My Feedback on the New Music

[lakhnish]

Hi. Changes were made to the music in the game for the season of Autumn. This is my feedback on it. Because this is music and I'm bad at this type of stuff, I'll do my best to explain why, even if it sounds like a baby babbling, particularly at me trying to identify instruments. 

If I make a mistake anywhere or missed something, please let me know. I'll might also include some artificial gameplay as well to see the difference in actions, but that may take some time and will depend on my mood. I might include timestamps for the music too, but that's also more work.

I'll start with what I like and then what I think could use some improvements. I guess @dansorce is the person of interest for this too? Keep in mind that I'm listening to the music and comparing them while writing this as well.

The Fighting/Danger music:

This music plays when you are fighting normal mobs (aka not boss mobs like Bearger or the Shadow Pieces, which have their own music).

• This is the old sound.
• This is the new sound 1, 2 and 3. (It chooses any of the three at random, but I don't notice much of a difference, which is fine).

Feedback: I have zero issues with it. In fact, I like it a lot more than the old one. It sounds like I'm fighting in the season of Autumn. Nothing too intense, it's just string instruments that sound like Autumn and I'm fighting something. 

Same level of intensity as before (you're in danger/fighting) and the more "intense" parts of it has some flutes playing instead of the drum cymbals from before, which still keeps it rather calm/not super intense. Again, zero issues.

 

Now for the music that I think needs improvement.

The Busy/Working Music:

This music is played during Autumn on the surface when you're chopping trees, mining stuff, digging stuff, and what I would consider to be very important, crafting stuff.

• This is the old one.
• This is the new one.

Feedback: I really am not a fan of this new music and I'll try my best to explain as best as possible.

Autumn itself is a cool, chill, and relaxing season to play. Under the old theme, the music was rather slow-paced, it was somewhat subtle, and the choice of instruments makes it rather calm and relaxing (I hear some calm wind instruments, some calm string instruments, a trumphet-like sound here and there, and I think a xylephone?).

It felt like I was frolicking/being busy in the wild in the season of Autumn. Chop a tree/mining something? Rather chill. Make a few boards? Also rather relaxing.

Now, with this new work music, it just sounds so I N T E N S E. In fact, I feel that it's more intense than the new fight music and makes it feel like I'm in danger instead. It also doesn't make me feel relaxed anymore cause of fast paced it is. 

Go to chop some trees? I'm working like there's no tomorrow. Mine some rocks? Mine like no tomorrow. Refining some stuff, like rope or boards? I gotta refine a million boards to match the intensity of the work music. Need to work hard, faster, and as efficiently as possible, like I'm working in a workshop or in a city.

It would fit perfectly for Hamlet when you're in town being busy, but not in DST for Autumn work, where I think the calm, relaxing busy music suited it best :'(

I also think the instrument choice is playing a role too. The sounds overall sound so much "heavier" too. It's like hard bells being hit, very deep string instruments, deep xylephones/piano sounds. It's not like the instrument choice from before where everything was lighter in tune and intensity that made me feel like I was frolicking/relaxing.

Oh, and at the timestamp here, the music gets super intense, like something dark and brooding is occurring, even though I'm just making some boards.

 

And yea, that's my best way at trying to explain it. This was harder to explain cause I'm listening to the music side-by-side while writing this and I'm not good with this type of stuff, so I can only really get the emotions across unlike Lua where I can say line XYZ is the issue. I'll try to provide time stamps/improve upon this post, but I make no promises.

You also mentioned sailing music? I didn't hear anything different from the above music, though I could have missed it or its in the RoT beta. I need to play around with it.

[Pruinae]

I also don't know a lot about music, but I agree with everything said.
Old work music feels like I am walking, doing things step-by-step, while the new work music feels like I'm running from something.

[Remps]

new one reminds me gorge, time and tempo i dont know but i love old one

[Picklesaurus]

While I do agree that the new "busy/working music" isn't fit for when you're making boards, I'd say that I do really like the new song, It feels like you're exploring and you don't know what dangers awaits or that you're doing your own stuff (mining, cutting trees, etc) but should still take care and pay attention to the dangers lurking around in the constant. I also like the new combat music.

Btw, they do such a great job when creating those musics, those instrumental sounds are stupendous. Props to the people involved in the creation of them.

 

[YouKnowWho]

Yeah, the new one has a much heavier sense of dread to it, and I think it really adds to the atmosphere. 

I mean, you wouldn’t wake up on a deserted island and start going for a casual stroll, would you? 

[SinancoTheBest]

I appreciate the new songs, they are nice addition but I cannot accept them at the expense of the old ones. Just like you said I think Autumn Work music is very important and I don't think the new work theme fits at all, whereas the old one was perfect. I hope Klei transfers this song to the sailing(rowing, steering...) or Lunar Island activities. Same goes for fight, I think fighting song is very good and I can imagine myself just listening to it in my own time like summer work theme but I don't want to lose the good old fighting theme. I'm puzzled by how Kle is yet to note anything about the music changes on the update logs. Makes me think they are either trolling or testing the grounds.

[goatt]

The new music just turns me off so quickly. I noticed the difference it made to my brain right away when I heard it.

The old ones sound delightful, relaxing and spirit-lifting. It was able to penetrate my brain and stuck there loop over and over. They were really good music. The new ones, however, are slow-paced as you mentioned.

