4b. BGM/SE FAQ

Higurashi Music and Sound Effects Changes / April Update¶

What was the April update?¶

In April 2019, all the Higurashi games received a major update. This update changed the Background Music (BGM) and sound effects (SE). The changes made were:

Some BGM/SE were replaced with completely different or new BGM/SE
- In some cases, duplicates replaced existing BGM, resulting in less variation of BGM tracks
Some BGM/SE are modified or re-recorded versions of the same BGM/SE
Some BGM had their audio clipping and distortion fixed - but at the same time different sounding instruments or samples may have been used in the new version.
The game script was modified in some places to play different songs. Since the mod uses it's own script, we are unaffected by this.
MangaGamer forgot to update the game for some store + chapter combinations (such as GOG's Tsumihoroboshi Ch.6). So just because you downloaded the game recently, it doesn't mean you have the April 2019 update.

For more detailed information:

We have an google doc which lists the name of every BGM used by our mod:
- "Higurashi BGM Filename to Music Name Mapping" spreadsheet
- Please note this list is automatically generated and might not always be correct
- Please read the first sheet to understand the table
Googling "April Update Higurashi" will give some forum posts with more information

What options does the mod provide to fix this issue?¶

We offer the GIN's BGM/SE fixes which bring the BGM/SE closer (but definitely NOT identical to) the original Japanese release and/or Pre April Update - please see the below table. This option was previously called "Original BGM/SE" or "BGM Fix".

You can switch to this BGM/SE using the F10 mod menu, under the 'Audio' tab.

If you want exactly the same BGM/SE as the original Japanese release, we would suggest you play the original Japanese release, as the mod cannot replicate that BGM/SE exactly.

Summary of GIN's BGM/SE changes¶

	Question Arcs (Ch. 1-4)	Answer Arcs (Ch. 5-8)	Rei (Ch. 9)	Hou+ (Ch. 10)
GIN BGM	BGM files have been replaced with the pre-april update BGM†, which is mostly equivalent to the original Japanese Game (Hou 2014).	BGM files have been replaced with the ones from the original Japanese game	Differing BGM files have been replaced with the ones from the original Japanese game (Rei 2006)	Differing BGM files have been replaced with the ones from the original Japanese game (Hou 2014)
GIN BGM Timing	No Change - will play with Console timings	BGM will play at times matching the original Japanese Game	The original Japanese Game and our mod have the same timings, so no changes necessary.	† No Change - will play with Console timings
GIN SE	SE have been replaced with the pre-april update SE		Differing SE files have been replaced with the ones from the original Japanese game (Rei 2006)	Differing SE files have been replaced with the ones from the original Japanese game (Hou 2014)
GIN SE Timing	No Change - will play with Console timings		The original Japanese Game and our mod have the same timings, so no changes necessary.	† No Change - will play with Console timings
Details	† If the BGM or Sound Effect was replaced with an entirely different one, we have reverted it to the pre-april update version † If the BGM or Sound Effect suffers from severe audio issues, and the new file is roughly the same minus the issues, we use the new version.		For the Rei BGM, only three 'musical' BGM differ - most of the differences are in background ambience or short sound effects	† We have not reviewed if there are any timing differences between our mod and the original Japanese game (Hou 2014), so no changes have been made.

Why are the Answer Arcs BGM fixed differently to the Question Arcs?¶

Question Arcs¶

The Question arcs have been fixed only by file replacement. No Timing changes have been made.

This is because the question arcs BGM changes are less severe, so it was decided it wasn't worthwhile to fix the timing.

For this reason, the question arcs BGM timing does not fully match the original game.

Answer Arcs¶

The Answer arcs have been fixed by both file replacement and adjusting the BGM timing

This is because major changes were found which couldn't be fixed any other way, even though doing so was time consuming

Why are the Sound Effects taken from the Pre-April Update and not the original JP release?¶

Currently, the Sound Effects match the Pre-April Update (NOT the original JP release), and the Sound Effect timings have not been updated at all.

