PlanetSide 2 Audio & Music

[Rodney Gates]

Greetings, all. I'm Rodney Gates, Audio Director at Sony Online Entertainment here in San Diego.

My team and I (including Injectedsenses on this forum) have been working hard to deliver some killer audio for this fantastic game that you are all just going to love.

We've taken some big strides forward with the audio tech this past year for PS2, getting a lot of new features integrated to help make this title sing.

Feel free to shoot over any questions - in the meantime, "Live Free In The NC!".

- Rodney

[Xyntech]

Get this man hooked up with some credentials, stat!

Fantastic work sir. We really haven't had the opportunity to hear much of the games audio until recently, and I have to say that it has sounded better and better with each new video we have seen.

I really appreciate what you are doing with making all of the different vehicles and weapons have cool and unique sounds. Audio is rarely something that you think of for that wow factor the way graphics are looked up to, but awesome sounds can make a 20 year old game still feel amazing and immersive and pump the nostalgia up to 11.

I'm curious if you guys have any plans to make different engine or weapon sounds be a cosmetic cash shop option. On the one hand, customization is cool and the game needs to get funded. On the flip side, being able to identify what vehicle or weapon is being used based on its sounds is a fantastic feature that I would had to see tarnished.

Keep up the amazing work. For all of the cool things we have seen, I don't think anything has made me quite as excited as the first time I heard that Liberator flying in the TB video.

[Bags]

Jets sound good so far, haven't been able to hear the guns very well over all the talking. Glad to hear Don F. is back on music!

[Virulence]

I was absolutely floored (even though it was only about a second long) by the sound of that Reaver's cannon in the air combat video posted today, and the way all of those aircraft engines sound is just incredibly satisfying. Seriously - amazing stuff!

[Roidster]

so far from what im able to hear over the talking,has been good,now is the distant gun fire im hearing

[basti]

Greetings, all. I'm Rodney Gates, Audio Director at Sony Online Entertainment here in San Diego.

My team and I (including Injectedsenses on this forum) have been working hard to deliver some killer audio for this fantastic game that you are all just going to love.

We've taken some big strides forward with the audio tech this past year for PS2, getting a lot of new features integrated to help make this title sing.

Feel free to shoot over any questions - in the meantime, "Live Free In The NC!".

- Rodney


There is only one Question: DId you got Don to make the Music?

[Whalenator]

"Live Free In The NC!".- Rodney

This is all I need to hear. ;)
Welcome to the forums.

[Insanekanifer]

I agree did you get don to do music, only question I want answered :3

[Ghryphen]

I agree did you get don to do music, only question I want answered :3
http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?postid=685887#post685887

[Crazyduckling]

Yes. Don is doing the music. See this: http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=40974

Its also been said multiple times in the PS2 section of the forum.

---

The game sounds great. Can't wait to play it and blast it on my KRKs.

[ShadoViper]

Greetings, all. I'm Rodney Gates, Audio Director at Sony Online Entertainment here in San Diego.

My team and I (including Injectedsenses on this forum) have been working hard to deliver some killer audio for this fantastic game that you are all just going to love.

We've taken some big strides forward with the audio tech this past year for PS2, getting a lot of new features integrated to help make this title sing.

Feel free to shoot over any questions - in the meantime, "Live Free In The NC!".

- Rodney

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and post!

So far the sound effects shown have been very promising and awesome! I'm looking forward very much to hearing the games musical score as well!

Question:

What game(s), if any, are influencing your design process on the audio for the game and how?

[basti]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?postid=685887#post685887

Woha, totally missed that.

Well then, much <3 :)

[Xyntech]

Rodney Gates, Don Ferrone, and the rest of the Planetside 2 audio department: Making Planetside 2 sound like a boss since 2012.

My ears are ready.

[Rodney Gates]

Thank you all,

The big thing we are focusing on now is faction distinction - from the weaponry, bullet flybys, vehicles, etc. We want to you to know who is firing at you on the battlefield without having to even see them.

The game is in 5.1 surround and depending on your hardware, will also decode in Dolby Surround and DTS.

We've taken care to ensure that you as the player will be treated like any of the major shooters out there that we can be compared to. Your weapons are powerful 2D stereo with some subwoofer kick thrown in for good measure. Your first-person vehicle cockpits are in 4.0 quad that you can snap out to third-person exterior with the audio following suit. From the ground as a soldier on foot, the vehicles sound even more different still; more aggressive, with doppler and engine distance treatment.

We're just starting to make use of some DSP in game, such as low and high pass filtering, different reverb settings based on distance, etc.

There is a lot of crossfading of 3D audio files you'll hear in the world, with close and distant treatments that will differentiate how far the sounds play from you. I can tell you the play tests are starting to sound fantastic as we get things tuned up! :-)

A lot of this tech didn't exist in our game engine before PlanetSide 2, so we're excited to be bringing this level of attention and quality to SOE's players.

We will be planning an official announcement on the music for the game soon enough - but I can tell you this: You will be treated to three soundtracks in the game, depending on what faction you play, with very distinct music styles for each.

Exciting stuff - stay tuned!

- Rodney

[Pyreal]

/e cheer

Good sounds add so much to a game! I still remember the sound of the beach at Hebian-to in Asheron's Call.

Glad to know there an emphasis on having good sound effects. :D

Thanks guys!

[kertvon]

Awesome work with the sounds. I see you stated there will be announcements pertaining to the soundtrack, but can you verify the original theme song(or modified variant) will be in the game?

I loved this theme song!:
PlanetSide Title Theme - YouTube

[Sledgecrushr]

Ok now I have a reason to buy a good sound card and some bad assed surround sound speakers.

[Novacane]

The audio really does sound excellent from what videos have been out there. It's always good when you can feel those explosions and the throatiness of an engine as it goes by. It adds tons of depth to the world.

[CrystalViolet]

The game is sounding really good from the bits I've seen. The DSP stuff sounds really exciting, especially the low-passing to convey a convincing sense of proximity. It's always very noticeable when games use a "close" and a "far" set of sounds with no real transition between the 2. Variable low passing is a great way to handle this problem.

Also, can't wait to hear the music. :D

[Sledgecrushr]

Our sound designer here had dropped that there was going to be a bunch of different helmet designs and "foils" that we will be able to buy at the cash shop. I cant find the quote now so it seems that bit has been edited out. I tell you the mossie/reaver/scythe has just an incredible sound to it. And I do recall the dopler effect in the aircav video just so much bad assness awesomesauce. Maybe we can get a vid out with only native sounds? I would like to here the game without piped in music or tb commentating. (love ya tb)

[Patek]

Maybe we can get a vid out with only native sounds? I would like to here the game without piped in music or tb commentating. (love ya tb)

hopefully we hear some more sounds soon :) i always love it when the audio is top notch in games!

[Xaine]

Thank you very much for taking the time to post sir.

The audio really does sound amazing, especially the transition between when the Mossie is cruising and then slowing down back to hover, hearing the engine 'power down' and the pitch of it change is fantastic, like it's actually changing gear.

I can't wait to have a fighter fly over me at full speed, that screaming 'whoosh!' sound will be amazing I'm sure.

Really, really enjoy the work you're putting in.

