Soundtracks for your games?

[waterdhavian]

I don't recall if there was a thread like this on the old boards, but I am wondering if anyone uses music or soundtracks during game play.  I am looking to set up some good tunes to play for my next campaign.  The soundtrack from the movie 'The Rock' has always been a favorite.  Thing is I want good background music nothing that will totally steal the attention from my players, but rather enhance game play.  Anyone else do this or have suggestions?

Example:
A buddy of mine plays his Ipod loaded with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and other fantasy type music for our D&D games.  Its funny cause sometimes the music mimics what we are doing.  Getting ready for a big fight and the music becomes faster and more heroic.  Or since we are playing with action dice we sometime will want to match heroics with the music.

I can see this being really fun with a well prepared soundtrack that reflects the plot of the game.

[Psion]

Well, for D&D, I use the D&D soundtrack by Midnight Syndicate, and a few other things.

I don't have any of my own selections picked out for Spycraft, but when we play over at one of my players' houses, he has a load of espionage movie/show soundtracks he plays in the background.

[Aragathor]

I use several different soundtracks for my games.
Military game:
C&C soundtracks (C&C, Generals, Red Alert 1&2, Renegade)

Espionage (007 style)
Cowboy Bebop OST
Cherry Poppin Daddies
Music fitting to the scene - club music for discos, local music for exotic locations like Japan, Near East and so on. Recently I used succesfully the "No Mercy - My Promise" album as background for Madrid.

[Morgenstern]

Yeah. I often listen to Cowboy Bebop as I'm writing. Good Stuff.

[Mister Andersen]

I quite like the scores to the Matrix films, and Sin City has some good moody pieces to it. Similarly, the score to Aliens.

[OverNinja]

Bond theme collection, Star Wars OSTs... I need to buy more suitable music for Spycraft, as my collection is more suited to Star Wars or any kind space opera. The Rock soundtrack is one good example of the ones I'm missing.

[ThunderMonkey]

(I really need to read more carefully...) 

Juno Reactor would be good for any modern setting. I prize my Equilibrium soundtrack (by Klaus Badlet) that took me nearly two months to collect.

Back in my D&D days "The Last of the Mohicans" and Enigma were the mainstays in the CD player.

[Mister Andersen]

Juno Reactor, huh? You, Sir, are a man of taste.

[Crafty_Pat]

Juno Reactor and Midnight Syndicate rule (and Ed Douglas is a great guy). I could be biased there, of course, since I wrote the flavor text on their last album, but I loved them long, long before that.

The Rock score is awesome, but my favorite score of all time is probably Crimson Tide, which I play a lot when writing. My needs at the keyboard are often similar to those of gaming - few vocals, inspirational instrumentation, etc. - but it all depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. In terms of mood, I'm very much a method writer, at least emotionally. The sky's the limit, though, when I'm writing rules, editing, laying a product out, or handling general administrative stuff. Then I listen to the full range - everything from VNV Nation to Groove Coverage to Jack Off Jill to Poe.

Speaking strictly of gaming noise, though...

Hideaway soundtrack (the last four tracks are gold for horror games, and as an added bonus, the disc features some bad-ass tracks from KMFDM, Sister Machine Gun, Miranda Sex Garden, and others)

The Fog score (one of the best cinema discs ever)
Escape From New York score (ditto - also from John Carpenter)
Halloween score (I'll stop with the John Carpenter stuff now - his early score work is all fantastic)
Planet Terror score (okay, one more - this one is pretty seriously germinated by Carpenter's work - it even incorporates some of the original rifs)
Doctor Who scores (from the new show - they're quite good)
13th Warrior score
Speed score
Deep Impact score
Professional/Leon score
La Femme Nikita score
Arrival score
Mimic score
Usual Suspects score (fantastic for 10kB)
Blade Runner score
Dragonheart score
Rocketeer score
Pan's Labyrinth score (easily one of the best of 2006)
Alien movie scores (especially Alien 3)
Terminator movie scores (especially the first two)
Any of the Cirque du Soleil stuff (no, I'm serious - it's awesome for ambient enterprises)

And for my money, the best Bond score by far was World is Not Enough (which also featured one of the best title themes of the entire 21-movie run)

Good gaming composers: Mark Snow (X-Files, Disturbing Behavior, Smallville, Syphon Filter, and about a million other things), Christopher Franke (Buffy, Babylon 5, Thief score - which is stellar, Legend, Firestarter, and again, about a million other things), E.S. Posthumus (parts of Spy Game, Planet of the Apes, Time Machine, and other stuff), Carl Orff (Carmina Burana, Antigone), Jerry Goldsmith (Man From U.N.C.L.E., First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Mummy, Alien Nation, Poltergeist, Logan's Run, Patton, L.A. Confidential, Psycho II, and more than I can possibly list here - he is deeply missed), and the aforementioned Hans Zimmer (Crimson Tide, Gladiator, Last Samurai, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean), Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings, The Game, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs), Graeme Revell (The Crow, Sin City, From Dusk til Dawn), James Horner (Willow, Cocoon, Legends of the Fall). Everyone loves John Williams, and he's really good, but his stuff is so iconic that I find it largely useless for gaming purposes.

Good gaming bands: Cruciform Injection (the guys who made the Obsidian RPG - they often play at GenCon Indy), Dead Can Dance (also good for horror), Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Crystal Method, Orb, Paul Oakenfold, Cruxshadows, Covenant, Conjure One, And One, Clan of Xymox, Bella Morte, Birthday Massacre, Apoptygma Berserk, M83 (their "Unrecorded" was used in the original Nightwatch trailer). Some of those bands produce lots of stuff with words, so it's a mixed bag if your group is prone to distracts from background noise. All of them produce at least some non-vocal stuff, though, and all is evocative and atmospheric.

If you can find them, I also recommend the Blizzard scores (World of Warcraft, Starcraft, etc.). Good stuff.

And of course, for fantasy, nothing touches Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian score.

[stu2000]

One of the Soma FM family of internet radio stations is called Secret Agent, and sets the mood quite nicely.

[Crafty_Pat]

One of the Soma FM family of internet radio stations is called Secret Agent, and sets the mood quite nicely.

You have a URL for that?

[stu2000]

http://somafm.com/

Click on Secret Agent, crack open some cognac and cobra anti-venin, and you're ready to go.

[Crafty_Pat]

As it happens, I'm listening to Live 365 as I work on the print books tonight - specifically, a new station I've found called SciFantasy, which rules. It's currently playing a track from the (relatively) new Time Machine score by Klaus Badelt called "I Don't Belong Here." Great for fantastic gaming - pulp and the like. I may have to pick that score up...

[Crafty_Pat]

Oh! Turns out Badelt also did the Equilibrium score, which is mighty. Also featured on SciFantasy, BTW.

[Gentry]

I was surfing around for something in the "old-west" variety a while back, and came across Hayseed Dixie, which is a (get ready for it) bluegrass band that does metal covers.

You wouldn't think a banjo quartet could do "You Shook me All Night Long", but it's surprisingly addictive stuff.  I've almost got to do a Spycraft mission set in Mississippi at some point, just so I can use this stuff.