Music

[Wikingus]

Okay, I've made a new topic.

If there are plans to change the vanilla RTW music with some much more kickass Norse folk music, I have lots of it at home, and am willing to contact any of the bands and ask for permission to use it in the mod (I'm sure that won't be a problem, but just to be sure).

Do any of you know any cool bands? IMO there are two ways this could be done, either:

-a more aggressive approach, with modern day instruments, but with a medieval touch (as suggested by skeletor, this has been done extremely well by several black metal bands, where Norse folk melodies and instruments were combined with a more aggressive modern sound)

-or a more traditional, straightforward approach with contemporary instruments

I would suggest the latter (did anyone play Force Commander? If so, you probably won't forget the crappy "metal" version of Imperial March), since it is far more realistic and mood-setting.
Some bands that I recommend in this matter:

-Hedningarna
-Fejd
-Krauka
-HOV
-many rock/metal bands also have phenomenally good folk songs on their CDs, appearing only as a single track on a few such releases, of these songs by Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Menhir and perhaps even Skyforger could be used


Any suggestions?

[skeletor]

For "army marching" in battlemode, Einherjer - Odin owns ye all - Leve Vikinggaarden. It's just a small music cut, but really cool. I wold like to hve some base in battlemode, but imo. original music wold be bether in menu/campaign mode.

-Skel-

[Wikingus]

For "army marching" in battlemode, Einherjer - Odin owns ye all - Leve Vikinggaarden. It's just a small music cut, but really cool. I wold like to hve some base in battlemode, but imo. original music wold be bether in menu/campaign mode.

-Skel-

Einherjer - Einherjesmarsjen is not shabby for that either

[ScionTheWorm]

Hey great initiative!

I agree that vanilla rome really doesn't have the right music. Here is my opinion on this...

-a more aggressive approach, with modern day instruments, but with a medieval touch (as suggested by skeletor, this has been done extremely well by several black metal bands, where Norse folk melodies and instruments were combined with a more aggressive modern sound)

I really love metal, but I just can't imagine myself or a lot of potencial players listen to blast beats or even modern drums while playing it... I can see it; Smoke on the water at the beginning of a battle... or Finntroll's "Jaktens tid"-intro... no...

-or a more traditional, straightforward approach with contemporary instruments

Yes I think so! Could of course use something with modern instruments (would be great to charge an army with a fading-in distortion), but I think the traditional thing is used widely in such games because that's what works best. And I mean, not Gladiator or Last of the Mohicans or anything, but not Burzum with "Daudir Baldir" either. Must be good. A lot of such things at MP3.com (at least before).

I'm also a big fan of minimalistic music, that is vague tones and soundeffects. Could give a dark feeling to the game, along with not overdramatizing (like in vanilla, there suddenly comes a dramatic soundtrack when really nothing is happening). When I think it over, this would be my vote.
Example-artist (got it from mp3.com some years ago): Silent watcher of dark matter. Or Bal-Sagoth's last album nr. 5 I think (something with Ghost of ...)

-many rock/metal bands also have phenomenally good folk songs on their CDs, appearing only as a single track on a few such releases, of these songs by Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Menhir and perhaps even Skyforger could be used

It just mustn't get cheesy. Not too melodic or folky in my opinion. We're going to hear these songs over and over and over...

By the way, Nile(!!!) would maybe fit for some of the cultures more to the south... (Karl Sanders (guitarist), Album: Saurian Meditation)

[Wikingus]

Oh yeah, Nile would be totally awesome, although because of the growl I think their instrumentals would be PERFECT for it:

-Ruins IV
-Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of (...something) --> from the new album
- etc.


Yeah this could work.

[ScionTheWorm]

by the way... the Age of Vikings and Fanatics: Total war Soundtrack should be optional; no point in downloading it if you like vanilla's soundtrack, don't use music (i never do because I'm sick of it), or maybe don't have the bandwidth to download 6-700 mb...

[Wikingus]

True, or perhaps there would be one mp3 attached for the main menu, and the rest would be optional.

[ScionTheWorm]

I can make some music too... played some time, have a acoustic guitar with mic, electric guitar with lot of effects on my Boss GT-6, and a synth with a marvellous orchestra selection.

Have made a lot of metal that we cannot use, but with the orchestra I have recreated a soundtrack to the anime-movie Silver Fang (Ginga Nagaboshi Gin). I can mail the small mp3 if you want to hear it. I don't have time for that now though... maybe you wouldn't even like it heh

[GoreBag]

As much as I love folk metal, I can't really see it being effective in a historical video game. I vote for folk music in and of itself, with no metal. Although it is not within the timeline, Saltatio Mortis of Germany released their first album in a medieval-only style.

[ScionTheWorm]

Just wondering, everybody here loves metal? heh seems like it..

