to add club or tournament specific sounds such as a brief snippet of the Champions League theme in the pre game match engine bit in CL games, You'll Never Walk Alone or Roma, Roma, Roma or the like?

I know where the sound files are, but could there be any way to add club or tournament specific sounds such as a brief snippet of the Champions League theme in the pre game match engine bit in CL games, You'll Never Walk Alone or Roma, Roma, Roma or the like?

I've been editing the match sounds for FM 14, 15 and 16 - you know, adding team specific supporter chants, crowd reactions to refereeing decisions, poor misses or bad fouls and so on. I haven't got around to it yet, but I'll have a look at the event files and see if I can spot anything related to the pre-match bit you mentioned. Chances are, however, there won't be anything tying this brief intro bit to any actual match events, which usually can have sounds associated with them. But I have been wondering the same thing myself and will have a look. Would be really sweet if it could be done!

More specifically, in case your interested in little tinkering and adding your own sounds to make the game more authentic, the match engine sounds are tied to the event files: match_event & match_sounds in the \Football Manager 2017\data\events\ folder. You can open them with basic Notepad and and a connection between the two (i.e. set a specific match event to trigger specific sound(s)). Let me know too, if you beat me to it and find anything interesting.

iam after adding supporter chants how can this be done please

Oh, and one more important thing about customising your Football Manager sounds: When you create a .WAV file of the sound you want the game to recognice and use, it's necessary to not create any metadata in that file. That means: when saving the .WAV one must clear any suggested text in the metadata field, for example "File created ---" (date) or "made with ---" (this and that program). I've learned that for some reason FM will NOT play any sound file that has any metadata attached to it.

This is for sure one of the most tricky issues to improve in FM.
In previous there has been the Audio Commentary Patch, with a few improved sounds and crowd reaction and also audio commentary. For FM17, at least until now, nothing has came out. Wouldn't you be willing to make it work for FM17 ?
As for the website you mentioned, with all those team chants, a few people tried in previous FM editions to make those files compatible with FM, but no success achieved Still, you seem to have the skills to present the community with something. The Audio Commentary Patch would be a start, don't you agree ? (please, do agree).

cheers

I've come across an old audio commentary pack from 2010 or 2011 that used sound clips from Pro Evolution Soccer as commentary bits for events like passes, dribbles and shots, but frankly I didn't find it too good, since hearing the same lines of commentary over and over again gets old pretty fast. To me, watching the 3D/2D events unfold and seeing the commentary text feels more authentic than hearing some commentator rambling on about a missed chance in the same exact way he did five minutes ago. (Which is often the issue with FIFA and PES.) I did download and study the contents of the forementioned soundpack few years back but ended up deleting it so I don't have any commentary sound material at all. All I have are the chants, some of which are general chants that don't sing out specific team names, but most do. And that raises another problem: it's not really possible to make a truly diverse collection of sounds and atmosphere by mixing in chants from many different teams' supporters. Also if only few of the chants (those general chants that don't mention teams by name) are used over and over again, hearing them gets dull quite fast.

What I do personally regrettably cannot be turned into a single soundpack. See, when I have a match coming up between team A (my own team) and team B (the opponent), I download and edit their team-specific fanchants into those .WAV -files that Football Manager can understand. Then I edit the match_sounds.cfg so that it recognices and plays those particular team chants in the upcoming match.
Also, some of the chants I apply only when team A or B is playing home or away, to keep it more real. My aim is to affect the balance of home support vs. away support so that you really should be feeling the supporters getting behind you as the home team and bearing down on your visiting team - not to mention the fierce local derbies with their special taunts and banter. When and if it works out sound-effect-wise, the result should be a unique atmosphere between two particular teams, as opposed to just another match in the season-long schedule. I still find myself fine-tuning things here and there and trying to discover some missed events that could be diversified sound-wise, but of course the limitations of the match engine itself do prevent many tweaks that I would like to do.

