Musical awesomeness

[jerith]

One of the best things about any new Arcen title is the selection of Pablo Vega music that comes with it.

Even though the music isn't hooked up to the game yet, I've been listening to the two ingame suites and the title themes while I play. (And while I work, because I still have to earn a living while testing SBR.) I haven't been listening to the per-race music as much because a lot of it is already really familiar to me -- I'll probably add it to the mix in a few days to stretch out the variety a bit.

I loved the Stars Suite from the moment I started playing it, and it already has a permanent place on my coding playlist next to Neinzul Lullaby, Night Carousel, Hidden In The Dark, Rise And Shine, Stantonsburg, Henchman Elder, Black Market, ... *ahem*, I won't list all of it. Suffice to say that the 6+ hours in that playlist isn't enough.

Into The Black Hole... well, the meanest thing Chris has ever done to me was mentioning it in the changelog and then making me wait almost a full day (stupid timezones) before I got to hear it. The wait was worth it. That bit about two and a half minutes in... wow. Completely unexpected and completely appropriate.

In a way, I'm kind of glad the main theme music hasn't been hooked up yet. I'd probably be stuck at the main menu for three and a half minutes every time I start the game, which would severely impact my ability to playtest. (Bionic Dues did that to me. A lot. Something like 10% of my "playtime" in that game is listening to The Home That We Once Knew all the way through before I get into my giant robots to go kill other giant robots.)

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was the Krolin theme. There had better be creepy shadow beings in their backstory. And zombies. Maybe a giant squid monster or two. The Acutians won't know what hit them.

[Captain Jack]

Haha, that good? Last game that made me stop what I was doing like you describe is There Came an Echo.

[x4000]

I'll pass this thread along to Pablo, he'll be thrilled.

All of the racial themes -- aka not the main in-game suites or the title music -- are actually remastered tracks from other titles, including the Krolin one.  The Krolin one is the title track from Shattered Haven, while the Thoraxians is the Giant Squid theme from Shattered Haven.  But both remastered, and the latter actually starts at a different position in their track, too.

I felt like some of the less-popular games in our library have some incredible music that deserves to be heard in a wider way, and I didn't want Pablo to be too sucked in to trying to create racial music, but I still wanted to have it.  I wanted him to be able to focus on the title track and the in-game music, so we did a remastering instead.  I'm really pleased with how much quality music that brings to the game, a lot of it the fans of simply AI War or TLF will never have heard before.

[crazyroosterman]

hu for some reason I thought the tlf races would have altered versions of their original soundtracks don't know why personally I like to listen to podcasts when I play this game so I probably won't listen to the music in this game(that much) I'm sure if tlf is anything to stand by that it'll be fantastic though.

[PVega8]

I'm really excited to hear that you like the new music! I have spent a TON of time on these suites (I do mean a LOT of time). I'm finishing up another suite right now called "Anti-Gravity". It's one of my favorite pieces up until now. The composition didn't take too long, but the mixing and engineering has been crazy. The idea for this piece (and you can test it out some on your own) is that there is there is a mirror placed half way through the piece, and the second half is the same as the first half, only in reverse. So, if you were to play the first half backwards, you'll get the second half (with a few tweaks and elemental changes here and there). The outro of the piece is also me playing a new organ patch I've recently acquired that I LOVE. It gives me chills, literally. And is perfect for a space game and an ambient piece like this one.

Either way, I can't wait for you to hear it. It'll be done in 10 minutes actually haha!

Also, if you like "Into The Eye Of The Black Hole", you can read about the composition more here: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach:Music_Tracks

[topper]

Wow, I'm really happy you started this thread Jerith! I just assumed we did not get any music until 1.0, but there it is and its awesome, as usual!

I recognize one of the Valley themes in Acutians, TLF in Andors/Boarines/Peltians, TLF battle in Burlusts, AI war in Neinzul/Zenith. Was Feyn some theme from Tidalis? Or was Tidalis too chill and uplifting for a 4X game? All of them sounded somewhat familiar since I have played every Arcen title, but its been a long time for some of them so its hard to pinpoint them all off-hand.

There is also some nice tension development in those two "Ingame" music suites. Cant wait to hear the rest and have them in the game!

[jerith]

I'm really excited to hear that you like the new music! I have spent a TON of time on these suites (I do mean a LOT of time). I'm finishing up another suite right now called "Anti-Gravity". It's one of my favorite pieces up until now. The composition didn't take too long, but the mixing and engineering has been crazy. The idea for this piece (and you can test it out some on your own) is that there is there is a mirror placed half way through the piece, and the second half is the same as the first half, only in reverse. So, if you were to play the first half backwards, you'll get the second half (with a few tweaks and elemental changes here and there). The outro of the piece is also me playing a new organ patch I've recently acquired that I LOVE. It gives me chills, literally. And is perfect for a space game and an ambient piece like this one.

