How do you get your music?

How do you get your music?
Do you browse through asset store, do you contact producers directly, surf the net for free downloads?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm considering assembling a music pack for game specific purposes.
And I'm wondering if asset store is considered a dead end for such purposes.

 

I recently purchased a music pack in the asset store.

 

http://forum.unity3d.com/

 

Edit: Sorry, re-read your original post and revised my reply.

Unity now has the APM Music Store with a huge library. You might be competing with it, but other composers seem to be doing okay on the store. I don't know if you can somehow get listed on the APM Music Store itself.

Kevin Macleod's Incompetech seems to be everyone's go-to resource for music on a budget. You might try a model like that, too.

I've used Kevin Macleod's music on small, no-budget projects. For larger projects, I usually find a composer whose work I like in the genre and use that composer's work for all the tracks in the project so everything's consistent through the game. When you're making your pack, perhaps consider covering the entire arc of a game: intro, traveling theme, battle music, villain theme, victory music, etc.

 

I write it

 

@TonyLi , Thanks for the comprehensive response.

I'm just going to mention as well,
I'm not a big fan of APM due to license restrictions and also heavy restrictions for being located outside of US/Canada.

So I'm guessing I'm not the only one looking for other options...

I've thought about building a set of scores based on common user actions taken in a game (like you mentioned).
But also, I've been thinking a lot about what I actually have had use for myself in previous experiences.
Which have been a lot more soundscapes based (of 10minutes or so) than actual theme tracks, and also on an unrestricted license, so I can use it for every project I never finish, if I so desire.

 

Good thinking. I use a lot of ambient "background" music. It's sometimes hard to find tracks that are appropriate for the atmosphere. It would be an extra bonus if it occasionally echoed a main theme, to pull all the tracks together.

 

I make my own in LMMS.
Nuffy said!!

PS: I'll be sure to check out, samples of your music pack, when you release them.
But right now, I need a new PC!

 

I write my own- although on previous projects someone's written it for me.

 

Thanks for responses everyone,

I've decided to go ahead and do a pilot compilation. I'll be sure to come back and post it here in ~2 months.

Any suggestions for theme?
Sci-fi, fantasy, apocalypse, horror...etc

 

Depends on what kind of music you compose. If you like layering traditional percussion, I think there's a market for sword-and-sandals style barbarian fantasy music, something like O Fortuna from Orff's Carmina Burana. But there's always a market for zombie and sci-fi shooters, too, if you're more into eerie ambient stuff or fast electronic music.

 

As a composer myself I do kinda like the idea of having people here buying music from the board here like other assets - because I guess it's a mostly fair way Of getting payed at all (Nothing good coming from these numberless reddit offers "please let me give my music to you for free").

But do you see music for your game as a pure asset? I like to think that music is meant to support the picture on an emotional level as good as possible - but also as a unique part of the creation. If you make your game, you don't want to use the same title an other game already used - or the same start menu. Especially if you want your game have some music which functions like a main themes or example. Music, if good, people will memorize and recognize. (Unless is more of blending ambience music of course)

Does the asset market with all these (very fine produced) pre-build music packs serve your needs? I'd be very interested in some inputs.

 

Even big film studios use prebuilt music, at least in early production. That's why Mozart's Dies Irae plays over battle scenes in the early trailer for every single fantasy movie. It's shorthand for "this is an epic battle; insert actual composition here in post." For smaller studios, just like indie games, that music often sticks around because they can't afford a whole set of new compositions. I think a lot of games, even ones with recognizable, recurring themes, use generic ambient music for non-theme related segments just out of convenience or budgetary necessity.

 

You are reffering to temp tracks, which serve an complete other purpose, as you explained quite accurat. If producers fall into love with their temp tracks after hearing them too often, than thats quite an other story - especially if the music is not even working there at all. But I hear you of course. For very small or non budget its a quick and easy-to-make decision to use free, generally available music.

 

Its the same with every asset. Its a balance between determining what needs to be unique to your game, and what can be off the shelf generic. Sure an AAA title can afford to do everything custom. But for anyone else that way lies death.

 

So after giving it some thought, I think music (for games) are very much "pure assets".

And I think a lot of games treats this type of media in the wrong way.
Which is probably why the audiovisual experience in Dragon Age: Inquisition was very inconsistent, and my personal experience really bad.
While it has these moments with really grand music tracks playing, it can happen anywhere and anytime, and then there is the 20 minutes of silence in between.

So the thing is, I don't want this epic music track start playing when I'm, say, mining for ore, and I would really like... something, to fill the empty space when those epic tracks are not playing.

But I still believe, most of you, like myself, tend to look for this epic tracks while looking for music for your game or imagining a background track, it might not actually be the best choice.

I think it is a lot more important for music to fill inn the the empty spaces for the mood which is already being laid down by the visuals and characters and story. But not drive the mood itself.

And games being such a different medium to a movie, one needs to look at the audio design with equal different eyes.

That said, cinematic sequences does very much follow the movie recipe, where audio can be part of driving the mood by itself. And there is many games that pushes a cinematic experience to the frontline.

 

That is a very nice anecdote - and I am very surprised that a game THAT big, does not feature a convenient score, if things are that way (I never played that game though). But a game this big just needs a bigger score and more detailed music for more different situations, than any developer here probably is in need of, right?

I think the best solution for this very scenario is having just more ambient like music. A very detailed & rich main theme of just 2-3 min music can easily take as much (or more) effort and working time as a thinner, but just as nice & high-quality 6-7+ min ambient score. I guess, it really makes sense to offer more music of this kind here? Are people creating games with unity3d are in need of such assets?

 

write my own usually...

 

Here's a solid resource for free commercial friendly music. Be sure to read the requirements though!

http://www.nosoapradio.us/

 

I write it myself, in Anvil Studio. I then use Synthfont to render it into a MP3/OGG file, and do some slight post-processing. That file goes into Audacity for more rigorous post-processing.