Mice on Venus will always be piano3.ogg to me

March 4, 2011 11:12 PM

The soundtrack to Minecraft by C418 has recently been released for sale as an album. Price is whatever you want to pay, so long as it's at least $3.99.

The first link, to c418.org, currently redirects to the album page, due to heavy traffic. That's supposed to be resolved shortly, and will soon point to his real page. In the meantime, here's C418's soundcloud page, with a lot of great one-offs, collaborations, etc. Via reddit.

posted by inedible (52 comments total)

And, of course by first link, I mean second. That's just how I roll.
posted by inedible at 11:21 PM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's really beautiful stuff. It's strange to here it so uncompressed but the mix keeps some of the same feeling of the in game material while becoming more expansive.
posted by dagosto at 11:39 PM on March 4, 2011

This music makes me want to turn on all the lights in the house.
posted by ryanrs at 11:42 PM on March 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Minecraft music just makes me feel lonely and sad, and then I realize that my character is digging a hole, all alone, save for the occasional pig or creeper.

I know it's been said before, but damn, what a depressing game on singleplayer. You're dropped into a world with nothing, and attempt to give yourself a purpose in a world with no purpose. And unlike the real world, you have no friends, no civilization or really any form of society. You're just a lone intelligent tool user, trying to build some order and leave some mark of your existence via architecture in an untamed world.
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:12 AM on March 5, 2011 [14 favorites]

Depressing, exhilarating. ToMAYto toMAHto.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:21 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

You're dropped into a world with nothing, and attempt to give yourself a purpose in a world with no purpose. And unlike the real world, you have no friends, no civilization or really any form of society. You're just a lone intelligent tool user, trying to build some order and leave some mark of your existence via architecture in an untamed world.

Holy shit I must buy this game.
posted by Hoopo at 12:36 AM on March 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

I am totally getting this thing.

While we're here, anybody want to recommend similar stuff? That sort of beautiful trapped in infinity sound, ambient and peaceful and sad? Some of this C418 work reminds me a little of Ben Frost, which I love (and other music, of course, that's just the first thing that came to mind).
posted by tumid dahlia at 12:50 AM on March 5, 2011

You're just a lone intelligent tool user, trying to build some order and leave some mark of your existence via architecture in an untamed world.

lol gravel cock and balls
posted by Jofus at 12:54 AM on March 5, 2011 [5 favorites]

So it's not 'whatever you want to pay' - it's $3.99 & up.
posted by item at 12:55 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

You can get any color you want, so long as it's black.

Mincraft sounds like a lot of fun, but I already have enough ways to waste time...
posted by delmoi at 1:01 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Metacraft?
posted by item at 1:27 AM on March 5, 2011

tumid dahlia, C418's work reminds me a lot of the more reflective pieces from Braid's soundtrack, especially "Long Past Gone" by Jami Sieber.

Another good source is Clint Mansell's score for The Fountain -- incredibly somber, timeless stuff, particularly "The Last Man", "Stay With Me", "Xibalba", and "Together We Will Live Forever."
posted by Rhaomi at 1:43 AM on March 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

There is a kinda, sorta, not really official MetaFilter Minecraft server: Aporkalypse.
posted by LogicalDash at 3:42 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, I guess I must really enjoy being lonely, because I find Minecraft's soundtrack rather soothing.
posted by LogicalDash at 3:42 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

My favorite music for digging deep mines is this album. The other stuff at the Kahvi Collective is good as well.
posted by LogicalDash at 4:07 AM on March 5, 2011

So it's not 'whatever you want to pay' - it's $3.99 & up.

To be fair to the musician, his website says 'Now only 4 bucks! (or more)'. inedible is the one who added the 'pay what you want' part. I realize it's total pedantry but it bothered me too.
posted by graventy at 5:12 AM on March 5, 2011

Another game-themed recent release is Christopher Tin's Calling All Dawns, which just won a Grammy. It leads off with an awesome version of Baba Yetu from Civ IV, better than the original. It is an amazing, amazing album. Purely coincidentally, I'm listening to it right this second.

It plays best as a complete album, rather than individual tracks, pretty rare nowadays. Every song is good, and they're all in different languages. Most folks seem to really like #2, Mado Kara Mieru; my favorite is track 10, Hamsáfár. But there's not a one I don't like.

He offers it in MP3, lossless, and physical CD. My sole criticism is that the lossless version is just zipped AIFF files, so it has no tags, and is relatively large, about 430 megs.

Foobar 2000 is a great tool here. Use it to convert to FLAC (you may need to download the FLAC binary separately). Then remove the AIFF tracks and load the FLAC ones. Highlight them all, right click, choose Tagging, and "Get tags from remote freedb". It's incredibly smart about figuring out what album you're tagging; you'll probably get two options, both correct, but differing on their genre classification. Click the one you prefer, click Update Files, and they're tagged. If you want to get really adventurous, you can then rename the files to match the tags, so that the filenames have the correct accents. Foobar can do that for you as well.

