EB Music Preview

[Krusader]

Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans.


https://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8473/musicpreview1yn0.jpg

As briefly seen and mentioned in our previous preview, EB v0.8 will feature new music for our different culture groups. We have replaced *all* the music from the vanilla version of the mod at this point with new music from our composers. For a long time, we have tried to work with composers to create a soundtrack that we thought better reflected what we were doing with the mod as a whole. Many of us still really enjoy the music written for RTW itself and Jeff van Dyck did a wonderful job with that aspect of the game we believe. But we have added so much new material to the mod and we have given entire culture groups so much new material that it seems a shame to force them to share one of three basic themes: "roman" "barbarian" and "eastern"). Now we have (to generally label them) Roman, Greek, Barbarian, Nomadic, Carthaginian, Eastern, and Eastern Greek cultures. Each culture group has their own graphical user interface (GUI) and their own set of traits and units and buildings (though there is much overlap also in some of those areas). Giving each culture group its own musical style was also something we have long hoped for, but it was something until quite recently that we thought we would probably never achieve. But a few months ago we began a conversation with Morgan Casey (http://www.morgancasey.com) that would ultimately lead to a collaberation with her and Nick Wylie (http://nickwylie.com) whose results we are absolutely ecstatic about.

Morgan and Nick worked with our historical advisors each step of the way - trying to come up with a soundtrack for each culture group (as well as a few general pieces that would have to serve for all culture groups) that would reflect different aspects of that culture while still remaining enjoyable for modern ears and audiences. If anyone has heard reconstructions of ancient Greek music, they probably understand that a 100% authentic reproduction (even *if* it was able to be achieved, and it probably wouldn't) would simply not work in the context that we needed: that of an accompanying set of themes for a computer game in today's world. As Morgan and Nick primarily work with soundtracks (take a look at their lists of influences on their myspace.com pages and you will notice many modern movie score composers), they used our advisors' suggestions of everything from instruments, to rhythms, to vocal accompaniement to create compositions that work well within the parameters of the game, but still reflect as much as we can different aspects of that culture in the music. As an example, one member recently described the Carthaginian theme's similarities to the different source music and information provided about the culture group in this way (btw, Carthaginian music itself is so difficult to reproduce that music of other similar peoples in the Levant was also heavily considered): "you will recognize a bunch of elements: the simple harmony, the rhythm, the ney-like flute, the qanun-like stringed instrument and even the un-measured section at the end. The thing, I believe, is that the composer (as he has consistently done before, btw) has produced a very successful fusion with more "western" elements, so that the music does not strike an "average listener" as "wierd". But the touches of color and, more importantly, the ethos are there, IMO. Listen to the theme once more, now picture sunset and a long line of dromedaries slowly winding their way down the sand dunes towards a distant oasis (with EB palms of course)."

This area of the mod finally having come to fruition is something that we are all so very very pleased with that we want to share a little more of it with the fans and free up some songs that Morgan and Nick can place on their websites (before the release of 0.8 - which will include all of the new music). Needless to say, we are really happy for the music composed for us by Morgan Casey & Nick Wylie and we are very happy to suggest that folks out there take a closer look at their other work on their websites and their myspace.com pages too.

The speed at which they have written new music for us has been amazing also, especially considering our prior situation and how hopeless we thought the situation was. The entire EB team will always be grateful for the excellent music they have produced. It fits so well with what we have been wanting to do with EB on the whole and with what we can expect our players and fans to enjoy in the mod. We wanted to express our thanks openly and give everyone a chance to hear this for yourself! On behalf of EB, thanks again to our composers for adding this crucial element to the mod that we have been hoping for for such a long time.

Here are some buttons to link to (individually for the songs):



Roman Music Set:
https://img104.imageshack.us/img104/5740/romanmusicmaincc2.jpg (http://morgancasey.com/EB/Roman_Theme.mp3)
https://img104.imageshack.us/img104/6020/romanmusicbattleju6.jpg (http://morgancasey.com/EB/Roman_Battle_Theme.mp3)
https://img104.imageshack.us/img104/1724/romanmusicmobilizationqp5.jpg (http://morgancasey.com/EB/Roman_Mobilize.mp3)


Eastern Greek Music Set:
https://img318.imageshack.us/img318/8936/egreekmusicmaindt8.jpg (http://nickwylie.com/EB/Eastern_Greek_Theme.mp3)
https://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5622/egreekmusicbattleuz8.jpg (http://nickwylie.com/EB/Eastern_Greek_Battle_Theme.mp3)
https://img326.imageshack.us/img326/6503/egreekmusicmobilizationpe6.jpg (http://nickwylie.com/EB/Eastern_Greek_Mobilize.mp3)

And to refresh your memory:
https://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6706/nomadmusicmainbl9.jpg (http://morgancasey.com/EB/Nomadic_Theme.mp3)

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Thanks to Teleklos Archelaou for making the graphics for this preview.

