musician wanted for KS level

OK, Razzorman gets the canopy. The main section of the canopy will be cut off from the forest floor. It will play somewhat like a maze. I may or may not use the bird objects, it'll depend on how lighthearted the music is. (I think the birds are a bit silly looking, and their sizes compared to Juni are comical.)

I want someone to step forward and compose the theme. This is how I want to approach it:
1.)A melody is created. It'll help if it can stand on it's own. Example.
2.)Then that melody is used to construct one or two other songs for the level. Example. (I think this sample track is too forward. The percussion is too loud.)
3.)A crescendo version is created as a lead in to the final boss fight. Example. No that isn't based on the original song. It shows the feel I want. This is one track that can come forward and fill the soundscape.
I want to use the theme or one of it's variation in the City.
Whoever makes this doesn't need to worry about the variations on the theme. That will come later and not necessarily by you. (Examples 1 and 2 are by different artists.) But, step 1 needs completion so we can decide what areas to make variations for.

Thanks

Something like this would be perfect for the ice caverns, Example. It's a little too forward and possibly a little too fast, but it would work as is.

This bump is to let everyone know I've been working on this steadily. Also I want to issue a new musical challenge. The game is going to open with something like a dream sequence. It's going to have a very Mario feel to it. There wont be any text or challenge (other than a few jumps.) It'll start out very happy and get progressively sinister. It'll end abruptly.

Musically, I want the same effect. The tricky part is having the music change as the player progresses. The timing will vary from person to person. Also, if a player heads backwards for some reason, the music should cheer up. I was thinking we might be able to create a base rhythm that plays as the music track and then put happy, tense, and sinister overlays in an Ambi slot. This may not work at all, because there's no way to control the timing of the Ambi tracks. The overlaying tracks would have to work with the base track on beat, off beat, and everywhere in between.

So, if someone is intrigued by this prospect, even someone I've not heard from yet, then please volunteer to do this. I also want to add that the music can be as forward as it needs to be, since this section is of low challenge and is all about the sights and sounds. It can have a sound all of it's own just as it has a look that varys dramatically from the rest of the game.

Bump to let you know I haven't been working on this steadily. I've only been able to create around 2½ minutes of music for the canopy.
Sorry for being inactive for so long. I'm going to get my stuff together and try to work on this less sporadically than before though.

I'm sorry if I've seemed uninterested or something.

Musically, I want the same effect. The tricky part is having the music change as the player progresses. The timing will vary from person to person. Also, if a player heads backwards for some reason, the music should cheer up. I was thinking we might be able to create a base rhythm that plays as the music track and then put happy, tense, and sinister overlays in an Ambi slot. This may not work at all, because there's no way to control the timing of the Ambi tracks. The overlaying tracks would have to work with the base track on beat, off beat, and everywhere in between.

That could be a little bit tricky to produce. I've barely touched on chiptunes (even though I have a ton of 8-bit samples ), but unless somebody else wants to do it, I'll give it a try.

It would be awesome if you could work on the dream sequence Razzorman. I haven't been getting much participation from this community, so I'm considering going to outside forums for collaborators. The dream sequence musician though would almost have to be a Nifforumite to understand the game mechanics.

I did sidetrack myself with a small level during May, but I'll be back on this project soon. I finally worked out the complete story board, world map, and game logic. (Since there is such a limited amount of flags to work with, I have to make a lot of critical design decisions beforehand.) There are some story details to work out, but the planning is complete. Tilesets are about half finished, maybe a third finished. I've planned to go all out with custom tilesets from the beginning.

I'm glad I made Shipwrecked in May, which was a test game for animated sequences. People reacted badly to the glitchy behavior of them. It can be done convincingly, but not to the magnitude seen in that level. Also, they exclude the small but present KSDS community.

Edit June 11, 2010: Added new screen shots. First is an early look at the frozen area. Second is the current appearance of the burrows.

Alright. To avoid confusion and wasting time, I think we should agree on who makes what.
I'd like to make something for the treetop labyrinth looking area, but I'd be fine with making some cave music too.

Good point!

