Audio Discussion

[BrianWerst]

Hello all!

First off I want to apologize for my absence, and I am hoping to have my workstation upgraded soon. I'm not going to give an ETA on that because I originally assumed it would only take me a couple weeks; however, there is a light a the end of the tunnel.

So I have been looking at the music implementation and immersion techniques of other RPG's with a likeness to the way you have described as your vision for Phlyndir, and upon trying to select which approaches to take and learn from I found it difficult to find a place to start without knowing the general pace of the action in the game, how quests are formatted, what level of cinematic feel do we want, if we want to give the style of "older-school" role playing games, the amount of time spent in menus, etc. I'm hoping in this thread we can discuss the general angle we wish to take with all the audio in general.

I do want to open the discussion with us talking about things we like, and don't like, about the audio from similar games, i.e. Divinity II, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc to get a better feel of the type of sound you are envisioning. Maybe we should take a number from some older RPG's such as those from the Super Nintendo and combine themes with newer concepts (Secret of Evermore, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, etc)?

Cheers!

[Ted]

[Hureciel]

Okay I've heard both of pieces that you've made, and also, I've seen one of the songs getting incorporated into the game demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RONhmBe ... ideo_title

I have a problem with the music. It doesn't blend with the background. It pushes itself heavily, and I think it overshadowed the gameplay in the video. I was more concentrating on the song, than the game. I believe the problem here is because the music either doesn't fit the scene, or it is too dynamic.

Yes, I know this song was made for Ecstasy & Euphoria, so duh, it shouldn't actually fit in the video, but the other issue that it's too dynamic may be a problem.

I don't have any doubts that you are a great composer. I've heard both tracks and I have to say that they're very well made and they do stand very well without a game to play it on. The fact is that maybe it works too well alone. Most video game music I've heard does not jump out of the picture, and mostly tends to be soft music that plays in the background.

I'll just nitpick a bit on Ecstasy & Euphoria. I feel two songs being played here; one from 0:00-0:20, and a different one played onwards. I can still hear the original "riff" from the first twenty seconds, but the emphasis is now on a lighter tone. I think that this song is put on two very extreme ends, and maybe only for extreme places. The first twenty seconds could be extended and used for maybe the Darklands, and the next half could be used for a prosperous city.

I really don't know what I'm looking for yet, because I don't have much of the game to go on, and I don't even know who's gonna be writing up the background music for the game, but yeah, here's my two cents.

[Ted]

That would be my fault. We weren't able to use the music Brian provided properly. I was originally for the codex but that didn't push through so we just put it as a general background from the video. Sorry Brian. So yeah...

[Hureciel]

So what happens to the music now?

[Ted]

We wait until later in development before we start again.