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[Porcelain]

I'm a recording artist form Australia and I was wondering what the possibility of an original Dwarf Fortress soundtrack is. I understand that as it is, there is third party java sound apps (which apparently chew through ram like there's no tomorrow) and Toady One is concentrating on gameplay elements right now.

I've recorded some classical tracks which I think would be a good musical accompaniment to DF, especially if there was a way to trigger certain tracks in certain situations (Siege=roaring LOTR-like track while a high death toll triggers some sadder music). Hopefully if it were outsourced it wouldn't take up valuable time that could be spent improving more important things.

Anyway I've uploaded one track. Imagine it playing soon after embark, during the summer when much toiling is to be done, and there is no foreseeable danger.
https://soundcloud.com/df-sountracks/df-classical

[JanusTwoface]

Sounds nice, although there's a fair bit of distortion at times. Is that on my end or was it recorded with that?

Mostly, I think the issues would be licensing and size.

It's probably less bad than code submissions (since music doesn't have to be updated), but I doubt Toady wants to deal with the headaches that music licensing can become. Still, doable.

Sizewise, about 20% of the download is already the music and that's just the one song. I guess if he offered a version with music and a version without, that might be nice (he already does this actually). Or better yet, it would be nice to just have official support for modding music in the raws somehow. Nothing as extensive as the current API supports, but just a few events that change music, like seasons or invasions or the like. Then you could download 'soundpacks' as easily as other mods. That's be neat.

[weenog]

I like the idea.

About the uploaded song, it's not bad, but I don't think it's really energetic enough to fit.  Breaks do tend to come at the worst possible moments, but dwarfs are some hyperactive little folk.  Especially if the overseer is good enough at task management to ensure there's always work to be done, for everyone.  Something like this seems more appropriate to me.

[Porcelain]

This was just a short thing recorded in an afternoon, if i was to do something properly it would have better recording quality and mixing (my actual studio recordings are here: https://soundcloud.com/stepreckoner). As for licensing I thought that would be the problem with doing some sort of soundpack, which is why I offered to do it for free, bypassing licensing problems. I like the idea of a soundpack, but I hope that it would be able to be integrated into DF rather than being like soundsense. I wonder if sound effects could be delt with in a similar manner, for example, instead of just seeing a rather unthreatening piece of text informing you of the arrival of an FB, an announcer with a sort of Ian McKellan-ish voice would thunder about it's rising from the depths.

As for the overall style of the music I agree with Weenog that this type of ambient music might not be suitable for DF, if it was to be included I would intersperse it with more lively music, especially during battles. Plus I like bagpipes.

[zwei]

... As for licensing I thought that would be the problem with doing some sort of soundpack, which is why I offered to do it for free, bypassing licensing problems. I like the idea of a soundpack, but I hope that it would be able to be integrated into DF rather than being like soundsense. I wonder if sound effects could be delt with in a similar manner ...

I think you are best-off contacting Toady directly.

I am keeping soundsense as "pure" as possible as far as licenses are concerned so that it could be all added to official DF eventually.

But that is very far-off future.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I dunno, I like Toady's piece best. It...fits, you know? And it was made by Toady, like the rest of the game. Mostly, though, it seems like it wouldn't "sound" like Dwarf Fortress without the music.

...I am way too young to be getting nostalgic.