i still love his music compositions, i also understand this all took place during the MeToo era, which took out a lot of bad guys as well took out some good guys because all it took was an simple accusation without proof or evidence from the accuser which ended up ending someone's life or career whether it was true or not. however for this case it appeared one of these women had proof and was attempting on relaying that information, i'm not saying i want to see his explicate photos of himself, but i would rather that was verified by the police or something, because if it was, it would be considered a truth and not just a statement that we can't verify, and that information, so if verified would go further than just the text statements on a screen to his behaviors and of the allegations, because as someone who believes strongly in justice i also strongly believe in proof. again, i still love his music because i don't associate the music to emotion of the allegation, instead i focus on the scenery or atmosphere of many of the games he's produced his music for, so i personally experience no sour thoughts on that front. in my opinion, i think he should just sell the rights to the northerner to Bethesda and maybe they might add it to the next elder scrolls game, to be honest with you, i don't think there is any better composer for elder scrolls than him, but there are also a lot of great composers out there that i think could take the job and do a great job. but yeah this whole allegation stuff would destroy a man like we have seen with so many other men that i have seen, some were guilty and many were found not guilty but found guilty by "The Court Of Public Opinion" which is very unreliable at best, but that would destroy the men regardless because at that point your done for sure and i wouldn't blame him for leaving if this were the case, he might have to change his name and adjust his way of life to continue his musical career and exist as a composer of another name, like a ghost writer and never show himself to the public, that's the only way i could see him continue.
I’m sad that Skyrim will likely be their magnum opus, like final fantasy 6 was for square It won’t get better from here Starfield has shown us what we can expect But still least we have Secunda and Streets of Whiterun
@@Merknilash Yeah. I really wanted TES6 to combine the best of previous games in the series(physical world of Skyrim, questline detail of Oblivion, freedom of magic on Morrowind, etc.), but after Starfield and their descent in 'paid mods or bust' anything released in the future labelled as TES6 is going to be a poor imitation.
Jeremy Soule's credits go far beyond TES. He was considered the "John Williams of video games" at one point. One of my favorites of his was Dungeon Siege.
His work on Harry Potter is so iconic as well. This was before the Elder Scrolls hype and it was easily his best work back then. The ambient music he created is some of the most nostalgic things in gaming I have ever heard. All of this stuff just makes me really sad...
@@haldalas and he made music for HP 3 and 4, mostly for the consoles and pc I think. The ones in 3 were also very nostalgic though more on the dramatic side, but 1 and 2 are just peak HP Soule for me at least. It was just real auditory magic and once you hear it in the game, you cannot unhear the whole soundtrack. Makes you really feel home at Hogwarts.
The fact that the Elder Scrolls composer promised a release of media that still has not arrived, with little to no updates on its progress is so ironic lol.
I'm a little confused about the kickstarter thing, because he did release 12 movements in the form of the Northern Diaries (available via Amazon and likely others). The track Ginnung is one of his best. Sure he didn't do the second album and is a total sleazeball, but he did put out one album. Am I interpreting this wrong? Thanks for any clarification.
@@jimtomasko3838 I didn't actually know about this album before this video, but in the brief search I made, I found the quality of the mixing of the album to be lacking for the most part. That's probably what he meant by "musical sketches" since it seems unfinished.
In the likely event that Jermey Soule is replaced as the Elder Scrolls composer, I *really* hope Inon Zur isn't his replacement... His Elder Scrolls: Blades & Starfield score was utterly bland & forgettable... Zur is great for Fallout, but really misses in other Bethesda games.
Agreed, Inon Zur has composed some great tracks for other games but in general he's a bit hit or miss. He doesn't have that consistency that Soule does and especially when it comes to Elder Scrolls.
@@deanmoccia2941It's flatly untrue that I and others didn't like is score from Elder Scrolls Blades & Starfield?... He's not a bad composer, but his Blades OST is meh in comparison (re-listen to it) & Starfield (which I liked more than Blades) had tracks that sounded like left over Fallout music that didn't fit for me and lacked variety from his other bethesda projects & works... Personally, I don't want him to do the music for ESVI and I know I'm not alone in thinking that
@@deanmoccia2941 In regards to your deleted comment that said: "This is just flatly untrue, and even if it was true, the idea that you didn’t like a creator’s work for one particular style on one particular game means that he shouldn’t work on anything else again is absurd"... I like Zurs other work elsewhere. I never said or implied he shouldn't work on anything else again... It's absurd that's what you took from my comment, which is why I'm assuming you deleted it
Jeremy's music truly did bring the Elder Scrolls series to heights it never would have reached without him.... however, we now have Borislav Slavov a frequent collaborator for Larian Studios and most recently worked on the OST for Baldur's Gate 3. An incredibly talented composer that I hope to see gain mainstream praise for his genuis
I hope that Borislav Slavov actually could be the composer for Elders Scrolls 6, but I highly doubt that he will work with Bethesda, aso maybe, he will stick to Larian for their next project and the music on their next Game. would be amazing. Dude is as good as Jeremy I'd say. even though Jeremy is a liittle bit better if comes to the atmospheric part.
Bobby Slovov is a wonderful composer and I would be beyond stoked if he was commissioned for ES6. Amber Ale is a personal favorite. Excellent tavern jam. I believe it's on Spotify if you want to check it out
I got to sleep to Skyrim music and “Atmospheres” for years. His work really helped me. It saddens me that a person who gave me so much peace now hides in murky waters.
Don't care about unproven allegations. Music is still timeless and immortal. And will be around for hundreds of years. The people who made the allegations will be forgotten in less than 15 seconds.
@@arthurwilliams3479 yeah I bet they did nothing of value in their whole life Our society is truly rotten if unproven things could lead to talented people like Soule being removed from production
I grew up next to Jeremy and his brother Julian (they actually used to compose together....Julian now works in music technology in Seattle as that was more his passion). Met them through friends in high school. Joined the Army and lost touch with all of them. Three years ago I messaged Jeremy on Twitter and got back into contact with his brother and our mutual friend. Saw Julian actually a year and a half ago and we spoke about his brother....he's still around. The thing with Jeremy is he always had aspirations of making it in Hollywood, even back when he was working on Harry Potter games he was under the belief and hope that they would be his segue into movies. According to Julian, he's been to things like DiCaprio's birthday parties and other high profile events. I do know, that the controversies weighed pretty heavily on him (I have no idea if the allegations are true or not, and neither did the parties I spoke with) and he stopped trusting people, etc. I can't speak on his Kickstarter issues, as it's been a minute since we've spoken again. I wholly believe, that Elder Scrolls wouldn't be the same without his music. Not to mention the other games he's worked on (his credits go all the way back to stuff like Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, Unreal 2: The Awakening, and more).
Yeah, hes clearly a vulnerable narcissist who thinks the he's God's gift to creation and that all of us should grovel at his feet. Add the fact that he's a sexual deviant on top of it who is so obsessed with sex that it's all he can think about. Makes him even more deplorable than he already was. It makes me sick thinking about the kind of energy he put into making his music.
As a fan of Elder Scrolls V in its entirety, I am taken aback that this is my first time learning about this. It's quite disappointing. I'm very fond of Skyrim soundtrack and its dear to me as it evokes my love for the game. However, discovering the allegations against Jeremy Soule has left me feeling uneasy. Nevertheless, I still value the soundtrack and intend to continue listening to it. It's possible to enjoy the music without endorsing its creator... But knowing about the situation does taint my enjoyment each time I listen to it..
Many people who excel in one department may very well be degenerates in others. Furthermore there isn’t any substantial evidence for his allegations. One of the women was apparently a notorious liar affording to a commenter who knew her by name.
I genuinely think that Bethesda was made aware of some internal allegations toward Jeremy prior to all the public stuff, and decided to quietly cut ties. They didn't make a stink, there was no statement, they just knew they could not be associated with him anymore. I personally believe that Bethesda has an extensive file sealed away in HR in case it's ever needed for any sort of legal matters.
@@ethnicalbert True, for the time, he got a fantastic result using virtual instruments. I think his sound is still better than some modern orchestral game scores that were made with virtual instruments.
@@liegonThat's because modern games mostly all have the same generic meandering orchestral slop for music whereas Soule actually knows how to compose with emotion.
@@ennayanne That's also true for some soundtracks, but I remember specifically being struck by 'not being annoyed' by the artificial sounds, as was usually the case at that time for me. I think he may have worked with his own samples and I guess balanced them really well.
@@linkalot7415 Streets of Whiterun. Go give a listen to the somewhat recent live orchestra performance of it. They gave way too much balance to the choir but otherwise it's remarkable.
@@Justanotherconsumer that is why we need that separation of art and artist. "Death of the artist" is a phenomenon that pretty much shows how people just don't care about who the artist is, so why are we being so anal about it? And it looks like a tormented artist that produces great art is equivalent to a malevolent one, so negative shxt produces good things, sadly a reality we have to live in
@@Rov-Nihil death of the artist is as much about interpretation (e.g. the guy who wrote Grave of the Fireflies didn’t intend it as anti-war) as it is about separating the artist from the art. Wagner is the quintessential example here, dude was wack but wrote some really amazing stuff (Siegfried’s Funeral March for a great example, though Ride of the Valkyries probably his most recognizable work). Wagner was mostly a product of his time, though, so he’s easier to dismiss as “bad old days.”
Jeremy Soule is just like Matt Uelmen to the Diablo and Torchlight series.. their art style can't be compared or duplicated by anybody. You need just 1 second of one of their songs to recognize that's their work and the atmosphere they set is just unique in this world
Matt also composed lots of tracks for Warcraft and Starcraft series. When he leave Blizzard theirs scores suddenly lost magic of Matt genius. D3 soundtrack was boring, Starcraft 2 was forgetable, D4 okeyish at best.
Similarly, Uelmen has disappeared from the face of the Earth. I think he did the music for Hob? 2015? 2017? Nothing since that I can find. Alas, the old days.
@@bryo4321 Jesper Kyd is currently at the top of my list of gamescore composers. Plus he create soundtracks like machine gun :). I also like Jack Wall for his work on Mass Effect trilogy.
I love getting the report of what's actually there instead of the UA-camr's own bias for clickbait. Thank you for that, not many people do actual reports anymore.
What the F even is this comment? You do realize that everyone has a bias don't you? She showed hers at the very end of the video when saying she's bothered by his music now, knowing the dirty details of his creepy actions. Must not have finished the video I guess lolz.
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 Your bar for getting bothered is so low if my comment bothered you, I just noticed your username is "SoyBorne", no wonder! Lol
@@f.m848 Your comment sucked, because it was clearly unobservant and whiolesale ignorant of how inidivdual perspectives work. There is always bias. You were called out. Now deal with it like a man.
@@OpenMawProductions "Now deal with it like a man." Lol, what do you think the comment selection is! Do you think the way you talk is gonna give you an air of legitimacy or cover the fact that you're a troll arguing for the sake of getting some much-needed human interaction and drama? btw, the like numbers on the comments tell who's full of it! Lmao.
Perhaps a better comparison is the Jewish Golem of Prague (sticking with the theme here). Copyright may once have been intended for artist protection, but it has since been turned against consumers and artists by enormous subsidiary chains run by people that care very little about the art or the consumer.
Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video! Prior to watching it, I actually didn’t know ANY of this stuff. That said, I’ve enjoyed Soule’s work immensely for more than two decades now. It really saddens me to know that he’s been such a scoundrel in both his personal and professional life, but I can honestly say that that doesn’t detract from the beauty and brilliance of his work, for me. Nobody’s perfect, everyone can (and likely will) eventually let you down, and many, MANY artists have produced work that’s better than they are themselves. I’m a literature teacher, and was actually just talking about this with my students this morning in relation to Sir Thomas Malory and Le Morte d’Arthur (c. 1470). Malory was, like Soule, a scoundrel of the first order, and in fact wrote his famous book while in prison for his crimes. But the book he produced is a beautiful celebration of virtue and condemnation of vice. In it, King Arthur’s reign (and life!) is brought to a tragic end by evil acts-both his own, and others’-and yet even for his adulterous wife Guenivere and treacherous friend Lancelot, there is hope for redemption. They live out their own last days in sober repentance, forsaking their old desires to honour the memory of their beloved king. So, was Malory a good man? Would I want to sit down and have a beer with him if he were alive today? No. But his book turned out better than he was, because even though he did evil deeds, he knew, deep down, that they were evil, and he knew what goodness, truth, and beauty were. Listening to Jeremy Soule’s music, I believe the same is true of him. There’s timeless beauty and wonder in his music, even if his personal life has been an ugly mess. That music will outlive the scandals of his sins.
"Direct Song was failing to directly get songs to their customers" lol very well put. I remember having to send multiple complaints after ordering the complete Skyrim music collection from them before finally being sent it before all his mess came to light.
@@etherealceleste I do not know offhand whether he and his brother were personally packaging and shipping out copies of their music from their garage like some kind of startup or merely invested in poor partners that did shoddy work. The result was the same, and not a good look for someone at his level.
