I like TWP’s music, but the sound quality is bad, even though the game is the main product. If you take a game serious, you also want to offer the best audio quality possible. With 800MB, there is room for improvements. TTG was a painful experience in this respect, they had some nice music and voice actors but killed much of the fun with too much compression and so making their games feeling low-budget.
I wouldn’t listen to TWP’s music apart from playing the game (similar to many other games) but it does a wonderful job in the game. Therefore it would be nice if this could be adrressd.
I was wondering about how well low res graphics and digitized music could work together. After some time, you get used to it (the voice acting helps, building a bridge), but still, there is a part of me, missing an electronic OPL like sound. I’m curious about how the music could sound instead. Maybe if i find some time.
Lucasfilm Games’ adventures weren’t always looking great, but most of them cared about their music. Apart from some nice music, they also were interesting from a technical point of view (riffology, iMUSE). MI2’s music outshines the other aspects of the game and was a huge improvement over MI1. I had to smile when i noticed, how Ron Gilbert handled the music in Scurvey Scallywags.
Sound chips like the OPL, SID and Paula or softsynths, hards and proper realtime mixing, more advanced engines … allow a characteristic and interesting electronic sound. The later on often used Midi and sampled music sounded terrible instead and wasn’t fitting to the games contents anymore. There exist some interesting options and music between a ‘Song of the Grid’ and ‘A Mind Is Born’.
You should should check your hardware. The musician did all the encoding and he could barely tell the difference between his masters and what was in the game.
When you listen to the music on good enough hardware (speakers from a MacBook Pro 15 are sufficient, no Stax and stuff required) then the music sounds limited in the game, and the voices can sound too sharp. Once you compare the music with the songs available on bandcamp, the differences get even more obvious.
I wish you good luck for the sales of the soundtrack but I want good quality music in the game too, because that’s where I (and the rest of the family and friends) enjoy it.
I’m using professional audio hardware (including speakers) and the music is fine, the voices don’t sound too sharp. I’ve played the game on Windows and on Linux. So maybe your MacBook Pro has a problem?
I think the sound design is “pixelated” so to speak. In other words, what you’re hearing is by design (and I think it’s very appropriate and expertly executed for the game). Obviously, if they were to produce a pop album the production would be markedly different.
You don’t wanna know, how often people suggested to me, that something was done on purpose, whilst it wasn’t. Anyway the ‘pixelated’ reminded me of something, i’m curious about, an analog display style adventure (high res, no jaggies, low complexity shapes), the Tempest of adventures (less abstract), smooth motions, with a simplistic melodic rhythmic full spectrum warm electronic sound, for grown ups where the humour is coming from the second row.
How do you know for sure so often that an effect wasn’t intended, though? You say that the game is missing an electronic OPL sound but clearly that’s by design. Is it really about sound quality and intentions or is it about your personal preference?
Generally, it’s about knowledge, experience and gut feeling, you learn to differ, sometimes people screw things up, sometimes everything is fine and it might only look weird to you, because you’re not into the details (and all combinations in between). In the end, depending on the very specific case, it comes down a mix between individual taste and common rules most of us are connected to … and if a result is satisfying.
I’m not saying that the TWP music is wrong, it’s based on a conscious decision, actually I like it, but the sound isn’t offerd in a quality, I would like to see. @OPL: I was wondering about the mood of such a sound (see post) because, due to my gaming history, I’m used to it for such games.
That’s also my view and I have extremely strong opinions, hunches and intuition regarding intention, but I have no clue how often I’m actually right or wrong with those conclusions (though when I ask, the success rate is very high). I saw everything that was done with the sound in this game as a conscious and thoroughly intended (not screwed up according to their vision) decision but I don’t exactly know. Perhaps there was a substantial compromise between the composer and the devs regarding the style of sound design and production as well as the final mastering. Like I said, I get a “pixelated” vibe from the sound production. I think a lot of it has to do with the guitar tones and that it seems to be entirely midi (yet quite realistic sounding). Perhaps he hooked up Guitar Rig or Apollo to midi data.
I’m not sure how well an OPL sound would be with this game. I know that the graphics of the game is pixel art but it’s been brought forward to 2017 with many layers of parallax and great extra detail as compared to say the MIsland games. So perhaps a more up to date soundset with Sytrus or FM8 might have matched better in bringing old concepts and application up to date in parallel, but I really love the sound design as it is.
@N_N
It sounds like a mix of intention, compromise and some carelessness, depending on the aspect you’re looking at.
There are many ways how to ‘make’ music/sound. Some are more fun/direct/advanced than others and usually lead to better results, but whatever works, as long as the process and result is satisfying.
An OPL like sound works nicely with the game. Graphics and sounds go hand in hand with your memories (if you have those) when you utalize matching designs and take advantage of their characteristics and consider their limitations. The parallax scrolling is mostly looking good but due to Moon Patrol and … it doesn’t feel special in 2017 anymore. It’s a lovely game in many aspects but also not without flaws.
What kind of instruments do you play?
Which albums do you think are greatly produced?
That’s right, but it is part of the “atmosphere”. There are several effects you don’t notice while playing but if you turn them off, you would miss them (for example the lightning). And that is good: At least I don’t want be distracted by the parallax scrolling.
They add to the atmosphere but you easily notice such basics. You also don’t mention 16.7 millions colors anymore (unless you expect that your audience’s last game was MI2).
