More Souile

FiringSquad: What would you say are the overall musical themes you wanted to bring to Oblivion?

Jeremy Soule: I wanted the music to comment on the human condition and the beauty of life. I didn't have specific characters or events in mind although the battle music was written with a purpose to alert the player of oncoming danger.

FiringSquad: You have sold the soundtrack for the game on your DirectSong.com web site. So far what has the responses been like?

Jeremy Soule: DirectSong has seen a huge surge in interest and I'm a close friend with John Davison who heads the site. He's been very happy with Oblivion and has taken steps to bring the best quality forward for his customers.

The files at DirectSong are 320kbit, which is far higher resolution that what was heard in the game. The audio quality is also superior to what may be on various peer-to-peer networks as everything out there is just a re-encode of the original WMA files or a rip from the game.

There are hard core fans that have generally wanted to show their support for the game and they've bought the soundtrack. Others have wanted to have an out-of-game mastered listening experience for their ipods or cars. Whatever their motivation for a purchase, many folks have written to let us know that the score is absolutely beloved and enjoyed.

FiringSquad: As far as DirectSong.com goes, how has the overall response been like to the site and its way of handling game music downloads?

Jeremy Soule: The response has been positive. The site is still very new and WMA technology is being improved by Microsoft, yet people have been very enthusiastic. I can say that there are now hundreds of thousands of customers that have successfully downloaded and installed some form of DirectSong product. I happen to know that a new version of the site has been in the works for some time and it will be launching in the weeks ahead.

FiringSquad: What's next for you in terms of upcoming game soundtracks?

Jeremy Soule: We just launched Guild Wars Factions and I'm very excited about that. I have also written music for an upcoming project with Gaspowered Games. We also completed a three hour score for Prey which is a next-gen first person action game from 3DRealms.