Re: Soundtrack rough draft

[Dave Fancella <david.fancella@comcast.net>]

On Sunday 29 February 2004 09:15 pm, Jens Granseuer wrote:
> On 28.02.2004 05:36, Dave Fancella wrote:
> > How long should it be?  I finally got to a point where I thought "Ok, now
> > it's time to master and post to the list".  Then I discovered the thing
> > is seven minutes long!  Ouch.  Once upon a time I'd spend 3 hours writing
> > a song only to find it was a minute and a half long.
>
> Not sure. I'm inclined to say it doesn't really matter, but we need to keep
> a reasonable package size. On the other hand the (optional) music tracks
> could be distributed separately, so you don't need to download them with
> each release. So, if the track can keep interest and tension up for seven
> minutes, why not?
>
> > I assume it has to loop.
>
> It doesn't have to, IMO. We could have it end and restart just as well,
> especially if it's not only a one minute jingle.
>
> > Does the soundtrack player allow mixing tracks?  I
> > assume no.  :)
>
> Right now it only supports playing one track ad nauseam ;-)
> I'll have to work on that if you need more.

How about right now we just get one track working and get the code hammered 
out and so forth.  I don't want to get caught up feature creeping the 
soundtrack.  Recording music is a *lot* of work, and losing focus can waste a 
*lot* of time.

> > Does it allow for multiple movements in different files?  If
> > so, does it randomly pick the movements or use some crazy algorithm to do
> > so? (Some would say that random is a crazy algorithm)
>
> I don't understand what this would be trying to accomplish. Having
> several tracks randomly overlaid?

I was probing for capabilities as they are now (untested).  I'm interested in 
somehow determining the ferocity of the battle and breaking the soundtrack 
down into several tracks to be chained together during the scenario based on 
several metrics of the way the battle is going.  That would rule, I think. :)  
It would always be different, but using the same themes and stuff.  And it 
would be much more tailored for the actual fight as it is.  But for now, I 
just want to get something that sounds good playing.  We can worry about 
having a cutting-edge soundtrack later.  ;)

> > So, I apologize for the length and the poor mastering, but it is a rough
> > draft, after all.  :)  I'll withhold my own editorial, except to say that
> > I don't like it as is and I'm going to tear it down and start over. 
> > Before I do that, I want to know how close I am to the mark.  Should I
> > throw this away completely and start with new ideas, or am I pretty close
> > already and I should re-use a lot of these ideas?
>
> I think you don't have to scrap everything. I'll try to explain what I
> like and not, but keep in mind that I'm no musician. I hope I can make
> myself understood.
>
> First off, I'm not such a big fan of "howling guitars". They can be nice
> for a short solo or something but can get pretty tedious if they drag on
> for too long. That said, I found them too high-pitched to be pleasant for
> the full score.

I had the same problem.  I discovered in the morning that there was a small 
problem with the patch I was using.  In the headphones I didn't realize how 
harsh the lead guitar was, but when I pumped it through my speakers after the 
house woke up, oh man oh man.  I've corrected it since then.  ;)  I also 
found a really kick-ass drum sequencer at about the same time this 
morning....  :)

> It's also a bit repetitive. This may have to do with the length, but the
> real reason appears to be that there is not enough variation. The drum
> pattern never changes at all, and it's always the lead guitar in the
> foreground and drums and bass guitar (is it?) in the background. The most
> notable exceptions to me were the first one minute and a half where another
> guitar (more acoustic-like) is in a rather prominent position, and the
> section from about 4:30 to 5:00 where the lead guitar is missing.

Keeping in mind it's a rough draft, the drum pattern never changed on purpose.  
I had no idea where the theme was going to go, but I needed a basic drum 
pattern that was going to be followed, more or less, throughout the whole 
track.  For regular rock music I just use a standard rock beat.  This isn't 
regular rock music, though.

No bass guitar at this time, and not likely to be one anytime soon.  THis is a 
problem for my regular music, but not for a game soundtrack.  :)  We need 
bass, but it doesn't have to be a bass guitar.  ;)  (I don't own a bass, but 
I'd certainly be interested if someone just happened to have one sitting 
around that they never play.....)

Actually, I didn't realize you weren't a musician at all.  I'm surrounded by 
musicians, so I always assume someone is until proven otherwise.  I think it 
would have been more helpful for me to refine it a bit before soliciting 
comments.  However, the important part is there, which is "I'm not totally 
off-base, and this track is worth pursuing, at least for the time being".  :)

> This being a one-man show the range of options is of course limited.
> As a first draft I think it's quite nice, maybe I'm just saying a
> keyboarder would be nice to add a little spice...

Keep in mind that I've got fancy digital effects processor on the guitar, I've 
got fancy LADSPA effects, and so forth.  I have the technology to make a 
guitar line sound like *any* instrument I want it to sound like.  There's 
also the possibility of composing a midi line using any of oh, I don't know, 
thousands of sound fonts and streaming it to a wav file to mix in.  The 
one-man show for amateur musicians like myself is virtually unlimited in 
possibilities these days.  These are exciting times in which to be a 
musician.  :)  (Of course, you have to have Linux, since all the really good 
audio stuff is Linux only, bearing in mind that I generally ignore software 
that isn't Free.  Tchaikovsky would've used Linux ;)  )

Hrm.  Also I don't have keyboards.  I can do basic keyboarding, but I'm not 
anywhere near concert pianist.  If I had one, well, it'd probably just 
control midi stuff anyway.  I may as well use a midi composition tool.  I'll 
go find one and use it for the backing noises for the next track, I think 
that's a really good idea.  ;)

> Is this kind of feedback helpful? It feels a bit awkward...

Yes.  Also keep in mind that I'm new around here and trying to adapt my own 
workflow to what you guys need/want.  Expect things to smooth out with 
practice and effort.  :)

Dave

> Jens

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