Custom Soundtracks... How do you like it now?

I doubt there are many people who looked forward to the custom soundtrack on the Xbox more than myself. After reading up on the thing before launch it seemed too good to be true, well in a way it was. Remember that old saying; careful what you wish for? Or how about "too much of a good thing...?" Well, I have found after using this on 3 or 4 games that A. Most of my cd's really don't mesh well/fit in games, B. I burn the songs out and do not want to hear them outside of the GAMES!, or C. the music in the game is actually MORE fitting than anything I can come up with (SEE: Quantum Redshift). Another thing that bugs me is since a lot of music is recorded at different levels, I can't really mix songs from different eras. For instance (shows age) Old Sammy Hagar is very quiet when played alongside NEW Sammy which is freakin' blasting, the levels are too radically different to mesh, this is something the Xbox brochure never mentions, but it is annoying.

So, in conclusion, I love the C/S in "theory" but in reality after just a few games under my belt that support this, I'm already tapped out and left wondering; "What game will fit the Beatles?" None.

I love custom soundtracks, they let the player add a nice personal touch to the games that support it. The vast array of games that support it is also surprising.

I do get the sense that this is for people who like "new" music, or perhaps even younger people. I have been listening to Kiss, Ozzy, etc. for about 20 years and the image I have of "my" groups really doesn't fit in with "racing" and things of that nature. I do have some cd's that work with games, but not as many as I had hoped. It's like the music just doesn't fit in because I've heard it for so long outside of the games.

Unless the music included in the game is an obvious attempt at a failing industry to capitalize on another market *cough* licensed music *cough* the soundtrack provided with a game was the work of a musician(s).

Those artists that labored countless hours constructing a soundtrack that would not only, a) fit the style of the game b) provide either atmosphere or accompaniment to the gameplay (or both) and that c) would please their trained ears, deserve our respect. I see it as a disservice to yourself and the designers to use a custom soundtrack for a game. Why not use custom models or textures? How about custom lighting and physics? Hell, let's just make our own game using a loose structure of the original work!

A video game is the work of many artists and deserves to be preserved in it's original form as to properly represent the artistic intentions of it's creators.

Being a musician I can safely say that,

Custom Soundtracks = Lame

#6

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Why not use custom models or textures? How about custom lighting and physics? Hell, let's just make our own game using a loose structure of the original work!

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I would if I could.

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A video game is the work of many artists and deserves to be preserved in it's original form as to properly represent the artistic intentions of it's creators.

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If it mattered enough to them then they wouldn't include the option for a custom soundtrack. Not all Xbox games do.

A little under 50 games currently use the feature.

I rather like the custom soundtrack, i've used it a lot with sega gt. Really nice being able to play a racing game with the same crap that i drive with in real life.

I do with more games included it. Especially stuff like PSO that ends up getting a lot of playtime. I mean, the music is good, but it gets old...fast.

Personally I like the custom soundtracks. The music included in DOAXV is ass and thanks to the custom soundtracks I can pretend that any racing game I play is Initial D. It's not that I think Initial D is the greatest racing of all time; I just love the music for it.

Custom soundtracks are a nice bonus. They will never make an average game good, and not having the option will never make a good game bad.

If I want a custom soundtrack, I'll turn the sound down on my TV and listen to my CD player or winamp.

I really don't see a problem with them.

In a perfect world, all Xbox games would have them as unlockables after beating the game or whatnot.

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Posted by Tain
In a perfect world, all Xbox games would have them as unlockables after beating the game or whatnot.

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No, in a perfect world ALL games would have unlockables after beating the game and whatnot.

Being able to use my own music in Morrowind (PC) made it that much better...

Being able to use my own soundtrack made Sega GT 2002 somewhat tolerable to play though.

I love custom soundtracks. I buy alot of music, so having something that allows me to give an extra dimension to it is great. I have enough music to fit at least a hundred different tracks to Tony Hawk 4, Quantum Redshift, and Rallisport. Burnout 2 allows you to switch soundtracks and songs on the fly, so I just mix and match for that game. Quantum Redshift is an example of a game where the custom soundtrack does wonders. It really turns a good game into a great one if you have the right soundtrack. Redshift mode + no weapons mode + early Prodigy= bliss. I disagree a custom soundtrack would help every game, though. Something like Halo where you have music that fits the changing mood of what's going on is an example of a game I wouldn't want to have any other soundtrack. I agree with you that having music that is lounder than others sucks, my Man or Astroman cd would be perfect for Burnout 2, but since the volume is so low it wouldn't work. That's still just a nitpick, since you can just crank the audio anytime.

