[dragonsniper]

Is it legal to use the music or soundtracks from another game in a FS2 campaign or mission?

[Mobius]

Ask Darius...

Well, I think it's much better to create exclusive music. There are many good composers on ModDB willing to work for free. I'd like to inform you, however, that about 99,9% of them doesn't know how FS soundtracks work.

[tinfoil]

having problems?

[Mobius]

What do you mean?

[dragonsniper]

having problems?

No. I've just seen people put up missions that have music from various retail PC games.

There are many good composers on ModDB willing to work for free.

Thanks.

I'd like to inform you, however, that about 99,9% of them doesn't know how FS soundtracks work.

What do you mean by that?

[Cobra]

He means that they don't know how to split the tracks up into arrival, ambience, and battle tracks

[Rodo]

He means that they don't know how to split the tracks up into arrival, ambience, and battle tracks

that could also be done by the moder you know.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah, as long as you give them a rough idea of what you want it shouldn't be toooo bad.

Ambience is the long one, battle are the fast ones, so on etc

[Mobius]

It's not that easy. Cutting and looping are two important factors.

Also, ambient tracks aren't supposed to be the longest ones...*points to Exodus Battle 1*

[Dilmah G]

It's not that easy. Cutting and looping are two important factors.

Also, ambient tracks aren't supposed to be the longest ones...*points to Exodus Battle 1*

Fine.

Yeah that's also a good one, but fade applied to the tracks helps it a bit

[Enigmatic Entity]

It's not that easy. Cutting and looping are two important factors.

Also, ambient tracks aren't supposed to be the longest ones...*points to Exodus Battle 1*

Fine.

Yeah that's also a good one, but fade applied to the tracks helps it a bit

It isn't that hard to apply fade yourself using Audacity or Goldwave, unless of course you get the tracks in mp3 or ogg format, which may decrease fidelity a little if you "resave" the track in that format. Make sure you ask them for an arrival track - if they forget, then it may sound fishy when the ambience just transforms into battle music.

[Dilmah G]

It would sound a bit weird when mixed with the games own fade engine

I work around that by disabling arrival music for incoming fighters.

[chief1983]

Is it legal to use the music or soundtracks from another game in a FS2 campaign or mission?

To answer the original question, it's actually kind of sad you even have to ask that.  Your question is basically, "is it legal to take someone's intellectual property, and distribute it to others without compensation to the author?"  The music is certainly someone else's IP and unless you have documentation that it was released to public domain, it's not legal to distribute it.  Wishful thinking and warm fuzzy feelings don't change that fact.   Just because modding communities skate on the edge of certain legal issues, doesn't make them legal.  You're probably better off looking at precedent than the actual letter of the law though, as that tends to give a better indicator of what to expect.  Odds are no one will give a darn.

[Enigmatic Entity]

It would sound a bit weird when mixed with the games own fade engine

I work around that by disabling arrival music for incoming fighters.

I forgot about that.

[tinfoil]

What do you mean?

Never mind... Semi conscious posting.