Friday Facts #407 - Automating a soundtrack

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-407

[Makka77]

Rattling the DAC to pieces

Love love love it x

[Phauxstus]

That first (and third) WIP track sounded... really bad. Distractingly bad. I hope that's "just started" WIP not "final touches" WIP.

[Ghoulish]

Interesting read! All be it a little complicated in parts!

[luckymike11]

when is the premiere?

[IronCartographer]

That first (and third) WIP track sounded... really bad. Distractingly bad. I hope that's "just started" WIP not "final touches" WIP.

It definitely gave me the impression of it being a same-y stream of randomly selected bits (sort of like No Man's Sky planets) rather than having an actual intended ("lived-in" ?) feeling and emotional arc (more like Subnautica's world).

A question regarding skipping tracks / segments: Since the gamestate affects which music is playing, I assume skipping tracks is per-player?

Was there a mention of how per-surface and remote-viewing interact with the track selection? Fade-in / fade-out with remote camera?

[SnowZyDe]

You're doing the wrong thing. We're playing engineers, not listening to music.

[mmmPI]

Haaaa some technical explanations

Very interesting to read and see the picture of the grids, it tells a lot. Curious to read about the 44100 Hz sound, aren't the game sound in .ogg which can't do 44100 ?

I couldn't hear the clipping in the "old" sample, i'm confident i won't hear anything in the future ones x).

I like that even after all the explanations when hearing the tracks, i couldn't "hear" the different parts, even with the time stamps, it's just "many notes" to me x). It give me good hope i wont find the music repetitive even if i play all day week.

I know the brain react differently when hearing "new" and "recognized" music, it likes both differently, and it's difficult to get both like in a good remix, i usually get none when i try, it doesn't sound like "new", so brain try to recognize, but the sound is too bad it can't. I'm glad factorio music is made by profesionnals perfectionnists x).

I think for people who find the music distractive, you may have to consider that for an FFF they won't give us to hear the quieter part of tracks where the music is very subtle, but there will be many of those too, and the sounds of the game like alerts robots biters thunder and so on, their volume can/will make the music not so distracting, it's possible to set up the volume of music relative to other game sound and even turn it off when the need to focus is very intense and the music shouldn't be.

[Terrahertz]

That sounds promising, no pun intended. Just in case this endeavour does not work out for some players. Will there be an option to limit the music to the static/predefined soundtrack?

I get that adjusting the music playing to the given situation is hard, but could there be at least some situational awareness, when to play music at all?

I have a very specific example in Mind:
The first 10 to 20 Minutes on Fulgora, when you are probably roaming around looking for a place to setup camp.
The music shown last week works great for a large working factory, but if this was playing directly on arrival, it would sound off and would most likely ruin the atmosphere of "You just arrived on a barren, oily Dust-Bowl"

[Niyu.Cuatro]

I guess somewhat dynamic music would have been cool. But i'm not sure going full portal 2 would have been a good idea for the kind of game factorio is.

[Donion]

Just in case this endeavour does not work out for some players. Will there be an option to limit the music to the static/predefined soundtrack?

There is already (in 1.1) a hidden "music mode" setting. It will be there in 2.0 and you will be able to select to play main tracks (static) only.

[Allianz4000]

That's amazing! Love all the tracks! But especially 1 and 3 are really nice. Giving me automation vibes!
Overall, I prefer the ones from last week a lot, but I think both will probably have different use cases in the game.

[Glomzubuk]

Reminds me of how music was approached in Kenshi! (dev's insight here)
Excited to hear how it all comes together during play =D

[Terrahertz]

Just in case this endeavour does not work out for some players. Will there be an option to limit the music to the static/predefined soundtrack?

There is already (in 1.1) a hidden "music mode" setting. It will be there in 2.0 and you will be able to select to play main tracks (static) only.

Good to know. Thanks!

This could also be a solution to my Fulgora problem, altough a very manual one.

[dustyvilla]

That first (and third) WIP track sounded... really bad. Distractingly bad. I hope that's "just started" WIP not "final touches" WIP.

personally, considering the first one was made almost entirely of short samples i'd guess it was setup more for demonstration and testing purposes, and the 3rd sounds like its just another version of the first from an earlier build, at least it sounds to me like the kind of thing i'd end up putting together if i had access to samples from mid recording and was trying to develop a sound/music system


for dynamic music, i can think of some possible routes some level of dynamics could be done without having to change or rerecord the tracks (say having some tracks/samples that play later in progression and some that play earlier) but the tracks not being composed with it in mind makes sense and i respect that

[glee8e]

I wonder if it would improve experience by introducing mutual exclusion, that is some sample/layer/section/state should not be played simultaneously.

[adam_bise]

Don't think you'll have much luck trying to randomize tracks.

A better approach would be old school interactive music.

Compose a song with your various tracks like drums, piano, winds, and strings. Then make different flavors of the tracks, like an excited version, with more drums, faster strings, louder piano, etc.

These tracks would be muted and unmuted at a double bar, upon an event like entering into battle or leaving battle. The song transitions into an excited version of the song without skipping a beat.

But these tracks played in the wrong combination, or random combination would just not sound right I'm afraid.

[DOSorDIE]

Automate the music in an game for Automation ... nice and sound not bad.
But is not the Factory working sound the real sound for an engineer?
When it will quiet you know you had a problem ...

[sethbreloom94]

A Repeat of my Post from #406:
Kinda split on the Fulgora music- love the idea, but the music kept rubbing me the wrong way and I didn't know why.
I was for unique instruments to match each planet since before it was announced. For Fulgora, I was expecting something like one of these:

• Life Goes On (Goodbye Deponia)

• Aridia (Ratchet and Clank)

The Fulgora OST is similar to both, but I didn't like it. Then it grew on me. Then I didn't like it again. Then I did like it again.
I think it might be the sound mixing- some of the instruments are just too loud compared to the baseline, making it harder to serve as background music. What do you think?

[Zaflis]

I see i see - AI music.