Custom music?

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DevUrandom
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Re: Custom music?

Post by DevUrandom »

Well, without the .wav or .flac files or whatever you used, the result of a convert to .ogg won't be very good...

I use MEncoder, btw. A VERY well done piece of software with support for nearly any codec you can think of. I recommend everyone to not purchase it and donate something to the authors instead. ;)
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Per »

Chojun - I think the Collective2 and Shaovin tracks are really good. However, in the Collective2 track, it sounds like the heaviest drum beat is horribly downsampled or something. It starts at 0:24. Other than that, I think it would make an awesome menu/intro track.
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Chojun »

Thanks, Per.  I think Shaovin is the best track that I've done.  I put a lot of time into the "atmosphere" of the song.  I've never really considered it 100% complete, so if you would really like to make it a permanent part of the game, then I always could modify it (if desired).

The original idea behind the song spawned from Papa Lazarou's (NEWST) old descriptions of some of the in-story factions of Total War Zone.  The Shaovin were supposed to be from a desert land, so I tried to work on an Egyptian "feel."  Anyway, the song was supposed to be dynamic menu music, which is an idea that I came up with, that I haven't really seen used in any games.

I don't by any means plan on patenting the idea :), and I'd LOVE (underemphasis) to see it implemented in Warzone.  It shouldn't be too difficult to implement if the music is specially developed for the concept.  This means that any of the music afficionados around here could easily contribute.

Essentially, the idea stems around the song dynamically changing as the user follows the main menus of the game.  At the top menu, the music would be low, introductory, and slow.  With each mouse click, the song ramps up.  This continues until the game is loading, at which time the song will be playing at its fullest/heaviest/loudest/fastest.  You get the idea.  If the user backs out one menu, then the song slows, etc.

So, I'll apply this to my Shaovin track, since it was essentially written for the idea.  I will also explain what the musicians would expect as far as development, if they wished to write a track to implement this idea.  Grab out a copy of Shaovin and try to follow along.  I'll give track times so it might help if you can pull it up with software that lets you seek to specific times by the click of a mouse (Soundforge, Adobe Audition/Cool Edit Pro).

Keep in mind that the exact sections described are offered by concept only-- obviously Shaovin would need to be written differently to accomodate looping.  When in each menu section, the song would continue to loop until a new menu is reached, and the loop has completed playing.

Title Screen: 0:0.00 - 0:18.30

Warzone doesn't have a title screen per-se (title in the sense of copyright/legal info, for Warzone these are FMV which weren't released with the source).  This would play over any title splash or whatever.  18 seconds for the loop is a little long, but I assume you get the general feel of this section of the song.

Main Menu: 0:18.30 - 0:36.83

The song picks up a little by introducing a melody or some sort of general sound or feel by which the whole track will be characterized.  Nothing special or exciting.. It's only the main menu!

Multiplayer/Single-Player Skirmish/Options/Etc: 0:36.83 - 1:13.75

In most cases, the player has selected the type of game he/she wishes to play (or else they're going to reset the key mappings because a new, righteous patch has been released ;) ).  The song increases in complexity.

Game Parameters/Multiplayer Lobby/Etc:  1:13.75 - 1:48.00

The song adds a beat, becomes a little heavier.  This is all in anticipation...  We're about to start the most excellent game ever created.

Start Game/Loading Screen: 1:48.00 - 2:45.00

The song is at its heaviest.  The beat/guitars/drums/synth/whatever is at its loudest and best.

Now, it is important to keep in mind how long it takes an average user who knows what he/she wants to go/do to navigate through the menus.  Not very long.  Time yourself.  If I were to guess, I bet it would take me ABSOLUTE MAX 20-30 sec. to go from main menu to game-loading for a skirmish game.  My example above has taken us through nearly 3 minutes of track.  This wouldn't work in a real implementation, so it's time for the track writers to sacrifice a little.  The idea will work very well, but the only caveat is that the different menu song sections could be MAX 5-10 seconds in length (each).  They must be designed to loop, and each different section must be able to smoothly transition between themselves.

So, for instance, say the player starts by hearing the splash/title music.  By the time the user reaches the main menu, they have about 5 sec left on the title/splash section before the main menu section will begin playing.  Say they either have ADHD or have an urgent need to use the restroom, so they fly through 3 menus and arrive at the multiplayer lobby in 2.18 seconds.  They've skipped a bunch of song sections, so once the title/splash section completes its loop, the loop section corresponding with the MP lobby must begin playing.  Understand?  This is why the song sections must be able to cleanly transition from one to any other.