Either way, I can't wait for you to hear it. It'll be done in 10 minutes actually haha!

Man, you're as bad as Chris! (But as long as you keep making music I'll forgive you.)

I've been fascinated musical retrograde and inversion ever since I read about crab canons in Gödel, Escher, Bach and I'm really interested in hearing how it turned out.

Also, if you like "Into The Eye Of The Black Hole", you can read about the composition more here: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach:Music_Tracks

Seeing that on the wiki is one of the things that inspired me to start this thread. I love reading about the creative process and the stories that go into pieces like Into The Eye Of The Black Hole. That one in particular would be amazing with a visual accompaniment depicting our Intrepid Hero's journey -- I'm imagining something like Disney's Fantasia, but in a minimalist anime style.

(Oh, and if you ever somehow manage to write a piece of music that just won't work without a (very) amateur trombonist from Africa... I might know where you can find one.)

[x4000]

Fenyn was from Skyward Collapse.

[jerith]

"* New music track: Anti-Gravity."
\o/

[TheVampire100]

Fenyn was from Skyward Collapse.

Hm, Zenith is from Bionic Dues, isn't it? Is there a reason why you took it from BD and not from AI War?

[x4000]

Fenyn was from Skyward Collapse.

Hm, Zenith is from Bionic Dues, isn't it? Is there a reason why you took it from BD and not from AI War?

In AI War, all of the Zenith themes were more focused on the fact that they were ancient and dead, and so were more laments and ambient tracks and so forth.  That fit AI War perfectly, but here the Zenith are alive and well and very dangerous, and so that didn't feel appropriate.  Bionic Dues never really caught on with a wider audience despite how well it is liked by those who do play it, so I figured that some of the better tracks from there would be great to pull over to this title.  And the overall sound of this theme fit my vision of the active Zenith.

[crazyroosterman]

Fenyn was from Skyward Collapse.

Hm, Zenith is from Bionic Dues, isn't it? Is there a reason why you took it from BD and not from AI War?

In AI War, all of the Zenith themes were more focused on the fact that they were ancient and dead, and so were more laments and ambient tracks and so forth.  That fit AI War perfectly, but here the Zenith are alive and well and very dangerous, and so that didn't feel appropriate.  Bionic Dues never really caught on with a wider audience despite how well it is liked by those who do play it, so I figured that some of the better tracks from there would be great to pull over to this title.  And the overall sound of this theme fit my vision of the active Zenith.

I know this is random as hell but I love the fact that the zenith refer to me as a young one its pretty neat.

[x4000]

[jerith]

The new ytivarG-itnA piece in 518.0 is very interesting.

It starts off with a slow minute and a half of somewhat odd-sounding organ before picking up the tempo and getting quite a lot busier. There's a distinctive rhythmic effect starting after the long intro that's a bit jarring to begin with, but becomes less so as the piece goes on. About halfway in, a guitar takes over the backing line and the piece, while still essentially the same, seems to become gentler until it suddenly slows down and stops at the end.

On a whim, I decided to play it backwards and got a surprisingly similar (and even better) piece of music that I shall call Anti-Gravity. This version starts with an effect that puts me in mind of water swirling up out of a drain, or a tumbling body regaining stability and skiing backwards up a mountain. Then it settles into much the same pattern as the non-reversed version, except with the new intro it feels like the soundtrack to a whole sequence of events playing out in reverse -- possibly that of a parachute snowboarder rewinding a poor landing. When it switches direction at the midpoint, events move forward again until at the end our snowboarder makes a perfect landing and glides majestically off into the sunset.

This is an excellent piece of music and I think it's a good fit for SBR (Chris, can we have an "undo turn" button to go with it?) but it didn't quite grab me by the brain and refuse to let go the way Into The Eye Of The Black Hole did. (Although if I judge everything by those standards, there won't be very much music left for me to listen to.)

Keep up the great work!

[TheVampire100]

In AI War, all of the Zenith themes were more focused on the fact that they were ancient and dead, and so were more laments and ambient tracks and so forth.  That fit AI War perfectly, but here the Zenith are alive and well and very dangerous, and so that didn't feel appropriate.  Bionic Dues never really caught on with a wider audience despite how well it is liked by those who do play it, so I figured that some of the better tracks from there would be great to pull over to this title.  And the overall sound of this theme fit my vision of the active Zenith.

It definitely fits the theme of the Zenith. Mechanical/technical sounds for a cyborg race. Perfect.