[Hamma]

Thanks for dropping by!! The audio sounds amazing you guys have done a great job at it. As I mentioned in another thread the sound of an aircraft flyby made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

[kaffis]

Feel free to shoot over any questions - in the meantime, "Live Free In The NC!".

- Rodney
Ah, good to see that our repurposed mining equipment will get the throaty roars and growls they deserve. Leave the whining "pew-pew" sounds to the Vanu. ;)

[Corax]

Hey Rodney and crew!!

First I just wanna say thank you for the killer sounds we have already been able to hear.

And I just wanted to ask, where are you pulling some of your inspirations from for each of the different weapons/vehicles? Is there any audio pieces you guys are manufacturing yourselves? Can you give us some insight into what exactly your hoping to achieve in the terms of sound? Will each and every single gun/vehicles have its own unique telltale sound signature or will there be some overlap?

And I swear that in the Air Cav video yall tossed up I heard the strafing sound an x-wing makes when it was doing the canyon run. It was when the reavers where doing their canyon run to the TR position.

[wasdie]

Real surround sound in video games, none of that emulated crap, is one of the best ways to really immerse a player.

I've been rolling with 5.1 surround sound speakers for years and never gets old being surrounded by the game.

I love your dedication to the game and how you're putting the time and effort to really make all 3 factions distinct in both their audio and their soundtrack.

You and your team going the extra mile is what is going to set this game apart from the pack and up there with the greats.

[Shogun]

welcome to the community, mr. sound ;) !

great to see even more devs dare to drop by here and say hello!
and what i heard so far really rocks the boat!

can anyone recommend a good 5.1 gamers headset that is comfortable to wear for extended playtimes and not too expensive?

sound is soooo damn important and i am happy that you are putting so much work into this! those who don´t believe how important sound is should try and watch their favorite scify movie scenes and turn of the sound. the sound is of the same importance as the visuals. good sound can even make up for bad visuals and make a bad scene excellent. same applys for computergames.

i love that you are working on empire specific sounds! what you described in your last post (too lazy to quote) is exactly what i want! and i know i´m not alone with this! a lot of veterans want to be able to distinguish who is shooting at them with closed eyes! that´s a feature not every shooter can deliver, but planetside has the potential to do this and it has to!

thanks again! can´t wait to hear the game! especially that quad gattling gun we saw in a screenshot ;)
please give it a very very evil sound! something in the line of the vulcan gun of the a10 warthog, but multiplied by 4 ;)

[Xyntech]

Wait, different soundtracks for each empire, not just different empire themes? Wow, I didn't expect that.

[Lonehunter]

We're just starting to make use of some DSP in game, such as low and high pass filtering, different reverb settings based on distance, etc.
I think this is what my question had to deal with. Will ground forces be able to hear the firing of larger projectiles from a distance? Like Tanks on the ridge, Libs behind the clouds, can I hear a distant thud before the streaking boom?

[ringring]

Welcome and good job.

I was going to ask about faction distinction in the sounds but reading further down the threas you answered before I asked.

Brilliant! :)

[Lorgarn]

In these recent months SOE has risen up to be one of my favourite game developer. Mostly thanks to the team behind the awesomesauce that we all know as PS2.

The community/players enjoy developers that are interacting with them, it doesn't have to be everyday, tens of pages of text and/or conversation. At least in my opinion, these little tidbits of talk/conversation/information and comes from the PS2 team are sweet. I like it and I hope they continue to come.

And yes, I've also enjoyed the sound/audio we've heard so far. I was much impressed by the sounds of the Liberator(jet/engine) we heard from TB's "loverator" vid.

Keep it coming, keep loving us and we will keep loving you. Promise!

[Shogun]

In these recent months SOE has risen up to be one of my favourite game developer. Mostly thanks to the team behind the awesomesauce that we all know as PS2.

The community/players enjoy developers that are interacting with them, it doesn't have to be everyday, tens of pages of text and/or conversation. At least in my opinion, these little tidbits of talk/conversation/information and comes from the PS2 team are sweet. I like it and I hope they continue to come.



that´s so true! one year ago, i was a soe hater, because i couldn´t forgive them that they killed two of my most favorite games of all times.(starwars galaxies and planetside)
now i love soe or at least everybody on the planetside 2 devteam, because they took this new route of game developement. all the other developers out there should watch closely and learn! interaction with the community - even in early alpha - is the key to success! it may be hard sometimes, and it certainly is a pain to filter the unfounded ranting from the constructive comments, but i am sure it´s worth the hassle!

and yes, the ps2 team has conquered my heart as well! keep up the great work, and don´t dump the game after release, and soe will own my heart and my wallet again!

[Rodney Gates]

You won't be disappointed! :-)

[Rodney Gates]

Hmm, that didn't work - I was replying to kertvon about the PlanetSide theme, but it stuck my post at the end of the thread.

[duomaxwl]

"Live Free In The NC!".

- Rodney
Somebody get this man a beer.
Thanks for doing such a quality job. Everything is sounding phenomenal. One of my favorite things about games is the audio, and you guys are doing just a stand up job. Keep it up.

[Rodney Gates]

Ok now I have a reason to buy a good sound card and some bad assed surround sound speakers.

Sledge, indeed you should! The game runs surround natively if you hook up all of those mini-jack speaker outputs you find on most computers nowadays, or if you use one of the sound cards out there that has Dolby Live or DTS encoding enabled.

We use Auzentech sound cards for our PCs running through Pioneer receivers that decode whatever signals we send it from the sound card's control panel (we often flip between Dolby / DTS / and PCM stereo to check fold-down).

- Rodney

[onwee]

Like many others, I just wanted to say thanks for paying attention to detail and doing a very good job. I LOVE the idea of distinct sounds between factions.

It seems like every aspect of this game is getting a lot of attention from some of the best people in the industry. That makes me feel good as a player, and makes me realize that the team really cares about the game just as much as many of the players.

I think you all know you're about to finish something that is groundbreaking. You're not cutting any corners, especially sound development.

Again, thanks and good job. Going to go change my diaper now.

[Pozidriv]

Thank you all,

The big thing we are focusing on now is faction distinction - from the weaponry, bullet flybys, vehicles, etc. We want to you to know who is firing at you on the battlefield without having to even see them.

The game is in 5.1 surround and depending on your hardware, will also decode in Dolby Surround and DTS.

We've taken care to ensure that you as the player will be treated like any of the major shooters out there that we can be compared to. Your weapons are powerful 2D stereo with some subwoofer kick thrown in for good measure. Your first-person vehicle cockpits are in 4.0 quad that you can snap out to third-person exterior with the audio following suit. From the ground as a soldier on foot, the vehicles sound even more different still; more aggressive, with doppler and engine distance treatment.

We're just starting to make use of some DSP in game, such as low and high pass filtering, different reverb settings based on distance, etc.

There is a lot of crossfading of 3D audio files you'll hear in the world, with close and distant treatments that will differentiate how far the sounds play from you. I can tell you the play tests are starting to sound fantastic as we get things tuned up! :-)

A lot of this tech didn't exist in our game engine before PlanetSide 2, so we're excited to be bringing this level of attention and quality to SOE's players.

We will be planning an official announcement on the music for the game soon enough - but I can tell you this: You will be treated to three soundtracks in the game, depending on what faction you play, with very distinct music styles for each.

Exciting stuff - stay tuned!

- Rodney

The bolded part is something i am really liking! (among all the other goodies ofcourse)

How the battlefield sounds is something that can make or break a whole level of immersion IMO. The only games that have had a high attention to audio detail (that i know of) have been the Battlefield series from BC1 - BC2 and BF3.

I can still remember the crazy firefights i had in BC1 and BC2, with good quality headphones and wartapes on (an audio setting) it was just pure eargasm :D.


Personally im hoping for something like this for the audio and feel for TR, if you can't fire 900 rpm then you are doing it wrong! :p

Battlefield: Bad Company - Find All Five: Assault - YouTube

Also, words cannot describe how i feel about all the detail you are adding to the sound department, so i will let this express my feelings.

success - YouTube

[SniperSteve]

Fantastic on all accounts! Thanks for dropping by! The sounds that we have heard this far certainly make me want to brag about the sound effects to all my friends that think BF3 is the shooter with the best sound effects.

[Rainfur]

My $1K sound system is finally going to get some good use! :)

[Vancha]

Damn, I meant to ask this months ago and completely forgot about it.

Holophonic sound (or at least, holophonic sound emulation) in PS2...Do-able?

can anyone recommend a good 5.1 gamers headset that is comfortable to wear for extended playtimes and not too expensive?
Don't waste your money on a 5.1 headset, they sound terrible. Leave surround sound to the software side if you're using headphones.

[Gonefshn]

I want the title screen to have a remix of the old theme!!!

Nothing will make me smile more than the soft familiar bed of the Planetside theme as I log in!!

[Johari]

Unsung heros sometimes in game development. Great sound fx and music can make or break game scenes and I'm glad to see such passion coming from your side of the game. Can't wait to see and hear more. Thank you so much for making PS2 sounds AMAZING.

[QuantumMechanic]

I am real excited about 3 seperate soundtracks! If I put nearly as much time into PS2 as I did PS1, I will no doubt eventually give each empire a lot of dedicated time. And I know that empire-specific soundtracks will make each faction feel like a seperate game!

[SurgeonX]

Thank you all,

The big thing we are focusing on now is faction distinction - from the weaponry, bullet flybys, vehicles, etc. We want to you to know who is firing at you on the battlefield without having to even see them.

That's great to hear Rodney, the attention to detail sounds pretty astonishing.

Even from the canon clip that Gary posted up the other month, you can tell that faction distinction is something you are all working towards.
So I'm really pleased that this is being extended across the board.

For anyone who missed it.
Can you work it out? :D

http://soundcloud.com/injectedsenses/cannon-comparisons

[Captain1nsaneo]

Thank you for posting sir! Like most of the people here I've been enjoying the vehicle sounds quite a bit.

One thing has come into my mind though regarding sounds and I'm actually really glad this thread came into existence because otherwise I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm thinking about the delay between the explosion and when we will hear it. Even just short distances there can be significant time delay between seeing the fireball and hearing it. I don't think I've ever seen it done in a game before and would love to hear thoughts on if it's feasible or not.

[Graywolves]

In the other thread you mentioned something about the voices. How many voices are going to be available this time around?


Also, your team and you are doing an amazing job, keep it up!

[sylphaen]

Welcome to PSU !

It's great to see people from the sound team around here. We never hear enough about them.
:)

I look forward to see the result of your work and hope we will stop getting horror videos from the marketing department: Ride of the valkyries just does not give justive to PS2 like Don's work can. And it gets really old, really fast. Really...
EverQuest 2 - Flight Wings Trailer
PlanetSide 2 Massive Air Combat

Anyways, back on topic: I love what we've heard so far in the footage. Can't wait to hear what Don has for us either.
:thumbsup:

[InjectedSenses]

Thank you for posting sir! Like most of the people here I've been enjoying the vehicle sounds quite a bit.

One thing has come into my mind though regarding sounds and I'm actually really glad this thread came into existence because otherwise I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm thinking about the delay between the explosion and when we will hear it. Even just short distances there can be significant time delay between seeing the fireball and hearing it. I don't think I've ever seen it done in a game before and would love to hear thoughts on if it's feasible or not.

That can be a tricky thing. We do have a "pre-delay" built in so the ability is there. However, as Rodney mentioned, we are using x-fading to achieve a close/distant relationship. The initial test that we did ran into some audible issues in doing this (hearing a close explo and the delayed explo). As we tune up our system it is something I would definitely like to have in but only if it works correctly.

[InjectedSenses]

Thank you for posting sir! Like most of the people here I've been enjoying the vehicle sounds quite a bit.

One thing has come into my mind though regarding sounds and I'm actually really glad this thread came into existence because otherwise I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm thinking about the delay between the explosion and when we will hear it. Even just short distances there can be significant time delay between seeing the fireball and hearing it. I don't think I've ever seen it done in a game before and would love to hear thoughts on if it's feasible or not.

That can be a tricky thing. We do have a "pre-delay" built in so the ability is there. However, as Rodney mentioned, we are using x-fading to achieve a close/distant relationship. The initial test that we did ran into some audible issues in doing this (hearing a close explo and the delayed explo). As we tune up our system it is something I would definitely like to have in but only if it works correctly.

[Xyntech]

That can be a tricky thing. We do have a "pre-delay" built in so the ability is there. However, as Rodney mentioned, we are using x-fading to achieve a close/distant relationship. The initial test that we did ran into some audible issues in doing this (hearing a close explo and the delayed explo). As we tune up our system it is something I would definitely like to have in but only if it works correctly.

Very cool.

I hope there aren't too many complaints from people that the sound of distant explosions is all screwed up and out of sync, although hopefully they would get shouted down very quickly ;)

[sylphaen]

Very cool.

I hope there aren't too many complaints from people that the sound of distant explosions is all screwed up and out of sync, although hopefully they would get shouted down very quickly ;)

Forumside can be a very dangerous place if one cannot read the environment.
:lol:

[RNFB]

I'm really curious what type of music the Vanu will get, can you elaborate on any of that yet?

[2coolforu]

Thank you for posting sir! Like most of the people here I've been enjoying the vehicle sounds quite a bit.

One thing has come into my mind though regarding sounds and I'm actually really glad this thread came into existence because otherwise I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm thinking about the delay between the explosion and when we will hear it. Even just short distances there can be significant time delay between seeing the fireball and hearing it. I don't think I've ever seen it done in a game before and would love to hear thoughts on if it's feasible or not.

ARMA 2 has some of the best sound tech in the gaming world, if you get the real military grade (VBS 2) engine it has occlusion, diffraction, air heat capacity and all sorts of crazy stuff.

It's also pretty cool in little ways, when you fire a supersonic bullet you'll hear it go past you before you hear the gunshot itself. If a jet is going fast enough it'll pass by before the sound passes by. The game itself has poor sound design but the tech it uses is just pure, glorious quality, some better sound designers like Jarhead and Chammy made great use out of it by recording 3-4 gigs of true audio and modding it in.

Obviously Planetside isn't going to have Military training simulator level sound engines because it would be laggy as but I think speed of sound simulation would be a great touch.

[Saintlycow]

Looking forward to the Music, Rodney.

If you can, can you tell us what genres the different faction musics are?

[Rodney Gates]

That can be a tricky thing. We do have a "pre-delay" built in so the ability is there. However, as Rodney mentioned, we are using x-fading to achieve a close/distant relationship. The initial test that we did ran into some audible issues in doing this (hearing a close explo and the delayed explo). As we tune up our system it is something I would definitely like to have in but only if it works correctly.

