The Music of DBD Isn't That Great
Warning: Get ready for a weird yap post!
The music of Dead By Daylight is hands-down one of, if not, THE best thing in the game, so why am I saying it's not that great? Two reasons: Duration and Consistency. Menu Music and Chase Music do not last a long time before they loop, and the latter has zero pattern with it, so swapping to a different "layer" of the Terror Radius can be a jarring experience.
Inside the game, the music is wonderful, but when you compare it to other games, even ones that aren't an asymm or even a horror game, it pales in comparison.
How I Would Remedy It
First thing first, more Menu Themes need to last longer than a minute. One of the only ones that actually lasts more than a minute is Nemesis' at 2 minutes, and his is one of the best Menu Themes in the game. For the vast majority, their Themes just aren't interesting enough, and devolve into white noise since they repeat so frequently.
Secondly, we get into the headache that is Chase Music. Most Chase Music barely goes over the 30 second mark, so they get real repetitive real fast. Additionally, they will always start from the beginning when a chase begins.
Currently, the Chase Music looks like this.
Layer 0 is our background music. This is the stuff that plays when nothing is really happening. That soft electric guitar or those "booms" you hear. This mostly drops right out when the Terror Radius comes in.
Layer 1 is the distant music. They're still a ways away, but you should be on alert. Notice how, in this example, it completely drops out when the Killer gets closer.
Layer 2 means the Killer is probably in sight and usually, it doesn't last into the Chase. It drops out either when Chase begins or when 12m comes around.
Layer 3 is the "right on top of you but not in a chase yet" music. Sometimes, it does stick around for the Chase, sometimes it doesn't.
Layer 4 is, of course, the Chase. Most of the time, the other Layers do not appear in the Chase. That's what I'm having a gripe with.
Chase Music in DBD doesn't seamlessly chain into each other. It drops off or adds in four or five instruments instead of being one coherent piece. It's trying its best to be Adaptive Music, but other games do it so much better because they not only do it smoother, but they last more than like 30 seconds.
Think of Payday, Outlast Trials, Deep Rock Galactic, and even Elden Ring. All these games have Adaptive Music, and they do it better than DBD because they layer the music properly.
Modern Payday music tends to have intros and outros when going to and from the "Control" section, and the Anticipation section builds up to the Assault in a cohesive way, even accounting for lag so the Assault lands on time.
Outlast Trials has music that adapts with what you're doing in the Trial, adding in instruments or cadences if you're doing the objective or not, and WHICH part of the Trial you're doing.
Deep Rock Galactic, similar to Payday, has a buildup to a grand piece while also having separate music depending on the section of Hoxxes you're in or if you're escaping.
Elden Ring has overworld music for each of the areas of the Lands Between and the Shadow Realm, adding in more instruments if you're actively in combat or not. Certain bosses also have Adaptive Music if they have different phases, such as with Midra, Malenia, Rellana, and Godrick.
Dead By Daylight doesn't do any of this because the music is too short and isn't layered in a manner that fits with a bloodthirsty murderer getting closer to you.
Longer and More Adaptive Music
What I would want is for Chase Music to last 2 minutes, minimum, with the different Layers popping in depending on the distance. Something like this…
Layer 0, being the background music, will chime in when Layer 1 is active depending on the Killer. For example, if you're playing Shelter Woods, you'll get a unique Layer 0 that will add on top of the Skull Merchant's Layer 1. If the Killer isn't her, then this will not happen, and Layer 0 will end when their Terror Radius begins. Each map will have a corresponding Layer 0 to a particular Killer who either came into the game with the map, or is heavily associated with it. For Killers who do not have associated maps, Layer 0 is what is heard when you, as the Killer, are not in a chase with a Survivor.
The other Layers, when added, do NOT remove themselves. They will persist over the 2 minute long Chase Music. This also removes some tedium with the Music itself repeating. Since it's one track that's adding or subtracting different Layers, Chase may start 30 seconds into the piece or 90 seconds in, with each possibility being a seamless one due to the formatting of the Layers.
For a less abstract example, think of The Legion's Mixtapes. They add on top of the already existing Chase Music. That's how I want the Layers to Chase Music to be.
Layer 0 itself is an untapped potential! Layer 0, on top of being unique to certain Killers on certain maps, can also have different instruments come in if you, as a Survivor, are healing or repairing. This can break up the monotony of holding a single button on a Generator, because now it can have music to build up tension as well as, well, just being something different! You're probably not gonna get the same map 5 times in a row, so having different music can keep things a bit interesting. Layer 0 can even adapt depending on Generators completed or if the Exit Gates are powered, End Game Collapse, or even certain parts of a Killer's Power like Oni in Blood Fury or Dredge in Nightfall!
Comments
I think a place where they went right with something like this is killers like Vecna 2 and Jason.
Jason in particular stands out for me as he’s the first truly silent killer so they made most of his audio is horror esc stingers which all sound great and add flavor as none of his audio actually comes from Jason himself. So it’s super unique.
I think it’s particularly well done when playing as Jason, you almost get into a flow, and then the capstones being his mini moris and moris, which have his menu theme motif to tie it all together.
As always the sound design never fails to impress.
Honestly I usually love DBD's music up until the 3rd layer. At that point, most killers have a terror radius that slowly adds in different elements and complexity. My issue has always been with the Chase Music itself. Some killers' Chase Music sounds absolutely nothing like their layer 1-3 music, and it's usually for the worse
Completely disagree with this entire post.
I would love to see older killers get new chase music, ideally with a longer loop. But the newer killers like Judgment, Jason, n Vecna 2 have pretty amazing chase music imo.