Vive le Roi: A French Baroque Music Mod [v1.2 Released!]
Vive le Roi v1.2
An Authentic Music Mod containing music and marches by exclusively French Baroque composers (minus one monarchist propaganda song for the main menu ), including:
Vanilla European campaign music, loading screen music, pre/post battle screen music, land and naval(v1.1) battle music is all completely replaced with the beautiful and grandiose pieces of the above composers from the Ancien Régime.
I have downloaded many music mods, and though generally high in quality, few are dedicated to one time period and none capture the essence of a single nation and culture, but instead aim at accommodating the music of many nations and periods. I'm a stickler for historical immersion, and needless to say I got tired of hearing Scottish highlander songs and 19th century symphonies while playing as the glorious nation of France under Louis XIV. Fortunately I have always been passionate about Baroque music so it was not difficult to consolidate and integrate my collection of French composers. I hope you enjoy it! Change log (1.1) 3/23/10:
Naval battle music completely renovated
Two land battle marches replaced with more fitting pieces
New, more efficient file format -> see install instructions
Change log (1.2) 4/18/10:
Details:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I realised a few days ago that I had done a rather careless job with the land battle music. So, over the last couple days I've been searching for better pieces or marches, and I'm happy with the results. Three marches are added in this version, which I believe are more immersive and authentic (all three are composed by Lully- evidently, his contributions to the French Baroque period and military music of the French armies were unrivaled!).
I also tweaked the remaining land battle tracks so that they no longer skip out in the middle, improved sound quality by ironing out most pops or clicks, and deleted superfluous silent parts of the tracks at the beginning and end. As a result of all this, the 1.2 pack is around 30mb smaller than previous versions with no compromise in amount of content. No land battle track was left untouched.
Finally, there are two new loading screen pieces and one new campaign piece.
I hope you enjoy this update! As always, feedback is appreciated .
Outline:
Land battle music renovated:
Three better marches added
Technical issues fixed- no more skipping out in the middle of tracks (as can be controlled... this may still happen as an unfixable sound bug with ETW), sound quality improved (fewer pops and clicks), needless silent parts of tracks at beginning and end deleted for smaller pack file size
To install, simply download the above archive and extract vive_le_roi_music.pack to your data folder, overwriting old versions if necessary, and then activate using the mod manager. Compatibility:
Tested and compatible with vanilla and Darth Mod (DMUC) but should be compatible with all mods that don't alter music. Credits:
Major thanks to jarnomiedema for his direct help and input!
La♔De♔Da♔Brigadier Graham for his advice.
Maximinus Thrax for his music suggestions.
LtChambers for his Pack File Manager, without which this mod would not be possible.
And of course, the French Baroque composers for their brilliant works!
Don't hesitate to post if you have feedback or are experiencing problems!
Last edited by Hilarion; July 15, 2011 at 04:17 PM.
Ok, I'm looking for something different... Flac or AAC with 6 channels, something not possible I think if you are aware that no one has this type of sound system or the time for uploading up to 4 GB.
Anyway, I will try it the next week. It seems interesting.
Yes please do. I probably should have released this before NTW was released... but I'm sure there are still some ancien régime diehards around who may appreciate it.
I was looking forward to downloading this and giving it a try, but unfortunately megaupload is indicating that this file is 'temporarily unavailable for download'..
Could you perhaps upload it somewhere else as well? Thanks in advance!
I was looking forward to downloading this and giving it a try, but unfortunately megaupload is indicating that this file is 'temporarily unavailable for download'..
Could you perhaps upload it somewhere else as well? Thanks in advance!
This could just be an anomaly... it appears to be working for me and according to Megaupload there have been 13 other downloads so far. Regardless, if your problem persists I could upload it at Filefront, though given the size it would have to be in two parts.
From what I can tell, the download seems to be working now..
Nevertheless, it's probably a good idea to upload it somewhere else as well in case it happens to other people..
It's downloading now and I probably won't have time to test it out until tomorrow, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.. For some reason Baroque music combined with Empire: TW sounds like a match made in heaven..
Are you also planning to make similar mods for other factions or perhaps an all-factions encompassing baroque music mod?
For some reason I think this might be fantastic in-game:
Last edited by jarnomiedema; March 21, 2010 at 07:20 PM.
I think I will wait to see if there are any problems with its current state before uploading the mod to other sites. Some volume levels may need to be adjusted, and I may add music for naval battles.
Depending on feedback I could release a similar mod for the British faction, once I'm completely finished with this one. As I said I'm trying to keep it faction-specific... there are already several good baroque/classical music mods with broad scopes.
In any case do remember to leave feedback once you get around to trying it out!
