[Dark Stalion]

I have started a new topic on this subject as the old one became too long and unwieldy for someone new who wanted to find out the current development status of my music for the game. The original thread can be found here. Further music for the orriginal music engine will be posted elsewhere.

So what has happened so far? Well the original idea was that we'd have a large library of music tracks to go between and the game would select the most appropriate one at any moment to play.

Then I came up with this idea of having the music in the game be more adaptable as an option to the traditional approach to game music. What happens is a layering of music tracks dependant upon the events in the game and the use of "punctuation," shorter musical phrases to play at a critical or strongly emotional point, but wouldn't count as a piece in their own right. The ideas is that this will be adaptable enough that anyone playing will have their very own symphonic sound track to accompany their own specific journey through the game.

The following is an early prototype of what sort of things to expect to come out of the music engine. Below it I will write a (silly generic) sort of in game story that it would accompany.

Game Music Prototype 01-01

You have come home to discover your brother has been killed by rats. Despair then anger fills the character as you stand over the body. Then you go hunting for the rats. About a minute later the rabid rats see you and charge at 1:24. Between 1:31 and 1:35 the first blow is struck. You gain the upper hand fairly quickly, and the horn call goes out at 1:46 to portray this. Soon one of the rats dies (between 1:56 and 2 min). The horn call goes out again as you continue to battle well against these miniature monstrosities. As the other two are slain the fanfare rises again, celebrating your victory.

Future development of the idea is as follows:

Escalating loopable sections - These are bits which follow naturally from each other and can follow the fight as it becomes more intense
More use of the orchestra - Basically as I get used to these sounds and how they react to different writing I can use them more effectively and combine them better.
Thematic writing - I intend to introduce more genesis specific themes and so on into the punctuation and the general music. At the moment it's intentionally generic, except for the slow punctuation bit's I aired earlier. If I can get the generic stuff to work then it's possible to write themes which work well for this style of music creation.
More variety - That's something that'll be needed a lot in the combat tracks certainly. I'll have to write a lot of cues for this, but it'll be worth it, me thinks. Also the looped tracks can be interspersed, or replaced with modified versions or different tracks to keep things from becoming incessant or jaded.

Another side to the music creation process is that I want to make doing magic in Genesis to be something truly magical, not just another game mechanic to exploit. As such I'd like to score some stuff for spells, either individually or by strength or by type or some other kind of rating system which decides what music would fit the magic being done rather than sound effects. Though I haven't tried anything with this as yet, ideas have been put forwards that the spell accompaniment would be diagetic (i.e. be something that the game characters can hear, a kind of music that stems from the magic itself rather than from the sound track). However it is implemented I want the magic music to cause all other music to fade out, so that it becomes a special event in the game.

I've started laying out guidelines for music creation with this system in case any one else wanted to contribute to this side of the music creation process.

Rules for this music system (subject to change with experiment) are...

- Symphonic instruments only + chorus. If in doubt, ask. Alternatively record a real instrumentalist playing the part. No guarantee that these can be included, though, subject to quality.
- Music should be submitted in midi format, preferably with a performance on the best software you have (Sibelius 4/5, or in general midi) in .ogg format. If you own a version of EWQLSO, or other high quality production software/samples you are welcome to produce your work in that too, but be aware that I need to be able to access a midi version to make sure that it is compatible with the other music.

- Long cues should last between 3 and 10 minutes, possibly loopable.
- Long cues should be based around C, no matter what mode. e.g. if you wish to write in Aeolian, then the following should be your scale:
C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb. C should be the predominant note. Modulation is acceptable, but only for short periods.
- Long cues should be fairly ambient, emphasis on pad instruments (strings and voices), other instruments used sparingly for colour (see Exploration 1). Try to keep to a single mood.

- Short cues should last from a few seconds up to 1 minute in length.
- Short cue's should also be based on C harmonically (though a chord with C as it's tonic does not need to exist). See Disappointment, Satisfied, Unfinished, etc.
- Short cues can consist of any timbre or texture, but should exist to illustrate a point. If they fail to offer at least some minor variation to some emotion or action being illustrated musically, then try to think of one. If you're unsure, or can think of several that fit (always a good thing) then post it and ask people to come up with words that fit. I think that this should be general practice anyway, as it will give a library of definitions for when the punctuation may be used.