Aye, DirectSong has pretty much always been a pain to use as a customer, and not just for physical releases. I remember buying the digital Oblivion and original Guild Wars soundtracks from DirectSong back in 2006, and they came with an absurd amount of DRM. You had to install special software just to listen to the soundtracks, and the license had a limited number of activations, so you could only activate and listen to the albums on a maximum of three devices. And of course, the software was buggy. I still have the tech support ticket emails from DirectSong in my inbox (since I never delete anything). To their credit, DirectSong did eventually ditch the DRM years later, and issued DRM-free albums to digital customers, but as much as I love Soule's music, I have never had to go through so many hoops, before or since, just to listen to an album I had paid for, it was truly a bizarre experience.
I remember sending multiple complaints after ordering that same collection, and I STILL have yet to receive it, or to get my money back. While a great composer, the man is a thief. I guess I can credit him for teaching me a valuable lesson. I will NEVER again give money to any vendor that I don't know to be trustworthy. If I can't buy it from such a vendor, I don't need it.
Direct song was an absolute disaster i don`t know what the hell he was thinking. So paranoid about music pirates the software didn`t even work. I had to send multiple emails to get it to work if at all.
As a huge fan of Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars 2 and their music, I was incredibly disappointed in Jeremy's anti-consumer actions. As a leader in the companies he involved with he is absolutely responsible for the way his customers are treated. His DirectSong endeavor was terrible. I was one of the fans who ordered from them but the wait was unreasonable. I eventually filed a complaint with PayPal. I never went back. I had wanted to support him and his work. He drove me away from it. He was the reason why his music was unavailable anywhere else, and he's the reason why his fans lost trust in him.
The fact that there are so many comments in this video praising him and ostracizing people for "dismissing a talented man over allegations that were never proved" is so sick. The point of the video completely went over their heads, the allegations were not even the focus here. This man has enough of a track record to be in prison, harassment allegations or not.
@@andredelacerdasantos4439 Yeah it's kind of wild. I thought his music was amazing and he clearly has talent, but he was always kind of a jerk. I'm not even surprised to hear he about his behavior towards women. Being a total vile creeper (among other words I can't use here) is just another layer of crap on the cake. The guy was a horrible goblin at every opportunity.
Sure, but take any artist in history and you won't agree with everything they do. They might be "anti-machine" punk rockers who start raging "for the machine" in other situations. They might be writing their music to embolden an imperialistic army. They might be people who get murderously drunk on occasions... or support an oppressive aristocracy... they are still fallible people. They might try supporting new technological drives that fail or end up anti-consumer. In the end... people still love World of Warcraft, despite Blizzard's ongoing bad reputation, and people still want to hear Wagner compositions, watch Hitchcock films, sing along to Rolf Harris songs... the list could go on and on but would get controversial pretty quick...
I was one of the backers of his kick-starter project... that whole debacle made me quite disappointed at the time. After years and years of delay I (as many others) got a bunch of flac files instead of a signed CD, all the while many backers found proof of him using the money to launch his company.
@@sunblade704 I’m not, lol. What did you think you were buying? I remember being unimpressed by the kickstarter and just not donating, the guy was clearly going through something. I recently watched an interview and he knows he’s evil and that the entire industry is evil as well, he described his job as “addicting people to SOFTWARE.” That said, his music was incredibly touching, that’s why we are here. His behavior has been bad, allegedly, but not so bad that I care. That’s me personally. But with him being under attack, I feel the need to even defend him. If he we were some child blood drinking celebrity I wouldn’t be.
As a huge fan of his music, this makes me incredibly sad. His music has made me live so many memorable moments. From Secret of Evermore, to Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, SW: KOTOR to Elder Scrolls. I believe the main theme for Morrowind speaks for itself. So much talent...
It's embarrassingly sloppy of her to get such details so incredibly wrong. It really makes me question the credibility of everything in the video. I don't want to fact check every single thing a person says in a > 30 minute essay, so I guess I'm out. Hopefully she's generally better or learns to be, for the sake of her subscribers.
@@Rindview I just made big comment explaining things, but yeah they founded Virtual Sonics, which became Roland Virtual Sonics, and then split from Roland in 2019 and became Virtual Sonics again. I worked for them for about 5 years (RVS, then Roland Cloud after the split)
Yeah, anyone involved in music knows Roland and their legacy. The 808 alone would have been enough. And Roland Cloud isn't much different from Native Instruments, or Ableton or anyone else building digital sound libraries.
Bloody hell. I've been enjoying his music since Dungeon Siege way back in 2002. Then I heard his work in Morrowind, Guild Wars and the other Elder Scrolls games. I was a fan! It always breaks my heart when stuff like this come to the surface...
I am one of the ones who paid quite a bit of money for a full Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack. I never got my order, and never got a refund. I got a response from them 1 single time that they were looking into it, then never heard from them again. I used to update the ticket once per year but eventually just gave up on it.
Man, I had no idea about this Kickstarter or the associated drama. I have been enjoying "The Northerner Diaries", "Vaka", and "Frithr" on Spotify for years not realizing all the mess behind them... Same thing for Skyrim in Concert on UA-cam.
There is a point where we can separate the art from the artist, the line is closer or farther depending on our own moral values, enjoy the music for you, beyond that is your own decision
@@DaDoubleDee Didn't mean to imply that I was going to stop enjoying the fruits of other people's kickstarter money anytime soon lol! I've had it on in the background several times since my post, and will continue to enjoy it. It doesn't make his music worse, but if I ever bump in to Mr. Soule, I won't invite him over for dinner with the family...
While I still enjoy his music that he did for the elder scrolls, this video was indeed quite interesting and informative. Nice work putting all this information into a video.
You don't need to apologize for reading from a script, I love me a good video essay. I'm glad you put this together, I knew vague bits and pieces but never knew the whole story. Thanks for the vid.
Both can be true, Atleast with some nuance, In the way that stealing/pirating respectively from Walmart, Adobe, or some other big company isn’t nearly as harmful as stealing/pirating from a family owned business or indie dev or something like that.
Saying that bread's price is high due to [X], does not justify stealing from the baker thou... ... and nothing could do. Unless you're a -criminal- socialist of some sort. It's not for you to take/use someone else's property/work without consent, regardless of any other factor.
@@takezomiyamoto1390 how did you get all that from what I said? Literally all I said was he's blaming the wrong people lol. When costs get too high people will pirate. That's literally how it goes. Or I guess you can lick the corpo boots like a good little grunt like you. Also in your example why TF would a baker be getting his bread mass made by a corporation? If I'm going to a baker I'm buying from him.
I don’t know if TES VI could be successful without both Adam Adamowicz and Soule. His music is what brings life into TES worlds, it’s the thing that makes these virtual worlds immersive and special
There are lots of great vg composers out there just waiting for the opportunity to make their own iconic soundtracks. Their music won't have his particular je ne sais quoi, but someone else will get a chance to share their own, and you might like it as much as Soule's music if you give it a chance.
@@RandleraySoule crushed it in Secret of Evermore, Total Annihilation, and 3 TES games I’m sure he’d do fine in TES 6 if Microsoft wasn’t full of cowardice
aight kinda weird topic but glad i found it. im not a "music guy" at all, but i grew up listening to his stuff in games. as soon as i got adult money id always buy the albums of his work, and my absolute favorite track of his was the dawn of war "chant" song. i found his page on facebook and messaged him saying how much i loved it, and if he had other tracks similar to it, id gladly buy it. he said "northerner diaries" then blocked me. never meet your heroes, kids.
@@JediCrackSmoke It's statistically the truth, and the man who said it is Gabe Newell. Gabe runs the most successful, and actively user/creator friendly storefronts ever made. There's a reason Steam is synonymous with the home computer game, and that's because he knows what he is talking about. If piracy wasn't an issue of service, he'd be out of a job!
His work on Skyrim was outstanding and I think there's not one day I don't listen to his work because those 10hr Skyrim ambience videos are an integral part of my everyday life during my reading time or just as a background noice when I'm at home in general. I even have a signed physical copy of the Skyrim soundtrack I'm quite fond of. It's sad to see that he most probably won't be a part of TES: VI
Just some viking guys singing the elders scrolls theme song but aright lol. I think his earlier work on stuff like secret of evermore was better. Wonder if he was grapey back then too? lol
Very very well put together video, I had only heard once from another Skyrim fan years ago about his mistreatment but the chat never went deeper than that. It's an extreme shame he's not only abused others but also seemingly took the money for a project & ran as I heard a few times now from Kickstarter. His music is really, really iconic & adds so much to the worlds of the Elder Scrolls, the music is truly beautiful. His comments on piracy being akin to the Holocaust are genuinely insane. Ironically, I was pirating an album that's no longer on sale as I was hearing that bit.
The music at 0:42 (called "Masser") being relaxing is btw. an incredible feat. The score is harmonically insane - the circle of fifths screams in pain while he jumps all over without regard for rules and yet - it works out beautifully. It trancends the norms and brings a curious feeling of exploration. I love that piece dearly. I don't know what to think about the person... But the music is really good and sounds simple only at surface level.
Apparently, the Skyrim score is also not in standard tuning. Typically, orchestras are tuned so that A4 is 440Hz, but Soule intentionally knocked the tuning off by a few Hz to make it so that the sound waves aligned in a more consistent and pleasing way. The dude may do shitty things, but he has a hell of a mind for music.
@@abidoran3439The frequencies "align" in any standard tuning... Composers just do this to make things sound a bit "differently" compared to the standard. For the average listener it's a subconsciously perceived difference at best.
@@abidoran3439 It's still equal temperament. There's no real difference beyond making it sound a bit brighter or darker with A=440 as a reference point for the average listener.
@@abidoran3439when will people realize that people who excel in one department, may very well be degenerate in others. But instead we idolize celebrities.
I bought the Skyrim OST from DirectSong years ago - digitally, because I'd heard the CDs were often damaged on arrival. Even the digital download was screwed up, I had to pirate a handful of tracks because the download corrupted and I couldn't get a link for a second download attempt.
What a shame it is when talent and opportunity is heaped on a real jerk. I used to love his Guild Wars soundtrack, and was one of the ones waiting patiently for my physical copy. I hope the vocalist from the Guild Wars 2 anthem managed to escape this guy's lecherous ways, because she's a seriously fantastic artist, and I wish her and every other woman within 1.5 miles of Jeremy Soule(ss) the best.
Imagine being an author and stating that intellectual property institute is designed to protect authors... Guess when Bethesda didnt invite him, he learnt the opposite the hard way
@@kennypowers1945 music is written to be listened in the first place. Wierd to be a creator and standing against someone enjoying and admiring your work.
@@remeris9061 Musicians have to eat, weird to think that all their hard work has to go for free. 99% of all musicians are already struggling to barely scrape by, most having to have a main job and do music on the side. Why should you be entitled to their hard work? Would you work for free?
I really appreciate your work, interest, and manner in presenting this! I hope you retain your authenticity in your other videos (this was just a random homepage pull for me) and as your channel grows, which I'm sure it will! Great work!
My experience with DirectSong is bittersweet. I'm a stickler for physical media, so I saw that DirectSong was offering the 4-disc set of the Skyrim OST for cheaper than it was on Amazon at that time. It was months and months of waiting and I had opened several complaint cases during that time. They took their sweet time in getting back to me, and they basically just amounted to "be patient, it'll happen soon". Finally, over a year and a half after my order, I ended up getting TWO copies of the 4-disc set in the mail and one of them came autographed by Soule in silver-coloured ink (which I hadn't paid for because that option cost extra). I guess it was their way of saying "sorry" for the exceedingly long wait.
He's a weird genius who didn't follow the rules so now we will never get his genius music again. It's that simple. Society and it's obsession with being moral and normal due to being overly feminized is so regressive it's beyond words.
I worked for "Roland Virtual Sonics"/"Roland Cloud" for about 5 years and know the Soules personally, mostly Julian. "Roland Virtual Sonics" hasn't actually existed for about 5 years or so. A little while after a new CEO took over RVS in 2019, Jeremy and Julian split from Roland ( a major Japanese electronic music company ) and reverted to just "Virtual Sonics", which is what their name was before merging with Roland. Roland dropped "Virtual Sonics" shortly after and became simply "Roland Cloud". The main sampler created by Roland Virtual Sonics, "Concerto", has been discontinued on Roland Cloud in favor of authentic recreations of their hardware synths. Concerto lives on in a code fork owned by Virtual Sonics under a new name. Concerto was meant for high quality orchestral libraries but its true purpose was never realized under Roland due to the conflicting priorities of the two companies. These days Virtual Sonics is actually working with Sony now on their 360 tech. Jeremy is still working on music projects but has a new moniker he is using. Julian is the one driving Virtual Sonics. I've met Jeremy a handful of times in person, but have spent a lot of time with Julian. I shouldn't get too personal, but I've always thought Julian is a great guy. It's hard to hear the stories about Jeremy. I'm also a big fan of his work, and was before I met them in 2015. Oh and btw, since you asked, I was a Direct Song customer before I met them. I didn' have any issues with delivery except years later the DRM went bad and I can't play the files anymore. I've joked about it to Julian personally. "You owe me buddy! =D"
It's what always comes to mind when I see him mentioned. I can take or leave the elder scrolls stuff but the total annihilation soundtrack is legendary for me.
