• Limonene@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 days ago

    Counterpoint: The Crosscode soundtrack.

    Forest level: accordion, guitar, only a bit of flute, no violin.

    Forest level 2: accordion, choir, and xylophone.

    Forest level 3: steel drums, guitar, some other kind of guitar.

    Ice level: flutes, bass guitar.

    Ice dungeon: french horn, synthy violin.

    Lava level: (none)

    Desert level: Exactly what OP said.

    Desert town: Totally different from what OP said.

    Beach level: guitar, flute, piano, very little steel drums, no ukulele.

  • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 days ago

    I don’t mean to offend anyone but I cannot respect you as a human being, let alone a sentient organism, if you enjoy video game music at any time other than whilst playing a video game.

    “I like the music in doom, it’s weirdly ambient despite being so aggressive.” Perfectly fine, even respectable. “I was listening to the mortal kombat soundtrack the other day…” You are lesser than a sea cucumber.

    • Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Look, I think gamers should definitely expand their tastes because I know a few who almost exclusively listen to games soundtrack, but that doesn’t mean games soundtracks have no artistic value outside of the game… now, not all of them do, but it’s not all black and white

      • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 days ago

        It’s a great song, but I can’t see myself choosing to play it outside game night. (I played this one to death during our desert dnd campaign, yes I’m a hypocrite)

        • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          5 days ago

          I don’t necessarily disagree with you. As much as I enjoy the song whenever I do pull it up, I can’t honestly claim it’s on my car playlist or party playlist. It’s pretty hard to beat popular music at the end of the day.

          Film music, video game music, and even classical music are all great and impressive in their own right, but when you’re chilling/vibing/socializing, popular music is the way to go. And by popular music I don’t mean pop music, I mean the whole spectrum of contemporary music that people mainly listen to, I guess you could also call it vernacular music. So I pretty much agree with your point but I think you got downvoted because you stated it in a fairly blunt fashion.

          • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            4 days ago

            It’s excellent ambiance. I pick and pull from video games aplenty for game nights. Ambient music in a specific style for specific demographics? Yes, directly into my stereo system on Tuesday.

            Unequivocally was I baiting reactions with hyperbole mixed with sincerity in the 4chan community. I can’t argue otherwise, and I don’t blame people for not recognizing a, and this hurts to say, 20 year old meme setup.

    • kartoffelsaft@programming.dev
      0·
      5 days ago

      I could sympathize with your point if VGM was still the blips and blops of cheap midi synths like it was in Doom’s hayday. Heck, I still someshat sympathize with the idea that VGM just doesn’t work as well as albums for making a pure listening experience because the game inherently restricts it’s format (though I’d say it depends on the game). But VGM by [current year] has gotten so good I must ask what VGM you have heard. Would you make the same claim for film soundtracks?

      Unsolicited VGM suggestions that I think prove my point

      Expedition 33, Neon White, Ultrakill, Team Fortress 2, Hyper Light Drifter

    • Nefara@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 days ago

      Was the last time you listened to game music when it was all chip and midi? There’s some beautiful and moving music in games.

      • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 days ago

        It’s excellent for the setting it was made for, but is lacking compared to the collected discography of generations of musicians tuned to at-home listening.

        I listen to opera at the opera. I listen to symphonies at the symphony, or at home if I’m particularly nostalgic. I listen to game music when I’m playing games. Each has an environment crafted around it to maximize enjoyment. I can’t even listen to edm without dimming the lights.

        Listening to a game soundtrack made to evoke specific emotions at specific times? It feels like the point was wholly missed and vast horizons entirely ignored.

        • Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          4 days ago

          Please listen to the endless space 2 ost (without playing the game). Imo it is even better outside of the game, because I can fully kick back and listen, instead of micromanaging a galaxy-spanning empire at the same time.

        • Nefara@lemmy.world
          0·
          5 days ago

          This is a very narrow and limited way of seeing music. Music can be created for a purpose and a setting but once it’s out there it has no boundaries beyond what you impose upon it. Somewhere Over the Rainbow was written for the Wizard of Oz but it’s not like the only way to enjoy it is in a movie theatre. Certainly, music can be more or less appropriate for certain activities and moods, listening to EDM to fall asleep might be self defeating. However, music made for games can evoke all sorts of mental states and people are free to find appropriate settings and uses outside of them to enjoy it.

          • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            4 days ago

            In the same way that a kid can watch a baseball game and notice none of the nearly superhuman athleticism playing out, many people simply can’t notice the difference between a bespoke listening experience and one tuned for a specific setting. And that doesn’t make them evil or stupid, and I’d never argue that. But it does place them firmly beneath vermin. People are allowed to feel any which way they like, even if it’s objectively WRONG.

            • Nefara@lemmy.world
              0·
              4 days ago

              Ok so you do mean to offend people then. Have fun with that, I’ll just be over here enjoying things on their own merits despite your whole thing going on over there.

      • Aqarius@lemmy.world
        0·
        5 days ago

        Hell, even with the chip tunes alone, it’s amazing what people managed to squeeze out of two sines, a saw, and a square channel. Bloody Tears comes to mind. Or Willy’s theme from Megaman 2.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    Ok uh, barely related, but:

    Is there an actual name for the genre of music of Half Life 2, Ep1/2, Alyx?

    Its like… progressive rock but sometimes also hardrock guitar riffs, but also with … basically ‘experimental’ industrial/techno usually mixed in quite well, and then also very often with essentially breakbeat drumming, and a lot of it also uses some pretty uncommon time signatures and switchups.

    And then sometimes there is either classical instrumentation, or, essentially some kind of filtered or synth version of it.

    … I literally fail to describe it succinctly, I don’t know how, I’m not aware of anything else that really sounds consistently like it.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        5 days ago

        I mean, NiN and industrial in general has many elements in common with it…

        I dunno, its less … orthodox, in time signatures, than basically all NiN I can remember listening to, with the exception of Ghosts.

        Ghosts has a lot more just… weird timings, but they’re also paired with melodies and chords that are dissonant or off in some way…

        Not much of Ghosts is high tempo, ‘action-y’, and HL2’s melodies are actually not as odd and dissonant, they’re more conventional, just often played with unconventional instruments/synths.

        And, NiN’s drumming, cymbals and such is usually nowhere near as frantic.

        … Maybe I just don’t have a wide enough industrial palette, and I guess maybe yeah, ‘HL2 style’ is best described as a subgenre of industrial?

          • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
            0·
            5 days ago

            An of course their logo was on the ammo crates for the nail gun. Because if you have an automatic nail gun, nine inch nails make the perfect ammo. You’re not going to kill shamblers with 23ga pin nails.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            5 days ago

            Yeah, there is no denying that NiN and industrial in general was… running through the blood of the late 90s / early 00s FPS pioneers.

            Heck, not even just FPS:

            Frank ‘Motherfucking’ Klepacki.

            … who the fuck comes up with both Hell March… and IndustroFunk?

            He just like invented a subgenre, as a song.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            5 days ago

            You’re good at this.

            Yeah, actually, this is pretty close, if you had these guys make ‘instrumentals’, no lyrics songs.

            Like if you took all of the differing elements, and patterns of maybe 3 of their songs, and essentially remixed them into one song, stripped out the vocals… that would approximately be pretty close to a good deal of HL2 songs, imo.

            Maybe increase the range of effects and synths used a bit, but yeah, this is pretty close.

            I guess the main difference left that I can think of is that… a lot of this kind of 90s/00s industrial, it will be built kind of around a guitar riff, like the distored/noise guitar is kind of the foundation, the thing that is basically always there, keeping the tempo, driving the song.

            But a lot of HL2 songs will… kind of swap this idea: The driving melody is synthetic, the guitar is used for the occasional/repeated kind of bits of flavor.

            … I feel like I don’t music theory to know the right words, lol.

            • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
              0·
              5 days ago

              Oohh oh oh… Check out “The Algorithm”

              I think that might be the closest to what you are looking for that I can think of. It’s a little metal on the drums, but it’s got way more synth lead stuff.

              While a bit different from what your asking for, you should also check out Master Boot Record - it’s a bit more chip tune metal. It’s fun though

              I think you were asking about the genre of music, and I don’t have an answer for you off the top of my head, but if you want to go on the journey of electronic music genres and sub genres and sub sub genres and learn about types of music and artists you might like, strap on your ear goggles and head on over to Ishkur’s guide to electronic music:https://music.ishkur.com/

              I have lost hours of my life there before.

              • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                0·
                5 days ago

                Ok, I was going to edit this in to my last comment, but you already replied, so:

                https://youtube.com/watch?v=9F030ERnQ84&list=PL059AC88C849E7A20&index=24

                ‘You’re Not Supposed to Be Here’

                Ok so we open with… I think:

                Either a very distorted bass guitar or synth… and… a marimba?

                At about 10 seconds we start the action, angry synth and … drum kit that includes a steel drum?

                We’ve also got another kind of haunting synth doing a more complex melody…

                Then at about 35 seconds, the song basically explodes into… all the synths are here (maybe some are guitars with lots of effects/delays/fades?) now, big sound range from the synths/possible guitars…

                And then at about 55 seconds, slight lull, piano is here now,

                Some synths/guitars? are still going, piano is somber, breakbeat drumming is intense … thats quite a juxtapostion…

                Synths get more prominent, piano fades out…

                Then by about 1:35 we downplay the synths a bit, piano is sad again… drumming is still happening.

                Ok, then by about 1:55, pretty sure this is a guitar, that uses a delay pedal/effect to basically punctuate itself for 1-2 second melodic bursts, gets accomoanied by either another heavily modified guitar or synth untill…

                About 2:25, sad piano is back again, to basically play us out, but the breakbeat drumming is still here, untill it isn’t, and we actually fade out on bass guitar/synth… and the marimba.

                This is a 2:41 song.

                It took me like 15 minutes to attempt to comprehend what is happening.

                I do know Master Boot Record and yeah I agree, its more like chiptune metal…

                I will have to check out The Algorithm and Ishkur’s site… though probably tomorrow.

                I know that if I start now, I will not get to sleep untill 4 am.

                • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  5 days ago

                  Yeah this is pretty forward on the Acid Bass, made famous by the TB-303. While that track doesn’t sound exactly like a 303, definitely reminiscent of it, and the 303 finds its way into a lot of industrial. This track is pretty cinematic, which fits it right into that “video game soundtrack” vibe that doesn’t exist much outside of games. I’m bored right now though, so I’m going to go down some rabbit holes and maybe find something for you to listen to. This type of music is right up my alley, so I might discover some new stuff to listen to myself.

                  Edit: check this shit: Celldweller - Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head

                  I think I might be moving in the wrong direction, but some of it is right.

                  I think that’s the best I can do without getting into some pretty avant garde indie SoundCloud stuff.