Soundtrack

I just hope that long captcha works Ok, the music. Since a few days ago, when I started playing PA, I think I am starting to like it more and more. I still have that MIDI feeling at times but, since the last update, it sounds really nice, especially when the battle starts, or at base building (I may be getting used to it, this is hard to tell). I hope the composer will be able to keep that 'mighty' quality that made the TA soundtrack so unique - the work is not finished yet, right?

Well they haven't recorded anything with the Orchestra(end of October last they said) yet, it's all still the synth stuff in the game.

Mike

All the synth is placeholder composition. They are getting an orchestra to do it.

That is fantastic; can't wait to hear what they deliver.

still isn't 7.1 or 5.1 on that note

I liked the concept music first time I heard it, really looking forward at how the live orchestra turns out.

Ta music can never be topped!! But hopefully it's better than supcom..those ta songs are all still stuck in my head lol beyond epic

I remember when Supcom was being hyped up and they were showing the trailers for it, somebody took the music from TA and played it over the Supcom trailer instead of the original music. It instantly got 100x more epic.

Edit: For anybody that is interested, I found the video after a little digging: http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/kezgem/supreme-commander-supreme-annihilation

Its pretty awesome because instead of just slapping on the music, the guy actually edited the video a bit so that the events synced with the music.

I think the SupCom2 music was quite good, but not as quite as TA's, at least not so memorable. And I know that I have played SupCom2 as much as TA. It may some other kind of problem. To refresh your memory, SupCom2's:

Do not listen if you do not own:
youtube.com/watch?v=KvOGpvkIV8E&list=PLFDE6F05D4ECABC7D

It is quite good. But compare it to TA's:

Do not listen if you do not own:
youtube.com/watch?v=7Ek3JvUBYaI&list=PLA1C13BE94FC21B88

It may just be nostalgia ; or, it is aggressive, grand, boomy, it lurks, sneaks, attacks with full force... It is simply AMAZING - just played both now.

on that note someone should record all of the current music this way when they implement the orchestral one we still have Howard's.

The plan is to do it in 2.1. Howard talks about it on a live stream segment called Howard's Corner. I'm not really sure what you mean by still have Howard's. Because all the music is composed by him.

livestream february 1st, 2013 with Howard's corner:

all of it is audio stuff and things

Everybody has a copy of the soundtrack in the game directory located at ..Planetary Annihilation\PA\media\pa\audio\PA_Music.fsb. You just have to convert it two usual format. The path is relative to your operating system.

Some other games he's done music and sound design for Demigod, Space Siege, Supreme Commander 2, Moon Breakers and Super/Monday Night Combat.

http://howardmostrom.com/?page_id=2

according to this thread howard does the recording in 5.1
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/5-1-audio.43918/

In the live stream about 41 minutes 45 seconds into it. They discuss 5.1 and the problem with down mixing it to stereo and 2.1 rationale behind it. A major reason for stereo is that most people have that set up. the best solution would be to have multiple mixes available to the user and let him select. There's a downside to that the cost of downloading it to them. You could use FLAC compress the wave file. Thus saving something cost.

it would be a darn shame, they've done nothing but face problems of the sort so far with the best possible answer ; "well, we'll do it anyways!"

no engine exists that could handle the type of things this game wants to do? "we'll do it anyways!" -they make their own engine.
64bit would really help bandwidth and handleing all those units but it's a pain in the arse to code and we'd have to figure it out alone because we'd be pioneers in the 64bit gaming domain? "well, we'll do it anyways!" -64bit.
we've pushed opengl on our engine, we're heading down the linux road, but coding for windows still is the easyest. Problem is, a lot of our public is asking for Mac and linux ports? "well, we'll do it anyways!" -linux and mac support.
on and on with this stuff, look at what they're doing with HDR, they're building this engine into something powerfull, I'd like to believe that this will be the powerfullest engine yet.

5.1 audio is another crazy feat. It brings, like everything else it's own special bag of late-nighters but boy would it seal the deal for the motto "most powerful engine out there!"

people with 7.1 /5.1 sound are not so few, the responses in that thread prooved it, plus alot of people bought 7.1 headsteats some with intergrated sound card that plug in through usb.

I pesonally have a 5.1 sound system and I find they're quite accessible. 45€ bottom line. which is what a lot of people give anyways for a 2.1 sound system.

Please refrain from knee-jerk posts. That being said you misunderstood my post. What I was trying to get across. Was it could have separate audio streams that are in the 5.1 ch, 2.1, stereo, and etc. I believe this would be the best solution. So whatever anybody's setup is be it 5.1 or not. They have a choice. So would be a win-win solution.

dude chillax nothing about my post was "knee-jerk" n o t h i n g . and again chillax.

I was perfectly calm when I wrote that. Trying to say that post to me. Seemed like a visceral somewhat incoherent rant. I really don't know what you're trying to get at in that post?

if the music is EPIC, fine.

exactly

Can somebody school me on the benefits and drawbacks of sound engineering to do more than 2 channels?

2.1, I understand.
- Left ear
- Right ear
- Everything below x-Hz gets sent to subwoofer.


5.1 and 7.1 I do not understand the difficulty.
Doesn't that just mean putting a couple extra mics around the orchestra?


And if you are only wearing headphones, then your audio drivers will deliver the 2.1 sound.




p.s.
I'm a headphone fanatic with some serious toys.
5.1 headsets are a joke and are for marketing only.
If your game was properly engineered, directional placement won't be an issue.
You can just wear your high end studio monitor headphones and let the audio drivers sort out the rest.