We hope you have enjoyed this music preview.

As always, if you have questions or comments, the best place to post them is here, where the EB team is most active:

Europa Barbarorum ORG forum (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=70)

Europa Barbarorum TWC forum (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=31)

We give special thanks to Imageshack (http://www.imageshack.us) that provides us with a simple, foolproof, and free way to show you all these pictures each week.

Have a great day!


Sincerely,

The Europa Barbarorum team.

[abou]

All six of those tracks sound incredible, but I don't know yet if I like them more than what was in RTW vanilla, which may be because the music in vanilla wasn't as complex as this. It may sound odd, but I don't know if I want something as rich as this distracting me from actual gameplay; after all, I am a musician myself and would probably stop playing just to listen to the music.:laugh4:

Regardless, both composers did a fantastic job writing and recording this music and I am anxious to hear more of what they have in store.

[orwell]

I kind of agree with abou, the vanilla music was fine, something to enjoy while commanding, but this adds another layer to the already magnificent EB, to the point where I might end up paying more attention to it than my battle. Excellent work by both of you, I'm really looking forward to playing with this in-game.

[Musopticon?]

TWCenter already has me on post-frenzy about this. I don't think I need to repeat that. Suffice to say that this has been a multifacetedly awesome experience.:balloon2:

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Excellent, I can hear a littl Gladiator in the Roman main theme though. Is that a good or a bad thing?

[Conqueror]

Is the "theme" the music that plays in the background when on the campaign map? If so, they should be changed. The campaign background music should be something that you can keep on listening ad infinitum. Good as these themes are, they aren't quite that kind of music. In the long run they'd get on my nerves I think.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We don't expect anyone to listen to one song looped forever on the campaign map. There will be others cycled in like the vanilla version does. If you listened to one vanilla theme looped forever it would "get on your nerves" too.

The music will not be changed. The EB team is thrilled with what we have and has offered ideas, source music samples, and many suggestions along the way in the creation. We are providing a sample of the music here, but we are not going to be taking any suggestions and asking our composers to change anything - not gonna happen. :bow:

[Foot]

Also, you have not heard them in game. Personally, after hearing them in game, they sounded 100 times better than I thought they would have. Morgan and Nick have done a fantastic job, and the speed in which they did ... astounding!

Foot

[Reenk Roink]

Why are you so good to us?

[Warlord 11]

I love it! :balloon2:

[Joeokar]

This calls for balloons for all :balloon2: :balloon2: :balloon2:

[Wardo]

Nice music!

:balloon2: :balloon2:

I feel a touch, probably unintentional, of MTW, great for my nostalgia. :2thumbsup:

[Divinus Arma]

You guys haven't even heard half of it yet. I won't give any secrets away, but lets just say that these songs are just a small preview of the whole set.

The ability of these composers to introduce cultural variety infused with local historical elements has been stunning. :2thumbsup:

[Orb]

Stunning, truly stunning!

:balloon2: :balloon2: :balloon2:

And it makes me want to be a nomad!

[fallen851]

Well vanilla was pretty good, this is at least as good in my opinion (probably better I'll have to wait to play the game with them first), and will be a really nice refreshing change.

[Dâriûsh]

Wow. Great stuff! :2thumbsup:

[Cybvep]

(...) and will be a really nice refreshing change.
Oh, yeah, refreshing. I'm personally sick of Vanilla music. I've played RTW for a loooooooong time, I think that sounds and music are very important (much more important that graphics... For me, at least...) , and I'm sick of Vanilla music because of the fact, that most mods didn't change it. Oh, yes, SPQR added it's own music (actually, it's borrowed from another game about Rome, but who cares...). SPQR added about 4 tracks... Sic... Oh, yes, RTR also changed the music, but, you know, this is RTR~;) and, to be honest, I didn't like new music from RTR mod... Anyway, I like the EB music. It's refreshing, original, well-fitting and interesting. I'm also glad that you changed GUIs (I'm not a graphical freak, but this is another, refreshing change). Now make the "battle sounds" louder and it will be great.

I'm glad that 0.8 will be SO much better than 0.7x, which already was very good. So many good changes...

Cheers:2thumbsup:

[Geoffrey S]

Very nice. Who did which culture set? It sounds like one person did Roman, the other Eastern Hellenic.

Also, which factions fall under Eastern Hellenic? I'd assume it's Baktria, Seleucids, and Ptolemies.

Edit: though it has to be said, I prefer the Eastern Hellenic themes to the Roman ones. Roman ones just sound a little too sedate and repetetive to me, with one particular theme being overdone. Still amazed that this music suddenly turns up out of the blue, superb work!

