Soundtracks

[Domini]

What songs/bands/genres influence/do you use during your games?

My general influences are (in no particular order):

Children of Bodom
The Doors
Rolling Stones
Within Temptation
The Clash
The Adverts
Third Eye Blind
The Unseen
The Adicts
The Ramones
U.K. Subs
The Who
70s/early 80s Punk
A little bit of Goth Metal
Black/Death Metal

[Christopher Ashe]

Nice, nice. :) that's a good range of style.

When I'm running game soundtrack I generally stick to instrumental tracks (Felix is the badass when it comes to using lyrical tunes in-game) so for that my prefferred artist are:

Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill Soundtracks)
the Juno Reactor
Dead Can Dance
Th One-Hour Photo soundtrack
Lost Memories Orchestra (my own stuff, i'll post it some day)
VNV Nation
Music from Raven Software (Hexen/Heretic Soundtracks)
Numina

As for me, I listen to everything. Every style of music (yeha I include Rap, Country and Jazz and pretty much everythign else). Right now on iTunes I've got Rancid "...And Out Come the Wolves" - this weekend has been mainly Rancid, NOFX, All and the Dead Kennedys. At other times some of my favorites are:

Operation Ivy
VNV Nation
the Sisters of Mercy
the Birthday Massacre
Dinosaur Jr/J Mascis
Rancid
NOFX
Garth Brooks (mainly No fences album or the early stuff)
Ice Cube
Brotha Lynch Hung and other mostly underground bay-area gangsta rap from the early/mid-90s
Metallica
Megadeth
Guns n' Roses
the Misfits
Dio
Oldies/Big Band/Swing
80s one-hit-wonders

That's pretty much all I can think of now. My playlist when fully assembled (i have to backup parts of it to save disk space) is now around 17,000 tracks ;) - Music is among the primary loves of my life.

[Domini]

How are Dead Can Dance? I heard a Paul Oakenfold remix of a couple of their songs, but that's not generally the same.

[Christopher Ashe]

Chant of the Paladin of the album the Serpents Egg. Check it out. That and Host of the Seraphim...two tracks that will blow you away for dark ambient. While I like Oakenfold quite a bit and I like his remixes, there is something lost from teh raw ancient sound that DCD can produce. Definitely worth a listen, excellent for game scenes.

[Domini]

Host of the Seraphim was the Oakenfold remix... I definitely will look at it.

[Felix]

Ehh...

Thrice (particularyly 'Atlantic' and 'Between the end and where we lie')
Alk3 (the Good Mourning and Crimson albums)
Aphex Twin
Apoptygma Berzerk
VNV Nation
Cynic Project
Autechre
Cranberries (yeah.. you heard me)
The Avalanches
Skinny Puppy
Skindred
Rise Against
Poe
Paul Van Dyke
Hans Zimmer
Mushroom Head
Juno Reactor
Joseph Arthur
Iron and Wine
I Mother Earth
God Lives Underwater
Eels
Dido

And then all things Maynard James Keenan, Jerry Cantrel, and Mike Patton

[Anonymous]

I concur with most of the previously listed but here are some of my additions:

Static-X
Emenim
NWA
Type O Negative
The Crow Soundtrack (both of them)
Bush
Toadies




-this was church btw, damn thing keeps logging me out after i log in

[VeX]

If I may randomly add, I find A Pefect Circle's The Noose to be the best mood-setting song I've heard. (Blue is pretty good too.)

Granted I'd probably proceed to ruin the mood by singing ^^;

[Domini]

I just began listening to the Dresden Dolls, and some of their music would make good game music.

[Felix]

I just began listening to the Dresden Dolls, and some of their music would make good game music.

I agree, although I'd usually classify them under 'inspirational music.' Whenever cooking up campaign nastiness. Most of our crew sticks to instrumental music during game. Unless very well thought out, instrumental is better at setting the mood and not providing a distraction to the players while setting a scene.

That and wasting time while they listen to the lyrics instead of playing game. The last thing anybody needs is a 15-hour 3-pack gaming session (unless we're rolling out for donuts at 5am... I miss the good ol' days..)

[Endling]

I suppose the music I listen to while drawing could be akin to gaming music. I need it as fuel to keep certain moods going for certain subject matter.

