Adding music to a game

[pinkmouse]

Hi there everyone. Are there any basic tutorials on how to choose music for a game, and how to edit and loop it?

I'm really such a noob on this sort of thing that I don't really know what questions to ask. I was thinking of picking a bunch of songs and grouping them by mood and have the relevant parts of the story switch between them. So I'd "fade out random happy song" and "fade in random angry song" etc. Is that a sensible way of doing it? I'm worried that the music will end up making the game a humungous download.

I've looked through the resources on the OELVN wiki, but all the sites offering specifically game music are in Japanese, which I can't read.

The one area I do know about is copyright and licensing though.

Any and all tips, resources and tales of "how I did it" gratefully received.

(BTW - I've already tried to search the forums for this, but unfortunately "music" is a stopword so it's ignored in searches because it's too common.)

[adrix89]

From what I found out for music your best bet is http://www.jamendo.com/en/ especially if you know about licenses and be careful about it
The worst problem I have with it is actually searching painstakingly all the different genres that I have no idea they mean
The terms referred being more for those of a musical background

http://www.ocremix.org/ might be good resource(especially as its centered around games) but I'm REALLY NOT SURE wtf the license or if we can use them
http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy
From what I understand it seems you can use them for non commercial....I think...maybe...
Edit:Hmm maybe I haven't understand your post too well
For transition to something angry you might not want fade ins/outs but something more sudden
Don't worry about downloads we got torrents
Also a good way to learn about how things work is to rip the shell till you reach the guts of the script of games if they provide it that is(in other words look for .rpy)

[this_barb]

From what I found out for music your best bet is http://www.jamendo.com/en/ especially if you know about licenses and be careful about it
The worst problem I have with it is actually searching painstakingly all the different genres that I have no idea they mean
The terms referred being more for those of a musical background

http://www.ocremix.org/ might be good resource(especially as its centered around games) but I'm REALLY NOT SURE wtf the license or if we can use them
http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy
From what I understand it seems you can use them for non commercial....I think...maybe...
Edit:Hmm maybe I haven't understand your post too well
For transition to something angry you might not want fade ins/outs but something more sudden
Don't worry about downloads we got torrents
Also a good way to learn about how things work is to rip the shell till you reach the guts of the script of games if they provide it that is(in other words look for .rpy)

OCRemix is in a legal gray area just like fanart. Don't bother using the content there in your game.

[pinkmouse]

http://www.ocremix.org/ might be good resource(especially as its centered around games) but I'm REALLY NOT SURE wtf the license or if we can use them
http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy
From what I understand it seems you can use them for non commercial....I think...maybe...

Thanks, it looks hopeful. Provided you credit both the artist(s) and the site (a clickable link is required where the medium permits, and I know Renpy can do that) you're covered. The license isn't viral and seems basically to correspond to the Creative Commons "Attribution No-Commercial" license, except that they specifically allow any charge which is solely to recover costs. I guess it's up to PyTom to give a ruling on whether that's acceptable for inclusion in the archive.

As a complete musical boob noob, I've no idea if I'd need to monkey with mixes to make them game-usable, so being forbidden to fiddle with the files may or may not be an issue.

Thanks for the resource, anyway!

PM

edit: oops. Looks like these are all manipulations of commercial game tracks. I was hoping they had completely original submissions. POOT and other rude words signifying disappointment.

[this_barb]

http://www.ocremix.org/ might be good resource(especially as its centered around games) but I'm REALLY NOT SURE wtf the license or if we can use them
http://www.ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy
From what I understand it seems you can use them for non commercial....I think...maybe...

Thanks, it looks hopeful. Provided you credit both the artist(s) and the site (a clickable link is required where the medium permits, and I know Renpy can do that) you're covered. The license isn't viral and seems basically to correspond to the Creative Commons "Attribution No-Commercial" license, except that they specifically allow any charge which is solely to recover costs. I guess it's up to PyTom to give a ruling on whether that's acceptable for inclusion in the archive.

As a complete musical boob noob, I've no idea if I'd need to monkey with mixes to make them game-usable, so being forbidden to fiddle with the files may or may not be an issue.

Thanks for the resource, anyway!

PM

edit: oops. Looks like these are all manipulations of commercial game tracks. I was hoping they had completely original submissions. POOT and other rude words signifying disappointment.

Exactly what I said: The act of remixing existing music without the intent to sell is still illegal. Some companies just choose not to go after violations, however.

[Aleema]

The website I use some for remix/game-friendly music is Magnatune. They have both instrumental and vocal music. Here's their license info for non-commercial stuff:

What About Non-Commercial Projects?
Magnatune maintains generous policies regarding non-commercial use of our music. To request music for use in a non-commercial project, you must first meet the legal requirement for "non-commercial use" as defined by the Creative Commons License which governs all Magnatune MP3 files. If you meet these requirements, simply find the Magnatune music you want, click the "license" link and then select the option that reads "non-commercial and student projects." Follow instructions from there.

Common examples of uses we consider non-commercial are:

* anything a student makes while attending school (i.e. homework)
* demos, resume and other samples by individuals, even if they're being used to get a job or solicit contracts (we assume you'll want to use our music at your job once you get one)
* films that are being shown in places where no admission fee is charged
* GNU/Berkeley/OSI licensed games or software that are given away for free (or included incidentally inside a larger distribution, even in a pay-distribution)
* Remixes that are given away for free (we're active participants in CC mixter)
* Podcasts and video blogs

If you qualify, credit the website and the artist, and have at.

[Kuzlalala]

I don't think all of the music resources are Japanese. There's this. And a few others. I don't think you've look at all of the links.

[adrix89]

I don't think all of the music resources are Japanese. There's this. And a few others. I don't think you've look at all of the links.

Wow a search by feel!
I wish more people used this type of tags instead of musical terms

[pinkmouse]

I don't think all of the music resources are Japanese. There's this. And a few others. I don't think you've look at all of the links.

Thanks for the link. You're quite right, some of the sites are in English. But all of the sites offering music specifically for games are in Japanese. How much difference that makes I don't know - this is all new to me.

[Kuzlalala]

I don't think all of the music resources are Japanese. There's this. And a few others. I don't think you've look at all of the links.

Wow a search by feel!
I wish more people used this type of tags instead of musical terms

Don't really understand you, but thanks.

[modesty]

I'd suggest http://www.newgrounds.com/audio
These are all freeware made by amateurs and some are pretty professional in quality. There are a few remixes but also a few very good original pieces. I even have a few on my iPod for listening.

Next I would suggest my other favorite sound site: http://www.soundsnap.com/ You get only 5 free downloads a month but you can preview everything and find things you like. Again freeware/shareware/linkware, royalty free, professional quality. Mostly original stuff.

[pinkmouse]

Thanks for the links, I shall investigate.

xx

PM

[Maverynthia]

Thanks for the links, I don't suppose someone can post those Japanese links as well and maybe we can make this a sticky on where to find music.