[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.
Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood

Comments

  • I approve this challenge!

    Let's get a deadline in place. Are we going to do some non-monetary reward judging?
  • Rad :D How about Monday 24th June? That will give us 2 weekends, excluding this one.
    What do you have in mind for judging?
  • Awesome, I'll try get right on this when work allows
  • I've been waking up with tunes in my head, and been putting them down (really craply) on Garage Band on my iPad even before getting out of bed. It's been a really interesting exercise, especially considering the most I actually know about music is kareoke :)
    Thanked by 1hanli
  • I have yet to have any spare time to work on this challenge. I am going to do my best to do it this weekend...!!! Work be damned!!!
  • @Tuism That's how it starts! Next you will be learning the keyboard ;)

    @Tim_Harbour Same here... We might have to extend the "deadline", but I will try get it done this weekend too.
  • edited
    Hey guys, been lurking on the forums for a while (came here via LegionInk) and this challenge caught my attention in particular, looked like a really fun idea!

    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!):


  • @Gibbo Thats really cool! Well done :) You really captured the asian/sumo wrestling sound with a sort of clumsy circus feel to it. :D
  • @creative630 Thanks man, I normally like doing more dramatic music but was great to work with a lighthearted theme :)
  • I've been a classical violinist and pianist for most of my life, but I've pretty much never touched digital composing software.

    I have no idea where to start. :<
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • edited
    It can be quite daunting at first... the only advice I can give is to just DO. Obviously I'm still learning but the only way I broke the barrier to do anything was to just decide on a program and commit to making something from it in an amount of time. Pretty much the same deal as getting into game dev.

    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.
    Thanked by 1Elyaradine
  • Elyaradine said:
    I've been a classical violinist and pianist for most of my life, but I've pretty much never touched digital composing software.

    I have no idea where to start. :<
    Dude!!!!! A violinist AND a pianist!! OMG!!! I wish I could play instruments. You should TOTALLY get yourself GarageBand for your iPad, it's very powerful if you know what you're doing (it can arrange stuff AND gives you a keyboard to play and record AND has a bunch of instruments and stuff)

    That's what I'm messing about in, and I'm not even anywhere musically inclined XD
    Thanked by 1Elyaradine
  • edited
    Elyaradine 11:55AM
    I've been a classical violinist and pianist for most of my life, but I've pretty much never touched digital composing software.

    I have no idea where to start. :<
    Heh yeah I know what you mean, also came from a traditional classical background with violin, piano, guitar and singing while at school. Until Ben recommended I try out Ableton I had otherwise only had a little experience playing around in programs like Madtracker and FruityLoops which was clunky and not particularly rewarding.

    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)
    Thanked by 1Elyaradine
  • edited
    @Gibbo Dude! That track is brilliant! I think it's far far better than the actual Sumo Tori Dreams music.

    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!
  • @BlackShipsFilltheSky Thanks for the feedback dude, and for suggesting this bizarre game!

    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) :)
  • Almost there... it won't be in time, but I am still working on my entry!
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • Looking forward to it!!!
  • I still have yet to do any work on this been very busy ;/ apologies but I am going to try on work on something for next week.

    Love the new Sumo Tori track @Gibbo :D sounds great!
  • edited
    Ok I finally finished, here is my entry:



    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?
    Thanked by 1Tim_Harbour
  • Nice one dude! Really got across the Villain sound! :D I'm just touching up my piece and gonna upload it now now. :D I struggled to use Ableton for this one cos the video lagged so much, but it doesn't in Cubase...weird ;/ ... Kk..let me get this up!
  • Anyone know how to convert .mp4 to .mov....struggling trying to export my project cos cubase will only replace audio in an mov file...or is there a 3rd party program i can use to add audio to a vid? Let me know guys...track is done, just waiting to upload.


  • Ok I managed... :P It ends rather abuptly...should've left a bar after the vid :P Soz!
    Thanked by 1creative630
  • @creative630 & @Tim_Harbour

    Rad stuff guys, really fits well with the visuals! Can I ask what plugins you used with Ableton?
  • edited
    Thanks @Tim_Harbour and @Gibbo

    @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.
  • edited
    @Tim_Harbour Forgot to add, I just listened yours. Its really really great, a rad dark almost sci-fi sounding thing going on :) I'm also curious to hear what plugins you both used.
  • Really dig all you guys's musical talents being shown here :D
  • @creative630 Cool thanks, will check out Chipsounds!

    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.
  • @Gibbo awesome, thanks.

    @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!
  • @ Gibbo Um I ended up using Cubase instead of Ableton (which is the program I normally use) cos the video seemed to run smoother in Cubase. I used Albino plugin for most of the sounds I used, and I used mostly arpegiators, it's kinda been my thing recently. Also made the bass with massive and dropped some dubmaster liquid delay on some of the drums...the drums are just sourced out of the samples I have lying around on my pc.

    This was a rad little experience guys! We must do this more! :D :) :D
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