I believe it would be better to open an official support ticket. Do it if you are familiar with the details of this problem.

The music is one of the best parts of Hexen 2. I have the original disc but I no longer have a drive for it :)

Do computer stores even sell portable USB-connected CD, DVD or BR ROM/Burner drives anymore?

I remember when I bought a gaming laptop 4 years ago or so at a computer retail store, I bought a portable USB-connected DVD-Burner drive for like $25 USD just in case I needed to install off stuff from off DVD discs.

Of course they do:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+dvd+drive&crid=9IGRCHGWRJ0Z&sprefix=usb+dvd%2Caps%2C176&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_7

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+blu+ray+drive&crid=3C05A5OPYBEWB&sprefix=usb+blu+ray%2Caps%2C185&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_11

Yes, I noticed that too. I hope they solve it. I changed my settings to play the MIDI-tracks (which loop properly) but they are clearly inferior.

According to this guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113399618

Windows Vista and later broke audio CD looping when played using Windows MCI interface.

I don't know which method of audio CD emulation GOG uses for Hexen II, but if it's straight replacement of MCI audio calls with Ogg Vorbis playback functions, then this bug is interited from Windows, unfortunatelly.

But, the method described in the guide above might resolve the problem (didn't test it tho).

I prefer an official fix from Gog or Id Software / Raven (and this for all games that have this problem)

HeXen 1 & 2 are using .ogg files

edit: I have tested HeXen II and... music loop without problems......

And i think that will be the same with HeXen 1

(I'm using HeXen II with XP SP3 compatibility mode and 8 bit compatibility mode, this for H2.exe, i don't know if GLH2.exe is different with musics... i'll try it soon)

I too would like an official fix, but I guess we won't know if they just didn't caught this issue before release or couldn't fix it even if they wanted to. Anyhow, for Hexen 1 and its expansion the CD music loops properly as the games are image mounted through DOSBox right out of the box, no need to change compatibility modes there.

For Hexen 2, glh2.exe is not much different from h2.exe regarding the CD music, both executables have the CD music not looping properly without setting a compatibility mode. I used Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode for glh2.exe and the CD music loops properly with the mode, so setting to at least Windows XP compatibility should fix the issue at least. There's probably other tested solutions but changing compatibility mode to Windows XP looks to be the easiest one.

Does the music loop in any of the Source Ports?

Yes it works fine with the Hammer of Thyrion source port.

Awesome! Thanks for that!

I prefer to wait for an official solution.

For now use XP SP3 compatibility mode

Does setting the compatibility mode actually fix it?