Hmmm... I see a trend here that seems to be overlooking my key first point, YES, I actually LOVE the C/S feature... to a degree. Most people here have named a game or two that it seems to be fabulous for and I AGREE with that, but beyond that, for instance (IMO) I really do not like to use the same S/T's for the same games (makes the flavor seem to simliar) and only a sliver of my music really fits with gaming so after just a few of games I'm already tapped OUT! I thought this would be a feature that would last, for me, the life of the system, but when I got Quantum for instance, I "additioned" plenty of "groups" but by now I'm out of ideas so I put the "actual" soundtrack on... and what do you know? It was pretty smokin'!

"I buy alot of music, so having something that allows me to give an extra dimension to it is great."


...I buy a lot of music also, however when the last cd I bought was the Brian Setzers Orchestras' "Dirty Boogie" which is an update to 50 & 60's swing music, you can see my problem. I also like some New Age, etc. If I listened to more "house", etc., it would work better, but then again, it would sound like the s/t that's probably in the game anyway:(

Meh, who am I kidding, I'm just some aging old codger...

i cant understand how people will say they hate something their not forced to use.

I never bother.... I am too lazy to use it and if I want to listen to my own music, I just turn up my stereo instead of having to put all the music into the xbox (just a waste of time for me to do that, then to rename each song with the gamepad, ah no thanks)

All xbox games should support it. I don't care what the game is, there's no excuse. I've got hundreds of CDs so it would very easy to give every game their own unique soundtrack and in fact the games I have that do support have different custom soundtracks. Amped gets the Beastie Boys, DOAX gets the music from the xbox exhibitions discs, THPS series gets mostly punk with some other tunes mixed in.

Also, just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it. I only wish I could rip the soundtracks that the games come with to the hard drive and mix and match them as well.

I agree that all XBOX games should support it. It is a great feature, just very underused.

None of the games I own use it. I think Steel Battallion should've, damnit! It even makes sense, sim-wise, that I'd play my tunes from my stereo in the cockpit.

I'd make every game sound like JSRF.

I don't care how long these so called musicians labored to make the music for a game, if it sucks, i'm turning it off. I can't stand to play Sega GT without my custom soundtrack.

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Originally posted by Pepsiman
thanks to the custom soundtracks I can pretend that any racing game I play is Initial D. It's not that I think Initial D is the greatest racing of all time; I just love the music for it.

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I knew I wasn't the only one..

/me whistles 'Killing My Love'

It's the only thing I can do now that I'm 500 miles from a Version 2 machine and I can't stand Version 1 anymore. So I play NFS:HP2 while listening to I:D Selections.

I wouldn't care so much about Custom soundtracks (I don't have an Xbox though) Cause one way it could be done just as well is by the option to turn down the BGM and leave SFX up. But most games now days lack that option, with a few execptions. It's not the same feel without the sound effects in there...

Javon, good to see someone else despise the Sega GT soundtrack. I seriously doubt any musician spend longer than 20 minutes coming up with the endless generic techno in that game.

Actually I changed the music in MvC2 for Dreamcast, and replaced it with some Heavy Metal. Got some chocobo music for the credits, and the Final Fantasy Victory music when you win a battle.

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Originally posted by GunValkyrie4Life
Another thing that bugs me is since a lot of music is recorded at different levels, I can't really mix songs from different eras. For instance (shows age) Old Sammy Hagar is very quiet when played alongside NEW Sammy which is freakin' blasting, the levels are too radically different to mesh, this is something the Xbox brochure never mentions, but it is annoying.

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Probably without even knowing what you just hit upon, you struck one of my nerves and now I have been sent into rant mode. Some of you may or may not know this, but my primary hobby is not video games. I am a technical writer durring my 9-5 job, a music recorder/producer/mixer/soundman every waking hour after that (http://www.omnisoul.com [/shameless plug] ), and then play video games when I can (which thankfully is alot :) ). Soooooo.... music and music production is my thing, and this loud album buisness is a BIG problem. It's like this: One man records all of the bands tracks. The record company usually doesn't have his ball in a vice. Another man (sometimes the same man) takes all of those tracks after they have been recorded and mixes them down to sterio or surround sound songs that can be played on home equipment. The record company usually doesn't have that man's balls in a vice either. The third man (and this man is always someone different than the recording and mixing guys) takes the finished mix and finalizes it to be sold. This is called mastering, and unfortunatly the mastering guy has both of his balls firmly stuck in the record company's vice. The goal of mastering is to get the music to sound as good as it possibly can. The mastering engineer has a chance to "double check" the ears of the mixing engineer (that's why he's always a differnt guy). EQ's are balanced to a standard so the consumer doesn't have to go reaching for the bass and trebble settings every time he switches an album, and songs are generally balanced so they flow from one song to another and sound coherent together as an album. However, record companies have recently gotten into a battle with each other. The record execs decided that noone will have a louder album than their lable. The perception is somehow that if your album is quieter than the next guy's you loose. Since they have the mastering guy by the balls, they make him crank the album volume. This KILLS the sound quality.

