E-Rock
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« on: October 18, 2012, 03:03:46 PM » |
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First, the Rules: -I (the host) will provide a theme for the challenge. -You will be given TWO WEEKS to compose one song with said theme. -The song must be a new track made for this challenge. -You will post your song HERE, in the official challenge thread. -Other participants will listen to your song. You will listen to other participants' songs. Critique will be had. -A winner will be chosen by the host. -The winner will host the next challenge.
Hey everybody! Welcome to the 15th music challenge. In many games, there comes a point when the difficulty ramps up noticeably. Whether it's the next level in a platformer that suddenly has a lot less platforms and a lot more lava than you recall, an RPG that cuts the player loose after going through tutorials and increased the enemies strength, or maybe even a puzzle game that decides it's time to speed things up a bit. Often times, the music will change mood right along with the game, and that brings us to your challenge:
Escalation!
Your challenge is to create a song that conveys a feeling that adds intensity to a noticeably difficult situation. Other than that, as the previous challenges have been lately, this is very open ended. If you want to put a transition from a "lighter/easier" part to the more "intense/difficult" part, that would be just fine with me. If you have a specific vision in mind, and feel the need to add an explanation, please do so, but don't feel the need to if you don't want to. No time limit either, but try not making it too short or too long either.. just use your judgement on that one.
So, I hope that everyone likes my idea, and enjoys making some music for this challenge. I certainly can't wait to hear what kind of stuff you guys come up with!
Good luck and Have fun!
Final Submissions due by Thursday November 1st at 11:59PM CST.
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Audio Engineer/Songwriter -Eric
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Peregrinus
Level 1
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« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2012, 03:57:12 PM » |
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At first, it seems to me like you were treating the musical challenge as a game and you were trying to level the odds. Haha however, nice one! I hope I'll be up to the task!
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RayWonder
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« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2012, 06:51:25 AM » |
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Finished!! I was going for a Big boss type vibe. Also, this is my fist attempt at Orchestral video game music. Be gentle. From The Shadows
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PythonBlue
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« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2012, 08:13:05 AM » |
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Very nice idea! Would generic suspense fall under your terms of Escalation? Suspense is one of my specialties. XD
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E-Rock
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« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2012, 09:07:04 AM » |
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Wow Ray, that was quick. lol. Cool track! It captures the essence of this challenge very nicely. It is sort of a Boss Battle thing, but that would be a good example of elevated difficulty too. So it works quite well.
Python, I believe suspense would work. Something along those lines would do a good job at representing the need to be extra careful, and pay close attention to your surroundings because you're no longer in a safe place. So yea... if you can pull it off, go for it.
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Audio Engineer/Songwriter -Eric
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Peregrinus
Level 1
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« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2012, 09:15:58 AM » |
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Haha! You see, at first, I thought Escalation was about something that start in a certain way and then adds intensity. Let's say like the mario theme that, when you're nearly out of time, goes crazy! Well, I think I prefer the second interpretation Very awesome track by the way, RayWonder
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RayWonder
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« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2012, 09:18:27 AM » |
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Wow Ray, that was quick. lol. Cool track! It captures the essence of this challenge very nicely. It is sort of a Boss Battle thing, but that would be a good example of elevated difficulty too. So it works quite well.
Haha, Yeah. I was eager to do another one of these challenges. Thanks.
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E-Rock
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« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2012, 09:50:10 AM » |
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Haha! You see, at first, I thought Escalation was about something that start in a certain way and then adds intensity. Let's say like the mario theme that, when you're nearly out of time, goes crazy!
Something like this could apply as well. I wanted to leave it very open ended though. This way, everyone can sort of formulate their own interpretation of "escalated difficulty."
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Audio Engineer/Songwriter -Eric
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Soundhound
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« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2012, 11:13:42 AM » |
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@RayWonder that is a really epic sounding track, awesome sounding instruments (software, vst's pretty please? ) I always enjoy it when more synth-like instruments are combined with orchestral, good job on the percussion too. I made something but it's terrible, so I won't be entering it. Might have another crack at this one before the deadline. P.s congrats on winning the last one E-Rock!
