O btw the music is good

[Starwars]

I think the music is fantastic as well overall. I agree with PJ though that there are some tracks that kinda suffer from a poorer, synthesized sound. I think the Caed Nua theme is especailly noticeable here unfortunately. 

I know Justin commented on this elsewhere but it's also a shame that that theme couldn't play continously over the various locations inside Caed Nua. It's a bit annoying how it starts over.

 

I also wish there was at least one more tavern music piece. I love the two that are in right now but yeah, it'd be nice to have more.

 

And if we're doing "wishlist" stuff, I always liked in BG how cities (maybe even other areas? can't remember) had different music during night-time.

 

I also want to bring attention to the *excellent* sound design as well. There was worry beforehand about the ambient sounds and such but I think PoE has done very well here. I play with headphones and the scenes feel wonderfully "full".

A complaint I have is that some of the female characters (especially Grieving Mother) seem to have a lower recording quality or something, so that their 's' sounds sound really sharp to the ear.

 

But overall, a big thumbs up for the audio in this game overall. The sound in these types of games is so important and I think PoE really shines in this area!

[Mazisky]

Another upvote.

 

I like that the combat music is the most nostalgic and very reminiscent of BG, while the scene-setting music for the different areas has more of its own feel, making Eora feel like its own place rather than just The Forgotten Realms 2.0.

 

Only 2 combat musics out of 5 total are Baldur's Gate inspired, the other 3 sounds pretty new to me!

 

And btw, both Caed Nua tracks (the one when it's haunted, and the one when it's clean) are awesome:

 

the first is damn creepy while the second feels like a safe place, perfect!!!!

Edited March 30, 2015 by Mazisky

[WDeranged]

The music and sound production in general is excellent, I wish the silence between the tracks didn't last quite so long though...

[Justin Bell]

Wow, thank you for everything you all have said.  I mean that sincerely, words cannot express my gratitude.  I feel lucky to have had an opportunity to work on this project with this insanely talented and passionate team.  

 

Thanks for trusting us.

[Tanred]

My favourite is the Anslog's Compass track, it's perfect with that sea ambient sound. I returned to that location several times just to hear it again:)

Edited March 30, 2015 by Tanred

[Justin Bell]

I like that one a lot too.  It has a sister track somewhere else in the game, I wonder if anyone has noticed?

[FalloutBoy]

 

I remember during the Backer Beta a lot of us said the music was "meh" and did it's job but was otherwise nothing special. The guy that did the music came in the thread and was pretty chill considering we were sitting there calling his work mediocre.

 

  During the Backer Beta we saw Dryford Village, and admittedly the music there still isn't my favorite (though it's definitely been touched up some, I noticed), but was happy to see that it seemed like it was just bad luck we were showcased the area with the most mediocre music of the game, with the other songs all doing pretty excellent.

 

Just felt like posting my appreciation for the music since wtf we still sat there and said "YA IT MEDIOCRE" and I'm happy to be wrong. Especially fond of these two gems, which both match their setting beautifully:

 

Also yes I am aware those uploaders probably don't have permission to upload the songs, but also I gotta be real and say good luck Obsidian if you have any interest in keeping the songs off youtube. :c  Mods feel free to remove the vids though and punch me in the groin if you want to.

 

Thank you very much for saying this.  I remember those days very well.  Not going to lie, it was hard to hear, but I'm happy I've redeemed myself (at least to some of you).  I worked my tail off to make sure it's as good as it can be given the timeframe and volume of work.  

 

But yeah, taking criticism is part of the job.  No one likes to hear it, but you gotta grow thick skin in this industry.  And at the end of the day we want you guys to enjoy yourselves, because this game is for you!

 

 

No criticism here. Music is usually one of the first volume sliders that goes to 0 when I play games. I'm still at 100 for this game. In fact I turned down the other ones to make the music more prominent.

[Wulfburk]

The soundtrack is great! At first i thought it would be... you know, the generic fantasy music, but im loving pretty much every track! 

 

Just to compare but ive found it is 10 times better than the music on Dragon Age, some tracks reminds me of NWN 1/2 and some sections reminded me of LOTR.

 

 

The music sets the tone of the game pretty well and the main theme specially is quite ... idk how to say it in english... soothing, or something.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Wulfburk

[Pipyui]

Very nice work, Justin!  The music is great and hits all the right fantasy notes (heh) for me.  I have to admit, listening to the tracks outside of the game context feels really weird, but IN the game it's just fantastic and matches the tone perfectly!

