Soundtrack Completion

This thread will serve to keep track of the finalized list of music for the game. Here themes can be posted, and those that are accepted will be added to the main list. This thread will also be used to make requests for themes, with parameters for length, mood, texture, dynamics, etc. All music approved on this thread should have a download link to a .ogg file type - this file type is supported by the code and is compressed so it takes up less space. This will allow programmers to download the approved music for the stage/scenario and add it to the game build.

Understand that any criticism that is offered on this thread is for the purpose of improving the music, so don't take it the wrong way. If there is something that needs improvement, we will let you know.

Main Menu Themes


This position is filled the two Main Themes by default, but the current plan is to allow the player to 'unlock' music as they progress through the game and then be able to specify which they want to listen to while on the main menu.

Spoiler:

Loading Themes


These themes will play while the environment for the stage at the last save point is loading. Only a small amount (~3) are needed, but all must ideally have a similar feel to the gameplay themes and be around a minute in length. However, in contrast to the gameplay themes, these may have a faster tempo involving repeating or subtly varying scales. Dynamics may also be slightly louder, while the texture should be predominantly layered with a few instruments, possibly with more coming in throughout the theme to create variation. As with the rest of the microbe themes, almost all instruments used must be mild synthesizers (quasi-synth sounds such as electric pianos and distorted guitars may also be added).

Spoiler:

Microbe Gameplay Themes


Gameplay themes will comprise the bulk of the microbe stage's music, playing in the background along with ambient water noises as the player guides their microbe through the environment. They will, therefore, be required to be soothing, slow, flowing and largely quiet. Most will involve several layers of pad synthesizers with no discernible melodic hook other than possibly a chord sequence. High texture is a must, if only during some sections of a theme once it has built up significantly. Length can vary anywhere between four minutes and fifteen, but whatever lengths individual themes have, they must in total equal around about an hour and a half of music to prevent the player becoming bored of repeating themes. In terms of emotion and style, most should feel intimate (which can be achieved by using quiet sounds with high reverb) and solemn .

Spoiler:

Microbe Editor Themes


While editor themes will include many of the same musical features as gameplay themes, the main difference is that they can include melodic hooks rather than heavy layers of pads. Instruments such as bells, organs and guitars may also be used. This is because the editor will likely require less attentiveness from the player - rather than thinking quickly to evade a predator or reach somewhere, most thought in the editor will be longer and more relaxed as the player considers how best to build their microbe. As a result, more complex music can be included as the player can effectively no longer be distracted so much. Apart from a larger variety of instruments, everything else can pretty much be kept the same for editor themes as those for gameplay. In total, around three quarters of an hour's worth of music is required.

Spoiler:

Microbe Ambience


Although strictly speaking the ambient noise for the microbe stage doesn't come under music, for now both tasks have been merged into one, as the hope is for them to be complimentary. Background ambience will mostly consist of water-like sounds - bubbles, the sound of flowing water and other dampened noises to give a feeling of suppressed underwater sound. While most music composition skills aren't needed, the eventual sound of the ambience must feel similar to that of the actual themes (slow, flowing, graceful, haunting). Sounds may be found on the internet (provided they are COMPLETELY free of copyright) or recorded yourself if you have the necessary apparatus, but must be mixed together to create long, gradually varying loops of sound around ten minutes long. Only one or two tracks are needed.

Spoiler:

Opening Cutscene Theme


The length and progression of the opening cutscene theme is dictated by the cutscene itself, which at the moment is Cheese's awesome tour of a DNA strand. For the moment there is no more work to be done here, as my theme has already filled this slot, but should a new cutscene be created at some point in the future (which is highly likely), we'll need another, longer version.

Spoiler:

Okay this thread is now open for use. If you want to submit a theme, post it here, or if you think we are specifically missing any themes we can discuss making some requests.

This is amazing! Thank you so much for this list!

I'll get the download links to those I have the files for up and running somewhere (probably Dropbox) pretty soon. Anyone else with access to one of the themes listed as a .wav or .ogg file can post the download link here and I'll update the OP. Try and keep music discussion here confined to the microbe stage, although once we're happy with the track list we can move on to multicellular.

How will one of us know which tracks have been selected for use, so that way we know which to upload as .wav's and link.

I'll add them to the list above, so any composer who sees their theme mentioned there will have to upload the file somewhere. If you're wondering about your new theme, I'd wait a little to see what other people think first, just to make sure everyone's happy with it.

Will Thrive Theme v6 be included as a selected main menu track?

Since the v7 includes all of the v6 and more, probably not.

I've updated the OP to include microbe ambience, something that has mostly been neglected until now but will ultimately compliment the music. Also, I'd like to request that composers, at least for the time being, refrain from creating anything other than the theme types listed above. Others will be accepted if they are of high enough quality, but the vast majority of the composition effort should go towards music for the current stage. So, to put it plainly and make it stand out . . .

CURRENT MUSIC TASK: MICROBE STAGE THEMES

New themes still have to be posted to this thread, but those approved will be added to the OP here. I've also removed all those themes pending copyright claims from the list and rejigged the version numbering accordingly - when referring to any of the themes, please use the version number (v1, v2, etc.) posted above to identify them.

I have updated the OP with download links for all the themes I have access to. Each section (bar the ambience section for which nothing has yet been composed) now has at least one theme, so programmers can now download them and add them to the current build. For other composers, try and get your themes uploaded somewhere as well within the next few weeks and post the link on this thread - if there are any themes from the list above still missing afterwards, I might be able to find some way to download the audio from YouTube videos.

https://soundcloud.com/outwardofficial/thrive-loading-theme-v2/s-A03zt

Here ya go sir :D.