I wasn't so keen on the original RTW music, especially compared to the more suitable MTW themes. These new compositions are definitely on par with the MTW music, the Eastern Hellenic themes sound even better! Just perfectly suitable to the region and the place in the mod; my personal favourite is still the nomad theme.

Is there also going to be some kind of EB theme for the main menu? And is there any chance of the voiceovers being replaced, the annoying ones after a battle?

[Cybvep]

Very nice. Who did which culture set? It sounds like one person did Roman, the other Eastern Hellenic.

Also, which factions fall under Eastern Hellenic? I'd assume it's Baktria, Seleucids, and Ptolemies.
Morgan Casey - Roman music
Nick Wylie - Eastern Hellenic music

And you are right about the factions...

[Darkarbiter]

I liked the MTW music loads and the RTW music not quite as much but thought it was still really great. Not too keen on the roman music but the hellenic music sounds pretty nice. I personally dont really like the nomadic music though but thats just my opinion. Also i think maybe at least 3 main "themes" need to be added as i cant really see myself listening to that 1'51 of music looped indefinitly for an hour. Take MTW for example i think they had like 3 bits of music for each religion like putting rain into the background of one kind of in time to the music sounds really cool imo opinion too like in mtw.

[Ptolomey]

Awesome theme`s ,now EB is the first Mod with a really good soundtrack ,that
would be accepted by me without adding much movie stuff myself :laugh4:

great job from the composers ~;)

[Teleklos Archelaou]

There is a main theme of course but we aren't releasing it till 0.8 is out. Some themes will be grouped so that you won't hear the same single song over and over looped endlessly. Some are more naturally grouped than others (e.g., the eastern culture can also have the eastern greek and the carthaginian and maybe the nomad - not sure yet - looped on the campaign map and all sound pretty natural). Some cultures are harder, but we aren't going to have anyone listen to one track looped endlessly. :grin:

[Birka Viking]

Realy nice music EB. This is truly the best mod ever to RTW. I have only played EB since the release and will keep on doing that lol. Realy great work EB team. :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

[Kampfduck]

guys, this i great stuff! the music used for the greek is superb!

[Mithradates]

What would be cool but most likely impossible would be to have area specific music so say your in rome u get the rome theme. I know this is probably impossible but i thought i would say it because it sounded like a good idea.

[the_handsome_viking]

The Roman theme seems very intimidating and powerful, like a titan wading through the oceans.

[blacksnail]

Area-specific music isn't possible, unfortunately.

[Tyfus]

I know this a pretty obvious post but I just really want to know that the battlefield music is going to be at least as powerful, and warlike, and impressively BIG as the vanilla battlefield music, if not even more so.

The clips so far sound pretty awesome and I can't wait to hear the whole set in game.

[Tyfus]

...oh yeah and when does mobilization music play during the game?

[-Praetor-]

When any of your army`s units is moving through the battle map.

[Lavastein]

I find the greek sound is too light if you will. im thinking about being in battle with them and playing the greek battle theme. Something doesnt fit. swords slashing, men screaming, cavalry charging and then i hear this and it sounds more like an after action report to me. the romans are fine. the sense of action is in the battle theme. I can feel myself ordering men into the flanks of my enemies, cutting my way through to the general. but not with the greek one. :shame: I say the greeks need harder sounds.

[Darkarbiter]

Just been comparing music from different games/mods I kind of find this music to be a little out of place for RTW compared to say the RTR music which I really liked or the MTW music. Still pretty good though and i havent heard all the stuff.

[Foot]

I've just been re-listening to all the nomadic stuff and I have to say that they seriously have the best sounding music that I have ever heard in a mod and in most games, this stuff is as good as the STW and MTW music (and they were good pieces). I am thoroughly impressed I really am.

I just wanted to say that.

Foot

[vizigothe]

I like the sound of the new music very much. Tell the composers they did a fine job.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I have all 26 pieces in a playlist on Windows Media Player and I constantly loop them and listen to them.

No changes will be made to the music now composed. EB has a full soundtrack and the EB members are still overjoyed by it.

[-Praetor-]

I think any criticism should be made AFTER the entire pack is released.

Everything else is premature.

Bye.

[NeoSpartan]

I think any criticism should be made AFTER the entire pack is released.

Everything else is premature.

Bye.

True.
I like this music so far, BUT I also like the RTW music (plus I am a bit of a loyalist myself). So I'll wait for the whole thing to come out.

[Darkarbiter]

Hey btw for those who didnt know theres some preveiws of the MTW2 music on the website just goto MTW2 then gallery then soundtracks they sound pretty nice imo.