Sound\Music

[Psymong]

I did not mean the main menu for Old5. I meant the campaign intro

Sounds good, that's fine with me.
I'll start thinking about a main menu theme in the mean time.

So, any verdict on how much music you want for the project?
is there a limit?

All the best,

Simon

[ubequitz]

Psymong,

We've starting playing with your new music in development versions of the game (in the leadup to getting RC6 ready). I noticed in New3.ogg some strange glitches from about 1:45 (min:sec) onward. Do you have any idea what might be causing these (I thought originally I might have had a corrupt download but I've redownloaded a few times from your website to make sure and I'm still getting the same result).

Thanks again for all musical contributions, they are sure to be a great addition to the game.

[Psymong]

Hi Ubequitz,

The noises in New3 are intentional, it's my attempt at a minimal rhythmic element, using Glitch and flutter samples. This was inspired by the work of Jan Jelinek and, i'll admit, does sound pretty odd. Though it does stick to a rhythm, and is the only rhythmic element in that particular track.

If you think it sounds too weird or is too distracting, i can tone it down a bit or change the sound all together, i don't mind. But i do like the long delay-tail at the end of it that filters up into nothingness

As for RC6, how much more music do you need? is there a set number of tracks we're planning, or shall i just go for it and we'll put in whatever's finished?

Cheers mate,

Simon

[ubequitz]

Sorry for the delay in response,  I was hoping others could post their experiences (and I thought I was going crazy hearing things ).

The glitches I'm hearing are quite loud and they sound quite distinct from any rhythmic elements in the track. They begin only from around 1:45 seconds. Basically they sound like a pop followed by a short period of near-silence then the audio comes back but starts off a little distorted (sounds a bit like a record skip). The glitches correspond to the big jumps in the waveform shown in the image below (at 1:58.5, 2:00.5, 202.5 .. which I suppose is rhythmic):



Potentially it is my sound card or audio subsystem not being able to cope with the initial rapid change in the waveform.

However, with some media players the glitches are not present. On my system (Linux) I hear the glitches with the UFO:AI game, XMMS, VLC, Audacity, MPlayer and "ogg123" but not with Xine. I also decoded the ogg file to a wav file using the official  "oggdec" vorbis utility and again the glitches are present but surprisingly again not in Xine (maybe Xine is applying some sort of filtering I don't know).

BTW: The game now makes use of all your audio files (except this New3 track... although I am a big fan of New3 if it wasnt for these glitches!). The new music really adds an aura of mystery to the game. New1 will now be the most heard track as it forms the background music for the Geoscape (and for general menu navigation).

[Mattn]

Psymong: The more music we have the better it is. If you have more tracks available, please let us know - more tracks means more differ in each mission - which is quite good.

[Psymong]

Hi guys,

  I'm so glad you're liking the way the music is sounding in-game, I'm really excited about this, and can't wait to hear it myself.

Ubequitz: This glitch problem is very confusing, ive tried the file in a number of different players and cant seem to get them to appear, i'll try re-encoding the file and see if that solves the problem.

Mattn: I have lots and lots of old music i've made and, now you mention it, a few of them would probably be suitable for the project, ill have a little look through my collection and post up some tracks soon.

Cheers,

 Simon

[Psymong]

Hello again,

I've had a dig through my collection of music, and have found a few tracks that might be worth using:

http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/Recycled1.ogg
http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/Recycled2.ogg
http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/Recycled3.ogg
http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/Recycled4.ogg
http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/Recycled5.ogg

Have a listen, and let me know what you think.

Ubequitz: Those jumps in the waveform you've identified are the weird rhythmic elements I was talking about.
I've done another mix of the track with the glitch rhythm slightly lower in volume and with less heavy compression on the master track.

http://www.8hz.co.uk/downloads/games/UFOAI/New3.ogg

If this still sounds too weird, i can make some bigger changes to the sound.

Cheers,

Simon

[Psymong]

Hello once more UFO:AI team!

Just dropping in once more to say thanks; It's been great working with you guys, and I'm really happy with the way the project is shaping up.

As I've said, if i come up with any more music that I think would be suitable for the project, I'll come by again and post them up here.

Coders: Something I forgot to mention during this time; a while ago (when i started learning C++) I began working on a project for a dynamic music system for use in game code.
I never got good enough at programming to be able to make it what i wanted, but the basic system and information on how it's supposed to work can be found here: Black Box Project

If any of you guys find this idea interesting, and would be willing to help me work on it, let me know, i think (with a bit of work) this could turn out to be something good.

Thanks again guys, if any of you are working on\are friends with any other games projects that need sound or music, please send me a link, I'm always on the lookout

Cheers,

Simon

[ubequitz]

I think it is us who should be thanking you! The game is already sounding phenomenal thanks to your efforts.

Your Black Box Project looks intriguing. Some sort of dynamic music selection is something we could definitely use (perhaps for certain story-line related missions, air-to-air battles with UFOs etc). I will definitely check it out, although since the game is entirely coded in C, anything we end up implementing would ideally also be in C (unless it can be made into a separate library).