Anyway, technical jabber aside, this is a FANTASTIC album. Highly recommended.
posted by Malor at 5:14 AM on March 5, 2011 [5 favorites]

It's going to be interesting listening to the music in a completely off context. I love the Minecraft soundtrack. There's only one other game's music I love just as much and that's Osmos (and they released the music free of charge, to boot!)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:49 AM on March 5, 2011

I know it's been said before, but damn, what a depressing game on singleplayer. You're dropped into a world with nothing, and attempt to give yourself a purpose in a world with no purpose. And unlike the real world, you have no friends, no civilization or really any form of society. You're just a lone intelligent tool user, trying to build some order and leave some mark of your existence via architecture in an untamed world.

My mental narrative for my (now sadly neglected) solo character is that he has awoken with no explanation in a world in which he is alone, and so he must dig and build, always dig and build, to keep the madness at bay.

We have not yet reached the crucial third act where he looks out over a small kingdom of luxuries that he can never share with anyone. I don't quite have the heart, because there's only one way out of that glass-house-with-a-floating--swimming-pool-balcony hell.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:05 AM on March 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Sssssssssssssssssssss
posted by The Whelk at 6:53 AM on March 5, 2011

We have not yet reached the crucial third act where he looks out over a small kingdom of luxuries that he can never share with anyone.

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that Notch would add, but:

Imagine if you could craft NPCs. Maybe start by being able to craft golems that obey commands more or less mindlessly, kind of like helper-squad-people in HL2. Then that there are very rare soul blocks, maybe available only in the nether, maybe that you can only get by killing a Big Bad Thing. And if you craft a golem+soul block you get a companion.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:56 AM on March 5, 2011 [8 favorites]

Excellent, now I can Chicken Freestyle on demand
posted by samsara at 7:03 AM on March 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Choose your own pricing with a price floor is just begging. Sell it for $4.
posted by polyhedron at 7:03 AM on March 5, 2011

Choose your own pricing with a price floor is just begging. Sell it for $4.

Isn't it rather more like "I have set a value on this product. If you wish to pay more for it, you have that option"? It's unlikely that anyone would do that when buying a fridge-freezer, but if you're selling something which is artisanal and may have emotional resonance to users beyond the cost of production and reproduction (the latter being very low, of course) plus your guess about an acceptable margin, it might be worth giving people the opportunity to express their emotional connection to your work with, in effect, a tip.

I wonder if I could listen to this while trying to fall asleep? It's very restful - but I already sometimes see Minecraft when I close my eyes, so maybe not such a good idea.
posted by DNye at 7:16 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Question: would this guy be getting royalties from Minecraft sales already?
posted by tumid dahlia at 7:19 AM on March 5, 2011

So it's not 'whatever you want to pay

It's already on FilesTube - so yeah, it is. I'm listening to it now.

For this kind of feel, try Harold Budd. I recommend The Pearl - one of his collaborations with Brian Eno.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:19 AM on March 5, 2011

I wonder if I could listen to this while trying to fall asleep? It's very restful - but I already sometimes see Minecraft when I close my eyes, so maybe not such a good idea.

And worry that I'll wake up with a creeper looming over my bed? Not a chance.
posted by octothorpe at 7:25 AM on March 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Choose your own pricing with a price floor is just begging. Sell it for $4.

I strongly disagree. Selling a quality artistic product for a low cost to make it affordable for all fans, then giving the buyer the entirely optional choice to donate more to support your art if they are able and willing is practically the opposite of begging.
posted by Aquaman at 7:28 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also: the sountracks to the Zen Bound and Zen Bound 2 iOS games - which you can get in exchange for an e-mail address here.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:59 AM on March 5, 2011

Also: the sountracks to the Zen Bound and Zen Bound 2

As Dainin Katagiri would no doubt say, "Awwwwww yeah."
posted by Jofus at 8:32 AM on March 5, 2011

We have not yet reached the crucial third act where he looks out over a small kingdom of luxuries that he can never share with anyone. I don't quite have the heart, because there's only one way out of that glass-house-with-a-floating--swimming-pool-balcony hell.
posted by middleclasstool

Does it involve Cameron Frye running his father's 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California in reverse to lower the odometer reading?
posted by mecran01 at 8:44 AM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is, it turns out, a compelling argument that the only way to actually win at Minecraft is to model a full scale recreation of Ferris Bueller's Chicago and suburbs.

At which point it will be revealed that Herobrine and Ferris are the same person.
posted by Jofus at 8:58 AM on March 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

DEADCRAFT
posted by The Whelk at 9:06 AM on March 5, 2011

Actually, the music in Minecraft has always reminded me in some strange way of Mogwai.
posted by jet_manifesto at 9:07 AM on March 5, 2011

I feel like I'm the only person on MetaFilter who can't play Minecraft because it runs unbearably slow on my computer. I can play CS Source and TF2 at reasonable framerates but I grind to a choppy halt in Minecraft while staring at a wall in a small underground room. It's too bad because it looks really fun.
posted by pravit at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2011

Did you try updating Java and videocard drivers, installing an optimization mod and turning down the settings?

Even then, though, Minecraft is a lot more resource-intensive than it should be. General consensus is that it's mostly due to being written in Java instead of a more gaming-friendly language like C++ (ironically, the game that inspired Minecraft, Infiniminer, was written in C++ and was released as open source when the project was abandoned by Zachtronics Industries). There's also some speculation (or maybe Notch said it himself) that the development is currently focused on developing new features and improving gameplay instead of optimization, which should happen before the final release.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:11 AM on March 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

That optimization mod makes a HUGE difference - thanks! Last time I searched around for optimizing minecraft FPS, I only found a thread suggesting I defrag my hard drive.
posted by pravit at 10:30 AM on March 5, 2011

And worry that I'll wake up with a creeper looming over my bed? Not a chance.

This is just to say

I exploded
the wood
that made up
your bed. And

the wool.
You were probably
hoping
to survive.

Forgive me.
It was delicious.
So sweet
to explode.
posted by DNye at 11:28 AM on March 5, 2011 [5 favorites]

Minecraft is my family's favorite group videogame. My 10-year old daughter is building gargantuan castles with plans to "rent" out rooms to us (but I get a free floor for providing all the dirt). My 7-year old son and are are the primary miners in the family. My wife plays the least, but has built a huge hoop in the sky. I'm in the process of building a train system connecting each of our "lands". I agree the music in Minecraft is really good. Especially when it's very quiet, then music starts just as you dig a tunnel into an underground cave lit by lava flows. Mmmmmm.
posted by dylanjames at 11:46 AM on March 5, 2011

To be fair, isn't all pricing like that? There is a minimum but who is going to say no if you want to throw in a couple extra bucks for good measure.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:18 PM on March 5, 2011

Bandcamp sure is jealous of my revolutionary device.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:26 PM on March 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Incidentally, everyone here heard that Minecraft's getting ported to iOS someday, right? I have no idea how that'll work, though, as I can't imagine FPS controls being intuitive on a touchscreen.
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:10 PM on March 5, 2011

Well, there are FPSes on IOS - most notably NOVA. Personally, I find FPSes largely unfun to play on touchscreens, but it is just about possible. I wouldn't want to play Minecraft on a phone, but I play it windowed on my laptop, and that isn't much more or less than an iPad screen... the need to edge around high platforms (maybe a walk toggle?) and the occasional chaotic combat moment would complicate matters, though.
posted by DNye at 5:07 PM on March 5, 2011

The music in minecraft is similar to Erik Satie
posted by joelf at 1:24 AM on March 6, 2011

Porting Minecraft to iOS would have to be a complete re-write since it's written in Java and iOS apps are written in Objective C. If they do such a thing, I hope that the project is outsourced so that Notch and associates can concentrate on fixing the 1001 P1 bugs in the current codebase.
posted by octothorpe at 6:19 AM on March 6, 2011

Notch has said that the iOS version of Minecraft would be "more of a spin-off of Minecraft". He cited, for example, the problem of quickly reacting to mobs on an iPhone as a problem. I'm imagining a much more sedate building- & exploration-type game.
posted by Aquaman at 7:38 AM on March 6, 2011

My "background story" for Minecraft is that Minecraft dude is in the afterlife of his religion. He's waken up on a beach naked and helpless, and has to survive and build to prove that he's worthy to ascend.
posted by Harald74 at 11:01 AM on March 6, 2011

I think Harald74 just laid out the basic plot of the Minecraft movie.
posted by hippybear at 1:46 PM on March 6, 2011

Eventually you realize that the creepers, spiders and skeletons have a sophisticated civilization and that you're the monster in this world.
posted by octothorpe at 4:47 PM on March 6, 2011 [4 favorites]

We are herobrine.
posted by The Whelk at 4:49 PM on March 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

I would like the world to know that construction of the Great Glass Ziggurat by the Sea proceeds apace, with installation of the lavafall and excavation of the Storage Rooms expected to be completed, in, oh, say an hour or so. There was an unavoidable delay due to real-life sandwich preparation and consumption, but things seem to be right back on schedule. Plans to build Minecart Station Three have been shelved due to the developer's sudden interest in building a wharf instead.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:59 PM on March 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Octothorpe, funny you should say that. In adventure mode, Notch is planning on adding NPC villages... maybe.

It'd be hilarious if one were a village of reformed creepers.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:35 AM on March 8, 2011