Sound Design & Music

[Draconisaurus]

Alright this is the official thread to discuss music and sound design for JPDS1. I'm actually handling basically all sound design inside the level.. if anyone has suggestions/samples for new sounds to be added, by all means bring them up here. Hmmmm if anyone thinks they can become familiar with the various available "audio environments" and the use of such scripting in TresEd, that would be quite helpful. Otherwise I will have to go in later and hop around the retail levels/TC_Isle to see how they work. Actually I'll be using JPDS~testing a bit for that... Anyway, this thread should also be used for any discussion of music in JPDS. Mike (who can perhaps type up a post with more info) got in contact with a composer for us named Jon, who's IM I still have in MSN, however we haven't contacted him since probably last summer.. or earlier. It's been a whlile. Hopefully we can wrangle him up again when we're ready.. at the time, he asked us for more images to base his music on, and an idea for how much music he would be composing. Since we couldn't realistically provide either for him at the time.. we entered a sort of ongoing "we'll get back to you on that" status. It also seems SI has some music we could use, so we'll have to see what's up with that.


EDIT: post 1666, w000t

[Second Illiteration]

Yeah I'll move them from my computer to this one and get them up here soon.

Some would probably sound better than others...basically I tried composing full tracks so a couple are like 4 minutes, so some parts would be cut and could be used for two different places or whatever.

[Second Illiteration]

http://rapidshare.com/files/23393638/So ... s.rar.html

[Draconisaurus]

SI, I've been listening to those all night while modelling this new acacia tree... great music, seriously. I think some wouldn't quite go into JPDS, however I particularly like Soundtrack 7 and would love to have a loopable version of it.. which (judging by how it sounds) shouldn't be too hard to pull off? At any rate it's a nice risky/dangerous, exploration/mystery sounding piece.. not for example something to put in the EA, but very appropriate for a jungle or forest setting. I'd like to hear Mike's opinion - one of the only things I'm afraid of is pace. You notice that in Trespasser, the "forest walk" type music pieces (the IJ ambience, all those) have a fairly slow beat, since they're not intended to play during any dino attacks, and then during certain dino attacks, there is special high-paced music that plays. What would be BEST for a game like this is to have base tracks for certain areas with low pace music approrpiate to the setting, then have looping action music fade in at specified locations, OR stop the main ambience music and play a specific action music track, then resume the regular ambience once the track is finished. I may not have worded that perfectly but maybe you get the idea.. I've played quite a few games by now and listened to how they treat repeating and non-repeating music. So yeah.. we'll have some more discussions on this. So I guess, right now my request is a looping version of that piece, and some new music (no rush, really..) that's slower paced and perhaps without the tone of imminent danger. A game like.. the JP sega games for example. There are constantly dinosaurs coming at you from all sides, and you're jumping up and down and around - that sort of thing just doesn't happen in Tres, nor in JPDS1. The emphasis is on exploration. The thing is that Tres handled this by having only single-play music tracks at given locations, while I'd like to get us some looping ambience music. Hmmm keep in mind there is that final "boss" of 3 attacking Megaraps after you get through the EA puzzles. We could definately use some high-paced danger/action loop-music for that.

[Second Illiteration]

Here's my suggestions for some of the songs...

TRACK 3:

[1:54 - 2:43]
I think this piece would be ideal for when the player reaches the EA. If you watch JP3 or listen to the soundtrack, you notice that there is a very suspenseful, choir piece in there, and I think the one I did would fit well in there.


TRACK 4:

0:00 - 2:06
I think this section would be fantastic for the closing scene as the player is leaving the island as well as for the credits. Basically the whole track could be used for that, but I don't know how long the credits will be...


TRACK 7:

1:18 - End

I don't know what exactly you are planning for the menu, but this could play when the menu is brought up...



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLANS:

First of all I think we should save soundtracking (at least assigning) until the level is complete (or we have a near complete version.) That way you can let me know which areas you want a soundtrack for and I can play those areas and get a feel. As far as the looping music, I don't know how I feel about that idea, but I can either loop that one portion, or create a new, slower one, and then we can put it in game and see how it feels. But yeah I can loops Track 7 with ease.


As for what I plan to do: I'm going to try to create an actual soundtrack and release it before we release the level so players can hear the sounds before playing the game (and possible title the tracks to give players some sort of teaser for what to expect in the game).


I'm shooting for 12 - 15 tracks ranging from 2:00 - 5:00 (Which means they could be broken up and used in different sections).

Here's the cover I've created for it:

[MikeTheRaptor]

Love the cover, am about the listen to the tracks. My only issue here is that I prefer that the soundtrack be released after the level's release.

The music can easily lose its effect in game if people listen to the tracks out of context before hand.

Edit:

Reactions to music -

Favorite track is No. 7. I sense something "Mayan" from it, but unfortunately the large Mayan ruins area doesn't show up until JPDS3.

I also felt No. 6 has some very creepy Resident Evil/Silent Hill-esque atmospherics (up to around 0:28 ) that might be interesting to test in areas like The Sewer.

Overall, I'm glad we finally got a nice big chunk of music from you, SI. I found it to be of high quality - with some references, and a few changes in pacing and mood, I'm pretty excited to say that we could a great soundtrack on our hands

[Draconisaurus]

I'm going to have to say I agree with Mike on this one; while the idea of releasing a soundtrack before the game sounds cool even to me, just like movies and such do, you'll notice (as far as I can think) game soundtracks don't come out before the game does. We don't want to "spoil" the emotional content of the game in special areas by releasing the tracks ahead of time. Personally I think some tracks could be safe.. like looping forest-exploring ambiance music and such.. but then I'm not sure how great of a soundtrack that would make. It really is a problem with preserving the player's first experience of the game. I also rather like the coverart.



Looks like Mike and I both like track 7! It's a rather good piece, and has a fairly constant mood to it. Perhaps we shouldn't start by trying to loop it.. (could be used for the menu, but I'd rather reserve that for once we've come upon a final "theme" for the EA, which may take some time to nail down) We do have lots of forest completed in JPDS1, with plenty of screenshots out. Rest assured there's going to be some impressive all-new forests in JPDS1, but I think you could begin to get an idea of what sort of music exploring a foreboding (yet not entirely dark, yet) forest.. I designed the bird ambiance around the entry-forest area of the game to represent the mood I want. You could play around in TresEd with the random bird trigger there and see what you think..

We could also use music for the swamp - that one I don't think should be looped, I'm quite pleased with the background ambiance I have set up in that level, so just some entry music would be good, and maybe a variation of that for the swamp shack. Plenty of good pics of that have been put online.. I don't have time right now but if you want, I can find the images that are online and post them in here.

About track 4 for the ending, I believe Mike actually had a track he imagined the ending going to.. which inspired his version of the cutscene for it. However, realize that the end of JPDS3 is not for some years yet, so it's not really something we can take time on for now..

On track 3, that's definitely reminiscent of the JP/// track played during the Hatchery sequence. Keep in mind though, that the entire EA isn't about looking at failed baby dino experiments. The JP/// track was actually inspired primarily by the infant raptor scene from JP1, and really, our EA permiates a greatly evolved atmosphere from what we saw in the movie. It's all about encountering death and destruction (dead RF members), rather bloody at times in fact, and mysterious corridors on all sides.. and being frustrated by the fact of trying to find your brother deep in this death-smelling maze of rooms that seems to go nowhere. Of course the Hatchery is to be found in the levels, so there will be some of this.. though I was actually going to take the music straight out of JP/// for that location. Variation on the music could be used for looping ambiance elsewhere..