UPDATE: On April 1, 2019, the music and SFX were updated. Among the changes were rerecordings of the tracks discussed below, which sound okay. I'm going to keep this guide and the patch up, though. It's possible some people might still like my recordings better. I know I do. But that's just me, of course.

When Ryukishi07 got music to add for chapters 2, 3, and 4, it seems he wasn't very careful. The new music was all (with one exception) sourced from MIDI files. The trouble with MIDI distribution is, you can't be sure what it will sound like for the person playing it back. But in this case, it was even worse: whoever recorded them into an audio format that players can actually use was completely careless and set the gain way too high, resulting in hard clipping. It sounds really awful in some tracks.

On the bright side, anyone capable of dealing with MIDI can do their own recordings (and luckily, these MIDIs are available online). And that's what I've done. I used a Roland Sound Canvas for this. Although it doesn't always sound fantastic, in general I think it sounds better, and for the tracks that clip, just about anything is better anyway.

Links for more information:

• You can find out more details about this patch in the Steam discussion forums.
  
• You can also listen to a PREVIEW by checking out this YouTube playlist.

You can get a copy of the patch from here[mega.nz] or here[ipfs.io].
When done downloading it, extract it to a new folder (you will need something that can handle the .7z format). Go ahead and read the included readme.txt if you like.

There is also a lossless set available in FLAC format[ipfs.io]. This set is not for use in Higurashi, as it probably can't handle FLAC. Plus, I made some adjustments to the patch version to make it sound better in-game; those adjustments are not applied to the lossless tracks. If you cannot currently play FLAC, you can find links here[xiph.org].

I will be concentrating on using this with "Watanagashi". However, this patch is usable with the next two arcs as well; just adjust folder names appropriately. (In fact, it can even be applied to the first arc, but normally has no effect, due to that arc not using the affected music. But who knows? Maybe there is, or will be, a mod that does use it.)

In the patch there is a folder named "higurashi". This contains all of the tracks that I feel can or should be used by just about everyone. You'll want to copy all of them into the folder where Higurashi keeps its music. In Windows Explorer and many other graphical file browsers, just select all of the files in there, and do a copy. Don't try to copy and paste anything else on your system until you're done here. (It doesn't take long, so it should be fine.)

Next, you want to find the folder where the music is stored. First, go into the Watanagashi folder. It should be located in You can easily get to it by going into your Library in Steam, right-clicking on the game, and selecting "Properties"




Then go to the "Local files" tab, and click on "Browse local files..."




Finally, navigate through the following folders: This is where the files you copied go. So paste them here (or do it however else you feel comfortable with). It will ask you what to do with files named the same; tell it to replace all such files.

If you like, you can also do the same thing with the file I put in the "higurashi-extra" folder. I separated it because I actually like the original version better. But it's up to you whether you want to use it.

And that's all there is to it. I would appreciate any feedback on this guide and on the patch itself (but you should go here to discuss the patch). Thanks.