Final Post: 1

To conclude this period, I submitted the work for the soundtracks mentioned in the two posts below. Here is the link, to where you can find them.

http://1drv.ms/1qEfete 

Video Game Soundtrack: Shattered Fate.

Development for this mod was slightly different, as I had already knew the limit of my abilities and skills. The way I composed had also changed, I had began working and experimenting with some new sounds and techniques, this time the composition for the music was based around orchestration, guitars, sampling, and drums. These elements together helped strengthen the mood of the pieces I was writing.

Again much like the process of Voyager, I was consistently working with somebody to create the soundtrack, most elements of the previous soundtrack were used again due to the small team and scale of the project. Unlike large AAA game soundtracks, where new songs are created to add difference, this one was composed used intricately looped soundtracks, to add depth and ease of listening to the remarkably limited pieces I had wrote. I included new pieces of music and remixes of previous tracks and unreleased tracks that didn't get used initially, to provide ease and familiarity to the soundtrack.

The pieces listed below are ones that were introduced in this mod, there was 6 tracks I wrote specifically for this mod.

The first piece I wrote for this soundtrack was a demo for Gerudo Valley, which was based around sampled foreign language samples, and heavy hitting wooden drums. This was the only piece that lacked sounds of orchestration. The second demo featured a guitar playing G, G#, A# and was composed in an Arabian scale, this is when I added synthesized orchestration in, to accompany the very aggressive track, and soften the blow delivered towards the end.

The second piece of music wrote for this mod, was a re-interpretation of Koji Kondo's Lost Woods theme, though my version featured more emphasis on the orchestral elements. The alternate version of this was written in a whole new key to show a scarier side of the lost woods, while the first version focused more on mystery. This piece was wrote in the A minor scale. While the alternate night time version was written in Eb Sustained 4. The mysterious piece used a bell sample from the Gerudo Valley piece.

The third piece written for the mod was the Ice Temple, this piece was wrote with more synthesized elements, and featured heavy sampling of a synthesized melody that I played into an earlier version of the piece. The drum style of the track was ambient and spread out to create space within the track. The lead melody for this track was played by a mallet type of instrument, to add softness. No bass was used within the track as it might ruin the type of sound I was going for.

The fourth piece I had wrote was for the Fire Temple, which was a slow moving piece with little instrumentation or percussion what percussion there was, was used later at the end to bring power to this track, the main instrumentation much like the Ice Temple was very synthesized and slow though this one utilized sounds of a warm and uncomfortable nature, e.g. there is a sample of rumbling tectonic plates I added distortion to and reverb. The second sample used recordings of a chanting choir, which was then reversed and distorted to bring a creepy element to the piece.

The fifth piece made, after some careful consideration was an introduction that featured choirs and orchestral instruments that climbs from Cmajor to Eminor, then in the second part Cmajor to Gmajor, these chords were inverted and played with a synthesized choir on the top playing the third of each triad. This idea was played with using traditional instruments, and was eventually constructed based from a dissonant sounding lead, that plays the introduction which later is accompanied by a violin and a synthesized orchestra.

The sixth piece  was for Lon Lon Ranch, this is one of the pieces for the game that I wrote which was soft and light, it was not intense like the majority of the soundtrack above. Lon Lon Ranch had a sound that couldn't be removed, a female vocal sample this was worked around as I wrote the piece of music in the key of the vocal sample and based the whole piece around it. The song features a laid back feel, with soothing flute and string parts.

Video Game Soundtrack: Voyager of Time.

At the beginning of this blog I stated that I would be working on 3 active soundtracks. The first one of them was for a mod called Voyager of Time. Voyager of Time was the first time I had begun work on any official soundtrack.

My work was derived from the knowledge I have gained from musical theory and composition lessons I had received from a Music Technology course. 

Figure 1: Credit

The games music was heavily constructed using atmospheric, sad, and electronic elements. I tried to keep an ominous theme going throughout as the game is a lot more darker than people realize.

As the figure above indicates, I am not the only person involved in the composition for the mod.

This is the first piece I submitted for the mod, this was for the Spirit Temple, taking the themes I had studied from the original Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack.
The note progression of the harp section in the main piece is G, G, D. – G#, G, D#. These 3 notes are made into a triad chord that is showcased in the final seconds of the song. This idea is re-used and is roughly incorporated into the string section.

The general idea, with this piece, like I said before was to make it sound ominous and atmospheric.

Ideally I tried to give the overall song a desert/eastern sounding theme, to convey a balanced, dark, and cinematic sound.

Voyager of Time was completed, and the music I had created was implemented to the game. However there was issues with the music importation and this was left for a couple of hours. 

The work I did for Voyager, led to me getting a spot on the sequel for the game Shattered Fate. I spoke with the major team members and the developer of the first mod, and through good communication I was able to start working immediately.

Composition Collaboration: Remix.