Anyway, let me know what you all think of this idea.  It would be awesome to see it working in-game.
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Chojun »

New version of the "Collective" song.

In this new version, i've changed a few things, but generally it sounds similar.

I've added some "atmosphere" to it.  You can hear as the collective are listening in on Project radio transmissions.  However, they're searching for something else...

The melody is redundant, but that's because it is a pain to do sequencing with the mouse in Reason.  I intend to buy a MIDI cable for my MIDI board so that I can just record the music by playing it on my board.  So kinda ignore the repetitiveness for now.

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gilmore/modules ... ctive3.mp3
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Rman Virgil »

Chojun wrote: New version of the "Collective" song.

In this new version, i've changed a few things, but generally it sounds similar.

I've added some "atmosphere" to it.  You can hear as the collective are listening in on Project radio transmissions.  However, they're searching for something else...

The melody is redundant, but that's because it is a pain to do sequencing with the mouse in Reason.  I intend to buy a MIDI cable for my MIDI board so that I can just record the music by playing it on my board.  So kinda ignore the repetitiveness for now.

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gilmore/modules ... ctive3.mp3

* Well conjured atmosphere, fiting for the WZ world and "hive-like", insectoid, nature of collectives ... seamless layering of elements, gradually introduced and building in timbre and tempo (reminicent of ELO & Pink Floyd musicianship)  - look foward to listening while playing... That omnious, synth sounding voice made me feel I was in Dr Reeds presence.

Cheers, rv :)
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Re: Custom music?

Post by DevUrandom »

Michael, I just listened to Reconn:
The "chorus" is intended to not have clear tunes, but instead this [...Hard to describe...] grumlng wafting mass of not seperated deep-sounds... (Sorry, can't describe it better. Limited language and so on... Certainly shall not be an affront, if it might look like that.)
In general the song is really good and also I like the higher tones in the "chorus", I am just unsure about the deep-grmling-mass. It adds an interesting feeling, though. Or is that only my bad sound-system which can't seperate the sounds in the song?

PS: Maybe you want to add some info to this page: http://www.last.fm/music/Tonal+Discrepancy
(Was automatically created when my amaroK submited my played tracks to last.fm...)
And maybe some others might want to add more tags? I tagged you "industrial, soundtrack, instrumental", though I am not sure if this is correct from a musicians point of view.

EDIT: I just listened to Reconn on my iPod... It seems as if the bass-mass was at least partly caused by my PC's boxes... (Logitech Z4)
Last edited by DevUrandom on 08 Feb 2007, 01:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Custom music?

Post by BlackAlpha »

michaelb, WOW! Your music is really good! All of them are pretty good but I especially like Fire and Slaughter. Orchestral music is awesome. Even more awesome is orchestral mixed with some kind of electic. Chojun your music is also really awesome! Collective2 and 3 (I don't got 1) are really good. I don't really like the bass in those songs though. A bass that is more "clear" with less noise would've been better in my opinion.
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Re: Custom music?

Post by LevelOneHundred »

Please help where can I download more Warzone 2100 game sound...
like here:
http://worldforceclan.com/warzonesounds.html

Or is there a way where I can extract the files in Warzone file folder to get the sounds?!
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Terminator »

in main file warzone.wz/audio    - there is all sounds in ogg format
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Re: Custom music?

Post by LevelOneHundred »

Image
:D

I'm using Windows OS, how can I extract this file to get the sound?

Image
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Kamaze »

Rename it to warzone.zip and open it with your favorite zip programm. (WinZip, 7zip, WinRAR etc...)
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Re: Custom music?

Post by LevelOneHundred »

;D ;D ;D ;D
Thanks... now eye know... ahahahaha...
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Re: Custom music?

Post by lav_coyote25 »

Kamaze wrote: Rename it to warzone.zip and open it with your favorite zip programm. (WinZip, 7zip, WinRAR etc...)

actually if you add .wz to the file types that zip / rar / 7z / etc.... just double clicking it will automatically open. ;)
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Re: Custom music?

Post by Chojun »

Well, the semester just ended today and I'm free to make some more music :)

So, here is a little something for Troman.


http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gilmore/modules ... ndPost.mp3

Let me know what you all think.  If you aren't familiar with this track, then check out troman's post toward the beginning of this thread.

BTW, this track isn't finished yet...
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