bard song progression

[jnn123]

What if Larian implements a bard song progression in patch 7. Lets say with a collected money from the songs you unlock new songs. Some hidden sheets with music, which you read, unlock new songs etc. Some other new ideas? What songs do u wish?

[Kussin]

I can just take my guitar, keyboard and record it - then edit it in ableton, no problem. Or take it raw, tho, i'd take the couple of minutes effort ot master it properly.

you still have (obviously) no idea about what you are talking, so better stop it.


"Month of work"
i cant even.

Something like the raphael song is month of work, yes. But not the bard songs.

[jnn123]

Originally posted by Kussin:

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Yes it's just 6 instruments that don't have to just sound good by themselves but also when combined with each other, not just all of them together either. This is months of work for a composer who also has other projects, recording, etc. You all vastly underestimate the time and effort that's behind this. If you are fine with AI ♥♥♥♥ tier quality and phrasing you can ---> make it yourself and mod it in.

Iam working with Ableton and Steinberg for years now and you vastly overestimate the time it takes. It is not a month; not at all. Not even remotely to a month. And you vastly underestimate the capabilities of AI these days; many do.

Something like the bard songs in BG3 are _literally_ generated with a few clicks.
(Not talking about gems like raphaels song, the OST or similar; just the bard songs)

Kussin, what do u think, would it be possible and easy to implement, if they implemented following: you swing your mouse while you r playing a bard song and it produces a harmonic song that changes it tempo with intensity you swing etc and melody based on the direction of the mouse swing for example?

[Kussin]

That goes too much into game developement/coding where i have no clue off. Possible ofc, we have that in other games, but i'd have no idea how to approach it. That would surely take a lot longer and is better adressed to someone used to game developement.

[Clown Inc.]

Originally posted by Kussin:

I can just take my guitar, keyboard and record it - then edit it in ableton, no problem. Or take it raw, tho, i'd take the couple of minutes effort ot master it properly.

you still have (obviously) no idea about what you are talking, so better stop it.


"Month of work"
i cant even.

Something like the raphael song is month of work, yes. But not the bard songs.

Okay take your guitar, your keyboard, your lute, your flute, your lyre, your drum, your violin and mouth whistle.

Now record the song for all of those on their own (keep it mind it needs to be rearranged because all of these instrument have differing ranges). Now do it again for guitar and drum, then guitar and flute, then guitar and violin etc. etc. Ad nauseum.

You either vastly overestimate your own ability or underestimate ACTUAL music composition efforts.

[Clown Inc.]

Originally posted by jnn123:

Maybe they should ask the composers of their Raphael songs and give them some money, I am sure they'll come up with something good :D

Most sensible take in this thread by far

[Kussin]

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Originally posted by Kussin:

I can just take my guitar, keyboard and record it - then edit it in ableton, no problem. Or take it raw, tho, i'd take the couple of minutes effort ot master it properly.

you still have (obviously) no idea about what you are talking, so better stop it.


"Month of work"
i cant even.

Something like the raphael song is month of work, yes. But not the bard songs.

Okay take your guitar, your keyboard, your lute, your flute, your lyre, your drum, your violin and mouth whistle.

Now record the song for all of those on their own (keep it mind it needs to be rearranged because all of these instrument have differing ranges). Now do it again for guitar and drum, then guitar and flute, then guitar and violin etc. etc. Ad nauseum.

You either vastly overestimate your own ability or underestimate ACTUAL music composition efforts.

You just sync the BPM. Thats it. There is no magic and no month of works behind it.
Not at all, still.

[jnn123]

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Originally posted by Kussin:

I can just take my guitar, keyboard and record it - then edit it in ableton, no problem. Or take it raw, tho, i'd take the couple of minutes effort ot master it properly.

you still have (obviously) no idea about what you are talking, so better stop it.


"Month of work"
i cant even.

Something like the raphael song is month of work, yes. But not the bard songs.

Okay take your guitar, your keyboard, your lute, your flute, your lyre, your drum, your violin and mouth whistle.

Now record the song for all of those on their own (keep it mind it needs to be rearranged because all of these instrument have differing ranges). Now do it again for guitar and drum, then guitar and flute, then guitar and violin etc. etc. Ad nauseum.

You either vastly overestimate your own ability or underestimate ACTUAL music composition efforts.

Maybe you can unlock some new songs for particular instruments if you want save some money of developers. And now there is a new idea - if 3 player play together, they produce a complete song that pre recorded, so you dont need to add the pieces together. If 4 player play, you can make them play this song in a rock'n roll manner, it would fit even in medi evil style :D

[Clown Inc.]

Originally posted by Kussin:

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Okay take your guitar, your keyboard, your lute, your flute, your lyre, your drum, your violin and mouth whistle.

Now record the song for all of those on their own (keep it mind it needs to be rearranged because all of these instrument have differing ranges). Now do it again for guitar and drum, then guitar and flute, then guitar and violin etc. etc. Ad nauseum.

You either vastly overestimate your own ability or underestimate ACTUAL music composition efforts.

You just sync the BPM. Thats it. There is no magic and no month of works behind it.
Not at all, still.

Have you ever actually played multiple instruments in the game? It's not just the solo track overlayed (which would be a horrible solution). They're tailored to each instrument combination, then also which instrument started playing which takes the dominant role. The other instruments then offer the backdrop. If you play the lute with the drums for instance, the lute doesn't rely too heavily on the bass clef since the drums can supplement a fair bit of that range, which allows the lute to play more complex melodies in the treble clef.

There is after all a reason why they hire actual professionals who have studied music for many years and have loads of experience, and not just Joe from Accounting who has a cracked FLstudio license and can't even read sheet music ;)

[hermit0wl]

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Originally posted by hermit0wl:

They do have a composer. I bet he's focused on their next project by now though.

He is not a larian employee, he is an independent contractor.

From an interview with Borislav Slavov:

AS: You are pretty much involved as an employee for Larian Studios, right?

BS: Yes, I am a full-time employee, and my main roles are composer and music director. Those are the main pillars that I am responsible for, but, of course, I am also a musician and a music editor because implementing the music is a job in its own right.

https://soundtrackworld.com/2024/04/borislav-slavov-interview/

Not that it means he should be making new bard songs for BG3.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Clown Inc.:

Creating musical pieces is way more effort on this scale than just "look you have this hat in green now" level coding. No matter how good of a developer you are, that has no effect on the creative process. This is way more costly to organise. Other "free updates" are made by people who are already full time employees of Larian - it's their job. Larian will have to fork over money to get music created.

Larian had a Bard-like character in Divinity OS2. iirk, their songs were learned as a combination of spell-like epiphanies and found in a drawer or chest.

i agree their is a level of difficulty in creating more songs, but they've done it already, so why did they change it ? Besides, they could reuse old audio from other games - i won't mind.

And to the OP, i love the idea of a Bard piecing together ancient or even non-standard rhythms to inspire their companions - i know i've found motivation in unexpected melodies.