As many of you might've noticed or might soon discover, music bots on discord are being taken down. For many of us Rythm or similar discord bots were the to go way to stream ambient sounds and music for your online sessions. The loss of our beloved music bot is felt deeply.
With no music to enhance your games how do you bring those taverns alive? Those thrilling battle drums and horns that start playing when the players run into an encounter! What now you might wonder?
While I don't have all the answers for you unfortunately, I do have some suggestions.
Several virtual tabletops like Foundry VTT and Roll20 can import music you have and play it for your table. This does cost some extra time since you need to load in your music and it could use a lot of space compared to just an image or a map. Especially if you are a free user (like me) the limit you can use will be filled up much faster this way.
The option which I currently use is streaming my YouTube playlist directly with my screen in discord. If all your players join your stream they should be able to hear the playlist. You can 'right click' on the video and 'loop' the ambient sound or music, if you desire to extend the same track several times. Something to note here is that if you don't have Nitro (discords subscription), your stream quality is limited. Now the music quality overall doesn't seem to be affected by this which is great! A minor problem does reveal itself however, since you can't minimize your YouTube page or the stream gets paused + anything you have on that screen will be shared with your players. So as a DM caution is required if you don't want people to read your notes or look at the dm version of the battle maps. However if your players are honest they won't sneak a peak and i'm sure they understand the workaround if there aren't any other options.
Possible ways to play music for your online sessions: - Foundry VTT - Roll20 - Streaming your playlist with your screen over discord directly from a YouTube (or an other site). - Spotify is another option you can share directly to Discord (a subscription might be needed for the best sharing experience and to be add free) suggested by Davyd. - Play without sound to increase your player focus and enhance your game with the theater of the mind! Let your dungeon master narrate you with the details. A suggestion by Scarloc_stormcall who wrote a more in-depth comment about it down below in the comments.
If you have any suggestions yourself feel free to post them in the comments below and I will be sure to add them to the list.
I hope these few tips help you out and that there may be more to come so your session won't be without sound :)
I use the official native spotify integration on discord. I start a listening party and then my players can choose to connect and listen to the music at their end. I prefer this option because it gives each player control as to if they want to listen to ambient music and if so, how loud.
Davyd's tip is gold. Music volume control separate from the volume of game conversation, ideally controlled by the player, is something often overlooked in the "convenience" of virtual meeting technologies' sound integrations. DM is not a DJ and IMHO it's better to just focus on the game rather than waiting for the queue in turn order that makes sense to drop the bass.
As many of you might've noticed or might soon discover, music bots on discord are being taken down. For many of us Rythm or similar discord bots were the to go way to stream ambient sounds and music for your online sessions. The loss of our beloved music bot is felt deeply.
With no music to enhance your games how do you bring those taverns alive? Those thrilling battle drums and horns that start playing when the players run into an encounter! What now you might wonder?
While I don't have all the answers for you unfortunately, I do have some suggestions.
Several virtual tabletops like Foundry VTT and Roll20 can import music you have and play it for your table. This does cost some extra time since you need to load in your music and it could use a lot of space compared to just an image or a map. Especially if you are a free user (like me) the limit you can use will be filled up much faster this way.
The option which I currently use is streaming my YouTube playlist directly with my screen in discord. If all your players join your stream they should be able to hear the playlist. You can 'right click' on the video and 'loop' the ambient sound or music, if you desire to extend the same track several times. Something to note here is that if you don't have Nitro (discords subscription), your stream quality is limited. Now the music quality overall doesn't seem to be affected by this which is great! A minor problem does reveal itself however, since you can't minimize your YouTube page or the stream gets paused + anything you have on that screen will be shared with your players. So as a DM caution is required if you don't want people to read your notes or look at the dm version of the battle maps. However if your players are honest they won't sneak a peak and i'm sure they understand the workaround if there aren't any other options.
Possible ways to play music for your online sessions: - Foundry VTT - Roll20 - Streaming your playlist with your screen over discord directly from a YouTube (or an other site).
If you have any suggestions yourself feel free to post them in the comments below and I will be sure to add them to the list.
I hope these few tips help you out and that there may be more to come so your session won't be without sound :)
Kind Regards, Kitsumeo
I stopped using music for my online games when I read that studies have shown during lockdown that music distracts from any online interaction.
You may not think it because you have always used it but the human brain physically is unable to focus on what is being said while music is playing in the background. The problem is the source.
In a physical game music is produced from a speaker that is different to the person talking. So the brain can differentiate and filter out the music to focus on the person you are looking at. In remote sessions the music and spoken words all hit the ear from the same source so the brain has to work harder to split the frequencies up. In addition our ear and brain is lazy so it will latch onto the constant sound (music) over the speaker, this means that the brain filters out things that are said and the listener needs to then focus harder meaning they become mentally tired quicker and therefore lose concentration easier. Or they miss half of what is said and so lose focus.
This was all identified in studies completed looking at online meetings and the effect of background noise and music during presentations. But I decided to stop music in my own online sessions and found that I was repeating myself less, my players where more alert and the session flowed quicker. Other DMs I have talked to have also experimented and found similair results.
Now people will sit and say but immersion, or it doesn’t impact my game, but you can’t beat biology, give it a go stop using music for a while I bet you will find it actually improves the experience.
Also a good point, the argument for immersion is easily contested by common sense (and research) into distraction. It's sort of like folks using the psychological truth of parallel processing (we assemble data from multiple sources to synthesize a picture) to argue for multi-tasking (which has been psychological debunked, what folks think of as multi-tasking and doing many tasks at once, is really just rapid switching and the quality of all tasks organized that way tend to suffer).
Non-diegetic music, or any sounds that are not "of the piece" only work in art because there's some art and programming and composition and design to them. The nature of a game as played, unless you're doing a railroad on amusement park ride structure, frustrates the ability to cue certain effects in game. Laying down an "ambient" track, especially through the same speaker/mechanism as the conversation may lull the game more motivate the game.
But this thread I don't think is about music yea or nay. It's more from a poster clearly invested in using music in their play trying to discuss workarounds to a new technical challenge posed to those who play over Discord. I think Davyd's solution is still probably the "best" for folks who want that musical aspect to their game, but it'd probably be best if the playlist were actually played through some device (phone?) separate from where the audio for the game is coming from (of course this in turn would lead to feedback problems when players aren't muted).
Personally while I might have ambient sound in person play, but since "what things sound like" really matters to my game (recently finished up Book of the Raven and did it with full "things that go bump in the night" haunted house ambience just through description) I keep music and stuff off my game's channel unless I want them to hear something (I may prologue certain NPCs with associated them music and the like).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks Davyd! That is a nice suggestion! Although I do believe you need a premium account for spotify to have others listen along? looking at the discord and spotify article on their site it does also state you can't listen along when using voice chat and if you use a free version adverts might interrupt what you are playing. It is still a nice suggestion, I'm just trying to get he facts down, especially if people consider this option they might want to know any limitations. It does play through discord so that is a positive point too:)
(On another note, I know that if you stream your screen you can also adjust the volume of the sound, as well as the viewer who can adjust or even mute the sound. Roll20 is a bit more clunky in regards of sound but does also allow to decease the volume. Haven't tried adjusting sounds in Foundry VTT so can't judge there, but I'm assuming it works the same as roll20)
The bit about not being able to listen and use voice chat is weird because my group has been doing just that for a few years now. It does require a premium Spotify subscription, yeah, but that was something all my players had anyway.
That is a very good point Scarloc! While I usually only use ambient on a much lower volume and knowing some of my players like it. I never really asked them what they preferred since i had no complaints so far :) I did tell them they can mute or lower the volume if they liked that better. While a physical game is a lot more fun and has a lot more options regarding to sound both vocal or through ambient/music, it is not possible for my group to come together every week due to the distance and some other matters. So for us online is the best option. So far I haven't really had the impression my players lost any concentration due to background noise but I will surely check how they experience it, they always say they have a blast. I'm not saying these studies are wrong, I'm actually sitting here and thinking, it makes some sense! It is much more difficult to filter a voice if it is coming over the same source. However people also play video games where there is sound and information playing at the same time, so I do think with the right balance it should be possible too.
That said whether you or me don't use music or not shouldn't take away that some people just like background noise. + I made this post to sum up possibilities for everyone who found themselves without an idea or option to stream music for their group. I will include your no music/sound too since it might be an eyeopener for someone.
The bit about not being able to listen and use voice chat is weird because my group has been doing just that for a few years now. It does require a premium Spotify subscription, yeah, but that was something all my players had anyway.
Thank you for clearing that up! I don't have spotify so I couldn't test it and only pointed out what they have written in the article on their website here . I will still include the option for spotify since it can be an option for other people.
For some people it can be a difficult choice since it does include a subscription. For me it would be 120 euro's a year, which otherwise could be spend buying new source books and adventures. But again that is why I made this post to put all the options down now that Rythm and some of the other bots are no more.
Also a good point, the argument for immersion is easily contested by common sense (and research) into distraction. It's sort of like folks using the psychological truth of parallel processing (we assemble data from multiple sources to synthesize a picture) to argue for multi-tasking (which has been psychological debunked, what folks think of as multi-tasking and doing many tasks at once, is really just rapid switching and the quality of all tasks organized that way tend to suffer).
Non-diegetic music, or any sounds that are not "of the piece" only work in art because there's some art and programming and composition and design to them. The nature of a game as played, unless you're doing a railroad on amusement park ride structure, frustrates the ability to cue certain effects in game. Laying down an "ambient" track, especially through the same speaker/mechanism as the conversation may lull the game more motivate the game.
But this thread I don't think is about music yea or nay. It's more from a poster clearly invested in using music in their play trying to discuss workarounds to a new technical challenge posed to those who play over Discord. I think Davyd's solution is still probably the "best" for folks who want that musical aspect to their game, but it'd probably be best if the playlist were actually played through some device (phone?) separate from where the audio for the game is coming from (of course this in turn would lead to feedback problems when players aren't muted).
Personally while I might have ambient sound in person play, but since "what things sound like" really matters to my game (recently finished up Book of the Raven and did it with full "things that go bump in the night" haunted house ambience just through description) I keep music and stuff off my game's channel unless I want them to hear something (I may prologue certain NPCs with associated them music and the like).
I like the idea of a phone, but indeed it does give a challenge if not muted or the connection isn't stable, but a phone or tablet could be used to stream the music so it doesn't come from the same source. Another point would be if you don't charge it properly you might have wires all over the place which could be a bit messy if you have more things on your desk :) You and Scarloc make excellent points just to describe the atmosphere for your group, however there might be a lot of dm's who aren't as experienced in such narrating, yet, thus ambient sound fills in the area's of these finer details, so they can focus on moving the party forward on their adventure without getting lost in the details and extra's. Certainly it is an excellent challenge for a dm and a group to get more into narrating these little details, but since each group can have different levels of experience it is good to have extra options like ambient sound. In the end, whether it is with sound or just the narration of a voice, if everyone enjoys the session that is what is most important :)
If you must have audio and don't want something overly technical, there are also the options of the Tabletop Audio website and Syrinscape.
Both have an option to create a broadcast link for players to connect to whatever audio you are playing on those. As long as your players can open a Web browser they can connect to your audio broadcast on either of those platforms.
That is a very good point Scarloc! While I usually only use ambient on a much lower volume and knowing some of my players like it. I never really asked them what they preferred since i had no complaints so far :) I did tell them they can mute or lower the volume if they liked that better. While a physical game is a lot more fun and has a lot more options regarding to sound both vocal or through ambient/music, it is not possible for my group to come together every week due to the distance and some other matters. So for us online is the best option. So far I haven't really had the impression my players lost any concentration due to background noise but I will surely check how they experience it, they always say they have a blast. I'm not saying these studies are wrong, I'm actually sitting here and thinking, it makes some sense! It is much more difficult to filter a voice if it is coming over the same source. However people also play video games where there is sound and information playing at the same time, so I do think with the right balance it should be possible too.
That said whether you or me don't use music or not shouldn't take away that some people just like background noise. + I made this post to sum up possibilities for everyone who found themselves without an idea or option to stream music for their group. I will include your no music/sound too since it might be an eyeopener for someone.
So thank you for sharing this!
The difference with computer games is the sound and voices have all been tested and tweaked to make sure they don’t clash, also you usually have some sort of subtitle alongside it.
Just something to be aware of, ambient noises as opposed to music might be less of an impact but it is one of those things you have no idea until you experiment. I will say players won’t know if it is an issue always because they may not know any different.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of background music during online sessions. It’s fine for during combat encounters, I guess, but to me it’s somewhat too intrusive to be enjoyable otherwise and it’s already harder to fully understand one another while having to talk over some digital channel - especially if people are doing voices or special intonations for roleplaying purposes. I know some players have their own thing going in the background during sessions, but that typically doesn’t share the speakers/headphones they use for the game itself.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Hey, have you tried Syrinscape? They have a free version or you can buy a subscription. They have a free 30 day trial then its $10.99 a month after that to have access to absolutely everything including all of the Official background ambience and sound-effects for D&D, their Online Player and their Soundset Creator where you can make your own soundsets, import your own music etc. Syrinscape Free Trial
In terms of Discord Bots, you can actually create your own Discord Bot. I've not tried it but this tutorial is apparently very easy to follow, quick to set up and incredibly effective. Here's the Tutorial for creating a Discord Bot. I believe this will work for most things, not just Syrinscape but with Syrinscape, if you're using it for streaming, you won't need to worry about copyright or DMCA. They also have an offline version if you're using in person at the table :) I literally can't say enough great things about them.
If it works for you, please share it. Syrinscape are a small team and I'm just one person trying to spread the word about how awesome it is.
I stopped using music for my online games when I read that studies have shown during lockdown that music distracts from any online interaction.
You may not think it because you have always used it but the human brain physically is unable to focus on what is being said while music is playing in the background. The problem is the source.
I agree with this, and I think it's amplified (no pun intended) by the fact I'm autistic, so I can't 'seperate' the 'channels' of people talking and the music. But I do like what others have said and prefer when everyone is in charge of others' volume input. I find one player might be too loud for me so I can turn them down, and others are unaffected by that. The same with music: if it's too loud or distracting, I can turn it off without turning it off for everyone else.
Not to derail this any further but I'd also read a similar study about how just using digital tools or phones slightly alters people's perception of time. Like they think just changing an audio track is near instant, but in actuality it takes much longer than they realise. I can't find it and I don't know how to word it for Google to bring it up, but again I don't mean to turn this into "physical versus digital" or this rather nice thread'll get locked up faster than Lady Hamilton's virtue.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
Personally not a fan of (much) audio in game as a Player or DM - a volume control for me is mandatory. Saying that, I do use audio in games I DM. Foundry specific - I'll make the scene with audio in mind and the players have the option to control that as they want.
It can be worth looking at something like Audacity (free/open sauce) IF you can spare the time, but I like making my own music/audio + fold that into the creative process - it can be used as a tool for writing a scenario, room description etc. etc. Audio I use tends to be either "tavern hubbub", maybe a specific song, maybe something I've made. My process is Choose music > edit loop in Audacity > Foundry. I've got (and had) players in parts of the world that don't have web, so loading too much into Foundry can cause loading issues and generally I've found most players turn that audio off.
There's plenty good sources of free and open source audio too with a bit of a search and the BBC has a bank of free audio too and it's VERY extensive + a bit of a pain to search as there's so much of it ;)
Greetings fellow strangers, stranger fellows!
As many of you might've noticed or might soon discover, music bots on discord are being taken down.
For many of us Rythm or similar discord bots were the to go way to stream ambient sounds and music for your online sessions.
The loss of our beloved music bot is felt deeply.
With no music to enhance your games how do you bring those taverns alive? Those thrilling battle drums and horns that start playing when the players run into an encounter!
What now you might wonder?
While I don't have all the answers for you unfortunately, I do have some suggestions.
Several virtual tabletops like Foundry VTT and Roll20 can import music you have and play it for your table. This does cost some extra time since you need to load in your music and it could use a lot of space compared to just an image or a map.
Especially if you are a free user (like me) the limit you can use will be filled up much faster this way.
The option which I currently use is streaming my YouTube playlist directly with my screen in discord. If all your players join your stream they should be able to hear the playlist.
You can 'right click' on the video and 'loop' the ambient sound or music, if you desire to extend the same track several times.
Something to note here is that if you don't have Nitro (discords subscription), your stream quality is limited. Now the music quality overall doesn't seem to be affected by this which is great!
A minor problem does reveal itself however, since you can't minimize your YouTube page or the stream gets paused + anything you have on that screen will be shared with your players. So as a DM caution is required if you don't want people to read your notes or look at the dm version of the battle maps. However if your players are honest they won't sneak a peak and i'm sure they understand the workaround if there aren't any other options.
Possible ways to play music for your online sessions:
- Foundry VTT
- Roll20
- Streaming your playlist with your screen over discord directly from a YouTube (or an other site).
- Spotify is another option you can share directly to Discord (a subscription might be needed for the best sharing experience and to be add free) suggested by Davyd.
- Play without sound to increase your player focus and enhance your game with the theater of the mind! Let your dungeon master narrate you with the details. A suggestion by Scarloc_stormcall who wrote a more in-depth comment about it down below in the comments.
If you have any suggestions yourself feel free to post them in the comments below and I will be sure to add them to the list.
I hope these few tips help you out and that there may be more to come so your session won't be without sound :)
Kind Regards,
Kitsumeo
I use the official native spotify integration on discord. I start a listening party and then my players can choose to connect and listen to the music at their end. I prefer this option because it gives each player control as to if they want to listen to ambient music and if so, how loud.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Davyd's tip is gold. Music volume control separate from the volume of game conversation, ideally controlled by the player, is something often overlooked in the "convenience" of virtual meeting technologies' sound integrations. DM is not a DJ and IMHO it's better to just focus on the game rather than waiting for the queue in turn order that makes sense to drop the bass.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I stopped using music for my online games when I read that studies have shown during lockdown that music distracts from any online interaction.
You may not think it because you have always used it but the human brain physically is unable to focus on what is being said while music is playing in the background. The problem is the source.
In a physical game music is produced from a speaker that is different to the person talking. So the brain can differentiate and filter out the music to focus on the person you are looking at. In remote sessions the music and spoken words all hit the ear from the same source so the brain has to work harder to split the frequencies up. In addition our ear and brain is lazy so it will latch onto the constant sound (music) over the speaker, this means that the brain filters out things that are said and the listener needs to then focus harder meaning they become mentally tired quicker and therefore lose concentration easier. Or they miss half of what is said and so lose focus.
This was all identified in studies completed looking at online meetings and the effect of background noise and music during presentations. But I decided to stop music in my own online sessions and found that I was repeating myself less, my players where more alert and the session flowed quicker. Other DMs I have talked to have also experimented and found similair results.
Now people will sit and say but immersion, or it doesn’t impact my game, but you can’t beat biology, give it a go stop using music for a while I bet you will find it actually improves the experience.
Also a good point, the argument for immersion is easily contested by common sense (and research) into distraction. It's sort of like folks using the psychological truth of parallel processing (we assemble data from multiple sources to synthesize a picture) to argue for multi-tasking (which has been psychological debunked, what folks think of as multi-tasking and doing many tasks at once, is really just rapid switching and the quality of all tasks organized that way tend to suffer).
Non-diegetic music, or any sounds that are not "of the piece" only work in art because there's some art and programming and composition and design to them. The nature of a game as played, unless you're doing a railroad on amusement park ride structure, frustrates the ability to cue certain effects in game. Laying down an "ambient" track, especially through the same speaker/mechanism as the conversation may lull the game more motivate the game.
But this thread I don't think is about music yea or nay. It's more from a poster clearly invested in using music in their play trying to discuss workarounds to a new technical challenge posed to those who play over Discord. I think Davyd's solution is still probably the "best" for folks who want that musical aspect to their game, but it'd probably be best if the playlist were actually played through some device (phone?) separate from where the audio for the game is coming from (of course this in turn would lead to feedback problems when players aren't muted).
Personally while I might have ambient sound in person play, but since "what things sound like" really matters to my game (recently finished up Book of the Raven and did it with full "things that go bump in the night" haunted house ambience just through description) I keep music and stuff off my game's channel unless I want them to hear something (I may prologue certain NPCs with associated them music and the like).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks Davyd! That is a nice suggestion! Although I do believe you need a premium account for spotify to have others listen along? looking at the discord and spotify article on their site it does also state you can't listen along when using voice chat and if you use a free version adverts might interrupt what you are playing.
It is still a nice suggestion, I'm just trying to get he facts down, especially if people consider this option they might want to know any limitations.
It does play through discord so that is a positive point too:)
(On another note, I know that if you stream your screen you can also adjust the volume of the sound, as well as the viewer who can adjust or even mute the sound. Roll20 is a bit more clunky in regards of sound but does also allow to decease the volume. Haven't tried adjusting sounds in Foundry VTT so can't judge there, but I'm assuming it works the same as roll20)
The bit about not being able to listen and use voice chat is weird because my group has been doing just that for a few years now. It does require a premium Spotify subscription, yeah, but that was something all my players had anyway.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
That is a very good point Scarloc! While I usually only use ambient on a much lower volume and knowing some of my players like it. I never really asked them what they preferred since i had no complaints so far :) I did tell them they can mute or lower the volume if they liked that better. While a physical game is a lot more fun and has a lot more options regarding to sound both vocal or through ambient/music, it is not possible for my group to come together every week due to the distance and some other matters. So for us online is the best option. So far I haven't really had the impression my players lost any concentration due to background noise but I will surely check how they experience it, they always say they have a blast.
I'm not saying these studies are wrong, I'm actually sitting here and thinking, it makes some sense! It is much more difficult to filter a voice if it is coming over the same source. However people also play video games where there is sound and information playing at the same time, so I do think with the right balance it should be possible too.
That said whether you or me don't use music or not shouldn't take away that some people just like background noise. + I made this post to sum up possibilities for everyone who found themselves without an idea or option to stream music for their group. I will include your no music/sound too since it might be an eyeopener for someone.
So thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for clearing that up! I don't have spotify so I couldn't test it and only pointed out what they have written in the article on their website here .
I will still include the option for spotify since it can be an option for other people.
For some people it can be a difficult choice since it does include a subscription. For me it would be 120 euro's a year, which otherwise could be spend buying new source books and adventures. But again that is why I made this post to put all the options down now that Rythm and some of the other bots are no more.
I like the idea of a phone, but indeed it does give a challenge if not muted or the connection isn't stable, but a phone or tablet could be used to stream the music so it doesn't come from the same source. Another point would be if you don't charge it properly you might have wires all over the place which could be a bit messy if you have more things on your desk :)
You and Scarloc make excellent points just to describe the atmosphere for your group, however there might be a lot of dm's who aren't as experienced in such narrating, yet, thus ambient sound fills in the area's of these finer details, so they can focus on moving the party forward on their adventure without getting lost in the details and extra's.
Certainly it is an excellent challenge for a dm and a group to get more into narrating these little details, but since each group can have different levels of experience it is good to have extra options like ambient sound.
In the end, whether it is with sound or just the narration of a voice, if everyone enjoys the session that is what is most important :)
If you must have audio and don't want something overly technical, there are also the options of the Tabletop Audio website and Syrinscape.
Both have an option to create a broadcast link for players to connect to whatever audio you are playing on those. As long as your players can open a Web browser they can connect to your audio broadcast on either of those platforms.
The difference with computer games is the sound and voices have all been tested and tweaked to make sure they don’t clash, also you usually have some sort of subtitle alongside it.
Just something to be aware of, ambient noises as opposed to music might be less of an impact but it is one of those things you have no idea until you experiment. I will say players won’t know if it is an issue always because they may not know any different.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of background music during online sessions. It’s fine for during combat encounters, I guess, but to me it’s somewhat too intrusive to be enjoyable otherwise and it’s already harder to fully understand one another while having to talk over some digital channel - especially if people are doing voices or special intonations for roleplaying purposes. I know some players have their own thing going in the background during sessions, but that typically doesn’t share the speakers/headphones they use for the game itself.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
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InsidersHey, have you tried Syrinscape? They have a free version or you can buy a subscription. They have a free 30 day trial then its $10.99 a month after that to have access to absolutely everything including all of the Official background ambience and sound-effects for D&D, their Online Player and their Soundset Creator where you can make your own soundsets, import your own music etc. Syrinscape Free Trial
In terms of Discord Bots, you can actually create your own Discord Bot. I've not tried it but this tutorial is apparently very easy to follow, quick to set up and incredibly effective. Here's the Tutorial for creating a Discord Bot. I believe this will work for most things, not just Syrinscape but with Syrinscape, if you're using it for streaming, you won't need to worry about copyright or DMCA. They also have an offline version if you're using in person at the table :) I literally can't say enough great things about them.
If it works for you, please share it. Syrinscape are a small team and I'm just one person trying to spread the word about how awesome it is.
I agree with this, and I think it's amplified (no pun intended) by the fact I'm autistic, so I can't 'seperate' the 'channels' of people talking and the music. But I do like what others have said and prefer when everyone is in charge of others' volume input. I find one player might be too loud for me so I can turn them down, and others are unaffected by that. The same with music: if it's too loud or distracting, I can turn it off without turning it off for everyone else.
Not to derail this any further but I'd also read a similar study about how just using digital tools or phones slightly alters people's perception of time. Like they think just changing an audio track is near instant, but in actuality it takes much longer than they realise. I can't find it and I don't know how to word it for Google to bring it up, but again I don't mean to turn this into "physical versus digital" or this rather nice thread'll get locked up faster than Lady Hamilton's virtue.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
You can play Aunimeda DND music playlists to enhance your online sessions https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2svbc5CtJH5jvDvFmaxn6E you can find more DND playlists here: https://music.aunimeda.com/dnd-music-playlist/
Personally not a fan of (much) audio in game as a Player or DM - a volume control for me is mandatory.
Saying that, I do use audio in games I DM. Foundry specific - I'll make the scene with audio in mind and the players have the option to control that as they want.
It can be worth looking at something like Audacity (free/open sauce) IF you can spare the time, but I like making my own music/audio + fold that into the creative process - it can be used as a tool for writing a scenario, room description etc. etc. Audio I use tends to be either "tavern hubbub", maybe a specific song, maybe something I've made.
My process is Choose music > edit loop in Audacity > Foundry. I've got (and had) players in parts of the world that don't have web, so loading too much into Foundry can cause loading issues and generally I've found most players turn that audio off.
There's plenty good sources of free and open source audio too with a bit of a search and the BBC has a bank of free audio too and it's VERY extensive + a bit of a pain to search as there's so much of it ;)
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