Incidental music...
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i agree, the music just makes the danger feel more real (IMO)...
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I agree with pickle and whitey
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Oh, I think it was far better with the incidental music, and I hope it might be possible to use it at times in the new KM. I can't imagine something like Play Your Cards Right without the music, really. They used it well to highlight and increase the tension on the deeper levels.
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Even 'back in the day' it was reasonably obvious when a team screwed up. Each room had a purpose which, if missed or not happening at all, spelt a lingering death for the quest. (have a look at some of the old net RPG logs to see what I mean, a couple of teams KNEW they had missed something the second after it happened!)
The music simply heralded the inevitable.
Mind you.... That damn heart-beat had me diving for the sofa every time
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Me too...
I think it was series 7 where was that music (Barry on the death of spears) and then the goblin hunting horn I remember I had hid behind my big toy tiger and was yelling for mom.... Now that I think about those moments... and I always hid under my blankie at night thinking that if I wasnt asleep the Automatum would come and get me (thats what my mom told me....)
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Incidental music WAS used earlier than that, you know...
Remember Julie - that little 'tune' that heralded the arrival of all those goblins just REEKED of 'Oooooh, Nasty'.
I know it was also used a few more times as well, but I can't remember where else that little tune was used off the top of my head...or what's left of it, anyway.
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If memory serves me correctly there was also a very bad jaws like june in the giant foot room series 3.
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The shark music made me laugh to death (not really, I'm a snowwie not a ghost wolf) not scared to death
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Incidental music has been in use since Knightmare Series 1. At its most successful, it's subtle to the point of unnoticeable, while still complementing/enhancing the mood. (I wonder, is the error/ambiguity in the first post of this topic an indication that pre-S6 incidental music was successful in that way?) I liked the way that in Series 1-5, sound effects doubled as incidental music, adding marvellously to the atmosphere, e.g. the spellcasting tune, Grimwold's comical yet menacing walking-down-the-dwarf-tunnel theme, the floating sword sound (also used in T-Bag...).
And then came Series 6. In which, in my opinion, the use of incidental music was awful. Not because the music itself was of poor quality, but because it was overused and overbearing. There were occasions when it was so prominent that it was almost a struggle to hear what the characters and adventurers were saying. When you're overly conscious of incidental music, it doesn't work; and even as a young Watcher, I found it patronising. 'Here's some loud, persistent scary music, because we want you to be scared!' The result is a sense that the programme makers lacked confidence in the visual action to convey tension/emotion on its own. Which, where Knightmare is concerned, would have been a wrongful assumption on their parts.
For a direct comparison, there are the causeways of S5 and S6. S5 had simply the straightforward fact that a fatal plunge into darkness awaited any dungeoneer who put a foot wrong or put it slowly, and the sounds of blocks dropping into oblivion. S6 had this, plus music, plus the frightknight timer. Did it really need both additions? And after all, the advisors didn't need to have incidental music blaring out to make them tense and panicky, so why should the Watchers?
So, although the original question is ambiguous, my opinion is: better without. Its use from S6 onwards made it a distraction and a detraction for me. Though if other people have found that the incidental music enhanced their experience, I'm glad.
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I'm glad that you mentioned that Series 1 had incidental music, because I wasn't going to comment on this topic until I saw that!
I'd say better with - again, I am one of the 'bring on tension' breed - but the KM S1 Knightmare Haunt music really stands out for me as an example of brilliant incidental music. It was in no way intrusive and really built up the eerie, spooky feeling of Level 3. It's a shame it was only really heard twice, though, as I'd have liked to hear more of it!
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Series 4-5 were always a little quiet for my liking, with just the rustling of the leaves as the dungeoneer, through the eyeshield, trudges through the forests.
I preferred music, although not too loud it drowns out what anybody's saying. I'm one of those types of people where if more than one person talks I go "You wha'?", so it doesn't help things!
I like threads that become active after 23 months, it's a bit like forum members who awake from hibernation, don't 'cha think?
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With the episodes not readily available, it's hard for me to be specific: but the sound effect occurs a couple of times in short bursts during the final episodes of T-Bag And The Pearls Of Wisdom, and possibly in other T-Bag series too.
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So, although the original question is ambiguous, my opinion is: better without. Its use from S6 onwards made it a distraction and a detraction for me. Though if other people have found that the incidental music enhanced their experience, I'm glad.
It definately enhanced the experience for me!!
(Sorry for bumping such an old topic but let's face it, there's not much else going on).
I agree with Drassil that the S6 onwards music was often VERY loud, but it's just a personal thing as to whether that annoyed you or not. Personally, I loved it.
I didn't feel patronised or that I was being told "You WILL find this bit tense". All I felt was that the music made otherwise boring scenes interesting. It also broke the overhwelmingly still silence of Series 4 and 5.
Dwarf tunnels, for example, were spooky and atmospheric thanks to that music. Otherwise they would have just seemed like cardboard tubes in a TV studio.
I loved the ambiguity of its use as well. Sometimes it would be used just as a dungeoneer was about to die horribly. But other times the same piece of music would be used during an eyeshield sequence. So you constantly got the impression through continuity of music, that danger was always around the corner.
You definately did NOT get this impression through the dull Series 4 and 5 eyeshield sequences, or indeed many of the other clue rooms or foor puzzles in earlier years.
I'd LOVE to get clean copies of the incidental music used in Series 6-8, just so that I could edit them over some of my favourite pre-S6 moments, and make them all the more "nasty".
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Do you think the teams heard the music?. That would be rather hard as they have to communicate with each other. I suspect it was only added to episodes for our benefit and therefore I dont think its essential or needed. If somehow it was to be heard by the team then that would have a worth while effect as teams may panic or rush into stupid mistakes. Tension music works well in films or video games but in KM I prefer to judge danger for myself rather than be tipped off about an ending or close shave.
Don't think so, why did the music end perfectly when they either died or escaped? Too coincidental if you ask me LOL
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