[Earthshocker]

Yeah, I agree with pretty much everyone else in this topic. What especially impresses me is that none of the songs are ever intrusive. They fit the areas very well and greatly contribute to the atmosphere. This is one of the few games which has actually made me go: "nice music". A job well done mr Bell.

[AlperTheCaglar]

Music is flawless. I'm saying this as a person who works with composers occasionally. To remind the player of both BG2, IE and Torment while having its own identity and low-key motifs its no easy task. Mr. Bell deserves an award.

 

And this track below... 40seconds and onwards needs to be the menu motif for the sequel just like BG2's explosive menu. My adrenaline spikes up when that music starts and I play for another 2 hours.

 

Edited March 30, 2015 by AlperTheCaglar

[Awathorn]

I was not optimistic about music before the release, but the moment i entered the game for the first time, my opinion changed. Not the powerful BG soundtrack (does have some BG resemblance from time to time though), but  great ambient piece really adding to the game. I absolutely love some tracks and how they match the atmosphere of different areas and moments in the game. As somebody already said, one of the best, if not the best part of PoE. 

 

Transition between tracks in-game needs work. Too many abrupt changes and silent parts. 

[Justin Bell]

Transition between tracks in-game needs work. Too many abrupt changes and silent parts. 

 

Definitely agree with this point.  One of my regrets for this project for sure.  We've discussed solutions but they are pretty risky to try right now.  We'll continue to investigate though.

[WDeranged]

 

Transition between tracks in-game needs work. Too many abrupt changes and silent parts. 

 

Definitely agree with this point.  One of my regrets for this project for sure.  We've discussed solutions but they are pretty risky to try right now.  We'll continue to investigate though.

 

 

Glad you guys are thinking on it, sitting somewhere peaceful and listening to the music while I read books is something I enjoy 

[tox1c5lug]

I am absolutely in-love with the music. Especially the main theme: 

 

 

Justin Bell did a stellar job of crafting a beautiful score that fits the game perfectly.

[RushAndAPush]

Yeah the music is fantastic. I have to say that it was amazing how it managed to transport me back to when I used to play the infinity engine games everyday. It also has a lot of originality, so that's cool.

Edited April 1, 2015 by RushAndAPush

[Bayzent]

Yep, digging it so far. Fits amazingly with the atmosphere, and contributes greatly to this. It's one of the few games I don't play with "Sonic Prophecy" in the background...

[DCParry]

I too am a huge fan of the music. As mush as I hate this word, it really is very "immersive" in a dark, high fantasy sort of way.

 

There is one strain, however, that is reminiscent enough of some LoTR music that I keep waiting for it to resolve the same way. 

[endolex]

 

Transition between tracks in-game needs work. Too many abrupt changes and silent parts. 

 

Definitely agree with this point.  One of my regrets for this project for sure.  We've discussed solutions but they are pretty risky to try right now.  We'll continue to investigate though.

 

 

I believe good old Michael Hoenig (and Mark Morgan in PS: Torment) did a lot of small 'transitional' ending segments to their combat music, so the music could stop at certain points in the track, with the 'correct' ending instead of just stopping or fading out. Takes a lot of work I guess, and boy, do I know the composers lament: It is always a small minority of players who ever notices consciously. (Takes me back to iMUSE days - Peter McConnell and Michael Land invested so much effort into that interactive music system, which added or removed layers depending on what was hapenning in the game and transitioned between tracks smoothly. It was absolutey great - and hardly anyone noticed or talked about it. )

 

Taking the opportunity for a small music review of Justin Bell's work in PoE:

 

- Very good quality overall. This music does its job well, while still having some disctinctive 'motifs', not just background chords like some lazy Hollywood composers these days like to do (maybe out of fear of being sued if they hit a melody that already exists - I've heard an industry insider talk about this kind of thing)

 

- While I do think that the Title Theme (start menu) in itself is a great piece of music and I immensely enjoy hearing it, I would have probably taken this for the character generation screen instead of the first thing players hear when entering the game.

I may be biased of course by the way BG and IWD sounded in that regard - you started the game and you instantly felt like 'Yeah, I'm entering a world of epic action, I wanna jump and fight, let's do this!!1" - and while the Title Theme becomes somewhat epic later on, at  first it sounds rather contemplative and deep. And while PoE is both these things at many points in the game, I don't believe this is the general mood most players expect to be put in when entering the game. This has a lot of impact on me, anyway.

