Gaming Music

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

What music do you plan to listen to while you play X4? Will you play a custom playlist, or listen to the in-game music?

I, for one, find Mazzy Star's "So Tonight That I Might See" album to be very appropriate. It sounds like something you'd hear playing on a jukebox in a space bar.

[X-Raptor]

I'd prefer the in-game music, since X4 is a Space Sim which means it should have a unique music that could suit this type of games, it's not GTA, a Racing Game or an Action Shooter you know? LOL And we haven't even listened yet to the in-game music, why not, shouldn't we hear it first, X-Soundtracks used to be very cool and so atmospheric.

[birdtable]

Well since Rebirth I have taken to wearing headphones, the reference to "wares", "what you looking at" and "I do mean anything" has necessitated the need for more discretion.... In other words I got tired of my wife taking the pizzle..... so no external sound sources.
Hopefully I can return to speakers in Foundations..... Always enjoyed the in game music (brilliant) and from what little I have heard intend to stay with that, hopefully at not tooooo loud a volume.

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

Usually when I play games, I turn the music down or off. I prefer to hear everything going on around me in-game (as I cannot filter sounds, I hear everything at once, or I may home in on a certain aspect of the song, such as a cymbal crash, and hear that every time it happens, louder than anything else). Also, sometimes music in video games will have tones that sound similar to gameplay audio cues (such as a "shimmer" when near a chest in an RPG), causing me to stop and look for something that isn't there. I find the music in-game often takes me out of a game, whereas playing my own music kinda makes me feel like Star-Lord lol.

[LittleBird]

Mostly ingame music.
Game music is designed for the situation you are in. So it an essential part of the game and improves your game experience. More important it is dynamic. Your track can not react to game changes. And hearing an epic battle music while managing your fleet is a bit...

Of course if the game music is bad I grab some custom tracks. Nothing special. Just a quick search on Youtube. There are dozens of compilations.

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

Mostly ingame music.
Game music is designed for the situation you are in. So it an essential part of the game and improves your game experience. More important it is dynamic. Your track can not react to game changes. And hearing an epic battle music while managing your fleet is a bit...

Of course if the game music is bad I grab some custom tracks. Nothing special. Just a quick search on Youtube. There are dozens of compilations.

However, external music can also enhance gameplay. I remember playing Mad Max, storming through a base while playing A Perfect Circle's "Judith." Watching the camera zoom in and slow down while an enemy's neck was broken from a suplex while hearing "it's not like you killed someone" felt strangely poetic.

[csaba]

I rarely fiddle with music in my games. However I hope there are more tracks for combat this time around,in previous X games there were only 2-3 and each time you start combat those same tracks come up. Get's old after you chain a few combat missions. I remember replacing the files with Chop Suey and Toxicity from System of a Down. Nothing compares to starting your combat with the Chop Suey gitar solo.

On the other hand the ambient music of X games was always unique and relaxing even after 1000s of hours. This is why I opted often to only change the combat specific ones instead of muting game music and using winamp.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

I like Alexei's work enough that sometimes I find myself playing tracks from X3 and Rebirth while playing other games.

Holst (The Planets, obvs) and Sibelius are also pretty excellent for tooling around in a space sim.

[wrmiller]

I'll give the in-game music a go at first. If not to my liking, I have a iMac right next to my gaming PC that I play music on when I'm playing that other spaceship flying game.

[Hector0x]

The X-series music has always been great, but gets repetitive. Youtube offers good "space ambient" music and also amazing combat tracks. With many music players and the software Autohotkey you can switch from your "X-Ambient playlist" to "X-Combat playlist". But you have to hit a key once in a while. So it's not perfect.

[csaba]

The X-series music has always been great, but gets repetitive. Youtube offers good "space ambient" music and also amazing combat tracks. With many music players and the software Autohotkey you can switch from your "X-Ambient playlist" to "X-Combat playlist". But you have to hit a key once in a while. So it's not perfect.

Let's hope the playlist is properly moddable so we can put in 100 plus tracks if we want.

