Great music !

[demeisen]

Cool.  If you have any way to pass along the message "nice work" to said anonymous singer, please do .  Nice composition work too: I'm a sucker for that style.

 

That kind of detail (lyrics matching in-game events as a bard might do to deliver news) is the kind of little detail that makes worlds like PoE come alive.  I see it a lot in the artwork too: lots of things that might have been left out or not bothered with in a lesser game, but someone put that extra effort into.

 

I discovered that if you pause the game the music keeps playing but all the voices shut up, so you can listen to the music on its own.

[house2fly]

The song is great, and worked really well for the White March 2 trailer.

[Ineth]

I love the Gref's Rest's bard song as well. Whenever I go into that inn and that song starts playing, I feel compelled to let my party stand around idle so I can listen to the whole thing and enjoy the atmosphere...

[Messier-31]

The lyrics of the inn song are about Ondra and Abydon.  Since you just started playing the expansion I won't spoil it, but the meaning of the lyrics are significant.  

 

Gref's Rest soundtrack is gr8. Are these lyrics available somewhere to read?

[house2fly]

Actually even though the singer is amazing I kind of wish Sawyer had sung it himself. It would be a fun tradition to have Sawyer-directed games feature the man himself singing at some point. Definitely get him to do one if there's a POE2

[Mazisky]

Nobody mentioned the prologue music. That is really atmospheric and sets (in combo with the narrator) a perfect mood for game start.

[Justin Bell]

 

 

The lyrics of the inn song are about Ondra and Abydon. Since you just started playing the expansion I won't spoil it, but the meaning of the lyrics are significant.

Gref's Rest soundtrack is gr8. Are these lyrics available somewhere to read?

I can post them here:

 

The sea beheld her love

Shinning bright from on high

She bade him come down

From his palace in the sky

Her love could not be swayed

So she took a piece into her heart

And all who saw her grief that day

Sleep in her bosom still

 

At least I think that's it.

[Ineth]

So she took a piece into her heart

 

What does this line mean?

[Justin Bell]

Ondra (i.e. the sea) tore off a piece of the moon (i.e. the Abydon) out of jealousy which caused the moon to crash into the sea. 

[Abel]

I remember that something like two years ago, all people was not ok with the first bits of music we had. But i'm happy to see that in the end, we now all agree: Justin had to do the music for Pillars. No one, but him. Well, i was kind of sure it will turn out like this. Indeed, the music is great.

 

And indeed, Defiance Bay lacks something. Gainulf pointed the ambient sound problem. He's right: battle sounds are very noticeable, so i use to not listen other ambiant sounds correctly. Oh! by the way. It seems that the battle music in Ondra's Gift (my favorite track in the game) is tied to the sound effects volume, not the music one. When i try to turn music volume up, it has no effect. But when i turn the sound effects up, both the battle sounds and the music are turned up. Since it's my favorite track, it's a bit of a bother: i can't really put the music sound volume very high with more discrete battle sounds. Did not look at it in 3+ version, but it was still there in 2.03. Don't know if i should do a bug report.

 

To me, another thing that is bad in Defiance Bay is that there is way too much opened space. Streets are way too wide, and now, it all feels empty. I would have expected narrower streets, alleys and passageways, even if there was one large avenue. I know it is very USA to have many large ways in their cities, but it does not feel quite right in a fantasy game like PoE. Baldur's Gate, and even Atkhatla had some narrow streets with piled up houses on each sides. For all these reasons, Defiance Bay looks there is barely any inhabitants.

 

And damn, the town is meant to be full of refugees? Full to the brim? No way... There is barely any refugees, any townfolks there. These two problems are, to me, the most important in the town. Yet, better handled ambient sound (as describes Gainulf) would have improved the whole city even further.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Abel

[Gairnulf]

A question for Justin, or anyone else who might know - what is the melody in the Durgan's Battery area? I've heard it a long time ago in another great game, Medieval: Total War (the original MTW, not the disaster that was MTW2). It was the theme for winter season when playing as an European faction. Is it some original melody, and what's its name?