I was in a group with 2 other members in my class, we made remixes and were assigned three different genres of music to work from. Reggae, Ambient, and Drum and Bass. When the genres were chosen, there was also an opportunity to pick one shot sound effects to use within our remix.

Overall the remixes came out sounding respectively similar or close to the genres they were supposed to be.

Composition Collaboration.

To further my abilities as a composer, there was a amalgamation between J.A Productions and Sineshard Records.

Above is a video showing our work together on making a track. 

This was recorded, demonstrating the new partnership, and regular collaboration sessions. We arrived on time, and the scheduled session was a success. Below are some photo's of the work, in chronological order of how the session happened.

Figure 1: Composing the song in the video.

First the basic composition of the song, played on the piano using the chords (A Minor, E Minor, F Major)

This is where we began the basic work with each-other, and this is how we formed an official collaboration together. While there was un-official collaboration sessions, this was the one where we decided to make it a regular thing, to test our skills from one-another. During these sessions we would talk and critically comment on each-others work, forming bonds.

This lead to us becoming more experienced as composers together, and from this we have composed, songs for a collaboration album, and began a music project with a Music Practise Singer named Kayleigh - This is our first recorded attempt of vocals as a group. https://soundcloud.com/sineshardrecords/kayleigh-hindmarsh-outsiders-snippet


Here is a second video highlighting the production of one of the many collaborations that we have worked on together as a group. This one is slightly more in-depth showing the positive contribution to ideas while working as a group.

Justification.

Over the course of this year I have participated in new and exciting opportunities, which I wouldn't of during earlier parts in my life. I have begun working on an exciting collaboration group, with the great friends I have met. My Creative Development has shown me critically comment and evaluate my own ability to work, and become a new composer for my own company and my friends record label.

My, new work has shown me, develop in the most creative and exciting musical pieces I have ever created, from developing my composing skills, to working and transitioning to new software.

My portfolio, shows my ability growing throughout the weeks, from small scale gaming projects, to large scale animation projects. The work on there is improving as I upload and create. This marks a change in my professional and creative attitudes to working within new and changing job requirements. From my early pieces to my final pieces.

I am happy to have worked and formed strong bonds with potential business clients and created new partnerships and job opportunities. My work may have flaws, such as production errors and/or inexperience, however I believe I have developed my work to a standard, that I wasn't working at before.

-James.

Ballad of the Wind Fish - 12/05/14 - 15:47. (FMP)

Recently I began working on music, that was inspired from the actual Original Sound Track's of Zelda Games. Such as A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Link's Awakening, and Majora's Mask. Over the course of study, I have learned much more about how the Gaming Music Industry has inspired my work over the last few years.

Firstly I began writing pieces based on ideas, from various sources in games, e.g. Fallout and Silent Hill which I spoke about in my last two blog posts.

This lead to me writing and thinking about Music in a different way, growing up listening to my gaming Idol Koji Kondo.

Last Night (1l/05/14) - I began working on a Piece inspired by a song called Ballad of the Wind Fish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPWEJMGxTBs)

This piece was written in the key of D Major. Which followed a simple set of arpeggio's and inverted strings (Which where changed to Synthesized Pads's in the Ableton Demo.) which heavy focus on Choirs and Piano's to retain a similar feel to the original I based it off.

   Figure 1: Link's Awakening.

https://soundcloud.com/jamesandrewharrisgrant/zelda-demo-1-ballad-of-the-wind-fish - A piece Based on Ballad of the Wind Fish from Link's Awakening. Made in Ableton Live 8.

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPWEJMGxTBs (remade by Fox Amoore.) This was the version I decided to base my original interpretation from.

This piece was developed in consideration with my musical performance. This was inspired by Koji Kondo's piece of music called Ballad of the Wind Fish from a Legend of Zelda game. This work is a piece that I wrote as a basic string demo in D Major.

This arrangement is created to have that video game feel, and will be adapted using soundfonts from Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. This was also created using chord inversions, and seventh chords. This is to provide a more original and authentic sound, that is desired by the modding community overall.

The song, is 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, featuring heavy focus on choirs and pianos.

 I deem this song suitable for performance, as it can be easily adapted to be made longer, to fit the timings of the Ableton Live performance.

This song is a piece that I like, in terms of sound quality and mood, it delivers and carries the tone and mood how I intended when I created it originally, however I feel there is greater improvements required, as I need to provide more instruments and continuity within the song.

 I want to add more instruments to provide more depth to the song as there is a lot of vague/empty sound area's as the song transitions, I am also wanting add a greater sense of continuity so I can make it sound more straight forward for indie game development. Though I am planning on fully developing this for use within the Zelda modding community.

This song was wrote in a recording session in which I had planned to film myself coming up with the idea, and playing it on a piano. The session was planned for 10:30 AM and I had to bring a note book, a Video Camera. 

The session went ahead as planned, and I wrote this piece in under 50 minutes, then began work on digitizing it, through Cubase 5.

-James.