Solved Adding More Music

[KillPhil]

yes if you downloaded it, then you have it if you want to play it: It is Menue.ogg in the MUSIC folder

 

[Pieter Boelen]

No worries, I'll find it. It's just a matter of finding a time. I never do seem to have enough of that.

 

[Armada]

I've finally got round to testing out Pieter's added music from a few pages back, so I'd like to post my impressions of it here:

Town/Jungle music:
• Eng_town2 - Sounds more like a main theme/menu track, not ambient music.
• Fra_town2 - Sounds too dramatic.
• Por_town - Sounds pretty good.
• Por_town2 - A little dramatic?
• Spa_town - Good enough.
• Spa_town2 - What can I say? That's an awesome track.
• USA_town - Sounds OK.
• USA_town2 - That sounds Western; is that really appropriate?
• Jungle2 - Sounds good.
• Jungle3 - Not so sure... Probably not needed.
• Jungle4 - Sounds OK.
• Sobor2 (church) - Not really needed; plenty of other church music that sounds better.

Sailing/Battle music:
• Sailing02 - Sounds too inconsistent and upbeat.
• Sailing03 - Sounds more like battle music; too 'intense' at times.
• Sea_battle04 - Generally too quiet.
• Sea_battle05 - Sounds more like an upbeat march; not really appropriate.
• Sea_battle06 - Sounds suitable enough.
• Ship_victory02 - Lasts slightly too long.
• Storm2 - Too quiet!!
• Storm3 - Sounds suitable enough.
• sea/Worldmap/Worldmap2 - Doesn't sound right on World Map; too similar to Dutch town music.

General points unrelated to new music:
• Taverns could do without the 'Taverna' track played in stores and shipyards, in my opinion.
• Sometimes I get no music when sailing at night.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the new music?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The new English and Spanish town tracks are horrible and I have eliminated them from my installs. The French is dramatic, but it at least has something besides drums and trumpets. Some of the jungle music makes me think "Spaghetti Western".

There are some pretty nice tracks in there so it doesn't take long to pick and choose the ones you like best.

 

[KillPhil]

So if this topic is discussed again, I think I will quickly re-do my music-pack Will delete some tracks which weren't so good..

http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/TEMP/Additional_Music.zip

Many of the town-tracks are not long enough, so I edited sound.c to minimize the time between end and start of the music. I can edit the tracks and make them longer, but I won't do that until I know if you like the music

 

[Pieter Boelen]

• Eng_town2 - They had that as general background music in No Man's Land too

Those tracks you find dramatic are all also general background music from the base-building aspect of that game when there are no fights or anything.
I do understand what you mean though; definitely quite some tension in there. I just added them to have two tracks for each nation, rather than one.

• USA_town2 - True, that. Had a hard time finding tracks that sounded American, but not too Western-y. I do quite like it though.

• Jungle3 - Indeed it doesn't do much, does it? Is there enough variety in jungle music without it?
You can spend quite a lot of time wandering around there, so I didn't want it to be too samey-samey.

• Sobor2 (church) - I tried to put ALL music from the old Sea Dogs to use. That's the only place I could think of to use the "defeat theme".

• Sailing02 - That's a stock game track. One of my favourite ones, in fact. It's indeed upbeat, but that's what I like about it.
Gives off a nice vibe of "going on an adventure".

• Sailing03 - From Cutthroat Island, track "Charting the Course". The ending where it goes rather epic is from when the bad guys set sail too.
Not from an actual battle at all though.

• Sea_battle04 - Apparently the only battle music from Sea Dogs. Not my favourite, I must say.
But since PotC is Sea Dogs 2, I figured we'd add it in its rightful spot.

• Sea_battle05 - Actually the British fight music from No Man's Land. I quite like it, but could think of no other use for it than a sea battle.
Originally from a Real Time Strategy game though, so.... not written for this purpose.

• Sea_battle06 - Best battle music EVAH!!!