Last edited by Hilarion; March 21, 2010 at 07:34 PM.
Well, I tried it out and I have a few suggestions / ideas / comments, etc.. All with the best of intentions, so please don't take it as some kind of harsh criticism..
First of all: I'm going to apologize in advance for the length of this post.. Secondly: I must say that the selection of music is very good indeed. It definitely immerses you in the atmosphere of the 18th century and certainly evokes that feeling even more when you play as France.
However, there are three pieces of music that stand out as a bit strange: the first is "La Marche des Mousquetaires Noirs". The second is the "Te Deum". The Mousquetaires Noirs sounds strange because (unlike the other pieces of music) it's a bit pompous and in a seemingly completely different style. The "Te Deum" actually made me laugh while I was playing the game, because the game switched between one of those awesome baroque marches you've included to the "Te Deum", just when my units opened fire (which is usually the moment when the music switches). I immediately thought of the opening tune of the Eurovision song contest, and all seriousness had gone out of the battle..
The last one is the main menu music: for some reason a sung version of Vive le Roi doesn't seem to work with the epic feel that the main menu music is supposed to convey (at least, I thought so).
Maybe these are personal preferences, but I decided to replace those three files with the following:
In place of the Te Deum I used Lully's "Ballet de la Nuit" Ouverture, certainly less known as the Te Deum, but still incredibly powerful and therefore just as effective:
In place of Mousequetaires Noirs, I used Lully's "Air pour les Matelots jouant des Trompettes Marines" from Xerxes. As far as I'm concerned, another suitably epic piece of music for use in battle:
For the main menu music, I used "Vive Henri IV", from this video, without the sung part that's added to the end:
Also, with regards to the way the mod is structured: by modifying the original patch.pack and sounds_music.pack, you're probably chasing away a lot of potential downloaders, who don't want to go through the hassle of either backing up their originals or turning your mod into a seperate mod or patch .pack file. Furthermore, by deleting the files emp_mus_loadscreen_01_v1.00.mp3 and emp_mus_loadscreen_02_v1.00.mp3 from patch.pack, your mod is a little bit tricky to turn into a mod / patch file for inexperienced modders.
What I did to overcome the above problem and turn this mod into an actual mod file is to replace the above mentioned files with two .mp3's of complete silence. That way, the files are still replaced by the modding system, but don't play anything at all anymore, except those files you created to replace the ambient sounds!
So with a bit of tweaking, the music is now a seperate mod rather than files that you have to replace, the loading screen music works and I added the above mentioned pieces of music. If you're interested, I can upload it somewhere so you can check it out..
Your input is much appreciated! I was wavering over using those two battle pieces, and I agree that they're best replaced. Your suggestions are great; however, the one problem I do have is with the length... one and a half or two minute pieces on loop can get monotonous, especially in a prolonged battle. That was one advantage of the Te Deum and Mousquetaires Noirs, but on reflection, I think yours are better choices.
It's a matter of opinion but I'd rather keep the main menu song as it is... the main menu isn't really "in-game" so I think I'm allowed a little creative license here .
About the format... I had actually imagined my format being easier for installation purposes, but your format would reduce the size of the download considerably and the potential for conflict with other mods, so I'm all for changing it. Please do upload it though! I might use an audio editor to cut down on the size of some files, and increase the volume of the campaign music. I think I'll also add music for naval battles (and am willing to take suggestions from you or anyone else on this!).
Thank you very much again . Official credit will certainly be given when the next version is released.
Last edited by Hilarion; March 22, 2010 at 03:19 PM.
It's roughly 450 MB, fully packed. The changes I made, including the main menu screen music, have been included. Enjoy and good luck with the further modding!
Ironically I'm now getting the same error you got with my download earlier...
Nevermind, it's working fine now. Thanks once more. I hope you don't mind if I use that as the template for future versions? Credit will be given of course, as promised.
Last edited by Hilarion; March 22, 2010 at 05:55 PM.
Thank you! And yes, that is one of the pieces (loading screen, I believe) included in the mod . In fact I used several of Lully's works, considering he was certainly among the most prolific of the French Baroque composers.
Re: Vive le Roi: A French Baroque Music Mod [v.1.1 Released!]
Excellent work! This would probably be among the first mods to install after buying ETW. Hope you don't mind if I'll list some of my favorites works - the first three could be already in your pack.
Vive le Roi: A French Baroque Music Mod [v1.2 Released!]
), including:
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Originally Posted by Isabelxxx
Secondly: I must say that the selection of music is very good indeed. It definitely immerses you in the atmosphere of the 18th century and certainly evokes that feeling even more when you play as France.
