Music in PS: T, anyone's keen on working it out?

Gore Bishop · Post by **Gore Bishop** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:43 am

hey there

I wonder, there's quite alot of members of this forum. So, chances are, that some of them / YOU happen to be musicians or so?
1) How do you feel about music in PS: T? (I don't think we've shown enough respect for Mr Morgan in this forum

, or enough disrespect, if anyone thinks so...).
2) Do you know how to play those tunez? Ever tried to sort question this out? I haven't put much effort into it, but I know most of 'Fall-from-Grace theme' and 'Smouldering corpse bar' (the one, which was implemented in the game). Got a MIDI with the main tune (not mine; someone threw it online). But still there's a lot to be discovered.
Anyone feels interested? (don't let this thread include just my plea, tell that you're on it!

)
Cheers,
Gore Bishop

Locutus · Post by **Locutus** » Sun May 30, 2004 11:03 am

yes it apears there are quite alot of musitians here (including myself)
actually well organised music theme works out the mood in RPGs,from my experience.
The PT tunes are just like the rest of the game:strangely twisted for the extraordinary mood,and oddly enough, it works great.Sadly i didnt put much effort in reproducing them (like the main morrowind tune,couple of guys and me even preformed it for the public).....i guess they were intended to be "invisible",blended in the games dazzeling enviroment.
quite catchy, i must admit (especially the sigil streets tune,presented with the hypnotical slow beats)

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Sun May 30, 2004 11:32 am

There was a conversation between Platter and someone else in this forum a while back in which they talked about scoring the music in PS:T or creating MIDI files or something like that. Try doing a search and see if you can find it. If you do, please post a link to it.

I like the music in PS:T. However, since it's background music in a game that isn't supposed to stand out like "normal" music, I'm a little frustrated with it because it's so muted and atmospheric. In other words, I just wish the notes were struck a little harder. Of course, that's certainly not a problem with the music in the Credits.

I'd like to hear the music performed on conventional instruments that can really bring out the melody.

Gore Bishop · Post by **Gore Bishop** » Sun May 30, 2004 12:56 pm

I dunno why you say about this 'background'. Ok, I know, but, when I first played PS:T, the music seemed so 'lively' and a kinda separate from the game (it's probably because it was my first RPG to play, after some time spent on Thief and Thief 2, when the music was, strictly speaking, ambient.
From what I've listened to (concerning RPG soundtracks), the tunes in PS:T seem a lot better (well, since Mr Morgan also made music for Fallout etc., I enjoy it too!). The tunes are not too pompous, and just look at those 'battle themes' - the time signature, the instrumentation, it's awesome! Not to mention his great clarinet (is it supposed to be a clarinet?) in 'Fall-from-Grace' - perfect, doesn't play any direct melody, just some sounds within the scale. And is just ideal.
Ok, enough praises. AS for VonDondu's comment: it was me who introduced this 'MIDI' theme before. Now I just wanted to talk not only about MIDIs. And, hmmm, I don't think those melodies Mr Morgan's invented, would sound well when played 'stronger' (voz there's hardly any melody, but just skillful use of instruments and samples). (and real instruments would ruin the atmosphere at times), at least it's what I think. AS for Locutus: what arrangement was it? which instruments have you used to play that tune? (if i may know

)

I only regret that those pieces weren't developed in any way. I would like to hear whole songs with those themes, like in movie soundtracks (ok, just in some of them). Those 2-minute themes aren't long enough to feel the atmosphere, when you're not playing (and so they're not looped)....

but no game composer does such things, I suppose. what for? (esp. if he has 3 weeks to compose the whole sountracks - I've heard that he had just 3 short weeks to do that, and we all know well which he came up with! )

P.S. ah, a thread which you mentioned. There's no big deal there, but .... (hmm wonder if I pasted it correctly

)
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showt ... ight=music

Locutus · Post by **Locutus** » Sun May 30, 2004 4:57 pm

Originally posted by Gore Bishop
AS for Locutus: what arrangement was it? which instruments have you used to play that tune? (if i may know )

i hope i dont go toomuch offtopic with this one,but since u asked...
at first i knew i couldnt use any large scale of musicians and/or instruments.but it was quite easy once we started, since the morrowind tune has a slow melodic main theme played by diferent instruments.the background is strictliy follow-up or just moody noise so that was easy to cover.
what started as a quartet ended as a mini-orchestra.first there were 2 classical guitars,piano and a flute,but we added a violin,a timpan(that one completed the sound),and i met a guy that played cello (and morrowind

) and was eager to participate.
we started the tune with timpan and the flute,adding the background noise with 2guitars arrpegio,and then exchanged the instruments playing main theme in the mike oldfield fassion.we blended all tunes from the game that had the main melody(the bridge was the Fight tune,beautifully preformed by flute+cello+violin).all other bridges were improvised.
we were able to strech it for about 10 minutes and it worked out fine.
all this was performed by enthusiasts and mostly musical amateurs,with verry little sheet or notes arrangement,but it was quite a happening on our little town's stage.

