Favourite part of Oblivion soundtrack?

[Excommunicator]

Soule is certainly inconsistent. He is a "pulp composer" really. There's some talent in there, but he can never seem to separate it from his need to produce huge quantities of soundtracks just for the sake of it, making him very hit and miss.

Romero is in a class of his own, that is for sure. It is really a testament to his creativity and talent that he has achieved a style all his own while being able to continually produce very high quality pieces for so many years. I managed to get my hands on the HoMM4 soundtrack after your recommendations, and it does not disappoint. His strongest soundtrack I think. So much cleaner than his HoMM5 work (which still puts most composers to shame) and more professional, and I think a bit more ambitious than HoMM3.

 

[Elzair]

The only music I remember is the intro that also plays in Morrowind. It's p. cool. I don't know the name though...

Reign of the Septims

 

[Tel Velothi]

The only music I remember is the intro that also plays in Morrowind. It's p. cool. I don't know the name though...

Reign of the Septims

 

[DarthBehemoth]

voted for Through the valleys. Say what you want about Oblivion but Jeremy Soule rocks in my opinion.

 

[Luzur]

i changed the whole sound folder when i played Oblivion to Daggerfall music.

it made it abit more playable.

 

[Sceptic]

I managed to get my hands on the HoMM4 soundtrack after your recommendations, and it does not disappoint. His strongest soundtrack I think. So much cleaner than his HoMM5 work (which still puts most composers to shame) and more professional, and I think a bit more ambitious than HoMM3.

Glad you like it. It's also my favorite. And damn you, you got me to listen to it again and I can't stop now. I actually like HOMM5's music, I think there's some very nice stuff in there (I especially love the HOF and TotE main menu themes) and I like the way the main theme permeates many tracks (Necropolis theme, Haven theme, one of the walking around themes). But it's not as consistently awesome as 4's. And with 4 Romero really went all-out - look at the credits and you see about twenty vocalists and musicians listed there. Using real people and instruments gives a cleanness that you just can't get with synthesizers, and for the type of music he went for it's just perfect.

His attempts at generic battle music, military themes, bombastic, aggressive stuff and the like are almost appallingly repetitive. I actually start to get irritated having to listen to them.

That's why I turned off the music in NWN1. One of the battle themes in particular got really greating. It didn't help that, thanks to the OC's focus on combat, you heard it ALL THE TIME. It's also why I don't like the Oblivion main theme - Morrowind's did a wonderful job at moody and alien, and Oblivion's ist just a "fuck yeah!" John Williams-esque version of it.

Prey was mostly dreck.

I'm surprised at this. I remember it being FULL of passive and atmospheric tracks - the stuff you like about him. Going back and listening to it now, I can hear some bombastic tracks, but even these (see Splitting the Arrow) have a note of menace and despair that's usually absent from his similar tracks and makes them much more interesting. I think Prey's actually a perfect representation of Soule's music: inconsistent, sometimes mediocre and derivative, sometimes really good and atmospheric, occasionally surprises you with a great bit.

I also really like how he seemed respectful with Mark Morgan's job with FO1/2 and went after him to talk about and perhaps work together for the FO3 soundtrack

He did something similar with Giants (or Morgan himself asked him to take over, I forget). Judging by the quality of Giants's music these two really work well together, FO3's soundtrack could've been pretty awesome if they'd got together to do it.

 

[Excommunicator]

Glad you like it. It's also my favorite. And damn you, you got me to listen to it again and I can't stop now. I actually like HOMM5's music, I think there's some very nice stuff in there (I especially love the HOF and TotE main menu themes) and I like the way the main theme permeates many tracks (Necropolis theme, Haven theme, one of the walking around themes). But it's not as consistently awesome as 4's. And with 4 Romero really went all-out - look at the credits and you see about twenty vocalists and musicians listed there. Using real people and instruments gives a cleanness that you just can't get with synthesizers, and for the type of music he went for it's just perfect.

Oh I am still a very big fan of his HoMM5. But there is so much "noise" in his compositions compared to the previous games. He obviously went for the larger orchestra to achieve a more "epic feel" but I think the instruments aren't as well balanced as they could be; the melodies get lost under the instruments. The pieces with vocals are generally the better ones.

His attempts at generic battle music, military themes, bombastic, aggressive stuff and the like are almost appallingly repetitive. I actually start to get irritated having to listen to them.

That's why I turned off the music in NWN1. One of the battle themes in particular got really greating. It didn't help that, thanks to the OC's focus on combat, you heard it ALL THE TIME. It's also why I don't like the Oblivion main theme - Morrowind's did a wonderful job at moody and alien, and Oblivion's ist just a "fuck yeah!" John Williams-esque version of it.

NWN battle musics are looped some 5+ times over in each of their mp3 files, so he was quite aware of how they would play. They become incredibly annoying to listen to, just like the Morrowind battle tracks. The exploration pieces in NWN are often excellent in how they match and enhance the atmosphere of the Tileset they are made for though. The forest tracks in particular really captured the right feel at the time, as well as a few of the city pieces. Probably not the best music to look up though, as they are much weaker out of context.

Agree about the MW&OB themes, although I never liked the MW theme as much as the atmospheric pieces. Some of those are so dreamlike and easy to listen to for hours (he certainly succeeded in that brief).

 

[Lord Chambers]

One of the few things Daggerfall did right was the music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9SGBrgF ... ideo_title

I had no idea. Thanks for the link. This is my new jam.

 

[Excommunicator]

How does it feel to know the Daggerfall composer now composes music for slot machines