Arcen Games: Music/Sound

[Mánagarmr]

I'm sure a lot of you heard it already in the YouTube Star Fields trailer that Chris put up. That sound file is in .ogg format. The ones I put up on facebook and MySpace are the .mp3, so the quality will be better.

Wow, that went against everything I thought I knew. I always thought that similar compression OGG was better (less lossy) than MP3. Or to make a comparison, if I use medium settings on both, the MP3 sounds worse (more artifacts) than the OGG.

Am I just imagining?

[Fiskbit]

That's my understanding of OGG Vorbis, as well. It should sound better than an MP3 of the same quality, which is due what parts of the signal they drop rather than the format actually being less lossy. Also, if you're converting between MP3 and OGG (either way), you'll get something that sounds even worse because they each lose different things.

[PVega8]

You know, I said that not having actually read up on it, but I think it's just because of the studio speakers I work with here. For some reason, .mp3's sound a lot more crisp and clear on these speakers than the converted .ogg files. However, when I played them through normal speakers, .ogg did sound better.

I apologize for the confusion.

[PVega8]

And the conversion happens from .wav to .ogg or to .mp3. So, both sound fantastic either way. If I had taken another step in-between, then it probably wouldn't sound that great.

I can't wait for ProTools to be able to convert directly to .ogg from the base sound file.

[Mánagarmr]

It's probably the reason there (the speakers that is). MP3 will lose quality, while OGG will simply cut away frequencies that we generally don't hear too well. So, in effect, that could cause the "dullness" you refer too. In spite of this, I prefer OGG (or FLAC, if I get to decide ) due to my ears being very sensitive to the artifacts caused by MP3 compression. I literally cringe at most MP3 music (if in headphones. Don't hear them well in speakers)

[PVega8]

I guess most of the time i'm listening for depth in the music, and I feel like .mp3 does a good job of placing the instruments where I want them. But, I see what you mean with the compression. Quality over position.

[Mánagarmr]

I'm just an amateur musician though, so I have a very non-scientific approach. I go completely by feel.

For some of my old works, if you are interested, see here: http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/moonshine

[PVega8]

Good news:

Bass sounds are coming back for all the tracks Stay tuned for updates!

[HellishFiend]

Bass is always good. 

[PVega8]

Haha, bass is ALWAYS good! But, it's not just a bass playing, there are a lot of ambient background bass sounds that I'm going to be bringing back up throughout.

The first set of revisions of the original soundtrack have now been distributed. I hope you guys get to download and check them out!

[Thumpy]

really diggin your stuff in the context of AI war. it's not the kind of stuff i'd listen to away from the game. that doesn't take away from your talent, my tru passion lies more in the singer songwriter genre: townes van zandt, dylan, neil young etc.  i read earlier that you are using garritan live orchestra. i have used it before as well and i really love the cello sounds on it. they have a sampled stradivari, too.. right? some of the instruments sounded familiar. and oh yes, i love the crazy remnant intro.. really sets the mood for the game.

[PVega8]

Well, I'm glad you hear that you're liking the music! Yep, I have Garritan Orchestra running through Logic. It's pretty awesome.

[Mánagarmr]

The remastered tracks are truly awesome! There's really only 1 or 2 I don't like, but then again, I didn't like them much before either So it's absolutely fantastic work there, Pablo!

One of the new CoN tunes sounds strangely Tidalis-like. Intended?

[PVega8]

I'm still working on a lot of them right now, that was my first big drive at them.

This is an open forum, so if there are some you don't like, then please let me know! I'd ask people not to be rude, I take criticism very well. I'm just very curious as to which ones aren't liked. Also, which one is "Tidalis" like?

[Mánagarmr]

I'm still working on a lot of them right now, that was my first big drive at them.

This is an open forum, so if there are some you don't like, then please let me know! I'd ask people not to be rude, I take criticism very well. I'm just very curious as to which ones aren't liked. Also, which one is "Tidalis" like?

Currently stuck at work, but I'll get to find the names of the songs once I get back home and get back to you. The new "debug" window is very convienient for finding track names while in game, and switching tracks is also easy. Pause and unpause and a new track starts to play.