Gore Bishop · Post by **Gore Bishop** » Mon May 31, 2004 7:05 am

hope i dont go toomuch offtopic with this one

Yeah, right, I should've posted a private message rather than blur the topic of this post. Sorry

(on personal level, I don't enjoy much the themes you mentioned, but that's off the topic again

)

Hopefully there'll be more views on the music in PS: T, as well as, maybe, uhm, some attempts to work out those themes

. Maybe someone will try to develop those songs, or mix'em or so...? (maybe it will be me, even

). Anyway, hoping to get more views

Cheers,
Gore Bishop

Locutus · Post by **Locutus** » Mon May 31, 2004 7:11 pm

Originally posted by Gore Bishop
Yeah, right, I should've posted a private message rather than blur the topic of this post. Sorry (on personal level, I don't enjoy much the themes you mentioned, but that's off the topic again )

yeah that may be true.(still,my gratitude goes to those people briefley mentioned in the review,people that accepted my vision and initiative to preform the game-music in front of the public)(sorry for the offtopic again,but i have the feeling that they must be mentioned,atleast for the effort they made,and wich i described)
the main point should still go to the PT music.the fall form grace theme is verry adaptive and i am sorry there wasn't time or initiative to preform it as well,though this tpo[ic made me start the idea.i am pleased to announce that the PT music will be peformed infront of the people (which arent familliar with the game).wish me luck in realisation....ill need it.
tribute to gore bishop, that started this topic

Gore Bishop · Post by **Gore Bishop** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:38 pm

oficially: good luck! (and tribute well met

).
Hey, the topic's not closed, come on, share your opinion, folks!

Est · Post by **Est** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 10:48 am

my 2 cents

well one thing i'm definitely agreeing on is precisely this, the music in the game kinda blends much more with the ambience, so it's not like a "separate" arrangement just thrown together with the game.
remember how the score for Baldur's Gate (both games) seemed to "stand out" more? maybe that's what made it somewhat easier to catch the drift and play it separately (i know i spent lots of time trying out different ways to arrange and play the main theme

)

anyhow, the point is that most of the tracks aren't so comfortable to just *play*, because they don't have a clearly defined melody that stands out... (more like a combination of "background-ish" strings ond/or percussion effects) so what we're looking at is a means of figuring out each of the parts of a song, then writing them down in a MIDI arranger of sorts.

Exception goes for the game's main theme, which is kinda easy to figure out once you've heard it a couple of times.

And yeah, i know MIDI wasn't the center of this topic, but in fact by the time one gets to arranging a track in MIDI, you've probably already got the hang of it enough to play it half decently

let's see what other ideas pop up.

Gore Bishop · Post by **Gore Bishop** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 3:31 pm

hah, does it have any sense... ?

Hey, that's pretty right about the background - no obvious melodies, and its sorta difficult to arrange them using only the GM sounds. I dunno if possible. really. I haven't done much, but what I've done (using a pathetic MIDI editor) doesn't "sound" impressive, though the tunez are right, of course.
But then, luckily, not all themes are separate. There's a whole lot of samples that are used in a couple of themes!!

Anyone made any MIDIs of PS:T music (apart from the main theme?).

heh, maybe it would be a bit wiser to rearrange the songs into new audio filez? oh, lord, let me reach my 'END OF THE SESSION' point and have time for such stuff.

P.S. a fine brand new interface...

seems a lot more 'civilised' though I liked the old one too . Just a diggression.

Fallen-Grace · Post by **Fallen-Grace** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:13 am

Hey guys, sorry to revive an old thread but I gotta know! What is that instrument being played in the fall from grace theme song? I've been trying to figure it out for years. Hell I'm willing to learn the instrument cause I like the sound so much! It definitely sounds like a wind instrument.

Really appreciate this in advance.

PS: I admit I registered just to ask this question but I'm tired of googling at 5:13 am here...