Home Away From Here Finished Cut

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Hidden Depth Games Freelancing

Last semester I posted about my collaboration with a games designer and detailed how I created the songs for his games. I have continued to work with him this year, managing to sell our first game to a French E-sports website for $500, of which I get a 20% cut.

The game in question was featured on here last semester, however after a month away from the project Rob changed the gameplay style which in turn necessitated a more upbeat track.

 Though I did try increasing the BPM of the original song, I wanted to use the opportunity to start from scratch and improve my skills with a new challenge, with this being the end result:


 

The catalyst for the creation of this song came from the arpeggiated bass line. With a resolution set to 1/16 I noticed it bore great resemblance to Bloc Party's 'Flux'

The way I ended up using drums and a filter sweep in the intro also mirror's that song a great deal, but I wanted the similarities to end there.

To achieve that effect I created a filter sweep by setting the ES2 Synthesizer to generate white noise, and assigned the cut-off to a physical dial on my midi keyboard.

 I also applied Space designer for reverb, a little sample delay and some overdrive to to sweeten up the sound. I then ran the main output channel through a Low pass filter in the EQ that gradually releases until the rest of the song kicks in. Finally there is an arpeggiated snare roll with a resolution of 1/32 that I did a rapid EQ filter trick on evidenced in these screen grabs.

I wanted the piece to be fun and uplifting, and I think the timbre of the instrumentation works in favour of this. I wanted to evoke the feeling of wonderment I remembered having as a child when I played the Rainbow Road level on Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64, a cosmic course with a befitting soundtrack that seemed to stretch on forever with neon outlines of the characters illuminating the sky.

also here is an a cappella version I stumbled upon, because, wow.

Also included is a sample of an inspiring speech given by Bruce Lee in the hopes that his sage words wlil improve the players performance. Like Water.

As mentioned before I like the blend of instrumentation, from the simple ostinato played through a slightly phased sculpture synth, to the buzz synth lead melody, with additional chord stabs on a bright bell sphere pad and a second legato melody that repeats every few bars.

The song breaks down before fading out at the end, which was not my original intension. I had wanted the breakdown to build back into a final section that combined all previous melodies and then some, however at the time of sale I was away in production for HAFH and did not have time to make any final adjustments so the demo version was used. Give yourself a break and play it here:

http://www.eclypsia.com/en/arcade/scubz-2

A big inspiration for this genre is Teen Daze, who weaves captivating synth textures to create lucid atmospheres that remind of space.  He puts on an enthralling live performance that I was lucky enough to see at Bungalows and Bears, with some of the crowd relaxing in chairs with their eyes closed and others fixated on him operating his control pad.

Squared

Squared is touted as a '4 Player brawler that focuses on mind games and cat and mouse gameplay'.
The aim is to jump on top of another players square, with the map designed to spit you out on the opposite side should you exit the screen.



Rob already had some simple stock music in place that was calm and a counterpoint to the action on screen, but it worked well so I wrote a song in a similar vein.

Using only one instrument, I ran the sculpture through an arpeggiator with a range of 3 octaves and a random directional pattern, allowing me to simply hold a note and let the notes generate themselves.

As the song progresses I gradually automated the wet signal on Space Designer whilst  automating a change in the material sound of the synth from nylon to steel which makes it more atmospheric as harmonising notes are introduced and the scale expands. It has the kind of 80's feel to it i sought to emulate.

The music works with the softly glowing lights, and underpins the action without being distracting.
The problem with the game is that it requires 4 players on the same computer, ideally with control pads which is unlikely to be very common so there is a very limited market for it.

The sale of 'Scubz' and their reception to the music for it has been a welcome boost in confidence for freelance work. Though it is hardly enough to be sustainable it is very rewarding to make some money from a hobby I enjoyed doing anyway. I look forward to our continued partnership and hope we can expand on a range of games available for anyone to play.

HAFH How it's Made: Foley, fruit and FX

Alas poor Yorick...

