[Challenge] First sound design project
Hi everyone,
As discussed in this thread, we would like to start a simple sound design challenge.
The aim of the challenge is to provide sound effects, music or both for a video clip from a game, kinda like this.
Feel free to use your own clips, but I think it will be fun to all use the same clips and to see the different results.
Here are a few clips that you can use:
A clip of Sumotori Dreams suggested by @BlackShipsFilltheSky
A shorter clip of Sumotori Dreams that I quickly made, in 480p and 720p.
A clip of Monaco that I made, in 480p and 720p.
As discussed in this thread, we would like to start a simple sound design challenge.
The aim of the challenge is to provide sound effects, music or both for a video clip from a game, kinda like this.
Feel free to use your own clips, but I think it will be fun to all use the same clips and to see the different results.
Here are a few clips that you can use:
A clip of Sumotori Dreams suggested by @BlackShipsFilltheSky
A shorter clip of Sumotori Dreams that I quickly made, in 480p and 720p.
A clip of Monaco that I made, in 480p and 720p.
Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
Comments
Let's get a deadline in place. Are we going to do some non-monetary reward judging?
What do you have in mind for judging?
@Tim_Harbour Same here... We might have to extend the "deadline", but I will try get it done this weekend too.
I'm fairly new to digital composing (via Ableton) so this may sound a little rough, but here's my creation for the Sumotori clip (thanks for making the clips creative630!):
I have no idea where to start. :<
So here is a handy list from pixel prospector for music software. From the list try Otomata first and see how things go :)
Also try January by disasterpiece (Richard Vreeland).
[Edit:] I should probably mention I'm going to be using Ableton Live like @Gibbo.
That's what I'm messing about in, and I'm not even anywhere musically inclined XD
I would go with @creative630's suggestion (and if you have an iPad can't hurt to try Garageband as Tuism points out) and find what works for you. It helps to play with different types of software so you can compare the strengths and weaknesses of each. I'm loving Ableton since it's really intuitive once you get over the initial learning curve, particularly the way they deal with writing each note into a track (or recording as you play if you've got a good keyboard)
It's still funny, like the Sumo Tori Dreams music. It lets the players know that they're doing something kind of silly. But it's less cheesy than the original music, it even kind of has this super serious traditional vibe. And I think that'd make it even funnier to play the game, contrasting the vaguely authentic sumo music with totally ridiculous sumo fighting.
I don't think Sumo Tori Dreams is in development at all (although there have been updates now and then I think)... but I wouldn't be surprised if they would be keen to use this music in the game.
As far as criticisms go... Like you said, it is kind of rough. I think it just needs a bit of time in the mastering and fixing/adding details ... and that's unnecessary for the challenge I'd think. Though maybe if it had the gameplay sound effects with it the it'd sound right. In any case, the concept is kind of perfect.
I think I'd suggest testing how downplaying some of the more comedic elements (I think there is a tuba type instrument in there), affects the mood. I think the vocal touches communicate to the player that "this is indeed a comedy" fine... and if the rest of the music were more serious it might contrast with the gameplay even more... Although... it might make the music too serious and not communicate the "it's okay to be silly now" message if it sounded more serious. Not sure if I'm suggesting anything you haven't already tried./..
Yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwoooooooooooh!
The 'sumo' aspect was influenced by traditional instruments used in Kabuki theatre, which is apparently meant to be dramatic even though the sounds are quite humorous (such as the yaaawooohh, sampled from a Kabuki vid on Youtube) :)
Love the new Sumo Tori track @Gibbo :D sounds great!
I eventually gave up because Ableton kept forgetting my settings for the chipsounds plugin (for every chipsounds track I used... so annoying!!!!) and I kept redoing what I had already done :(
I found this quite hard because I wanted to portray so much in such a short space of time. I wanted to try have a cheesy-villain music theme as well as a badass chase music section. Let me know what you think?
Ok I managed... :P It ends rather abuptly...should've left a bar after the vid :P Soz!
Rad stuff guys, really fits well with the visuals! Can I ask what plugins you used with Ableton?
@Tim_Harbour I forgot to mention that I converted the .mp4 with h.264 codec to actual .mp4 containing the mpeg4 codec, which made recording in ableton much much easier. I just used the opensource program Handbrake to do that.
@Gibbo I only used the chipsounds plugin, I've heard there are free alternatives which are quite good but chipsounds emulates a huge amount of chips from old school gaming systems.
I mainly make use of sample libraries and synths - can definitely recommend checking out the detailed (and free!) sample library Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra: SONATINA
Kyle Gabler (World of Goo, Little Inferno) apparently makes use of this library for some of his stuff.
@Tuism Thanks :) you should join in with adding sound effects to a clip if you're too intimidated to do music. The more fun the merrier!
This was a rad little experience guys! We must do this more! :D :) :D