An odd problem with custom music

[Skeezix]

So here's the specs:
WinXP SP3
PCI sound - SB AudigyLS
Video - ATI Diamond Radeon X1550
Celeron D 3Ghz
3Gb RAM
2.1 Creative speakers/subwoofer

FO:T patched to 1.27

Now, I can play mp3s just fine. Most I've ripped m'self from my own CDs, a few I've downloaded. I copied a batch of 15 or so over to the custom music directory for Tactics, and fired it up.

After the third or fourth time I heard "Dirty Deeds" I realized it was only playing 5 of the mp3s over and over again. Just to see what would happen, I renamed all the files (001.mp3 002.mp3 and so on) thinking it might be having trouble with long file names.

Same results. So I went in and deleted the tunes I was getting sick of. Now, I fire it back up, and get no music at all. Turning off custom music plays the normal BGM for the level I'm on. Undeleting the files results in the same thing, just those 5 will play.

There doesn't seem to be any correlation between file sizes/bitrates and what will or won't play. Searching the forums (and a casual google search) turns up nothing useful.

Anyone else run into this one, or have any idea what I might try next?

 

[jarekfall]

MP3 files sometimes use different encoding formats even if they all are mp3s. Some may not be supported by FT. Create a wav file and try use different mp3 encoders to generate mp3s.

 

[Skeezix]

A definite possibility. Weird thing though...
I've got two tunes off of the same album, ripped from the same CD, in the same session, even, but it'll only play the one, and refuses to see the other. It seems like FO:T only likes certain songs. I know there's a technical explanation for it, but damned if I can figure it out.

However at least one of the mp3s won't play for exactly the reason you state, I'm sure. I kept getting bad rips from one particular CD for some reason, so I gave up and downloaded it instead of beating my head against copy protection/a tiny scratch/whatever the problem was. That one's an 11MB monster, encoded at like 320kbps, I think. I don't know if that was even possible (on a home PC, at least) when FO:T was released.

Thanks for the idea, in any case. I'll have to play with re-ripping some of them (probably at lower bitrates) and see what happens.