Music question

[geozero]

I generally do not like music in game backgrounds. So I turn them off. The music in this game drives me nuts. Any way of getting better music in there? Let me know if I can help in that area.

[Eric.B]

Let's hope Fruluna doesn't see this thread, she'll rip your head off and dine on your flesh! (Or something like that!)

The music right now is hard coded in the game. So my suggestion would be to mute the volume, alt-tab out and play your favorite tunes.

If you're really interested in modding the music you could just overwrite the music files. Just convert whatever song you want to .ogg, and overwrite the songs in the music directory.

I would of liked to just make an mp3 player in game, but encoding licensing and US software patents prevent me from doing so.

That being said, what wrong with the music? I quite enjoy most of the songs...

[geozero]

There is a lot of period music that is probably past any copyright protections... or some new ones could be made. I found great songs from the early 1900's all with cracking record sounds. I could probably make a few and I can create the old vinyl cracking sounds....

[Eric.B]

In the US, there isn't that much. I looked into this before, as I was going to fill the music with Public Domain and Creative Commons stuff as well as in house generated work and make the music change based on Era and HQ location. Copyright laws are just too restrictive here. :|

That being said, as far as old recordings this is a good read: http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Publ...rdings.php

I could use National Public Domain recordings, but I don't think American patriotic songs are a good match for the game. (Soviet stuff would work too...)


Also the game runs until the year 2020, beta is the only thing cut short. So scratchy recordings wouldn't be that good when you have a modern stereo in your office.

Anyway, I might open up a way to add songs, and let anyone contribute, or just make it where you can mod in a music pack or something... I'll put it on my list.

[geozero]

In the US, there isn't that much. I looked into this before, as I was going to fill the music with Public Domain and Creative Commons stuff as well as in house generated work and make the music change based on Era and HQ location. Copyright laws are just too restrictive here. :|

That being said, as far as old recordings this is a good read: http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Publ...rdings.php

I could use National Public Domain recordings, but I don't think American patriotic songs are a good match for the game. (Soviet stuff would work too...)


Also the game runs until the year 2020, beta is the only thing cut short. So scratchy recordings wouldn't be that good when you have a modern stereo in your office.

Anyway, I might open up a way to add songs, and let anyone contribute, or just make it where you can mod in a music pack or something... I'll put it on my list.

Well versed in music copyright as I am a BMI songwriter.

You could try some Royalty free stuff, even classical music. Have you seen this: http://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/

I have used that a lot, even in film work that I have worked on.

There's classical music there which sounds great and never goes out of fashion... and sounds a lot better IMO.

It would not be a stretch to create period correct music using Garritan software or other recording techniques. Having different songs in different periods would be uber cool, though not necessarily an absolute.

When it comes to music... I'm just passionate about that.

[Eric.B]

The problem with most royalty free stuff is that I can't afford it right now. The only additional music I could include would have to be creative commons or public domain.

Eventually I may be able to supplement our music with some additional stuff, but as of right now it's not feasible.

In the meantime Fruluna is kind enough to produce our work for a reasonable rate. You're more than welcome to give critiques of her work and I'll pass them along for you.

[geozero]

The problem with most royalty free stuff is that I can't afford it right now. The only additional music I could include would have to be creative commons or public domain.

Eventually I may be able to supplement our music with some additional stuff, but as of right now it's not feasible.

In the meantime Fruluna is kind enough to produce our work for a reasonable rate. You're more than welcome to give critiques of her work and I'll pass them along for you.

PM me if you like.

[Sarchez]

I think the music was ok, fitted the time period etc. (but have it muted now, after several games being done).

However......

I think you'd be doing yourself a HUGE favor, if you had the intro music replaced by something else. (It sounds something like a band starting up, and if that was the intention, I get it, but....)
The reasons:
1. It's not very good. (Compared to the rest of the released music, it's the least good one).
2. When going retail, we're no longer restricted to a starting point of 1900, so there's no need to keep it in that genre.
3. (And most important) This will be the first impression for your game, after people have paid for it. First impressions last, and are extremely important.
Therefore, you should be putting the best possible music you can get your hands on, in the intro.

Looking forward to hear the music, from some of the later periods.

[geozero]

How about a music slider that we can turn off music without turning off other sounds?

[Eric.B]

No other sounds other than the music, if I do ever get any other sounds it will have it's own slider because it will have to use it's own sound object thus have to have it's own volume. Although personally I'm not a fan button clicks and stuff.

The intro sound has been temporary replaced in 1.12, as you can already tell. I will probably have Fruluna working on a new intro song in the near future. As she has improved quite a bit the last 3 years.

I'm starting to search around for some indie bands to include their non-vocal original stuff to help flesh out the game some more. (possibly even making a sort of mp3 player in the game then you can download music packs, modify playlist, etc)

More news on that in the future.