Everafter, my story of twisted fairytales in an asylum compound, was practically born out of the A Perfect Circle song 'Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums'. Which as far as I know is a remixed rendition of 'Pet'. Both awesome songs. Other songs for the dark times of the day:

'Birth of the Penguin' - Batman Returns soundtrack.
'Max Payne Theme' - I don't know the name. From Max Payne 2, main theme. Beautiful and tragic song.
'Closer' - Nine Inch Nails.
'Do You Think I'm a Saxon?' - King Arthur OST
'Mein Kommandant' - Hanzel Und Gretyl.
'Rev 22:20' - Puscifer.
'Cells' - The Servant.

When I've just done something phenomenal, or I know I'm about to really hit on a chord that'll take the picture up a notch, I listen to music I could envision singing onstage and hamming it up:

'Rag Doll' - Aerosmith.
'Ace of Spades' - Motorhead.
'DARE' - Gorillaz.
'Go To California' - Rob Zombie.
'Heart Full of Black' - Burning Brides.
'The Secret Life of Morgan Davis' - Ben Folds.
'The Rubberband Man' - The Spinners.

Epic songs work for battle scenes:

'Battle of the Heroes' - SWIII soundtrack.
'...To Die For' - I believe it's from the Lion King soundtrack. :lol:
'Masters of the Universe' - Juno Reactor.
'Beyond the Wasteland'
'Divinity I'
'Divinity II'
'One Winged Angel' - Advent Children OST.
'Budget Meeting' - King Arthur OST.
'Burly Brawl' and 'Chateau' - The Matrix OST



For doing detail work, calm, haunting songs are best:

'When the Levee Breaks'
'Noose' - A Perfect Circle.
'Teardrop' - Massive Attack.
'Purity' - Hanzel Und Gretyl.
'Sandpaper Kisses' - Martina Topley Bird.

And many moooooore.. :wink:

[Anonymous]

I have stopped using quite so much music in my games, but since most of my games have horrific twists I always find that playing somethinf like Otep or Type O Negatives more disturbing tracks can pu the entire gaming table on edge for when the terror unfolds.

[UmbraVentus]

I was thinking...how about using Apocalyptica in some games?

[Mitchi]

I tend to use a lot of MMORPG music in my games, as it's stuff that can be on loop for hours at a time without getting on your nerves too much (mainly Ragnarok stuff). Also, I tend to peruse ocremix to find some decent music.

Usually, I'll use a lot of Yuki Kajiura and Yasunori Mitsuda. I tend to stay away from vocal tracks that are in english, since my players usually get easily distracted.

[Elune]

Our group doesn't use music during our gaming sessions.

We wouldn't hear it anyway for the dog barking, gillian shouting at the dog, and J (the npc) on his phone to his woman :p

I do think about music afterwards (for the soundtrack of the movie of the game :) ), and what each characters "theme" would be, as well as what music would fit that sessions scenes.


I spent ages looking for suitable tracks to put together a cd to represent the one my character has released in the game, (another one on the way), and in a moment of sadness, I designed the cd covers too :rolleyes: .

[ThePainter]

Complain, complain, complain, that's all Elune ever seems to do these days :) Joke ... honest!!!

As for music, well, as Elune says, we don't use it in our game. Personally I've always thought that music would be a distraction from the game. It seems to me that it would potentially interfere with people hearing one another (yes I understand it would be played at a low level, but all the same...) and even worse, if they liked the music, they might even listen to it! I have tried playing background music during a couple of games, but it never seemed to work (for me)!

It comes down to this: the real reason that I don't use background/theme music in a game is that I find it easier to concentrate on the events of the game without the music ... a personal choice and a personal belief!

As for character themes ... I don't even want to touch that one with a barge pole, I'm far too likely to get hit! :)

In relation to Elune's CD, well, it did help make the character real, so it was useful in that respect, but I still prefer to avoid music in the game ... sorry :)

[Scarlet]

In relation to Elune's CD, well, it did help make the character real, so it was useful in that respect, but I still prefer to avoid music in the game ... sorry :)

Make the charater real all to real in my opion!:p

The problem with our group and music we all have different tastes in music can't realy see our group putting up with me playing kiss all the time or even haveing to listening to Jay and Marillion.

Scarlet

P.s. Jillian going to kill you Elune for that coment just wait till she get her hip replaced and your for it!;)

[Elune]

the soundtrack of the new HBO tv show Treme is superb - New Orleans blues etc.

[Elune]

Currently listening to Travis Pickle.