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[Kinimod]

Hi!
Do you know any Video Games that feature atonal music? Did you ever use any of it for your games? In which games/situations is atonality in your opinion appropriate?

[Calum Bowen]

I know that in sci-fi film music atonality is often used to represent aliens/space - so it may appear in some space games. Other than that, I can't think of anywhere else where atonality may be appropriate - i'm sure it appears to some extent but as a purposeful device, who knows. I'd be interested to hear it.
Maybe like something hectic or big crash scene or something might have some atonality.

[s0]

atonality could work well for horror games

[MoritzPGKatz]

Hey,

Atonal clusters are a common cliché for sci-fi games and movies since Kubrick used Ligeti's Atmosphères in 2001: A Space Odyssey:




Same thing for horror games and movies, the clusters tend to be on higher registers and with sharper dissonance though:




I like to use whole tone scales for labyrinths and mazes, works so well because WT has no start or end. Love this track by Motoaki Takenouchi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPLJkwJNq70&feature=player_detailpage#t=1264s

Cheers,
Moritz

[mcc]

Technically my Ludum Dare entry... http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?uid=4987&action=rate

I have an unfinished project where the soundtrack is generative, objects on screen emit tones and the tones are randomly assigned on an atonal scale. The way this works out is that it fades from one random but repeating tone to the next. I think the effect is nicely disorienting and stark and sometimes by coincidence there is harmony between successive notes and it sounds like some kind of actual off-again-on-again melody was intended.

[Cheezmeister]

I have an unfinished project where the soundtrack is generative, objects on screen emit tones and the tones are randomly assigned on an atonal scale.

Think I could see that? I'm fooling around with generative music on Nextris (albeit tonal & harmonic) and examples are always nice

[DigitalEelRich]

I like to mix atonal sections with more conventional sections, alternating, used to compliment each other.  A sweet piece of music sounds even sweeter after something strange.  A strange piece of music sounds even cooler after something familiar, etc.  I like range.

Here's some stuff I did for Brainpipe, a short medley.  Some of it gets atonal, but I'll come back to more conventional harmony from time to time.
http://nightmareband.bandcamp.com/track/brainpipe-ii-trippocampus
[edit: sorry -wrong url!]

This is a collection of some of the medium intensity pieces used in the game.  There's also a set of mellow intensity loops and a set of maximum intensity pieces, each to match increasingly difficult sections of the game.

[DigitalEelRich]

I guess you can hear the straight vs. atonal back and forth in Jammers too:
http://nightmareband.bandcamp.com/track/subliminal-distraction-mix