Music in Silgrad Tower

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hello all,

I just wondered how we're fixed for music in the mod. Having been one of the leads on a large campaign for 'Thief 2' I remember that some of our most active members in the acoustic department were musicians.

There are a few names that stand out significantly and they may be interested in joining if there is a need for their skills. Quite a few tunes that I still have in my archive would make excellent dungeon/ruin or other 'spooky place' music. 'Thief' tends to lend itself very well to ambient artists so the majority will be of that specialism.

Nonetheless, thinking about the possibility of implementing my idea for the Fighters Guild as discussed elsewhere in these forums had me thinking about how the whole thing might come out. And, soon enough, some tunes from the archives started to present themselves as good candidates for a bit of 'mood music'.

What do you think? Do we have any musicians onboard? Is there a need for them or would it just crank up the filesize and complexity of the thing unnecessarily?

[SACarrow]

It was my impression that BethSoft's crude handling of music made it very difficult to do new music without wholesale replacement of the original music.

Ibsen's Ghost: You contributed to a few OB mods. What were their approaches to music?

Thanks,
Steve

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Well, ThePriest909 of 'Gates to Aesgaard' fame was especially brilliant when it came to acoustics since that's the field he's in in his professional career. I spoke to both him and Leo Gura of 'Lost Spires' about some music files from our old Head of Sound, Aslak Tolonen, with a view to them using some of them in-game.

I'm not sure if either of them used the files but I do know that the responses I got were positive with respect to implementing them in the game, if only as reduced-length 'atmosphere creating blips'. From this, I get the strong impression that introducing a signature tune at points in the game should indeed be possible. Leo's response was more like "I do have music and I'm happy with it but I'd still like to make room for that" whereas ThePriest's response was more in the vein of "Great stuff but I have something specific I'm working on".

The point being that neither of them discounted using music in such a way so I assume it's possible and perhaps even widely used (although I haven't seen a great deal of it myself!). After all, it was possible (and well used) in some Thief mods so why shouldn't it be possible for ES4 with its far superior modding engine? Were Bethsoft really that ham-fisted?

I know that my generic music files have actually been added to through the use of some files and mods. That part is so easy even I can do it! But, as I say, what I'm most interested in is using them as scripted events. In 'Hammerite Imperium' we had signature tunes for different characters and themes that our sound team did variations on. Some of them were so skilled that they managed to maintain the basic conventions of the sig tune whilst adapting it for any stated situation. At least, that's what Aslak managed to do.

[earendil]

Is there any need for any background music? I am an amateur composer of symphonic and chamber music and could use a 'commission' =).

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks for your interest, earendil. I always like to use music, including ambients and sound effects.

To me, there are two main uses for such things. One is ambients such as what Giskard did with 'Kvatch' and that was to have things like Cathedral music and bar music in his city locations. You can develop this idea so that you have sound effects for certain areas. For example, I recently acquired a watermill model that came equipped with 'swishing water', logs creaking' and 'wooden hammers pounding'.

Secondly, and one of my favourites, but often overlooked, is to have 'thematic' music that merges with either the arrival of a character or signals the beginning or end of a new Chapter/Mission. I've had a few things to hand for a while that I've been aching to use. It just adds that extra bit of class.

However, I have no idea how others feel about this and SACarrow is your main man for everything sound-based, as far as I know. My advice is to go hunting for something useful. If you contact quest-makers, they might indicate an appropriate juncture of their plot or a particular location in which the action is set, in which you can practise your art. Of course, some may not like the idea of using music but I guess it's a case of personal preference.

Your other possibility is to see RW about suitable locations for your music. I'm sure he would consider something for the Temples. Besides RW, there's always others who are creating unusual buildings or interiors.

So I think it's a case of keeping an eye for what's going to be a good application of your skills.

[sandor]

Originally posted by earendil
Is there any need for any background music? I am an amateur composer of symphonic and chamber music and could use a 'commission' =).

Yes, for Steadhelm and Silgrad city, the music will be played inside the interiors.

Originally posted by SACarrow
It was my impression that BethSoft's crude handling of music made it very difficult to do new music without wholesale replacement of the original music.

Some related info.

[earendil]

Ah! A commission!

Is there any specifics about the music you'd like? Particular mood: melancholic, pastoral, energetic, ect? Any particular melodies or motifs? Do you want it to evoke a particular mood?

I use rather simple means to create the music files. I make a MIDI using a program called Cakewalk, then record it with Audacity.

I will endeavor to work diligently and with celerity. Thank you for the request.

[sandor]

@earendil
I sent a PM.

[earendil]

I have made 2 tracks so far. I coded them in mp3 but the files are too big (~25mb), so I have to compress them before posting.

Here are the midi files:

[sandor]

Nice work!

I'll send a PM for the other tracks.