What kind of music do you listen while mapping?

I was making a playlist for when i return to do maps (next week, gotta do more realms for Erdan and slowly working on a regional style), so what´s yours? Which kind of music do you prefer to listen when you´re creating things?

Personally i tend to create playlists depending on what i do:

Sports: some energy music, usually rock but also pop rock or some old good 80s hits

Driving: mostly classic rock (50s, 60s,70s), jazz, blues, swing, doo wop, sometimes 80s rock. Sometimes classic music, opera and zarzuela but that´s only when driving with work mates.

At home: i´m totally eclectic: i like so many genres that it wouldn´t be fair for you all to read them all haha. Except drap and hiphop i mostly listen everything and i mean EVERYTHING. I love newage, folk, metal in different branches, ... let´s leave it there...

And the important thing here: while i draw maps.

Mostly i like something that makes my imagination free, and also brings me a calm state. My favourite playsongs are from Loreena Mckennit, my favourite singer, and then David Arkenstone (mostly In the Wake of the Wind trilogy but also some other jobs with Kostia and more), Two Steps from Hell, Dvorak and Hendel. Also some piano jobs from Gershwin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg...

What´s your mapping music then?

Comments

  • If I listen to music it is my you tube faves, or its stand up like Lewis Black ot Kathleen Madigan.

    Medio
  • If I listen to anything, it is classical.

    [Deleted User]Medio
  • Classical definitely - Romantic piano concerti and symphonies, or Mozart, King of Composers.

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited January 2021

    Anything that goes with my mood at the time.

    Mostly film music, but other times I have 60s, 70s, or 80s hits going, and I have been known to listen to traditional music as well - drum music and tribal chants etc.

    And half the time I listen to an audiobook instead.

    Medio
  • Well, I listen to Rock & Metal. Mostly NWOBHM with Metallica, Megadeth, Accept, Helloween and Amon Amarth thrown in. If I'm feeling chill, I'll set the playlist to rock, which includes Led Zep, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Van Halen, Live, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters.

    Medio
  • Depends on my mood. Sometimes i'll listen to jam bands such as Phish or moe., or i can sometimes get on an 80s New Wave mood, or a 90s hip hop or grunge (sometimes both in one playlist). I'll even listen to some of my favorite Puccini operas. But lately though, i've been totally into the 40s Junction station on Sirius XM, I even listen to it in my car :)

    Medio
  • MedioMedio Surveyor

    Ohh the big bands of the 40 Junction.. BTW weird about listen both hip hop and grunge heh. Well, some few years later we would see Linkin Park and the nu metal being born...

  • Oh, that kinda of classical. I thought you might have meant The Clovers. The Drifters, Frankie Avalon, Dion. Those classic guys.

    [Deleted User]Mediojmabbott
  • It's typically whatever is on my current rotation cycle. I tend to consume a few items only for about a year (give or take) and then I put it back in the box and move on to the next thing. So over the years there has been alot of time spent with for instance mostly Rush, Deep Purple, Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, Lulu Rouge etc. Some I return to, when the stars are right, and others will have served their purpose as a history in time.

    At the present time I am entrenched with Warren Zevon - the whole of which his Excitable Boy album is the current holder of the position of being the best assembly of tracks ever made; universally useful in any situation life throws at you. Including map-making :)

    From the games I am getting alot of mileage out of Sara Schachner's music which, I find, typically is what's best about the games where it is featured. Game music in general has that particular quality - when it's good - where I don't mind a single track for hours on end. This was true back with the absolute powerhouse compositions from games such as Kid Icarus and it still holds up: I am always surprised when I get back to these tracks and check out their actual length. They also have that property of being purposely made to cater to a particular mood. So that's a plethora of tools for required/desired moods out of the box right there.

    Anyway. These will change, but if I were to offer one constant in the universe for focus it's Arvo Pärt.

    MedioMarkOlsen
  • My favorite map making playlist consists of Justin Johnson albums + several tracks from Cowboy Bebop, Borderlands (1, 2), Rebel Galaxy and similar (frontier) blues songs. Sometimes I listen to Tenno or similar artists on Soundcloud or even dive into nostalgic mood (Estatic Fear, Nightwish, Draconian, Duan, Alan Stivell, Faun etc.).

    Medio
  • 10 days later
  • I've been doing a lot of mapping lately and have really fallen into Exotica, which is a genre of music I had never heard of this time last year - think of the sort of 50's-60's jazz that you sometimes hear in really old scifi movies mixed with the background music of a downscale Tiki bar in some truly strange ways. Anything by Les Baxter, really keeps me moving while I'm working without requiring too much attention. There's a lot of it on Spotify in various playlists. ?

    Medio
  • It's quite random, but I like to listen to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - More Great Dirt album when I'm creating. Years ago when I designed areas for MUDs, the dirt band was all I had going and it just gets me in the mood.

  • None.

    I'm a musician and so, whenever I hear music and attempt design, my brain is in conflict as it's trying to analyze the song while simo trying to design the artwork. So I just sit there wondering where the time has gone and why there's nothing on the canvas/screen heh.


    Cal

    Loopysue[Deleted User]
  • I have recently discovered the ‘Critical Role’ podcast. It’s a “bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors (who) play D&D.”

    Lorelei
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    Critical Role is cool. I prefer watching the actual stream recordings and not just the podcast, since there is much visual information in the videos and on-screen goofing. Works great when run on a second screen, because it doesn't require your full attention.

    MarkOlsen
  • New Age, Rock and Roll from the 1960s, or nothing.

    Loopysue
  • This is what i usually do. I've been a fan of the show since it's beginnings and it is has been a habit of mine to put on an old favorite episode from campaign 1 on my 2nd monitor while doing my own D&D prep. Often, i find myself stopping and rewinding for tips and tricks from Matt's campaign or battles to add into my own. It's actually what got me to try DMing since ours had just bailed around 2005 and eventually lead me to mapping out my teenage fantasy world I had created back when I thought i wanted to be a writer :)

    MarkOlsenjonasgreenfeather

  • During the current global adventure, I picked up D&D for my wife and kids as a way for us to burn some of the spare time we now have. Since I haven't cracked a D&D book since I was a kid, I was looking for ways to roleplay a monster for an encounter and stumbled upon the CR Manticore animatic on YouTube, I've been hooked since.

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