I haven't found an easier way to do it but to store those team-specific lines of code in the match_sounds.cfg into a separate .txt -file (using notepad) that I can simply refer to the next time I play against the same team in FM. So at least a tiny bit of copying and pasting of rows of text is involved before every single match, and... that makes it difficult to create any single setup of sounds and chants that would work for everybody.

In case yo're wondering WHY I take the time to swap the team-specific chants for each match, it's simply because I manage most of my games in full length match mode as opposed to just highlights, so the atmosphere really does come through and make it a lot more enjoyable. I admit I am nuts to go through all that trouble but I part of the joy is getting something of my own doing to actually add to the in-game realism and immersion. I haven't managed or faced Liverpool ever yet (during the era when I've had my custom chants added), but I've always thought of hearing "You'll never walk alone" and "Fields of Anfield Road" echo around the stadium (while hopefully pulling an upset against them with a smaller team in the FA Cup) as a prime example of a Football Manager moment made yet better by the real chants.

What I could perhaps do - when I find the time for it - is take a look at my small-ish collection of general crowd sounds and see if I could put together an English sound pack consisting of customised match_sounds.cfg, match_events.xml and a folder of edited .WAV -files of crowd reactions to sendings-off, players diving, bad fouls and other misdemeanor ("Off off off!" etc.) and refereeing decisions. English chants have been most plentiful to come by, so that is the easiest nation to replicate.
(I'll also have to double-check that there won't be any copyright problems involved when using someone else's sounds for this pack, regardless of them being downloaded for free and not being used by me to make me any financial gain at all.)

Anyway, It's not too difficult to edit in your teams' chants on top of that pack if you wish to do so. After seeing where and how in the config-file a certain sound file has been mentioned and applied, you'll get the hang of it.

For those who want help in editing sounds or events or customising their own team-related chants, I can offer some basic step-by-step instructions and of course answer questions, should someone have anything related on their mind that I can help with. I know this type of modding of FM is quite marginal, so I don't expect this to draw a lot of interest and attention, But I'll surely be willing to help out ithose who do want to tinker with it.

After a long stint of managing solely teams in the English leagues I have just started managing Kaiserslautern in German 2. Bundesliga and finding general chants for Germany proved a difficult task, both because there are less chants to be found and because I don't understand the language. But I was able to cobble something together and use it to replace my long-time favourite English sound setup. That, of course, meant going through the .cfg file with a fine-tooth comb to eradicate any possibility of "Who are you?", "I wanna go home" or "The referee's a w*nker!" suddenly ringing out during an all-German football match.

Hi Miguel Alves!

I can definitely write a step-by-step guide here and start compiling a general pack for English leagues/teams as a base on which team chants can be then added.
I'm also happy to answer any further questions that may arise along the way. And as I mentioned earlier, the audio software I used to edit the sound files and save them into the right format is free, so the only costly resource required in this kind of project is time.

So is England your number one priority nation then? (Like I said, I did find some sounds for Germany (and I'm currently using them in FM 17 already) and I would imagine there being some for France, Italy and maybe others as well, although I haven't searched for them in the Fanchants webpage yet.)

Oh snap!
I read the extensive terms & conditions section of Fanchants website carefully, and it's apparent that it's free for own personal use when not redistributed on a website etc. but: "However, our content must not be used nor reproduced (in whole or part) for any other purpose, including on or in connection with another website or publication or for commercial gain, without first obtaining a licence to do so from us."
It doesn't seem like sharing the content originating from their "intellectual property" is allowed, not even if it isn't for any type of financial gain.

Creating a more or less "universal" basic pack with plenty of chants and sounds already attached would've been ideal, but I think it has to be done a bit differently. I can instruct you how to edit the downloaded mp3s into working .WAV -files, how to edit the match_events.xml and match_sounds.cfg and even PM or email you example versions of those files (that show the editing I've done to them), that is totally fine in copyright-sense as long as I don't share a ready-made pack of sounds. So, if you wish, I can give you the platform and help you create the content you want to place on it.