The two main reasons it's difficult to fix this are:

The sound effects are very messy in the game scripts, and would take a long time to fix
Our mod has changes to match the Console game, which further complicates fixing the SE

For these reasons, we have decided to leave the SE as the Pre-April Update versions.

Higurashi BGM History¶

Because there are so many versions of Higurashi with different sets of BGM, I've decided to list them here in chronological order:

Original JP Higurashi Release (~2002) / MangaGamer EN Higurashi Question Arcs (Before April 2019)¶

When 07th Expansion originally released the question arcs, they had music from two different sources: AI-D-IA and Nerve. Nerve's tracks were released as MIDI files, which needed to be converted to wav files so they could be played in game. It's generally accepted that this conversion was not very good.

Before the April 2019 Update, MangaGamer releases also used this music for the Question arcs.

JP Higurashi Hou Compilation (2014)¶

The Japanese version of Hou still uses the AI-D-IA tracks, but Nerve's tracks were newly converted, apparently with his involvement.

More info on the Hou compilation: Fandom "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou"

MangaGamer EN Higurashi Question (After April 2019 Update)¶

In April 2019, MG updated all their releases on request from 07th Expansion. I can't tell you what changed in the answer arcs, but the question arcs now had all of their AI-D-IA tracks replaced with new stuff. Some of these tracks never appeared anywhere else. Furthermore, they now used the Hou versions of Nerve's tracks.

JP Hou+ Demo (2020)¶

When 07th Expansion released the Hou+ demo, they also replaced all of the AI-D-IA tracks. Some of them with somewhat different versions of the tracks from MG's update, but many others with entirely new tracks.

Some info on the Hou Demo here: Fandom "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou+"

JP Hou+ Compilation (2022) / MangaGamer EN Hou+ Compilation (2023)¶

When 07th Expansion released the full version of Hou+, some of these replacement tracks saw slight alterations. And while most of Nerve's tracks stayed the way they've been since Hou, "Lie Lies-Lies Lie" and "Facism" were replaced with a new conversion for some reason.

More info on the JP/EN Hou+ compilations: Fandom "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou+"

List of BGM/SE Oddities¶

This section explains some unexpected behavior you might encounter when using GIN's BGM/SE.

GIN BGM/SE Oddities¶

Click Sound¶

The "click" sound (wa_037.ogg) and the "children laughing sound" (wa_038.ogg) are different between the Question and Answer arcs

The pre-april update unmodded game had this same behavior. Because GIN's BGM/SE copies the SE from the pre-april update unmodded game, it has the same behavior for these two sound effects.

Title Screen Sound¶

The title screen background sound (sound of cicadas) is different between the Question and Answer arcs (lsys11.ogg/higurashi.ogg)

This is probably because the Question arcs use the pre-april update MangaGamer BGM, while the Answer arcs use the BGM from the original Japanese game.

Answer Arcs - GIN's BGM option sometimes plays BGM from the unmodded BGM folder¶

For the Answer Arcs, GIN's BGM does not override every single BGM (unlike the Question Arcs).

This means some BGM will be taken from the 'unmodded' BGM folder (BGM), and some BGM will be taken from the GIN BGM folder (OGBGM), even if you have GIN's BGM option selected.

For example:

In the April Update (BGM folder), 1.ogg and cafe.ogg are the same BGM, "Boy in the Windmill".
But in GIN's BGM (OGBGM folder), 1.ogg is "Afternoon in Paris", and cafe.ogg is missing (so cafe.ogg falls back to the April Update version "Boy in the Windmill").
- In the right-click menu, it will state BGM/cafe.ogg is playing, even when GIN's BGM is selected

In this example, I think MangaGamer replaced 1.ogg with cafe.ogg in the April Update, so to fix this change, only 1.ogg needed to be overriden.