[Justin Bell]

A question for Justin, or anyone else who might know - what is the melody in the Durgan's Battery area? I've heard it a long time ago in another great game, Medieval: Total War (the original MTW, not the disaster that was MTW2). It was the theme for winter season when playing as an European faction. Is it some original melody, and what's its name?

 

Hmmm... I don't believe I've ever heard the music for MWT.  I think that's a complete coincidence, though I'd be curious to hear which one you mean! 

[Justin Bell]

Kind of a double post, but relates to this thread.  We released the White March soundtrack and unreleased base game music on Sound Cloud today.  Enjoy!

 

https://soundcloud.com/obsidian-entertainment/sets

[demeisen]

I played through the

Flames-that-Whisper

area in WM1 last night.  Nice work there too: I like the tribal / drum ambiance it has got going.  Is it all acoustic recording?

[drgonzo]

I really like the music. Good job Justin!

[Nonek]

What i'm personally finding is that the soundtrack does evolve throughout the game, now i'm not stating that the original soundtrack was poor (far from it,) merely that tromping through the White Marches I find that the tunes are adhering more to the themes and ambience, perhaps Mr Bell's music is becoming more sympatico with its subject matter?

 

I do find though that lately i'm very impressed with soundtracks in gaming, to the extent that sometimes I think they are superior to the actual product, though this would deny the symbiotic relationship that they share. I do agree with what horror maestro Sam Raimi once said, that often a good soundtrack can be the glue which holds a vision together.

[EdwinOdesseiron]

I just found out ... I really LOVE the mystic, menacing, dark tone of
- Durgans Battery
- All Gods Lie, The truth only gets in their way

They're really captivating to me and fit to the areas and their story so perfect. I am sure in 10 years I would still enjoy replaying PoE just to reach those areas to hear the music. This is something only a few games are able to do, Baldurs Gate and TES being two of them for me.

In the original PoE what had the same effect on me was

- Engwithan ruins
- Od Nua
- Temple of Skaen
- Temple of Woedica

Excellent job Mr. Bell!

For the nostalgia:

Even today over 15 years later I love to listen to Baldurs Gate 1
- Arms Inn (So cozy!) => 

- Mystical, old cloakwood-forest =>

- Menacing, old cloak wood-forest at NIGHT => 

- Down to the sewers (still creeps me out today => 

- Ruins of Ulcaster (This tension!!) => 

And Baldurs Gate 2
- Nighttime in the docks => 

- Underdark (This fluuuute....) => 

And ToB
- Pocket Plane (This is music for real Bhaalspawns) => 

- Amkethran (For the beduins) => 

[Sylvus_Moonbow]

Kind of a double post, but relates to this thread.  We released the White March soundtrack and unreleased base game music on Sound Cloud today.  Enjoy!

 

https://soundcloud.com/obsidian-entertainment/sets

Very nice! Do we have to register with SoundCloud do download the music?

 

And my second question - was there no new music for White March Part 2?

Edited March 9, 2016 by Sylvus_Moonbow

[Flow]

<poke poke>

 

Any way we could convince to compile the WM music as an album and put in the White March Steam and GOG files?

[Gairnulf]

 

A question for Justin, or anyone else who might know - what is the melody in the Durgan's Battery area? I've heard it a long time ago in another great game, Medieval: Total War (the original MTW, not the disaster that was MTW2). It was the theme for winter season when playing as an European faction. Is it some original melody, and what's its name?

 

Hmmm... I don't believe I've ever heard the music for MWT.  I think that's a complete coincidence, though I'd be curious to hear which one you mean!

 

Now that I listened to it, I see I was wrong. "At The Gates" is based on one of PoE's wilderness themes (I think). At first it sounded really similar to that: 

Edited March 9, 2016 by Gairnulf