There are a number of gruesome torture acts committed in the film, and to recreate these uncomfortable sounds I turned to various food stuffs in place of finding a human volunteer. I first dabbled in fruit mauling when working on A Short Story in Brutality (Deakin, J. 2013) last year, which featured a brutal beating. As a non-synced piece that had linear sound whilst the video reversed from the end of the narrative's events, it was important that these effects had maximum impact and left a vivid image in the audiences minds. Here is a video of my first experimentations to create that drubbing effect.

The resulting sounds effects, after some processing, have been a very useful addition to my library and have been used multiple times in various projects, especially the banana squish which is a gift that keeps on giving.  It is perhaps a telling sign that their recycled use is an indicator of the types of film i gravitate towards, however this particular project required me to up my game and gather a new array of sonic hurts (get it!?).

Ric Viers (2009, p.263) notes 'Fruits and vegetables can offer a plethora of sounds to work with: breaks, crunches, dull body sounds, juicy impacts, slimey movements, textures, and more. You can use them to sweeten other sounds, layer them to get juicy hits and impacts', and whilst this is somewhat stating the obvious, he did offer some good techniques to capture the most tantalising sounds.
The following video is a testament to my skills as a cinematographer/editor, but it is also hopefully an insight into my working mechanisms when creating sound.

Equipment:

Mic: Senheisser 416

Recorder: Zoom h4n

Mixer: Wendt/SQN

Med. Mic Stand
Shot on: Flip Cam, Phone.

After wrapping our final scene in the basement I wanted to make use of the authentic location and take advantage of the props on hand. The obtained the other effects fairly shortly afterwards as they would be an integral asset of the film and I was keen to get them in place as soon as possible. The general procedure would be to highlight the most delicious elements and layer them to illustrate the most graphic interpretation possible in the Pro tools timeline, and then export the combination, apply some EQ to accentuate the frequencies around 2.00-6.00hz in Soundtrack Pro for a sharpened squeamish effect, and then re-paste it back into the Pro Tools Project as one clip.

The combinations were a necessity, as alone the effects sound lacklustre, for example to bring the finger nail removal to life I used pliers on a thin piece of wood, the bone of a sheep skull that was on hand, and underpinned it with the squishing of banana and melon skin. I found chocolate to be a preferable substitute for soap when forcing it into my mouth, yet the similar consistency made for a satisfactory sound as it scraped my teeth and reverberated in my gob. The closest recreation had to come in the form of the face carving, re-using the pork leg we had made a prop thigh out of and dragging a blade across it (the genetic structure of pork is the same as human meat after all).

Taking a leaf out of Hannibal's cookbook, it also made for a delicious communal dinner that night after wrapping!

I had always intended on using a melon for their versatility in recreating pulped sounds, but did not consider using a cabbage until watching Berbarian Sound Studio (Strickland, P. 2012), and wanted to try it out in honour of this sequence, but again alone it was insufficient and had to be combined with other melon and banana sounds.

Whilst at the Matlock set I also ensured to record foley of everything in the room in the evening after shooting, with the rope tying being of particular importance to heighten the discomfort of it scratching against wrists.  For the body fall that occurs after Tabatha's head smashes against the cabinet I had the director drop onto his back several times, partially for authenticity, and partly for my own amusement. He had after all put the lead actor through a string of agonising shooting conditions, so I feel it was important in improving his empathic methodology when commanding a performance.



I provided Steve McCaig with my melon and banana effects to make the impacts of the fight scene in March Before the Rain (Beattie, 2014) a little juicier. He did well to use them subtly so as not to detract from the realism of that film.

Viers, R. 2008. The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects, Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions, p.263)

Expanding my studio

For  My professional practice research report I inventoried the cost of going freelance in sound, sourcing the bare basics of kit I would need to either record or design sound or do both.

Not everything on there would be essential, and I imagine if I bought the recording kit it would soon pay for itself as I would often be hired on the basis of owning kit. 

It is the design side I enjoy more however so I think my next Item of purchase will be in that vein. 

The ableton push strongly appeals. I've been hoping to move from Logic to Ableton for sometime, as it is much more intuitive for experimenting with its live functions.