• Ship_victory02 - Sea Dogs again. I like it quite a bit, but indeed rather on the long side. 20 seconds vs. 10 seconds on the normal ones.
I've got no clue how to make it shorter without cutting it off though.

• Storm2 - More of an atmospheric track, that. Perhaps better suited as part of the "fog music"?

• Worldmap/Worldmap2 - Sea Dogs once more. Didn't sound right for "sailing" music to me and since it is the main theme of that game, I thought the worldmap wasn't too bad a place for it.

• Taverns could do without the 'Taverna' track played in stores and shipyards, in my opinion.
^ Very much agreed. I really got tired of hearing that one everywhere. Actually, I thought I had already removed that, but apparently not.
Did it just now for the next release.

• Sometimes I get no music when sailing at night.
^ Looks like you're absolutely right. These two files don't exist:

  tmpref.music_night_sailing.f2.name = "MUSIC\Sailing_Night.ogg";           // PB: Sea Dogs
   tmpref.music_night_sailing.f3.name = "MUSIC\Sailing_Night2.ogg";         // PB: Sea Dogs

Can't remember now what I intended to do with those. Perhaps put those Worldmap tracks from Sea Dogs there instead?

 

[KillPhil]

I also sometimes don't have music in storms^^

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I also sometimes don't have music in storms^^

Right you are! Looks like I put the numbers AFTER the file extension instead of before.
That doesn't help.

 

[Armada]

The new English and Spanish town tracks are horrible and I have eliminated them from my installs.

I understand the English one, but I thought I you mentioned before that you liked the new Spanish music?

• Eng_town2 - They had that as general background music in No Man's Land too

Those tracks you find dramatic are all also general background music from the base-building aspect of that game when there are no fights or anything.
I do understand what you mean though; definitely quite some tension in there. I just added them to have two tracks for each nation, rather than one.
[...]
• Sea_battle05 - Actually the British fight music from No Man's Land. I quite like it, but could think of no other use for it than a sea battle.
Originally from a Real Time Strategy game though, so.... not written for this purpose.

Maybe the fact that many of the tracks were used in an RTS is why they feel 'out of place' in PotC.
As much as I like variety, if a track just doesn't create the right atmosphere when it is used, it can spoil the experience at times.

• USA_town2 - True, that. Had a hard time finding tracks that sounded American, but not too Western-y. I do quite like it though.

I like it too, just not sure it belongs here. Pirates and tall ships kind of pre-date 'Cowboys and Indians'.

• Jungle3 - Indeed it doesn't do much, does it? Is there enough variety in jungle music without it?
You can spend quite a lot of time wandering around there, so I didn't want it to be too samey-samey.

I reckon there's enough variety without it, yes.

• Sobor2 (church) - I tried to put ALL music from the old Sea Dogs to use. That's the only place I could think of to use the "defeat theme".

Do we really to make going to church sound that depressing?

• Sailing02 - That's a stock game track. One of my favourite ones, in fact. It's indeed upbeat, but that's what I like about it.
Gives off a nice vibe of "going on an adventure".

Really? I don't ever recall hearing that music in the stock game. How strange.
I get the "going on an adventure" idea, but compared to the other sailing tracks, it sounds a bit too "adventurous" to my ears.
The last part is one of the "victory" jingles too, and it sounds a bit strange hearing that when sailing peacefully.
For me, the time for "adventurous" music is in battles, if at all.

• Sea_battle04 - Apparently the only battle music from Sea Dogs. Not my favourite, I must say.
But since PotC is Sea Dogs 2, I figured we'd add it in its rightful spot.

The main issue I have with this one (and several other Sea Dogs ones, but not all) is that they seem noticeably quieter than the other music, especially compared to the No Man's Land stuff.
This creates an inconsistency within the game, which feels a bit odd to me. If we could adjust the volume for individual tracks, though, that might improve things quite a bit.

• Storm2 - More of an atmospheric track, that. Perhaps better suited as part of the "fog music"?

Not a bad idea. Some of the fog tracks sound slightly worse, anyway.

