How to use your own music in-game

Burnout Paradise adds all sorts of effects onto the music depending on what's going on. This guide shows you how to swap in your own music.

Intro

I wrote this guide because I found that most tutorials online result in many songs inexplicably sounding too fast or too slow. This guide will show you how to replace any song in the game with your own.

Unfortunately, you can't just add in your songs like in other games. You need to swap out existing ones and use a format that you probably have never used before.

Programs you'll need:

• ealayer3 version 0.6.3: https://bitbucket.org/Zenchreal/ealayer3/downloads/
  
• audio conversion software that can adjust bitrate and sample rate. I used VLC
  
• (optional) audio software to adjust the volume. I used audacity

Note: I've found swapping out songs causes instability in-game. If you find that this is too much for you, you can always revert the process by deleting steamapps\common\BurnoutPR\SOUND\STREAMS\ and then verifying the integrity of the game cache from steam. The original files will be replaced and you'll be good to go.

Song conversion steps

1. (optional) Adjust the audio to your desired level. I found tracks are too quiet by default and used audacity to put the peak amplitude to about +5DB. The number isn't a magic bullet but I found it to be a really good starting point to get music to about the same loudness as Paradise City. Unfortunately that means potentially lots of clipping.

2. Save the song as an mp3 using the specified same rate and bitrate as the in-game song you want to replace (see table below) and put in the same folder as where you extracted ealayer.

3. Navigate to the folder with ealayer and in the windows bar type cmd and hit enter


4. In the cmd window, type in ealayer.exe -E "<filename>". This will create a new file with the extension *.ealayer


5. Rename the new file so that it has the exact same name and extension as the song you want to replace and move it to the corresponding file in the burnout folder (\steamapps\common\BurnoutPR\SOUND\STREAMS\). This will make windows ask you if you want to replace the existing file -- say yes.

Song info

Here is the list of songs, their bitrates, sample rates and file names. I haven't been able to figure out where the classical songs are and as such they are not included.

Song	Artist	File Name	Bitrate (kbps)	Sample rate (hz)
16 Years On	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_16YEARSON	249	48000
A Photograph	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_APHOTOGRAPH	173	48000
Another World	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_ANOTHERWORLD	269	48000
Backlash	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_BACKLASH	197	48000
Beautiful Ruin	Make Good Your Escape	MAKE_GOOD_YOUR_ESCAPE	236	44100
Betties Last Voyage	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_BETTIESLASTVOYAGE	241	48000
Block Out The World	Maxeen	MAXEEN	215	44100
Bridge The Gap	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_BRIDGETHEGAP	196	48000
Bulldozer Blues	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_BULLDOZERBLUES	181	48000
Burnout 2002 Reprise	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_2002REPRISE	235	48000
Calling All Cars	Senses Fail	SENSES_FAIL	274	44100
Caught On A Wire	Burnout	BURNOUT_CAUGHTONWIRE	219	48000
Chicken George	Burnout	BURNOUT_CHICKENGEORGE	234	48000
Childish Games	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_CHILDISHGAMES	206	48000
Cities in Dust	Junkie XL feat. Lauren Rocket	JUNKIEXL	292	48000
Collapse	Saosin	SAOSIN	292	44100
Come Clean	Mexicolas	MEXICOLAS	189	48000
Coming Down To Beijing	Brain Failure feat. Dicky Barrett	BRAINFAILURE	179	48000
Creepshow	Kerli	KERLI	195	48000
Dark Moon Rising	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_DARKMOONRISING	188	48000
Dead Living	Sugarcult	SUGARCULT	272	44100
Destroyer Mix	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_DESTROYERMIX	197	48000
Duel	Swervedriver	SWERVEDRIVER	254	44100
Electable (Give It Up)	Jimmy Eat World	JIMMYEATWORLD	267	48000
Epic	Faith No More	FAITH_NO_MORE	248	44100
Everyone Has Their Secrets	Showing Off To Thieves	SHOWING_OFF_TO_THEIVES	260	48000
Exodus	Burnout	BURNOUT_EXODUS	234	48000
Fake It	Seether	SEETHER	182	48000
Fight Music For The Fight	Bromheads Jacket	BROMHEADS_JACKET	159	44100
Fight or Flight	Burnout	BURNOUT_FIGHTORFLIGHT	232	48000
Finger On The Trigger	Never Heard Of It	NEVER_HEARD_OF_IT	271	48000
Fire Away	Jupiter One	JUPITER_ONE	255	48000
Free	Burnout	BURNOUT_FREE	226	48000
Friction	B'z	BZ	283	44100
Girlfriend	Avril Lavigne	AVRIL_LAVIGNE	271	44100
Glitter Hits (J.J. Puig Mix)	The Styles	THE_STYLES	276	44100
Going Through Changes	Army of Me	ARMY_OF_ME	278	44100
Halfway To Dreaming	Burnout	BURNOUT_HALFWAYTODREAMING	224	48000
Heart Of Fire	Innerpartysystem	INNERPARTYSYSTEM	254	48000
I Wanna Rock	Twisted Sister	TWISTED_SISTER	263	44100
I'm Not Sorry	The Pigeon Detectives	PIGEONDETECTIVES	206	48000
It Goes Off	Skybombers	SKYBOMBERS	227	44100
Like My Shirt	Burnout	BURNOUT_LIKEMYSHIRT	227	48000
Liquid Sky	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_LIQUIDSKY	257	48000
Lyon	Burnout	BURNOUT_LYON	220	48000
My Curse	Killswitch Engage	KILLSWITCH_ENGAGE	264	44100
Nothing to Lose	Operator	OPERATOR	264	48000
Ozone	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_OZONE	244	48000
Panic Attack	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_PANICATTACK	199	48000
Paradise City	Guns N' Roses	GUNS_AND_ROSES	253	44100
Pass Me By	Burnout 2: Point of Impact	BURNOUT_PASSMEBY	187	48000
Red Orange Yellow	The Photo Atlas	THE_PHOTO_ATLAS	264	44100
Red Sky Horizon	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_REDSKYHORIZON	256	48000
Rock Star (Jason Nevins Mix)	N.E.R.D	NERD	233	44100
Round And Rounder	Burnout	BURNOUT_ROUNDANDROUNDER	209	48000
Route 66 (Beatmasters Mix)	Depeche Mode	DEPECHE_MODE	211	44100
Rusty Cage	Soundgarden	SOUNDGARDEN	246	44100
Shine	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_SHINE	237	48000
Snowhill	Agent Blue	AGENTBLUE	252	48000
Stand and Deliver	Adam And The Ants	ADAM_ANT	196	44100
Stop!	Jane's Addiction	JANES_ADDICTION	273	44100
Take Cover	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_TAKECOVER	221	48000
The Archers Bows Have Broken	Brand New	BRAND_NEW	245	44100
Tokyo Nights	Burnout	BURNOUT_TOKYONIGHTS	216	48000
Tonight This Ends	Burnout 3: Takedown	BURNOUT_TONIGHTTHISENDS	212	48000
Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast	Airbourne	AIRBOURNE	269	48000
Until You Leave	Permanent ME	PERMANENTME	213	48000
Us V. Them	LCD Soundsystem	LCD_SOUNDSYSTEM	214	44100
Would?	Alice In Chains	ALICE_IN_CHAINS	254	44100

