A source of inspiration...

Samples of sound/music, ideas or suggestions related to the development of audio assets for FreeOrion.
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Getix
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A source of inspiration...

#1 Post by Getix »

Well, i love listening to different kind of music and i found out some groups which can help/give ispiration to our sound creator:

If you disagree just sugggest something else :D

-- 30 Secondo To Mars

Especially:

Buddha For Mary - the intro sounds quite good to be an introduction to a diplomacy screen with a "strange" race..

Oblivion - sounds good as a combat music...

The Mission - sounds good as special event music..


For now, that's all folks ;)
Getix "The Cromist", (20, 90, Italy, MI)
FIAT CROMA CHT (called Laura) Acrobatic Driver - 32,5 kKm/243 KKm
"A Croma is Forever"

LithiumMongoose
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#2 Post by LithiumMongoose »

Thanks for the suggestion. I did indeed listen to the track samples of that band's CD on amazon.com (which was all I could find quickly). All I can say at the moment is anything with vocals (ie real humans singing) is going to sound different from stuff we produce here, and for the most part I think that's as it should be for a game soundtrack. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but anyway...

If you've heard the stuff I've written so far you know my basic style. That being said there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement left with me, and I still want to try and branch out more in terms of style and genre at some point. It's also never a bad thing when someone reminds me to go back to my original sources of musical inspiration, b/c I don't do it often enough. At the moment though I mostly feel like I wish I'd taken more music classes in college... except I don't think they were offering anything more that would've been too helpful... Oh well, maybe I can poke around online and find something.

Getix
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#3 Post by Getix »

LithiumMongoose wrote:Thanks for the suggestion. I did indeed listen to the track samples of that band's CD on amazon.com (which was all I could find quickly). All I can say at the moment is anything with vocals (ie real humans singing) is going to sound different from stuff we produce here, and for the most part I think that's as it should be for a game soundtrack. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but anyway...
I hope you enjoyed 30STM ..

You did not completely understand waht i was saying.. I was saying that thiskind of music COULD be an ispiration to your creation, 'cause it sounds quite "strange".. I'm sorry, maybe i did not explain it well :)

Another thing to listen to is HALO theme song... :D
Getix "The Cromist", (20, 90, Italy, MI)
FIAT CROMA CHT (called Laura) Acrobatic Driver - 32,5 kKm/243 KKm
"A Croma is Forever"

guiguibaah
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Haunting Music

#4 Post by guiguibaah »

One reason I like Human Chorals and any use of the Human voice is that it creates and emotional connection with the listener. Howard Shore (the one who composed the LOTR trilogy music) goes on to explain how it can be used to emphasize certain parts.

I've been looking into the right DSP setup to give that appropriate "Reverbe-echo" that certain songs have to add some Solo-Vocals as background.

If you have even played Star Control 2, you might want to visit the Precursors site at

http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/

that's where I get some inspiration - they are a very talented team.


I have a few songs I was working on in my spare time that could demonstrate what I'm takling about.

Good luck!
There are three kinds of people in this world - those who can count, and those who can't.

LithiumMongoose
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#5 Post by LithiumMongoose »

Yeah using voice to emphasize certain parts is fine, and really powerful when done well. (Why I said for the most part.) But that's different from a pop or rock soundtrack that has singing in almost every track.

I love the Halo soundtrack. EDIT: My brain sucks. It looks very much like the Halo 2 soundtrack wasn't released til Nov 8, which means I almost certainly have not gotten it yet, so what the hell was I thinking of? I *know* I was remembering *something* in the sucky-sequel-soundtrack department from 4-6 months ago...

Tyreth pointed me at that Precursors site a couple months ago. There were a few neat tracks – I remember their Spathi one being... interesting... for example – but mostly it didn't really appeal to me. Which is not to say it wasn't high-quality work, cuz it obviously was. :)

guiguibaah
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Another source

#6 Post by guiguibaah »

Another source of inspiration that I am seeking to gain some insights to, is the composer to Neverwinter Nights - Hordes of the Underdark. There's just something about Orchestral music that gets me. Bioware has a really nice history of obtaining composers from Baldur's Gate all the way to Neverwinter.

