Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Music composer for D:OS2?

Uncultured swine! Tone deaf and absolutely no taste in music. *sniff*

(I don't get it either.)

Actually you never did so (the latter part). You don't have to study musical theory to know that many soundtracks especially for fantasy topics sound pretty similar. But you go one step further, you say that this is bad (otherwise you wouldn't insist so much on the topic) and I still want to know why. Why do you want different music? Just because it's different? Because it's more professional? Because you don't like the sound in general? I mean, why?

You know, personally, my most important wish for music in media (means music that supports other elements in audio-visual media which is pretty much the usual definition of music made for movies or video games) is that it gets to me on an emotional level. I don't care whether the music is serious or not or whether it sounds similar to other soundtrack as long as it fulfils this purpose, to deepen then emotional experience I have while playing a game.


Well, there is definitely some kind of bias involved in this. Otherwise you wouldn't mention it that often. And then again, the question still stands: why do you want the music for DOS to be serious. You said it "can" be. But why? What's the benefit?

Wasn't Dynamedion responsible for Drakensang soundtrack? I found it really enchanting and fitting the game mood (but then I'm a sucker for DSA >.> )
But for some reason there are no good YT links for those tracks (not for AFdZ anyway)

Larian should ship DOS2 just without any new music, just let someone rearrange all the stuff we have from Kirill Pokrovsky.

IIRC they already did something like that for DOS after Kirill got ill. DOS soundtrack is a mixture of new and older stuff from him.

I thought the benefit was quite clear - to not sound the same? To actually have some creative value even outside the game. Generic orchestral music No 48394934's creative value is long gone. Kirill's music is serious, btw, he has studied composition in the Moscow Conservatory and his soundtracks for Divinity make full use of that. It doesn't sound even remotely like Generic Orchestral Music. You should probably direct your anger at the people who have classified music this way, because I certainly didn't invent that and neither did I invent the history of music :p

Another random suggestion and/or a composer I really like is Rik Schaffer, the man behind one of my all time favourite video game soundtracks in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I might be a little biased because Bloodlines is one of my favourite games ever but still. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FU6JTZhMS8

You might have used instead "formal or art music" and avoided in running into misunderstandings *g*

I was actually contemplating that, but art music would sound even worse (the endless questions will begin - what is art? How is this art music and u-musik isn't? and I'd have to spend even more time explaining :p) and formal music doesn't sound specific enough ;d They are synonyms though, so you are right.

If there's still confusion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_music

The endless questions are implied anyway as the borders are not very clean. 12 tone jazz still popular music are already serious business? Neo-Classic-Metal? etc ;-)

Yeah, but the average person doesn't know what dodecaphonic jazz is or where exactly the line blurs between u-musik and formal music :p I don't think it's even possible to explain that to a person who hasn't studied music at some point. They just lash out at me whenever I mention something they aren't familiar with, like you see in this thread.

Having good knowledge of a subject doesn't make you a good teacher of the subject.


Someone around here previously mentioned Michael van der Bos and his work on AoW3. I liked said pieces, but I think there is a gap between music meant for a strategy game and atmospheric music meant for an RPG. Could the artist pass that gap? I don't know, but he'd be my choice if he could.

I'm actually a teacher in real life, lulz. Well, I'm a student and I do some teaching on the side.

I did. But since then I dug up my soundtrack from River of Time and promptly switched sides.

If that is your concern, I would say FlyByNo does quite the atmospheric music for roguelikes and strategy games ;-)

Well, I understand you much better since I know that you're an (aspiring) teacher. You have the right attitude/writing style already.

But back to topic, "to sound different" is imo no worthy goal. Different doesn't mean good. I'd rather have another "generic" (which is by the way just another bland word) soundtrack that sounds nice than serious music, that sounds different - but also not as nice. You know, most people are only interested in whether they like music, whether they like the melodies and the sound. They don't care at all whether somebody made it who has studied music himself or whether somebody uses certain techniques. There is no value in these things if they don't create music that people like more - especially in ambient/soundtrack music. I mean, we're no talking about an opera or an instrumental track in which the music has to speak for itself. That's a completely different premise.

I have to agree with LordCrash.
99% of computer game players have not studied music and its theories, but everybody has his own opinion if he likes a piece of music or not. Larian should aim that many players like the music, not that the music is good according to a theory almost nobody knows.

personal comments:
-I had a little bit of music theory at school, it was boring as hell and I have forgotten everything. Once we listened to an opera in order to analyze it. It was supposed to be german but I did not understand a single word (I am german). My comment: Well, it is definitely serious art, but I don`t understand it and I don`t like it.

- When you (Lacrymas) said folk music I was thinking of the german word Volksmusik, which is music based on some local tradition and often sung with dialect, but most of the time it is composed by someone. When I visit my parents and they listen to it (does anybody know the TV show Musikantenstadl? If not you are lucky) I have to leave the room and listen to some rock or electronic music to recover from the shock.

I was thinking something along the lines of this - https://youtu.be/OitPLIowJ70?t=1313 (I've linked it at the fourth movement) rather than something 20th/21st century or anything too wild/experimental.

I'm not sure there is a composer out there recognized for his work that doesn't know the basics of formal composing. Or if there is, he hasn't written more than a couple scores.

To get back to the basics, music scales were invented for a reason, if you don't use them your music will sound bad to almost everyone.

This is quite reasonable answer to LordCrash, on top of that there is a elephant in the room. Something generic will mean a decrease in quality compared to the divinity games of the past. Kirill Pokrovsky was writing some really outstanding soundtracks for the divinity games. He can never be replaced, but if you do not want to lower the quality of the game then you have to aim very high.

And btw, while I like the Drakensang soundtrack and consider if fitting for a Realms of Arkania (DSA) game, I don't think that level of quality would be desirable for a divinity game.

Here btw some samples of Drakensang OSTs as people seemed to have trouble finding it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtfUtFpj1Oo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvU8xQeqnWY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbjciBKNkos