Rate the M2TW Music

[Divinus Arma]

What do you think of the M2TW music so far?

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

I'm so impressed by M2TW's music that I have my own iTunes playlist of it, ripped from the soundtrack CD. If van Dyck made this one, I have to really hand it to him, because it's a great accomplishment.

[Darth Nihilus]

Very good music. By far the best music I've heard on a game.

[Lusted]

Agreed, it is wonderful music. Im actually listening to the audio cd i got in the CE when not playing the game as i love the music.

[Sir Robin]

I actually like MTW and VI's music more than RTW. I also like MTW and VI's music more than M2TW. Granted M2TW's music is good, I am listening to the soundtrack at work, but it seems a little too refined. Hard to describe accurately but MTW's and especially VI's music seemed a little edgier.

[Myrddraal]

VI's music rocked. Ahhh I used to make my vikings march just a few steps forward at the start of every battle just to get that stuff going.

And the eastern music for MTW :thumbsup:

[Orda Khan]

Let's be fair, all the TW games have featured good music. For me the haunting flute during deployment in STW was the most dramatic. It really drew you into the battle

......Orda

[Dutch_guy]

Hmm I don't quite like M2TW music as I did Rome's, or Medieval's. I found it to get a bit annoying when heard for extended periods of time, that said, it isn't that bad at all ~:)

:balloon2:

[The Spartan (Returns)]

dont have M2 yet but from the demo it has the best music so far! i really like the battle, tension, and interface music.it is so good i added it to my modded RTW.

[Arbaces]

The music quality is dropping with each TW game.
M1TWs sound quality - Outstanding
RTWs sound quality - Good
M2TWs sound quality - MEDIOCRE

Arbaces.

[GrandInquisitor]

Rome's was my favorite. MTW and VI were good, but Rome seemed so much more epic and dynamic. I made the mistake of listening to M2's before I played the game, and that always skews my opinion at first. That said, I'm liking Medieval 2's better as I play it. It's not quite as dynamic as Rome's, but it's just so...fitting for the game -- gorgeous. It's probably my second favorite overall, but it's a close second.

I'd say the quality is increasing with the Total Wars I've played (MTW/VI, Rome/BI, and M2 in that order).

[Navaros]

I'd say mediocre on average, how come that's not a poll option?

Some of it is very good (mostly the campaign map) but a lot of the battle music is medicore in my view either in the score itself, or because of the tools they used to implement it into the game (ie: doesn't sound like it was played by real instruments).

[Sheogorath]

I would say that MTW1's music was much better than MTW2's, with STW somewhere between. RTW's music just kinda sucked to me.

How come thats not an option? :P

[frogbeastegg]

M2TW's music is easily on a level with STW's and MTW/VI's. I didn't like RTW's one bit; it was bland, boring and boring. There also seems to be a bit more diversity for faction's music; the music I'm getting as Venice is different to the music I had as England. In the older games those factions would have been lumped together and hearing the same Catholic music set.

My only grumble is that the music CD which comes with the collector's edition doesn't have all the tracks.

[Salazar]

Better than Rome, on par with mtw, (very slightly) worse than stw. :laugh4:

[metatron]

I actually like MTW and VI's music more than RTW. I also like MTW and VI's music more than M2TW. Granted M2TW's music is good, I am listening to the soundtrack at work, but it seems a little too refined. Hard to describe accurately but MTW's and especially VI's music seemed a little edgier.Absolutely.

[Woozie]

I love it, I wish I knew how to rip the soundtrack.

[blahblahblah]

Love the Menu music for MTW the most. It seemed so dark, so sullen, it just fits the Medieval period perfectly.

[EvilNed]

Second best in the series, after MTW. Followed by Rome. Shoguns wasn't that great.

[Dayve]

In my own personal opinion, the music in this game is utter ...moderator edit.

Would somebody kindly explain to me how to put in the original MTW music (best medieval type music ever) into this game? I'd be very grateful.

[Senta]

not as good as Rome imo

[Whacker]

The poll doesn't have the option I'd like, plus I'm still a j.m. so I can't vote.

I'm of the opinion that all of the TW games have had outstanding music. The mongol mobilization music in STW was outstanding. I'd cycle the seasonal backgrounds through winamp just doing work, they were beautiful to listen to. Orda mentioned the flute intro which was great. I don't have the mp3 on this machine, but I believe tension 3 was one of my favorites as well, I don't know what that instrument is but it's awesome when done well.

MTW was yet another worthy successor, the main menu theme was utterly outstanding, it had a ... gritty, for lack of a better term, feel to it, and if one wanted to let themselves be immersed, you could almost imagine yourself 800 years back in a cathedral, listening to some gregorian chant. The islamic faction tension music was also awesome, especially the one that began with the woman's voice.

