Re: [DL] Potential Product Question (To The Group)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

At 09:19 AM 1/1/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>Uhm, sorry dude, there already is a Deadlands Soundtrack CD, it's called 
>Weird Wailings.

Hence the comment about creating a followup to the deadlands CD.  :-)

The best non-Weird Wailings CD I've found has been the additional music 
tracks on the old 3-D shooter game called Outlaws, followed by some 
singular songs from various soundtracks (opening and closing credits to 
Quick and the Dead, Manifest Destiny from Ravenous, etc).

The trick to creating a mood music CD for use during a game is it shouldn't 
disrupt the game itself.   The tracks should be long, fairly repetitive, 
and most importantly, not vary too much in volume.  The Marshal shouldn't 
have to keep jumping back and forth to the music to keep the volume at a 
non-disruptive level.

That's where Weird Wailin's delivers in full.  If the posse is on a train, 
the Marshal can start playing Ghost Train on repeat.  Having that baseline 
steam engine sound at a barely audible level in the background really helps 
set the mood.  And the music is repetitive enough that it doesn't pull 
attention away from the game, but it's varied enough to not be monotonous.
The same with The Haunted Saloon for a saloon scene, and The Weird West for 
a riding from town to town scene.  etc.

What makes for good gaming music does not make for good listening music. A 
game store in town tried shuffling Weird Wailings into it's store music 
selection and it drove everyone nuts, because the songs were long and 
repetitive and were played too loud.

What I would like to see is more atmosphere pieces - a tune that had a 
theme of picks hitting rock for scene in a mine, or a piece that evokes the 
frozen wastes of the North, or one that evokes the hot and dry winds in the 
southwest.

Here's a good one - In much the same way that Haunted Saloon combines a 
tinny piano, conversation and clinking glasses to evoke a saloon, Deadlands 
style, I'd like to see a 10 minute piece that, also without overpowering 
the game, evokes the feeling of Gettysburg or other major battles.

-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

We are such stuff as dreams are made on
                 - The Tempest