The Inevitable Music Thread

[Haku1]

I don't see why ambient new age music won't work... and Enya, Egnima are pretty useful for plain background music, for things like as you noted downtime.


Of course, my agreement means nothing as 'Drew and Joesph will now use this to show how deviant and diabolical I am.

 

[Relic]

That being said, more people need to hear Prodigy vs. Enya - Sail Away & Smack My Bitch Up.


One of the best remixes ever. Seriously.

I just downloaded it and heard it with a few friends. Unanimous agreement: it's awesome.


And while we're at it: Enya's music has its uses - and I mean that in an entirely benign way. :-)

 

[Persell]

I've started using a track from NIN's Further Down the Spiral album called Erased, Over, Out. It really sets a nasty mood and is perfect for settings involving warzones and/or shadowlands and their inhabitants.

 

[Maryuoh]

Ahem' date=' it's The Imperial March.[/quote']
Actually it's titled "Qui-Gon's Noble End".  It's track 15 on the Episode 1 Phantom Menace soundtrack.  Some of the music is based off the "Duel of the Fates" score.  They play it when the amidala and her retinue are leaving the hanger and the doors open to reveal Darth Maul.  They also play a piece of it when Qui-Gon and DM are going at it with a helpless Obi-Wan watching as DM runs Qui-Gon through.

Gack. Sorry. It was late, and I misread Darth Maul as being Darth Vader.

 

[Persell]

From Tool comes the song The Grudge which, although is about alchemy, has verses which are relevant to the Sidereal Exalted.

Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.


Desperate to control all and everything.


Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.


Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.


Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end.


Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.


Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.


Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.


Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.


Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end.


Saturn ascends, comes round again.


Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.


Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.


Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.


Desperate to control all and everything.


Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.


Wear the grudge like a crown. Desperate to control.


Unable to forgive. And we're sinking deeper.


Defining, confining, controlling, and we're sinking deeper.


Saturn comes back around to show you everything


Let's you choose what you will not see and then


Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again


Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.


Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or


Drags you down like a stone


To consume you till you choose to let this go.


Give away the stone.


Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor.


Give away the stone.


Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.


Let go.

 

[Persell]

Sorry for the double post, but also by Delerium is the song Truly which features Solar-relevant lyrics. It could also be relevant to an Abyssal yearning for or seeking redemption:

Truly if there is light
I want to see it


Now that I know what I am looking for.


Truly if there is joy


I want to feel it


Here in this world is where I wanna be...

From a group similar to Delerium, Conjure One is the song Center of the Sun which features lyrics such as:

And she sings, "They say the most horrible things."
But I hear violins


When I close my eyes, I am at the centre of the sun


And I cannot be hurt, by anything this wicked world has done.

 

[8 Drunken Gods]

The first artist that comes to mind for soundtracks for my stories is Orbital.  They say that they like doing soundtrack work for good reason.  For background music for the modern cities of Nexus and those of the Blessed Isle, you'll definately find tracks on Insides.


 Running anything in the river province or far east?  I know it's cliche and she did the theme for the Lord of The Rings, but Enya is a master when it comes to instrumental melodies.


 For the dark infernal/abyssal moods, I can only recommend certain tracks fromNine Inch Nails' Further Down the Spiral.


 Lastly, if any of my heroes ever had theme music, it would be the opening score from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.  Classic.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Final Fantasy soundtracks are your friends, especially FF IX, at least in my opinion. Anime soundtracks work rather well too, especially from series such as Lodoss War. Sound tracks from movies work well too, such as Lord of the Rings.


I'd suggest getting a cheap surround sound set of speakers with long cords, thus wherever you're playing has evenly distributed sound effects without drowning out the ability to hear in certain areas (Players and ST's both tend to get VERY annoyed when they can't hear everything that's going on). Also, getting something with a large customizable playlist (MP3 players work well, or if you can burn your own cd's, that works well) to customize the song to the scene. A love theme isn't what the PC's wanna hear while they're kicking ass on a contingent of the Wyld Hunt. At the same time, however, for each scene I would suggest choosing 2-3 songs to cycle through, as a single song on repeat can get quite annoying. Pick a couple different battle mixes, a few mystery songs, some peaceful ones...if you've played the Final Fantasy games, think of the aplication of music in them and use it to a similar effect.


