have you heard the trailer?

Composing music for games that can occupy a player for 300 hours or more has to be a real challenge. I think Soule knocked it out of the park with Oblivion, but I really can't get behind the idea that everyone disagreeing with that opinion is "wrong" or has no taste. A player can be in any number of different moods during a free-form open world game, and if the music you're hearing is at odds with what you're feeling and thinking, the effect will be jarring, regardless of the technical skill of the composition. Also, if you've heard the same battle theme kick in 1,000 times, you could grow to hate it.

What if Bethesda streamlined Jeremy Soule's music applications? Like only giving him a drum machine and 2 turntables?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag5utJ1ft9c

This sums up the epicness of the whole game, enjoy.

Geez, you've never played Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Red Alert, Warcraft II, Donkey Kong Country... there are so many, and that's not even touching movie soundtrack. He'll never compose to a quarter of the skill of Alan Menken (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin), or James Horner's Braveheat or the Land Before Time soundtracks, or John WIlliams' original trilogy Star Wars soundtracks.

I'm not a big fan of Jeremy Soule, I further the belief that most of his stuff is very bland and uninspired. There are http://youtu.be/MPcoOtYaW5I pieces of his that are very nice, though, but other pieces are just sopping wet in pretentiousness and lack melodic appeal. A lot of his previous non-Elder Scrolls game soundtracks are just plain terrible, imo. But I'm fine with him doing Skyrim, because his ES tone is unique and he usually gets 1 gem out of the soundtrack. I can take all the better ones from the previous couple games and remove the bad ones from Skyrim and make a pretty decent soundtrack out of them for Skyrim.




See, I think that sound really bad. The chanting is lame and gratuitous, imo. It reminds me of how the opening theme for Gothic 3 was the classic Gothic theme but overdone and full of pretentiousness without depth of meaning to it.

Just a small question but, you have heard the main themes to Oblivion and Skyrim right? But you must share Commander Shepard's taste in music, if we have heard of it it must be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aDv0pDOg4c&feature=related for you, isnt that right champ



Well I am not going to call something it is not, some of the examples you posted of Soule's I will admit are better than his work in Oblivion but that doesnt change the fact that there are far more talented artists out there, Soule's work just doesnt do much for me.

edit: misread the post.....

I feel sorry for you if you don't like it.
Would you like something more classic then?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLdtHsBfImo

It's always the bashing topics that get the most posts. Always.

And yet I still can't fight the urge to defend Jeremy Soule. Because he is a genius.

No need to, there's plenty of great music for me to listen to, and I'm always composing my own. I think the 8-bit version of the Skyrim theme is a lot more appreciable, it sounds much less pretentious and is fits the presentation better. If the removed the choir from the official theme it'd sound a lot better, too. With it it's just too flamboyantly over the top.

It should sound over the top, Morrowind's and Oblivion's Soundtracks were more magical, because their provinces are mysterious.
Skyrim is home of the Nords, which is a viking-like race, and a calm soundtrack without men screaming just wouldn't represent them.

It should sound more chaotic and manly.

Your arguing an opinion. You may not like him, but hes gotten overwhelmingly good feadback for his work. Hes back, its just kinda something you have to get over. I love his music, as most people here do.

In other words, don't be selfish. :thumbsup:

Self-advice? You should also read posts before you respond. First, why are you stating that I'm arguing an opinion when my post opens with "I think." Was there ever any doubt? I also said that I'm fine with him doing the Skyrim soundtrack and that some of his pieces are nice. I think you let your bias read something that wasn't in my posts.

Nobody has same tastes when it comes to music.
My friend loves metal, I think it's overrated poop.
That doesn't mean he's selfish, he just likes other kinds of music.

Sorry, I admit I was wrong. I've just been seeing nothing but bashing everything about everything and it gets you quite upset, I just jumped to conclusions. Even in a thread about soundtracks I see people bashing Skyrim and the fact Jeremy Soule is doing the work. Sorry about that :sadvaultboy:

No worries.

There's good use of a choir and there's bad use of a choir. Howard Shore's work in the Lord of the Rings is for the most part good use of choir, but he goes a little overboard with Return of the King. A choir has to be used sparingly, to punctuate the epicness of certain songs if it fits the setting.

It certainly fits the setting in Skyrim. Not only is Bethesda trying to make this game their most epic yet, but chanting really fits Skyrim's setting. It makes perfect sense to include it in the theme song, and in the battle music against the frost dragon in the E3 video.

Now, whenever prog metal or some other pop music uses choir, that's usually bad choir. That's gratuitous. I don't get any sense of pretension from Soule using choir to punctuate the theme song of an epic RPG featuring awesome dragons set in the rugged lands of Nords.

yes i heard them. so what?
at the end its all about the feelings you get through this song, you feel nothing when you hear oblivion music. to bad.. you can talk how much you want about it and rationaly explain what its lacking and what not, but that wont make the music cheaper.
Its only you who cant connect with the music emotionaly there is nothing bad about jeremy souls music, its only you who dont understand it.

there is no fact that there are far more talented musicians they all do the same. making music. And if you can connect to their music better its fine, but you cant say that they are far better than him and talk for any other than you.

Actually I like all genres of music, even classical, do I win something?

http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg, just for you!

I just listened to this, supposedly from the Skyrim soundtrack. Sounds like an improvement over Soule's normal fare, I like it. It's nice to have an actual orchestra used, too, it adds a lot of depth.

http://youtu.be/7aDKhx-Nf_M

Honestly this all boils down to personal taste... honestly, people state factually that he svcks a big one, others state factually he's awesome. All over the internet, its fantastic. I at least believe his music will fit the game quite well, but I do have to say I still get the chills when I listen to most of the LOTR soundtracks

Sounds like good background music for a suicide scene, I suppose. :shrug:

You probably didnt watch the E3 videos. That pretty much answers your "concern".

Jeremy Soule > Mainstream music bullcrap. He's the best guy for the job. I don't understand how some people don't like the theme for Skyrim, how does that not fit?

Or the atmospheric music heard in the E3 demo? The battle music? Dungeon music? How do they not fit? What else do you want, battle music while you're walking in town? Yeah, no.

I don't understand.