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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperAudioMelody or no melody?
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AlgernonV
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« on: July 18, 2015, 10:05:39 PM »

Hi everyone! I'm new here and this is my first post. I have a question about making orchestral tracks. I'm currently reading "A composer's guide to game music" by Winifred Phillips and she says that you should reduce landmarks in you compositions so the player will not notice that the track has already looped.

I'm making a track right now which has a drone, a pad, choir and a solo soprano. The scene is in a dark forest.

At first I made a melody for the soprano but now I'm doubting if I should use it at all since it's too obvious when the track loops back to the start. So my question would be, is it better to use no melody at all and just focus on the feel of the music?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Ashedragon
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« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2015, 10:32:41 PM »

Well, there certainly isn't any definitive answer to that question. In your case, if it sounds and feels better in the scene to have the melody, then you should have your melody. If it sounds and feels better without the melody in your scene, then don't have the melody. It's very situational and certainly subject to a lot of varying opinions; these are just my thoughts.

I can see why Winifred has the opinion she does: if a song is going to be looping for an extended period of time in any given instance then having it be super obvious that the music is repeating can really start to grate on the player after a while. The shorter it is the greater this effect. One solution involves making all of the music super long, but if you aren't necessarily feeling that then trying to force it to be longer could really just detract from the overall quality and could end up distracting the player.

I think I'm rambling at this point... hope at least some of it was coherent or useful...

Also, welcome to TIG! :3
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Pete301
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« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2015, 01:38:43 AM »

A couple of things that you should keep in mind are:

How long is the user/player going to be listening to the track?

If the player is likely to only hear the track through once then it should be fine to have a nice melody in there that they can recognise as being from that scene of the game.

Is the melody a focal point of the track, or is it more of a background element to the track?

I certainly don't think that you should strictly never use a melody for a looping track, but for ambience scenes it could be distracting for the player to hear the melody over and over if it is a focal point.

I think Ashedragon is correct in saying that you should go with your gut, if it feels correct to have the melody in then keep it, if you feel it is a bit weird then take it out.
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ArnoldSavary
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« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2015, 06:29:15 AM »

As Pete and Ashedragon have said, it's not so simple. What you have to remember is that a melody
- draws attention to the music
- is memorable
- can be used as a leitmotiv and thus give information to the player

Plenty of games include melodies in their loops - just look at any Zelda game for example :

works very well because there's no dialogue and few sound effects, so there's a lot of room for music. Additionally, I assume the composer wanted to instill a sense of familiarity into the player, since it's Link's home village, which is exactly what the melody does because you'll have it memorized by the end of the introduction of the game.
This is the kind of thing you have to think about : what ambience do you want to create, will there be a lot of sound effects going on, do you want to have a "mystery theme", how much time do you expect the player to spend in the area, is the melody good enough to withstand repetition...
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ZackParrish
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« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2015, 01:52:42 PM »

Melody.

It's all in how you implement it.
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AlgernonV
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« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2015, 11:29:35 PM »

Thanks for all your insights guys. So I understand that if the music is going to be part of a game it will be clear how long a player will stay in that area so that will influence how much melody to use.

In my case, this piece is not really part of a game but an attempt to improve my portfolio so I guess I have to follow my gut.

I'll have to keep in mind what you said about ambient tracks as I'm planning to make one right after I'm done with this one. Thanks again!
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Torchkas
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« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2015, 10:14:12 AM »

Remember that a melody doesn't have to fast, it doesn't have to be a motif, it can be horizontally layered, etc. etc. What's important is that it's there because it needs to be.
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Breakdown Epiphanies
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« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2015, 12:10:29 PM »

A good example that comes to mind of a melody/motif that develops very slowly over a longer period of time is this theme from Mad Max by JunkieXL:


He starts playing the melody at about 2:30, at 3:55 he adds the chords and modulations. He then goes on to orchestrating and arranging it which I found very instructive. The piece is very melodical but it does not stand out too much. I could find myself listening to that in a loop for a pretty long time.


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