The music in this game is freaking amazing

[se7en]

I can't believe how good the music is in this game. Each era has its own sound.. in the ancient times the music reminds you of the first stirrings of art. In the midieval and rennaisance eras, the music sounds like your civilization waking up and coming to life. Industrial is also very nice. The only era that I would call hit or miss is the modern, but since my games usually end before then maybe I just haven't had a chance to learn to appreciate it.

I'm assuming that by now everyone knows that you can take the music out of the game and just listen to the songs in Windows or put them on your iPod. The files are in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack.

Here's a list of my favorite songs, corresponding with each era. I'd like to hear what some of your guys favorites are. Some of them you can figure out the composer and title, some of them are not so easy. Is there a master list somewhere of all the song/artist names by filename?

ancient
ancientsoundtrack2

industrial
dvorikslavonic10
brahmshungarian1

midieval
allegrimiserere
anonymouslagamba
praetoriusbransle

renaissance
bachallemande
bachmenuet
bachserabande

modern
anfortaswound
chconne
harmonielehre
loopsandverses

 

[tombeef]

I actually like the Boba Yeti song, there's a couple other OK songs, but a lot of times when I play I listen to Gorillaz, Eminem, Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Weezer. In other words, what I consider better music.

 

[vbraun]

I really like the Industrial songs. Infact I've almost bought a replacment for each song in that foulder.

 

[limaike]

What would be cool is music that changes decade by decade through the twentieth century, for a real range of styles, blues, jazz, rock and roll, dance music- but maybe there would be copyright issues with that.

 

[KingCruz]

I think modern times should be more jazzy. I mean when I hear/play jazz I think of a big metropolis, lots of people going from places to places. I liked they put Largo in their game too, its a good song.

 

[Unholy Cow]

I agree, it's cool to listen to the advancement of (mostly) Western music as your civilization advances as well...it gives me a sense of progression I suppose.

That being said I do like the recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 Mvmt 1 in the game, as well as the other Baroque/Classical era offerings.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

I agree 100%... the music is wonderful.

 

[Sisiutil]

Yes, the gang at Firaxis obviously put a great deal of thought into the music, and deserve credit for it. I haven't customized it yet by adding my own tracks, but I think I'll be hard-pressed to find music that matches the game so well.

It surprised me to go into the folders mentioned above and see just how many tracks there are, and how LONG most of them are. I had the impression there were fewer and they were shorter. I guess if you play the game for hours on end, you could wind up thinking that!

 

[Ukas]

Who's piece is that modern "The People are Heroes" ? I really like that one, been playing in my head for some time now

edit: btw, Philip Glass and Vangelis (The City) might be good for modern era also, with Cool Jazz of course.

 

[linjon1]

"I liked they put Largo in their game too, its a good song."

I don't know, I kinda liked the live version more...

 

[Lord Gideon]

I've got a question. How do you put in your own music?
Thanks.

 

[Glinka]

I've got a question. How do you put in your own music?
Thanks.

If you mean, how do you substitute music you've got for what's already in the game, let me quote from a reply to a very similar question I asked just yesterday:

The music is in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack, where there is a subfolder for each era. As far as I know you can add/remove files from there and it will just pick them up. YMMV, I haven't tried it.

So you just mess around inside the soundtrack subdirectory. That's all there is to it.

 

[Glinka]

I agree, it's cool to listen to the advancement of (mostly) Western music as your civilization advances as well...it gives me a sense of progression I suppose.

Just change, really--not advancement. Styles come and go. Complexity and contrapuntal music were big in the Baroque. Then the Classical period revolted against that. Then the Romantics revolted against what they considered the superficial simplicity of the Classical, etc. The 20th century saw plenty of self-righteous types saying they were the vanguard because they promulgated 12-tone music and later, minimalism. But then audiences got excited when a few dodecaphonists broke ranks and began writing tonal music, again. Suddenly, it was the 12-toners and the minimalists who were stick-in-the-muds, arch-conservatives, and the tonalists who had once been called old-fashioned (and worse) were radicals blazing new paths.

Say you want about any part of it, classical music has a roughly 900 year history, tons of styles, and plenty of music--certainly something for everybody to find and like.

 

[tombeef]

I also like the music in the opening movie, goes very well with the dramatic sweeping camera angle.

 

[Ukas]

Btw, do you have to mess with bits and frequency when adding mp3's?

 

[KingCruz]

No. If you know how to use XML it's really no sweat.
Just get your .mp3 or .wav file and put it in a new custom assets folder (you should probably name it Music). Then copy n paste a new sound ID in the DefineAudio folder, and make a path to your sound.
Note: don't include the .mp3 at the end (eg. music not music.mp3)
Then you can go to audio2D and put what you named your sound ID.

 

[Glinka]

Btw, do you have to mess with bits and frequency when adding mp3's?

Not if you don't want to. If you employ some sort of copying program that allows you to cut high frequencies (such as Total Recorder), then you can make the file substantially smaller. Otherwise, just follow the simple directions I posted above, and stick it in the appropriate subdirectory. Nothing else is necessary.

 

[Crimso]

This music is great, but the ancient age music is by far the most modern. It's still a decent tune, but I would rather have something that sounded ancient.

 

[oldpreach]

I REALLY like the music also.

The first thing I did when I got the game was to pop in the music CD and listen to it with my wife while the kids were sleeping. We had a great and relaxing conversation...it a nice memory.

 

[Unholy Cow]

Well, Glinka, you certainly know your stuff - are you a music teacher by any chance, because my music teacher couldn't do better than that

You are right, of course, I didn't mean advancement in the sense of "getting better" but sort of "more variety" as time goes on, for example in The Mikado, Sullivan managed to include an authentic Japanese tune, a madrigal and a fugue, and Berlioz infused a bit of Romanticism in his "revision" of Orphée et Eurydice. Would you agree with that?