I gotta disagree a bit with her royal frogness on RTW's music. :grin: The campaign map background for the non-eastern factions got a bit old quick I'll agree, but the eastern winter was awesome to listen to. The Carthaginian intro theme was also one of my favorites. The other thing I have to give credit to RTW for is that in general the music seemed to be very appropriate for the time period. The main menu theme just felt.. well, roman. :yes:

M2TW's music is also another worthy addition to the series, the two main menu themes are great. They don't listen the same as the MTW theme, but they have the same feel and add a bit of a modern twist. The rest of the music hasn't blown me away, but it's definitely nice to listen to. I think all in all Jeff's done a great job throughout the series.

Cheers!

[Spendius]

I love it ! Pope music !

[KhaderKhan]

I actually like MTW and VI's music more than RTW. I also like MTW and VI's music more than M2TW. Granted M2TW's music is good, I am listening to the soundtrack at work, but it seems a little too refined. Hard to describe accurately but MTW's and especially VI's music seemed a little edgier.

Me too, the music on MTW1 is alot better then RTW and even better then MTW2

[Subedei]

Well, ain´t it hard to describemusic with words....:laugh4: I loved the music pieces for the Islamic factions in MTW , something to low ride on a camel & shoot 'em Christian crusaders.


For MTW2:
Did only hear the music pieces of HRE & liked it. Yesterday started the Turks and still gotta get into the groove, but I guess me & my camel will have a couple of good dances with the forsaken Bzyantines and all them infidels.

[Il Duce]

Does anyone know if you can get some of the music from other TW games (like Rome) into M2TW?

[Gorm]

I love it, I wish I knew how to rip the soundtrack.

Download the freeware called Audacity (they have both PC and Mac versions). Find and open the music file in the data folder. It will be one long file in Audacity. You can then choose sections and export as a WMV or mp3 file. Either will play in iTunes. In fact, once in iTunes, you can covert the WMV file to an mp3 to play on an iPod or any other device. :smiley2:

[Shahed]

It is on my iPod.

I use it at the gym, I use it when I'm running, I wish I could use it in the swimming pool. It energizes and inspires me.
I can push harder and further when that music is on. It's awesome.

Link for music extraction instructions (complementing your post Gorm, this might help you Froggy):
http://total-war-campaign-chronicles.blogspot.com/2006/10/mini-guide-about-how-extracting-audio.html

[Forward Observer]

The Audacity program is pretty nice for a freebe, thanks for the links.


All of Jeff VanDyke's stuff is good and a lot of it is really great.

I like several themes from the Medieval 2 game--especially the ending credits vocal and the Spanish sounding music, but I will say that overall, the first Medieval game simply had a larger number of memorable tracks---and as Sir Robin pointed out, it does have an edge to it that the music in MTW2 simply does not.

Cheers

[Quickening]

My only grumble is that the music CD which comes with the collector's edition doesn't have all the tracks.

And those tracks aren't even named. They're just "track 1", track 2" etc.

I love the music in M2TW just as I did MTW and Rome.

[frogbeastegg]

Could someone give a frog an idiot level guide to using Audacity? I am able to get the big music file playing, and to highlight the section I want and copy it. It won't let me paste it anywhere, in a new window or otherwise. Nor will it let me advance through the hours long track at anything except standard playing speed. Audacity's help file is useless.

[Shahed]

Could someone give a frog an idiot level guide to using Audacity? I am able to get the big music file playing, and to highlight the section I want and copy it. It won't let me paste it anywhere, in a new window or otherwise. Nor will it let me advance through the hours long track at anything except standard playing speed. Audacity's help file is useless.

Greetings Froggy

There are a few ways of doing this. I'll post what I think is the simplest:

Extracting Audio to WAV
1. Open Audacity.
2. File -> Open /M2:TW/data/sounds/music.dat
3. Select any part of the file.
4. File -> Export Selection as WAV
5. Name the file -> save

Now you can play this in any standard media player.

Zoom In
You can zoom in using the zoom in button on the top toolbar towards the right. Mouse over and it says "zoom in", little magnifying glass with a plus sign. It's just below the microphone level bar. You can now advance the track easier as you can zoom to any time level you like. When zoomed in you can easily see the start and end of any song.

Playback Speed
To make it advance faster, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one, yet. When I do I'll post it for you, or if anyone knows, post up please. There is a way I know but this is not what you meant, or are looking for.

1. Highlight Selection
2. Effect -> Change Speed

Converting directly to MP3
Another option is to download and install the LAME dll (http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html), then you can export to .mp3 (File -> export selection as MP3) directly from Audacity.

