Civ5 Music

[maestro35]

Does anyone else have thoughts on the music? There are only a few pieces I like, and the rest are unmemorable, but the few that I like, I want to hear over and over again. If you don't know how to play the files (found in subdivisions of the "assets" folder), a codec can be installed here (from xiph.org, don't worry, it's safe; they developed the file format), which will allow you to open them in Windows Media Player. Personally, my favorite is Europe/War/Elipse.ogg. It's a string quartet piece, and I absolutely love it. A lot of pieces in the folders, so there's quite a selection... Anyone else have favorites?

 

[qec]

I like the music a fair bit. My favorite is the sorta zen sounding stuff you get when playing as Japan or Siam. It reminds me of this one time I got a massage and they played similar stuff, except in Civ I almost always have a happy ending and the massage didn't.

 

[Brichals]

I love the music. I have to play it with headphones to appreciate it though. I like Englands best, or the European ones in general.

lol I can remember Civ3 the insanity of going for a toilet break or something and hearing the same loop repeating in my head over and over.

 

[Jacques Lamerde]

I really like some of the CS themes. I'd also like to hear a remix album of Civ music.
Some of the tunes would really be cool as electro remixes.(Trance, Ambient etc)

 

[sparkyal]

Do you know if we can put our own music into the mix...like in IV we could soecify the music folder

 

[craig123]

The two English ones are my favourites. I can't really remember many of the others.

 

[larret]

As one of my hobby is also collecting and reviewing games OST, including whole Civ series I can easily compare Civ 5 to what I heard so far. No doubt Civ 5 music was designed to be more entertaining for a long term period comparing to, for instance, Civ 3. What's more it's one of the most mature score I've ever heard in game industry. From very memorable themes of leaders to more sophisticated orchestral music (including classic). And somehow authors of that OST managed to perfectly preserve characteristic of each area of gameplay (Asia, Europe, America etc.) which simply helps to immerse yourself. Even usage of native instruments (like Ghuzeng, Kanun) proves how seriously they treated their task. Civ 4 OST was good, but you can hear it has been build with heavy sampling. Of course, Civ 5 music also was sampled, but general quality and final mastering process gave it this long lasting good impression which hopefully can be valued even after 50th DLC will be added .

 

[Bleser]

Let's put it this way:

Civ 5 is the first iteration of the Civ series where I've not turned the in-game music off!

I love it. I've been listening to it since the day the game came out and it still hasn't gotten old.

 

[player1 fanatic]

My favorite is Greek (peace) theme. My personal best of the best, after Civ4 Baba Yetu...

I've first encountered it in Civ5 demo, when I mistakenly thought that it was Civ5 main theme.


Also I like Persian theme, as well as many of background songs played for middle eastern civs (really add well to atmosphere). Those played for American civs are good too.

On the other hand, I found most of the European background songs to be bland (liked some of the main themes for leaders though, like for England).

 

[joncnunn]

I love the music myself, it fact after a playing session if I know I'm going to play a few more turns later that day I leave the game running so I still have the music going on in the background.

 

[apocalypse105]

It anoys me If i am playing a civ for example china and I listen to the asian music wich I like suddenly I want to trade my gems and go to america and suddenly I have the american soundtrack for the time beeing in the game !!!!!!! It should return back to my music

Same If I go to war I should hear my war music not that from america

 

[larret]

It anoys me If i am playing a civ for example china and I listen to the asian music wich I like suddenly I want to trade my gems and go to america and suddenly I have the american soundtrack for the time beeing in the game !!!!!!! It should return back to my music

Same If I go to war I should hear my war music not that from america

It's definitely annoying "feature".

 

[renkenbd]

For my part, i love the music. I got the Collectors Edition when Civ 5 first released, and it came with a bonus CD of the music. It has the full music of all the peace and war themes for all the (original) nations. The music is arranged by the same guy who gave us Baba Yetu (from Civ 4).
I so loved this music (I am a classical music buff), that I went out and looked up Christopher Tin so I could send him an email telling him how much I loved his music. This let to me getting notified of a new album he came out with entitled "Calling All Dawns". I bought that album and found out that it has since won TWO GRAMMY AWARDS! One of them was for Baba Yetu, which is the first ever game music to win a Grammy (from what an article I ready stated).

 

[Vathris]

I'm a big time collector of soundtracks. At first I overlooked the music but later on I started noticing just how gorgeous it was.

