Athmospheric background-music.

[Fanomatic2000]

Hello fellow-Planeshifters, I\'m currently doing some Athmospheric music and ambience for different Planeshift-environments, and I would like some feedback for my works.
I have already made a pair of samples that you could listen to, but I have more to come.

Remember that these are my first attempts, so the quality will change as I get more experience.

The first attempt I did was some scary ambience for haunted places like crypts, old ruins, ghost-towns, old dungeons etc. It turned out pretty good for a first attempt I think.

Unseen eyes

Next, I have made some spooky music for old, forgotten places like dungeons, ruins etc.

Decayed memories

Hope you enjoy it. I\'m currently working on some underwater-music. I will post it as soon as It\'s done.

[Xordan]

Yes, not bad at all. It could be better quality, but as u said, that comes with practise, time, (and money )

Have u thought about joining treecastle? We could do with someone else helping with evironmental stuff.

On the whole, I found the first one a bit plain, but the second was better. And it sounds a bit too synth, (back to quality).

What samples and software do you use? And how long have you been doing this for?

[Skizzik]

I like it, it gives a really deserted and spooky athmosphere.

[Fanomatic2000]

Have u thought about joining treecastle? We could do with someone else helping with evironmental stuff.

Sure, if you need help with background-music/environmental sound, then I\'ll be glad to give you a hand.

On the whole, I found the first one a bit plain, but the second was better. And it sounds a bit too synth, (back to quality).

Yes, I\'m still in the learning-progress. The first one was more like an experiment to see what the program could do, but I will improve as I get more used to the software.

What samples and software do you use? And how long have you been doing this for?

I use Cubase VST32, Athmosphere, and some other modules. I also have some electric and acoustic instruments I will use once I get more used to the program.
I went though a course, so I know the basics but overall I\'m still new and inexperienced to digital music.

However if you never try, you will never improve...

[Xordan]

Yeah, signup to http://treecastle.pf.net/forums
and try and catch me in irc.freenode.net #planeshift-treecastle if you can. I\'ll give you summin to do

I havn\'t worked with Cubase much. I stick to Sonar 3 if I can, but I\'ve heard it\'s good.

[SaintNuclear]

Well, the first one is pretty boring. I probebly won\'t be able to make anything better though.
The second one is alot better, but i think it\'s a bit too repetative. You should put some sudden unexpected stuff (like in the first one, somewhere in the middle I think, there\'s a sort of an undead-scream. it comes later too, but too quietly).

I wonder how the underwater one will come out.

[Cirque]

Generally if I dont like the music I just play my own.

[Fanomatic2000]

Here it is. A Soothing, meditative soundtrack for underwater-environments and/or calm, relaxing places.

Don\'t fall asleep while listening

Deep lake

My next project will be some kind of tribal music for jungles and such. Time to dust off the bongo-drums...

[SaintNuclear]

Originally posted by Cirque
Generally if I dont like the music I just play my own.

Umm, the whole idea is to make background music that is good enough so people won\'t play their own music, but the PS music...



I don\'t think that Deep Lake is good for an underwater music. When I listen to it I think it fits more to some cave that is dim litted by many big crystal outcropping (I\'m not talking about collectable crystals, I\'m talking about big outcropped ones).


I can\'t really explain how I think underwater music should sound like... Hmm... Dive into a pool, and listen - that\'s how I think underwater background music should sound.
It should also have an occasional sound like when a big fish suddenly changes it\'s swimming direction (check National Geographic or Discovery channels for those )

[Cirque]

As I said earlier (insert quote here). If I like the music ill leave it on.

From my experience ive found that alot of RPG music gets extremely repetitive and annoying after a while. So I simply switch it off and pop on something more to my liking.