I think only .wav and .ogg files are compatible with the code's sound system. Would it be possible for you to upload it somewhere in that format? If not, I can download and convert the .mp3 and upload it as a .wav for you.

Here's the track uploaded in .wav

https://soundcloud.com/outwardofficial/thrive-loading-theme-v2-1/s-6lkOU

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. We need a version of that .wav file uploaded somewhere where others can download it themselves (those uploaded so far, for instance, are on Dropbox).

I've started adding download links for the rest of the microbe themes, although one in particular I'm having second thoughts about. The Microbe Gameplay Theme v2 (highlighted red in the list), one of Doggit's actual themes, doesn't sound very good in my opinion. The bass is far too heavy and the wahwah far too fast, combining to create a completely unnerving sound, completely opposite to what we actually want for the microbe stage's music (the vibrations are so bad, in fact, that I could swear my head started vibrating towards the end of listening to it). I tried several techniques to remove it, but it's either beyond my capability or not possible without completely changing the theme, so I propose it's removed from the list. What does everyone else think?

Also, I've attempted to create some sort of pseudo-code for the implementation of music. Here's an example for the loading screen themes which should illustrate how it will work:

Code:

If (Game state = Loading screen)

   Fade out any music playing already
   Generate random number between 1 and 3
   Previous = 0

   If (Random number = 1 and previous != 1)
      Play Microbe Loading Screen v1
      Wait 1 min 33 sec (unless game state != Loading screen part way through)
      Previous = 1

   If (Random number = 2 and previous != 2)
      Play Microbe Loading Screen v2
      Wait 1 min 28 sec (unless game state != Loading screen part way through)
      Previous = 2

   If (Previous != 3)
      Play Microbe Loading Screen v3
      Wait 2 min 4 sec (unless game state != Loading screen part way through)
      Previous = 3

   Else
      Generate random number between 1 and 3
      Return to first if statement

   Repeat until game state != Loading screen

Now this is probably the worst programming 'grammar' the programmers have ever seen, but it should get my point across - a theme is randomly chosen from the batch for that game state, it plays its length and then another theme is chosen until the game state changes, at which point it fades out.

Crovea (or any of the other coders), how close do you think you are to being able to add the music to the current build?

Good work on getting started on that. I agree that that song should be removed. I think it sounds more fitting for a creepy/scary game's ambient music. Also, I think the sound quality is not very good.

Oliveriver wrote:

Now this is probably the worst programming 'grammar' the programmers have ever seen

I had a few chuckles but I think I understand it. However, it would probably be easier to just explain it in plain english :PI have to convert that to plain english first anyway!
It seems the idea simply is the we continuously play the appropriate music while fading out and back in whenever we need to switch track (a song ending or the gamestate changing) without ofc repeating the same track.

If you check github I actually just did some work on sound this morning!
Nimbal have had sound working for a long long time but it has only been for linux and until about 2 months ago it wasn't up to date with the other code. He updated it, just before the christmas prototype was due, to be compatible with our current codebase but it's still only for linux. I tried earlier today, again, to get it to work on windows with the new knowledge I've acquired from working with Daniferrito on the gui libraries and made progress but it's not quite working yet. I'll give it a little time to soften up in my mind, try again and if I can't figure it out I will contact Nimbal or Dan to help me out with the build system parts.

I was going for something a little more concrete and objective than just a vague explanation, but it seems that completely backfired! What you said is the basic gist of it, so I don't really need to explain anything else. If you can get the sound sorted soon, that would be great, although I've seen what you wrote on Github about it so I understand the problem. When you are able to add sound, you can download the themes from the links in the original post.

And Nick, in that case I'll remove that theme from the list. If Doggit returns any time soon I'll ask whether he can change it, but if not we have enough other music that it shouldn't really matter.

I am glad that we are expanding our list of songs, but I would like to know why my theme version 3 was discarded. :) 

I've replied to your message in the Skype chat. It's basically just too disturbing for what should be a slow (but still haunting) microbe theme.

A quick question/discussion point:

Microbe gameplay themes 1 and 7 for fades in slowly while theme 3 and 5 start more abruptly.
Now do we always want a fade-in? In that case I can easily make the engine handle the fade-in for all songs, or should it be up to each song how it makes its introduction and the engine just plays the songs straight up?

Edit:
I guess the same question applies to fading-out of songs, I had just taken for granted that the engine should fade songs out.

All the gameplay themes so far fade in and out to some extent, so a forced fade may not be needed. As far as I'm concerned, the themes should be able to stand alone as pieces with definite beginnings and ends shown by the fades added in audio editing rather than the game engine.

And, the engine then has 1 less thing to handle.
Which would mean a (minimal) fps increase.

I've decided to get to work collating all approved themes into a single video to add to the Revolutionary Games channel. From the above the list, the only themes that won't be included are the Gameplay Themes v2 and v8 (for reasons already discussed), and both Main Themes - they'll probably be uploaded separately, as they're associated with all game stages rather than just microbe. I've created a preliminary version running to 1 hour 3 minutes (including credits), although I'll wait a few days before doing anything with it as others may want their say.

As a result, I'm assuming that composing for the microbe stage is pretty much done. Sound effects and ambience are the next tasks. Ambience is described in the OP, although I'm not entirely sure what other sounds are needed. Are there going to be the sounds of microbes colliding, for example? Do we need clicks, delete, add and completion sounds or jingles for the editor?

The soundtrack video's now up: