Gamemakers, what music does inspire you the most at work ?

News & General Discussion
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Totally random subject, but as a fan of audio ambiences when i’m working, I feel like I have to share this.

We all have different sensibilities, inspirations, inner worlds …
Music, for the conceptual artist, is often a sacred inspirational resource.

it can evoke full landscapes in one harmony, or even juice your whole soul to the surface, easing the process of idea materialization.

I personally take the time to setup a whole musical ambience while creating assets, the style depending on the type of content I want to produce.

What about your favorite styles ? Your inspiring audio ?

I always loved to have discussions with artists about how they prepared their mind for different creations, so don’t hesitate to tell something about you in here.

For my part, I like a lot of styles, and generally spend a high amount of time in musical research for artists that would perfectly illustrate the audio of my world to materialize.

During the last 18 monthes, I’ve been producing a game set in a futuristic world. I use to synchronize my mind with this mood by listening to futuristic themed music, like modern Drum n Bass, Goa, Psytrance and Space Music. It greatly helps :slight_smile:

Speaking of Space Music, if you like big, huge ambiences, space exploration, tinkering sounds, and contemplating the stars in general, I should recommend you the king of Space Music :

Jonn Serrie.

Spotify Link

one of his tracks : “And the Stars go with you”, composed in memory of the astronauts lost in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

Wiki page

Composing ambient audio spaces with his synths and his fingers (no auto processing, only fingering), Jonn knows something about space, as he’s also a rescue pilot for U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

His musical spaces are hypnotic, relaxing, and totally inspiring for any type of space related gamemaking.

And cherry on the cake : the man is human.
I asked to be in his contacts on Facebook 4 monthes ago, and he accepted, even writing a personal “thank you” on my wall for my interest. We had some short conversations, and he is a really humble, open minded person.

Actually he’s pretty reknown, as he already worked for Lucasfilm, IMAX Corporation, NASA, the United States Navy, Hayden Planetarium, Expo Seville, and CNN.

A real artist, when you look at his facebook status updates.

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i tend to go for more of the instrumental music when im trying to work - depending on the mood and what im working on anything from bach to dream theater to nightwish - i like to relay this into my games sometimes - i personalyl make alot of 2.5d artsy stuff so i like to use alot of percussion like marimba and bells for a sort of happyish feel - changing keys and speed can effect feel and speed of level also

i think audio can be often overlooked in games, but is one of the most important aspects

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Dream Theater is really nice for producing creative visions, yeah.

Absolutely.

I just loved the Deus Ex : Human Revolution trailer for example. But lately I found its music-only clip ( link ).
Damn, even at the first 3 arpeggios, my skin was just blasted with a massive chill. The little slideshow coming with the clip executed me.

(trailer)

This music, matched with these sequences and dialogs, it’s so epic …

edit : found this : Deus Ex : HR intro OST piano interpretation (fanmade). It’s really good.

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I love silence ^^ music distract me too much :smile: …

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I see what you mean :wink:

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Oh Yeah! Here’s one DT fan! Actually we have really good radio channel here in Finland, called ‘Radio Rock’, which I got almost always on. :smile:

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I performed, on guitar, the first section and solo of Dream Theater’s Erotomania for an end-of-semester test in college. :roll:

I use my ability to concentrate with music with lyrics as a way to judge if I need to go to sleep; I get distracted by the words when I need a nap.

Lately, I’ve just been using Pandora. (waltermana, Nightwish keeps coming on a few of my stations - Birthday Massacre and Lacuna Coil primarily.) For coding, I think my Club 8-based station has been my favorite. I like to use music that matches the mood of whatever I’m doing, to some degree, though.

Unfortunately, Jonn Serrie is not on Pandora, far as I can tell.

8

Actually, my friend’s music he writes for games inspires me to work harder.

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I always listen to some type of music when modeling. As for what I listen to; mostly rock or something intense like that, keeps myself excited and motivated. I also throw in the occasional funny song in my playlist to keep myself entertained and happy. When you get into modeling, you kinda ignore the music but it still somehow helps me concentrate.

As for creating anything else, I don’t have the skill to pump anything else out quickly without constantly looking at manuals or pausing for several minutes to figure out what to do, so music would just be a distraction. When I am doing more mundane stuff in Unity like importing assets, then I listen to a podcast, which takes more of my attention then music.

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When coding I normally listen to ambient music, mainly Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and some movie soundtracks (Solaris - Cliff Martinez, seems to spring up often). Anything more uptempo or heavy just seems to distract me.

For modelling and other duties anything goes really, but it has been Nine Inch Nails recently. Also like funny stuff like Spinal Tap and Mr. Bungle. But like i said, anything goes when not coding…

Regards,
Matt.

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I tend to listen to a lot of different music when working, but Amon Tobin has been on top of my list for the last 10 years or so. His soundscapes are simply stunning and tend to make my creative juices flowing :slight_smile:

I also listen to a lot of black metal, especially when doing tedious tasks as unwrapping, but when animating I prefer utter silence.

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Usually, I tend to listen old Chiptunes, I love’em :slight_smile:

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I like silence, but to get motivated I will listen to game music and think about the game and then have a sudden urge to create one and get back to work.
Usually I like to listen to Everquest music, love the soundtrack from that game. Its my favorite!

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Yeah the man is awesome at it :slight_smile:

He’s one of the first I know to have performed 5.1 Live public performances ^^

15

awesome dance music (like dynamite) and metal.

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I really enjoy the mixes created by DJ River which you can download at:

his Website

It’s quite a spectrum (all “electronic”, though). My favorites:

Ambient Chillout Mix 1-6 (I like all of them)
Chicane Anthology 1 and 2
Deep Psychedelic Trip Mix 1

I also like a lot of the stuff that got released through Bonzai records. While I totally love the “old stuff” (like around 1994), there’s also some pretty decent more recent compilations you could get through iTunes (Bonzai Trance Progressive and Bonzai Trance Progressive 2007-2008 … yeah, not very creative with the names - but the music rocks).

I wrote a few blog posts about electronic dance music that I really love: list of music blog posts in my German blog

Sometimes, I also really like stuff like Evanescence or Linkin’ Park … also, for a completely different style you could check out Faun (I used to do a lot of modelling while listening to that). Also, Rairda is really cool … kind of a elven super-voice: check out some samples.

Sometimes, I like to have the music pumped up really loud … and every once in a while stop working and get into dancing (guess I’ll post about that in that other thread about health :wink: ). But sometimes, I find any kind of sound too distracting and I prefer total silence. Really depends on the mood and what I’m working on.

17

I listen to upbeat dance songs when working,

and classical when playing games

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I’m also working on a space sci fi game. Jonn Serrie’s music seems great, very calming.

A great sci fi song by God is an Astronaut - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rr89FCGhEs

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Cool song, I like tbe mood in the beginning, reverb marries pretty well with space immensity ^^

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I would also recommend the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack for late hour working. Extremely nice stuff :slight_smile: