More BITS! An Overhaul of The Sims 3's Soundtrack

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Created by mypantsfelldown
Uploaded: 25th Dec 2019 at 7:25 PM
Updated: 28th Nov 2020 at 8:13 PM
UPDATE 25.08.20
Wow, apparently this update is going out exactly a month after the last. I don't see how I can improve the mod much more after this (aside from adding new music), so I truly do expect this update to be the last for quite a while. See the changelog below:

  • A new track! "Middle Finger" by Jerry Martin has now been replaced. It came with 70s 80s & 90s stuff, and can be found on the Rock station.
  • I've discovered a better way to ensure no chirping without every track having tons of silence/fading at the start, so everything has been cleaned up.
  • Somehow I used the wrong encoding settings for the stereo music and they were still 256kbps VBR. They are now -Q 0.
  • All of the music now has a lowpass at 20kHz.
  • All of the music has been normalised with replaygain. Thank you PhenomIIFX for the suggestion!
  • I was dissatisfied with how flat the gypsy rabbit hole loop sounded, so I edited it a little. I tried to replicate how it would sound coming from inside of a cramped gypsy wagon. Alternatively, the faithful version is still available in the Supernatural archive. Only one of these can be used at once, obviously. I also fixed a bug that caused the loop to play globally regardless of camera position.
  • EDIT: I've removed the edit town fixes because gamefreak has already posted them here.
  • The stereo music from expansions is usually 2 tracks at most, so I've merged game and stereo music into the same package. If you'd rather not have the stereo music, you can just delete the SNR and SNS files for each song with S3PE.
As always, you can find a combined package file containing everything in the comments.

This is a mod that introduces higher bitrate music obtained from the digital music releases of the Sims 3's soundtracks. In addition, the mod features new music from the console editions of the game. Not all of the game's music has been released in a higher quality format, so there is some music that I couldn't replace. The old music will still play, it just won't sound as good. In the spoilers below you can find tracklists for each of the songs replaced.


























IMPORTANT NOTES
  • I recommend that you combine all of the packages from this mod into one. It won't affect the mod's functionality, and will save loading time. Also ensure that the combined package file is NOT compressed for maximum performance.
  • This mod directly replaces the game's .SNR and .SNS files for music. If you have another mod that replaces .SNR or .SNS files, there will be a conflict. Or if the .AUDTUN files for the title screen, loading screen, map view, CAS, build or buy are changed, then there is a chance that the game will not use this mod's audio resources.
  • The game will not play music for an expansion you don't have.
  • After spending a long time in CAS, the music may come to a stop. This can be remedied by previewing a track in the music menu and then going back. This bug is not caused by MoreBITS.
  • Although all of the files have been normalised with replaygain, certain tracks were mastered differently for the digital releases and have less dynamic range.
  • Replacing music in this game hasn't been experimented with that much. I have done extensive testing and my game seems to be completely fine. If you experience otherwise, please let me know.
  • Tracks not replaced by this mod will still play absolutely fine.
  • If you hear any kind of popping or distortion at the beginning of any of the songs, please let me know so I can fix it!

Technical Details
Lastly, here are the technicalities! All of the audio in this mod was encoded by LAME 3995o from a 16bit 44.1kHz FLAC source using the -Q 0 preset and a lowpass at 20kHz.

The game's original music was encoded at 192kbps VBR, so those with reasonably good ears/equipment should hear a difference.




Additional Credits:
Wojtek for their tutorial
Flyby for their tutorial
Arsil for their tutorial
Peter and Inge Jones for S3PE Ben Moench for the EALayer3 tool
Steve Jablonsky, Christopher Lennertz and Junkie XL for a wonderful soundtrack
Buurz and Gamefreak130 for their tips and advice
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