Common issues and how to avoid them

As noted earlier in the guide, adding in songs potentially makes your game very unstable when audio is involved. Here are some common issues I noticed:

* Having a PS4 controller seems to cause crashes at the end of events. I play the game with my Xbox One controller to avoid this.

* Skipping a track or opening the menu when the DJ is talking, event is starting/ending or song is transitioning seems to cause crashes. I recommend waiting about 5-10 seconds once the only audio playing is the engine and song before hitting RB or start. Opening the map always seems to be safe but I haven't tested it very thoroughly

* I noticed that none of my custom songs changed on their own, so I always had to hit RB to skip tracks or no music would play.

If you notice anything else, let me know and I'll add it in.

[boyanzh0]

I can't find the ealayer executable anywhere

[WitchSupreme]

nvm I forgot to change the sample rate (we gotta genius over here)

[WitchSupreme]

Why is it that the songs I just inserted come out slightly faster?

[Mr. Mer]

wow this is great

[Dataman95]

im using an aftermarket ps4 controller with ds4windows, works like a charm

[ʜᴜɴɢʀʏ ɢʜᴏꜱᴛ]

This method is outdated, you better follow the one on either the burnout wiki [burnout.wiki] or in the Burnout Hints Discord. While it may work, this is unstable and crashes often along with other bugs it can cause.

[push (se✕ defender)]

in order from 1 to 25, the classical tracks' bitrates are
"176", "178", "184", "166", "175", "181", "1", "180", "183", "154", "167", "176", "169", "179", "180", "164", "175", "182", "166", "1", "172", "1", "182", "176", "184"

1 means the track does not exist. all classical songs seem to be 48khz

[push (se✕ defender)]

the classical music is stored here. a couple of tracks might be missing, but all of these files seem to be classical tracks (roughly in order they're played)

PICPARADISE08, PICPARADISE09, PICPARADISE02, PICPARADISE21, PICPARADISE03, PICPARADISE12, PICPARADISE18, PICPARADISE11, PICPARADISE19, PICPARADISE05, PICPARADISE16, PICPARADISE17, PICPARADISE24, PICPARADISE04, PICPARADISE10, PICPARADISE13, PICPARADISE23, PICPARADISE25, PICPARADISE06, PICPARADISE14

[Kalashnikov Concern Lebedev PL14]

@R56COOPERSLCI use spotify

[LiFE SIZE MAREEP]

I did all the steps carefully and the game seems to crash the few seconds the song plays. ):