Most of my favorites come from the European tracks, the classics are great (the piano solo in Piano Concerto In Am Op. 16 being an absolute favorite) but the original music also kicks ass (Quest For Peace II). I also like the authentic Middle Eastern and Asian/Indian pieces, especially the ones that feature sitars. The Senses Awaken I and River Sunrise are both great. Salute to the Sun is fantastic.

This might sound strange but I think Civ 5 is the most "theraputic" video game I have ever played. The graphics and terrain are gorgeous, the UI and art style is awesome (I love Art Deco), the ambient forest/desert/ocean sounds are great, the music is amazing and the game is very relaxing overall. Since it's turn based I sometimes find myself just enjoying the immersion for a long time. It's a great way to unwind and just chill.

Going from Civ 5 to Starcraft 2 is like jumping from a hot tub into a frozen lake teeming with killer ice piranhas. I can't play more than one or two games of SC2 without frying my nervous system.

 

[Alone]

Such a great music for this sequel of Civ.
I am not sure but I think that composer was the same guy who made the music for famous Stronghold (and Stronghold Crusader) game but I might be wrong on this.
I would like to have that disc that came with special edition of CiV.

BTW. Question for those who have that disc: Do you have only music that I can see in folders of the game or there is more. Since I can not see any file that have music for City States for example.

I would like to have that miniature for Belgrade City State (since I think it is so perfectly done) as any audio file.
I was searching the net and You Tube music from CivV and I could not find this (or any other CS music).
Any help anyone?
Thanks.

 

[The_J]

Such a great music for this sequel of Civ.
I am not sure but I think that composer was the same guy who made the music for famous Stronghold (and Stronghold Crusader) game but I might be wrong on this.

Does not seem so, http://www.geoffknorr.com/knowvg.html .

I would like to have that disc that came with special edition of CiV.

BTW. Question for those who have that disc: Do you have only music that I can see in folders of the game or there is more. Since I can not see any file that have music for City States for example.

On the disc there are "only" again the diplomacy music tracks from the base game, no additional stuff.

 

[Thander]

I'm a big time collector of soundtracks. At first I overlooked the music but later on I started noticing just how gorgeous it was.

Most of my favorites come from the European tracks, the classics are great (the piano solo in Piano Concerto In Am Op. 16 being an absolute favorite) but the original music also kicks ass (Quest For Peace II). I also like the authentic Middle Eastern and Asian/Indian pieces, especially the ones that feature sitars. The Senses Awaken I and River Sunrise are both great. Salute to the Sun is fantastic.

This might sound strange but I think Civ 5 is the most "theraputic" video game I have ever played. The graphics and terrain are gorgeous, the UI and art style is awesome (I love Art Deco), the ambient forest/desert/ocean sounds are great, the music is amazing and the game is very relaxing overall. Since it's turn based I sometimes find myself just enjoying the immersion for a long time. It's a great way to unwind and just chill.

Going from Civ 5 to Starcraft 2 is like jumping from a hot tub into a frozen lake teeming with killer ice piranhas. I can't play more than one or two games of SC2 without frying my nervous system.

Actually, I like the soundtracks of both. It's hard to compare them though considering Civ 5 has a whole library of mostly licensed music while Starcraft 2 is mostly original music.

If you are just talking about gameplay, yeah SC2 is very stressful. I could not play more than 1 or 2 games per day. One day I decided I wanted to play games to de-stress not get stressed, and I stopped playing ranked games. Now I just play a custom game from time to time.

 

[apocalypse105]

I would like that the game plays my civilization game music constantly

When I go to a other leader it stops my civilization music lets say asian china music and goes to rome music because I talked to cesar

The same goes when you are declared war on you thinx you will hear the music of war by you but nope

 

[renkenbd]

Vathris, you are dead-on. Those last two paragraphs you wrote (i don't know how to quote on this board) were almost EXACTLY how I describe the game to my wife.

Alone and The_J, the discs that I have have the Civ V Theme music (which is the music from the opening sequence of the game) as well as the War theme and the Peace theme of each of all the nations (except it is missing a couple).

Also, Christopher Tin has come out with a new CD called Stereo Alchemy. It is not at all like this disc or his first (Grammy winning) CD, Calling All Dawns. Stereo Alchemy is techno but all based on historical poems and stuff. It is really cool. Even my 15-year-old boy says it is his favorite album.

 

[CivWarGamer]

There's a lot of tracks, and it's generally okay. What I don't like is it isn't in mp3 format, and the music can't be easily modded.