We plan on talking with our audio programmer about this - he can calculate the distance vs. delay issue in-game for us that could solve this problem and deliver a more realistic experience with distant sounds. We'll keep you posted on this.

- Rodney

[Rodney Gates]

P.S. - A typo on one of my first messages when I mentioned Dolby Surround - I meant Dolby Digital. Of course, if your hardware is set up for Dolby Surround ( I believe that's just ProLogic II) then I'm sure that would work fine too, though an older format.

- Rodney

[cryosin]

Thank you all,

The big thing we are focusing on now is faction distinction - from the weaponry, bullet flybys, vehicles, etc. We want to you to know who is firing at you on the battlefield without having to even see them.

The game is in 5.1 surround and depending on your hardware, will also decode in Dolby Surround and DTS.

We've taken care to ensure that you as the player will be treated like any of the major shooters out there that we can be compared to. Your weapons are powerful 2D stereo with some subwoofer kick thrown in for good measure. Your first-person vehicle cockpits are in 4.0 quad that you can snap out to third-person exterior with the audio following suit. From the ground as a soldier on foot, the vehicles sound even more different still; more aggressive, with doppler and engine distance treatment.

We're just starting to make use of some DSP in game, such as low and high pass filtering, different reverb settings based on distance, etc.

There is a lot of crossfading of 3D audio files you'll hear in the world, with close and distant treatments that will differentiate how far the sounds play from you. I can tell you the play tests are starting to sound fantastic as we get things tuned up! :-)

A lot of this tech didn't exist in our game engine before PlanetSide 2, so we're excited to be bringing this level of attention and quality to SOE's players.

We will be planning an official announcement on the music for the game soon enough - but I can tell you this: You will be treated to three soundtracks in the game, depending on what faction you play, with very distinct music styles for each.

Exciting stuff - stay tuned!

- Rodney


5.1 surround is gonna rock thanks for keeping us posted :)

[Rodney Gates]

Looking forward to the Music, Rodney.

If you can, can you tell us what genres the different faction musics are?

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney

[Bags]

Yeah I'd be quite sad if some of the old stuff didn't return in some form, remastered, redone, etc idk.

I hope we can pay to use the old voice macro clips, that voice acting was hilarious.

[RNFB]

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. If the VS music really is anything even remotely close to them, or any techno/electronica/whatever crap, I'll be instantly turning off the music.

[Zulthus]

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney


Hope you guys bring back New Hades Tunnel or a remix; one of my favorite tracks in the game apart from the main theme!

[Thomas]

Hope you guys bring back New Hades Tunnel or a remix; one of my favorite tracks in the game apart from the main theme!

The demo Hades Tunnel that Don posted last year was great, hope he keeps it

[SurgeonX]

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. If the VS music really is anything even remotely close to them, or any techno/electronica/whatever crap, I'll be instantly turning off the music.

I guess it depends, their Tron soundtrack was probably the best thing about that film.
So if that's where the influence lies then fair enough.

What we really need is for everything to be based around Rollin' & Scratchin'.

[Bruttal]

cash shop sound packs?

[Graywolves]

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney


The TR and NC ones have me excited.

[Corax]

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney

Holy crap Rodney that all sounds (heheh....) amazing. Im really looking forward to hearing everything you guys are bringing to the table! Would there be a chance of us getting a few sneak peaks into the music selections for each empire once they are recorded? I would love the chance to see how the music selection evolves as you guys put it together.

[ITOS]

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

Sounds awsome! (no pun intended) I don't remember much of Fireflys music but it made me think of Shoot Many Robots.

[Zenben]

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. If the VS music really is anything even remotely close to them, or any techno/electronica/whatever crap, I'll be instantly turning off the music.

Going to have to disagree with you. Daft Punk is quite possibly my favorite group of all time. I'm a huge fan of EDM, and I have loved everything they have done from their early stuff all the way up to the Tron soundtrack, and I'm drooling for the album they're currently working on. I was already leaning towards Vanu, mostly because several friends were drawn to them without having played the first game. The music choices outlined here may very well cement that decision. Though I am also drawn to orchestral stuff, so I might have to have a TR alt somewhere :love:

[RedKnights]

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney

I am rather pleased there will be such a diverse soundtrack :eek:

WAIT A SECOND. I seem to remember firefly having a score called "Reaver Chase" New Conglomerate Reaver... ISEEWHATYOUDIDTHERE.JPG

Reavers Chase Serenity - Firefly: The Original Television Soundtrack - YouTube

[Shogun]

YEAH!
nc gets music inspired by the best scify series ever! i love it! the selection of instruments in the firefly series was great and i think it fits with the nc very good!

tr having epic orchestrated music sounds right as well! a little like the evil galactic empire.

don´t know the draftpunk thing, but electronic music for vanu fits as well.

[Levente]

can we expect some quality sounds like in Battlefield bad company 2? that would be great

[sylphaen]

The demo Hades Tunnel that Don posted last year was great, hope he keeps it

I liked the Vanu strut a lot too. Electric violins reserved for the VS !
:p

Edit: reserve the clicks and rolling drums too.
:D

[Thomas]

I liked the Vanu strut a lot too. Electric violins reserved for the VS !
:p

Edit: reserve the clicks and rolling drums too.
:D

Those electric violins are what gave PS such a distinctive soundtrack and atmosphere when I first played and what still remains with me today.

[CidHighwind]

Sure - this actually very cool, and discussed at length between the design team and myself.

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.

The technologically-advanced Vanu Sovereignty will be based around purist electronica, a bit in the vein of what you've heard recently from Daft Punk, but with more of an ethnic flare to ground them in their humanity.

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Hopefully this whets your appetite a bit until we do the full music announcement - good stuff!

Stay tuned! Things are about to get Bad Ass.

- Rodney

This sounds amazing.... I can't wait to hear this stuff. Music is one of the most important aspects of any game in my opinion... immersion can not happen without it. Thanks for sharing Rodney!

[kaffis]

The New Conglomerate, being the living-on-the-edge, anarchist scavengers they are will be more frontier-like, with a cool blues-rock approach featuring slide guitars and fiddle (little harder-edged than the Firefly TV series' music by Greg Edmonson). This music will all be recorded here in San Diego with local musicians specializing in this genre, following the orchestral session.
Wow. Never have I been more glad I play NC. This sounds *awesome.*

[Hamma]

I heard some previews of the music while I was there (Thanks Matt!) and honestly you guys won't be dissapointed with any of them including VS.

[Gonefshn]

I'm so stoked about the music! Seriously if they get it right it could be the #1 thing that ties PS1 to PS2.

They have to make adjustments to other areas of the game to make it modern and mass appeal but the music can remain pure! And if it sounds like Planetside I'll be getting shivers.

I have all the planetside music downloaded and I play it during other shooters and games sometimes lol

[IHateMMOs]

Will there be a variety of sounds when bullets come in contact with certain surfaces? Will I hear the difference between my bullet hitting a metallic surface, or a rocky cliff? I'm not one to really care about small stuff, but it would be nice. Also, if I'm walking around in a desert continent will I hear the heatwave, or if I'm in a snowy continent, will I hear the whistling of the cold wind in the distance? I really like an authentic environment, but since Planetside 2, I think I wouldn't fuss about not having that sort of thing.

