Volitions Advocate on 26/10/2007 at 17:50
Hey everyone, I'm new to a mod team making a game thats heavily shock inspired.
Theres nothing to get excited about yet, we're in early pre-alpha right now and just working out the concept.
I've put together a couple little soundscapes to get the juices flowing.
Details on the game itself are sparse and like I said still in progress. So just working with the idea that it will take place on a different planet and have a lot of survival horror and cyberpunk elements in it, i came up with these.
(
http://www.famesource.com/view.aspx?m=10705) Main theme or trailer theme or.. something
(
http://www.famesource.com/view.aspx?m=10706) Atmosphere for a tense moment
keep in mind these are "rough drafts" they need some electronics and some drums and some sort of bass in there. And I figured out a little too late where the stinking metronome is on acid pro (i'm new to it) and you can tell a little bit.
I was thinking a little more edgy than all electronic stuff. Combine ss2 with doom3 and a healthy dose of Coheed and Cambria in there ... maybe?
I dunno, constructive criticism and ideas are very welcome.
Kolya on 26/10/2007 at 18:24
These are actually really good, although you had me waiting in vain for a breakbeat starting when the main theme gets going. Also the guitar was a bit to pronounced. A tip for the ambience piece: Brosius often mixed in silent obscured game sounds so you can't be quite sure whether you just heard a door opening, etc.
Volitions Advocate on 26/10/2007 at 18:31
explain what you mean by breakbeat :)
I'm trying to figure out a way to get the guitar to sound good. I"m recording DI so it will sound really in your face as opposed to recording with a microphone. Plus im not experience with post production.. I"m learning as I go. I just need feedback
Kolya on 26/10/2007 at 18:43
Mmh, you remember the fast driving beat when you enter medsci?
This might give you an idea (disregard the strings, just listen to the beat): (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PBeKzVhWHY)
Basically it's a non-continous beat. I guess someone with a musical background could explain that better...
And here the sophisticated explanation: Breakbeat is a non-straightened 4/4 drum pattern. :)
demagogue on 26/10/2007 at 18:48
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
explain what you mean by breakbeat :)
I think he means a fast-paced techno-beat breaking in at some point after the theme starts. Edit: oops, beat to the punch.
There's probably lots of examples, but one I remember just now is in the (
http://www.sshock2.com/ss2mmdb/music.htm) Shodan Hacked Mix, when the theme starts, at one point the beat breaks in (I actually think it's the same Medsci beat Kolya just mentioned).
That's my guess, anyway ... because I was waiting for it, too.
By the way, I like the sort of exposed sound of the guitar, but it wouldn't hurt to have a beat and some business around it either. Good job.
Volitions Advocate on 26/10/2007 at 18:56
Gotcha.
I like it in its applications. (i'm a big NiN fan) but i was trying to steer away from the industrial flavor a little bit, I'm not the only person working on the mod in the music dept so im sure there will be quite the broad range on soundscapes. When i was thinking of drums in my head for that piece I was thinking more like Danny Carey's drumming for Tool, or even the themesong for Doom3 (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQDsTdKMNQ) around the 45 second mark
or: (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUcdMva9RnQ)
or: (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAg5-zn_qeA)
I like the industrial kind of beats that fold in overtop of themselves, you dont really know where they start and end they just kind of ... go.
Kolya on 26/10/2007 at 18:56
It's got nothing to do with the beat "breaking in". The beat itself is broken. Listen to some dancefloor hit, usually the beat will be: stomp--stomp--stomp--stomp--stomp--stomp--stomp
Breakbeat on the other hand has less predictable patterns as could be heard in the video.
Muzman on 26/10/2007 at 19:21
Breakbeats derives from the looping/sampling of beats from breaks in the music (where just the drums are playing) and so are usually livelier than the drum work of the rest of the song/piece. This was the stock-in-trade of early Disco, Electro and Hip Hop. You can hear it a lot in old school stuff like old Public Enemy, who used a lot of old soul records, James Brown etc.
Mimicing style of those excepts became a style in itself, hence Breakbeat.
demagogue on 26/10/2007 at 21:07
Quote Posted by Kolya
It's got nothing to do with the beat "breaking in". The beat itself is broken.
I realized that the second I read your post, and knew exactly what you meant; and I agree, a breakbeat is much better in this context than a straight one. But I had already started posting as you posted that ... and then I didn't feel like changing it with an edit because I was thinking of another point worth making, anyway, and just wasn't paying attention to the terminology.
Even knowing that, I would have
added the point that I like when tracks start off more ambient with synths, and then a beat breaks in around the time of the theme ... it's energizing, and would have worked here IMO.
As for "i was trying to steer away from the industrial flavor a little bit", I guess the reason both I and Kolya thought of that was because you said you wanted it "heavily Shock inspired", and the Shock tracks themselves are pretty industrial flavored.
Kefren on 26/10/2007 at 21:59
Good work, nice to listen to.