[SaintNuclear]

So are you suggesting that they won\'t bother adding music to PS because people will turn it off and put their own anyways?
If not, I really can\'t see the point in posting what you do with games\' background music here... ?(

[Fanomatic2000]

Well, I imagined that this piece of music should be combined with in game  underwater SFX to get its full potential. Also, this soundtrack is for use in calm water-areas like peaceful lakes and the like. Try and imagine bubbles, swimming-strokes, underwater animal sounds and the like. That is more what I was thinking about. When it comes to more dangerous areas the music needs to be more ominous to get the right athmosphere.

Personally I like this soundtrack, but of course it cannot be to everyones liking. Everyone have a different taste, so it\'s impossible to do music that suits everyone.
If you really cannot stand the background-music for some reason, then why not follow cirques example and listen to your own? I see nothing wrong with that, and it doesn\'t mean that music shouldn\'t be included at all. Even the best of music can get annoying after you have listened to it hundreds of times, so if you want to switch it off, then you should have that option.

The reason behind background-music is to make soundtracks that suits the athmosphere. Techno-music/Hard-rock for futuristic shooters, Pop/Rap/Techno for racing-simulators, Hard-rock/japanese kung fu style music for beat \'em up, and medival/celtic/choir/tribal music for medival fantasy RPGs (I don\'t say that it must be this way, but I don\'t think that a techno or rap soundtrack  would suit a game like this.)

One of the goals with Planeshift (at least from what I\'ve heard) is to give the game a unique music-style that is specific for Planeshift. It should represent another world, an entirely different culture. Not the easiest thing to do if you ask me.

Of course I cannot compete with the devs when it comes to music/sound effects. This is more like fan-art at the moment, but it\'s a good start, and I enjoy making music, so it doesn\'t really matter now does it?

[SaintNuclear]

I didn\'t say that I don\'t like background music. Background music is a must-have, it\'s part of the atmosphere. Just like SFX.
I remmember that I used to play Abuse with a friend. When we played at his place, the speakers were broken or something, so we couldn\'t hear the SFX or music, while at my place we could. The game was alot more challenging at my place because we jumped every 1 min from the SFX


And don\'t get me wrong, Deep Lake is good, I just expected all those bubbles and swimming strokes sounds to be in the music, and not as SFX. But in this case, I guess it could actually be an underwater music.

[Fanomatic2000]

No, no. I didn\'t mean it like that. No hard feelings

I added sound-effects to my earlier works, so it\'s not strange that you react when I suddenly remove them, but for this track I see no reason to add sound-effects, since I think they will already be in game.
In Decayed memories  I though it would be good if the whispering sounds would be intergrated into the music, but I later realised that it isn\'t needed since there will propably be a lot of SFX in the game anyway.
In my most recent work I simply skipped the background-sound because I belive that there will be a lot of underwater-SFX down there anyway, and therefore I don\'t need to add anything.

You said that you though it sounded more like a dim-litted cave with crystal outdroppings. That is how you imagine it, and there is nothing that tells you\'re wrong. I\'m just grateful you come with ideas for how my music can be used. That\'s one of the reasons why I\'m asking for opinions.

Also, I understood that you don\'t dislike BG-music. What I meant was that if you grow tired of the background-music, or don\'t like it for some reason you should have the option to switch it off, to rest your ears for a while, or play music outside the game. I don\'t say that the music should be so bad you cannot listen to it, but even the best music gets a bit annoying after a while, and different people have different tastes so the option should be there.

Neverwinter nights is a good example. The music is very good, but the game is huge, and the music gets pretty tedious after some hours, especially if you are playing online, belive me :rolleyes:

[Cirque]

Originally posted by SaintNuclear
So are you suggesting that they won\'t bother adding music to PS because people will turn it off and put their own anyways?
If not, I really can\'t see the point in posting what you do with games\' background music here... ?(

Obviously they are bothering to add background music. I assume you mean \"shouldn\'t bother\", in which case my point is make it good or people will just turn it off. It was also advice for people that may be sitting there without any music because they are unaware of the alternatives.