Especially the new work/busy music, the melody doesn't have obvious ups and downs, and the instrument has a heavy tone, like it wants to remind me survival is hard, as if it tries to overwhelm me while I am working base. Same with fighting music, the instrument choice make the music sound more grand, like I'm facing great challenge in a grand arena or background. I don't want to get reminded of that. I want to feel brave and feel that I can do it. I wanna feel bloodthirsty and happy. I want the game to tell me that I can try and fail and try again. But the new music just have a depressing, creepy feeling. Tbh, the old music feels newer compared to the reworked music.

This is a more individualistic RPG, it doesn't have a obvious story line, I don't need the sense of grand picture. I want to feel that I'm working towards my own goal, and I need to feel a good mood. Those new music as general background music is bad. They may be good for boss fight music.

Music is hard to describe, and everyone has different background deriving various preference. I don't have deep understanding in instrumental or classic music. But my feeling is real. New music is overwhelming and depressing. They instantly remind me of old music, and in fact old music was playing in my head as I played. This is how good old music was and how bad the new one is. Subjectively bad.

[Terra B Welch]

Yeah, I'm no fan of the new music myself, I'm so used to the old autumn theme, it's an oldie and a goodie.

The new themes feel like they belong off the mainland, out at sea or on the moon island(or new islands that get added).

For now, Mobbstar was nice enough to make a mod to restore the old autumn themes, and I'll gladly use it, but I know some people would rather not resort to mods.

[lakhnish]

2 hours ago, SinancoTheBest said:

I appreciate the new songs, they are nice addition but I cannot accept them at the expense of the old ones. Just like you said I think Autumn Work music is very important and I don't think the new work theme fits at all, whereas the old one was perfect. I hope Klei transfers this song to the sailing(rowing, steering...) or Lunar Island activities.

 

17 minutes ago, Terra M Welch said:

The new themes feel like they belong off the mainland, out at sea or on the moon island(or new islands that get added).

Now that you mentioned it, they do sound like they fit more so for exploring the ocean than for Autumn work since sailing out at sea would match the energy coming from these new tunes.

[Cpt. KatKit]

The new songs would fit if they replaced the old ones at night instead of during the day.

[Zeklo]

Yeah when I first heard the new work music I immediately thought it was intended for the Lunar Island or maybe even sailing.

It very much has that "exploring the unknown" feel to it with a looming sense of dread.

[Crystal Kourosh]

new autumn work sounds like a scrapped gorge theme, the part where you lose that is.

[FireKestrel]

Why is everyone saying the new music fits the lunar island?

I went to the lunar island and the new music doesn't fit there AT ALL (especially with the ambience), but it fits fine on the main island.

[BushmannGG1392]

The new music reminds me of Mario and Luigi mixed with Hamlet or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, rather than DST.

However, the old music fit so perfectly to capture the feeling of Wilson working.

[lunazone]

I love the music, but it's a bit intense for crafting a garland I gotta say.

[. . .]

Klei should add some new settings then each player can configure what music they want to hear or not... I mean mods have configuration settings to change almost every detail about them, so why can't Klei add some more settings to change various things too and give more freedom to the player ?

Like there's already settings for pointless things like Wigfrid's umlauts thing... it's about time they really should add settings which actually matter like insanity sounds volume, what music you want to hear, the intensity of insanity's saturation effect, ect..

[mirrormind]

the old autumn music just sounds way more genuine , the new autumn music sounds like they're trying to replicate the DS atmosphere with more modern compositions but that's all they're doing is trying to copy it

it goes in hand with how over the years the game has lost its scratchy sketch artstyle and has become a lot more modern and clean looking . just like how they removed literally all of the artistic stylization from the water and even the new waves ; in favour of generic cartoon water

the new autumn music would be okay if it only played during the night or dusk since it sounds like a night or dusk track , but it really doesn't sound much different from modded music that tries to copy DS . the old one was just better composed

[sudoku]

Considering DST was always supposed to be a sequel of sorts to DS I like that they are refreshing both characters and music to further make DST its own thing. They should have taken this approach at the beginning before people got even more attached to music that was already 3+ years old when DST released.  

[lakhnish]

Is bug. Case Closed (for now).

 

[kiwikenobi]

2 hours ago, lakhnish said:

Is bug. Case Closed (for now).

 

Oh, thank goodness it wasn't what Klei intended to do! I was just so baffled by the choice to replace pretty much the most iconic song of Don't Starve. The one that every single person who plays it will hear, even if they die almost right away. Adding new music is good and I'm all for it, but not to replace the music that's already there.

I've never used a mod, but I was getting ready to use the one to change the music back. Perhaps now I won't have to do that.

[FireKestrel]

I don't the music is being changed back, as the comment sounds more like they used the wrong version of the song and it's going to be changed to the correct version.

[Rebellion711]

Agreed to everything you described here. I have to admit that I would be extremely happy if Klei added an option to mix old/new music or select that either updated or old plays in game, since it's client based rather than server based.

[kiwikenobi]

I'm choosing to tentatively interpret "the real version is coming soon" as being that the new music, or a version of it, will be implemented in some other part of the game, and the regular autumn music will be put back. Otherwise, I would think that they would just say, "this is not a bug, we meant to change the music for autumn."

(Please, Klei, please, I don't want to have to mod the original music back in, there was nothing wrong with it, I love that song...)

[Terra B Welch]

Also hearing the old autumn theme after surviving a hellish year of winter, spring and summer feels far more like a breath of relief.

I honestly hope that them saying it's a bug means it's not meant to be on the mainland.

[CameoAppearance]

I have no problem with the new music in a vacuum, I was just weirded out by the autumn music suddenly being different when it had been the same in both singleplayer and DST since well before I started playing in 2015.

I think that response does mean it was intended for a different part of the game; surely the bug report would have been closed if the music was replaced on purpose, even if it was replaced with the wrong song.