Background music for games

rackabello

First Post

• Aug 2, 2002

• #31

Joshua Dyal said:

...there's always someone who has to come out and say something like AC/DC is great for combat...

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but without AC who can say whether the fighter hits anything? and without DC will we ever know whether the rogue survives that poisoned arrow?

actually, Josh, i'm right there with you as far as heavy metal gaming goes. it just has too many non-game connotations for me.

 

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Swack-Iron

First Post

• Aug 2, 2002

• #32

If you have a computer in your gaming room with an Internet connection capable of streaming audio, then I recommend a live365.com shoutcast station called WDND. Some brilliant person has taken a ton of movie soundtracks and classical music suitable for fantasy roleplaying, and is streaming them over the 'net. Essentially, it's a roleplayer's Internet radio station. My players know if they show up and I'm playing WDND in the background, they're in big trouble!

To find, go to www.live365.com and do a search for "WDND." That should get you to it.

 

Mouseferatu

Hero

• Aug 2, 2002

• #33

Monte At Home said:

The cheesy pop song on the end by Annie Lennox. If you buy this CD and can burn your own CD with that song off of it, you'll love this soundtrack.

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Tell me about it, Monte. But hey, that's what the "skip" button is for.

Although I actually got some use out of that song once. We'd been using Dracula as background for a game, and just as I realized that song was about to start and had my finger on the "skip" button, my wife--completely unknowingly--made a joke about getting her pseudodragon familiar to sing. So I let it play.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect, although it did take a few minutes for my players to stop laughing at the thought of the pseudodragon's singing voice and get back to the game.

 

Dr Midnight

Explorer

• Aug 2, 2002

• #34

Monte At Home said:

The cheesy pop song on the end by Annie Lennox. If you buy this CD and can burn your own CD with that song off of it, you'll love this soundtrack.

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You're absolutely right. I keep forgetting about that... and every time, there's a horribly jarring experience at the game table where everyone's spine stiffens and someone says "What the hell is THIS?!" I curse to myself and run to the stereo to try to amend the problem- but by then, the damage is done. Annie Lennox has swept down on my table like a horrid valkyrie and cut my game's head off.

It's more distracting than the track in the LotR soundtrack where Gandalf falls, and half the people at my table without fail start giggling and mouthing "NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!"

 

Desdichado

Hero

• Aug 2, 2002

• #35

Wow, Dr. Midnight: you're quite poetic!

As for burning your own CD without the songs you don't like, an even better solution is to burn a CD with the mp3s of several CDs. That way you can get long CDs with several soundtracks on them, and if you hit shuffle, you don't get that obvious movie soundtrack feel quite as much. You have to either have a DVD player or a computer to play them, but lots of folks do these days.

 

Goodsport

Explorer

• Aug 2, 2002

• #36

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Both the Icewind Dale CD soundtrack and the Morrowind CD soundtrack (the one included with the Morrowind Collector's Edition)! They both feature music by Jeremy Soule.


-G

 

M

Maraxle

First Post

• Aug 2, 2002

• #37

Wolfen Priest said:

While we are on the subject, I have tried to figure out a way to get the Baldur's Gate (I and II) music into some other file format, in other words to extract just the music (even with the background voices in it as well) so I could burn it to a CD perhaps.

Is this even possible? If so, is it so complex that I shouldn't even bother?

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Go to Google and search for "acm2wav". This utility can convert BG music files to WAV files.

 

O

Outsider73

First Post

• Aug 2, 2002

• #38

Yes, the Conan soundtrack as been known to show up during a battle and at other times, LOTR runs during our sessions, but most of the time I use special sound effects CDs that one of my players creates for the group.

So far he has made a couple of different forest/wilderness tracks, an underground cavern track, and my favorite... the Tavern. The Tavern track has the sounds of people talking, drinking, moving about, and having a good time. It's looped, so every so often you can hear what sounds like a halfling climb up on a table, say a few things, fall off the table, and break his glass. Whether the party is at the Dragon's Breath Inn drinking and gathering information or they are camping in a dark forest along the foothills of the Stoneheart Mountains, these sound effects CDs really help the "suspension of disbelief" process for my players and help transport them into the world I'm trying to create.

It doesn't hurt that he works in the audio production business

I'm not sure if I should admit this, but I've also been know to throw on those cheap discs you can get at Target for about $10, like Celtic River or the Sounds of Ireland. They work for my group. They aren't distracting to the game and they add a nice background sound to the session.

 

Desdichado

Hero

• Aug 2, 2002

• #39

LOL, I have a few of those cheapo CDs from Target too! I don't know if I'd use them for a game, though. Too mellow, I'd think, at least for my games.

 

H

Heap Thaumaturgist

First Post

• Aug 2, 2002

• #40

Just as an update to an earlier post, by Swack-Iron, about Live365.com and the WDND station.

If you're not a Live365 member that particular station isn't one you can access. So unless you use Live365 for alot of listening or are willing to pay $5 a month for WDND you won't be listening to it.

I, unfortunately, don't stream alot of music so, no Preferred Membership Status for Heap.

--HT