That wonderful Tune.
You're playing a FPS.
Imagine yourself in a lighted hallway, carrying a big shotgun. Heavy metal comes through the speakers. You peer into a corridor which is filled with darkness. You see something moving in the darkness... a fireball comes at you. You duck, fire your shotgun once, and hear a moan in the far-off distance. You make a small leap forwards, and suddenly you hear a vibrant, evil laughter coming from your speakers. Judging from the volume, the laughing whatever is standing right next to you. You frantically spin 90 degrees to the right, hear a ripping sound, immedeately press forward and turn 180 degrees while simultaniously strafing back into the light... and now you see a small alclove from which a thin, grinning daemon emerges. You freak out, and start pumping shells into it whilst it tears at you with an awfull gripping sound. After four shots, of which two missed, the daemon falls down. Your pulse is now racing, and you're quite sure you're terrified, especially since your health is down to 34%... you quickly rapple your fingers on the keyboard in tune with the music playing, and start to move again.
You're watching the intro of Star Wars V, The Empire Strikes Back. The next day, you walk down the street, and whistle a tune... within three seconds, a stranger comes up to you and says:
"Great movie huh..."
You are playing Dune 2... building up your base, gathering spice, and suddenly the speakers boom "Ordos approaching from the west." The music fades, and a new tune starts... that haunting tune which drives you to ever increasing speeds and keeps playing in your head even after you shut down the game.
You play Diablo 1 for the first time, and stand in town. The guitar starts to play, and because of the lighting present and the music playing, your first impression is that of a deep, dark gothic atmosphere, drowned in moonlight.
Welcome to the wonderfull world of background music. Over the past three years I have begun collecting movie and pc-game soundtracks. My collection started somewhat by accident, while I was playing Revenant. Revenant is a crappy game when you're used to the likes of Baldurs Gate and Diablo. The animations are perfect, but its way too short, and the plot is limited. But the music, oh, the music. Patrick and his buddy did a wonderfull job on that... the music is ideal to relax by. I found the music on the disc and copied it to my harddrive. Then I went looking in other games. Chaos Gate offers some wonderfull bombastic tunes backed up by a choir, and those tracks, together with the Revenant tunes, turned out to be ideal relaxation music. Around the same time my wife bought the background music of "The Green Mile", and soon after LotR I followed. After that, we bought and downloaded more... I have Hexen, Icewind Dale, Wacky Wheels, Space Hulk and a variety of other musical scores, and my collection is ever increasing.
While the music was written with to go with a particular setting, scene or area in mind, the better musical scores can stand on their own, without the support of game or movie. These last ten years game music has made steps forward, not in the least supported by giant leaps in music cards, speakers and software for the pc enviroment. Whereas twenty years ago the best music definately came out of your audio system, nowadays computers offer an equal or superior sound, and in many households the stereo has been abandoned for an MP3 collection altogether. But that alone would not be enough. The recordings have also changed. Because of the new, better audiosystems, and the ever-increasing flow of money in the game industry companies can afford to invest more in the music. What once was an exception, now is the standard: hiring an orchestra to perform the music composed by an a-grade composer for your pc game is no longer a far-fetched idea. It is reality.
For pen-and-paper rolyeplaying sessions, I turn on my pc and play a selection of game and film music, all fantasy-themed. It sets the mood and creates a nice, rich atmosphere. When I want to relax while reading a book, I pick another set of scores, and when I'm playing games, I either turn on the ingame music, or if if I've had enough of that, I shut it down, start winamp and play something from another game. The digital revolution has widened our possiblities immensely, and I intent to enjoy it to its fullest when it comes to music.
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