• Worldmap/Worldmap2 - Sea Dogs once more. Didn't sound right for "sailing" music to me and since it is the main theme of that game, I thought the worldmap wasn't too bad a place for it.

I didn't know that was the main theme. What annoys me, though, is that it's almost identical to one of the Dutch town tracks, so ideally I'd rather keep one or the other.

• Taverns could do without the 'Taverna' track played in stores and shipyards, in my opinion.
^ Very much agreed. I really got tired of hearing that one everywhere. Actually, I thought I had already removed that, but apparently not.
Did it just now for the next release.

Good to hear. The other tavern tracks are so much better to listen to.

• Sometimes I get no music when sailing at night.
^ Looks like you're absolutely right. These two files don't exist:

  tmpref.music_night_sailing.f2.name = "MUSIC\Sailing_Night.ogg";           // PB: Sea Dogs
   tmpref.music_night_sailing.f3.name = "MUSIC\Sailing_Night2.ogg";         // PB: Sea Dogs

Can't remember now what I intended to do with those. Perhaps put those Worldmap tracks from Sea Dogs there instead?

Could you upload the missing files so I could have a listen?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maybe we should see what new tracks we DO want to keep and drop everything that doesn't really add much of anything.
Reduces the download size too, which is always a good thing.

Do we really to make going to church sound that depressing?

Well..... no.

Really? I don't ever recall hearing that music in the stock game. How strange.
I get the "going on an adventure" idea, but compared to the other sailing tracks, it sounds a bit too "adventurous" to my ears.
The last part is one of the "victory" jingles too, and it sounds a bit strange hearing that when sailing peacefully.
For me, the time for "adventurous" music is in battles, if at all.

For me, just sailing around at sea IS adventurous. And not just in the game either.
I like adventure and I went to work at sea because of it. Indeed it ending with the victory music is a bit odd. I wonder if that can be edited out without it sounding wrong.

I didn't know that was the main theme. What annoys me, though, is that it's almost identical to one of the Dutch town tracks, so ideally I'd rather keep one or the other.

True, that. Seems that the Dutch town track is truncated from one of those Sea Dogs main theme tracks and repeated twice.
It doesn't sound overly Dutch to me either, so how about dropping it as a town track and just keeping Hol_Town2 there. I like that one much better for Dutch towns anyway.
I'd like to keep them in use somewhere though. If not on the worldmap, perhaps for Night Sailing?

The main issue I have with this one (and several other Sea Dogs ones, but not all) is that they seem noticeably quieter than the other music, especially compared to the No Man's Land stuff.
This creates an inconsistency within the game, which feels a bit odd to me. If we could adjust the volume for individual tracks, though, that might improve things quite a bit.

Editing the various tracks' volume isn't so hard. Deciding what they should be changed to, however, is much more difficult.
That's always a problem with music from different sources.

Could you upload the missing files so I could have a listen?

Problem is that I don't have them. And I can't remember what they were supposed to be in the first place.
Probably I intended to reassign some tracks, but never did. Possibly those two Worldmap tracks.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

"I understand the English one, but I thought I you mentioned before that you liked the new Spanish music? "

At first I thought I could coexist with that track but it has aged badly. Now I can't stand it and have deleted it from all of my installs. No music is better than that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So here are some comments of my own on all the newly added stuff:

dutchemerge - The added sound effects really sound weird to me; I'd be inclined to try it with music only.
Also, could it be shortened? A minute is really very long.

dutchemerge2 - Based on the "Kraken" theme. Agh, I HATE that. Worst music there is in the PotC films.
Completely misguided and doesn't belong anywhere NEAR a pirate film. Makes me wish once more they would've kept Alan Silvestri to write the music.

Eng_Town - From Sea Dogs, been in the game a long time. A bit quiet, but we can keep it since it seems to be used for the same purpose in the old "invasion" video.

Eng_Town2 - As I see it, this does give a more forceful musical presence to England than Eng_Town does.
Couldn't it represent another aspect of the nation? Doesn't all have to sound alike, does it?

Fra_Town - From Sea Dogs. Sounds almost like governor's mansion music. Very, very different from Fra_Town2 .

Fra_Town2 - France is pictured as a formidable enemy in both the Standard and Hornblower storylines. This track does support that much more than Fra_Town does.

French_Governor2 - Fun period track from Cutthroat Island. Couldn't think of anywhere else to use it and France only had one track for the governor, which didn't seem fair.

Hol_Town - Doesn't sound very Dutch to me. Drop it in favour of using the similar music for night sailing?

Hol_Town2 - Keep, keep, keep! Such a fun track, that is. It is 3:30 long. Perhaps we should split it in two or maybe even three so people get to hear the latter half sometimes as well.

Governors_Theme, Gubernator and March - Stock game governor tracks that were no longer used.
Since the USA had no unique governor music, I put them in use there.

Jungle_Indian and Jungle_Indian2 - These don't see much use in the game, because we don't have many Indians. Only on Cozumel and the Indian village on Aruba, I think.
They're kind-of fun though and perhaps eventually we end up adding more Indian content, such as temples on the main shores of the Spanish Main.

Jungle2, Jungle3 and Jungle4 - #3 sound VERY American-like and #4 also to some extent. Perhaps drop both to save space and keep #2 for variety's sake?

Pir_Town - From Sea Dogs, I think. Been in the modpack for a long time. Does sound VERY silly to me. Keep or drop?

Pir_Town2 - Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Was in use for English towns before, but I figured pirate would be more appropriate.

Por_Town and Por_Town2 - Some of the Spanish music from No Man's Land.
Perhaps split Por_Town into two/three tracks and do away with Por_Town2?

Sailing_Sunrise and Sailing_Fog - Indeed not the best tracks from Sea Dogs, but I don't mind having them for separate use in foggy cases.
Or do people not like the idea of having separate "fog music"?

Sailing02 - To me, a lot of the stock game music is nice enough to listen to, but doesn't do much to sound either proper period or proper piratey.
The only tracks I REALLY like are two of the battle tracks and this one. This one especially, because it really conjures up images of sailing at sea.
So I'd very much prefer keeping it in use. If not at sea, then how about the Worldmap?
I just tried to cut off the "victory" music from the end with limited success. It isn't TOO bad, but doesn't sound as good as it did before.

Sailing03 - "Setting Sail" from Cutthroat Island is just about "sailing music personified" if there is such a thing. Even better than Sailing02 above.
Definitely don't want to lose that one. I already limited my inclusion of Cutthroat Island music to only a select few tracks, but this on is just begging for it.

Sea_Battle01 - Stock game track. I have no great love for this one. 02 and 03 are SO much more fun. It is also MUCH more dramatic than the other two.

Sea_battle04 - Battle music from Sea Dogs. Not sure if I like this better than 01 or not. Not the greatest, but I don't mind having it for variety's sake.
Has a similar idea to the battle music from Age of Pirates.

Sea_battle05 - English battle music from No Man's Land. I do quite like it, but isn't quite a sea battle, I suppose.

Sea_battle06 - Let me just express my love for this track again.
The actual track is about 20 minutes long, but the remainder is probably too filmic to work in the game.

Ship_victory02 - I just cut this down to about 10 seconds and it doesn't sound half-bad that way. Should be able to keep it.

Sobor2 - We can drop this, I suppose. I don't visit the church much anyway and it'll save some space.

Spa_Town - From Sea Dogs. I quite like this track, but it is REALLY long at almost 4:30 .
Parts of it are used in the "invasion" film for the invasion part. I think it was also part of a sea battle music track in an earlier modpack release.
Could easily be split into two tracks so people get to hear the latter half.

Spa_Town2 - Spanish battle music from No Man's Land. Rather action-packed for regular town music.
But then, so is the Spa_Town one from Sea Dogs.
It is also REALLY long and a bit on the repetitive side. If we want to keep it, we could cut it down.

Storm - Stock game track. Very cool, but also sounds pretty modern.

