To Begin with, all I had to go on was this email sent from John Bergman

John Bergman 14-08-06

 

This does contain some good, relevant information about the context of the game and how to go about creating something that would fit in.

"We could use more ambient background music in the vein of what we
already have, leaning more towards the textured-ambience sort of thing
and less on the "intense, action" kind of percussive thing. The former
is more usable than the latter."

This tells me two important aspects already. Firstly I looked up the word Vein on dictionary.com which gave me "A pervading character or quality;" meaning my music must have the same character or quality as the music that exists already.

The two types of music that he refers to below, exist for different situations in the game. If you are docked at a station or flying around peacefully, there is a more ambient spacious, type of music. Some of which has subtle rhythm and some is completely arrhythmic ambiance. The other type is for battles and missions where the music is more upbeat and contains Hollywood film type tense string sections.

Here are some sections of music taken from the existing soundtrack of vendetta online.

Itani Station Soundtrack

Open Space (Dau Sector)

The music for Vendetta is made using synths and samplers, with digital effects applied to them. Many of the synth sounds are designed to sound like human voices, I'm not sure however if they are supposed to be replicating real voices of if they are designed to sound like an electronic simulation. There are also strings, orchestral percussion, automated synth melodies, and electronic rhythms. All of which fit together in a very subtle and background way. There is unfortunately, no interface within the game that allows music to morph as a player moves around the space, so music must be kept recorded.

John Also Said "Trouble with an MMO is.. the user spends so much time online that the music gets really boring after awhile, so long tracks with minimum repetition are good. Minimalism and ambience over.. catchyness?"

This for me was really good news as I would personally prefer to create this kind of music to something that's catchy. Partly because (if I'm honest) I'm not very good at making catchy tunes and also because I find a lot of catchy music in games can very quickly become quite irritating, and I rightly don't want to be responsible for irritating thousands of people around the world.

He makes a very good point though about people spending hours in the game. This is a definite contextual issue to be considered when making something to be added to this game. However due to the game's system of play, I'm not sure if long tracks are a solution to this problem.

This is all down to the environment of play, explained below.

Vendetta Playing Environment

 

 

Vendetta online works in a way that poses quite a tricky challenge for a composer.

Below is a screen shot from Vendetta Online's navigation computer showing the "Dau" sector.

The player fly's around various sectors of space, warping between the grid positions. As far as I'm aware the player cannot fly from one grid point to the other, only warp once they are at the edge of it. These sectors are joined together by wormholes (the blue swirls) that warp you to other sectors.

 

(stay with me I'm going somewhere with this one)

The open space (empty) grid positions in the game have the same music, which when warping from one to the other will continuously play through. The problem is, the player doesn't often warp from one open sector to the other. They will go from a space station to an open sector, then maybe back to another station or a wormhole to another sector. All of which have different music which stars from the beginning each time the player warps. The result is that the player hears the beginning couple of minutes of all the tracks before warping somewhere else.

The solution to this problem is not to create longer tracks but to start the tracks at different points. Below, I've written a hypothesis as a possible solution to this problem.

 

 

Possible Solution

All tracks in the game are of the same length (we'll say in this instance that they are 1 minute long) and loop at the same time. Grid Position G2 and I5 have different music tracks that play simultaneously. The numbers in blue at the top of the diagram represent time in seconds, and the black line represents the music play head.

When a player warps from G2 to I5 (or vise versa), the next track comes in at the time of the play head. It also fades out of the previous and into the next track during the computers loading time.

 

If the game is given an internal clock (that can be modified on the users computers for time zone purposes), The music play head. could match that.

This would mean that all players of the game would hear the same music at the same time and could talk about it with each other. This would also give the effect that the persistent world of the virtual universe is moving on without you. Which is exactly what is happening.

The problem with this idea is that the lengths of the existing tracks are not the same, and would therefore have to be replaced or modified. Still, It's an idea for the future.

My Musical Additions

Click the track titles (or icons) to hear the music

There is a link to the screen shots section beside each track in the form of this icon.

Red Moon

This was my first attempt at creating a track for the vendetta, and was a chance for me to test the water. So far, all I could really attempt was to make a track that would fit in to the game, as John would say "in the same vein".

I wanted to create something that sounded primarily very subtle and atmospheric, whilst still maintaining a rhythm (much like the existing music).