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RayWonder
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« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2012, 11:48:26 AM » |
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@RayWonder that is a really epic sounding track, awesome sounding instruments (software, vst's pretty please? ) I always enjoy it when more synth-like instruments are combined with orchestral, good job on the percussion too. Thanks! I use Reason 5 with the Sonic Reality: Film Orchestra refill, and the Sonic Reality Miroslav Brass Refill. Some of the Synths are from the Default bank, and Xsynth sound bank. Xsynth is one of my favorites, very VERY customizable.
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PythonBlue
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« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2012, 09:22:22 AM » |
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I must say, I'm REALLY thankful we have two weeks and not one. Reason being I've been pretty busy still.
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KeepItSimple
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« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2012, 01:12:49 PM » |
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I went with the "music that builds up" thing. ( http://soundcloud.com/simplykept/escalation-final) Considering all the different ways people are going to do this how is this going to be judged? Just curious as to how you guys would go about this, not only E-Rock has to answer this one. p.s. - Obviously in a game you'd probably have more than 1 minute before the game enters super-fast-instant-death-mode or whatnot. But I didn't want my submission to be more time than it had to be, so I think 1 minute is enough to get into the first rhythm so that the second one feels like a significant change.
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Keep it simple.
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E-Rock
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« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2012, 01:58:00 PM » |
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Hey, Sorry... I've been meaning to come back and comment on the songs that have been posted up so far. KeepItSimple and Lauchsuppe both went with a similar method.. of the sort of old school music speeding up because time is running out way of indicating you need to think fast! That's a great way to interpret this challenge for sure. Other ways to go about it, would be to imagine a specific kind of level and the music to go with it. Let's say like a "Hell" level... which (usually) would have fast/intense music to go with it. Or a boss fight song, or a suspenseful moment in a horror game or something.
Obviously, allowing it to be so open ended means that the potential variety will be tough to judge. So ultimately, the judging (which will be done by me solely) will be sort of subjective. Which is sort of unfortunate, because I hate being judgmental. haha. I can't say for sure exactly how I'll judge, because I'm not sure what sort of stuff I'm going to hear. And I'll try my best to not allow my personal bias/musical taste not effect my judging too much. It'll just come down to the song that best illustrates to me, the essence of the challenge. I hate to be vague, but that's what I currently have in mind. I'll certainly take the mix of the songs into consideration, as well as the song structure.
Not sure if that was the answer you were looking for, but I'm just looking forward to hearing all the different ideas you guys come up with! And there still plenty of time to enter, everyone!!
Also, not to be too nit-picky, but I definitely prefer for any songs posted in this thread to be final products. I think showing how your work progressed is interesting, but it'd just be best for you to only post a finished version so that I won't get confused and judge the "wrong" song.
KeepItSimple, Good stuff. The main melody part is good and interesting, I like the laser sound effects you threw in, that made for a fun listen. The tempo speed up and the pitch shifting of the melody at the end did a great job of adding a sense of urgency and panic. I could see this being used in a time based puzzle game for sure.
Lauchsuppe, Interesting idea that I would have never anticipated. The rag sound is great, and I like the effect to make it sound like an old timey record! The speed up at the end definitely intensifies things quite a lot. I'd love to see a game made to fit in with this sort of music. Maybe something to look like a cartoon from the 1920s or something.
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Audio Engineer/Songwriter -Eric
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Tejas Shroff
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« Reply #15 on: October 22, 2012, 03:26:06 PM » |
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Hey guys!
Its been a while since I've been active on these forums!
Really interested in creating music to fit this theme! Maybe I'll post something in a few days. Thanks E-Rock for picking such a cool challenge!
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pgil
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« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2012, 12:17:55 PM » |
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hey here's something. http://soundcloud.com/pgil-1/act-2For this challenge I was thinking of the middle section of a game, where the difficulty begins to ramp up. The music before this would be more ambient and creepy.
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« Last Edit: October 25, 2012, 12:26:53 PM by pgil »
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E-Rock
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« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2012, 09:30:26 PM » |
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pgil, excellent job! I can definitely hear what you were going for in your piece. I'm glad you had a clear vision as to what you wanted to accomplish with it too. The mix is nice, I like the instrumentation quite a lot. Keep up to good work!
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Audio Engineer/Songwriter -Eric
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