The bright side is that I haven't got any Portuguese sound content collected yet, and it'll be much easier and faster for you as a native speaker to find the general chants we're looking for since you actually know the language in question.

I'll start writing a step-by-step tutorial/instructions text when my schedule allows it. Or is it perhaps easier to go over (via chat/private messages) the editing of a single sound from a downloaded MP3, through Audacity or other sound editing software, through editing the right row of text in the match_events.xml and match_sounds.cfg into a completed, working in-game sound effect? It can be done too. Sounds like a big task but it won't take that long with full instructions. Back when I first started, I pretty much began testing things without much knowledge forehand.

The only issue I'm thinking is that me and xml files and writing code its exactly the same to give a pencil to a chimp I thought the guide could very helpful for other people who knows how to mess with those files but lack the skills how to edit mp3. So, if your schedule has a few holes what I would suggest is that you write the guide to share it all around and meanwhile I could search and get portuguese general chants or even in some la-la chants from any nationality supporters or people reactions when a player misses a goal, things like this. This way I make myself useful reserach and collect content and you could do your specialized part converting the files and updating the match-events xml
Is this asking too much ?

Fortunately you don't have to write any code. I can't really edit xml-code either. Basically it's like this: you download and convert an English chant "off off off!" and name it for example as: FM_off_off_off. Then you add the sound into an existing row/ sound trigger in match_sounds.cfg for example: SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL, "FM_crowd_dirtyfoul", 0, 4, 2, 0
like this: SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL, "FM_off_off_off", 0, 4, 2, 0
Or if needed, create a new sound trigger for your sound: take SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL, "FM_off_off_off", 0, 4, 2, 0
and copy/paste it as new row and edit as: SOUND_FURIOUS, "FM_off_off_off", 0, 4, 2, 0

With the search option of Notepad, you'll find SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL in the match_events.xml and you see, what event the soundtrigger is referring to, for example: EVENT_FOUL_SLIDE_TACKLE has the trigger SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL marked as

</list>
<integer id="isst" value="0"/>
<integer id="flsh" value="0"/>
<integer id="rtct" value="0"/>
<string id="sdon" value="SOUND_QUITE_ANGRY_AT_FOUL"/> <-----------sdon means SOUNDONE
<string id="sdtw" value=""/> <-----------sdtw means SOUNDTWO (there's a maximum of two sounds per event - so a single event can either trigger no sound at all, one sound or two sounds - sdon & sdtw)
<integer id="meci" value="1"/>
<integer id="plrc" value="2"/>

If you find an event that has no sounds connected to it (no triggers mentioned in sdon or sdtw, then you can just copy paste a sound trigger name there:

</list>
<integer id="isst" value="0"/>
<integer id="flsh" value="0"/>
<integer id="rtct" value="0"/>
<string id="sdon" value=""/>
<string id="sdtw" value=""/>
<integer id="meci" value="1"/>
<integer id="plrc" value="2"/>
becomes: </list>
<integer id="isst" value="0"/>
<integer id="flsh" value="0"/>
<integer id="rtct" value="0"/>
<string id="sdon" value="SOUND_FURIOUS"/>
<string id="sdtw" value=""/>
<integer id="meci" value="1"/>
<integer id="plrc" value="2"/>

That's just a little example to show how an EVENT (in match_events.xml is connected to a SOUND TRIGGER (in match_sounds.cfg) which then mentions the filename "FM_off_off_off" in the sounds\ folder.

But yeah, I can help you find or create the sound triggers and events to match your chosen sounds. It'n allright. Bom?

If you have steam you can find me as michael andrews.

What I was able to understand in recent years was that people would add the new sound to the sound folder (after converted to wav), and then created / add / link that sound to a new event or an existing event (one event simultaneous sounds linked, I suppose) but then in a match the new sound was never there. I remember something about setting priorities between sounds for the same event, so I think, over the years, this has been the problem.
Meanwhile, I will get some new sound content.