Allegations aside, I am disappointed that Soule won't compose ES6. Todd even said "we start our preproduction with the music" as a way to inspire their artists and designers. This is a testament to the amazing work of Jeremy Soule. Inon Zur is okay, but hasn't filled the shoes of his predecessor yet. Point to one track that Zur has composed that hooks you in the same way Soule has done again and again.
I guess his theme for Dragon Age Origins is pretty memorable? But I'm kind of proving your point by only being able to name one track of his and it's from the 2000s. You're right, he really hasn't done anything as memorable since (and I'm kind of glad he got replaced in the Dragon Age franchise).
@@easternlights3155 Dragon Age origins soundtrack is a masterpiece but Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls are two completely different things when it comes to music.
Hire the composer of Baldur's Gate and Divinity 2, Boris Slavov. Guy is the next Jeremy Soule in my opinion, without all the nasty allegations and conspiracy theories hopefully.
I can probably see Gareth Coker taking over from Soule tbh. He did a really good job in capturing the original Halo soundtracks (before Halo 4) and made it fit seamlessly into Halo Infinite.
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 He genuinely feels like a chill and cool guy. Of course we don't know him personally, but he comes off as humble and approachable. He loves interacting with people on youtube. I remember he answered to one of my random comments (not directed to him) on an Ori music video. I would love him as TES VI main composer.
halo soundtrack doesn't even come close to Oblivion or Skyrim. Doesn't matter who bethesda chooses it will be forgettable. Star Citizen is bland in music. TES 6 will likely be bland too in music. No Soule.
Thanks, great video. His music - especially in Ovliivon - is unlike anything I've ever heard. I had no idea why he doesn't compose anymore, now it all makes sense, his composing carriere is probably over after being Metooed on top of scamming kickstarter.
I tried to research a lot of this awhile ago to try to figure out what had happened, and why I had never heard any updates. It was like all the information about this man --- especially the allegations -- was forcibly removed from the internet. I appreciate the effort you did
@@KoongYe See, but false accusations almost always have a very thorough paper trail disproving them? Rumors spread like crazy online -- if an accusation is proved false, the details of that will be made as public as possible to prevent that. So the fact that that *didn't* happen was more confusing/damning?
Secret of Evermore went hard for it being his first project. He was at a prodigal level in his youth so I'm surprised his early work is not a little bit expanded.
I was scrolling and waiting for someone to mention Evermore! What a unique soundtrack. I loved it. I don't really seek out personal lives of celebrities, so I had no idea that all of this controversy was surrounding him.
It’s possible to enjoy the creations of madmen, while still denouncing the madmen themselves. Life is full of contradictions. Very thoroughly researched, well done!
It’s also possible to not declare anyone a madman based off of unsubstantiated claims. If someone is going to make a claim and there is no criminal prosecution, then I don’t particularly want to hear anything about it. Either file charges or go away. We saw multiple men lose their livelihood or have it threatened by unsubstantiated claims made during the Me Too movement. “Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t matter much to some people any more I guess.
@@ProfessorOfLogic81 im guessing the madman part is more in line with the wacky out of left field shit he has said rather than the accusations themselves. the dude has said some stupid shit over the years and has never done a good job at properly explaining himself. like comparing piracy to the holocaust. its absolutely bonkers off the wall shit like that which i think gets him the name madman. that and the fact that he is 100% one of those guys that says if you dont like his work its not because hes bad but because "you simply dont understand it". the dude is full of himself and while i agree he is an amazing composer, hes just a very terrible person to be around is the main problem.
It's disappointing to see Jeremy Soule ruin the lives of other people, and for him to trivialize the Holocaust by comparing it to something as insignificant as downloading music for free is unhinged. I'll still appreciate his compositions since his voice isn't in the music and he doesn't get to have the power to take away my memories of experiencing the pristine atmosphere of Oblivion and Skyrim.
The word Holocaust wasn't even used for those particular WWII events until the 1970's. Constant talk about the "Holocaust" itself trivializes all the other much more numerous casualties in WWII which don't have a unique name for them.
Semantics won't make any difference unless you're a deluded revisionist. Lots of people die in wars but the holocaust was a planned and directed annihilation of a particular ethnic group. Only someone completely deluded would dispute that.
Oh no don't trivialize the thing that obviously never happened. Lol you know nobody cares anymore after what you guys are doing currently in the middle east right?
Secret of Evermore was an interesting flash in the pan for a short lived Squaresoft American studio. It's a shame that's all that came of it. I remember enjoying it. The soundtrack is really dark, atmospheric, and sinister for what appears to be a very lighthearted young boy on an adventure with his dog. The clash between the two gives you the uneasy sense that something isn't right in Evermore (which, as it turns out, is true).
He was definitely one of America's best game composers, rivaling Japan's best composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama. I first heard his work on Secret of Evermore, a game I got in 10th grade in the mid 90s.
@@bunnypeople your glibness betrays the indiscretion to which i am sure your fine mother has always been the most willing of parties. if you do not now do her honor, i am sure the esteemed madame certainly now receives no less than she is used to. good day.
When bits of Soules' historical soundtracks were played in this, I had memories of so many vibes and adventures. I hadn't noticed Jeremy disappeared from the scene, as I'm a retrogamer. Sad!
Amazing work with this video. Like you, as someone who just liked the music he composed for TES games, I was so surprised by all I learned about him in this video. I knew about the sketchy Kickstarter stuff, but everything else was news to me.
I backed The Northener. Not at a very high level if I remember correctly. By the time he released the "sketches" I had lost much interest and wasn't paying attention - I did get the download and it was nice music for sure. I didn't know others had struggled to get the files. Of course, these compositions are not all we were promised, but at this point I suspect it's all I'll see come from the project. I remember hating that the only way to get his music was through Direct Song though I never engaged with it. I do have some of his soundtracks from before - the Icewind Dale OST is amazing, as is the Morrowind CD that came with the collector's edition. Ironically, I've since bought multiple Guild Wars 2 soundtracks - with music for the expansions that came out after JS was no longer involved with the game. Some I bought from Amazon Prime, and some from Bandcamp. Easy. I've had my work pirated - it sucks. It's a terrible feeling. I've never been tempted to compare it to the Holocaust mind you, but it's not great. I do feel that at some point your practices as a commercial entity can be so anti-consumer that you're almost setting yourself up for it. Paying money for something you never get is also not a great feeling, after all. As for the other, more serious allegations... well, it's true they're not proven. But it certainly doesn't look good. The fact that he disappeared (with all The Northener money) hardly helps. I wonder who he's more afraid of: his accusers or his backers. Like you, I love his music but my enjoyment of it is somewhat tainted these days. It's a damn shame, and a reminder that artistic talent and passion do not correlate with virtue to any degree.
This is just sad to hear. I can't even begin to describe how much I love his music, and how much it helped me, Skyrim Atmospheres in particular. I've listened to all the Elder Scrolls soundtracks more times than I can count. I honestly believe that half the Elder Scrolls game experience comes from purely the music. I had heard about his SA allegations but I always wanted to believe they were false. I never knew about all of his other controversies... this seems pretty damning. I do believe you can separate art from the artist, but man, this really kind of sours his music for me. What a shame...
Nothing is sacred. So enjoy the good things while they last. Do not let something like this sour your taste for something you enjoy, or you will stop enjoying anything at some point.
I always loved Putt-Putt Travels Through Time's soundtrack and color me shocked when I found out Jeremy Soule was the artist behind it. I couldn't help but laugh a bit at that haha.
It is refreshing to see such a professional approach to journalism. Great sourcework and comprehensive information. Why can't all journalists be like this?
I didn't follow his career and didn't know any of this. It's disappointing, to say the least. I always keep in mind that creative people are often tortured people, but he seems particularly despicable. It just reinforces the sickness of companies that exploit talent and people who use positions of power to do the same. I still enjoy his music and how beautiful it is, but I almost wish I didn't know. Once again, I must separate the artist from the work. :\
Whether the allegations are true or not, I still listen to his Skyrim soundtrack often. Especially From Past to Present, Streets of Whiterun and Ancient Stones. They put me in a reading mood. I'm not big on game music but him and Marty O'Donnell are definitely up there in the Mount Rushmore of game composers.
Oh... wow. This touched me more than it should have. His music played throughout my life and in retrospective, I completely agree with the first statement about prople knowing the songs, but not the creators. I did indeed download all the songs for free, simply because there wasn't any way to get one's hands on them otherwise. But his music made some of those games truly immortal and the nostalgia and warmth I feel whenever I think back to the time when I played them and threw myself into those worlds will always be some of my most fond and positive memories, especially from a few truly dark moments of my life. This really sucks. I'm in quite a "Why can't we have nice things?"-mood now. Thanks a lot for your video, even though a part of me hates you for doing this.
Learning all this about Jeremy Soule is really disappointing, but in no way does it impact my ability to enjoy his art. More often than not, extremely creative people have their demons and are not particularly well-adjusted.
if i were Bethesda, i’d have Jeremy compose TES6 soundtrack, slap an alias on the credits, and pay him a fuck ton to compensate. his music is one of, if not the single most lauded aspect of The Elder Scrolls series. people talk endlessly about how the music is essential to the experience, and many get pulled back into the games by the soundtracks alone. obviously, his music is very important to the DNA of the series. i don’t think Bethesda wants to sacrifice that, but on the other hand, it would admittedly be a PR nightmare to employ him after these allegations, even if unsubstantiated.
Bethesda is just a bad development studio that made mediocre games that captured audiences imagination thanks to outstanding art and music at a time when there really wasn't anything to compare them to. Without the music of Jeremy Soule, TES6 will just be another Starfield, a bland, broken and pointless experience.
@@JumboCod91 What on Earth are good or excellent studios and games, then, if Bethesda is bad and the games are mediocre? Those games have sold tens of millions of copies. If you consider play hours, I imagine as far as story-driven SP games go, Bethesda games are quite up there as well. Folks regularly play them through multiple times and keep extending them with mods. Skyrim, a dusty old game, is still getting new mods. They have got TCs as well, with teams putting years of work in developing expansion-sized free stuff for them. "Bad, mediocre". Your standards sure are lofty. My expectations for TES VI are low as well, but not because of the reason you imagined. It's because Bethesda doesn't want to make it anymore. Todd Howard admitted as much in an interview: that they want to make something else. The years after Skyrim are already longer than between Morrowind and Skyrim, yet there was the whole Oblivion between those two! It's crystal clear that Bethesda simply has lost all inspiration to make another Elder Scrolls. That's why I can't expect too much from it, should it ever even appear.
@@herrakaarme "[It is not] the acme of excellence if you fight and conquer and the whole Empire says, 'Well done!'" - Sun Tzu Just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good. In Bethesda's case, the main reason the Elder Scrolls games sold so well is because there isn't really all that much competition in their specific niche (first/third person, open world, free-form RPG, particularly one with such good mod support like they have).
9:51 - this goes to show that piracy, while it does have something to do with cost, is mostly a result of customer experience. People pirated anime back in the 2000s because it was pretty much the only way to get hold of it, even when DVDs became accessible, it was still easier to just search for what you wanted to watch online than go to the shop or order it and wait multiple days for the order to arrive. Same thing for music, while music is relatively accessible, if you want something niche (like a soundtrack) it's probably not going to be stocked in your local shops. It's much easier to download it than hunt down a physical copy. People who onced pirated everything now use services like crunchyroll and spotify, because they're even easier than pirating. The big irony here is that Jeremy was so anti-piracy while not fully understanding the route cause. I know the kind of people he's talking about from his quote; copyright abolitionists, who think they should be able to take what other people have created for free, that look at the actions of companies like Disney and assume all copyright is a bad thing while not understanding the benefit it provides for smaller or independent creators. We're seeing a resurgance of these types with the advent of AI as they try to justify why it's ok for these companies to train their LLMs on copyright material. They can be toxic, malcious and actively rejoice in the downfall of creators, but they're a minority within a minority. If Jeremy had understood that instead of thinking everyone who pirates is one of these extremists, he could've delivered a system that was pro-consumer and it wouldn't have needed to be pirated.
the lack of jeremy soule's music and adam adamowicz' concept art will be sorely felt in tesVI and honestly i don't think I am looking forward to it without them. The moment-to-moment ambience and atmosphere is really the heart and soul of these games, if we regress there, the appeal is gone...
@@Dalendrion Yeah, there's no lack of talent for game composers. If you listen to those big mods like Skyblivion, Skywind, Beyond Skyrim etc they can blow new life into older works or create new work with that same vibe.