Does that help ?
If you have any further questions -> weapons free. I'll try to help.

Salute !

PEOPLE !!! I need the lyrics for the track at 1:15 to 2:25. Can someone pleae tell me where I can find them ? It is the "Euro defeat" song, with the incredible symphonic. Alternatively if someone knows the lyrics could you type them out please ? The ideal is, of course, a link to the lyrics for the whole album.

Many thanks in advance.

[Bongaroo]

Good music but just like any video game it gets played out and tired. i run winamp with my music and mute the game music usually.

[Furious Mental]

The music in Total War games has always been excellent. Probably the only aspect of the game which no one complains about. But my favourite track is and always will be one of the marching tracks from Shogun.

YooooOOOOoooooooooo
YoooooOOOooooooOOOOOO
Yo ho ho yo ho
Yo ho ho yo ho

And so on. I always wondered what the hell that guy was doing anyway.

[Garnier]

I dont like M2 music. Its not dramatic, its boring.. Doesnt feel very medieval to me either.

I listen to MTW1 music all the time while playing M2.

[Shahed]

I really enjoy listening to the soundtrack from Curse of the Golden Flower (http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/curseofthegoldenflower/theatrical_large.html) (requires Quicktime) as well.
It's a great movie and the soundtrack is brilliant, very dramatic, heroic, potent. It is subtle though and not all tracks are combat tracks.

[frogbeastegg]

Extracting Audio to WAV
1. Open Audacity.
2. File -> Open /M2:TW/data/sounds/music.dat
3. Select any part of the file.
4. File -> Export Selection as WAV
5. Name the file -> save

It won't let me export the selection; the option is greyed out for every format. ~:(

[Shahed]

It won't let me export the selection; the option is greyed out for every format. ~:(

I'm not sure what the reason for this is.

I've tried with my program and attempted to reproduce a scenario in which I will not be given the option to export, but it's not happening. I can export at any time. I would like to elaborate on step 3. You hold left click down and mouse over a portion of the file.

I've uploaded a screenshot.
Can you please have a look and see if you spot any differences from your screen (note the grey selection on the music track):



https://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ShahedK/MTW2%20General/audacity1.jpg


By the way are my spolier tags working ?

[Shahed]

I think I've got it Froggy.

Your export option is greyed out because the file is in play or pause mode. It has to be in stop mode in order to export. Hit your stop button (yellow square), then try export as wav.

Hope that helps.

[edyzmedieval]

The Collectors Edition has the soundtrack CD inside.

I find the M2TW music repetitive. It's fairly good, but still MTW and STW music was by FAR the best music.

[Marius Dynamite]

By M2TW music do you mean the music when on campaign map, battle map, menu screen or just every piece of music?

Personally I don't like them and find them repetitive. I prefer turning the sound down and playing some other songs on media player in the background. I never knew so many people loved them though, so I'll listen again.

[Gorm]

And those tracks aren't even named. They're just "track 1", track 2" etc.

I love the music in M2TW just as I did MTW and Rome.


I used iTunes to import the music files from the bonus CD and it named each track based on the online CD database.

[Betito]

My rating's something like this

1. MTW1
2. MTW2
3. RTW

I can't give an opinion for STW as i never played it.. i guess it was on par with MTW1, but i don't know for sure


For me, nothing beats VI and Arab Battle music from MTW1 (Hell, i even have arab battle 3 as ringtone~D)

[Shahed]

Yeah I loved that too. I've still got them.

[Malcolm Big Head]

So hard not to vote GAH.
I like it. Best so far.

[il-principe]

Compared to RTW or especially RTW: BI the music is abysmal. Definitely the greatest of MTW2

[frogbeastegg]

I think I've got it Froggy.

Your export option is greyed out because the file is in play or pause mode. It has to be in stop mode in order to export. Hit your stop button (yellow square), then try export as wav.

Hope that helps.
Ah ha! Spot on. Quite counter-intuitive, that. Thanks.

[Martok]

I would have to rate the game soundtracks as follows:

1.) Shogun
2.) Rome
3.) MTW
4.) Medieval 2

For me, Shogun's music simply can't be beat. It's the most evocative and adds an tremendous amount of atmosphere and immersiveness, regardless of whether you're talking about the battle music or the campaign music.

I find Rome's soundtrack to be uniformly excellent all around. In fact, it's the only TW title for which I really wish I had the soundtrack on CD. (I know CA used to have Rome's soundtrack available for purchase at one point. I wonder if it still does?) It just really captures that "epic" feel.