[QuantumMechanic]

Wow, the only thing that's made me want to play NC sofar was the description of their music genre! (well ok, that NC MAX looks totally badass as well)

[polywomple]

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. If the VS music really is anything even remotely close to them, or any techno/electronica/whatever crap, I'll be instantly turning off the music.

sorry but daft punk is awesome,

besides I don't think it's going to sound SUPER reminiscent of daft punk, just similar

[Toppopia]

I just listened to "Around the World" but i can't remember what the lyrics were.. :confused:

But seriously, it was alright until the singing, that got a tiny bit annoying, but i know there won't be any singing in the music so it might turn out good.

[2coolforu]

I just listened to "Around the World" but i can't remember what the lyrics were.. :confused:

But seriously, it was alright until the singing, that got a tiny bit annoying, but i know there won't be any singing in the music so it might turn out good.

I imagine the style will be more like Daft Punk's work on Tron rather than they're more vocal songs. The Tron Legacy soundtrack is more 'Gamey' than their earlier stuff, as in it suits being in the background and supporting atmosphere than just being a standalone thing

I dunno if that's right but I imagine the sound will be more like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmKDVvIEhBY&feature=related

[Toppopia]

I imagine the style will be more like Daft Punk's work on Tron rather than they're more vocal songs. The Tron Legacy soundtrack is more 'Gamey' than their earlier stuff, as in it suits being in the background and supporting atmosphere than just being a standalone thing

I dunno if that's right but I imagine the sound will be more like this



That does sound more like the VS.

[cellinaire]

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. If the VS music really is anything even remotely close to them, or any techno/electronica/whatever crap, I'll be instantly turning off the music.


...You just can't expect everything will be good for you, right ?

[sylphaen]

I really like that Tron track. Maybe I should watch the movie some day. Thanks for the vid !

If the music is as good as what's been linked so far, it will be great.
:cool:

[Xyntech]

Daft punk is sort of just the big go to name for electronica. I think it will be good. i'd love to blast some NC and TR while listening to some Justice or something like that.

I'm into all three of those styles of music, so it will be a treat even when spending a little time on some alternate empire alts.

[Rodney Gates]

Don't get too hung up on those music references - those were just off the top of my head as far as stuff that's out there that might be considered similar. As I mentioned, we are going for faction distinction as much as we can to make each empire's experience their own.

The music that will be in our game is definitely, uniquely PlanetSide! Glad you guys are stoked for it. You will hear it soon enough. :-)

- Rodney

[Razicator]

Don't get too hung up on those music references - those were just off the top of my head as far as stuff that's out there that might be considered similar. As I mentioned, we are going for faction distinction as much as we can to make each empire's experience their own.

The music that will be in our game is definitely, uniquely PlanetSide! Glad you guys are stoked for it. You will hear it soon enough. :-)

- Rodney

Will there be a song or two with the electric guitar, for nostalgia's sake? Hopefully the TR if so! Or hell the main theme!

[ComerEste]

One thing I have always loved about Planetside music is the creative use of the Violin. Really hope you guys put PS1/PS2 soundtracks up for sale in the store or maybe make it like iTunes to where we can buy/download individual tracks.:groovy:

So much awesome gaming music gets lost to history because the only way to hear is to play the game. Tribes 2 for example has 5 great tracks that I listen to frequently.

[Fuse]

Sorry but I'm just going to say it..... I don't like this one bit. Daft Punk is one of the worst bands I've ever had the displeasure of hearing.

Demonstrably false statement.
Like them or not, Daft Punk are very, very talented. They've been nominated for almost 10 Grammys and won 2, IIRC. They're massive for a reason.

Saying, "I don't enjoy this genre" is a perfectly acceptable and mature statement.

Saying, "This band sucks because I'm narrow-minded" makes you look like a joke.

So much awesome gaming music gets lost to history because the only way to hear is to play the game. Tribes 2 for example has 5 great tracks that I listen to frequently.

No way! These days most game music can be found somewhere on the internet, often just on YouTube. There are many gamers out there who appreciate the music and have gone back to record or extract songs from their favorite games.

[Shogun]

The music that will be in our game is definitely, uniquely PlanetSide! Glad you guys are stoked for it. You will hear it soon enough. :-)

- Rodney

you are welcome!
thanks for all the info!

i love that more and more devs drop by here to say hello and tell us something about their great work! whenever you see one of the silent/unknown devs losing motivation, encourage him to drop a line here and tell us a little about what he does! as you certainly have noticed, nice feedback is guaranteed ! ;)
and i guess reading first hand, how passionate we are about your work, is a motivation boost ;)
hmm, screw it, don´t wait until you see low motivation, tell it to all the silent devs ;)

we like to give feedback on literaly everything

[ShadoViper]

Don't get too hung up on those music references - those were just off the top of my head as far as stuff that's out there that might be considered similar. As I mentioned, we are going for faction distinction as much as we can to make each empire's experience their own.

The music that will be in our game is definitely, uniquely PlanetSide! Glad you guys are stoked for it. You will hear it soon enough. :-)

- Rodney

Fantastic!

Looks like the team has really stayed true to the original formula and are looking to make it even better! Personally, the references seem great and spot on about how I personally view each faction in a nutshell. It has made me even more excited and now I really can't wait to hear the music!

Seriously.

NEED MUSIC NOOOW!

[Grimster]

Greetings Rodney and once again I love the developer presence on PSU.

I think I have never ever seen that much developers on a fan community site.

I also love the sounds we have gotten to hear in the alpha videos that has been released so far, especially the sounds of the aircraft they are extremly awesome. :)

[Brusi]

I would love to hear more about the amount of voice acting that will be in the game...

A real variety of voice types and emotes would be really awesome!

[Captain1nsaneo]

I leave for the weekend and come back to awesome answers. Looking forward to hearing that you guys put into the game.

Can we get the NC to have some ABBA play? I want them as distracted as possible.

[Twiggeh]

Charlie Bisharat on the electronic violin? Oh god please!

[cellinaire]

Awesome work !!

[SurgeonX]

Incoming mildly on-topic shameless self plugging...

For anyone into the Daft Punk soundtrack from Tron, other sound tracks and electronica in general, you might like this, my latest mix...

http://soundcloud.com/craig-lea/craig-lea-bwaarp

Philip Glass - The Secret Plot
David Holmes - The Story of the Ink
John Murphy - The House in a Heartbeat
DJ Shadow - Giving up the Ghost
The XX - Intro (Nico Pusch Remix)
Speedy J - The Oil Zone
T.Power - G13
T.Power - Purple Moon Boots
Tube Jerk - Now You Can See So Good
Clint Mansell feat. Kronos Quartet - Fall, Supermarket Sweep
Clint Mansell feat. Kronos Quartet - Fall, Sara Goldfarb Has Left The Building
Carl Craig - They Were
FSOL - Dead Cities
Hans Zimmer - Time
CJ Bolland - Catharsis
Orbital - P.E.T.R.O.L.
Hans Zimmer - Dream is Collapsing
Daft Punk - Encom Part I
Hans Zimmer - Dream within a Dream
Amon Tobin - Rosies
Daft Punk - Castor
Daft Punk - The Game has Changed
Sound Story - Thunderstorm
Hans Zimmer - Waiting for a Train
Clint Mansell feat. Kronos Quartet - Winter, Coney Island Low

[EVILoHOMER]

Can we please have some original music in the trailers? SOE just seems to want to put bought over used music in all of their game trailers.