My take: Bethesda should tap Evan Call. You won't get fantastic melodies, but most of the other pieces of the music puzzle should be a good replacement. Meanwhile... we're talking about something that launches no earlier than three years from now. By the time it does launch, there will be a hundred entire soundtracks waiting on the wings to be posted to Nexus, created by AI trained on nothing but Jeremy Soule's library of work.
@@Asterra2 Yeah, I'm gonna stay away from AI crap if I can help it. I'd rather have more soul in the music. There's plenty of real talent out there, both professional and hobbyists. (Though that's me judging AI by its current capabilities. Who knows what happens in the next 3 years. Though I still wouldn't expect AI to suddenly become _actually_ creative.) The only thing we have to worry about is Bethesda's hiring and development practices. Which... seems to be a real worry judging by the last few games.
@@scarecroow1611 The first time you reach High Hrothgar in Skyrim you can barely hear a short tune (which took me 10 years to notice, by the way) which sounds like a Starfield's main theme leitmotif. ... I didn't need to check who made that.
@@JanTGTX "The Total Annihilation soundtrack, composed by Jeremy Soule, is a critically acclaimed and iconic work in the realm of video game music. Released in 1997, it features a live orchestral score, performed by the 95-piece Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra, making it a groundbreaking achievement in video game music at the time."
@@thatsnotoneofmeatsmanyuses1970 I guess, to fit on the 2 CDs they had to compress the hell out of that soundtrack. Sound was one of the biggest bottlenecks for disk space at the time (and still is part of the reason why games are so big these days)
Good research. I did some of my own digging a while back but never went that far. When someone 'cancels' themselves from their previously high profile life it doesn't look good for them. I would suggest we haven't heard the last of this story.
The Northerner was announced within days of Todd Howard announcing there would be no more support for Skyrim. It was likely a soundtrack for the abandoned "Redguard" DLC. It's possible Jeremy was already dead by this point and the kickstarter was a scam.
There are some UA-camrs that simply emailed him and got permission to use some of his music on the platform and ended up doing extremely well. He just let them have that apparantly.
No, this info doesn't change how I love his music. The music, to me, is independent of the man. It's representative of the games I played and the experience that came when I heard them, not the artist.
When I bought a PC copy of Prey that was complete, the digital download code for the soundtrack did not work on whatever site it was. So I emailed about it. Jeremy replied back and sent me the album files. This was many years ago.
I was surprised that he was the musical lead in Dungeon Siege and redid some of Nobuo Uematsu's stuff for the US versions of Squaresoft's Super Nintendo releases earlier in his career. Then he turned out to be who he was and I just felt icky about everything. He's definitely is one of the best example of "love the art, hate the artist."
UN-proven allegations made 11 years after the fact. Nahhh. Hey guys! ThatGuySizzleMac is a *bad man*. I'm a woman and he did *bad man things* to me in a bar in Amsterdam 14 years ago and I've never dared speak out, but I can't hold it in any longer, I need to come clear so I can help prevent other *bad man things* from happening! Stay clear of him, please protect yourself!
I felt profoundly sad after watching this video: I don't think you can truly separate an artist from their art while they are still alive and able to profit from it.
@@andredelacerdasantos4439 Valid. This might be an unusual case where separating the art from the artist is a lot harder because of that especially weird admission.
I find it easier with orchestral pieces for some reason (maybe because I don't have to hear the person's voice? I'm not sure). I strongly associate the music with the games, not with him, so I'm thankfully still able to enjoy it. But I certainly don't plan to buy any soundtracks from him.
I was a Soule fan since a kid (Harry Potter PS1, anyone?). My wife put me onto the ESV during the pandemic and I loved the soundtrack there too. As a kid, there was this little flute melody he did that I saw repeated in other works and really liked. I learned how to play it on the flute at one point lol. Then I actually looked the man up while my wife and I were gushing about the music one day. Horrifying doesn't quite get across what I mean. What was worse was seeing a quote by him saying something like, "I pour my sexual energy and experiences into all my works." And, in the way that only your brain on autopilot can be so bold, I heard that flute melody again in ESIV, and I thought, "Ew, is that his little r8pe noise?" Needless to say, i have to make a conscious effort to enjoy anything he's created at this point. I still do, I just have to actively shut off my disgust for the man. Wouldn't support anything new by him in the industry.
If anything the lawsuit between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have taught me Johnny Depp has almost lost his entire career as an Actor just with allegations alone All of it later came to be proven false with more in depth investigation Even after a decade since the SA took place you could still be taken to court but that didn't happen I think A person should be Innocent until proven guilty otherwise Remember when you listen to elder scrolls soundtracks the money goes to the developers not the artist who made them So I'll still be listening to his works all the while condemning him for his actions
Exactly. But those sly drama queens can make your world turn upside down by just babbling nonsense. The easiest route for these hags is to use the magic words - he assaulted me. "Trust me on this, I'd never lie, I'm a woman."
@maboleth Exactly! I'm not trying to defend Soule here but why did these women waste time posting what they went through online instead of taking legal action? Wouldn't that be the best course of action?
I remember following him on FB back in the day, and seeing his weird 9/11 truther posts about sonic frequencies "proving" that it was a controlled demolition. Probably irrelevant to the other things he's done, but it adds to the tapestry, lol
It's so weird David Wise got the same vibe. And I think Michiru Yamane from the Castlevania series is an antivax as well. What is happening to all great composers?
Oh wow I'm shocked! You did good work Azura, researching his disappearance. I had no idea all this was going on. I knew the guy ghosted, but this is really alarming. I've always loved his music and consider him one the best composers of our generation, but I simply can't view him the same after learning about all of this.
Apparently youtube liked this video despite the topic since it was recommended to me. I'll definitely always remember what I now know about this guy when I hear the music, but I still don't feel like the music should lose value just because the creator is unlikable. Much like I still listen to Mindless Self Indulgence despite a similar situation there, or to Burzum despite the gruesome history of the creator. I find it best to distinguish between the art and the artist if possible. Of course there's always a line somewhere for everyone.
I still listen to Get Scared, even though they had to cut off a former frontman for being caught with cp on his computer. It is boundlessly screwed up when an artist's true colors are finally revealed, but last I heard, the band disowned him and with his prison sentence he lost royalties. I'm torn on who to believe, when it comes to the allegations, but Soule is no saint to put on a pedestal in any case. His works can still be appreciated while we acknowledge that he himself is heavily flawed.
34:10 I was one of the customers who bought the Skyrim mp3 soundtrack and got nothing after paying. I wrote ticket after ticket till I gave up. After (I guess) two years I got an E-mail from a lawyer who gave me a dl code for the album (which i meanwhile had bought on Amazon Music), after provided proof.
azura once again tries to make a video shorter than 30 minutes challenge, level: impossible - discord.gg/p4gePVpRDx - x.com/Azuraaaaaaaaa_
i still love his music compositions, i also understand this all took place during the MeToo era, which took out a lot of bad guys as well took out some good guys because all it took was an simple accusation without proof or evidence from the accuser which ended up ending someone's life or career whether it was true or not.
however for this case it appeared one of these women had proof and was attempting on relaying that information, i'm not saying i want to see his explicate photos of himself, but i would rather that was verified by the police or something, because if it was, it would be considered a truth and not just a statement that we can't verify, and that information, so if verified would go further than just the text statements on a screen to his behaviors and of the allegations, because as someone who believes strongly in justice i also strongly believe in proof.
again, i still love his music because i don't associate the music to emotion of the allegation, instead i focus on the scenery or atmosphere of many of the games he's produced his music for, so i personally experience no sour thoughts on that front.
in my opinion, i think he should just sell the rights to the northerner to Bethesda and maybe they might add it to the next elder scrolls game, to be honest with you, i don't think there is any better composer for elder scrolls than him, but there are also a lot of great composers out there that i think could take the job and do a great job.
but yeah this whole allegation stuff would destroy a man like we have seen with so many other men that i have seen, some were guilty and many were found not guilty but found guilty by "The Court Of Public Opinion" which is very unreliable at best, but that would destroy the men regardless because at that point your done for sure and i wouldn't blame him for leaving if this were the case, he might have to change his name and adjust his way of life to continue his musical career and exist as a composer of another name, like a ghost writer and never show himself to the public, that's the only way i could see him continue.
Talk about Gothic I II III Kai Rozenkranz
wow, my comment was taken down because why?
i mean i didn't say anything bad from what i remember all i did was answer your question.
Can I pray to you?😂
@@5226-p1ebecause UA-cam AI censorship is out of hand
"The Streets of Whiterun" is one of the most beautiful and serene pieces of music I've ever heard in a videogame.
It really is
Genuine tear-jerker.
I’m sad that Skyrim will likely be their magnum opus, like final fantasy 6 was for square
It won’t get better from here
Starfield has shown us what we can expect
But still least we have Secunda and Streets of Whiterun
@@Merknilash Yeah. I really wanted TES6 to combine the best of previous games in the series(physical world of Skyrim, questline detail of Oblivion, freedom of magic on Morrowind, etc.), but after Starfield and their descent in 'paid mods or bust' anything released in the future labelled as TES6 is going to be a poor imitation.
Sky above, voice within is my favourite from Skyrim ❤
"Piracy is bad."
Proceeds to rob his customers of their money.
A true thieves guild member.
Projectors gotta project 😪
No honor among thieves as they say.
Underrated
Piracy is great
@@drewbocop Piracy brings balance.
Jeremy Soule's credits go far beyond TES. He was considered the "John Williams of video games" at one point. One of my favorites of his was Dungeon Siege.
I absolutely love the soundtrack in Dungeon Siege!
He did the soundtrack for the best WoW expansion; Mists of Pandaria along with Jack Wall
@@foxxoboxxo1611 WTF are you smoking? Mists was one of the worst expansions.
Love the Dungeon Siege soundtrack too. His work on Total Annihilation was (and still is) also amazing.
Sorry, that's Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo
His work on Harry Potter is so iconic as well. This was before the Elder Scrolls hype and it was easily his best work back then. The ambient music he created is some of the most nostalgic things in gaming I have ever heard.
All of this stuff just makes me really sad...
Man, i forgot that was him too! I get those early HP 1 and 2 game tunes stuck in my head at least once a month, still.
@@haldalas and he made music for HP 3 and 4, mostly for the consoles and pc I think. The ones in 3 were also very nostalgic though more on the dramatic side, but 1 and 2 are just peak HP Soule for me at least. It was just real auditory magic and once you hear it in the game, you cannot unhear the whole soundtrack. Makes you really feel home at Hogwarts.
The fact that the Elder Scrolls composer promised a release of media that still has not arrived, with little to no updates on its progress is so ironic lol.
@@JettyBootChamp I appreciate you pointing this out.
I'm a little confused about the kickstarter thing, because he did release 12 movements in the form of the Northern Diaries (available via Amazon and likely others). The track Ginnung is one of his best. Sure he didn't do the second album and is a total sleazeball, but he did put out one album. Am I interpreting this wrong? Thanks for any clarification.
@@jimtomasko3838 I didn't actually know about this album before this video, but in the brief search I made, I found the quality of the mixing of the album to be lacking for the most part. That's probably what he meant by "musical sketches" since it seems unfinished.
Lol
it just works, ok?
Soule also did Knights of the Old Republic, as well as Neverwinter Nights. He has a huge footprint onto gaming even outside of elder scrolls
Guild wars 1 as well, not sure about 2
Dark Alliance's Elfsong Tavern is still so haunting all these years later, for me
@@KRJ893 and the expansions, and 2
And may I add, the KOTOR soundtrack was amazing.
His other compositions were mentioned in the video 🤣 not sure why so many ppl are bringing up stuff already mentioned in the video
In the likely event that Jermey Soule is replaced as the Elder Scrolls composer, I *really* hope Inon Zur isn't his replacement... His Elder Scrolls: Blades & Starfield score was utterly bland & forgettable... Zur is great for Fallout, but really misses in other Bethesda games.
Agreed, Inon Zur has composed some great tracks for other games but in general he's a bit hit or miss. He doesn't have that consistency that Soule does and especially when it comes to Elder Scrolls.
Brad Derrick is likely to be his replacement. He's been doing ESO music for over a decade.
@@deanmoccia2941It's flatly untrue that I and others didn't like is score from Elder Scrolls Blades & Starfield?... He's not a bad composer, but his Blades OST is meh in comparison (re-listen to it) & Starfield (which I liked more than Blades) had tracks that sounded like left over Fallout music that didn't fit for me and lacked variety from his other bethesda projects & works... Personally, I don't want him to do the music for ESVI and I know I'm not alone in thinking that
@@deanmoccia2941 i put 100 hours into starfield and i can only really recall the main theme lol
@@deanmoccia2941 In regards to your deleted comment that said: "This is just flatly untrue, and even if it was true, the idea that you didn’t like a creator’s work for one particular style on one particular game means that he shouldn’t work on anything else again is absurd"... I like Zurs other work elsewhere. I never said or implied he shouldn't work on anything else again... It's absurd that's what you took from my comment, which is why I'm assuming you deleted it
Jeremy's music truly did bring the Elder Scrolls series to heights it never would have reached without him.... however, we now have Borislav Slavov a frequent collaborator for Larian Studios and most recently worked on the OST for Baldur's Gate 3. An incredibly talented composer that I hope to see gain mainstream praise for his genuis
I see that name and the main menu music from BG3 immediately pops in my head. Sooooo good.
