[MUSIC]Stephen Wright's Stellaris Music Mod

[ciadude2]

Stephen Wright's Stellaris Music Mod

Hello!
Those of you who frequent the EUIV forums may know me as the fellow who did the music for MEIOU and Taxes. I decided after Stellaris was announced that I wanted to try my hand at doing some sci-fi music for a change, and this is the result of that.

Most of the music is spacey, ambient, and experimental in nature.
Compatible with other music mods as well as the vanilla soundtrack.
TRACKLIST SO FAR(36 min total):
First Time Among the Stars(Main Theme) - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/mai-first-time-among-the-stars
Hiding in the Nebula - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/hiding-in-the-nebula
Out There - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/out-there
Are We Alone - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/are-we-alone
Countdown to Victory - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/countdown-to-victory
It's Okay to be Afraid Sci Fi Version - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/its-okay-to-be-afraid-sci-fi
Tiyanki - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/tiyanki
Loss - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/loss-sci-fi
Age of Exploration - https://soundcloud.com/stephen-wright-11/age-of-exploration-space

Download link 1.2.5 updated 9/8/16:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2e3pbqkduyi4d88/Stephen Wright's Stellaris Music Mod.rar?dl=0

The mod will also be on the Steam workshop under the same name.

Future plans:
For the present, the mod's development is halted as I am currently in school as well as working and simply do not have the time to write music right now(which makes me sad). I simply can't afford to not be working so due to those constraints for the foreseeable future there probably won't be any songs.
I will do my best to keep the mod up to date per new official patches however.


COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OTHER MUSIC MODS
Special thank you to Minoris on the Steam Workshop for helping me with that issue.

 

[ciadude2]

Updated: 1 new song(Tiyanki)

 

[ciadude2]

Updated for 1.0.3

 

[EX_plode]

These tracks are really good; they are up there with the original soundtrack, and that's saying something!

As someone who has zero experience with composing music digitally, but has thought about trying a couple of times, is there any way you could provide some advice? eg what program you use, best way to go about doing it etc.

 

[ciadude2]

Of course!
I would definitely start with learning the basics of music theory. Just what keys are, what chords and scales are, things like that. That'll help you to get a sense of what you're writing and why it sounds the way it does.
As for programs, there are a few different ways to start composing music digitally.
Notation programs are super easy for organization and looking at exactly what you're writing(through sheet music). Sibelius is the main one I use but Finale is decent as well. Those are the two big name ones. Musescore is free I think, and Presonus Notion doesn't cost very much plus comes with free decent quality sounding instruments. If you don't play any instruments this is probably your best bet.
As a guitarist I also sometimes use GuitarPro in helping me sketch things out, which is effectively a notation program that focuses on guitar and band related instruments but still has the capability for rudimentary composition the regular way.
The last way off the top of my head would be to get a DAW, if you have a MIDI keyboard. I use Presonus Studio One 3 myself, but there are a ton. Reaper, Pro Tools, Logic, FL Studio, and more. They all more or less have the same features just with some difference to workflow, prebuilt software, etc. If you play piano/keyboard this would probably be the best way to do it. The basic idea is that you assign specific instruments to certain channels and when you play with the keyboard it plays using those instruments. I'm a novice keyboardist myself but I am proficient enough to hybridize my approach, programming in the things I can't play and editing them to make them sound more human, while playing the things I can play more expressively than a strictly digital input would be.
Another important consideration is virtual instrument libraries. There are a load of them out there, some cheap and some not. Most of mine are pretty mid-level. Like most of the sounds you hear in this mod come from Spectrasonics Omnisphere which is a synthesizer and sampler.
I hope that makes sense.

TL;DR :
Music theory
-Learn it
Notation programs:
-Sheet music
-More traditional
-Sibelius, Finale, Notion, Musescore, GuitarPro, others
DAW(Digital Audio Workstation)
-Recording studio setup
-Better for live playing MIDI keyboard
-Some offer prebuilt instruments
-Studio One, Pro Tools, Logic, FL Studio, Ableton, Reaper, and lots more
Virtual Instruments
-Better sounding than PC MIDI
-EastWest, Spectrasonics, 8Dio, Spitfire, Kontakt, Orchestral Tools(brand), many more

 

[EX_plode]

Of course!
I would definitely start with learning the basics of music theory. Just what keys are, what chords and scales are, things like that. That'll help you to get a sense of what you're writing and why it sounds the way it does.
As for programs, there are a few different ways to start composing music digitally.
Notation programs are super easy for organization and looking at exactly what you're writing(through sheet music). Sibelius is the main one I use but Finale is decent as well. Those are the two big name ones. Musescore is free I think, and Presonus Notion doesn't cost very much plus comes with free decent quality sounding instruments. If you don't play any instruments this is probably your best bet.
As a guitarist I also sometimes use GuitarPro in helping me sketch things out, which is effectively a notation program that focuses on guitar and band related instruments but still has the capability for rudimentary composition the regular way.
The last way off the top of my head would be to get a DAW, if you have a MIDI keyboard. I use Presonus Studio One 3 myself, but there are a ton. Reaper, Pro Tools, Logic, FL Studio, and more. They all more or less have the same features just with some difference to workflow, prebuilt software, etc. If you play piano/keyboard this would probably be the best way to do it. The basic idea is that you assign specific instruments to certain channels and when you play with the keyboard it plays using those instruments. I'm a novice keyboardist myself but I am proficient enough to hybridize my approach, programming in the things I can't play and editing them to make them sound more human, while playing the things I can play more expressively than a strictly digital input would be.
Another important consideration is virtual instrument libraries. There are a load of them out there, some cheap and some not. Most of mine are pretty mid-level. Like most of the sounds you hear in this mod come from Spectrasonics Omnisphere which is a synthesizer and sampler.
I hope that makes sense.

