I decided to create this guide to address this thread:
… where the much simpler and easiest answer is to, of course, simply mute the in-game music and play whatever you want to listen to from other sources. Which is generally what I would do.
However, it actually isn’t all that hard to change what the game plays once you know how - so I figured I would write this guide to assist those who may want to go this route instead.
The Guide
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Navigate to GD’s installation folder.
- Default path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn
- Default path:
- Scroll down and select/highlight
ArchiveTool.exethen findzlibwapi.dll, hold down the Ctrl key, and select it as well so that both are selected. Now hit Ctrl+C to copy them both into system memory.
-
Enter the
resourcesfolder. Press Ctrl+V to paste both files here.- Default path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\resources
- Default path:
-
Open command prompt/powershell in this folder…
Note: I am in Windows 11.
-
From here we are going to tell
ArchiveTool.exeto extract the contents ofSound.arc, which stores all the sounds and music the game uses. We need this for 2 reasons:-
So that we can hear, and thus identify, the tracks we want to change, and…
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So that we can see, and mimic, the directory structure (which is important) as well as know the file names for the tracks we want to substitute with our own (also important).
To extract the contents of
Sound.arcenter in this command and hitEnter:-
For PowerShell:
-
.\ArchiveTool.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\resources\Sound.arc" -extract "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\resources\_extractedSound"- The simplified representation of the above command is:
.\ArchiveTool.exe [Path to Sound.arc] -extract [Path to Extraction Folder]- if the paths entered contain any spaces in the names of the path then you must enclose the path in quotation marks.
- The simplified representation of the above command is:
-
-
For basic Command Prompt:
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ArchiveTool.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\resources\Sound.arc" -extract "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\resources\_extractedSound"- The simplified representation of the above command is:
ArchiveTool.exe [Path to Sound.arc] -extract [Path to Extraction Folder]- if the paths entered contain any spaces in the names of the path then you must enclose the path in quotation marks.
- The simplified representation of the above command is:
-
-
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If entered correctly you will see it begin extracting the few thousand sound files it contains into the created
_extractedSoundfolder.
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Enter 3 levels deep into the newly created directory structure -
..\_extractedsound\sound\music…and here we will start with changing the music in the main menu (represented by the
music_menu.oggtrack). All we need to know is the folder structure/path the game expects to find these files…-
…which, in this case. is:
\sound\music, and… -
…the filename:
music_menu.ogg.
-
-
Now we navigate to the
Settingsfolder in GD’s local save location:-
C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Grim Dawn\Settings
…and then we need to create the path noted above here. First create a folder named
sound, then enter this folder and create another folder namedmusicthen enter that folder. -
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Next all you have to do is convert whatever music file you want to use into an OGG file. Just open up Google, or whatever, and type in something like mp3 to ogg etc. and you should find either some downloadable apps that will do this or even some websites that let you drag and drop your files into them for conversion.
Once it’s converted just drop the file into the
..\sound\musicfolder you created and rename the file tomusic_menu.ogg……then start the game up and hear the results of your work.
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Want to change the track that plays upon loading into Devil’s Crossing? Heading back to the your
Sound.arcextraction folder and listening to the tracks will soon reveal that the track you want to change is……then all you need to do is repeat the process.
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Note: the process for changing sound effects is virtually identical, with the exception that you will need to ensure any sounds you want to replace are either created as a
.wavfile, or converted into one. -
The expansions also have their own sound and music files. You can find their own
Sound.arcfile in:-
For Ashes of Malmouth:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\gdx1\resources -
For Forgotten Gods:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grim Dawn\gdx2\resources
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You don’t necessarily have to use the local saving locations
Settingsfolder. The game can also read these files from GD’s installation folder as well if you wish. If the folder doesn’t exist there already, simply create it.Then create the subsequent folders as outlined earlier in the guide and place the needed OGG / WAV files where they belong.
That’s it.