The Baldur's Gate 3 soundtrack is fantastic. As is the game.
I hope that Borislav Slavov actually could be the composer for Elders Scrolls 6, but I highly doubt that he will work with Bethesda, aso maybe, he will stick to Larian for their next project and the music on their next Game. would be amazing. Dude is as good as Jeremy I'd say. even though Jeremy is a liittle bit better if comes to the atmospheric part.
Okau, but his not on Soule level
Bobby Slovov is a wonderful composer and I would be beyond stoked if he was commissioned for ES6. Amber Ale is a personal favorite. Excellent tavern jam. I believe it's on Spotify if you want to check it out
I got to sleep to Skyrim music and “Atmospheres” for years. His work really helped me. It saddens me that a person who gave me so much peace now hides in murky waters.
Don't care about unproven allegations. Music is still timeless and immortal. And will be around for hundreds of years. The people who made the allegations will be forgotten in less than 15 seconds.
@@arthurwilliams3479 yeah I bet they did nothing of value in their whole life
Our society is truly rotten if unproven things could lead to talented people like Soule being removed from production
I always sleep to Atmospheres.
@@arthurwilliams3479 Yeah, but the scams were real and proven
@@suecondon1685I knew I couldn’t be the only one but it pleases me quite a bit to actually hear others say they do as well!
I grew up next to Jeremy and his brother Julian (they actually used to compose together....Julian now works in music technology in Seattle as that was more his passion). Met them through friends in high school. Joined the Army and lost touch with all of them. Three years ago I messaged Jeremy on Twitter and got back into contact with his brother and our mutual friend.
Saw Julian actually a year and a half ago and we spoke about his brother....he's still around. The thing with Jeremy is he always had aspirations of making it in Hollywood, even back when he was working on Harry Potter games he was under the belief and hope that they would be his segue into movies.
According to Julian, he's been to things like DiCaprio's birthday parties and other high profile events. I do know, that the controversies weighed pretty heavily on him (I have no idea if the allegations are true or not, and neither did the parties I spoke with) and he stopped trusting people, etc. I can't speak on his Kickstarter issues, as it's been a minute since we've spoken again.
I wholly believe, that Elder Scrolls wouldn't be the same without his music. Not to mention the other games he's worked on (his credits go all the way back to stuff like Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, Unreal 2: The Awakening, and more).
His IL-2 Birds of Prey work was a masterclass.
Interesting, share more please!!
Tragically despite his genius he is an idiot
Thanks for the info! (We assume you're honest ofc haha)
Yeah, hes clearly a vulnerable narcissist who thinks the he's God's gift to creation and that all of us should grovel at his feet. Add the fact that he's a sexual deviant on top of it who is so obsessed with sex that it's all he can think about. Makes him even more deplorable than he already was. It makes me sick thinking about the kind of energy he put into making his music.
"While Jeremy was looking to the North, things just seemed to keep going South" Brilliant line
As a fan of Elder Scrolls V in its entirety, I am taken aback that this is my first time learning about this. It's quite disappointing. I'm very fond of Skyrim soundtrack and its dear to me as it evokes my love for the game. However, discovering the allegations against Jeremy Soule has left me feeling uneasy. Nevertheless, I still value the soundtrack and intend to continue listening to it. It's possible to enjoy the music without endorsing its creator... But knowing about the situation does taint my enjoyment each time I listen to it..
Many people who excel in one department may very well be degenerates in others. Furthermore there isn’t any substantial evidence for his allegations. One of the women was apparently a notorious liar affording to a commenter who knew her by name.
yeah :(
I genuinely think that Bethesda was made aware of some internal allegations toward Jeremy prior to all the public stuff, and decided to quietly cut ties. They didn't make a stink, there was no statement, they just knew they could not be associated with him anymore. I personally believe that Bethesda has an extensive file sealed away in HR in case it's ever needed for any sort of legal matters.
I was thinking the same thing.
I hope Bethesda enjoys having mediocre music that lacks soul.
@@avatarion There are plenty of other talented composers out there lol Jeremy isn't a God, he's a real, flawed human being like the rest of us
@@andredelacerdasantos4439 Everyone is flawed. Jeremy Soule made TES music for what it is. No reason not to keep it up.
@@avatarion There is plenty of reason to not keep it up, as shown in the video
I loved his music, bringing legit orchestral scores to fantasy games was lit.
And he did it without orchestras which is really incredible given the results he got
@@ethnicalbert True, for the time, he got a fantastic result using virtual instruments. I think his sound is still better than some modern orchestral game scores that were made with virtual instruments.
@@liegonThat's because modern games mostly all have the same generic meandering orchestral slop for music whereas Soule actually knows how to compose with emotion.
@@ennayanne That's also true for some soundtracks, but I remember specifically being struck by 'not being annoyed' by the artificial sounds, as was usually the case at that time for me. I think he may have worked with his own samples and I guess balanced them really well.
@@liegon I love the sound of samples so it doesn't bother me either way
His music has literally brought me to tears.
There’s a lot of good music written, and great art generally, by some objectively crappy people.
Same. Especially songs like masser, aurora, kynes peace, auriels ascension, peace of akatosh… hauntingly beautiful.
@@linkalot7415 Streets of Whiterun. Go give a listen to the somewhat recent live orchestra performance of it. They gave way too much balance to the choir but otherwise it's remarkable.
@@Justanotherconsumer that is why we need that separation of art and artist. "Death of the artist" is a phenomenon that pretty much shows how people just don't care about who the artist is, so why are we being so anal about it?
And it looks like a tormented artist that produces great art is equivalent to a malevolent one, so negative shxt produces good things, sadly a reality we have to live in
@@Rov-Nihil death of the artist is as much about interpretation (e.g. the guy who wrote Grave of the Fireflies didn’t intend it as anti-war) as it is about separating the artist from the art.
Wagner is the quintessential example here, dude was wack but wrote some really amazing stuff (Siegfried’s Funeral March for a great example, though Ride of the Valkyries probably his most recognizable work).
Wagner was mostly a product of his time, though, so he’s easier to dismiss as “bad old days.”
3:11 I thought you said "autistic" instead of "artistic" lol
chaunie you should know better
Oh I heard the same thing twice. The R left the chat.
me too, had to go into the comments to check. the auto-generated captions were no help lol
Nearly spat my drink out (I’m literally having lunch)
Same xD
Jeremy Soule is just like Matt Uelmen to the Diablo and Torchlight series.. their art style can't be compared or duplicated by anybody. You need just 1 second of one of their songs to recognize that's their work and the atmosphere they set is just unique in this world
Matt also composed lots of tracks for Warcraft and Starcraft series. When he leave Blizzard theirs scores suddenly lost magic of Matt genius. D3 soundtrack was boring, Starcraft 2 was forgetable, D4 okeyish at best.
I also put Marty o'donnel in that club as well. Amazing composer with a very identifiable style.
Similarly, Uelmen has disappeared from the face of the Earth. I think he did the music for Hob? 2015? 2017? Nothing since that I can find. Alas, the old days.
@@ianwilliams2632 last soundtrack made by him was Torchlight 3 in 2020. Now he's working on another ARPG game with the same team
@@bryo4321 Jesper Kyd is currently at the top of my list of gamescore composers. Plus he create soundtracks like machine gun :). I also like Jack Wall for his work on Mass Effect trilogy.
I love getting the report of what's actually there instead of the UA-camr's own bias for clickbait. Thank you for that, not many people do actual reports anymore.
What the F even is this comment? You do realize that everyone has a bias don't you? She showed hers at the very end of the video when saying she's bothered by his music now, knowing the dirty details of his creepy actions. Must not have finished the video I guess lolz.
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 Your bar for getting bothered is so low if my comment bothered you, I just noticed your username is "SoyBorne", no wonder! Lol
"Completely unbiased" lmao
@@f.m848 Your comment sucked, because it was clearly unobservant and whiolesale ignorant of how inidivdual perspectives work. There is always bias. You were called out. Now deal with it like a man.
@@OpenMawProductions "Now deal with it like a man." Lol, what do you think the comment selection is!
Do you think the way you talk is gonna give you an air of legitimacy or cover the fact that you're a troll arguing for the sake of getting some much-needed human interaction and drama?
btw, the like numbers on the comments tell who's full of it! Lmao.
Him comparing piracy to the holocaust is absolutely INSANE
I find it based and hilarious. Copyright must be respected.
@@KotleKettle People who hold intellectual properties are the first ones to completely disregard respect, I don't know what dream land you live in.
@@KotleKettle The idea that a human can own ideas is absurd on its face.
Perhaps a better comparison is the Jewish Golem of Prague (sticking with the theme here). Copyright may once have been intended for artist protection, but it has since been turned against consumers and artists by enormous subsidiary chains run by people that care very little about the art or the consumer.
@@bartolomeothesatyr The idea that people are entitled to take digital works without going to prison for the theft it is, is more absurd.
Thanks so much for taking the time to make this video! Prior to watching it, I actually didn’t know ANY of this stuff. That said, I’ve enjoyed Soule’s work immensely for more than two decades now. It really saddens me to know that he’s been such a scoundrel in both his personal and professional life, but I can honestly say that that doesn’t detract from the beauty and brilliance of his work, for me. Nobody’s perfect, everyone can (and likely will) eventually let you down, and many, MANY artists have produced work that’s better than they are themselves.
I’m a literature teacher, and was actually just talking about this with my students this morning in relation to Sir Thomas Malory and Le Morte d’Arthur (c. 1470). Malory was, like Soule, a scoundrel of the first order, and in fact wrote his famous book while in prison for his crimes. But the book he produced is a beautiful celebration of virtue and condemnation of vice.
In it, King Arthur’s reign (and life!) is brought to a tragic end by evil acts-both his own, and others’-and yet even for his adulterous wife Guenivere and treacherous friend Lancelot, there is hope for redemption. They live out their own last days in sober repentance, forsaking their old desires to honour the memory of their beloved king.
So, was Malory a good man? Would I want to sit down and have a beer with him if he were alive today? No. But his book turned out better than he was, because even though he did evil deeds, he knew, deep down, that they were evil, and he knew what goodness, truth, and beauty were.
Listening to Jeremy Soule’s music, I believe the same is true of him. There’s timeless beauty and wonder in his music, even if his personal life has been an ugly mess. That music will outlive the scandals of his sins.
"Direct Song was failing to directly get songs to their customers" lol very well put. I remember having to send multiple complaints after ordering the complete Skyrim music collection from them before finally being sent it before all his mess came to light.
How many artists do you know are excellent business managers? Heck, how many do you know that are any good with money at all?
@@etherealceleste I do not know offhand whether he and his brother were personally packaging and shipping out copies of their music from their garage like some kind of startup or merely invested in poor partners that did shoddy work. The result was the same, and not a good look for someone at his level.
Aye, DirectSong has pretty much always been a pain to use as a customer, and not just for physical releases. I remember buying the digital Oblivion and original Guild Wars soundtracks from DirectSong back in 2006, and they came with an absurd amount of DRM. You had to install special software just to listen to the soundtracks, and the license had a limited number of activations, so you could only activate and listen to the albums on a maximum of three devices. And of course, the software was buggy. I still have the tech support ticket emails from DirectSong in my inbox (since I never delete anything).
To their credit, DirectSong did eventually ditch the DRM years later, and issued DRM-free albums to digital customers, but as much as I love Soule's music, I have never had to go through so many hoops, before or since, just to listen to an album I had paid for, it was truly a bizarre experience.
I remember sending multiple complaints after ordering that same collection, and I STILL have yet to receive it, or to get my money back. While a great composer, the man is a thief. I guess I can credit him for teaching me a valuable lesson. I will NEVER again give money to any vendor that I don't know to be trustworthy. If I can't buy it from such a vendor, I don't need it.
Direct song was an absolute disaster i don`t know what the hell he was thinking. So paranoid about music pirates the software didn`t even work. I had to send multiple emails to get it to work if at all.
As a huge fan of Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars 2 and their music, I was incredibly disappointed in Jeremy's anti-consumer actions. As a leader in the companies he involved with he is absolutely responsible for the way his customers are treated. His DirectSong endeavor was terrible. I was one of the fans who ordered from them but the wait was unreasonable. I eventually filed a complaint with PayPal. I never went back. I had wanted to support him and his work. He drove me away from it. He was the reason why his music was unavailable anywhere else, and he's the reason why his fans lost trust in him.