The number one rule is it's a special effect, NOT the core of the game. It can be used to enhance moods, but shouldn't be used to make them. Also, hit the play button at appropriate times, or else they'll know the shit's about to hit the proverbial fan if the battle theme comes on early.

 

[Morquea]

I do like Delirium, Enya and Enigma for Exalted. My groups also use Mayaa Sakamoto, Akino Arai and Yoko Kano songs from various anime. My character as also a theme music I pick from Le Cirque du Soleil's  Alegria.


As for what I would use :


Nubeo Uematsu et Yasunori Mitsuda scores for various Squaresoft games.


Matt Uelmen music for Diablo I, II


Michael Hoenig music for Baldur's Gate


Some Mike Oldfield scores.


Hans Zimmer's Gladiator


Jorane songs from her 16mm album


Harmonium's Histoire Sans Parole


Music from other various game like Deus Ex, Warcraft III, etc.


Shingery Umebayashi (House of the Flying Dagger)


Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill 3


Alex De Grassi (for downtime portion of a game)


Music from various Anime


And many other thing you guys already mention


I'm not to inclined to use metal as background music

 

[shifty]

I kinda think that Rage Against the Machine's People of the Sun is kinda fitting for a Solar game.  Just me.


For a deep south game, do yourself a favor and sample the wav file of the music when you go into the princes dungeon in Act II of Diablo II.  Excellent Arabic song, there.


Skinny Puppy and Ministy fits for Abyssals.


Dragon Blooded would be the music from Hero.

 

[Persell]

in my opinion anything instrumental always works, the gladiator soundtrack, the lord of the rings soundtrack, all ambeint stuff.

 

[Persell]

Thanks to the one suggesting Glenn Danzig with Black Aria


May I suggest


"Ulver" with the album "Lyckantropen themes"


For introducing Big Bad Deathlords or Abyssals on their home turf, I suggest


Enslavement of Beauty with Traces o' Red or Megalomania, especially the song "And Still I Wither" comes to mind.


Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, and Blade Runner soundtrack.


and of course, my favourite for battle music:


Naruto soundtrack 1. Strong and Strike rox. I remember the whole table humming with when I put on that one on main battles, and some sort of delicious madness washed over us as the battle commenced.

 

[Sherwood]

Personally, I've taken some character theme music from Joe Satriani.  That man can make a guitar sing like few others.  Great instrumentals.

 

[Persell]

Steeleye Span's "I See His Blood Upon the Rose" just screams "desperate cavalry charge over muddy field in rain with sun shining through clouds". Also works well for trireme chase scenes, which is how I've used it - pursuing the Abyssals trying to run the blockade of Thorns through an unnatural storm, the oarsmen straining, the keleustes pounding, and the characters standing in the prow of the boat gazing intently towards the black-sailed ship crewed by the dead as they inch closer...


::slaps himself:: Sorry. One of the highlights of a wonderful game that got ended prematurely, shortly after that session. ::grins:: I wax nostalgic.

 

[Sherwood]

Enya is nice for soothing background music, but one of my favs is Dead Can Dance.  I have about 15 or so of their albums and they help set the mood for me.  Flora McNeal is an Irish artist, a bit obscure, but nice.  I also have a couple of disks from Kate Price.  She plays the Hammer Dulicimer and has a sirens voice, especially on her album 'Belaich an' Dorain'.


Mike Oldfield's set of 'Tubular Bells' 1 and 2 are good for background, too.

 

[fmneto]

Apocalitpica does the trick for me. Their first album is wonderful.


The soundtrack from The Lord of the Rings is also pretty good for non-specific moods (I mostly use it as ambient music)


There's also the Essence and Divinity "albums" by Maati Paalanen:


http://www.mikseri.net/essence


http://www.mikseri.net/divinity


The works of Phillip Glass are fine, too.


I also heard about Dead Can Dance, though I couldn't find it anywhere.

 

[Socondor]

For my Session i choose out of several Soundtrack from Animes, Movies, Games and some "normal" Bands.


From Animes i got:


Blue Gender


and


Last Exile 1&2


wich are realy good to give your players a chill.