Speaking of trailers, can SOE hire someone good to make them because I haven't seen a good one from you guys since That EQ2 DoF E3 (was it) trailer/demo that Scott Hartsman did the voice over to.

[Gandhi]

Speaking of trailers, can SOE hire someone good to make them because I haven't seen a good one from you guys since That EQ2 DoF E3 (was it) trailer/demo that Scott Hartsman did the voice over to.
Yeah they're really not great to be honest. Put the best SOE trailer beside any trailer from CCP, they're in a whole other league over there.

[Rodney Gates]

Will there be a song or two with the electric guitar, for nostalgia's sake? Hopefully the TR if so! Or hell the main theme!

You won't be disappointed!

[Yetiee]

NC = Banjos and Shotguns

HA!:p

[Fuse]

Not going to lie, I think I'm going to be a little envious of the NC's music.

[Thomas]

Will there be bagpipes? I love bagpipes

[Bags]

Will there be bagpipes? I love bagpipes

Suidakra Dead Man***39;s Reel - YouTube

Who doesn't?

[GTGD]

The sound and music added such character to the first game. I had a phase where I tried to be all hardcore with the music off so I could hear footsteps and doors from half a base away, but eventually decided it wasn't worth depriving myself of the amazing soundtrack.

You guys rock, I can't wait for the new songs!

[Rodney Gates]

I just returned from Seattle last night where we recorded a 60-piece orchestra for the score portion of the game. It sounded fantastic!

As good as the virtual instrument samples are nowadays, nothing beats real musicians when it comes to dynamics, power, and emotion. I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.

Can't wait for folks to hear this!

- Rodney

[waldizzo]

I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.


You had better show proper respect son!





I am a huge fan of video game music and cannot wait to hear this stuff.

[Hamma]

Awesome to hear! You guys should have sold tickets! ;)

[Thomas]

I am dying for this music so bad

[ringring]

Oh fantastic, I can't wait.

[Hermes]

I just returned from Seattle last night where we recorded a 60-piece orchestra for the score portion of the game. It sounded fantastic!

As good as the virtual instrument samples are nowadays, nothing beats real musicians when it comes to dynamics, power, and emotion. I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.

Can't wait for folks to hear this!

- Rodney

Ahh wish I could have heard that!

60 piece - should be a pretty epic sound. How many kazoos?

[Thomas]

Ahh wish I could have heard that!

60 piece - should be a pretty epic sound. How many kazoos?

59 Bagpipes and one flute

[Cam]

will the sound track be released on CD or itunes for purchase afther the game is released? can't wait to hear it.

[duomaxwl]

As good as the virtual instrument samples are nowadays, nothing beats real musicians when it comes to dynamics, power, and emotion. I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.


I'm very glad to see that you guys decided to do a real orchestra instead of samples. As they say on South Park, "they tirrrkk errrr JERRRBBSS."

No, but seriously, I'm pumped to hear the music. :D

[NapalmEnima]

I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.

Are you ex-military?


Awesome to hear!

I see what you did there.

[Shogun]

wow, live orchestra music rocks! and a 60 piecses orchestra sounds pretty awesome!

some years ago at a games convention in germany there was a concert with a big orchestra that featured only games music.
i totally got the goosebumps at several songs! monkey island, super mario and starship troopers being the most skinirritating ;)

sadly they didn´t play any planetside or starwars music :(

[Hermes]

59 Bagpipes and one flute

Epic. Needs a triangle though, someone find the budget for an extra musician!

[Graywolves]

Needs more cowbell

[Shogun]

higby already mentioned the instruments very often!

the whole orchestra will be formed by bells and whistles of modern shooters! ;)

[Synapse]

I just returned from Seattle last night where we recorded a 60-piece orchestra for the score portion of the game. It sounded fantastic!

As good as the virtual instrument samples are nowadays, nothing beats real musicians when it comes to dynamics, power, and emotion. I was literally getting goosebumps and had to stand at attention during the takes for the Terran Republic's main theme.

Can't wait for folks to hear this!

- Rodney

Seriously you should have sold tickets! I live in seattle and dropped my orchestra tickets because they didn't play pieces I was enjoying. I would have payed double or triple the normal price to see you guys record this.

[GTGD]

Wanted to bump this since the client leak. Just wanted to say WOW, you guys have done a stellar job on the soundtrack! It's absolutely incredible, it really gives each faction their own feeling and is quality material.

[Razicator]

Wanted to bump this since the client leak. Just wanted to say WOW, you guys have done a stellar job on the soundtrack! It's absolutely incredible, it really gives each faction their own feeling and is quality material.

GOD JFD;AF ;A3W8 UR8WNRF8NW3GRULANB3RG

[Bags]

Wanted to bump this since the client leak. Just wanted to say WOW, you guys have done a stellar job on the soundtrack! It's absolutely incredible, it really gives each faction their own feeling and is quality material.

Yeah, have to agree even the low quality mic spam I heard was pretty sweet. Diggin NC and glad to hear some of the oldies return.

[RedKnights]

Rodney, we need to have a talk, you and everyone involved with the music... I have NO words.... it was beautiful, honestly.

Thank you so much. :)

[Mechzz]

The music for this game is awesome beyond belief. Truly magical.

[Razicator]

So... where are you guys hearing it? Assuming you don't have the actual beta client yet...

[Twiggeh]

Wahhh? Where are people seeing this? Need a link. :)

[Pella]

So... where are you guys hearing it? Assuming you don't have the actual beta client yet...

I would link the torrent but i wont. Or click on the twitch link in my sig il stream it.

[Twiggeh]

Clicked - get playing! :)

[Twiggeh]

Oh man...

[Stew]

form whats ive heard WE have the worst music it reminds me VALOR theme from MAG kinda texan rock and rolls twist with a kinda contry tone in it !

Vanu have a tron like music wich is very good and TR have a nice intrumental music wich is very good as well

Sadly i need to admit NC get pawn this time :(

[Razicator]

If I'm not wrong Pella, it seems like it's only playing the same two or three songs? Must be more coming out! But what I hear sounds good, though it is a bit odd hearing the old music in the new. Kinda messes with my head haha!

[Pella]

Its the Main intro theme. on a loop. il play them all. 1 sec.

You can tell which is NC/TR/VS. :)

[Razicator]

Very "Mass Effect" feel on the VS theme song, I like! Too bad I'm TR.

[The Janitor]

Great stuff, thank you very much! :D

[Ratstomper]

You guys did awesome music! I dig the NC themes (NC4life!).

[Luieburger]

So will this game generate 7.1 surround sound, or will it be limited to 5.1? I'm buying audio hardware specifically for this game, so I'd like to know what to expect.

[Rodney Gates]

We've been receiving our final mixes these past couple of weeks and they've just turned out great. You'll all be able to hear it soon enough!

[Hamma]

Can't wait!

[Rodney Gates]

So will this game generate 7.1 surround sound, or will it be limited to 5.1? I'm buying audio hardware specifically for this game, so I'd like to know what to expect.