The fact that there are so many comments in this video praising him and ostracizing people for "dismissing a talented man over allegations that were never proved" is so sick. The point of the video completely went over their heads, the allegations were not even the focus here. This man has enough of a track record to be in prison, harassment allegations or not.
@@andredelacerdasantos4439 Yeah it's kind of wild. I thought his music was amazing and he clearly has talent, but he was always kind of a jerk. I'm not even surprised to hear he about his behavior towards women. Being a total vile creeper (among other words I can't use here) is just another layer of crap on the cake. The guy was a horrible goblin at every opportunity.
Sure, but take any artist in history and you won't agree with everything they do. They might be "anti-machine" punk rockers who start raging "for the machine" in other situations. They might be writing their music to embolden an imperialistic army. They might be people who get murderously drunk on occasions... or support an oppressive aristocracy... they are still fallible people. They might try supporting new technological drives that fail or end up anti-consumer. In the end... people still love World of Warcraft, despite Blizzard's ongoing bad reputation, and people still want to hear Wagner compositions, watch Hitchcock films, sing along to Rolf Harris songs... the list could go on and on but would get controversial pretty quick...
I was one of the backers of his kick-starter project... that whole debacle made me quite disappointed at the time. After years and years of delay I (as many others) got a bunch of flac files instead of a signed CD, all the while many backers found proof of him using the money to launch his company.
I'm so sorry, but the comment on the kick-starter saying "happy 11th birthday" crack me out 😂
@@varieedeventualii lol did you try crying about it?
😮@@13anjowizard
@@13anjowizardSo you're just okay with people being scammed out of a product they payed for? What a weird hill to die on
@@sunblade704 I’m not, lol. What did you think you were buying? I remember being unimpressed by the kickstarter and just not donating, the guy was clearly going through something. I recently watched an interview and he knows he’s evil and that the entire industry is evil as well, he described his job as “addicting people to SOFTWARE.” That said, his music was incredibly touching, that’s why we are here. His behavior has been bad, allegedly, but not so bad that I care. That’s me personally. But with him being under attack, I feel the need to even defend him. If he we were some child blood drinking celebrity I wouldn’t be.
As a huge fan of his music, this makes me incredibly sad.
His music has made me live so many memorable moments. From Secret of Evermore, to Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, SW: KOTOR to Elder Scrolls. I believe the main theme for Morrowind speaks for itself. So much talent...
his work in guild wars 2 is some of the best game music ever made
THIS! He did a lot of the GW music and reprised it in Gw2. I'm very glad they did. (Gw1 was my first MMO)
And has been dropped by the company after Heart of Thorns, iirc. Beautiful music, but he has always been a scumbag
Wait, he did that too? Explains a lot.
Yeah it's S tier
also his music in Total Annihilation, forever ago, is a great take on classical music
Roland Cloud is not Jeremy Soule's company. He did some work with them but the company is a subsidiary of the Roland Corporation, based in Japan.
It's embarrassingly sloppy of her to get such details so incredibly wrong. It really makes me question the credibility of everything in the video. I don't want to fact check every single thing a person says in a > 30 minute essay, so I guess I'm out. Hopefully she's generally better or learns to be, for the sake of her subscribers.
I was wondering about this, too. What does he have to do with Roland?
Yeah, according to Wikipedia, the Soule brothers founded Virtual Sonics which produced digital instrumentation for Roland Cloud.
@@Rindview I just made big comment explaining things, but yeah they founded Virtual Sonics, which became Roland Virtual Sonics, and then split from Roland in 2019 and became Virtual Sonics again. I worked for them for about 5 years (RVS, then Roland Cloud after the split)
Yeah, anyone involved in music knows Roland and their legacy. The 808 alone would have been enough. And Roland Cloud isn't much different from Native Instruments, or Ableton or anyone else building digital sound libraries.
Bloody hell. I've been enjoying his music since Dungeon Siege way back in 2002. Then I heard his work in Morrowind, Guild Wars and the other Elder Scrolls games. I was a fan!
It always breaks my heart when stuff like this come to the surface...
," he said, taking at face value the words of a random stranger.
@@citricdemonJeremy is also a random stranger by your metric
@@charlieni645 funnily enough, your mom isn't
And some of the cancel culture stuff is lies to destroy others lifes
I didn't realize he'd done Dungeon Siege. That tracks though that music was so good.
I am one of the ones who paid quite a bit of money for a full Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack. I never got my order, and never got a refund. I got a response from them 1 single time that they were looking into it, then never heard from them again. I used to update the ticket once per year but eventually just gave up on it.
Man, I had no idea about this Kickstarter or the associated drama. I have been enjoying "The Northerner Diaries", "Vaka", and "Frithr" on Spotify for years not realizing all the mess behind them...
Same thing for Skyrim in Concert on UA-cam.
Well, happy to have funded your listening pleasure :')
There is a point where we can separate the art from the artist, the line is closer or farther depending on our own moral values, enjoy the music for you, beyond that is your own decision
@@DaDoubleDee Didn't mean to imply that I was going to stop enjoying the fruits of other people's kickstarter money anytime soon lol! I've had it on in the background several times since my post, and will continue to enjoy it. It doesn't make his music worse, but if I ever bump in to Mr. Soule, I won't invite him over for dinner with the family...
While I still enjoy his music that he did for the elder scrolls, this video was indeed quite interesting and informative. Nice work putting all this information into a video.
By Azura By Azura By Azura, i didn't expect a video like this from you but im not disappointed.
You don't need to apologize for reading from a script, I love me a good video essay. I'm glad you put this together, I knew vague bits and pieces but never knew the whole story. Thanks for the vid.
lmao at him comparing piracy to the holocause while the real enemy, corporations are the ones screwing over artists
Both can be true.
Piss off, communist.
Both can be true,
Atleast with some nuance, In the way that stealing/pirating respectively from Walmart, Adobe, or some other big company isn’t nearly as harmful as stealing/pirating from a family owned business or indie dev or something like that.
Saying that bread's price is high due to [X], does not justify stealing from the baker thou...
... and nothing could do. Unless you're a -criminal- socialist of some sort.
It's not for you to take/use someone else's property/work without consent, regardless of any other factor.
@@takezomiyamoto1390 how did you get all that from what I said? Literally all I said was he's blaming the wrong people lol. When costs get too high people will pirate. That's literally how it goes. Or I guess you can lick the corpo boots like a good little grunt like you. Also in your example why TF would a baker be getting his bread mass made by a corporation? If I'm going to a baker I'm buying from him.
I don’t know if TES VI could be successful without both Adam Adamowicz and Soule. His music is what brings life into TES worlds, it’s the thing that makes these virtual worlds immersive and special
Putting artists on a one-trick-pedestal has exactly never worked out so far.
Not to mention the state of Bethesda's more recent games has been somewhat underwhelming to say the least.
There are lots of great vg composers out there just waiting for the opportunity to make their own iconic soundtracks. Their music won't have his particular je ne sais quoi, but someone else will get a chance to share their own, and you might like it as much as Soule's music if you give it a chance.
@@RandleraySoule crushed it in Secret of Evermore, Total Annihilation, and 3 TES games
I’m sure he’d do fine in TES 6 if Microsoft wasn’t full of cowardice
@@abracadaveroushard pass on “giving poor artists a chance”
Soule is the soul of TES
Ah yes, online piracy, one of the best forms of protest against sh*tty business practices; because if buying isn't owning, piracy isn't theft.
ESPECIALLY if the shitty business tries to claim "buying isn't owning." Fuck that nonsense, time to set sail!
aight kinda weird topic but glad i found it. im not a "music guy" at all, but i grew up listening to his stuff in games. as soon as i got adult money id always buy the albums of his work, and my absolute favorite track of his was the dawn of war "chant" song. i found his page on facebook and messaged him saying how much i loved it, and if he had other tracks similar to it, id gladly buy it. he said "northerner diaries" then blocked me.
never meet your heroes, kids.
"Piracy is an issue of service, not price."
That’s a fucking lie.
@@JediCrackSmoke It's statistically the truth, and the man who said it is Gabe Newell. Gabe runs the most successful, and actively user/creator friendly storefronts ever made. There's a reason Steam is synonymous with the home computer game, and that's because he knows what he is talking about. If piracy wasn't an issue of service, he'd be out of a job!
@@hickory654 Gabe Newell also has a history of lying through his teeth.
It used to be only a service issue, now it's both.
@@JediCrackSmoke Read any good EULAs or TOS lately?
His work on Skyrim was outstanding and I think there's not one day I don't listen to his work because those 10hr Skyrim ambience videos are an integral part of my everyday life during my reading time or just as a background noice when I'm at home in general. I even have a signed physical copy of the Skyrim soundtrack I'm quite fond of. It's sad to see that he most probably won't be a part of TES: VI
Soule was also doing music for KOTOR 1.
You should bump the dagger fall ost Eric Heberling made the best ost work besides Osamu Sato imo
Just some viking guys singing the elders scrolls theme song but aright lol.
I think his earlier work on stuff like secret of evermore was better. Wonder if he was grapey back then too? lol
Did you see the anniversary live concert of Syrim, couple years back? It was freaking amazing
It IS sad! If only he wasn't a liar, scammer and generally shitty human being...
This was incredibly well scripted and thorough, excellent stuff! Please do more video essays as this was brilliant
Very very well put together video, I had only heard once from another Skyrim fan years ago about his mistreatment but the chat never went deeper than that. It's an extreme shame he's not only abused others but also seemingly took the money for a project & ran as I heard a few times now from Kickstarter. His music is really, really iconic & adds so much to the worlds of the Elder Scrolls, the music is truly beautiful. His comments on piracy being akin to the Holocaust are genuinely insane.
Ironically, I was pirating an album that's no longer on sale as I was hearing that bit.
The music at 0:42 (called "Masser") being relaxing is btw. an incredible feat. The score is harmonically insane - the circle of fifths screams in pain while he jumps all over without regard for rules and yet - it works out beautifully. It trancends the norms and brings a curious feeling of exploration. I love that piece dearly.
I don't know what to think about the person... But the music is really good and sounds simple only at surface level.
Apparently, the Skyrim score is also not in standard tuning. Typically, orchestras are tuned so that A4 is 440Hz, but Soule intentionally knocked the tuning off by a few Hz to make it so that the sound waves aligned in a more consistent and pleasing way. The dude may do shitty things, but he has a hell of a mind for music.
@@abidoran3439The frequencies "align" in any standard tuning... Composers just do this to make things sound a bit "differently" compared to the standard. For the average listener it's a subconsciously perceived difference at best.
@@abidoran3439 It's still equal temperament. There's no real difference beyond making it sound a bit brighter or darker with A=440 as a reference point for the average listener.
@@abidoran3439when will people realize that people who excel in one department, may very well be degenerate in others. But instead we idolize celebrities.
Masser is so good
I bought the Skyrim OST from DirectSong years ago - digitally, because I'd heard the CDs were often damaged on arrival. Even the digital download was screwed up, I had to pirate a handful of tracks because the download corrupted and I couldn't get a link for a second download attempt.
lol the irony. I'll never understand how someone can defend him
He cant ruin the meaning of the music wether its wings of Kynareth or Secunda. But man. My child hood is grabbing its knees in pain.
Not the only person grabbing their knees in pain in this story either...
@@VexylObby Ayo 🤣 ain't no way. That's top 5 🥶🥶🥶
Honestly him saying music and sex is the same taints his works so hard... How am I supposed to listen to his works after this?
What a shame it is when talent and opportunity is heaped on a real jerk. I used to love his Guild Wars soundtrack, and was one of the ones waiting patiently for my physical copy. I hope the vocalist from the Guild Wars 2 anthem managed to escape this guy's lecherous ways, because she's a seriously fantastic artist, and I wish her and every other woman within 1.5 miles of Jeremy Soule(ss) the best.
Imagine being an author and stating that intellectual property institute is designed to protect authors...
Guess when Bethesda didnt invite him, he learnt the opposite the hard way
He’s a clown and so is anyone else who defends IP
They didnt invite him cause they didnt need him lol. Not everyone is gonna e used on new projects
@@EggEnjoyerah yes so we should be allowed to steal and make what we want with people’s stuff
@@kennypowers1945 music is written to be listened in the first place. Wierd to be a creator and standing against someone enjoying and admiring your work.
@@remeris9061 Musicians have to eat, weird to think that all their hard work has to go for free. 99% of all musicians are already struggling to barely scrape by, most having to have a main job and do music on the side. Why should you be entitled to their hard work? Would you work for free?
I really appreciate your work, interest, and manner in presenting this! I hope you retain your authenticity in your other videos (this was just a random homepage pull for me) and as your channel grows, which I'm sure it will! Great work!
My experience with DirectSong is bittersweet. I'm a stickler for physical media, so I saw that DirectSong was offering the 4-disc set of the Skyrim OST for cheaper than it was on Amazon at that time. It was months and months of waiting and I had opened several complaint cases during that time. They took their sweet time in getting back to me, and they basically just amounted to "be patient, it'll happen soon". Finally, over a year and a half after my order, I ended up getting TWO copies of the 4-disc set in the mail and one of them came autographed by Soule in silver-coloured ink (which I hadn't paid for because that option cost extra). I guess it was their way of saying "sorry" for the exceedingly long wait.
