Arcen Games: Music/Sound

[Mánagarmr]

No, I've always been very interested in Logic, but unfortunately I don't own a Mac, and Logic went 100% Mac quite a while ago. I'm currently using Reason 4, which in itself is a rather nice program, but the samples leave a bit to be desired. They're a bit "one dimensional".

[Salamander]

Wanted to throw my 2 cents in here after Moonshine Fox sent me this way.

Overall the music is brilliant and I'm glad to see a small company like Arcen have such excellent music in their games. Like many here I also find the new "Warp" to be a bit off, but I'm a huge fan of the old "Warp" as it's by far my favorite piece from AI War pre-4.0. I would respectfully like to request restoring the old version instead of just ripping it out completely. Warp has power and I find it very inspiring in my game time so I would hate to see it go completely.

[zebramatt]

I actually enjoy the new Warp track.


Although I perhaps enjoyed the old one moderately more.

[Salamander]

I don't actively dislike the new Warp, it just doesn't quite 'fit' to my ears. I normally love lots of heavy guitar work as I'm a fan of death/thrash/black metal, but the new Warp just feels incongruent in game compared to the old one.

[BlackCobra]

Wanted to throw my 2 cents in here after Moonshine Fox sent me this way.

Overall the music is brilliant and I'm glad to see a small company like Arcen have such excellent music in their games. Like many here I also find the new "Warp" to be a bit off, but I'm a huge fan of the old "Warp" as it's by far my favorite piece from AI War pre-4.0. I would respectfully like to request restoring the old version instead of just ripping it out completely. Warp has power and I find it very inspiring in my game time so I would hate to see it go completely.

i think the same way

[Beans]

Wanted to throw my 2 cents in here after Moonshine Fox sent me this way.

Overall the music is brilliant and I'm glad to see a small company like Arcen have such excellent music in their games. Like many here I also find the new "Warp" to be a bit off, but I'm a huge fan of the old "Warp" as it's by far my favorite piece from AI War pre-4.0. I would respectfully like to request restoring the old version instead of just ripping it out completely. Warp has power and I find it very inspiring in my game time so I would hate to see it go completely.

I have to say I agree, any of the new tracks with the guitar don't sound right to me. I think the guitar is just too 'active' and really brings the music out of the background.

All the tracks that have piano, strings, and stuff like that are absolutely beautiful. Overall this game has some of the best space music I have ever heard, I'd put it up there with the soundtrack of "The Dig".

[Gallant Dragon]

I'd like to say that I agree that while all of the new tracks are awesome, the new guitar pieces do seem a bit incongruous with the rest of the soundtrack.  That's not to say that they're not good, especially the new 'Thor' (bits of which remind me of some of Mike Oldfield's work) and 'Metal', but it is a bit jarring when you're listening to piano and strings and suddenly you have this bass guitar, which, while well-played, is still something terrible to spring upon the unsuspecting.  What I liked about the old guitar pieces was that they blended in better with the rest of the soundtrack.  They were more exciting, but didn't 'stand out' as such.
Perhaps the problem might be solved if there was a way of playing the more 'active' tracks only when there is a major battle?

[HitmanN]

I'm not too fond of the new guitar-abundant tracks either, though they're no awful per se. Everything else is awesome though. Piano is my favorite instrument to listen to, so I hope there will be more of such in future.

Perhaps the problem might be solved if there was a way of playing the more 'active' tracks only when there is a major battle?

That could help. Altogether it might be neat if there was an option to have music shift according to situation, rather than loop all tracks. Like, for instance, every time a track ends, the current situation affects what track starts playing next. Even just separating non-battle and battle music that way could give the impression that the music is 'aware' of the game world and its events.

[PVega8]

All fantastic suggestions, and I agree about some of the guitar tracks. The final mixing of them should fix the problem of the guitars sticking out. I had some mixing issues that I should've dealt with before, but that I'm going back and working on right now.

In terms of playing the music based on the current situation, that's something to talk to Chris about on an AI War forum. As much as I'd love for that to happen, I don't have much control over the programming of the game, that's more Chris and Keith. So, I'll let them know, but be sure to post something about that to them in the AI War forums.

Thanks for all the great compliments! I hope when we release the final music edits you will like the music a lot more. The new "Odyssey" and "Metal" that haven't been released yet are awesome!

[MrMud]

I have to agree with all previous posters that the guitar parts really stick out. While I normally like guitar, I prefer more ambient music when playing sci-fi games and the v3 versions were all better.

[Anticept]

Pablo, now I know why the mp3's you sent me back in april were slightly different from the zenith tracks, I didn't realize either that you had a re-mastered version

To be honest, I like a few of the sound effects in the old track, just the first part with the commentary needed to be removed.

[Gallant Dragon]

Wait, I just realized that the music for AI War trailer 3 is completely unique!  And awesome!

[PVega8]

After spending a good amount of time working through some of these guitar pieces, I think the best solution is to put the electric guitar more inside the mix and make it less of a "solo" instrument. Obviously, the guitar solos will stick out some what, but at least the instrument itself won't be highlighted in the mix. The files have been pushed to the outsides of the mix so they're evenly distributed with all the other instruments. This should make it less "distracting" and still sound bad ass all at once.

I'm sorry for those of you who just don't like the electric guitar in the pieces in general, but this is the best compromise I can think of, especially because I happen to love the electric guitar in there. When they're done, I'll post them so you can hear the new edits.

[Salamander]

I actually love electric guitar. It was just the way it flowed that sounded off in the new versions of a couple of the songs. Warp was such a favorite of mine from the old version that it was especially noticable with the changes.

[PVega8]

It's true, a lot of the lines are more free rhythm, but it kind of gives it an edge that I like. I hope you guys like the new edits. The guitar should be more tame in most of them (except in "Metal", it's supposed to be the center piece in that song.)