.rco Tweaks / UI & Sound Effects Tweaks

What is a .rco?

• .rco is a proprietary archive format used by PS4 that holds various UI elements such as sound effects.

Enough talk, let’s start…

Changing PS4 Login Sound

• The login sound can be found in : /preinst/priv/systembgm/ and the file is called bgm_login.at9.
• A .wav file can be easily converted via at9tool
• To change it, bgm_login.at9 needs to be replaced or renamed to bgm_login.at91 etc, via Full R/W FTP such as GoldHEN.
• Reboot

Changing PS4 Background Music

• The background music can be found in : /system_ex/app/NPXS20001/systembgm/ and the file is called bgm_main.at9.
• A .wav file can be easily converted via at9tool
• To change it, bgm_main.at9 needs to be replaced or renamed to bgm_main.at91 etc, via Full R/W FTP such as GoldHEN.
• Reboot

Changing System Sounds

• All the files can be found in: /system_ex/vsh_asset/ and the file is called Sce.PlayStation.PUI.rco (previously named Sce.PlayStation.HighLevel.UI2.rco, not sure at what point a new firmware changed that).
• The .rco can be easily extracted via cxml-decompiler v8 . Must be the latest v8 version!
• The files converted will be in a .vag format. Most of them are 0:01 or 0:02 seconds in length, in .vag 4-bit ADPRCM 438kps at 48kHz stereo files.
• A .wav file can be easily converted via at9tool
• Note!: Analyze your audio and check if you have any silence and remove it accordingly to make sure your sound effects will play and end right!
• The system sounds are named accordingly now (starting with the latest version of cxml-decompiler) and can be previewed in the extracted directory “Sce.PlayStation.PUI/files/converted/VAGtoWav”. Note!: These files are only for listening mainly, do not bother to replace these with your .wav as nothing will happen!
• After you converted your files to .vag, you must replace your desired sound in “Sce.PlayStation.PUI/files/original”. Example: snd_cursor1.vag - default homescreen cursor sound
• After you replacing your files, via a cmd terminal run the following command: “CXMLDecompiler.exe Sce.PlayStation.PUI\Sce.PlayStation.PUI.xml -c” to re-compile the file back. Note that it will make the file with the name “-c” so you must rename it back to Sce.PlayStation.PUI.rco.
• FTP back to your PS4 to the same directory (/system_ex/vsh_asset/) and replace the file. Note!: You must have full R/W permissions to replace. Either use OrbisFTP or for GoldHen v2 users via your FTP client run the following command (ex: if using FileZilla - Server - Enter custom command) - “MTRW” in all caps!
• Reboot your PS4.
• Done.

Final notes!:

• All changes are persistent after reboot.
• If you have a custom theme, all those sounds will be replaced with the theme sounds. To test them, go back to a default PS4 theme like Flow.
• If you want to go back to the default files I provided the original Sce.PlayStation.PUI.rco file here: Sce.PlayStation.PUI.rco . Replace it the same way you did before (with Full R/W permissions!)