 

- Speaking of BG: I greatly enjoy how "Combat C" is reminiscent of Hoenig's stuff (and good choice placing it at the first combat theme players hear ^^), especially in instrumentation (strings and brasses stacked with choirs plus at 0:24 the first three notes (minor chord 1,2,3) of BG's signature theme = instant nostalgia). Other themes (not just in combat) remind me of great music of J-RPGs, especially from the FinalFantasy and Secret of Mana variety.

 

- I admit I would have wished for some character-specific themes, so you can hear those when one of them initiates dialogue with the player character. I remember this from BG2 (though only for romanceable characters there, omg Jaheira's theme was great... but I digress. Anyway, they had a lot more NPCs than PoE does, so composing a theme for all of them would have been a lot of work) and PS:T also had character themes (though in that game, character motifs were largely just variations of the PS:T main theme). NWN also comes to mind, though there you had themes for NPCs that weren't your own but talked to a lot ("Nice" Aribeth, "Evil" Aribeth, Aarin Gend etc.)

Anyway, having themes for playable or non-playable NPCs increases familiarity and 'care' for their stories and trials, at least I feel that way. But I imagine there were constraints of time and resouce (there always are).

 

So long story short: Very good music, very good work, and my only two complains / wishes would have been:

1. Title Theme should be taken for char-generation and something more action-y and dramatic should be taken for Title

2. characters / companions should have their signature theme

Edited April 11, 2015 by endolex

[Caerdon]

(Takes me back to iMUSE days - Peter McConnell and Michael Land invested so much effort into that interactive music system, which added or removed layers depending on what was hapenning in the game and transitioned between tracks smoothly. It was absolutey great - and hardly anyone noticed or talked about it. )

 

Yup, iMUSE was fantastic. Unfortunately it required a lot of work with all the transitions - and as you noted, not many even noticed it...

 

[Odd Hermit]

Personally I liked my fair share of tracks and there's definitely some nice IWD feel in there. Also a few gave me Morrowind vibes...but that's same composer as IWD so.

 

I think if anything though, the music could've been a little stranger, more exotic, and maybe a bit darker given the setting and the variety of cultures involved. My only criticism is that it does feel very standard for an RPG of this style - which is perhaps what many wanted. It's pleasant to listen to but doesn't give me a strong association with the game's unique setting excluding a few pieces.

 

But then, my favorite soundtrack of the old IE games is PS:T's so maybe I just lean toward weirder.

[endolex]

 

Personally I liked my fair share of tracks and there's definitely some nice IWD feel in there. Also a few gave me Morrowind vibes...but that's same composer as IWD so.

 

I think if anything though, the music could've been a little stranger, more exotic, and maybe a bit darker given the setting and the variety of cultures involved. My only criticism is that it does feel very standard for an RPG of this style - which is perhaps what many wanted. It's pleasant to listen to but doesn't give me a strong association with the game's unique setting excluding a few pieces.

 

But then, my favorite soundtrack of the old IE games is PS:T's so maybe I just lean toward weirder.

 

 

Yes, I'm pleasantly surprised as well at how 'weird' PoE got, story-wise. The whole thing with soul fragments, earlier lifes and the like reminds me of PS:T in some regards. So in a way, I understand how you would like to have that reflected in the music as well. 

 

Good news however! Torment: Tides of Numenera will release this year, and with Mark Morgan who also did PS:T back for more music of the 'weirder' type. So I'm looking forward to a lot of this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qBc842j4vpU

Edited April 11, 2015 by endolex

[Atheosis]

The music is perfect.  I had to mute the music in D:OS by comparison.

[endolex]

The music is perfect.  I had to mute the music in D:OS by comparison.

 

Ouch. That bad? I think the Divinity games have a very quirky, unfettered style - when the devs at Larian think something could be fun, they just do it, and the same goes for the composer of all the music in those games, I feel. While they rarely seem to bother with overall consistency or setting a certain 'mood' and sticking with it, somehow all the elements always seem to come together to make an entertaining, if unusual game, and unusual music as well. But I do realize this approach may not be everyone's cup of tea.

[Atheosis]

 

The music is perfect.  I had to mute the music in D:OS by comparison.

 

Ouch. That bad? I think the Divinity games have a very quirky, unfettered style - when the devs at Larian think something could be fun, they just do it, and the same goes for the composer of all the music in those games, I feel. While they rarely seem to bother with overall consistency or setting a certain 'mood' and sticking with it, somehow all the elements always seem to come together to make an entertaining, if unusual game, and unusual music as well. But I do realize this approach may not be everyone's cup of tea.

 

 

Yeah it was that bad.  I hated the music in that game, mainly due to the constant looping.  It was like Chinese water torture for my ears.