Movies:


LOTR


Chronicles of Riddik


Gamesoundtrack:


Riddik

 

[Gustav]

I'd never claim to be the best storyteller, but I'm the Danny Elfman of choosing music to go along, if I must be so humble.   :roll:


Silent Hill 1's soundtrack works wonders in the Labyrinth.


Any Opeth, Arch Enemy, or In Flames make encounters with Abyssals waaaay more intimidating.  Basically, anything Scandanavian and metal makes Abyssals happy.  Immortal, Messugah, etc.  Don't insult your players with nu-metal or pseudo-radio-metal.  


Diablo 2 has a wide variety of music most of which is avalible for free on blizzard's website (or at least it used to be).  It can cover anything from scary (Ice Caves) to innocous (Tristan) to exotic (Barbarian Camp, Harem).  I really like its simple versatility and it is designed to be looped.


Amon Tobin makes for cool interactions with the Guild, Nexus, or any ambient intrigue background.


Most war movies (from Braveheart to Saving Private Ryan to Black Hawk Down) can add a quick fix of ambience as long as the troops the characters are fighting are mortal.  If they're supernatural and/or evil, I like to bust out Velvet Acid Christ and Wumpscut.  They're both a really really dark trance style with metal lyrics.  I know it sounds weird, but they're very good.  


Alchemicals totally rock out to Fear Factory in combat.  Lots of Nine Inch Nails remixes have a grinding industrial sound that really fits well, even if it can get a bit too angsty.


As much as I like techno, I usually try to stay away from it for Exalted games as it lends too...  modern of a feel to the game.


A bit off topic, but still relating to music.  Machines of Loving Grace are awesome for realistic modern settings that focus on gritty sin-filled city life.

 

[Flagg]

Diablo 2 has a wide variety of music most of which is avalible for free on blizzard's website (or at least it used to be).

Got a link for that, or at least an idea of what part of their site it was on?


I don't see anything on their Diablo II page.


-S

 

[Zaramis]

I have all the DiabloII music, but it isnt very good, and each piece is very short.


I use two different programs running music.


Program 1 runs the background noises from Civilization 4. There are tons of medieval city soundtracks, with dogs and people talking and carriages going by, or ancient cities with more animals and forest sounds, there are the sounds of jungle, forest, waterbed, ocean, mountain, desert.. all is in Civ4.


Program 2 runs the music, so they run at the same time with the background sounds. Usually, I use House of Flying Daggers, the Last Samurai, Crouching Tiger and such music.


Together, they make a very very good Exalted theme.

 

[Flagg]

Program 1 runs the background noises from Civilization 4. There are tons of medieval city soundtracks, with dogs and people talking and carriages going by, or ancient cities with more animals and forest sounds, there are the sounds of jungle, forest, waterbed, ocean, mountain, desert.. all is in Civ4.

You don't happen to have these somewhere downloadable, do you?


-S

 

[Gustav]

I have all the DiabloII music, but it isnt very good, and each piece is very short.

They're designed to be short and looped.  And that they're "not very good" is entirely your opinion.  It's well made and versatile.  It's a good fix, not an entire soundtrack.


Stillborn, here's the link to the D2 music.


http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/mp3/

 

[Hanat-Osul]

Comtemplating the soundtrack to an Alchemical game, I've pondered Nine Inch Nails, Meat Beat Manifesto, Amon Tobin, Sneaker Pimps, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and even Thrice.


I tend to just bust out metal on my Solar players - largely Opeth, but some Pig, Tool, and System of a Down - for combat.  In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what kind of scenes the Mars Volta's appropriate for.

 

[Flagg]

Comtemplating the soundtrack to an Alchemical game

The Mr. Bungle album, Disco Volante has some nice, bizarre, techno/noise tracks you might want to check out. "Desert Search for Techno Allah" comes immediately to mind, but there are several others as well.


-S

 

[Hanat-Osul]

Comtemplating the soundtrack to an Alchemical game

The Mr. Bungle album, Disco Volante has some nice, bizarre, techno/noise tracks you might want to check out. "Desert Search for Techno Allah" comes immediately to mind, but there are several others as well.


-S

Yes..!  And I meant to say, way to recommend Fantomas earlier..!  I'm excited because I'm listening to Mr. Bungle RIGHT NOW..!


Mike Patton is a fucking genius.  You heard that Lovage shit he did a few years ago?