Digital music can only go up to a fixed number as far as loudness is concerned. We'll call that number 10 for simplicity's sake. Back before all this silliness about loudness started, most of the music hung out around 7, and the really loud stuff topped out at 9. You didn't want to risk hitting 10 since anything even slightly over 10 causes horrible, horrible distortion. Now, everything is at 10 all the time, often going over and distorting. Music has no punch anymore since it's all a wall of noise. Audible digital clipping distortion runs rampant in multi-million dollar albums, and the music is generally fatiguing to listen to, all because of mis-informed record execs who don't know the consequences of their actions and don't understand (or care to understand) a thing about sound quality. They just want to be the loudest.

I could seriously type pages and pages and show charts, graphs, and all that cool stuff, but I'll just throw up links instead.

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/article...256C2E005DAF1C

Here you go. Despite the first paragraph, it is not a review of a Rush album. It is only using that album as an example of this problem. I urge each and every one of you who cares anything at all about music to read that. Truly scary and saddening stuff. Rip Rowan covers it better than I ever could.

And custom sound tracks rock the Xbox.

I love the idea of custom soundtracks for games but I've yet to find one game that has it that I would actually want to buy.

Damn, thanks for all the knowledge, Chibi. I'll check that link out later.

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Originally posted by Six
Unless the music included in the game is an obvious attempt at a failing industry to capitalize on another market *cough* licensed music *cough* the soundtrack provided with a game was the work of a musician(s).

Those artists that labored countless hours constructing a soundtrack that would not only, a) fit the style of the game b) provide either atmosphere or accompaniment to the gameplay (or both) and that c) would please their trained ears, deserve our respect. I see it as a disservice to yourself and the designers to use a custom soundtrack for a game. Why not use custom models or textures? How about custom lighting and physics? Hell, let's just make our own game using a loose structure of the original work!

A video game is the work of many artists and deserves to be preserved in it's original form as to properly represent the artistic intentions of it's creators.

Being a musician I can safely say that,

Custom Soundtracks = Lame

#6

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What? Quantum Redshift is a good example of why it is not. It's an awesome game that was missing a few key things and one was really ace techno music. So, I put in some that seemed fitting (Fear from Rez is so awesome) and there you go.. problem solved. If it's a game like Rez then I can understand the mislike of Custom Soundtracks but not yet has a game that insists on music for atmosphere been provided with a custom soundtrack. Halo didn't have it and JSRF didn't have it (even though I wish it had). By and large, only extreme sports games, racing games and a precious few others (which have no dramatic flair or use music to represent a theme) use the option. I think it's unfortunate that so many do not support the feature personally.

For those who don't like copying your CDs to the Xbox - Mods are your friend but even without that, a good sized library can be held on a default Xbox making it for one very cool music player on your entertainment center which I have only recently became very fond of. If you have as many music CDs as I do picking them from a list is a lot easier than trying to find it in the mass of jewel cases I call a CD shelf.

ºTracer

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Originally posted by Six
Why not use custom models or textures? How about custom lighting and physics? Hell, let's just make our own game using a loose structure of the original work!

A video game is the work of many artists and deserves to be preserved in it's original form as to properly represent the artistic intentions of it's creators.

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God forbid this fellow ever discover TEH BLASFEMOS PC mod scene... it'll send him into a frothing orgy of murderous rage! ;)

i used them once for tony hawk 4, but the music kept skipping. it's a shoddy cd player apparently.

Sure it is. Everything you say is 100% factual.

Delta, I would begin to debunk every single statement in your post, but you aren't worth the time. If one doesn't want to use a custom soundtrack, they don't have to. The option is there in 50 Xbox games for those who do. In some games, like X2: Wolverine's Revenge, it's really pointless, and in others, like Sega GT 2002, it can make the game tolerable. It's a double-edged sword.

Thanks for the learnage, Chibi.

On topic: I'm down with the custom soundtrack dealy. Perfect example: Burnout 2. The music is uninspired, repetitive and just plain boring. Shit grates on your ears. Throw in your own tracks and you personalize the game. Furthermore, by using your own tracks you can enhance your immersion into the game. It's a driving game and who doesn't have a few tunes they want to listen to when they're driving?

I only wished more games used the feature.

Custom soundtracks rule, Godzilla:DAM supports it and I recorded all the music from my collection of Godzilla soundtrack CDs..it feels like I'm watching a real Godzilla movie while playing the game...

WWE RAW2 is gonna be the game that takes best advantage of the custom soundtracks.

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Originally posted by Gutsman
my collection of Godzilla soundtrack CDs

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?!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Korly, the LoW games make great use of the custom soundtrack feature as well.