The space stations on the game are more active than other parts, and therefore the music is more upbeat. The track I was creating however is for a more derelict part of space and should therefore be a little more in the background.

It begins with a more diegetic sound of wind created by a synth to ease the track in and provide atmosphere.

Then comes the leading instrument which is a sample of a single string note that has been altered to play more like a soft attack piano. This is also the instrument used for the high string melody that enters at 00:01:15 only the playing method is different. The notes are pressed rapidly, but due to the reverb applied, it merges into one note. This was a means of obtaining controlled attack (crescendo) with the melody.

The chord stabs that enter at 00:00:39 are also constructed from string samples and reverberated in much the same way.

I used mostly plate reverb throughout this track as it gives a very smooth and constant release on the sounds it is applied to.

 

There is also an automated synth that creeps in at 00:01:39 to bring a bit of progression to the track to make it more interesting.

The rhythm is constructed of two main instruments. the percussive clicking type samples (00:00:39) and the distorted shaker 00:00:35). The percussive clicks play for one bar and are then echoed with a reversed reverb every other bar. You will notice that there is no click on the first 1 beat, instead it is placed at the 1 beat of the next bar. this means that when reversed the reverb will fade into the 1 beat after it occurs.

The shaker has an EQ on it that is played to make bass and mid tones to create a rhythm at 00:01:35, it also has a flanger on it to make it blend in more.

I used a pentatonic scale for the lead instrument, and improvised the melody, staying mainly on the root note. I had a simple chord progression that I brought in when I felt it should be there also. It was around this restricted improvisation that I layered the other sounds on top of.

I used the basic pentatonic scale to give the track a slightly more eastern feel. maybe not in a traditional sense; instead to make it seem like modern Japanese anime or computer games. There is a lot of this style evident in the game, such as the large neon adverts using a japanese styled alien text.

 

Station

This was the first attempt at creating a piece of music to accompany a space station. within these stations, you look through menus to upgrade yourself, buy and sell items, look on boards for missions etc.

This track was another created mainly from the influence of the existing music. I created a male choir of synths to match the instruments in the game already (as mentioned earlier), and worked around them to come up with this piece.

The piece was written in a slow 7/4. It's supposed to sound like a swaying 3/4 but with an extra beat added every other bar. This gave more space for improvisation and also gives more of a spacious feel to the track.

 

The lead instrument is a monophonic synth line put through a reverb unit. I assigned a keyboard wheel to alter the resonance and volume of the note played to allow the possibility of controlled attack and release. This is placed quite far back in the mix so as not to intrude on the players ears whilst playing.

The rhythms have phasers and a delay effect (constructed by myself) that muffles gradually over an assigned duration. these together make a sort of watery effect, and keep the beats from stepping forward too far in the mix.

 

Open Space (Ambient)

This was my first attempt at creating an ambient piece of music for the purpose of flying around in open space (hence the title).

To begin with, I created a synth with a very long sustaining plate reverb and two compressors (one before and one after the reverb) This provides most of the sound that you hear in this track. The oscillators of the synth comprise of several waves at differing pitches of small intervals, clashing with each other. There is also a sample of thunder making up another oscillator this creates a strange metallic striking noise in the background.

I also have samples of an arabian woman singing, obtained from the Reason Refill (extra sound bank) Arabian Traditions. This applied a similar reverb onto. This makes a much more eerie sound than I had originally intended for the track, but I thought after making it that it would fit into the uncharted (lawless) areas of space, where one should be on their toes for surprise attacks.

 

These are the only two instruments that make up this track, it's very simple in it's technical design, but I think it works quite effectively.

John Bergman 21-09-06

 

In this he talks about on reflection to this track.

"I also enjoyed your creepy ambient one, although I'm not sure how to apply it exactly" "Try to avoid grating, high-frequency noises in your music. Let me put it this way.. any sound that's even remotely annoying in a track is going to become about 1000x more annoying once they've heard the song for the 10th time"

This is a valid and interesting point. much of the tension in this track is caused by the clashing tones and the high pitch frequencies which as john says will irritate people, which is not what a game should do. This presents me with the challenge John puts so eloquently. "the fine art of making people nervous without getting on their nerves"

Piano (Ambient)

John referred me to some music which I managed to get hold of. these where

Brian Eno: Music for Airports

The 5th Element Soundtrack

Junior Reactor: Shango

I had managed to get hold of the first two by this point, and made this track based on their influence.