Storm2 - From Sea Dogs. Move to "fog sailing" instead? It sounds more like the "coming of a storm" than actually be IN a storm.

Storm3 - Cutthroat Island again. This track almost spells out the word "storm".

Storm4 - PotC Davy Jones' theme. Film fans should like hearing this one. Well-edited by Legendary Spider too.

Treasure_Cave - Best "finding of the treasure" music I've ever heard. From Cutthroat Island, of course.
Only used on Isla de Muerta though, which isn't quite where it belongs, what with the treasure being cursed and everything.
I don't much care for the PotC film music for those scenes though.

USA_Town - Really LONG track. Perhaps we can split it and replace USA_Town2 with the second half. Not sure where to do so though.
Alternate idea: Take some patriotic music from, say, The Patriot or so.

Worldmap and Worldmap2 - I do quite like the Sea Dogs main theme. If you don't approve of it for worldmap use, would night sailing music be OK?

 

[KillPhil]

Too bad you don't like my emerging music In my opinion, the 2nd emerge-track fits really really good to Jones and the Flying Dutchman. But okay, you can leave it out if you don't like it ..
The sound-effects are completely from the movie.. so for the emerge2, it is quite impossible to edit them. for the 1st on, I could do some stuff with AudaCity, because I have the clean music-track for this.
Shorten it.. hmm if you tell me where a good point for that would be, I could do that of course.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Too bad you don't like my emerging music In my opinion, the 2nd emerge-track fits really really good to Jones and the Flying Dutchman. But okay, you can leave it out if you don't like it ..

Anyway, that was no criticism directed at you. More at Hans Zimmer who can write good music at time.
But then sometimes.... not so much. It's too modern. The Kraken music was so bad it REALLY took me out of the film.
And that is coming from someone who used to like the music to the first film. Until I found the CD from Cutthroat Island, that is....

The sound-effects are completely from the movie.. so for the emerge2, it is quite impossible to edit them.

I understand they're from the film. To me, they don't sound like they fit in the game though.
I've got pretty much the complete soundtracks from all four films without sound effects, so you should be able to work from that.

Shorten it.. hmm if you tell me where a good point for that would be, I could do that of course.

See (uhm.... hear) attached. That's what I'd be inclined to do.
At 10 seconds each, they are the same length as the regular victory music, so that shouldn't be too long.

 

[Armada]

dutchemerge - Music only and a much shorter segment works for me.

dutchemerge2 - It's a pirate film with a great big sea monster. What did you expect?
Personally I quite like that track, though I don't think it has a place in the game (unless we do add a DMC quest).

Eng/Fra/Por/Spa_Town2 - Maybe these could be put to use in forts?
That would be better than trying to intimidate the player when they're just wandering around town.

Fra_Town - Sounds fine to me.

French_Governor2 - Works for me.

Hol_Town - The other similar tracks are better for sailing/World Map indeed.

Governors_Theme, Gubernator and March - Not sure all of them are needed; maybe drop March?

Jungle2, Jungle3 and Jungle4 - Dropping 3 and 4 sounds like a good plan.
Pir_Town - Oh, come on. "Yo ho ho!" It's supposed to be a bit of fun. I like it.

Sailing_Sunrise and Sailing_Fog - I don't care much for those tracks, so I don't mind if we use them or not. Depends what others think of them.

Sailing02 - Possibly loop the section roughly between 0:17 and 1:50? That might sound better.

Sailing03 - To me, it sounds good for sailing until around 0:47.
After that, you can tell it was written for a specific film scene, which is less ideal for ambient sailing music.
Sea_Battle01 - It may not be as 'fun' as the others, but I really like it as a battle track. Many great battles have been fought with this playing in the background.
No point in all the tracks being the same tone, anyway.

Sea_battle04 - I prefer 01, but I don't mind this one. If it were made louder, it would probably sound better in battle.
Sometimes it's far too quiet, and sometimes it sounds pretty good.

Sea_battle05 - I don't mind it, but it's just not quite right for a sea battle in my opinion.

Sea_battle06 - What it currently is sounds good to me.

Ship_victory02 - A ten second segment is probably fine.

Spa_Town - Wouldn't mind it being split up. Not a bad track.

Storm - It sounds OK to me. I see no reason to scrap it.

Storm2 - 'Fog sailing' would indeed be a better use for it.

Storm3 - It does sound good, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it definitive storm music. I think Storm4 has the edge for that.

USA_Town - Maybe it could be split at either 2:05 or 2:35 and still sound fairly good?
Better than trying to add extra-patriotic music, in my opinion.

Worldmap and Worldmap2 - As long as the Dutch town variant isn't used as well, I don't mind this being used on the World Map.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

dutchemerge2 - It's a pirate film with a great big sea monster. What did you expect?

Something that doesn't sound like modern rock music?
"The Sea Monster" from Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas is much, much better. Or something from Moby Dick.

Eng/Fra/Por/Spa_Town2 - Maybe these could be put to use in forts?
That would be better than trying to intimidate the player when they're just wandering around town.

To what extent do we want/need two tracks per nation?
Would be nice to use it in fort assaults though. But that first need to be fixed up.

Governors_Theme, Gubernator and March - Not sure all of them are needed; maybe drop March?

March was never used in the original game either. Seems a shame to have useless stuff.

Sailing02 - Possibly loop the section roughly between 0:17 and 1:50? That might sound better.

How does attached version of Sailing02 sound?

Sailing03 - To me, it sounds good for sailing until around 0:47.
After that, you can tell it was written for a specific film scene, which is less ideal for ambient sailing music.

I sort-of understand your point. But after 0:47, I just want to hear the rest of the track too.

Storm3 - It does sound good, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it definitive storm music. I think Storm4 has the edge for that.

But that's not storm music. That is "cursed ship in a storm" music. Plus it still doesn't beat Cutthroat Island.
(Yes, I like the music to Cutthroat Island. Can you tell....? )

USA_Town - Maybe it could be split at either 2:05 or 2:35 and still sound fairly good?
Better than trying to add extra-patriotic music, in my opinion.

Indeed I do reckon that one can be split.

 

[Armada]

Something that doesn't sound like modern rock music?

Huh? It's not rock music... eh, never mind.

To what extent do we want/need two tracks per nation?

Not to the extent where we use tracks for the sake of it. If some tracks can be split into two or more, then that would probably work nicely.

March was never used in the original game either. Seems a shame to have useless stuff.

We have no obligation to use every asset of the original game, though.

How does attached version of Sailing02 sound?

Mostly the same, with a slightly abrupt ending. Could you try my suggestion as well, for the sake of comparison?

I sort-of understand your point. But after 0:47, I just want to hear the rest of the track too.

The point is for the music to be used when appropriate, rather than simply using awesome tracks because they're awesome.
I don't know, maybe I'm being too fussy. Does anyone else have any opinions about Sailing03?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Huh? It's not rock music... eh, never mind.

"The Kraken" is definitely inspired by rock music. Or something far too moderney in any case.

Not to the extent where we use tracks for the sake of it. If some tracks can be split into two or more, then that would probably work nicely.
We have no obligation to use every asset of the original game, though.

True, that. Let's see how much we can get rid of again then.

Mostly the same, with a slightly abrupt ending. Could you try my suggestion as well, for the sake of comparison?

My music editing skills aren't the best; not sure if I could make that work out properly.

The point is for the music to be used when appropriate, rather than simply using awesome tracks because they're awesome.
I don't know, maybe I'm being too fussy. Doe anyone else have any opinions about Sailing03?

In this case, that track sounds VERY appropriate to me. Personal preference, I suppose.

 

[KillPhil]

So I split my emerge-musics to maximum 20 secs, even if this breaks my heart such great composition work...
I hope I get that done tomorrow.
If I should search for a better splashing effect, it could take a bit longer.
Do you want to get rid of the 2nd track at all?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What did you think of the two tracks I did? Their volume might not be right, but what else would need doing?