Ambience & Background Music

[Rissole25]

No matter your opinion on the Call of Duty series, you can't argue that it has rich and good soundtracks. I would like to see this included with Zombies. Today I want to talk about the Ambience and Background Music in maps.

 

Mob of the Dead, Buried and Origins really bought the ambience and background music to whole new levels, even making two whole soundtracks dedicated to Mob of the Dead and Origins. Treyarch made these maps very thematic in terms of playing experience (which I would like to see also in the future). But these aren't the first ambience and background music has been made for zombies.

 

Call of the Dead has A Cold Wind Blows. You may have heard parts of it, otherwise it is relatively unheard.

 

Shangri-La has Temple of Death. Again, you may have heard parts of it. This song also appears in TranZit and Die Rise, and possibly Nuketown, but I can't verify that.

 

Kino der Toten and "Five" also had Damned. It is the theme of Zombies, and is not uniquely made for those two.

 

 

I also want to touch on Ambient/Background sounds. These are included in every map. I won't list them all, but here are some notable examples.

 

Verruckt: Screaming humans

Der Riese: Sirens, ticking clock

Shangri-La: Monkeys sounds, gongs resonating

Nuketown: Constant rushing wind sound

MotD: Thunder, chains

Treyarch are doing a fine job in the sound department. But the point of this thread was about the ambient/background music. By the way the last three maps came out in terms of ambience/background music, I don't think we have to worry though. Treyarch seem to be trying make it a common thing. I hope they are anyway.

Anyway, tl;dr, I hope Treyarch continue with the ambient/background music in future maps, stylized and themed for each map like those listed above.

[swappingspit]

The music on Buried is especially great.

I spent most of the time with the music turned way down in order to hear the voices for easter egg purposes, and in the last few months I've heard a bunch of new music I hadn't before.

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

Just another reason why zombies is the greatest game of all time.Nice thread man.

Would you mind fleshing out all the background/ambient sounds?

[InfestLithium]

The thing that drew me into Zombies (besides the story) was the sounds/music. I'll always remember playing long co-op sessions with either randoms or friends with someone babysitting the crawler as I ventured out throughout the map by myself. If you just took time to hear the sounds while viewing everything within the area, you could hear those faint noises that made the ambiance sound so...disturbing. But in a good way, y'know?

 

Really gave me shivers every time I listened.

[MysteryMachineX]

Btw, Rissole, Moon had "Re-D*mned". That one was my favorite.

[Slade]

Temple of Death also plays on Die Rise.

 

Like Lithium said, the excellent sound/music design is one of the reason why I came to love this mode.

 

I like Buried's music best, followed closely by Mob. 

Origins is just a little too repetitive for me. (Although Aether; remix of Richtofen's Delight from Buried is awesome)

 

Agreed, MMX. Re-damned was awesome.

[PINNAZ]

Cool topic Rissole.

The sound is a massive part of Zombies. I can still remember the first time I heard the screams & the sobbing in Verrückt. Creepy as. And the first time I heard the Kookaburras or the Nursery rhyme in Shi No Numa. The background & ambience throughout every map is amazing.

Having the game files I've been able to listen to a lot of these underscore tracks. It's a pity that you miss a lot of it when playing the game though. On many occasions I've been playing & I hear some weird noise going on & just stop to listen to it or find out where it's coming from. One of the first times I played Tranzit, I was in the corner between the outhouse & the power building, there is this strange buzzing & whispering going on. I was like WTF? I just stood there for awhile to listen to it.

And to have the sound guys like Brian Tuey, Kevin Sherwood & Colin Ayers so heavily involved in the story makes the sound production of a map incredibly brilliant.

[MysteryMachineX]

@PINNAZ: Agreed. Cannot tell you how many times camping near the M14 in Grief Cell Block we kept hearing a whooshing sound, very confused. Turned out it was the Alcatraz version of Mule Kick all along.

[Rissole25]

Thanks for the responses guys. Buried's ambience is my favourite too, but Temple of Death is also up high for me.

@TAMB Haha that would be a huge task. Way too many to list all of them.

 

@MMX Re-Damned is pretty good. I'm amazed how retro they made it, yet how much they packed into it. It definitely fits in with the labs area, but it's a shame it's only covers a small area. Glad they made it a full scale song in Nuketown.

I actually love all the Damned themes. Curious to see if and how they'll remix it for the next game.

[Schrödinger]

Underscore of Nacht Der Untoten and Verrückt :

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

Alright Rissole, you can wait till I get the ball rolling on TCCODZG again