TL;DR :
Music theory
-Learn it
Notation programs:
-Sheet music
-More traditional
-Sibelius, Finale, Notion, Musescore, GuitarPro, others
DAW(Digital Audio Workstation)
-Recording studio setup
-Better for live playing MIDI keyboard
-Some offer prebuilt instruments
-Studio One, Pro Tools, Logic, FL Studio, Ableton, Reaper, and lots more
Virtual Instruments
-Better sounding than PC MIDI
-EastWest, Spectrasonics, 8Dio, Spitfire, Kontakt, Orchestral Tools(brand), many more

Thanks! It sounds like money and hardware is needed for a proper setup, and I am not sure if I am serious enough to commit to either. However, I appreciate your time taken to respond, and you never know, something may come of this...

 

[ciadude2]

Not a problem
Money and hardware does make it easier, but there are options. Musescore for example is free. For virtual instruments, one I forgot to mention is DSKMusic which has a bunch of free ones that are surprisingly high quality. Virtuoso is their bread and butter "orchestral" VST but they have others as well.
With a bit of Googling you can find just about any instrument you'd ever want to use.

 

[Axelius]

Really nice music, keep up the good work and I hope you get to have it or other music released as DLC

 

[ciadude2]

Really nice music, keep up the good work and I hope you get to have it or other music released as DLC

Thank you! I hope to end up with this mod being quite lengthy in the near future. As for having my music released as DLC... that'd be a dream come true .

I really do appreciate the kind words. They mean a lot to me.

 

[DBT85]

Love the quick listen I've just had, will find it on the workshop!

 

[ciadude2]

Love the quick listen I've just had, will find it on the workshop!

Thank you! The name is identical on the workshop

 

[Axelius]

Thank you! I hope to end up with this mod being quite lengthy in the near future. As for having my music released as DLC... that'd be a dream come true .

I really do appreciate the kind words. They mean a lot to me.

I know enough people trying to work with music and arts to know how tough of a thing it is. Especially with jerks like me who won't pay one euro for a single song, but will gladly spend 5 for a DLC with some extra music to be played in a game.

 

[ciadude2]

Hehehe it is a tough field, for sure. Very competitive.

 

[EX_plode]

POSSIBLE BUG REPORT:

As far as I can tell from my testing, your mod works when downloaded as a folder, but not from the steam workshop. This may just be my end acting up, but other mods from the workshop have worked for me.

If the problem is your end, I have an idea as to what it might be: your music folder in the mod directory is capitalised i.e. "Music". In the Stellaris game directory, it appears lowercase as "music". I have heard reports that Steam Workshop is funny about case-sensitivity, so this may be it.

Strange that no-one else has reported this, so it may just be me

 

[Warial]

Nice to see a familiar face over here. Great music!

 

[ciadude2]

POSSIBLE BUG REPORT:

As far as I can tell from my testing, your mod works when downloaded as a folder, but not from the steam workshop. This may just be my end acting up, but other mods from the workshop have worked for me.

If the problem is your end, I have an idea as to what it might be: your music folder in the mod directory is capitalised i.e. "Music". In the Stellaris game directory, it appears lowercase as "music". I have heard reports that Steam Workshop is funny about case-sensitivity, so this may be it.

Strange that no-one else has reported this, so it may just be me

Thank you! Although that's odd because the two files should be identical... Hmm. I'll see what I can find out.

Nice to see a familiar face over here. Great music!

Hello
Thank you!

 

[EX_plode]

Thank you! Although that's odd because the two files should be identical... Hmm. I'll see what I can find out.

From what I have heard, Steam is more picky about case-sensitivity than Stellaris, so capital "Music" will work with the folder, but not Steam Workshop.

 

[ciadude2]

From what I have heard, Steam is more picky about case-sensitivity than Stellaris, so capital "Music" will work with the folder, but not Steam Workshop.

A super odd problem, for sure. In any case, I updated the Workshop version with a lowercase music folder so hopefully that resolved your issue. Thank you again!

 

[EX_plode]

A super odd problem, for sure. In any case, I updated the Workshop version with a lowercase music folder so hopefully that resolved your issue. Thank you again!

Can confirm that the Steam Workshop download now works.

I am still using the folder however, purely because I prefer to modify it so that it adds the new songs instead of overwriting the old soundtrack. With Steam, you only get a .mod file, no actual mod to look at. Not sure how that works, but whatever.

Anyway, once again, thanks for making such a great music mod!

 

[satyrlord]

Great job, keep up the good work!