Any update on what kind of areas are going to be included so? Some idea that's been added or dumped since the original post?

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I think i can cut it for the city-like environments, especially the sewers, but instead of referring to some online file that feels irrelevant (most music i've done is part of different bands or web show jingles or such, not appropriate). Instead, i'll try to compose a draft and see if you think i have the potential. I'll be right back as soon as possible.

All the areas mentioned in the original post will still be included. Areas I haven't mentioned are the Moon, Juni's homeland (which is similar to "Not Desert" Tileset), a lab, and the sea floor. The temples I mentioned will have elemental themes; fire, wind, water/ice, and Earth.

I'll send you a PM with tons of info if you want it.

So far, only the canopy and dream sequence are claimed by a musician.

Please go ahead, the more info i have, the more likely it is that it can put out something useful.

This is going to be a massive level, that's absolutely clear. Lots of varied places and therefore the need of pretty many background scores.

For any musician and/or composer who feels a bit intimidated to jump on the train, here's a few general tips for making music for this level:

General tips on using reverb:
A good way, both in game bgms and movie scores, is to work with subtle amounts of reverb to place the song where it belongs, namely not in the centre of focus. You want to avoid cheap linear and semi-linear reverbs as they sound horrible in almost every context. Spring and plate reverbs can be hard to put to good use for this, too, if not handled carefully. Aim for impulse reverbs or other physical modelling reverbs if you have CPU and economy for it. There are reverbs dedicated to put on the master channel in your DAW environment.
Depending on if the scene is outdoors/indoors, you might want to fiddle around a bit with the early reflections/reverb tail mix ratio. And remember, don't forget to be subtle when working on the master channel.

Making percussion, drums and other attention grabbing sounds have less impact (a few ways to handle it):
-first, see if you can reduce the amount of notes played.
-diminish the percussive sounds relevance by cutting them thinner with an equalizer
-if the base material is too punchy, and you don't want to alter it with eq, you can always flatten sounds a good bit with your favourite compressor by adjusting attack and release values (which is quite the opposite what you normally do with a compressor, if you are making, for example, rock music or house).
-once again, reverbs, in the right amount, puts drums on a distance.

Other tips:
-Don't overuse pan effects. In fact, don't aim for too much effects at all, as they possibly can steal attention from the game too much.
-Aim for a few chords, ambience or melody lines that aren't too messy, but still can be recognized upon hearing a second time.
-Sounds that stick out of the picture have a tendency to grab attention. This is background music, therefore, this is probably undesireable.
-effects which emulates spatial environments can be of good use as an addition, especially if all else fails for some reason but you still feel the music in itself is right.

EDIT: Feel free to come up with more tips and i put them here, or ask me if anything is unclear regarding this post.

As for the intro dream score, i'm no good at 80s video game retroism, but i'm almost sure i could make a few ambient lines to make an already existing mario-esque bgm get creepy. it is kind of my thing to do creepy sounding synth sounds.

Razzorman said he'd work on the dream sequence. That doesn't have to be 8-bit. The 8-bit music I want is for something else, and it has very little to do with the main story. It's one of the few things I wont talk about publicly.

Stinktier has volunteered to do the sewers, grave yard, and lab music for starters. And, I'm glad to have him on board. I barely even understand what he said 2 posts ago which exemplifies that it was a good idea to ask for help with music.

@Stinktier: Watch the double posting. If you're the last to post in a thread and you want to add something, use the edit or modify features. I believe it's OK to double post if it's been a week or more since your last post, but bumping for the sake of bumping is severely frowned on here. Just wanted you to know. :)

Edit: I was not implying you were bumping for the sake of bumping.

Ah, I'm sorry, it wasn't meant that way. I simply wanted to keep the different kinds of info in separate posts, but now I see how this can be inpractical and annoying for other forum users. Will avoid it in the future. And thanks for letting me know.

EDIT: (see, I'm learning!) As for the game intro music (once again), I forgot to clarify that my proposal in the previous post wasn't meant to claim Razzorman's working field, but more to let him know that I am open to cooperate and contribute, should that be needed or desired from himself.