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From the FoS DM trick vault:

Not everything in a movie soundtracks is good. Great tracks for a gothic game are mixed with other moods. To skip these useless tracks, or to avoid sudden changes from the ‘mood’ needed in game, I put all my music on the computer (legal as long as you do not share it) and sort it by ‘theme’ folders. Those are the ‘themes’ I use in my Ravenloft game:

Exploration music– investigations and explorations. Hints of stress or anxiety in them.
Heroic and action – for battles, pursuits, and other heroic feats.
Mystery – similar to exploration. Calm music with hints of supernatural or something menacing
Sounds - fun sounds I found here and there.
Stress - self explanatory too, but very stressful parts of the game.
Supernatural and unknown – eerie music
Sad – self explanatory again
Miscellaneous - vistani music, tavern music, circus music, religious temple (whether good or evil), etc.

I have a list for each folder, providing for each track the length and my thoughts for each track. I note switch of mood or pace within a track. It’s not that long to make, I upgrade the list once in a while with new tracks I first listen to when doing something else.

Before a game, I review my game plan and choose music for each part of the adventure. Sometimes players do not notice the efforts but it works, it works 200%.

Also: do not play the same track over and over. It annoys everybody. What I do for a scene (ex; exploration in the woods) is that I choose 3-5 tracks that I play in loop, it's better for the game IMHO (and one or two of these tracks can be simply bird sounds in this case).

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And here's part of my list:

Music (mostly tracks without lyrics, as they disturb the game):

Dead Can Dance   
Espers   
Chieftains   
Caspar Brotzman   
Dimmu Borgir - a few (I do not like metal)   
some Gregorian   
Chopin - Funeral March   
Raison d'etre - In Sadness, silence and solitude   
Trisomie 21 - La Fete Triste   
Henri Mancini - Gypsy Violin   
Pain Killer  - Execution ground (danger in the fog? that's the eerie thing you need)
Diamanda Gallas (need a demoness priestess?)   
   
Sounds:

the RL A light in the Belfry sountrack for sounds (It includes screams, dogs, wolves, thunderstorm, wind, church bells, opening door, etc. But you need to remove the stupid blib sound at the end of each track), and other sounds found on the net (wolves, strorm, bird sounds, etc.). Some Halloween-type soundtrack have spooky atmosphere too (when they are not too cheesey).

Movies:

The Village (excellent for RL)   
A Simple Plan    
Aliens II (stress and eerie)   
american mcgee's alice   
Dracula, of course   
Brotherhood Of The Wolf
Edward Scissorhand (sad songs, eerie)   
Eyes Wide Shut (the Scary Piano song can't be forgotten once you hear it)   
From Hell    
Interview With The Vampire (some of it)
Signs    
First Knight   
LotR (a few, too fantasy, and too recognisable - it disturbs the game more then it enhances it)
Midnight Syndicate    (again a few. Often too cheesey to my taste)
Mummy Returns    
Never Winter Night - see this on the web: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=so … ys_back=10 Many are good atmospherics   
One hour photo   
The Ninth Gate   
Twelve Monkeys   
ravenous   
Sin City (    nice atmospherics)
Sixth Sense   
Sleepy Hollow   

And many picks from various soundtracks (like one track per movie): Jaws (can't beat this when they go in the water),  The omen (ave satani), Twelve Monkeys (theme), Psycho (Shower Scene Theme), Silence of the Lambs (track 12 - cellar), Space Odyssey (Overture), Titanic (Nearer my God to Thee), etc.

Joël