Audio Modding : Basics

A basic guide for audio modding

This tool makes the process way easier, but to get the most out of it you need to understand how to use it:

https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/11075?tab=description

First, we have to know about eventsmetadata.json, which is located at "base\sound\event" in your cyberpunk game folder. Extract this with wolvenkit or get it from the optional downloads in the page above and add it to your project. This archive is the one that tells the game where each sound is, and what to use it for. Each sound has a WWise ID assigned to it and an event name, depending on what you want to do, you might not need the tool, but we're going to cover as much as we can.

Redmod can be used to replace all the sounds in an event with a .wav file. Redmod is the only audio modding method that doesn't cause compatibility issues but it's not the best one because it's a very limited solution, only letting you use one .wav file to replace all the sounds in an event with few customization options.

If this is what you're looking for, you can read more about audio modding with redmod here:

pageAudio Modding: Redmod

Any mods that edit eventsmetadata.json will be incompatible with each other but will also allow you to make changes to the game that can't be made any other way.

If you want to replace a sound in the game with another sound that already exists:

This is by far the easiest edit as long as you know what you want to change, and all you need is wolvenkit and notepad. Right click eventsmetadata.json in wolvenkit and click on 'convert to json', this will make the file readable. Now, open up eventsmetadata.json.json in notepad and look for the events that have the sound that you need, for example, you can press CTRL+F and search for w_melee_blunt_impact_bat. You'll see isLooping, maxAttenuation, maxDuration, minDuration (see below for information on these) and the event name, as well as the WWise ID right at the end. Copy this ID.

    {
              "$type": "audioAudioEventMetadataArrayElement",
              "isLooping": 0,
              "maxAttenuation": 30,
              "maxDuration": 0.669667006,
              "minDuration": 0.550104022,
              "redId": {
                "$type": "CName",
                "$storage": "string",
                "$value": "w_melee_blunt_impact_bat"
              },
              "stopActionEvents": [],
              "tags": [
                {
                  "$type": "CName",
                  "$storage": "string",
                  "$value": "Melee"
                },
                {
                  "$type": "CName",
                  "$storage": "string",
                  "$value": "w_melee_blunt"
                }
              ],
              "wwiseId": 1572487742
            }

Now, say that you want another melee weapon to sound like a baseball bat, all you have to do is to look for the event that has the sound you want to change for that weapon as outlined above and replace the ID with the one you copied earlier for all the events with that name. Save your changes and right click on eventsmetadata.json.json in wolvenkit and click on convert from json, pack your mod, install it and your melee weapon should now sound like a baseball bat!!

If you want to mute a sound:

Add eventsmetadata.json to your wolvenkit project, right click on it inside your project and click on 'convert to json', then open the resulting eventsmetadata.json.json in notepad and look for the event that has the sounds you want to mute with CTRL+F. After you've found it, look for its WWise ID and set it to 0, save the file, right click on it in your project again, click on convert from json and pack your mod. Any sounds associated to the event you edited should now be muted.

Event properties:

The information that follows is the result of what was observed during testing and has not been fully confirmed as of February 16, 2024.

isLooping: whether or not the sound will loop, can be set to 0 or 1.

maxAttenuation: controls the loss of energy a sound will experience the further it travels. It is not known whether this property has an impact on how loud a sound is or how different environments make it behave, but it is speculated that the higher the maxAttenuation the further the sound can travel before it can't be heard anymore. Can be set to any value from 0 to 1000.

maxDuration: the amount of time a sound plays for before it stops.

minDuration: the minimum amount of time a sound has to be played for before the game can stop it.