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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

SND - ACTIVE MUSIC - Baseview Music


Xer0

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I was playing around in Fruityloops yesterday and came up with a short Ambient/Trip-Hop clip. I thought that it could work well for the Baseview music.

I know that the clip is too short right now and needs to loop, and I'm going to work on that. Also, I don't really like the hihat sound much as it is, and I'm fixing that up as well.

Suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
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I like it, though is the music going to switch each time the player goes from planetview to baseview and vice versa?

Also I think the piano probably would get repetitive if looped to long.

Good work though, can't wait to see (hear?) the next iteration. :D
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[quote name='JakeDrake' date='Jan 23 2005, 04:16 PM']I like it, though is the music going to switch each time the player goes from planetview to baseview and vice versa?

Also I think the piano probably would get repetitive if looped to long.

Good work though, can't wait to see (hear?) the next iteration. :D
[right][post="108411"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
I don't know about the music switching, actually. To tell you the truth, I was wondering the same thing myself. I just happened to see Baseview Music listed under the Needed Music topic, so I decided to submit this.

As for the piano, I realize that it would get repetitive as well. Like I said before, though, this is just a short clip, so I will most definitely be editing things. I may add more notes for the piano to mix it up a bit, but otherwise the piano will not be playing the whole time. I may also want to add some more string parts to it, but I don't want to get too complex since its simplicity is one of the reasons why I like this clip.
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The main idea is just great!!! :D Great rythm! nice feeling!

the synths in the beginning need some work. I'd put some extra notes one, maybe two octaves higher. It's a bit too deep and it doesn't come out clear. It's more like a background bass synth, so I'd add something in front.

Keep working on it! Continue telling your story in this theme! Love to hear your progress!


cheers,
ATeX
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I'm a fan of triphop and this sounds really good. Nice touches with the reverberating cymbal. I can't stress enough how much I like this early version.

On my speakers the bass sample seems to get a little bit boomy. It distorts on my speakers. I listen to some bassy-donkey music, so I don't think it's my speakers themselves. It may also be the data loss from the mp3 compression.

I think the piano would sounds really good if you kept your basic sequence but brought it up a few notes on subsequent bars. It would give it a nice build-up. Alternatively, you could bring the bass up- that is, of course, if that's the direction you want to take it.

Great work.
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[quote name='JakeDrake' date='Jan 23 2005, 09:16 PM']I like it, though is the music going to switch each time the player goes from planetview to baseview and vice versa?
[right][post="108411"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]

Current plan is to have a music track per major screen (so it won't change from baseview intro to inventory or build-facility screen). They will then fade-in/-out when entering/exiting the screen.
We'll have to see if this works of if it gets too distracting, though. Could be that we will need hand-made transitions...

Greetings,

Rincewind
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  • 3 weeks later...
[quote name='fux0r666' date='Jan 26 2005, 03:00 PM']On my speakers the bass sample seems to get a little bit boomy.  It distorts on my speakers.  I listen to some bassy-donkey music, so I don't think it's my speakers themselves.  It may also be the data loss from the mp3 compression.[/quote]
Ah, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. This was brought to my attention by others and I noticed it myself.

I'm currently on a family computer with very tinny speakers, and I made the mistake of creating this clip without headphones on. The speakers have barely any bass, so it sounds fine on them, but when I put a pair of normal headphones on and took a listen, the bass was indeed overwhelming.

I'm going to get those bass and treble levels adjusted as soon as I can, and when I do, I'll be sure to post it up.
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It's indeed hard to find that ideal mastered sound that sounds great on every pair of boxes. I suggest you get yourself some headphones from sennheiser if it's too hard to get studio monitors. Either way, without good representation of the sound, it's no use to master your tracks. Man, mastering is difficult stuff :wacko:


cheers,
ATeX
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  • 2 months later...
I was browsing random threads and I found this one. Would it be possible to move this the active sound section? This clip is really not completed, and I have been making more progress on it. I don't mean to be a bother, but I was just hoping that no one considered it as a final product to be used in Xenocide. Thanks.
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With a little work, I've fixed up the levels on the track. The bass string should sound cleaner (at least it does on my headphones) and the overall track volume has been raised as well.

