PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Managing music pre-game



HurinSmite
2015-10-29, 08:15 AM
Hey people. I was wondering if those of you who use music in your session could come with some answers/suggestions for this problem I am having here. What's the problem? Tagging and/or managing music.

I've started watching the Critical Role episodes and I definetly think the music adds to the experience. Problem is. I would like to know if there's an effective way to add tags/moods to songs so it becomes easier to find a fitting piece.

Right now I am using MusicBee. And though it has the ability to add tags and moods to a song I have to do it individually. Is there somewhere out there "THE ROLEPLAY MUSIC PLAYER" or "THE MUSIC TAGGER WAY" ?

Thank you in advance.

Mutazoia
2015-10-29, 08:52 AM
Hey people. I was wondering if those of you who use music in your session could come with some answers/suggestions for this problem I am having here. What's the problem? Tagging and/or managing music.

I've started watching the Critical Role episodes and I definetly think the music adds to the experience. Problem is. I would like to know if there's an effective way to add tags/moods to songs so it becomes easier to find a fitting piece.

Right now I am using MusicBee. And though it has the ability to add tags and moods to a song I have to do it individually. Is there somewhere out there "THE ROLEPLAY MUSIC PLAYER" or "THE MUSIC TAGGER WAY" ?

Thank you in advance.

Well, if I understand your question right, you want to be able to que up music for particular events in the game, such as combat, right?

What your are going to have to do is pick out a bunch of tracks well in advance, list them by what you want to use them for and then find a quick way to play them when you want/need them.

Now, the problem with shows like Critical Role, is that the music for most shows are (normally) added in post production, the players never actually hear it. (Playing music in the background when you are trying to record voice audio is murder in editing.) Basically this means that they have time to go back and pick the perfect track for what ever was happening after everything was said and done. You are wanting to try it live on the fly.

So. There are three basic ways to do this.


Only play music during combat.
Have general background music playing at low volume for the entire session.
Have the perfect music playing for everything that is going on in game.


The first option is easy, as you only have to have a small selection of high tempo songs on hand to loop during combat. If you want to get fancy you can tailor a few loop tracks for various monster types. For instance our group always plays "Thriller" during fights with zombies. Just about any music editing software will work. Hell you can even use Windows Movie Maker (tm) to put a bunch of MP3s end to end and just have that file loaded on a lap top ready for you to hit "play" every time combat starts.

The Second option is easy, as you just play a bunch of MP3s in the background and maybe pause and play the combat track when a fight breaks out. I would suggest staying away from anything with lyrics if you are going to go this rout, as you don't want the song lyrics interfering with what people are saying at the game table (you in particular). Just pick a bunch of tracks that match the basic concept of the game, that are not too fast (combat music) or too slow (nap time!). So a Cyberpunk game would have more techno/trance/house style music in the background, while a fantasy game would probably use more epic sounding music.

The third option is for the insane only. You'll be queing up music on the fly and may have to either loop the same song over and over or stop it after a few seconds, depending on how long your players take to talk to the King of Umptysquatch and get hired to slay the bandersnatch. Again, you'll want to stay away from music with lyrics, no matter how cool the song is, as not to have them stampede all over the game dialogue. You'll probably want to use Excell and hyperlink all the songs on a spreadsheet. Give each song a description or heading as to what mood it's for and be prepared to be clicking like crazy.

As for software to use...well like I said, if your just providing music during combat, your standard MP3 player will do just fine. If you want to custom background music for every encounter great and small, hyperlinking files in excell is the cheapest way to do it. There are also DJ and radio station style software out there (some free, some not so free) that you can use. There is also software that will link sound files to certain keys on your keyboard...not sure if the newer ones work with MP3 files, but programs like Soundforge will convert an MP3 into a (rather large) .wav file. you'll just have to remember what keys are programmed for which songs...and you'll probably want to program most of them to your 10 key pad....

If you are looking for a source of music, there are plenty of sites out there that have music free for personal use. Personally I get a lot of my stuff from Freeplay Music (http://www.freeplaymusic.com/) and Mobygratis (http://www.mobygratis.com/) (Free music Moby gives away to indy and non-profit film makers....how cool is that!)

Long story short, scoring a live game on the fly can be a bigger hassle than it's worth....make sure you are willing to do all the extra work on top of all the work necessary for preparing and running the game.

CombatBunny
2015-10-29, 09:51 AM
The third option is for the insane only. You'll be queing up music on the fly and may have to either loop the same song over and over or stop it after a few seconds, depending on how long your players take to talk to the King of Umptysquatch and get hired to slay the bandersnatch.


Well, I have managed to work around that a little bit by creating playlists named after basic kinds of mood (which then I play in a random order):

Happy, Sad, Mistery, Refined, Combat, Goofy, Romance, Sacred, etc.

This system has worked for me very well and I have links in my notes that reference to the most probable kind of mood for a particular enconter. Each time I'm listening music and I hear something suitable for RPG, I instantly add it to the playlist, so that they grow Little by Little.

Bu yes, as Mutazoia said, is always advisable to keep music low even in combat. The rule that I use is "Every player should be able to speak in a serene manner and be understood by the rest of the table without raising the voice".