The following tracks are not overriden when using GIN's BGM option:

Chapter 5-8	Chapter 5-8 (cont.)	Chapter 9
03_cele	keihou	03_cele
air_pizz_ver2	liberating	amber
amber	livescene	as_time_goes_by
as_time_goes_by	live_2	attack_2dj-san_t
b08_izyou	maturi_01_ver2	bellflower
b10_giwaku2	mienai	bigbear
bellflower	msys044	birth_and_death
birth_and_death	nazo	cafe
b_dive	omake2	cradle_song
cafe	omake_01	demo_48khz
cradle_song	pros	depressive_paranoia
deadend	samayoi	er_ver3
demo_48khz	search_and	fearlessnessl_e
demo_long	sheep counts	gray_2
depressive paranoia	sora-yume-	hgrs01
door	sora_no_mukou	hgrs_03
er_ver3	sora_v2_nonloop	hidebu14
fearlessnessl_e	soul_scour	hidebu17
feel	t1	hidebu20
getting_mad	t1_requiem	hidebu22
gray_2	t2	hidebu23
g_operation	testament	hidebu25
g_tactics	tuika01_ver3	hitoe_2
hgrs01	typewriter	iru
higurashi_soundscape	utage_sample	liberating
higurashi_utu	years_ver2	live_2
hig_sample_kyouki	you	live_scene
hitoe_2	you_nonloop	omake2
instict	z01_iwakan	pros
instict2	z02_kyousou	search_and_destroy
iru	z2_hig1	sora_no_mukou_201ver2
it_move2	z2_hig2	suzu
it_moves	z2_hig3	t1
	zero(nonloop)	t2
		tsutaetaikoto_loop
		u2_2
		u2_3
		u2_rika
		z2_hig2

How do I check if the unmodded game has the Pre or Post April update BGM¶

The below checks (as far as we know) will tell you if you have the Pre or Post april update BGM

For the Unmodded Question Arcs, you have the Post-april update BGM if the file StreamingAssets/SE/wa_003.ogg has CRC32 0F8F4B01 (7zip can calculate CRC32's by right-clicking). Otherwise you have the Pre-April update BGM.
For the Unmodded Answer Arcs, you have the Post-april update BGM if the file StreamingAssets/BGM/bellflower.ogg exists. Otherwise you have the Pre-April update BGM.

The GOG version of Ch.6 Tsumihoroboshi still has the Pre-April Update BGM as of 15/07/20203. This implies they forgot to update the game for some stores (eg. MangaGamer, GOG). So just because you have the latest install of the game, it doesn't mean you have the April Update BGM.

`heigen2gm` by KeNji (`msys29.ogg`)¶

heigen2gm by KeNji (msys29.ogg) is present in nearly every release of Higurashi unchanged, except for MangaGamer's release of Hou+ and ancient versions of MangaGamer's Higurashi.

Other BGM options¶

Hou+ Demo BGM (by Kilicool64 - Added 2023/06/24)¶

This option replaces 16 BGM with BGM from the Higurashi Hou+ Demo. It uses the same tracks from nerve as the New MangaGamer BGM, but the AI-D-IA tracks are different.

Some are remastered versions of MangaGamer's replacements, while others were newly composed by xaki.

This option is not available for Chapters 5-8 and Rei because most of their music isn't in the Hou+ demo.

All other tracks will use the New MangaGamer BGM and GIN's/Original SE.

Remake BGM¶

This option replaces nine BGM with handmade remakes of nine tracks from the original release (pre-2019).

You can listen to these tracks on Radiata Alice's "Hinamizawa Syndrome Vol.1" BandCamp page.

All other tracks will use the GIN's/OG BGM BGM/SE.

The following tracks are replaced:

Tell a thing (piano solo ver.)
Snow #3 'First snow'
Days of Children #3
Rainy Days
Fascism
Sunrise
Gear
Theme of Owner
Dawn

This option is not available for Onikakushi Ch.1, as the chapter does not use any of these tracks. This option is not available for Chapters 5-8 as an OST remake for those chapters hasn't been created.