Replacing HOMM2 exp. music with original

[Sir John]

I have the Heroes gold edition containing HOMM2 (I assume patched to the latest version), the original Succession wars, and the Price of Loyalty.
I much preferred the music contained in the original release, and was wondering if it is possible to replace the expansion music somehow.
Does anyone know how to do this? The sound files look to be in .dig or .mdi formats, and I can't find anything that can play them other than the actual game or on a CD player. Can the music be ripped on a PC?
Does anyone else here agree with me about the music, or is it too hard to remember that far back?

[Sir John]

I ripped the CD music using Windows Media, but the damn thing identified it as some hip hop "artist" named lil' rob. I had to erase all the erroneous names from the first 15 tracks.
So I now have the tracks in windows media format so I can always play them for the heck of it, but I still have my first problem- how do I identify which tracks belong where and switch them in the expansion?

[Kristo]

Yeah I'm with you on that one. The original music is better. You can safely switch CDs once the game starts to get the old music, but I think you need to switch back before winning or returning to the main menu.

[berntie]

I have the Heroes gold edition containing HOMM2 (I assume patched to the latest version), the original Succession wars, and the Price of Loyalty.
I much preferred the music contained in the original release, and was wondering if it is possible to replace the expansion music somehow.

I have the Platinum Edition (which includes Heroes II Gold) but in this version the music actually *is* the music from the original (not from the expansion). This confuses me.

[Kristo]

Heroes II Gold reverted back to the original music.

[berntie]

Heroes II Gold reverted back to the original music.

Yeah, but I thought John refers to Gold ... doesn't he?

[Kristo]

I've successfully burned a Price of Loyalty CD that has the castle themes from the original H2. I ripped each track off the PoL CD to my hard disk, then ripped the castle music tracks from the original CD. The new CD is a mixed mode disc where tracks 1-4 and 11-43 come from the PoL CD, and tracks 5-10 come from the original.

The only problem is that it feels like the PoL music is a little louder than the original. This makes the music seem unusually quiet when inside a castle. However, it's just a simple matter of boosting the gain on the original music (even Windows Sound Recorder can handle it) and burning a new CD.

The whole process took about 15 minutes on my PC. It's very straightforward. All you need is a CD burner, Nero (or similar software), copies of both the original H2 and PoL discs, and a blank CD of course.

[Sir John]

If it is the original, I'm happy. But now I have to reinstall after a brand new XP install (dont ask), so I am back to trying to figure out just how to get the CD stereo again!

[Ya5MieL]

Artist called "lil Rob"?...
isnt h2 music composer Rob King?
that would make artist name somewhat correct after all

[Lex]

hey, just stumbled upon this place
I've been playing Heroes II since I was in elementary school :]
best game ever.
But I was hoping you could help me out on a question regarding this topic.
I've been rolling with updates this and that with each new OS and read though the forums and it seems like every problem I've had you guys have had too.
so anyways, about music
I'm running Heroes II Gold downloaded now, as I have lost my original disks on Vista and it is all running smoothly after a fix you provided on your faq
but i'm wondering if I can replace the castle themes with the opera-style music of the original. I have them downloaded as mp3's but havnt been able how to replace the music with the resource editor. I know while in the game it will only run sound on midi mode, anything on stereo cuts off all sound.

also, unrelated..but has anyone noticed HoMM 2 music on TV within the past year or 2..it's odd usually its on news programs or edited commentary shows or commercials. for example: while changing channels about a week ago I hit the "E!" network and heard the theme that plays when you enter a battle, as some sound effect on that program
quite odd, it has been multiple times now and I'm sure its the same music/effects maybe some professional editing program for studios uses those sounds too

[Darmani]

I ripped the CD music using Windows Media, but the damn thing identified it as some hip hop "artist" named lil' rob. I had to erase all the erroneous names from the first 15 tracks.

It did that for me a couple years ago when I burnt H2's music to another CD. Nowadays it correctly identifies it as "Heroes of Might and Magic II Soundtrack."

[gmars3yp]

I ripped the CD music using Windows Media, but the damn thing identified it as some hip hop "artist" named lil' rob.

Haha, Yes! It did the same thing to me, I hate that!

also, unrelated..but has anyone noticed HoMM 2 music on TV within the past year or 2..it's odd usually its on news programs or edited commentary shows or commercials. for example: while changing channels about a week ago I hit the "E!" network and heard the theme that plays when you enter a battle, as some sound effect on that program
quite odd, it has been multiple times now and I'm sure its the same music/effects maybe some professional editing program for studios uses those sounds too

Hey Lex, that's awesome that you have liked Heroes II all this time and still do! The same goes for me; I've loved the game since like 6th grade or so! As for the music... I'm pretty sure Heroes II sound effects are just common sound effects that are either some sort of musical freeware or you can purchase the rights to use them. I've heard various Heroes II sound effects on commercials and TV too. I don't think Rob King created them, just the actual music. I remember one of the sound effects use to appear on Entenmann's commercials! (Entenmann's is a pastry food company for anyone who hasn't heard of them)