You will be all set. Most 3D games naturally generate audio in surround, whether it's 5.1 or 7.1. We use Auzentech and HT Omega surround cards in our PCs, using either DTS or Dolby Live-encoded optical outputs to our receivers, and they decode beautifully. Standard miniplug analog outputs will work just as well.

Nothing sounds better than hearing the battle all around you. :-)

[Razicator]

Since you're here, I was wondering if you know that the music will be uploaded anytime soon by SOE onto Youtube. It's sooner and generally better quality if coming straight from the source than from some rip in-game with additional compression by the user and Youtube.

[Rodney Gates]

Since you're here, I was wondering if you know that the music will be uploaded anytime soon by SOE onto Youtube. It's sooner and generally better quality if coming straight from the source than from some rip in-game with additional compression by the user and Youtube.

Agreed. We are working on a behind the scenes piece with the music, and the music itself may possibly end up on our official SOE YouTube channel. Stay tuned!

[Zekeen]

I gotta ask, are you guys going to literally flood our ears with hundreds of simultaneous different sounds in the game, to where there's almost no solid silence? (though maybe at night silence would be awesome until the troops march in).

From the way the game seems now, it feels like it's "lacking" in it's own sense. It's already got more sound than anything I've seen but it feels like it's aiming to be even more. I can only guess that the finished work is going to almost be an orchestra of sound, not to mention flow well with the music.

It's got me rather excited to see how much the finished music will get my blue blood boiling and ready for action!

[Reizod]

The most important question... when can I download PS2 ringtones for my iPhone??? :)

[Zekeen]

Modifactions can be made to the engine, much similar to how hacking is present in modern times, so that the game can be injected with what it needs to make the game playable to you.

SOE will have their hands full in stopping actual hackers from corrupting the game's experience to stop what I have in mind.

Now I haven't talked to Don Ferrone in quite some time but I know this, he was worried about his music that HE composed not being in the game. IF this happens, I am ultra confident that his music will be posted and I will personally see to an injection program that will be completely within SOE's EULA and terms of use to allow that music to be played and for those of us who actually enjoy the music of a game, you will be able to hear what it should be.

I am heart felt on this for no reason and the 400 response thread we got from this community means they are heart felt on this as well. The lack of Don Ferrone's music will be the lack of Planetside 2's experience.

Hacking... Don's music...injecting program..... What???? You have officially broken my brain from random irrelevance. I have no idea why you're quoting me there, seems like you were answering something else, what you are answering, I can't tell.

It was a question for Rodney on how thick the sound in game will be with how many different simultaneous sounds working at the same time to give the game a much more rampant alive feeling than just a few sounds that other games give.

[Rodney Gates]

I gotta ask, are you guys going to literally flood our ears with hundreds of simultaneous different sounds in the game, to where there's almost no solid silence? (though maybe at night silence would be awesome until the troops march in).

From the way the game seems now, it feels like it's "lacking" in it's own sense. It's already got more sound than anything I've seen but it feels like it's aiming to be even more. I can only guess that the finished work is going to almost be an orchestra of sound, not to mention flow well with the music.

It's got me rather excited to see how much the finished music will get my blue blood boiling and ready for action!

We are in a constant state of tuning of the game's soundscape, especially based on larger-population playtests. The amount of sound that will flood your ears will be proportional to the population that is in a given area, though we are working on priority schemes and control measures to keep things optimal for different "sound quality" (mostly voice count) settings a player may set, just as art and effects are doing with their work.

The game is a never-ending battlefield and the audio will definitely represent that. :-)

[Kemeros]

Can't... wait x(

[MockZero2]

More reverb!!!!!!!... oh wait, I doubt that's even possible.

[TerminatorUK]

Sledge, indeed you should! The game runs surround natively if you hook up all of those mini-jack speaker outputs you find on most computers nowadays, or if you use one of the sound cards out there that has Dolby Live or DTS encoding enabled.

We use Auzentech sound cards for our PCs running through Pioneer receivers that decode whatever signals we send it from the sound card's control panel (we often flip between Dolby / DTS / and PCM stereo to check fold-down).

- Rodney

Awesome - I knew my investment in an Auzentech X-Fi Home Theatre HD was a good idea :)

By far the best sound card I've ever owned - quality is simply amazing (better than the X-Fi Xtreme Music it replaced by a mile)

One bit of feedback - I did feel that in Higby's latest gameplay video that the Vanguard's engine noise lacked any 'roar' to it...

[nathanebht]

Haven't seen any mention of environmental background sounds. If we are on foot sneaking somewhere at night away from any battle, will there be cricket chirps? Well, some type of alien cricket chirps? :) Wind noise?

[basti]

We are in a constant state of tuning of the game's soundscape, especially based on larger-population playtests. The amount of sound that will flood your ears will be proportional to the population that is in a given area, though we are working on priority schemes and control measures to keep things optimal for different "sound quality" (mostly voice count) settings a player may set, just as art and effects are doing with their work.

The game is a never-ending battlefield and the audio will definitely represent that. :-)

Just make sure that if i hear a bullet being fired, its actually because someone fired a bullet, and not because there are 300 people behind that hill. Dont fake stuff. ;)

[InjectedSenses]

Haven't seen any mention of environmental background sounds. If we are on foot sneaking somewhere at night away from any battle, will there be cricket chirps? Well, some type of alien cricket chirps? :) Wind noise?

Yeah there will definitely be environmental audio not just the distant battle. "Alien Crickets" have been known to populate some areas. Each area on the continents have their own ambient feel to them.

Just make sure that if i hear a bullet being fired, its actually because someone fired a bullet, and not because there are 300 people behind that hill. Dont fake stuff. ;)

We don't plan on faking anything. We might have some tricks up our sleeves for drawing attention to the nearby battles, but no faking.



One bit of feedback - I did feel that in Higby's latest gameplay video that the Vanguard's engine noise lacked any 'roar' to it...

Thanks for the feedback, the vehicles and their engines are definitely in a testing stage right now. We have a a bit of tuning to do on their RPM's

[p0intman]

Yeah there will definitely be environmental audio not just the distant battle. "Alien Crickets" have been known to populate some areas. Each area on the continents have their own ambient feel to them.



We don't plan on faking anything. We might have some tricks up our sleeves for drawing attention to the nearby battles, but no faking.



Thanks for the feedback, the vehicles and their engines are definitely in a testing stage right now. We have a a bit of tuning to do on their RPM's

Keep in mind that something like an M1 Abrams is powered by a frikking jet engine. It isn't 'quiet' by any stretch of the imagination. Imo, when a vanguard starts up, I want to hear thunder akin to thor's hammer landing nearby. In other words, I want to hear and feel a real sense of raw power from it when I'm driving around in one.

[QuantumMechanic]

I have a question. I noticed in Higby's stream the other week that while flying his Reaver, there was some pre-recorded "radio chatter" going on.

While in most games this is immersive, in Planetside it actually has the opposite effect for me because I can easily tell this radio chatter is "faked" and not actual in-game player's voices.

Would it be possible to make that radio chatter "real" in a manner similar to what you folks do for gunfire? Perhaps broadcast the in-game VOIP voices of other pilots realtime, but at a lower volume and distorted? I think that would be awesome!!

[Landtank]

The sound in this game is phenomenal, listening to the streams with my Klipsch speakers and the bassy feel of the game is just awesome.