Damn that's crazy
I got my signed copy pretty quick. But I did pay a bit more for the sig so possibly was on a more expedited list.
He's a weird genius who didn't follow the rules so now we will never get his genius music again. It's that simple. Society and it's obsession with being moral and normal due to being overly feminized is so regressive it's beyond words.
@@CahyaTroy Dude... Rape is bad. That's not a "hot take" or a "brave statement".
@@Haccoude Dude, bro, holy shit, rape n violating women stuff n stuff is bad broseph
Lmfao stfu.
I worked for "Roland Virtual Sonics"/"Roland Cloud" for about 5 years and know the Soules personally, mostly Julian. "Roland Virtual Sonics" hasn't actually existed for about 5 years or so. A little while after a new CEO took over RVS in 2019, Jeremy and Julian split from Roland ( a major Japanese electronic music company ) and reverted to just "Virtual Sonics", which is what their name was before merging with Roland. Roland dropped "Virtual Sonics" shortly after and became simply "Roland Cloud". The main sampler created by Roland Virtual Sonics, "Concerto", has been discontinued on Roland Cloud in favor of authentic recreations of their hardware synths. Concerto lives on in a code fork owned by Virtual Sonics under a new name. Concerto was meant for high quality orchestral libraries but its true purpose was never realized under Roland due to the conflicting priorities of the two companies. These days Virtual Sonics is actually working with Sony now on their 360 tech. Jeremy is still working on music projects but has a new moniker he is using. Julian is the one driving Virtual Sonics. I've met Jeremy a handful of times in person, but have spent a lot of time with Julian. I shouldn't get too personal, but I've always thought Julian is a great guy. It's hard to hear the stories about Jeremy. I'm also a big fan of his work, and was before I met them in 2015. Oh and btw, since you asked, I was a Direct Song customer before I met them. I didn' have any issues with delivery except years later the DRM went bad and I can't play the files anymore. I've joked about it to Julian personally. "You owe me buddy! =D"
Very interesting insight! Thank you for sharing!
What’s his new moniker?
No mention of Total Annihilation. Incredible orchestral works on their own and perfectly matched with a groundbreaking RTS for the time.
It's what always comes to mind when I see him mentioned. I can take or leave the elder scrolls stuff but the total annihilation soundtrack is legendary for me.
Total Annihilation is his definitive pre TES work. He was Chris Taylors musician of choice.
Best game ever
She missed the opportunity to give his Total Annihilation work the mention it deserves. I was blown away when I heard it in 1997 for the first time.
@@JTSuter No woman has ever heard of Total Annihilation.
Allegations aside, I am disappointed that Soule won't compose ES6. Todd even said "we start our preproduction with the music" as a way to inspire their artists and designers. This is a testament to the amazing work of Jeremy Soule. Inon Zur is okay, but hasn't filled the shoes of his predecessor yet. Point to one track that Zur has composed that hooks you in the same way Soule has done again and again.
I guess his theme for Dragon Age Origins is pretty memorable? But I'm kind of proving your point by only being able to name one track of his and it's from the 2000s. You're right, he really hasn't done anything as memorable since (and I'm kind of glad he got replaced in the Dragon Age franchise).
@@easternlights3155 Dragon Age origins soundtrack is a masterpiece but Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls are two completely different things when it comes to music.
Hire the composer of Baldur's Gate and Divinity 2, Boris Slavov. Guy is the next Jeremy Soule in my opinion, without all the nasty allegations and conspiracy theories hopefully.
I was very upset on how forgettable the OST of Starfield was. Very bland, almost sounds like a elevator music sometimes
>Point to one theme that hooks you
The main theme of Starfield
I can probably see Gareth Coker taking over from Soule tbh. He did a really good job in capturing the original Halo soundtracks (before Halo 4) and made it fit seamlessly into Halo Infinite.
Yeah I agree. The music he did for the Ori games was also top notch. I still listen to that every now and then.
He also did the soundtracks for Ark and its dlcs, I think Coker working on an Elder Scrolls game would be absolutely phenomenal :D
@@dinodude2579 Finally. A worthy artist that isn't grapey lol
@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 He genuinely feels like a chill and cool guy. Of course we don't know him personally, but he comes off as humble and approachable. He loves interacting with people on youtube. I remember he answered to one of my random comments (not directed to him) on an Ori music video. I would love him as TES VI main composer.
halo soundtrack doesn't even come close to Oblivion or Skyrim. Doesn't matter who bethesda chooses it will be forgettable. Star Citizen is bland in music. TES 6 will likely be bland too in music. No Soule.
Thanks, great video.
His music - especially in Ovliivon - is unlike anything I've ever heard. I had no idea why he doesn't compose anymore, now it all makes sense, his composing carriere is probably over after being Metooed on top of scamming kickstarter.
I tried to research a lot of this awhile ago to try to figure out what had happened, and why I had never heard any updates. It was like all the information about this man --- especially the allegations -- was forcibly removed from the internet. I appreciate the effort you did
likely because they were all false ones.
@@KoongYe See, but false accusations almost always have a very thorough paper trail disproving them? Rumors spread like crazy online -- if an accusation is proved false, the details of that will be made as public as possible to prevent that. So the fact that that *didn't* happen was more confusing/damning?
@@avryantoinette So you say, the accused is guilty until proven innocent?
Secret of Evermore went hard for it being his first project. He was at a prodigal level in his youth so I'm surprised his early work is not a little bit expanded.
I was scrolling and waiting for someone to mention Evermore! What a unique soundtrack. I loved it. I don't really seek out personal lives of celebrities, so I had no idea that all of this controversy was surrounding him.
It’s possible to enjoy the creations of madmen, while still denouncing the madmen themselves. Life is full of contradictions.
Very thoroughly researched, well done!
Why would he be a madman? Because he sent nudes to a woman? Fuck off...
It’s also possible to not declare anyone a madman based off of unsubstantiated claims. If someone is going to make a claim and there is no criminal prosecution, then I don’t particularly want to hear anything about it. Either file charges or go away. We saw multiple men lose their livelihood or have it threatened by unsubstantiated claims made during the Me Too movement. “Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t matter much to some people any more I guess.
@@ProfessorOfLogic81 im guessing the madman part is more in line with the wacky out of left field shit he has said rather than the accusations themselves. the dude has said some stupid shit over the years and has never done a good job at properly explaining himself. like comparing piracy to the holocaust. its absolutely bonkers off the wall shit like that which i think gets him the name madman. that and the fact that he is 100% one of those guys that says if you dont like his work its not because hes bad but because "you simply dont understand it". the dude is full of himself and while i agree he is an amazing composer, hes just a very terrible person to be around is the main problem.
@@ProfessorOfLogic81And if those claims are against a women it would not only be ignored relatively speaking, but even praised by some.
@@ProfessorOfLogic81 Dude the focus isn't even on the assault claims. He's a scammer
It's disappointing to see Jeremy Soule ruin the lives of other people, and for him to trivialize the Holocaust by comparing it to something as insignificant as downloading music for free is unhinged. I'll still appreciate his compositions since his voice isn't in the music and he doesn't get to have the power to take away my memories of experiencing the pristine atmosphere of Oblivion and Skyrim.
It was very sick indeed. And he uses his jewish descendence (is he really, though?) as a get out of jail free card? Made it even more sick
The word Holocaust wasn't even used for those particular WWII events until the 1970's. Constant talk about the "Holocaust" itself trivializes all the other much more numerous casualties in WWII which don't have a unique name for them.
Semantics won't make any difference unless you're a deluded revisionist. Lots of people die in wars but the holocaust was a planned and directed annihilation of a particular ethnic group. Only someone completely deluded would dispute that.
Oh no don't trivialize the thing that obviously never happened. Lol you know nobody cares anymore after what you guys are doing currently in the middle east right?
Secret of Evermore was an interesting flash in the pan for a short lived Squaresoft American studio. It's a shame that's all that came of it. I remember enjoying it. The soundtrack is really dark, atmospheric, and sinister for what appears to be a very lighthearted young boy on an adventure with his dog. The clash between the two gives you the uneasy sense that something isn't right in Evermore (which, as it turns out, is true).
He was definitely one of America's best game composers, rivaling Japan's best composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama. I first heard his work on Secret of Evermore, a game I got in 10th grade in the mid 90s.
Frank Klepacki is up there too
Makes outrageous anti-piracy talk and at the same time has multiple projects that fail to ship items to customers. What a clown
you're a smooth brain. I'd tell you what your comment really says about your person, but it'd get removed.
@@citricdemon Say it, no balls.
Fucking say it. Piracy is good and capitalism is fucking bad lmao@@citricdemon
@LordVader1094 it's pointless the youtube nanny bot will remove it anyway
@@bunnypeople your glibness betrays the indiscretion to which i am sure your fine mother has always been the most willing of parties. if you do not now do her honor, i am sure the esteemed madame certainly now receives no less than she is used to. good day.
When bits of Soules' historical soundtracks were played in this, I had memories of so many vibes and adventures. I hadn't noticed Jeremy disappeared from the scene, as I'm a retrogamer. Sad!
Amazing work with this video. Like you, as someone who just liked the music he composed for TES games, I was so surprised by all I learned about him in this video. I knew about the sketchy Kickstarter stuff, but everything else was news to me.
He brought a true sense of fantasy to this franchise; I think Bear McCreary would be an excellence composer for 6 tho
I backed The Northener. Not at a very high level if I remember correctly. By the time he released the "sketches" I had lost much interest and wasn't paying attention - I did get the download and it was nice music for sure. I didn't know others had struggled to get the files. Of course, these compositions are not all we were promised, but at this point I suspect it's all I'll see come from the project. I remember hating that the only way to get his music was through Direct Song though I never engaged with it. I do have some of his soundtracks from before - the Icewind Dale OST is amazing, as is the Morrowind CD that came with the collector's edition.
Ironically, I've since bought multiple Guild Wars 2 soundtracks - with music for the expansions that came out after JS was no longer involved with the game. Some I bought from Amazon Prime, and some from Bandcamp. Easy. I've had my work pirated - it sucks. It's a terrible feeling. I've never been tempted to compare it to the Holocaust mind you, but it's not great. I do feel that at some point your practices as a commercial entity can be so anti-consumer that you're almost setting yourself up for it. Paying money for something you never get is also not a great feeling, after all.
As for the other, more serious allegations... well, it's true they're not proven. But it certainly doesn't look good. The fact that he disappeared (with all The Northener money) hardly helps. I wonder who he's more afraid of: his accusers or his backers.
Like you, I love his music but my enjoyment of it is somewhat tainted these days. It's a damn shame, and a reminder that artistic talent and passion do not correlate with virtue to any degree.
The most reasonable comment I could find
This is just sad to hear. I can't even begin to describe how much I love his music, and how much it helped me, Skyrim Atmospheres in particular. I've listened to all the Elder Scrolls soundtracks more times than I can count. I honestly believe that half the Elder Scrolls game experience comes from purely the music. I had heard about his SA allegations but I always wanted to believe they were false. I never knew about all of his other controversies... this seems pretty damning. I do believe you can separate art from the artist, but man, this really kind of sours his music for me. What a shame...
As someone who literally grew up with the GW (1) series and ES series, his disappearance is truly tragic to me.
Nothing is sacred.
So enjoy the good things while they last.
Do not let something like this sour your taste for something you enjoy, or you will stop enjoying anything at some point.
Man, he was in Put Put too...I had no idea I'd been listening to this man's music since I was 4 years old.
I always loved Putt-Putt Travels Through Time's soundtrack and color me shocked when I found out Jeremy Soule was the artist behind it. I couldn't help but laugh a bit at that haha.
I wonder if he wrote the topiary creatures song in Putt-Putt saves the zoo...
It is refreshing to see such a professional approach to journalism. Great sourcework and comprehensive information. Why can't all journalists be like this?
I didn't follow his career and didn't know any of this. It's disappointing, to say the least. I always keep in mind that creative people are often tortured people, but he seems particularly despicable. It just reinforces the sickness of companies that exploit talent and people who use positions of power to do the same. I still enjoy his music and how beautiful it is, but I almost wish I didn't know. Once again, I must separate the artist from the work. :\
Am I miss understanding the Northerner album release? Because all 12 tracks have been on Apple Music since 2018, and presumably other platforms too.
Whether the allegations are true or not, I still listen to his Skyrim soundtrack often. Especially From Past to Present, Streets of Whiterun and Ancient Stones. They put me in a reading mood. I'm not big on game music but him and Marty O'Donnell are definitely up there in the Mount Rushmore of game composers.
Oh... wow. This touched me more than it should have.
His music played throughout my life and in retrospective, I completely agree with the first statement about prople knowing the songs, but not the creators.
I did indeed download all the songs for free, simply because there wasn't any way to get one's hands on them otherwise.
But his music made some of those games truly immortal and the nostalgia and warmth I feel whenever I think back to the time when I played them and threw myself into those worlds will always be some of my most fond and positive memories, especially from a few truly dark moments of my life.
This really sucks. I'm in quite a "Why can't we have nice things?"-mood now.
Thanks a lot for your video, even though a part of me hates you for doing this.
Learning all this about Jeremy Soule is really disappointing, but in no way does it impact my ability to enjoy his art. More often than not, extremely creative people have their demons and are not particularly well-adjusted.
if i were Bethesda, i’d have Jeremy compose TES6 soundtrack, slap an alias on the credits, and pay him a fuck ton to compensate.
his music is one of, if not the single most lauded aspect of The Elder Scrolls series. people talk endlessly about how the music is essential to the experience, and many get pulled back into the games by the soundtracks alone.
obviously, his music is very important to the DNA of the series. i don’t think Bethesda wants to sacrifice that, but on the other hand, it would admittedly be a PR nightmare to employ him after these allegations, even if unsubstantiated.
Bethesda is just a bad development studio that made mediocre games that captured audiences imagination thanks to outstanding art and music at a time when there really wasn't anything to compare them to. Without the music of Jeremy Soule, TES6 will just be another Starfield, a bland, broken and pointless experience.
@@JumboCod91 What on Earth are good or excellent studios and games, then, if Bethesda is bad and the games are mediocre? Those games have sold tens of millions of copies. If you consider play hours, I imagine as far as story-driven SP games go, Bethesda games are quite up there as well. Folks regularly play them through multiple times and keep extending them with mods. Skyrim, a dusty old game, is still getting new mods. They have got TCs as well, with teams putting years of work in developing expansion-sized free stuff for them. "Bad, mediocre". Your standards sure are lofty.
My expectations for TES VI are low as well, but not because of the reason you imagined. It's because Bethesda doesn't want to make it anymore. Todd Howard admitted as much in an interview: that they want to make something else. The years after Skyrim are already longer than between Morrowind and Skyrim, yet there was the whole Oblivion between those two! It's crystal clear that Bethesda simply has lost all inspiration to make another Elder Scrolls. That's why I can't expect too much from it, should it ever even appear.
@@herrakaarme "[It is not] the acme of excellence if you fight and conquer and the whole Empire says, 'Well done!'" - Sun Tzu
Just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good. In Bethesda's case, the main reason the Elder Scrolls games sold so well is because there isn't really all that much competition in their specific niche (first/third person, open world, free-form RPG, particularly one with such good mod support like they have).
You gotta admit, its stupid to not invite the composer of the music to a concert of... his music.
9:51 - this goes to show that piracy, while it does have something to do with cost, is mostly a result of customer experience. People pirated anime back in the 2000s because it was pretty much the only way to get hold of it, even when DVDs became accessible, it was still easier to just search for what you wanted to watch online than go to the shop or order it and wait multiple days for the order to arrive. Same thing for music, while music is relatively accessible, if you want something niche (like a soundtrack) it's probably not going to be stocked in your local shops. It's much easier to download it than hunt down a physical copy. People who onced pirated everything now use services like crunchyroll and spotify, because they're even easier than pirating.
The big irony here is that Jeremy was so anti-piracy while not fully understanding the route cause. I know the kind of people he's talking about from his quote; copyright abolitionists, who think they should be able to take what other people have created for free, that look at the actions of companies like Disney and assume all copyright is a bad thing while not understanding the benefit it provides for smaller or independent creators. We're seeing a resurgance of these types with the advent of AI as they try to justify why it's ok for these companies to train their LLMs on copyright material. They can be toxic, malcious and actively rejoice in the downfall of creators, but they're a minority within a minority. If Jeremy had understood that instead of thinking everyone who pirates is one of these extremists, he could've delivered a system that was pro-consumer and it wouldn't have needed to be pirated.
the lack of jeremy soule's music and adam adamowicz' concept art will be sorely felt in tesVI and honestly i don't think I am looking forward to it without them. The moment-to-moment ambience and atmosphere is really the heart and soul of these games, if we regress there, the appeal is gone...
Let's hope the new artists will take Jeremy and Adam's work as a roadmap for the newer releases. Much like Soken does with Uematsu's work.
Very simple. We'll make a mod that either ports the music from older TES games to TES 6, or some modders will get a group to make a better soundtrack.
@@Dalendrion Yeah, there's no lack of talent for game composers. If you listen to those big mods like Skyblivion, Skywind, Beyond Skyrim etc they can blow new life into older works or create new work with that same vibe.
My take: Bethesda should tap Evan Call. You won't get fantastic melodies, but most of the other pieces of the music puzzle should be a good replacement. Meanwhile... we're talking about something that launches no earlier than three years from now. By the time it does launch, there will be a hundred entire soundtracks waiting on the wings to be posted to Nexus, created by AI trained on nothing but Jeremy Soule's library of work.
@@Asterra2 Yeah, I'm gonna stay away from AI crap if I can help it. I'd rather have more soul in the music. There's plenty of real talent out there, both professional and hobbyists. (Though that's me judging AI by its current capabilities. Who knows what happens in the next 3 years. Though I still wouldn't expect AI to suddenly become _actually_ creative.)
The only thing we have to worry about is Bethesda's hiring and development practices. Which... seems to be a real worry judging by the last few games.
“Not received well” seems like an understatement to such a straightforward application of Godwin’s Law.
Bethesda is prob just going to have Inon Zur compose the next game since he seems to be their go to guy now.
Ugh. 😒
@@Uriseph solid work but definitely lacking in… soul.
Probably also lacking in baggage, though.
his music is so samey, Starfield is the same as fo4.
Skeleton of a town from Icewind Dale 2 is pretty good, though
@@scarecroow1611 The first time you reach High Hrothgar in Skyrim you can barely hear a short tune (which took me 10 years to notice, by the way) which sounds like a Starfield's main theme leitmotif.
... I didn't need to check who made that.
I don't care of Jeremy Soul is wanted by the ICJ for war crimes. If that man isn't composing the score for Elder Scrolls VI I'm throwing hands
3:15 swear she says autistic haha
its my accent i swear
I literally had to go back and make sure she hadnt just casually said “the whole batch was on the spectrum” 😂😂
Even the English Auto-Translate says Autistic. Yikes
"That is very artistic"
@@indigowells Because the auto-translate is known to be amazing with accents, right?
Yikes?
Total Annihilation gave him a full orchestra to work with.
So did Mists of Pandaria
Really? Sounded pretty synthetic to me. Must've been compressed like hell for an actual orchestra to sound like this.
@@JanTGTX "The Total Annihilation soundtrack, composed by Jeremy Soule, is a critically acclaimed and iconic work in the realm of video game music. Released in 1997, it features a live orchestral score, performed by the 95-piece Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra, making it a groundbreaking achievement in video game music at the time."
@@thatsnotoneofmeatsmanyuses1970 I guess, to fit on the 2 CDs they had to compress the hell out of that soundtrack. Sound was one of the biggest bottlenecks for disk space at the time (and still is part of the reason why games are so big these days)
Subbed! Wasn't looking for some new content creators to follow but I'm always happy to follow another Bethesda fan
Good research. I did some of my own digging a while back but never went that far.
When someone 'cancels' themselves from their previously high profile life it doesn't look good for them. I would suggest we haven't heard the last of this story.
The Northerner was announced within days of Todd Howard announcing there would be no more support for Skyrim. It was likely a soundtrack for the abandoned "Redguard" DLC. It's possible Jeremy was already dead by this point and the kickstarter was a scam.
There are some UA-camrs that simply emailed him and got permission to use some of his music on the platform and ended up doing extremely well. He just let them have that apparantly.
No, this info doesn't change how I love his music. The music, to me, is independent of the man. It's representative of the games I played and the experience that came when I heard them, not the artist.
What an utterly myopic way to view to world around oneself. Jesus.
When I bought a PC copy of Prey that was complete, the digital download code for the soundtrack did not work on whatever site it was. So I emailed about it. Jeremy replied back and sent me the album files. This was many years ago.
I was surprised that he was the musical lead in Dungeon Siege and redid some of Nobuo Uematsu's stuff for the US versions of Squaresoft's Super Nintendo releases earlier in his career. Then he turned out to be who he was and I just felt icky about everything. He's definitely is one of the best example of "love the art, hate the artist."
UN-proven allegations made 11 years after the fact.
Nahhh.
Hey guys! ThatGuySizzleMac is a *bad man*. I'm a woman and he did *bad man things* to me in a bar in Amsterdam 14 years ago and I've never dared speak out, but I can't hold it in any longer, I need to come clear so I can help prevent other *bad man things* from happening! Stay clear of him, please protect yourself!
I felt profoundly sad after watching this video: I don't think you can truly separate an artist from their art while they are still alive and able to profit from it.
Piracy seems especially appropriate as a means of acquiring copies of his work now, don't you think?
@@KentonBenfield Even still, how am I supposed to enjoy his work after he said it's literally the same as sex
@@andredelacerdasantos4439 Valid. This might be an unusual case where separating the art from the artist is a lot harder because of that especially weird admission.
I love his music, not him
I find it easier with orchestral pieces for some reason (maybe because I don't have to hear the person's voice? I'm not sure). I strongly associate the music with the games, not with him, so I'm thankfully still able to enjoy it. But I certainly don't plan to buy any soundtracks from him.
Man. First the RuneScape composer, now the Oblivion/Skyrim composer.
Not "now", this was several years ago.
I was a Soule fan since a kid (Harry Potter PS1, anyone?). My wife put me onto the ESV during the pandemic and I loved the soundtrack there too. As a kid, there was this little flute melody he did that I saw repeated in other works and really liked. I learned how to play it on the flute at one point lol.
Then I actually looked the man up while my wife and I were gushing about the music one day. Horrifying doesn't quite get across what I mean. What was worse was seeing a quote by him saying something like, "I pour my sexual energy and experiences into all my works." And, in the way that only your brain on autopilot can be so bold, I heard that flute melody again in ESIV, and I thought, "Ew, is that his little r8pe noise?"
Needless to say, i have to make a conscious effort to enjoy anything he's created at this point. I still do, I just have to actively shut off my disgust for the man. Wouldn't support anything new by him in the industry.
Ohhh ARTISTIC family…
You heard it too?
If anything the lawsuit between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have taught me Johnny Depp has almost lost his entire career as an Actor just with allegations alone All of it later came to be proven false with more in depth investigation Even after a decade since the SA took place you could still be taken to court but that didn't happen I think A person should be Innocent until proven guilty otherwise Remember when you listen to elder scrolls soundtracks the money goes to the developers not the artist who made them So I'll still be listening to his works all the while condemning him for his actions
Exactly. But those sly drama queens can make your world turn upside down by just babbling nonsense. The easiest route for these hags is to use the magic words - he assaulted me. "Trust me on this, I'd never lie, I'm a woman."
@maboleth Exactly! I'm not trying to defend Soule here but why did these women waste time posting what they went through online instead of taking legal action? Wouldn't that be the best course of action?
I remember following him on FB back in the day, and seeing his weird 9/11 truther posts about sonic frequencies "proving" that it was a controlled demolition. Probably irrelevant to the other things he's done, but it adds to the tapestry, lol
It's so weird David Wise got the same vibe. And I think Michiru Yamane from the Castlevania series is an antivax as well. What is happening to all great composers?
It doesn't add to anything. You seem to be sitting on some kind of pedestal yourself or at least believe to be.
Oh wow I'm shocked! You did good work Azura, researching his disappearance. I had no idea all this was going on. I knew the guy ghosted, but this is really alarming. I've always loved his music and consider him one the best composers of our generation, but I simply can't view him the same after learning about all of this.
24:37 "Kotaku..."
The cornerstone of honest journalism.
Apparently youtube liked this video despite the topic since it was recommended to me.
I'll definitely always remember what I now know about this guy when I hear the music, but I still don't feel like the music should lose value just because the creator is unlikable. Much like I still listen to Mindless Self Indulgence despite a similar situation there, or to Burzum despite the gruesome history of the creator.
I find it best to distinguish between the art and the artist if possible. Of course there's always a line somewhere for everyone.
I still listen to Get Scared, even though they had to cut off a former frontman for being caught with cp on his computer. It is boundlessly screwed up when an artist's true colors are finally revealed, but last I heard, the band disowned him and with his prison sentence he lost royalties.
I'm torn on who to believe, when it comes to the allegations, but Soule is no saint to put on a pedestal in any case. His works can still be appreciated while we acknowledge that he himself is heavily flawed.
34:10 I was one of the customers who bought the Skyrim mp3 soundtrack and got nothing after paying. I wrote ticket after ticket till I gave up. After (I guess) two years I got an E-mail from a lawyer who gave me a dl code for the album (which i meanwhile had bought on Amazon Music), after provided proof.