Music questions (If possible would like an answer from CA)

[Leet Eriksson]

The games music sometimes makes the game (for me atleast), and nothing extends the games lifespan like Jeff's music.

So who will be doing the music? I assume since the australian team is working on it, there is a possibilty the guy who does the music will be different.

Also if CA reads this, please put the music in seperate MP3 files instead of one big chunk, so i can listen to it easily

And last will the music be faction related or culture related, and will it be different for orthodox and catholic factions this time around?(i personally hated the lack of greek music, Rome fixed that though.. partially).

To other posters, ask your music related questions here, just incase a CA employee happens about and answers our questions.

[TB666]

Music will be done by Jeff van Dyck.
CA has confirmed this but can't find the thread they did it in.
I will search for it.

[Pras the Reaper]

Jeff is still our audio director, he's actually based in our Brisbane studio so this time it will be a lot easier on all of us - no huge time difference to grapple with...

We've now got three full time audio guys and they'll be sharing the songwriting along with their other duties. Richie Vaughan is our main sound fx guy and also wrote a bunch of music for Medieval, James Vincent is implementing speech and vocals and wrote some of the Spartan soundtrack.

[Divine Wind]

Let me be the first to welcome Pras the Reaper, to the mighty halls of the .org.

Welcome

Feel free to make more nice posts like this to keep us informed, we do appreciate your comments very much.

I am glad you are including Richie in your team. I enjoyed listening to the Medieval music more than the Rome music to be honest. I hope the music will be even more immersive than the previous titles.

[Leet Eriksson]

Jeff is still our audio director, he's actually based in our Brisbane studio so this time it will be a lot easier on all of us - no huge time difference to grapple with...

We've now got three full time audio guys and they'll be sharing the songwriting along with their other duties. Richie Vaugham is our main sound fx guy and also wrote a bunch of music for Medieval, James Vincent is implementing speech and vocals and wrote some of the Spartan soundtrack.

Wow thanks immensley for the answer

Guess that puts the only thing nagging me to rest finally, thanks alot

[Divinus Arma]

Wow! Thanks tp Pras the Reaper for stopping by and honoring us with your answers! You are a very good man, and we highly value your generous use of time!

[Pras the Reaper]

No probs guys - work permitting will keep poppping my head in here to see what's going on. Richie was actually here for Rome and Spartan too, he just didn't have time for any music with all the fx and vocals... James is the new guy who only joined recently...

Anyhows, figured you'd be interested in this li'l tidbit I put up on the other forums...


Since he seems to have his own little cyberspace fanclub kicking about, I thought I'd share the news that Jeff will be giving a little talk and answering questions at Supanova in Brisbane this year. For more info:

www.supanova.com.au

For those not in the know, Jeff's our audio director and the guy primarily responsible for the music in all our games, including the BAFTA award winning soundtrack for Shogun: Total War.

[Trajanus]

Good stuff. I always did enjoy listening to Jeff's band. Plastic Wooden Fruit I think is the name.

[SpencerH]

........... our Brisbane studio .......

cant wait for the "throw another shrimp on the barby" quote after frying some unfortunates (hopefully vikings speaking in an aussie accent, of course). ;)

[Pras the Reaper]

No dangers of that. Too many non-aussies in the studio for that to happen. Jeff's from Canada, Bob (project lead) and I are from England... etc etc.

[Divinus Arma]

Thanks again for dropping by Pras the Reaper! You have no idea how encouraging that is for many of us in the community. Well, maybe you do.

I would just like to relate how important the soundtrack is to many of us. After all, many of us play religiously, spending hundreds of hours a month and playing for months on end. This remains true even for those of us with very pressing real-life issues. I, for example, work no less than 56 hours per week in a primary job, at least another 8-16 hours a week in a second job, and attend grad B-school full time. Not to mention that I am married with my first little one on the way. Despite these commitments, I'll spend every available opportunity to sit down and play TW games (You guys spoiled it for me- I can now play nothing else with satisfaction )

My point is this, that music is something we hear continuously. I still remember dreams of music from VI as well as Divinitus from RTW after playing for 20 hrs straight on a day off.

Not only is the quality important, but the variety and quantity are equally so. Culture or faction unique music really makes for replayability because the gaming experience becomes somewhat fresh again once a player starts a campaign with a new faction and new music.

In fact, this component is so important, that I would even purchase additional music patches from CA. The product could be entirely digital and cost next to nothing to manufacture and distribute. I suspect that others would be interested in this as well. The profit margin of a digital music product like this would be extremely high because the primary costs would simply be production and bandwidth for hosting.

If you happen to read this post and reply, I would be stunned by your generosity. Thanks.

[Simmons]

No dangers of that. Too many non-aussies in the studio for that to happen. Jeff's from Canada, Bob (project lead) and I are from England... etc etc.

Theres got to be room for a "it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick" quote I'm sure that can blend in with the time period

Oh and if the games being made in brisbane that means its only 5 mins from where I work I knew that ladder in the storeroom would come in handy for something.

[Pras the Reaper]

Guess we'd best keep an eye out for a man with a ladder then... luckily programmers hate sunlight and keep the blinds down so we don't need to worry about people peeking in at the windows...

[Wardo]

Shogun had great music, Medieval had great music. Rome was so-so, but still had its great moments. This guy is really talented.

[Ludens]

Shogun had great music, Medieval had great music. Rome was so-so, but still had its great moments. This guy is really talented.

Personally I think R:TW's music was the best, followed by S:TW. I didn't like M:TW soundtrack, but there were some good pieces. However, I agree that the TW series always had very good, atmospheric soundtracks.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Welcome Pras the Reaper!
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[Myrddraal]

Hi Pras, thanks for popping buy. As you can probably tell, you just need the CA shield and you've immediately got a captivated audience here.

Personally I loved the music from Viking Invasion

[LeftEyeNine]

Faisal, thanks for the good idea on the music topic that I was curious about as well.

Welcome goes to Pras The Reaper, we hope you enjoy your stay and keep us Totalwar-lings informed.

So Jeff van Dyck is the audio director ? Wow then, no need to worry about the ambience. Please deliver my thanks about handling Islamic music as good as original performers -if you ever have the opportunity to. I have encoded all M:TW .wav's to Mp3's so as to hear his wonderful tracks whenever I like to.

P.S. Please force Jeff into TWOrg as well so that we can waste his invaluable time asking questions here as well as we did to yours