Completed song - ogg bitrate, overall volume?

[tackle]

Hey again, I'm basically finished with my geoscape track

I need to know what ogg bitrate to use when converting it, as I tried to put my song into the game with a bitrate of 256, and when it looped back it started playing back with weird artifacts.

Also, the overall volume is an issue. I use a limiter on my tracks, as one usually does, and my tracks turn out significantly louder than the rest of the songs.

I suppose the answer would be just to match the rest of the songs, so that's what I'm going with. However it's worth mentioning, to keep this under control throughout.

Edit: Actually, the more I listen to original tracks the more they seem uneven in volume against each other.
I'm not sure how to approach this the best way since I have no knowledge on who does what in the programming and so on...

Also I noticed the rest of the tracks use different bitrates, so I suppose the problem I had isn't due to that.

[SpaceWombat]

Since .ogg format relies on quality classes according to a value and .ogg sounds better than mp3 (less loss) using the same bitrate I would say .5 quality (about 160kb/s) would be enough. Just my opinion though but 256 seems a bit high according to my xp.

Btw can we listen to the music already? 

[tackle]

Sure, see what you think, if it'll fit and work in it's context.

Could possible be too "happy" about 4/5 into the song

http://www.karlmacklin.com/karlmacklin_geoscape.ogg

[BTAxis]

I've listened to it, and I think it's pretty good. As far as I'm concerned, it's the new default geoscape track.

[SpaceWombat]

Wow 

I love it. It is a good mixture of different styles so it won't bore the player even after listening for over an hour.

The beginning would also perfectly fit to some storyline events (videos, text scrolls...) in my opinion.
Maybe you can make some kindo of "spin-off" for that purpose when some of these things are done.

Thanks for your nice piece of work.

[Blywulf]

Sounds awesome, well done tackle. One question though , will the music change during UFO interceptions?

[BTAxis]

No. There's no support for it yet.

[SpaceWombat]

No. There's no support for it yet.

Does this mean there might be a possibility to change music according to game situations (tac missions as well) someday in the future? That would be great.

[BTAxis]

At the risk of going badly offtopic, what situations in tactical combat would justify a music change?

[tackle]

basically everything that's going on in tac combat

first there's a calm sense of what's to come.. anxious music, foreboding evil

then wham, you either put a bullet thru an alien skull or you have one of your own killed, and that's when shit's starting to go crazy

when your team starts to panic this can also be illustrated in music

I don't know where to start, but tons of games have dynamic music that change depending on what's going on, and with fitting transitions
I could make fitting transitions, if I knew the rules for them

[BTAxis]

I can't really see it happening in tactical missions given the turn-based nature of the game, at least not on that scale. We should definitely have something like that for the UFO interceptions, though.

[TroubleMaker]

I can't really see it happening in tactical missions given the turn-based nature of the game

Well-well. Would you remember the first (?) RTS of "Dune-2: Building of a Dynasty"? There were implemented the changes in musical atmosphere during different battle situations.

I can't criticize the job of UFOAI team, so "just my 2 cents"

[Winter]

Well-well. Would you remember the first (?) RTS of "Dune-2: Building of a Dynasty"? There were implemented the changes in musical atmosphere during different battle situations.

I can't criticize the job of UFOAI team, so "just my 2 cents"

I certainly do remember Dune 2, but it was a real-time strategy game, not turn-based like UFO:AI (and per BTAxis's point). In RTS games, the situation changes fluidly and quickly. In TBS games . . . not so much.

Regards,
Winter

[SpaceWombat]

Well I would like a transition like this:

A gloomy music when your team enters the map - your turn, tactical positioning.
When finished it's the aliens' turn and one appears right around the corner and opens fire - increase in music dynamic.

That's how I see it but you are right, might be a bit over the edge in certain situations. If possible we could give it a shot and see how it fits.
It is definitely nice on geoscope when the terror mission appears on the map and threatens the population or an ufo fight is going on.

[Zorlen]

The dynamism of the music can change depending on number of spotted aliens even within your turn. Battle sequence being played as your soldier stops movement upon visual contact with the enemy would add adrenaline, I think!