 

I have two versions of the latest track, both identical except for the volume of the hihat. I'm really not sure myself what would work best, so I thought I'd upload it to see what you guys think. Should I use the louder hihats (XenBaseTest2), the softer hihats (XenBaseTest3), or something in between?

 

Lastly, you will notice that I've added a high strings melody. I want to add a melody in somewhere, and this is just a test to work with chord progressions and such. Of course, the final track structure will probably not be this linear. I just added the strings there to compare the sound with the background alone.

 

Anyway, enjoy.

XenBaseTest.zip

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ehm, they are completely the same o.O

 

Sounds nice, although it could be quite a bit more.... sinister.. if you know what i mean. Slower and more sinister.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry this is taking so long. I have a busy schedule and it's hard to find time to work on the track.

 

I've gotten a solid idea of what the track is going to sound like, and although I haven't structured it fully yet, this clip should give you a good idea of where I'm going. There's something still not right about the bass string, and I'm still not happy with the other string part, so I'm going to work on them further.

 

Anyway, please keep giving me some criticisms. The more, the better!

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Guest Azrael

I love the general feeling it gives, but as Mikker said, maybe something slower, more sinister, in the same line, but more dark, am I making any sense? :)

Nice work!

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Red Knight: You're right, actually. I've been very wary about changing it, but now I think it may be the best idea. I will either raise it up an octave or otherwise I will use Edirol Orchestral and getting a better string synth that will not saturate as much.

 

Azrael: I see what you're talking about, but the thing is, I'm not sure if the song should be that sinister. This is baseview (possibly) music, after all, and we were discussing before how in geoscape and baseview the music should be a bit less tense and more relaxed, because if we kept it tense all the time, it would lose a lot of the changing emotion and suspense factor in the game.

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  • 2 months later...
I'm back from my overly long hiatus with some good news. I have acquired a new VST known as Ozone which is extremely helpful in mastering tracks, so I put it to work on this track. I fixed up the bass note and used Edirol strings for it, and I enhanced the piano sound a bit. The track sounds much better and I thought you all should take a listen.

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Can't tell you much from here. I'm listening thru a terrible internet cafe-headset from which the right channel doesn't work. Gives quite a deformed image. But I'm quite shure that, if you used the plugin correctly, it sounds a lot better as Ozone is one of the better mastering plugins available.

Either way, any new songs yet?

 

 

cheers,

ATeX

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Me likes.

 

This reminds me the good old times and Starcontrol.. if I remember right, the theme of Utwig or the Druuge (or something :)

 

Just make it longer.. =)

 

- Garo

Edited by Garo
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I love the pianooooooo...... Actually, I can't hear any audio clipping right here, and it loops perfectly! Keep up the good work there :D

 

How have you made it? Could you upload a composition file please? (Fl Studio or Reason format, I would love to get some composition ideas/tutorial)

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ATeX: Sorry, no new songs yet.

 

fux0r: I'm still working on the audio clipping. The only time there is any clipping for me is in the latter half of the track when both string parts are playing at once. I'm still trying to figure out whether I should fix something with Edirol or with Ozone.

 

Garo: Don't worry, this is just a sample for listening purposes. The final product will definitely be longer.

 

kafros: I would send you the .flp file, but it would be of no use to you. I used so many VST plugins that I'm quite certain you don't have, so the only thing you would even hear in the entire track is just the percussion, and even that would not have all the proper FX on it, since some of those were VSTs, too.

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First of all, I already have a lot of VSTs. Probably yours would be different, but that doesn't mean I can't find them, leave that to me :wink1:

 

I would just like to see how your song is organised and the notes in your composition.

 

Having sounds in a song is of no use if you can't organise those sounds, because if you can't you produce noise and not a song :wink1: :D

 

"You" refers to everyone who tries to make music in FL Studio and finds it a bit difficult to start (like me :D)

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So, no flp. s coming in, right? :P

 

You just can't imagine what a lot of FREE VSTs exists out there! And many are pro-quality ones. I've been used to my keyboard and FL Studio interface, so now I just need inspiration...

 

Damn, I've made two spooky piano themes and 1 beat, but it seems I can't implement them in a song. doh :P

 

Last but not least, I can't remake the score of John Broomhall's Dogfight song! Got any ideas?

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