- Combat tracks should be from 3 to 10 minutes long, preferably loopable. Alternatively they may be realtively short, if lopable, as long as they can be fit together with other short loopable sections.
- Tempo should be crotchet = 140 in 4/4 time. Triplets of any division are usable.
- Combat music should be based on D, the same way that Long cues are based on C. Modulation away from this, though, would reduce effectiveness of the immediate punctuation.
- Emphasis should be on rhythm and texture giving a sense of excitement of any level. If you wish you can increase this tension throughout, but only if the track is over 5 minutes.

- Immediate punctuation (as in combat punctuation which should be only a few seconds long
- They should be based around D in the same way that normal punctuations are based around C
- Emphasis should be on short snappy articulations of a combat event using any instrument, but most particularly brass.

That's about it. Any questions/comments/ravings should be posted below.

DS
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[8bit]

awww, I think we almost had a record going in the last thread =P

Anyway, I recall you asking for combat situations, so I'm gonna throw some out there:

Significantly winning
Significantly losing
Running in fear
Chasing prey
Got away safely
Got caught up to
Caught prey
Lost prey
Turned tables (just gained upper hand)
Turned tables (just lost upper hand)
Surprise attack
Attacked by surprise
lost a limb
removed a limb
Significantly won
Significantly lost
Barely won
Barely lost

sound bits could also be incorporated for different attacks. If you've ever played Zelda; The Wind Waker you may notice that attacks can cause a small jingle, and a combo can cause the jingle to rise in pitch.
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[01:02] <n00854180t> Ah, out of context statistics quotes

[Dark Stalion]

That certainly is an idea, I look into doing something similar. It would be easy to incorporate. If something is purely a function of time, then I can record the whole thing rather than worrying about programming a pitch increase or having several small loopable sections and trying to fit them together. However, I don't know how combat is going to function yet, so an idea like this will have to wait until that's been tackled.

Oh, and thanks for the combat situations.

DS
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[Arcadian]

Perhaps we should just make a thread for combat situations, so we can list and discuss them there.

If I have spare time tonight, I'll do it, if not tomorrow. Unless it's already done.

Other situations:

Flawless Victory
Utterly Defeated (Flawless loss)
Untouchable (Can't hit opponant)
Impenatrable Defense (Opponant keeps blocking)
Impervious Armor (Can't hurt through armor)
Ultimate Attack!
Suddenly, significantly losing
Suddenly, significantly winning
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Bamf! Claw! Fang!
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[Dark Stalion]

I've decided to split the long cues (now called ambient tracks) into two parts. The first is the general ambient track, which relies on geographical position and the activity being engaged in (exploration of new teratory, construction, etc) and the scond part which will overlay this is te "mood" track which will reflect the character's emotional status. Nothing to show for it yet, but I'll get there soon.

DS
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[Dark Stalion]

Not related to the above post, but I've been experimenting with how musical themes can be combined to generate interesting music for extended periods with the minimum of input. Below is an example of something I threw together with some ideas I came up with today.

Two Melody Mix

Though not suitable yet for the game, I think with some adjustment this might make some ok material to use. Just need to work out how. The main problem is that it's too busy for non-combat game music. For the moment lets take it for what it was meant to be, an exercise in melody combination. There are three methods used here, each with varying degrees of "reusability".

1. Each of the melodies are played separately. The simplicity of returning to a theme is never to be underestimated in it's effectiveness. A method to extend the current mix might be to reintroduce one theme, proceed to the next methods of extension and then return to a simple voicing of the other. In this way this is a pivotal technique around which each of the others must be built.

2. Voicing the two themes at the same time. This is perhaps the least useful (if we're talking in terms of the number of times this can be used). The only ways to get more out of this are to change the relative volumes of each theme and the panning. this should be used almost as sparingly as the separate version of each.

3. Overlapping the two themes. Most useful of the three, this allows for a mathematically predictable number of iterations. In the current setting, you can hear only a few of the possible combinations. If combined with number 2 this enables even more variations. Taking the current example, both melodies are easily split in two. As such there are three main areas. The first is where the beginning of one melody is playing, the second is where the beginning of one melody is playing and the end of another (or the same) is playing and the third is where just the end of a melody is playing. Of the first there are 2 possibilities (one for each of the melodies), with the second there are (beginning of one + end of the other x2 + the beginning and end of the same one x2) 4 possibilities, and with the final there are again 2 possibilities. With this it is possible to create 16 versions containing 1 middle section, 64 2 mid part versions, 256 3 mid part versions, etc (you notice a familiarity in the numbers involved? ). By varying the number of the middle parts and the combination of middle parts used this can extend the piece for quite a while.