I had similar trouble at first, kept adding files and was sure I had edited the triggers and events right, yet those sounds would not play - until, for some odd reason I decided to try deleting a .WAV -file's metadata. After that the game "magically" started playing the sounds. All the files downloaded from Fanchants have strings of metadata attached to them by default.

Actually, Fanchant sounds can be used for own personal use, but distribution - financial or not - is not allowed. So it's ok to edit their chants by yourself for yourself ( I use them too), but sharing their content is another thing.

The time limit is a strange thing, I've noticed that longer chants (13+ seconds) don't seem to play during a match, but smaller (10, 11, maybe 12 seconds max.) work just fine. I really don't understand the logic and I haven't seen any mention of official sound length limits anywhere. Sometimes I've found really good but long chants and decided to split them in two parts. They both will play as they're short enough, but of course randomly in relation to eachother, that's the only negative side to it.

Ok then I will try to focus on files with less than 13 seconds, at least you won't have the trouble of splitting the file.
The website I sent you has files already in wav format but it seems they are 40, 50 seconds and more, its too much. I'll try others, shorter, make a zip pack of them and upload it and give you the link.

Many Fanchant chants are quite long in duration as well, but it's not a problem. If they contain the same verse being sung many times, I can just cut a verse or two so it's for example 8-10 seconds long.

Right now I'm making a few searches and downloading files in wav, just generic crowd applause or boo.
So, lets say you are in FM managing two teams in the same save and you have a pack of sounds for team A, but none for your team B. Is it possible to have those chants when your team A is playing, but not when your team B plays ?

The easiest thing to do would be to save two different versions of match_sounds.cfg. One of them would have general chants/sounds and team chants for team A. The other match_sounds.cfg would only have the general chanst/sounds. If you have both two versions safely backed up, then it's realtively easy to Tab out of the game and swap match_sounds.cfg files (copy from the safe back up folder into the game folder) and then enter the match of team B. The way I understand it, FM loads the contents of sounds\ folder, the match_events.xml and match_sounds.cfg every time you enter a match. So restarting Football Manager is not required if you want to play with two human-managed teams with two different sound setups.

Okay, so for each human team a different version of match_sound.cfg. I understand now SI has not focus on this, it would be necessary to have one match_sound.cfg for each team in FM, unless it was possible to write some code or algorithm to activate the specific team sounds once the user choose his team. What an Hercules piece of work Nevertheless, you make it sound very easy.
I think I will not be downloading specific team chants, at least none that might have words associated to a club, because I like to pick more than one team. How many files can I sent you ?

Yes, that's it exactly! That is why the sounds/triggers would require lots of "manual" adjusting and moving around from match to match.

How many files have you got? 10? 20? Bring it on. By the way, I'm not too familiar with file sharing services - except when loading content via Sortitousi. How are you planning to share/send the files?

Well, I'm finding quite difficult to find a website that as content like fanchants, so until now I was only able to download 7. The one I link before has quite a few but they all have 40 seconds or more. You really don't mind spliting the file ?

I'll just pack the files with rar and upload to mediafire and then I'll send you the link

No, I don't mind splitting them, hopefully I'll be able to cut them the way that sounds good to you as well.

Cool, I'll wait for the link. Also, if you want the sounds to be used in specific match events, let me know. (Well goals and such are quite obvious of course, but if there are some less obvious sound effects/chants, then let me know if you have a vision for them.) You can even name them that way.

The filenames I'm using will help with that because it will say clap or boo or cheer, things like these, this way I think it will help you to link them to specific events
Awesome, give me a few hours to look into the chants a bit more and then I will post the link here.

Good!

There you go

Chants

I collected 22 files, few of them around 40 seconds. I don't have a clue if this is enough or too much. This is awesome !!! Cheers

Don't tell me you are also that ease messing with the xml files in the panels folder ? These guys - SI - are keeping opposition players roles and duties in the dark, as well opposition team mentality and team shape. Something about a debug code inside the panels that turns this information invisible.