I created a similar sounding piano instrument to the one used on Eno's Music for Airports and used chord changes from one of the orchestral tracks from the 5th element.

Also there is a simple sine wave synth with a soft attack and release to make the track sound a bit more full.

Again there is the more diegetic sound of wind (created using a synth), along with some atmospheric sounds of a lyre bird and a sample of someone saying "good morning!" which I thought would make good audio material for a sampler.

Lyrebird - Taken from David Atenburough's "Life on Earth"

"Good Morning!" - Taken from Terry Gillium's "Jabawocky"

These have a multitude of effects applied to them along with being pitch bent out of audible proportion.

The compositional method of this track is much the same as the others. The piano has vague guidelines as to it's chords but is mainly improvised. the other parts then fit around it. I was presented with somewhat a challenge however with the fact that the improvised piano does not follow a tempo. To get around this I looked at the midi data of the piano whilst I was recording the other parts with the view following the play head, much like watching a piano roll going past. That way I could not only see what chords and notes where coming up, but also at what time. This kind of acted like a simultaneous notation and conductor for me to add to the sound.

Here is an email that john sent me in response to this track.

John Bergman 28-09-06

 

John said that the track "Would be excellent for an attractive middle-of-nowhere type sector with no enemies" and that it sounded very brian eno. He also mentioned about looping music "Keep in mind that everything needs to loop as seamlessly as possible, breaks and silence can cause the user to be aware of a repeat" meaning that I should use some looping techniques with the tracks waveforms (which I will go into more detail about later in the sound effects section). Although this is not an essential requirement as the existing tracks fade in and out into silence. Still it's definitely worth looking into.

 

 

Harmonics (Ambient)

Being enlightened a little more as to the context of vendetta's musical influence. I began work on another ambient track.

I began by recording some guitar harmonics into my computer, and creating a sampler instrument out of them. I then used it to create a slow chord progression that I would then later apply the other sounds to.

I also used cello harmonics to make a string sampler patch to follow the chords.

This track, again has the basic outline of a chord sequence, with improvised parts added. it is not set to a click tempo like some of the others in order to give the feeling of space.

There are also some atmospheric noises placed in the background to give some diegetic sound that the music comes in and out of.

 

Another Station

 

This is an alternative (or extra) to the original Station track. The concept of which follows the same requirements.

it's made using synths only, other than the drums which are sampled.

There are some different reverb and delay effects used on this to give a more interesting sense of space than simply using the same reverb unit.

 

 

the drums are applied to a parallel circuit of different delays that respond at different times. the overall effect of which is a delay that repeats every 3 beats, with each repeat having a different effect applied. I did this to partly avoid cliche electro sounds and also to give a bit of subtle detail to the overall atmosphere.

The piece follows a varied time signature. Counted slowly, it has a bar or 4 followed by a bar of 5 every other bar. However when playing it, I think of it more or 3 fast 4's and a bar of 6. The Idea behind this was to give space, and to make the piece a bit more interesting through repeated listening.

 

Piano & Twang (ambient)

This is a more recent one that I made for an empty space sector. not really sure if they'll like it, as I'm not too sure if it really fits the context myself.

To me, it seems too ethnic sounding which isn't really the right kind of atmosphere for the game. We'll see though if it's what they're after

I based the track originally round a drone, made from synths. After a while however, I made a basic chord progression that the drone follows. I tried to make a male voice sound with it also to fit the other music in the game.

It is recorded without a click track, and is largely improvised. I used the sequencer data from he other tracks to act as a conductor for myself as I recorded each part to keep it in time.

 

UIT

This is the final track I made to be submitted for my CEP. It seemed by this point, I was feeling a little dry, and was finding it a little hard to come up with new ideas.

The sampler instruments are much the same as the other tracks. They are made from string samples and have a plate reverb applied to them.

The drums have a phaser effect on them before being reverberated, compressed and put through a resonant filter. The filter is there to fade the drums in and out of ones focus as they are playing.

 

I've been having difficulties however, continuing this track, as I find it a little unimaginative and (if I'm honest) quite boring.

I think I will temporarily postpone this one until I get some feedback on it from john.