[Wikingus]

I know very few history enthusiasts who don't listen to metal.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I'd like it most if there'd be a combination of metal and folk music and classical music. You've already pointed out some good metal and mentioned folk music so I guess you already have suggestions there so I don't have to suggest anything there. But since you didn't mention classical music I'll come with some suggestions. Unfortunately most classical music pieces needs to be arranged and cut (some of them are like 30 minutes each) and for that we need a composer and an orchestra, or alternatively someone really skilled with editing music with the computer... That's probably impossible to get, but if we could get that there are some really cool pieces that are perfect for the dark age feeling. You've already suggested metal so I don't need to suggest anything more there. Instead here are some examples of cool classical music. Most classical music of the late 19th century was made during a period of nationalistic art, which led to the best composers digging up old folk music and arranging it with their arranging skills (often to make it sound more dooms day styled or more powerfuö) but still maintaining the folk music style. Therefore it could be motivated to use some of these, even though they use a modern orchestra rather than dark age instruments:

1. Kullervo by Sibelius
Only part 1 and 2, and only parts of them would be good, so arrangement is unfortunately needed. Kullervo is based on Kalevaala, the old Finnish collection of sagas and myths that was probably written during the early dark age. Unfortunately it hasn't got a good rythm which means it's probably best suited for menu music. There are some quite cool rythmical parts of it that'd make very good battle music but they're too short and there's also an effect where the rythm is broken and then started again which wouldn't work well in the game context for battle music unless it's removed by editing. Deployment music shouldn't be too wild so those parts can't be used there either, but there are some quite cool calm pieces of part 2 that could be good deployment music.

2. 9th Symphony by Dvorak
Only part 4 (maybe also part 1) - perhaps a little too slow? but it at least sounds quite powerful and is a cool battle music. It follows the same rythms almost all the way through so it can be used as battle music.

3. Carmina burana (part 1 - "O fortuna")
Dunno about this one, but it's often used. I think it gives a good dark age feeling and reminds of Christian church singing, only it's cooler. Reminds of one of the musical pieces in M:TW where they were singing choir song.

4. Funeral march by Chopin
Unfortunately only the very beginning of this piece has a good dark age feeling, and a lot of arranging, editing and composing work would be needed. Still, I think the beginning of it is a really cool theme for a marching music piece if arranged well.

5. Symphonic dance no.1 by Rachmaninov
Editing is also required here. The part of it I'm thinking about would be quite cool for marching music.

6. Cello concerto op. 104, by Dvorak
Part 3 is good marching music

7. Marche slave, by Tschajkovskij
Good marching music if the non-rythmical parts are edited

Conclusion: I think the classical music has good potential as marching music. Some parts of it could also be used for triumphal victory music. There's also some potential for menu and deployment music. However, I think this could be a good system: 1. deployment music - calm classical and folk music, 2. marching music - classical music (mostly marches), 3. battle music - metal, 4. victory music - classical music or folk music. What do you think?

Some thoughts: 1. marching music should be rythmical but not contain any climaxes. 2. battle music should be rythmical and shouldn't contain too huge climaxes. 3. deployment music should be calm, preferably with folk music themes or similar that gives the right athmosphere. 4. for victory music it would be cool to use classical music because classical music has some really, really good triumphal climaxes that no ther music has, and I think the victory music should be really tirumphal. For defeat music, there are also some depressed-sounding pieces with an athmosphere of fate that would be well suited. No rythm is needed for that music, only requirement for victory and defeat music is probably that it should sound powerful.

[ScionTheWorm]

I think that's a very good idea, classical music would be very fit for it. I don't think it should be overdramatized marching music (for instance, Karl Orff - would fit better for victory music I think). Wagner has some serious stuff too.

[Wikingus]

Good ideas, perhaps we should exchange some mp3s and throw some ideas around until we find something usable?

Do any of you use MSN?

[ScionTheWorm]

When charging: Freedom Call with "Freedom Call"

[GoreBag]

I have MSN. If Folk Metal really is the way to go, I have a fairly considerable library of the stuff, particularly Germanic/Norse and Celtic FM.

[Wikingus]

My MSN is mihahribernik AT hotmail.com (replace AT with @ and remove all spaces, I'm using this form to prevent any rotten mailing bots from sending shit to my mail).

[ScionTheWorm]

No QUEST-metal please, even if they are singing about the mighty vikings of thunder

[ScionTheWorm]

I think we'll have a problem in the voice department... what voices will the different factions have? I think the rome-voices is really the only acceptable but that guy refers to rome all the time... do you think most in the north european countries will have the "barbarian" voice-set? Or maybe we should skip voices?

[Rodion Romanovich]

I think we'll have a problem in the voice department... what voices will the different factions have? I think the rome-voices is really the only acceptable but that guy refers to rome all the time... do you think most in the north european countries will have the "barbarian" voice-set? Or maybe we should skip voices?

Hopefully we'll find someone to do voices when we're nearly ready with the mod. If necessary, we'll stick to an English voice for all factions, maybe with some accents for others, but if possible it could be cool if all spoke the native languages. If all else fails, we can skip voices completely.

[ScionTheWorm]

Hopefully we'll find someone to do voices when we're nearly ready with the mod. If necessary, we'll stick to an English voice for all factions, maybe with some accents for others, but if possible it could be cool if all spoke the native languages. If all else fails, we can skip voices completely.

I think, from reading threads for other voicemods (rtr), that it's very time consuming.

[Rodion Romanovich]

So English voice or no voice, I guess? Or English voice but with different accents for different cultures...? It shouldn't be too hard to get hold of one voice actor for English phrases.

[Incongruous]

Having like a giutar and base with some really heavy sounding kettle drums would be awsome, and maybe a few tracks that are purley drumming, that would be realy atmospheric

[ScionTheWorm]

I think we should, when the mod begins to get finished, just take all suggestions and let people vote... most wanted wins

I think pure drumtracks would be awesome too...