suggestions for music approach

[Cyrad]

So nilllzz and i agreed that i would be making music for a future upgrade pack. Which is awesome. So i've begun planning out how im going to approach producing the music. I had considered to produce it in sequential order based on the soundtrack:

Spoiler

but i was wondering whether i should produce music in accordance to what is most important. So i was wondering if i could get just a bit of help getting a list together of the most needed music to the least, so i can work off that. in order of towns, routes places etc. I would really appreciate it! Furthermore, do you want to hear the music as each one is produced? or wait until its all finished?

Lastly am i just some dude making music? or am i actually a part of the project. I honestly have no idea!

 

[Lunick]

I think there needs to be a way to make music loop properly first before putting more music into the game.

 

[Daziman]

WOW Big news!
First, congratulations and thanks for being part of the project!
Then, I think that the best is doing the songs at appearing order:

Spoiler

1. Intro
2. Title Screen
3. Continue
4. Welcome to the bla bla bla rattata bla bla
5. New Bark town
6. Chat with Mom
7. Pokemon Lab
8. Route 29
9. Wild pokeon battle theme
10. Wild pokemon defeated
11. pokemon evolves
12. Routes 46, 36, 32, 34, 35, 37
13. cherrigrove/mahogany town
14. City tour
15. Routes 30, 33
16. Chat professor oak
17. Rival Challenge
18. Rival battle theme
19. Trainer defeated
20. Dark Cave/slowpoke well, ice cave
21. Violet/olivine city
22. bellsprout tower
23. trainer challenge theme 2
24. Pokemon Gym
25. Gym leader battle theme
26. gym leader defeated
27. ruins of alpg, union cave, ilex forest
28. ruins of alph inside
29. trainer challenge theme 3

bla bla bla in that order, pretty much the photo order, but dropping the Radio songs, and some reorder at the beginning. I recommend you hear the "new" pokemon Heart Gold Soul Silver for more inspiration on the music.

 

[Cyrad]

There's no intro yet in the game. i think i should skip that one and just do the title screen first.

 

[Cyrad]

I think there needs to be a way to make music loop properly first before putting more music into the game.

Yeah that is a problem. The issue with repeating music, although possible, is that if you are using something like an orchestra, the atmosphere at the end of the song is usually different. What with reverb and other instruments. So getting it to loop smoothly would most likely require it to fade out at the end, or a clever musical link between the end and beginning, so it can be repeated with out and jarring changes. But having a seamless looping orchestral song would limit the how each movement differs, around the start and finish. It might sound pretty bad.

It is possible though to do so, though. That being said, in doing so it risks a lot of credibility an orchestral soundtrack can give. The best bet, i think, is to extend the original songs further, So if you only had 1 minute song, that would be extended to 3 minutes. reducing the repetitiveness.

Also, this is really a programming and codec issue, but mp3s and a few other codecs can't do seamless loops well. If the length of the song doesn't conform to an exact time length (click or frame length sort of) then it will insert silence for the rest of the song. So you will get this brief pop whilst it repeats. Wavs (compressed) and oggs can be used instead. Not sure if that's an issue when it comes to programming.

This also raises another problem. Some of the music in the game requires looping at different points in the song. If you think of the battle theme, it has the intro (didlydidlydidlydidly!) and then it goes into a loop of the battle theme. That means the battle music would require 2 songs to play one after the other, and then repeat the second song. Just extra steps i suppose.

So yeah. looping music has its disadvantages, but i can do it if that's what people want.

 

[Lunick]

Shouldn't the music be Midi files like the original game (I know it is currently mp3). Extending the songs further would be a good solution as it currently annoys me when I'm waiting in a city for extended periods f time and the music goes completely silent... I think ogg files would be the best bet to get a loopable file though.

I can see many people complaining about this in the future since the music is a vital/core part of the Pokemon game.

 

[Cyrad]

um, midis? This is the sort of stuff we decided I'd be doing:

This was just a quick 1 day job, realistically I'd be spending longer on a piece of music transcribing and arranging. So as you could imagine, it would be pretty strange to create loopable songs like this. Probably wouldn't work well without sacrificing some detail.

 

[DominiC_LT]

um, midis? This is the sort of stuff we decided I'd be doing:

This was just a quick 1 day job, realistically I'd be spending longer on a piece of music transcribing and arranging. So as you could imagine, it would be pretty strange to create loopable songs like this. Probably wouldn't work well without sacrificing some detail.

Very relaxing music. I would love to hear something like this in game

 

[Daziman]

The intro could be in the pokemon3d.exe
It could be like this song:

Or this song:

without loop

 

[DanielRTRD]

Daziman the last one is the best

 

[Lunick]

If this is going to have new music, it has to be spot on/fantastically done.

I'm not opposed to the idea of having new music but I feel like an 'epic' song in this game would feel out of place with the graphics.

 

[DracoHouston]

If this is going to have new music, it has to be spot on/fantastically done.

I'm not opposed to the idea of having new music but I feel like an 'epic' song in this game would feel out of place with the graphics.

I feel the same way, honestly.

I really like the music in heartgold/soulsilver too.

I don't want to sound like I'm rubbishing the OP's music, because I'm listening to it right now and it's not bad at all. And really, listening to the HG/SS version of the track the instruments used aren't that different

But in ninty's take on the old midi you can hear wind instruments, which is missing from your cover. i'm no musician, let alone composer, so I can't tell what specific ones they are meant to be, but they add a lot to this track IMO.

Do you do any other kinds of music? For example lavender town is very sombre and there is a lot of organ in there

Goldenrod is a peppy little town, horns, and is that a xylophone?

I don't know you from a bar of soap so I hope all these questions don't sound rude, but what sort of range have you got, is what I'm asking.

 

[Cyrad]

oh yeah, like i said it was a quick one day job just to see if people wanted it or not. In reality i would be spending much long on each song. Reaaaally trying to do them justice too, My range can be incredibly detailed.

All i can say is that i haven't finished any of the songs that i will put in the pack. But when i do I'll post them up here so we can agree upon a style and level of detail or make suggestions.

Thats another thing. I can use hg/ss instead of g/s. depending on what people want. So tell me. If i had i choice i would prefer heart gold/soul silver music. But its up to you guys.

 

[DracoHouston]

oh yeah, like i said it was a quick one day job just to see if people wanted it or not. In reality i would be spending much long on each song. Reaaaally trying to do them justice too, My range can be incredibly detailed.

All i can say is that i haven't finished any of the songs that i will put in the pack. But when i do I'll post them up here so we can agree upon a style and level of detail or make suggestions.

Thats another thing. I can use hg/ss instead of g/s. depending on what people want. So tell me. If i had i choice i would prefer heart gold/soul silver music. But its up to you guys.

I feel like the HG/SS music is a good starting point because it is already a proper reimagining of the midis. It'll give you a better idea of what they wanted it to sound like than the old midis, IMO

 

[DracoHouston]

by the way, you say you're doing the music, but I noticed you say you do graphic design in the logo thread, are you taking on any other roles? I ask because I'm trying to make tilesets of areas the game isn't up to yet, to get some of the busywork out of the way for nilllzz later, but if you're helping with that at all I don't want to duplicate work