Ultimately, no matter the combination of melodic material used, a 5 or 6 second harmonic pattern will become tiring in the end, so it will become necessary to employ several harmonic patterns to keep the ears from becoming tired. I will look more into this soon.

DS

Edit: Here's a slower and lower version. Which is better?

Two Min Slower Mix
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[Dark Stalion]

Ok, here's an advancement on this. With the addition of another cello part I have created a 4 1/4 min piece. It's turned out so well, I think I'll put it down as the founding piece of my new music thread.

Meldoic Mix
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[Dark Stalion]

I have been thinking further on this concept while my computer has been down (so unfortunately I have nothing to show at the moment, or possibly for a while as I have so many musical ideas that I will need to explore when I do get it back) and am considering a more linear approach to the development of the advanced music as the game is played. I still wish to use multiple tracks, but in the interests of continuity I thought I could take a modular approach to the main track, having that gradually change slowly over time seamlessly. Each biome will have a (hopefully) large number of sections of various types. Length of a section chosen could depend partly on how deep within a biome a character is (i.e. how far from a border they are). As the character approaches a border the modular sections will shorten and, as there hopefully will be some kind of transitionary buffer zone, will take on a transitory nature, combining aspects of both biomes. There will still be combat punctuation, but I want combat to also be more of a crescendo, developing over time more.

Ideally there will be some kind of rule set, allowing us to specify which modules are viable to occur after each one. Then there would be variables measured, such as intensity of the conflict, characters state of mind, etc, which would further go towards deciding the nxt module to be applied.

DS
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[Dark Stalion]

Ok, so a proper update this time. If you've already looked at my music thread, then you'll know that I've started work on some music pertaining to settlements. Hopefully the game will be able to track population density, and on the off chance that it might be able to track player wealth as well (preferably finding the median average, as I think this would be most telling of the wealth distribution; a mean would only make sense in a place where servants were prevalent).

Small Town

In the examples I've got here (lumped together so you can hear how easily it transitions) we go from potentially a small-town density of average wealth to an area where the average wealth is higher. Yes I did fiddle the harmonies a bit to make it sound finished

Ok, so the breakdown goes English horns represent the size of the community. More instruments, of course means larger community as well, but as you get more instruments different ones begin to dominate. English horns on their own, though, to my weird ears, represent a minimum of small town. By adding the cello in this particular form we immediately fall into the feel of a court dance, like a Sarabande thus associating it with wealth. I need tor research old baroque and renaissance dance styles and their associations more to get the most out of this, but expect to see Gigue-style versions and others in the future. I'll also be looking at earlier medieval dances for the less wealthy areas. Eventually we should end up with techno when someone reaches a high enough wealth level Kidding, but we will have to examine how likely it is for someone to reach certain wealth bench-marks so as to be able to associate the style correctly, otherwise wealth differentiation in the music would be meaningless.

Edit: As for the "fiddling" with the harmonies this is a using a basic premise in music called opening and closing phrases. It allows me to create a basic structure that all the variants will follow provided their not interrupted. This is just the first part of a larger piece, as it were, the A section. It occurs to me that, whatever dance style I intend to imitate with the parts, I am still free to adjust the structure to suit my needs. The easiest form to create using this and similar sections would be something like a Rondo. This form is very basic and can in effect go on for ever. It's basic structure is:

A B A C A D A

where each letter represents a section. As you can see A returns after every other section. If each section is split like the section I just made then we have the possibility of responding to changing the variables every 20 seconds or so, close enough that a change in the players situation wouldn't take to long to be reflected in the music. I think that's a good general benchmark, 20 seconds between changes.

Anyway, sections B, C and D (maybe even E and F, though this is becoming a lot of work) can be recycled later to keep the town music going as long as needed, probably going into a random selection process. It is not necessary that they be in a particular order provided I do this right. Each section has to be done multiple times to reflect different wealth and population density changes. However I think that we can make it so that we have three levels rather than trying to grade them further; Richer than average, average, poorer than average; Higher than average, average, low population density.

As these terms suggest, these are adjustable, the game can work out every day/week/month what average is, with a lower limit on it so that we don't have music that's too civilised sounding in our mud-hut villages. It may mean that we have to track what building materials being used most are in buildings to determine "technological level" or something similar so that we can have different music that suits the abode type. Alternatively we have three levels each for village, town and city.

Anyway, ramble over I think. I might have something more to say in a bit, but I've got class soon, a singing lesson after and a competition this evening, so I need to focus on other things for a bit.

DS
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