Not so pleased with the musical direction

It doesn't seem like he understands what this game is about. kept showcasing tracks that were either meant for a space hulk floating in the vast emptiness which would fit perfectly for the metal planet (he said it was his "airless" track which from what I gather is the space track inbetween planets) or his earthy track which seemed way too jawsesque with the rapid highs and lows and less fluid and woodwind. The "victory track" sounded almost perfect for the Terran planets but was no where near what it should be for a victory track which should seem more like a big loud CONGRATULATIONS, YOU BEAT SOMETHING MASSIVE

I hope the music takes a radical change from the direction it seems to be headed

moons and asteroids don't have air

He was trying to make the building phase sound exciting and tense because you don't know what other people are up to. "Tense and unknown surroundings" is very emotionally similar to jaws so yeah they are going to sound a bit alike.

Louder more bombastic music does not make better music.

I for one enjoyed Howard's work.

A nonstop aural assault is not a pleasant experience.
Without the "lows" to contrast the "highs" how can you appreciate them?

I already posted my very extensive thoughts on this in the livestream thread. I'm fairly certain the first two songs were either introductions to songs or parts of building songs. The third sounds like he's still tweaking it, and the last sounds very much like a TA piece.

I wouldn't read so much into the music this early in, as there's still a lot left for Howard to do.

Besides, if it somehow does turn out to be something you don't care for, you'll be able to pop in the TA/Supcom/FA/ZK music instead.

People dont forget that in the end a real orchestra will play the songs, so it will sound different.

The tempo was too high on the pieces for my taste. They felt like they were playing at 2x speed. An orchestral piece really shouldn't feel rushed.
Other than that I really like the music so far. Including choral elements is really nice.

I disagree, I thought the music was great! I can only imagine how awesome it will be with polish and orchestration.

Why not say what you liked about it? Maybe it'll change the emphasis of other tracks you didn't hear.
Waiting until it's done before expressing an opinion is a bad idea because that's the time when nothing can be changed.

I'm going to wait to pass judgement (don't judge the music based on some samples he made), but I will post an example of what I think is excellent TA-like music.

I have to share a similar viewpoint to the original poster; and I was really inspired by this post when going into the livestream.

So far the stream is confirming my worst suspicions.

Howard indeed seems to be following the tired genre of "bombastic brass, wild percussion and a loud choir" as drennargh eloquently put it, as is seen too much in Hollywood entertainment nowadays. This is reflected across all the previewed tracks in which he claims to cover a wide range of emotions: "This first track is very metal; very iminent; something very doom-and-gloom is coming up." -Slow build up to bombastic, wild instruments and eventual loud choir, which is intended to be the meat of the track. "Something you would play on an airless world. Something scary." -Another build up to wild percussion. "A bit more adventurous. Not so balls-to-the-wall. Goes in different places" -Yet more bombastic and wild instruments.

Then if this angle wasn't evident enough, in his last track he manually skips a chunk of the only lengthy slow segment to get to the part he really wants to show; another bombastic, wild orchestral performance accompanied by choir. I was thinking to myself, "WHY!? Why would you put that segment there if you just want to skip over it!? Is not the purpose of every segment to advance the track as a whole?", but it's treated as an afterthought, it might as well not be there.

All I can state about the currently previewed tracks is they are serviceable. But they aren't memorable to me on any level, like a lot of video game music is. I would be had believed that a proper live orchestral recording will fix this, but I think if the basic tune isn't catchy or memorable then it has more fundemental problems than just production values.

And just as a point of reference: I didn't find the soundtracks to Supreme Commander nor Forged Alliance all that memorable.

ayceeem: They do say in the Kickstarter video that they want brassy and bass... *shrugz* I could hear differences in the audio from track to track. Also we don't know where or how these will be triggered in game yet. There're so many variables left in the game and this is just one of them.

What is your opinion on TA music then? I personally found Supcom1 music to be pretty good, FA not as much but still has some good ambient tracks (reflecting the Seraphim really well.)
Among the most impressive music I've heard so far in a game must be that from the Medal of Honor series (totally different genre, but a masterpiece nonetheless.)

