Journey

Journey

221 ratings
Journey music fix for PC
By nathanj
Fix the music in Journey PC version, which is broken compared to PS versions: badly synced files, missing instruments (harp, viola), audio gaps,...
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What is fixed ?
  • Many ogg audio files were modified so music loops can now play and repeat seamlessly, with the instruments finally synced. Loops also start playing at the beginning in most cases now.

  • I got rid of many audio gaps in the ogg files, and made sure to avoid getting high pitched clicking sound artifacts the moment a loop repeats due to a bad cut in the audio spectrum.

  • Companion tracks (harp, viola) can now be heard if you install the corresponding files (see "companion music" paragraph)

More about the changes made in the "Detailed changes.txt" file shared on the download page linked below.

This video should give you an idea of what it sounds like before and after (don't watch if you didn't play Journey yet !) :

Details about how the latest Paradise audio fix was made and what it sounds like:
Companion music
Companion music mostly consists of additional harp and viola tracks played over default tracks (also includes a few other instruments in some areas).

Normally the game switches the companion tracks on and off depending on being connected to another player or not.
This feature as of today is broken in the PC version and no multiplayer music can be heard at all ! (a bug, with the exception of Pink Desert level where a bit of viola can be heard even when alone...) The multiplayer files exist but the game simply won't read them... It works as intended in the original Playstation versions of the game.

To solve this issue I instead merged companion tracks with the corresponding solo tracks playing at the same time. As a result, if you install the companion files you will have companion music on all the time, even if alone in the game !
Thanks Abhi for the idea of editing audio files this way !

It's worth mentioning that for a few locations within the game, multiplayer tracks aren't supposed to follow exactly an other solo music track in particular, and are supposed to be played over different solo tracks unheard together. Or sometimes companion music is supposed to stop the moment a new track appears, while the main solo track keeps on playing...
This cannot be efficiently reproduced by merging files, so some choices have been made regarding which tracks to merge companion music with or not.

Thanks to Yupa for helping me understand a few multiplayer situations ^^
Updates
Latest update v1.2.1: Paradise music fix added (Apotheosis).

v1.1: Syncing every audio files from Chapter Select to Snow level, and merging them for companion music.
How to install?
  1. Download the solo or companion audio files by clicking this Google Drive download link[drive.google.com] (or from Nexus Mods[www.nexusmods.com], if you got an account there). You can also download the Paradise level fix (Apotheosis) with 10 minutes or 1 hour looped audio files (heavier files)

  2. Open your Steam "Streams" folder located at:

    \Steam\steamapps\common\Journey\Data\Sounds\Streams

  3. Open the downloaded archive, select all ogg files (ctrl + A to select them all), and left click + drag them into the "Streams" directory from your game. Choose to overwrite files.

    Both the solo and companion music files can overwrite each other, to switch from solo music to companion music ! Choose the one you prefer (I definitely won't go back to solo music personally ^^)

  4. Enjoy !
How to get the default audio files back ?
  • You can do so by making a save of your original ogg files contained within the Streams directory of the game, before overwriting them.

  • Or simply ask Steam to check for the integrity of game files to re-download them:

    Right click the game in Steam launcher --> properties --> local files --> Verify integrity of game files.
What isn't solved yet
  • Abrupt transitions. Many can occur on the second half of Pink Desert level for example or in Snow level, when the first loop just suddenly stops after a few seconds of overlapping with the new one. The game should add a fade out or fade in to many loops but it doesn't do it every time (or badly), and I can't make it any better with simply editing the audio files.

  • Off-sync transitions (for example Apotheosis music in paradise, which is very complex: whenever a music track is supposed to start playing at a specific barline it just won't on pc and will instead start based on when you touched the music trigger)

  • Player shout (chirps) and reverb: It does not fix the chirps and audio reverb, which is fine in the playstation version but bugged in the pc version (chirps don't sound as rich and are quite harsh to the ear)

  • The companion music fix isn't a perfect solution in its current state
26 Comments
nathanj  [author] 26 Oct, 2024 @ 2:54pm 
I'm glad you all appreciate the fix, thank you for the comments !

@Lynn sorry for not replying, I didn't get pinged for some reason...
Nope, don't download the solo files then!
I'm actually not sure if de-installing Journey via steam will remove my audio files. But re-installing Journey would surely overwrite my pre-existing files when re-installing anyway ! Checking the integrity of Journey game files also overwrites my audio files.
Lynn 1 Aug, 2024 @ 12:41pm 
thanks so much, it sounds fantastic!

If I may, two questions:
if I prefer companion music, is there any point in downloading the solo file?
When I choose to deinstall the game through steam, will the downloaded files I replaced in the game folder also be removed? (I actually hope "yes" so I cannot accidentally forget to remove the big file, my space is limited :))

Any way, thanks so much for doing this! The music is so important to the experience.
Abhi74 22 May, 2024 @ 6:47am 
Thank you once again for making the best bug fix in the game! :steamhappy:
KRO | Cheez3™ 10 Jun, 2023 @ 8:28pm 
thank youuuu
Oliverberry 14 May, 2023 @ 12:49am 
Thanks for your hard work!:steamhappy:
Sony always find some strange ways to make their games "Only on PlayStation", it happens on The Last of Us due to Shader issue.
Cat 27 Apr, 2023 @ 12:49pm 
Thanks for that fix. The game felt even smoother due to the music correction :grheart:
Abhi74 21 Feb, 2023 @ 10:59pm 
Yay
Cornelius 28 Aug, 2022 @ 6:00am 
I am actually excited to see if I can load the .mid files in Logic Pro. That's really cool they are included.
Lovely Flight 2 Jul, 2022 @ 2:34pm 
Thank you, Nathan!
Abhi74 23 May, 2022 @ 12:25am 
Almost there. Cant wait for this guide to be more popular :steamhappy: