Game music that loops without a seam

Plan before generating anything

• Instrumental by default. Vocals fight the game's sounds, and lyrics are banned in game page videos anyway.
• One key and one tempo family per game, so zone tracks crossfade cleanly into each other.
• Genre from the game's feel: cosy idles and sims suit lo-fi or chiptune; combat wants drive.
• Keep a cue sheet: every track, where it plays, its key and tempo.

Cut a seamless loop

1. Bar length: seconds per bar = 4 x 60 / BPM (in 4/4). Make the loop a whole number of bars.
2. Cut on a bar line after the intro, so the loop starts at full energy rather than replaying the intro.
3. Hide the seam: crossfade the loop's last ~0.5 s into its first ~0.5 s.
4. Zero crossings: trim a few milliseconds so both ends sit at silence or a zero crossing. That removes the click.

Listen to the seam at least twice in a row before calling it done.

Master quieter than a song

Background music sits around -18 LUFS integrated, quieter than a streaming song, so effects and UI sounds stay on top. Export OGG or MP3 at 44.1 kHz stereo and keep files small.

Wire it in Studio

• SoundGroups: SoundService.Music, SFX and UI, each with its own volume, so settings sliders control whole categories.
• Music plays on the client. It's presentation, and per-player zone music can't be done from the server.
• Zone music: one Sound per cue, crossfaded when the player changes zone.
• Intensity layers: start every layer of a cue at the same moment (some silent) and fade layers in, so they stay in sync.
• Stingers (win, level up) are separate non-looping sounds in the SFX group; duck the music briefly under them.
• Give players a music volume slider bound to the Music group, and save it.