Quick and easy guide for adding music to Emulatonstation on RetroPie. Noob friendly!

fnkngrv

@cjax08 no, this still plays because it is an independent application running. What I have done to deal with this is I have re-encoded all the audio files that I use in my builds to be set at 50-60% gain. This allows for the audio of the video snap to come through clearly while you can still hear the bgm "behind" it for lack of better term.

fnkngrv

anyone notice an issue where if you use the commands in bash script that music doesn't start up again when you go back into ES from terminal?

COOL_IRON

Is it possible to create custom launch file for specific rom that will not disable music?

cyperghost

@cool_iron YES and NO

I created two bash files that Continous or Disable Background music by using USER MENU from runcommand. If you launch a ROM then the grey box apperas... Press a button and you enter the runcommand menu list. Now you can enable/disable Background music by using User Menu item.
Take a look here and add a exit 2as last line!

The way I descripe is not 100% the method you asked here - it's a small workaround. Of course it is possible to add music for a specific ROM.... You can modify this code and add to runcommand-onstart.sh

monstergubl

i have done all commands on the rp3 direct
my big problem is where is the folder that i was created , when i type in mkdir /home/pi/bgm it say to me the folder already exists. But i cannot find the Folder on my PC or USB ...

COOL_IRON

@cyperghost I did not quite get it past the user menu step.
What should I do next? Can you explain this more please?
Maybe you could add some pictures?

cyperghost

@cool_iron
Add 2 bashfiles to dedicated folder descriped in the Wiki: runcommand functions
One with pkill mpg123 -STOP and the other with pkill mpg123 -CONT to User Menu. One file is called Stop BGM.SH the other is called Continue BGM.sh
Then you select one oft these files in User Menu and can manually enable or disable music. If you follow the link that I gave you to the bash script then you can automate the process by using a custom collection as trigger event.
But this needs some coding skill...

Feel free to ask ;)

COOL_IRON

@cyperghost Oh, sorry, I didn't read the topic of this discussion :P
The problem is that I am using different method for background music. Is it possible to make this two .sh scripts woking with this method?

retroprogrammer

This is a very good tutorial I have quiet a few tutorials to so check them out :)

[TUTORIAL]How to add draStic ds emulator and configure it and add ROMS with RetroPie-Manager
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/90803

[TUTORIAL]How to install kodi and add to main menu
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/90609

[TUTORIAL]How to install and use RetroPi-Manager
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/90596

herb_fargus

@retroprogrammer please don't spam. The official docs are there for a reason

cyperghost

@cool_iron I think there is no problem to install mpg123 as background player just for in game music. This would be the easiest solution.... And if there are occouring problems you can easily remove it.
As you use the python method the python code checks for process PID of a running emulator in background so it seems to be impossible without altering python code. But that's out of my class.

EDIT:
Maybe you can act like this!
I think about a code like this ...

Enable ingame BGM.sh

#!/bin/bash
# PSEUDOCODE!
# DISABLE python check for running processes of emulators by pausing the python script!!!!
# OMXPlayer will still run in background and will play music!
pkill -STOP "python backgroundplayer"

and by editing runcommand-onend.sh you always set the -CONT condition.

But why don't you give the mpg123 no chance? Imho it is the easiest method for BGM but keep in mind that mpg123 is just a small player with a small bunch of command line arguments...

@retroprogrammer Before spamming this thread you can ask @meleu if he want's to add your tuts into his Useful topics thread

retroprogrammer

sorry for spamming guys just wanted to say that their are some other tutorials other sorry :(

Skyfire

Having some issues after getting music playing in the background via this tutorial. On launch of any ROM I am getting an audiomanger error stating the device or resource is in use. Once the game loads I have no game audio.

zerojay

Created an alternative guide for using vgmplay instead of mpg123 to play directly emulated audio rips from game consoles and arcade machines. Much smaller file sizes than mp3s.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/14682/quick-and-easy-guide-for-adding-emulated-music-to-emulationstation-on-retropie

jonnykesh

@zerojay How much room does it save? For example a track I use is 1:39 and 2.4MB. Would this really save a significant amount of space?

zerojay

@jonnykesh Well, put it this way, if you have a full NES game's soundtrack, let's say 20 songs in mp3 for about 3MB each song, that's 60MB. The emulated version is going to be a small part of the actual NES game's size so there's pretty much no NES game soundtrack in VGM format that will be bigger than 1MB total. Most NES games are about 200-300K for their full soundtrack in this format. Look around for VGM rips as they are a better indicator than anything I can say.

BobHarris

Could somebody tell me which file I have to edit (and what kind of text) to set a startsong which plays everytime when you boot up the Pi?

coldnpale

Great guide! Anyway to choose what track plays first if we have many mp3's in the folder?

mitu

@bobharris Since the command line using mpg321 plays the songs at random, there's no configuration involved.
You could try replacing mpg321 -Z with mpg321 -l 0 (lowecase L, then zero) in the playing script and the playorder should be alphabetical - so you can place a 0_start.mpg3 to be always played first.

BobHarris

@mitu Ok thanks. This is not an option for me, as I prefer a randomized playlist after the first song.
So I will just use the Python script instead (http://www.pretendo.online/2017/01/25/adding-background-music-to-emulation-station/).. so far it seems to work great (and it allows you to set a startsong). It has other perks too, like fade out (after starting a game) and it plays a new song after exiting a game, instead of resuming the previous song.
I wasn't sure which method to use as I read some people were having issues with the Python script. (Songs playing at half speed for example.)

(There is a workaround for anyone who uses mpg123 and wants the same song/sound at the start and a random playlist: Turn your song into an mp4 video file and set it as your splash screen.)