RPG music
Give Erdenstern a shot, these guys make music and title them according to a situation. Their stuff is on iTunes.
Also, I know you said no words, but I found a folk album that I like to use by a band named Ulver called, "Kveldssanger". I don't think the vocals get in the way, but the few vocals there are, are in Norwegian. Give the tracks, "Ulvsblakk", "Nattleite", and "Utreise" a shot. I personally found this album to great for situations where the PCs wander around the marvels of landscapes.
Also, I know you said no words, but I found a folk album that I like to use by a band named Ulver called, "Kveldssanger". I don't think the vocals get in the way, but the few vocals there are, are in Norwegian. Give the tracks, "Ulvsblakk", "Nattleite", and "Utreise" a shot. I personally found this album to great for situations where the PCs wander around the marvels of landscapes.
check out a group called Two Steps from Hell. The do a lot of music for movie trailers. They have an album called Invincible and it is available on I-Tunes.
They also have a webpage Untitled Document
Also I know you weren't looking for anything that had pre-associations but you might want to consider the soundtrack to Dragonage (both) and to the Dune mini-series (also the Children of Dune miniseries).
They also have a webpage Untitled Document
Also I know you weren't looking for anything that had pre-associations but you might want to consider the soundtrack to Dragonage (both) and to the Dune mini-series (also the Children of Dune miniseries).
GregoryOatmeal
First Post
Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate are awesome instrumental scary background music. Great for haunted houses.
I tend to play them whenever we're playing D&D
I tend to play them whenever we're playing D&D
CrimsonReaver
First Post
It really depends on what you're wanting the music for: general atmospheric background music or crafting a personal soundtrack to your game.
If you're wanting to create a customized soundtrack for your adventures, you're probably going to rely more heavily on movie scores and video game soundtracks, since most of the tracks were already crafted to convey or elicit specific concepts or emotions. So, it's relatively easy to pluck a dozen or so pieces from a wide variety of soundtracks to create theme CDs, like "Battle Mix" or "Ominous Village" or "Festival" that'll fit whatever you need for a given gaming session. And, in my opinion, you almost want at least some of the tracks to be iconic, because you want the players to get pumped by certain tunes, remembering the iconic scenes they're attached to and the energy/atmosphere they evoke, whether it's "Anvil of Crom" by Basil Poledouris or "Duel of the Fates" from John Williams or "Vampire Hunters" by Wojciech Kilar (okay, that one isn't really attached to any memorable scene, since that entire movie sucked, but still...).
If you just want ambient background music, a lot of the stuff - depending on your game (theme, tone, campaign setting, etc.) - from Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana makes for excellent background music. Some of the early stuff from Mortiis (the Era I albums) is good for that, too. Especially the albums with Norwegian titles, since they're pretty much just a couple tracks that run for 20-30 minutes each without too much alteration in overall sound - as opposed to movies soundtracks which can greatly vary in mood/tone from track to track, switching from light, cheery and whimsical to loud and frantic to eerie and ominous in just a 10 minute period. Something I always found a little jarring while playing: being in the middle of combat and having a happy little Hobbit village tune come on. Kinda ruins the tension and dramatics of the moment. Pretty much any artist/group in the ambient or dark ambient vein would suffice.
There's also the staple of classical music options (Bach, Berlioz, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, etc.) and world music (Gregorian chant, Tuvan throat singing, shakuhachi music, etc.) and even non-musical ambient CDs, like thunderstorms or howling wolves or rainforest sounds. (The great thing about those ambient CDs is you can usually pick them up dirt cheap and they're pretty effective for conveying atmosphere when you have the curtains drawn and only the bare minimum of lights on.)
I've used pretty much all those at one time or another.
My current project is trying to put together a database of sound effects so that, at the click of a mouse, I can pipe out the sound of a door being bashed to splinters or a savage, guttural snarl of some monstrosity or the clashing of swords or even the famous "Wilhelm scream" of someone dying.
Just little touches to add that element of cinematic flair to my games.
If you're wanting to create a customized soundtrack for your adventures, you're probably going to rely more heavily on movie scores and video game soundtracks, since most of the tracks were already crafted to convey or elicit specific concepts or emotions. So, it's relatively easy to pluck a dozen or so pieces from a wide variety of soundtracks to create theme CDs, like "Battle Mix" or "Ominous Village" or "Festival" that'll fit whatever you need for a given gaming session. And, in my opinion, you almost want at least some of the tracks to be iconic, because you want the players to get pumped by certain tunes, remembering the iconic scenes they're attached to and the energy/atmosphere they evoke, whether it's "Anvil of Crom" by Basil Poledouris or "Duel of the Fates" from John Williams or "Vampire Hunters" by Wojciech Kilar (okay, that one isn't really attached to any memorable scene, since that entire movie sucked, but still...).
If you just want ambient background music, a lot of the stuff - depending on your game (theme, tone, campaign setting, etc.) - from Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana makes for excellent background music. Some of the early stuff from Mortiis (the Era I albums) is good for that, too. Especially the albums with Norwegian titles, since they're pretty much just a couple tracks that run for 20-30 minutes each without too much alteration in overall sound - as opposed to movies soundtracks which can greatly vary in mood/tone from track to track, switching from light, cheery and whimsical to loud and frantic to eerie and ominous in just a 10 minute period. Something I always found a little jarring while playing: being in the middle of combat and having a happy little Hobbit village tune come on. Kinda ruins the tension and dramatics of the moment. Pretty much any artist/group in the ambient or dark ambient vein would suffice.
There's also the staple of classical music options (Bach, Berlioz, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, etc.) and world music (Gregorian chant, Tuvan throat singing, shakuhachi music, etc.) and even non-musical ambient CDs, like thunderstorms or howling wolves or rainforest sounds. (The great thing about those ambient CDs is you can usually pick them up dirt cheap and they're pretty effective for conveying atmosphere when you have the curtains drawn and only the bare minimum of lights on.)
I've used pretty much all those at one time or another.
My current project is trying to put together a database of sound effects so that, at the click of a mouse, I can pipe out the sound of a door being bashed to splinters or a savage, guttural snarl of some monstrosity or the clashing of swords or even the famous "Wilhelm scream" of someone dying.
Just little touches to add that element of cinematic flair to my games.
Desdichado
Hero
Dude, those happy little hobbit villages have a seedy underside like you wouldn't believe. The Lord of the Rings movies were totally just tourist propoganda.
There's also the staple of classical music options (Bach, Berlioz, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, etc.)[/QUOTE]
Sounds like you mean Romantic Music (no relation to the genre of sappy books with cover art based on Fabio) and I agree; there's a lot of good stuff in there. Although it's probably harder to match specifically to gaming, it's worth noting that a lot of early adventure and pulp and serial movies used tracks from that ouvre as a score, so there's a long history of that in the biz. George Lucas used temp tracks of classic music by Wagner and others before the John Williams score was done. Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon used Franz Lizst's Les Préludes and it became so iconic that for years I thought that song was just called "Flash Gordon."
Franz Liszt, holy cow, that guy had some talent. In his day, there were folks in the Austrian Empire that actually literally believed he had made a deal with the devil because he was so good. I like Les Préludes or Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 for gaming/fantasy to give something a little bit off the beaten track. Same thing with Dvořák's New World Symphony, and some Rimsky-Korsakov, like the "Antar" symphony.
Similar Threads