The music in MTW is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I either really like it or really *don't* like it, depending on which track you're talking about. The Muslim and Viking music rocks hardcore, but I only really enjoy about 50% of the European music. The rest of it is okay, but nothing special; the Europeans' campaign music in particular I find to be rather mediocre. Still, MTW's music is overall very solid, especially in terms of adding atmosphere & immersion.

The music in Medieval 2 is good -- not great, but good. To echo what a couple others here have said, the sountrack feels a little....overdone. I agree with Sir Robin's view that the music in MTW being "edgier", whereas M2TW's soundtrack almost feels too "smooth" in a way. It still *sounds* medieval-ish, but it doesn't quite grip me the way the music in the first three titles do.


Of course to be fair, my saying that the music in M2 is the "worst" out of the series would somewhat akin to claiming that a Ford Mustang was worse than a Viper, Corvette, & Porsche. ~;) Jeff Van Dyke is still clearly very good at what he does, and I hope he continues to do the music for the TW series for many years to come. ~:thumb:

[Shahed]

Martok I like the STW music also. May need to dig up the CD and try to install it. Actually I like all the TW music, RTW as well.

Froggy, happy to be of assistance.

[Fußball]

I very much enjoy the M2TW music. I occasionally listen to the soundtrack I have from time to time to get more into the feel of the game. I also enjoy the STW soundtrack a lot. The intense drumbeat song mixed with the vocals when your troops began marching is very inspiring.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Tamur]

For me, Shogun's music simply can't be beat. It's the most evocative and adds an tremendous amount of atmosphere and immersiveness, regardless of whether you're talking about the battle music or the campaign music.

Very well said, I'll just say, "Entirely agreed."

And reading this made me realise, even if the game doesn't run anymore I can still get the STW music off the disks (without an extractor even). Huzzah!

[Czar Alexsandr]

I'm not certain if Russia has it's own unique music. (and no just Russia really but eastren europe and the Danes.) Have unique music. I think they do but I can't be certain.

Anyways I love the music, France, England, Germany, the Mediteranian nations, Islamic factions, and Eastren europe factions have excellent music!

I like it it adds depth. I love the losing music to.. lol. Russia hears it alot for me against thosse dreadfull Mongols. It makes thosse last stands more memorable to. I can still remember everything about when Mikhail died defending Iasi.. or Issac in my Byzantines campaign that died traveling with the cavalry that never met up with the main army. I almost always have a Islamic faction campaign going to cause I find the music strangely relaxing. Every faction has music that just fits them. France seems more french with it. Makes me go and fight for French glory. lol. I just like it. Excellent soundtrack, like you'd expect from a TW game.

[pike master]

only music i ve heard so far didnt sound to good to me.:no:

[Grande Orso]

The background music in the campaign map is good, but I wish there would be more variety during battles.

[LordKhaine]

Seems that much like the gameplay itself.. people still can't make up their mind which has the best music! :laugh4:

But anyway.. I've really liked all the music in the games. I thought MTW had great music generally, though it was really the Islamic and Viking Invasion music that stood out. RTW was good too, though perhaps a bit more hit and miss than MTW. Some tracks on it were very bleh, but I others (such as the eastern track mentioned above) were very beautiful and moving. And in general the RTW atmospheric tracks were perfect. MTW was a very smooth soundtrack, with a few stand out tracks as well. All good stuff!

But when all is said and done, I'd have to go with Shogun for best music. Perhaps it's because the themes of Rome and Medieval Europe are fairly familiar to me, while Japan was something of a mystery. And the music set the scene of that mystery so well.

[Tora]

But my favourite track is and always will be one of the marching tracks from Shogun.

YooooOOOOoooooooooo
YoooooOOOooooooOOOOOO
Yo ho ho yo ho
Yo ho ho yo ho

And so on. I always wondered what the hell that guy was doing anyway.

Is that the same track as

Chop pop pop chop pop
Chop pop pop chop pop?

Shogun has the most atmospheric battle music as well as one of the best campaign tracks, Summer (barking dog, heron(?) calling, flute etc).

MTW: Arab campaign music(female vocals)

VI: Vikings marching music.

I particularly dislike the music in the latter stages of a MTW2 battle - cheesy, reedy organ and droning male choir etc - which, combined with the commentator's irrelevant histrionics is a good enough reason to have no sound at all.

[Fußball]

Agreed wholeheartedly, Shogun's musical score is very immersive. The end theme credits track ( which is also one of the the battle march tracks ) is my most favorite. And then the more electronic traditional mix during the end of the campaign victory movie...breathtaking. I am starting to miss STW again, it is unfortunate I am not able to play it. :no:

Tschüß!
Erich