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Sound tutorial
I noticed there are some problems regarding sounds every now and then…hopefully this will help!
Things you need:
Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ )
Theme Builder
( http://www.lili-chan.com/downloads.htm)
First you need to find some audio files. Just do a search for "Free Sound effects", or "Sound FX" or something to that effect.
Keep in mind the sounds need to be SHORT. There's nothing more annoying than a theme with a cursor sound that lasts FOREVER. ALSO, there's a size limit to sounds in Themes, and if you go over that limit, your Theme will fail when you compile it. Try to keep your basic Navigation sounds down to under half a second, and the OK sound to about under or over one second. Making them any longer runs a risk of making your theme not able to compile.
After you've acquired the sounds you'd like, you're going to need to convert them to Sony's proprietary sound format, because there isn't a huge demand for .VAG files right now.
That's where Audacity comes in. Open the file in Audacity and you'll be presented with your sound in a sound wave format. This is a good time to edit your sounds to remove excess silence/noises if you wish. You can also pull what you want from a sound and ditch the rest.
Now, when I make sounds, before I'm through, I usually run them through the Amplify Effect and set it to "-10", that way the sounds aren't overly loud and aggressive when you're using them. (The Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode One theme you can download from the PlayStation Store for free is a perfect example of a theme with sounds that are too loud.)
When you're done, save it in WAV Format, and make sure it's set to a frequency of 44100! You can make sure it's in 44100 in the lower left corner of Audacity. To save in WAV Format, Go to FILE -> Export as WAV.
Now sometimes, after saving to WAV, it'll add a few seconds to the end of your sound. It's annoying, but open it up in Audacity and remove the excess, remembering to save in 44100 again. That should fix it for good.
Now that you have your WAV ready, we need to convert it to .VAG format. That's where MFAudio comes in.
Open your sound in MFAudio. You'll see the program has everything split into 2 separate sections, your sound above, and conversion options underneath. Underneath will be a drop-down menu where you can select what sound format you'd like to convert it into. Choose VAG, which I believe is the 3rd option, then click the save as and choose a destination on your computer. Even though you've done that, it's not saved yet! You still need to click "Process!", which is located in the bottom right of the application window. A tiny window will pop up that says, "Conversion complete!"
Now you have your .VAG file that's ready to use in your PS3 Theme. That's where the Theme Builder comes in. The fourth tab over is named "Additional Commands". That's where you add sounds. Choose your sound for the appropriate Theme function, (Cursor, Cancel, OK, Question or Decide).
Compile your theme and it should be included!
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Good work again, F-Rott!
You know, I also use Audacity. It's a really good program.
Just one thing: when exporting a sound as WAV, better to set 44100 (as you rightly said) but also MONO - 16bit. This way, the file size will be quite small and the final size of the VAG file will be much smaller.
Hallo. Can anyone explain it me by step for step?
I have a mp3 sound and i want to convert it to vag!
before i can do this im going to save it with audacityportable as
wav 44100Hz 16bit.
I Opened MFAudio
Input Audio File:
file format: wav - microsoft riff - uncompressed
PCM
Frequency: 44100Hz
Sample: 16bit
Channel: 2 Stereo
Output Audio File:
file format: vag - sony psx sound - compressed ADPCM
Frequency: 44100Hz
Sample: 16bit
Channel: 1 Mono
SAVE AS....
PROCESS!!!
If i try to create a theme after i save it as Xml
it say theme create failed
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The procedure you followed is correct.
However, if Theme Builder fails, most likely there's something wrong with the sound: usually, the only real problem that may occur is that the sound is too long.
When adding sounds in a theme, you absolutely need to keep in mind they must not exceed 2 seconds (much better if they're 1 second or less), so... what's the lenght of the sound you used?
Another thing you need to remember is that the size of each VAG audio file you create must be 30KB maximum: that's because the REAL capacity is not the one displayed by Theme Builder (about 260KB) but it actually is 150KB. So, considering it's possible to put up to 5 sounds, better if everyone of them is 30-35KB.
That being said, I suggest you to check your sounds again and:
1) if they're too long, just cut them as best as you can using Audacity.
2) when you're about to save the file in WAV format, remember to set it to 44100Hz - 16bit (as you rightly did) but MONO, so that the next conversion from WAV to VAG gives a very small audio file.
3) be sure that after converting to VAG, the file size of each sound doesn't exceed 30-35KB.
Hope it helps! 
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