That's not to say you can't pinpoint some little 'errors' in the sountrack - they're really hard to find, but they're a gem when you notice them.

I'll post the ones I've been playing and composing with, and show the errors in them - they're fun to catch.

The way I see it, it took Howard Shore a full day's work to complete 2 minutes worth of music for Lord of the Rings - and that's just the composing part ;)
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LithiumMongoose
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#7 Post by LithiumMongoose »

Not familiar with NVN, gamewise or musicwise.

I spent several years hanging around professional composer types in college. Unfortunately almost all of them were only interested in writing for real instruments (which I'm not, really). Mostly though I just never managed to understand the process or the complexities well enough I guess, to be able to spend a day working on 2 minutes of material or whatever. Even if I *wanted* to work on it that hard, I wouldn't know how.

I guess that's why I'll never turn out stuff as nice as, say, Halo, but I'm going to keep trying anyway heh.

Not sure what you mean by errors Gui, but if you're talking about parallel 5ths or things like that... geez.

Oh and I'm now reasonably sure it was Armored Core Nexus vs Armored Core 3 I was thinking of before, when I thought I was thinking of Halo 2 vs Halo. if anyone cares. :)

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StratCaster
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#8 Post by StratCaster »

Jeremy Soule who did the music for Baulder's Gate and a bunch of other stuff is amazing...

Even the music on his main page is great....
http://www.jeremysoule.com

it's traditional and very inspirational...
"The mighty warships of the Vl'Hurg Empire dived screaming upon the unknowing Earth, where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog." -Hitchhikers Guide

Ablaze
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#9 Post by Ablaze »

I like the homeworld soundtrack. I used to put the CD for that game in my CD player just for a little background music.
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guiguibaah
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No wonder

#10 Post by guiguibaah »

- I was wondering why his stuff sounded great -> First he composes his music to sheet, then conducts it by a live orchestra score, then mixes effects into the score using his multitude of Gigastudio machines. YIKES!

I just have a 5 octave aftertouch-sensitive keyboard, and only two machines (one for sampling, one for filtering and recording).

Maybe I gotta stop comparing my stuff to his. Ah well :)

Speaking of which, I should convert some FO tracks I completed so people can decide which ones to weed out.
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StratCaster
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#11 Post by StratCaster »

he did start out small though... (well sorta) for BG 1 he only used Emu's E4s. He did a lot of his own sampling though. Then he went on to bigger and better things with live orchestras and such. He supposedly has an amazing studio... Although I believe he uses the London Philharmonic a lot opposed to local ones. I hear its because they are amazing and cheap.
"The mighty warships of the Vl'Hurg Empire dived screaming upon the unknowing Earth, where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog." -Hitchhikers Guide

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Geoff the Medio
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#12 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Maybe if we get enough donations, Tyreth will spring for some recording sessions with the LPO?

Alternatively, you could always go ask if your local high school concert band will give you an hour... (or not...)

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StratCaster
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#13 Post by StratCaster »

That's funny...

I actually just saw my local high school band which my niece plays in...

yeah, not so great... although they played the theme from "Batman" pretty good...
"The mighty warships of the Vl'Hurg Empire dived screaming upon the unknowing Earth, where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog." -Hitchhikers Guide

guiguibaah
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High school orchestra

#14 Post by guiguibaah »

As my music teacher used to tell us, our high school band sounded like "five pounds of sh*t in a four pound bag"

I especially found it funny that one time during a concert when our drummer lost his drumming stick halfway through phantom of the opera, reached down to grab it, and brought down the entire drum set with him.

The rest of the song went downhill from there
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Laccase
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#15 Post by Laccase »

Hey guys, check this website out http://www.archive.org/audio/collection ... urce_audio. Apparently, its an archive of open source music. Theres some good songs that could be used as inspiration or if I'm not mistaken, can be used directly.
"Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind" - Plutarch

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