How convert the XWM to WAV music files

Ever wanted to listen the great OST of Space Engineers? It can take a hour of work, but once you're done you can listen it when you want, where you want!

You only need to download one small ZIP/RAR file, for the record.

Disclaimer

This guide is intended to help users convert the music of Space Engineers. If you want to share it, that's fine. If you want to upload a video to Youtube explaining this, that's fine, always when it's not monetized.

Download this thing (515KB)

The ZIP package will let you to convert the music of SE. But where to find it?

Just follow this link: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/32075/? > Files > Download manually > Pick one of the normal servers and the download will start.

It's 515KB, so you won't have to worry about your HDD.

Notice that you require a program to open ZIP packages. I recommend WinRAR. http://www.winrar.es (or .com)

Once you downloaded it, descompress it within a new file of the same name.

Put the music in the new folder

The new folder you descompressed should have the following archives:


Now, we have to go to the music files of the game. It should be on \SteamApps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Audio\MUS

You'll find several folders:


Enter inside these folders and copy the music to the new file you made. Don't select folder, just enter within the folders, select the XWM music files and put them in the new folder.

When you're done with all the folders, it should be like this:


Now, we are ready to start.

Convert the XWM to WAV

Okay, don't go scared. First of all, you need to think that it's easy, but it takes time. (it costed me a hour, but it's worth)

The conversion only can be made manually. That means that it's not the typical program of one click and you're converting all the music. And it's necessary that the XWM files are in the same folder or it won't work.

Meet our friend cmd.exe... Click on it and it will show a black window like this:


If you are familiar with the Operative System "MSDOS" you'll be fine. If not... well, you'll be a bit tired after the conversion but trust me: it's worth.

Okay, let's get started. To convert the music, you have to write down:

• The name of the executable it comes with the ZIP file: xWMAEncode.exe
  
• The name of the XWM file. It has to be exact or it won't work. Example: Mus_calm_a_MM.xwm
  
• The name of the future WAV file. It doesn't have to be exact, but recommended. Example: Mus_calm_a_MM.wav

Thus, your entire command should be for something like this:

xWMAEncode.exe nameofthemusic.xwm nameofthemusic.wav


Let's go start with the first file in the list:

xWMAEncode.exe Mus_calm_a_MM.xwm Mus_calm_a_MM.wav

Respect the spaces and the underscores at all times!

After one command, if everything's okay, your window will be frozen for 1 or 3 seconds, depending of the length of the music. After that, you'll see that a new WAV file comes to the folder: it's the new music you just converted. Congratulations!

Keep in mind that you have to do this 87 times, with different names. If you're an expert on MSDOS, you'll probably spend 30 minutes doing this; if you're a novice, 1 hour.


Once you're finished... It's finished. Now you can hear the outstanding music of SE where you want when you want. =)

FAQ

This section will be updated with the questions you're making in the comments section. Ask me what's your problem and maybe I'll fix it!

Question: These WAV files take too much space! Do you know any way to convert them to another format?
Answer: You can convert the WAV files to MP3 for example. I personally use aTube Catcher to convert them. (in fact I recommend it) Link: http://www.atube.me/video/

Question: Can I upload the music to Youtube?
Answer: You're going to contact with the developers, there's to much copyright laws in Youtube and you may don't want to take risks. Also, if you're going to upload the videos and monetize them, probably it won't be funny for the devs... I mean, you're getting money for uploading a video to Youtube, and if you get too much money than a doctor, fireman, or teacher just for uploading videos... well, that's out of question, right? Oh! I saw a new video, "Episode 3.295.921 of Slender Walkthrough"! I bet it will be so original!

[andersenman]

Also, using an online service for any conversion, even recommending to do so, is just asking for bad conversion quality at best, and malware at worst, but in all cases traffic to ad-laced leeches. Learn to use tools like ffmpeg yourself.

[andersenman]

Guys, guys, guys. No need to download any exe from whatever source, nexusmods or otherwise. xwmaencode.exe is literally part of the Space Engineers installation. It's in the Tools folder.

[Jacbo]

This also works in the command prompt

forfiles /p "C:\Users\JaCoB\Downloads\XWM - WAV Conversion-32075-0-1" /m *.xwm /c "cmd /c xwmaencode.exe @file @fname.wav"

[Supermuskox]

Here's a .bat script that can easily convert every file in a directory to .wav
```
@echo starting conversion...
forfiles /s /m *.xWMA /c "cmd /c xWMAEncode @file @fname.wav"
@echo Done, enjoy the music!
```

[R0ck0 R4m4]

Open a text document, create the list of files to convert, copy the list, and past into CMD which will automatically run the entire list.

For example:

xwmaencode.exe 1.xwm 1.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 2.xwm 2.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 3.xwm 3.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 4.xwm 4.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 5.xwm 5.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 6.xwm 6.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 7.xwm 7.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 8.xwm 8.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 9.xwm 9.mp3
xwmaencode.exe 10.xwm 10.mp3

[Heruka]

Guys, there is no longer any need to convert these obtuse xwm files to wav before you can play them I can play them directly using Foobar: http://www.foobar2000.org/download

I am not sure though if the application itself now has inbuilt support for wma (it didn't last year), or if it is a plugin. If it is one of my plugins it is most likely vgmstream: http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_input_vgmstream

[Nebulor]

lolpants()*(*(*(*())) you are a champion:: thanks even if i dont understands anything in all of this it worked so thank you

[Doublecouponday]

I find that if your sounds for conversion are quite small, the converter software will trim it irredeemably. Try putting 0.1s of silence before and after your file then convert.

[Argus]

You can also listen to it on YouTube. Space Engineers uploaded it.

[Vaeringjar]

Wish I had read the comments sooner. As done before, this process can be automatised and takes a minute instead of an hour.

Create a text document and change the extension to .cmd (in the folder with all the music files), then paste this:

for %%v in (*.xwm) do (
xWMAEncode.exe "%%v" "%%v.wma"
)

Run the file and it's done :)