PA + orchestral music = honey + herring = crap

Orchestral music has certainly been overused. I can't help but laugh when I hear it in a CoD game, trying to give faux grandeur to a toybox.

But TA has some of the best music in videogame history, and that's orchestral. They said they want music with the same feel, "music that makes you want to smash planets together" I think Uber have said. I'm looking forward to what they come up with.

Ideally there'll be a custom BGM folder, like in the GTA games, for plebs who don't like orchestral stuff.

I'm stealing the phrase "honey and herring" by the way. Amazing.

I think thatthe same is going to be in TA because it was that way in SupCom and FA. I think it is a good idea for music to adjust to the situation in the game.

The music was far and away one of the best features of Total Annihilation. If they can capture that same spirit and feel for Planetary Annihilation, it will be awesome.

Total Annihilation - and Supreme Commander as well - had an absolutely and utterly AWESOME soundtrack.

It. Was. Awesome.

Of course, that's only my opinion. Fortunately, for me, it's one shared by many others.

Classical isn't orchestral (which was wat TA and SC had). Classical, for example, would be the music from Civilization IV, from the Renaissance era or such.

Anyway, you don't like it. And that's fine. I do like it - I love it - but to each his (or her) own. The solution? Custom soundtracks. Like Civilization IV (and V?), or like GTA... Everyone's happy.

I expect logic and reasoning isn't going to work this time, so instead, here's a face.

Preface: I like and listen to some form of pretty much every genre out there (even rap, if I can find the odd non-profanity/degradation laced rap song). This very much includes classical AND all kinds of "synth" stuff. I'm not going to bother naming specifics because I'm sure I'll get the hippie elitist jerk "your music is bad and you should feel bad" treatment though.

Also surprised only two image memes popped up. I expect more from you, jurgen...

This is 2012. And not only are there something to the effect of 2 RTSes coming out this year, classical music is now the 'in' thing. This needs to change. I remember maybe 10 seconds from one SupCom music track; you have to go much farther back to find any memorable game music for me (Star Trek Armada the original music, which is probably partially orchestra music actually =p). All this trending towards orchestral has just made all game music more forgettable now =(

That said, I'll just be turning off the game music and activating my spotify player with a custom playlist just for PA.

Speaking of Armada, this feels like it would be a nice style for menu/game start.

Y U NO ON SPOTIFY

As mentioned, orchestral is not automatically classical. The Total Annihilation score was a brilliant piece of work, and was extremely memorable in a game full of memorable innovations. Maybe I'm a music snob, but TA's soundtrack was far more gratifying to listen to (and it was one of the first, if not the first, game to shift tracks depending on the pace of the game) than for example, Starcraft's generic synthesized techno. The building tracks were appropriately quiet, haunting, and yet majesterial - and then as the explosions mounted, you'd be hit with loud, brassy, bombastic scores that lent a grand scale feel to the game.

I agree that the most important factor of game music is that it fits the style of game: Starcraft's music, while not terribly memorable to me, fit the small scale futuristic battles the game depicted. Freespace's 2 choral/electronic mix worked beautifully, getting louder and more frantic as you weaved and blasted your way through hordes of Shivans. C418's soft and gentle electronic style is one of the things almost everybody loved about Minecraft. Darren Korb's wild mix of influences and guitar picking/harmonica tracks helped set Bastion apart from so many Indie games. For that matter, actual 19th century music made plunging through one of the more complex games ever made in Victoria downright enjoyable.

However, if you've actually listened to what is currently considered "classical", you'd also be aware that it can run the gamut from soft and gentle to loud and powerful. I mean, can you imagine the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now without Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries blasting?

PA, above everything else, is a game about sheer scale. Tinny electronic techno would IMHO do a grave disservice to the feel of the game, however futuristic it sounds. So far, I love what I heard in the teaser video, and what I heard in the discussion of the music style gives me confidence in an awesome experience.

this.
classic just fits

anyway, who actually plays with the ingame music the whole time anyway? xD
Sure at first it is nice, but after a year or two... you can put up your own music in someplayer in the background.

I think the only games wich I never played with my own music are GTA:SA, NFS Most Wanted and Underground 1 (I love that pursuit music, I even found it with all the tracks separately).

Two steps from hell are pretty good. Sometimes I watch a movie trailer and recognise the background music because I've listened to so much TSFH.

Me.
Setting up music in my own player is too bothersome, unless the soundtrack is absolutely atrocious. If there's no soundtrack at all then the game was meant to be played that way.

I'd like to hear some vocals getting involved too, in Latin or just a choir, something classy. Like this kind of thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRLdhFVzqt4

Yah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2kSs89Xxw

As an audio professional (vague I know) I as well disagree with the original poster, but it is obvious he is a bit confused about these matters, it's ok he can learn. I could write for ages on this but I won't, way too busy. Let's just say bring on the orchestra, and I very much enjoy "electronic" music, what does that even mean any more?

But anyway it won't be 100% classical music, and the Super MNC theme is amazing really. Plus the Demigod OST is great.

The music will truly be awesome, I hope that we get some immersion tracks too.

Obviously,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFDkkdtLuzY

The best music ever.

Damn :<

I loved my TA music. I used to put the Disc in the CD player and went sleep. X_X
Except the Data track, that one sounded horrible.
Tbh, I wished one of the stretch goals was to hire Jeremy Soule. ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vls4SdYG ... re=related

lol, agreed