[TerminatorUK]

Yeah there will definitely be environmental audio not just the distant battle. "Alien Crickets" have been known to populate some areas. Each area on the continents have their own ambient feel to them.



We don't plan on faking anything. We might have some tricks up our sleeves for drawing attention to the nearby battles, but no faking.



Thanks for the feedback, the vehicles and their engines are definitely in a testing stage right now. We have a a bit of tuning to do on their RPM's

Really good to know - the Vanguard in the original really rumbled and I know you can di the samwe again is PS2.

The Sunderer for example should have a massive engine roar for ththe size/amount of armor/speed that it goes.

The Galaxy is another one too - the noise of the engines whilst landed sounded brilliant/unforgetable - made you want to get on it ASAP before it left!

[Resolve]

as an audio engineer / producer I wish you would make the NC music more overdriven and bad ass. less country rock more metal.

[Littleman]

I have a question. I noticed in Higby's stream the other week that while flying his Reaver, there was some pre-recorded "radio chatter" going on.

While in most games this is immersive, in Planetside it actually has the opposite effect for me because I can easily tell this radio chatter is "faked" and not actual in-game player's voices.

Would it be possible to make that radio chatter "real" in a manner similar to what you folks do for gunfire? Perhaps broadcast the in-game VOIP voices of other pilots realtime, but at a lower volume and distorted? I think that would be awesome!!

I'm okay with low volume and incoherent radio chatter. While your idea is cool, it's also unnecessarily draining on bandwidth for the purpose it serves. And honestly, with the average conversation that would happen over VoIP (from the few people that would use in game VoIP over TS3 or vent) I'd prefer constant pre-recorded, incoherent, low volume radio chatter to.

[Rivenshield]

The empirical Terran Republic will be treated to an epic orchestral score, which we are actually recording up in Seattle here within a couple weeks (yes, we are doing a bit of the behind-the-scenes footage capture for this).

/snip

But don't despair if you think this sounds like a departure from the first game - we employed full use of nostalgic thematic material across the board from PS1, and I think you will be delighted with these renewed treatments of classic themes that you know and love.

Lovely. Most of us have already listened to the demo soundtrack that some resourceful character (/cough) uh, obtained at E3. I dig that the TR wound up with a hopped-up orchestral version of the old loading screen music. It's traditional. We're supposed to be the tradition-bound empire. I like that.

But if there's one theme I'd like to make a return -- if it isn't too late to plant the seeds of an idea -- it's 'Desert Dance', also known as 'travel_desert.' Orchestral is great... but when you're doodling around between targets in a desert environment, nothing is easier on the ears than Don Ferrone playing ambient music on an electric violin....

Planetside Travel Desert HQ Audio MP3 HD - YouTube

[TAA]

It would be nice to make the music files available for us as mp3 files either in the game directory or as a download. Many of us would love to use them as part of a more personalised soundtrack for the game. Making them available as mp3 would save somebody the trouble of ripping them out of the game files and it would save us the trouble of torrenting them.

[CidHighwind]

I'm okay with low volume and incoherent radio chatter. While your idea is cool, it's also unnecessarily draining on bandwidth for the purpose it serves. And honestly, with the average conversation that would happen over VoIP (from the few people that would use in game VoIP over TS3 or vent) I'd prefer constant pre-recorded, incoherent, low volume radio chatter to.

I don't know if it would be a drain (keeping in mind im certainly no expert in the interwebs and it's inner-workings). I feel like if you simply had the game process a temporary 11th person' join the squad of whomever is below them and have their VOIP chatter transmitted to them it would be epic!

Imagine, Infantry Squad leader sets a mission for air support. They're pinned down by three prowlers. Liberty Wing (The best air cav on New Markov) accepts the mission and scrambles 10 reavers to lay down the shock and awe.

Just as they enter the AOO, Reaver one calls out to the infantry on the ground *just overflow quick-added to the mission initiators squad as he flies within 1 KM of his location (yes, they're are now technically 20 men in the squad as airwing squad is added due to radial relevance, and will be un-added from radio chatter after leaving the AOO*

"Blue Lions Squad Lead, this is Liberty Wing, we are entering your AOO - paint your targets."

Liberty Wing then hears the voice chatter on his RADIO (not as though he was part of the squad for real) of Blue Lions Squad Lead ordering his squad to paint the prowlers, and 3 targets then appear on his HUD.

"Targets Acquired, enjoy the fireworks."

Liberty Wing proceeds to demonstrate exactly why the NC will no doubt win this war, as the prowlers lay in heaps on the road. Over the radio Liberty Wing hears cheers and rejoicing, and a faint "Thank you Liberty Wing!"

"Good Hunting, Blue Lions" he says, as their voices fade, and he his and his wingmates are removed from the temporary squad, mission completed.

This wouldn't just happen for mission stuff --- any squad that is in the area would be transmitted on the radio. simply citing a cool immersion example. In this way, experienced air squads could scan the radio to 'pick up' missions that haven't even been created.

Make it happen Dev team... Make it happen.

[Buggsy]

Add a sonic boom for fast flying planes using turbo, after they pass by.


Sonic Booms - YouTube

and some long distance artillery rumble, to explosions taking place far away.

PzH 2000 - Artillerieschlag gegen Bunkerkomplex - YouTube

Just make sure that if i hear a bullet being fired, its actually because someone fired a bullet, and not because there are 300 people behind that hill. Dont fake stuff. ;)

Longer distance = remove higher frequencies, lower amplitude, add delay from speed of sound.


_______________________

The Doppler effect does amazing things too. But only if aircraft are zooming in at high speeds to attack ground targets, if they hover most of the time than it won't be important.

Star Wars:The Phantom Menace (Pod Racing Scene) - YouTube

[ShadoViper]

People just a short few months ago were so interested in knowing if Don Ferrone would continue composing the music. Now man I know with modern tech you can modify and create some amazing things, but without a true hardcore composer... it just lacks. Not being able to get ahold of Ferrone and listening to the music created (though awesome) does not have the touch or the soul that he made in PS1.

Fuck beta, Fuck weather and Fuck water being implemented, SOE has been forthcoming with information about everything thus far with everything else.

IS DON FERRONE composing the music for Planetside 2? Considering the amount of dev/community interaction, this should be by far an easy answer.

Quite curious to have this either touched upon or answered as well.

[Hamma]

https://twitter.com/dfmuse/status/226732515140960257

[ShadoViper]

https://twitter.com/dfmuse/status/226732515140960257

Thanks Hamma!
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YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EES!

[Rivenshield]

Not being able to get ahold of Ferrone and listening to the music created (though awesome) does not have the touch or the soul that he made in PS1.

The music, like the game, is still in beta. OP already told us that. We won a supreme victory when we badgered Sony into bringing Don in at the last nanosecond -- and badgering Don until he put a hurried demo together. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

My tastes in music are different than they were nine years ago. Composers change as much as their audiences do. There are already some nice homages to the old soundtrack, and I for one am content with them. I too will miss the electric violins, but I got awesome stuff that sounds like it was composed by John Williams to replace it. And nothing is preventing me OR YOU, YOU DRUNKEN FANATIC YOU from popping 'desert_travel' into our iPods as we traverse the desert wastes of Indar, just for the nostalgia-blast of it. :D