I vaguely recall when I modded the combat music I could only add in 3-5 tracks since what I did was rename my chosen tracks to the ones in the music folder and replace them.

[Tomonor]

I will be honest. I think it would be a sin to replace Thomas Egeskov Petersen's and Alexei Zakharov's musics ingame.

There are games with bad quality/boring tracks. There are tracks made just right for the vibe. And then there are the X games, which tracks genre and quality couldn't be more spot on.

[desiriel]

I will be honest. I think it would be a sin to replace Thomas Egeskov Petersen's and Alexei Zakharov's musics ingame.

There are games with bad quality/boring tracks. There are tracks made just right for the vibe. And then there are the X games, which tracks genre and quality couldn't be more spot on.

You stole my words as I was writing them.
Rebirth's music was actually excellent and was pleasant to listen to. So I hope and expect to find X4's to be as well.
+1 for Thomas and Alexei for sure.

[preludelinux]

I enjoyed XR's music so much i will give the in-game music a go at first. usually in game music is tailored to whats going on , i look forward to that experience.

[RodentofDoom]

OST's for

X:BTF
X:Tension
X2: The Threat
X3: Reunion
X3: Terran Conflict
X:R

Hours of awesome tracks

[AC_Black]

In game for me as well, but turned down to about 35%. I enjoy the change in pace style of cruising to combat.. flight... besides sometimes flying to a gate and i get absorbed in the view and not see that I am about to get blasted lol

[csaba]

besides sometimes flying to a gate and i get absorbed in the view and not see that I am about to get blasted lol

Turns off UI for the screenshots.
Goes through gate.

"Oh what a nice view."

"Entering system: Xenon Sector 598"

"Sheeeeeit"

"Incoming missile"

...

"Game Over. Press any button"

[AC_Black]

besides sometimes flying to a gate and i get absorbed in the view and not see that I am about to get blasted lol

Turns off UI for the screenshots.
Goes through gate.

"Oh what a nice view."

"Entering system: Xenon Sector 598"

"Sheeeeeit"

"Incoming missile"

...

"Game Over. Press any button"

OHHHHH I have done that about 5 times... I got very good at turning around and going back through the gate hehe

[Tomonor]

Thinking of it further, the music tracks in X games are more than simple filler musics.

They define the sectors/systems. Starting from X2, each track was set to one or a few sectors and it seems like the map designers knew what they were doing with the outcome.
For instance, a hard example:

X3 - Sector: Argon Prime - Track: Every victory comes with a price
You don't even need to know the title of the track, once the game greets you with the bluish light of the Sonra upon exiting the gate you know you are home and that Argon, even after the many recent battles still stand strong to this very moment (this is especially true at the start of X3 Reunion, when 70% of the Argon armada was destroyed at Omicron Lyrae a few days ago).

I'm pretty sure I don't have to list every soundtracks thus far to know what I'm talking about. X-Rebirth was a tiny bit different, where Albion had quite a few smaller random tracks on rotation, but it was fitting since the entire original game was stuck into 4 systems.

[ishmaeltheforsaken]

Thinking of it further, the music tracks in X games are more than simple filler musics.

They define the sectors/systems. Starting from X2, each track was set to one or a few sectors and it seems like the map designers knew what they were doing with the outcome.
For instance, a hard example:

X3 - Sector: Argon Prime - Track: Every victory comes with a price
You don't even need to know the title of the track, once the game greets you with the bluish light of the Sonra upon exiting the gate you know you are home and that Argon, even after the many recent battles still stand strong to this very moment (this is especially true at the start of X3 Reunion, when 70% of the Argon armada was destroyed at Omicron Lyrae a few days ago).

I'm pretty sure I don't have to list every soundtracks thus far to know what I'm talking about. X-Rebirth was a tiny bit different, where Albion had quite a few smaller random tracks on rotation, but it was fitting since the entire original game was stuck into 4 systems.

I haven’t played any of the X3 games in almost ten years and I still immediately remembered that track within the first three seconds. These games have always had such iconic scores, I’m really excited to hear X4’s.