Elite / Frontier The Music of Elite

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
I have been thinking on another aspect of Elite, that being the music. Music has become a fairly significant part of gaming and I think that was recognised somewhat in he inclusion of the midi tracks in Frontier. I'm curious as to what you guys think would make an interesting counterpoint to the gameplay.

I am of two thoughts on this - one being a facility within the game to play your own music whether it be some sort of an iTunes plugin or a music player for using your own CDs or MP3s. The other thought is actual licenced music and being a UK based outfit I would like to see Frontier utilise the massive talent of UK Electronica musicians, with the likes of Future Sound of London contributing an ambient atmosphere and maybe someone like Leftfield and Massive Attack doing some of he other music.

I can certainly see the music adding to the overall gameplay experience.
 

turwhitt

turwhitt
I do like this idea. Most games go in for classical soundtracks, and although that's fine, it would be good to have an innovative ambient/electronic soundtrack on Elite.
I'm not too sure about Massive attack/Leftfield. As well as the fact that they would probably be too expensive, i would rather see an undiscovered artist get his chance to shine.
For a collective like massive attack, it would be a case of "It's only a computer game, let's knock out some tracks and take the money". For an aspiring artist, it would be a case of "This is my big break!"

I really liked the music on EVE by the way. It was slightly nebulous, so you didn't get bored of it playing over and over, but it was also interesting enough to be memorable.
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
turwhitt said:
I'm not too sure about Massive attack/Leftfield. As well as the fact that they would probably be too expensive, i would rather see an undiscovered artist get his chance to shine.
For a collective like massive attack, it would be a case of "It's only a computer game, let's knock out some tracks and take the money". For an aspiring artist, it would be a case of "This is my big break!"
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This is true - altho Leftfield no longer exist and music like 'Song for Life' and 'Melt' would lend themselves quite nicely to the feel.

Massive Attack might be a little ambitious you are quite correct :) I guess the other way is to treat it like many other games have in the past and bring in a noted DJ to compile the tracking - Paul Van Dyk, Oakenfold or some of the Global Underground lot like Sasha or Digweed, Nick Warren or maybe the Deep Dish lads, Sharam and Dubfire.
 

Steve

Steve
I've always felt that in-game music is more suited to games where there's a set path or script that has to be followed, so the creepy music plays during the creepy bit etc etc. With an open-ended game like Elite IV (hopefully!) those moments don't occur so much (maybe battle music and docking music) so the best thing would be to have your own favourite music playing in the background.
In-game music also gets boring pretty quickly, even if you like it. How long did anyone have the Quality Quartet playing in FE2/FFE??
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
Steve said:
Oh, boy. Whatever happened to my Discman :D

Incidentally, if you want trance music with an Elite connection, you can download Ian Bell's "Dirac Delta" work at FGE

Some of it's actually quite good!
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Haha just had a listen - very old school stuff there - he's mixing the music as opposed to writing it. It's old 90's trance, some of it is very cheesy and dated but there are some timeless tracks in there.

I think my Discman is in storage back home in NZ along with around 2000 CDs which I spend half a lifetime turning into MP3 which I promptly lost when I blew up one of my hard drives - dumbass. Started again but not even close to what I had.

Steve you are right - there is a limit to the number of times that you can listen to specific tracks but I think that games like Gran Turismo and the Wipeout series have proven that a really good soundtrack can have a place in the gameplay. Still ambience would lean itself to the space game genre better than a pumping soundtrack. There are some brilliant deep trance tracks that I can see fitting quite nicely into those times between jumping into a system and docking.
 
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turwhitt

turwhitt
I think there is a place for a well-planned soundtrack in a game.

I played SWG quite obsessively for about 2 years and never got bored of the soundtrack or ended up turning it off.

It is possible to have a complimentary soundtrack in an MMO too. Like you say, combat and docking are obvious ones, but there can be a selection of music for when you are docked, or when you are just bumming around in space etc.
 
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Darkman

Darkman
I would like the best of both worlds, some included tracks with the game but also a little player widget on the cockpit somewhere that allows you to listen to your own music from your own collection on your Hard Drive.
 

DraQ

D
I think they should mostly go for ambient and generally stuff you can listen to for many hours without having your ears bleed - there are many tracks, especially 'epic' orchestral ones used in fantasy games, that, while good when you hear them first three times in a loop, start to eat your brain away after a few more repeats. Something more suited for a background music would be welcome.

Of course, it'd be nice if the high quality versions classical tracks we know from Frontier were included, preferably as a separate toggleable option and nod towards the people in whose minds docking (be it the scene from 2001 or maneuver from Elite/FE2) and Blue Danube coalesced into one indivisible whole.
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
DraQ said:
I think they should mostly go for ambient and generally stuff you can listen to for many hours without having your ears bleed - there are many tracks, especially 'epic' orchestral ones used in fantasy games, that, while good when you hear them first three times in a loop, start to eat your brain away after a few more repeats. Something more suited for a background music would be welcome.

Of course, it'd be nice if the high quality versions classical tracks we know from Frontier were included, preferably as a separate toggleable option and nod towards the people in whose minds docking (be it the scene from 2001 or maneuver from Elite/FE2) and Blue Danube coalesced into one indivisible whole.
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OH YES INDEEDY :) love that idea... 'Engage Docking Computer" Da da da da da dum dum dum dum da da da da da dum dum dum dum... :D

I agree - ambience is a good thing.
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
A nice touch would be to use your own MP3's so if you don't like a particular piece of music you can substitute it for one of your own.
 

The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
DraQ said:
I think they should mostly go for ambient and generally stuff you can listen to for many hours without having your ears bleed - there are many tracks, especially 'epic' orchestral ones used in fantasy games, that, while good when you hear them first three times in a loop, start to eat your brain away after a few more repeats. Something more suited for a background music would be welcome.

Of course, it'd be nice if the high quality versions classical tracks we know from Frontier were included, preferably as a separate toggleable option and nod towards the people in whose minds docking (be it the scene from 2001 or maneuver from Elite/FE2) and Blue Danube coalesced into one indivisible whole.
Click to expand...

Some better combat music would be good as well, something to really get the adrenaline going...
 
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