Total Annihilation's soundtrack was great. The peaceful tracks really had room to breathe and took their time, they were sorrowful and desolate which fit the narrative of the backstory very well. The intense tracks were exciting yet easy to follow. Supreme Commander's soundtracks never really captured this full spectrum.

xfercns, that is a superficial way to look at classical music. Yes, you are capable of that kind of grandiosity. If the full spectrum of your score is how grandiose you can make everything though, you cheapen its impact on the audience.

I don't know if having studied music helps, but I sensed a lot of meaning and feel to each track and I have friends (far better musicians than me) that loved Howard's demo. Music itself doesn't have to be epic in composition to fit the atmosphere, besides, the game has yet to meet the music, once this happens it will make more sense.

Howard is an outstanding musician, he's no Jeremy Soule but nevertheless a master, you can't compare Mozart to Beethoven as they're not the same. I understood what he was aiming for and I felt it despite being rough compositions; almost everyone at UBER plays an instrument, there will be a ton of feedback for him to work with.

Once orchestrated, the music itself will come to life in and out of the game. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

I'm always disappointed by my favourite band's taste in music. I don't think that musical talent is a guarantee of taste.

"Room to breathe" is the perfect metaphor to describe the difference between these previews and the TA soundtrack. I'm sure that if the rushed feeling can be addressed the tracks will be improved greatly.

As for the lack of quiet bits shown, I'm sure they get the need for different paces. I think showing off the big crescendos is them wanting to show the bits that they think have the most sizzle.

There are some good points being made here, and while I don't agree with all of them, I do think Howard should take a read through and keep it in mind. I do agree that a central motif is a good idea, though it doesn't necessarily need to be so prominent all the time. Supcom's motif was used a little TOO exclusively at times. However, Supcom's soundtrack in general had more variety, and a grander feel than TA's, which was great for conveying the sense of scale of the game. In any case, I don't think we've seen enough of the music to know how much of that motif is in place, if at all.

Also, people shouldn't disregard the flaws of TA's own soundtrack, which tended to be a bit on the "everything plus the kitchen sink" side. It sounds good, but it can make the individual tracks blur together at times.

I'm not sure what people mean when they say that the pacing of Howard's tracks is too "fast," as TA's soundtrack is very fast itself. The tempo in the fastest pieces Howard showed us are sedate in comparison.

The Zero-K soundtrack achieves some great variety in it, and has some great themes, but as the soundtrack for an RTS, it too has some issues. The most glaring one is that the music isn't as cohesive, since many of the songs were made as part of separate compilations. And since it's written as "movie" music, some of the songs tend to feel out of place in the environment of the game. (Though some of them fit in amazingly well.)

And this folks is why you generally don't see the results of things until they are actually.... finished.

Sadly, I suspect some of this sentiment may carry over to the final release, simply because the music isn't the same music as TA, which has been set on so lofty a pedestal that anything that deviates from it is "not as good."
This is essentially what happened with the Supcom soundtrack. Despite some of the flaws I mentioned plus the fact that it's not performed by a live orchestra, it's actually a more mature work than the TA soundtrack. You can tell that Soule has definitely grown in his capabilities since the TA days. Yet TA fans seem to have a lesser appreciation for it because it's such a different work.

The same will likely happen for PA. Howard isn't 1997's Soule, and though he's likely a more capable composer than Soule was back then, people are just too attached to the original TA music, it seems.

Despite that, there's at least one fan here that's eager to hear how the music turns out once Howard completes it.

Well I really liked it as a work in progress, as i'm sure most people did
And most people who didn't probably know better than to write a wall of text explaining exactly what they thought was wrong with a pre-alpha piece of concept music...

Also, how can anyone claim that this soundtrack is "Not memorable"? :?

I thought the previewed music was a great start. They mentioned they'll be branching out into more heavy metal and chiptunes influences for some tracks which should add variety, and the live orchestra recording will add so much.

Don't be too quick to judge in-progress work. Of the dozens of kickstarter funded games I've been following, Uber is doing the best job of following through and remaining connected with their funders as they go

Keep up the awesome, uber!