607 - Humid Rhythms [aym] :: Battle of the Bits

175091

wow, cool! a lot packed into a couple minutes here, several distinct sections. (if these are intended to be 'video game bgm' maybe that's worth considering) loved the ending part being kinda on a Kirkhopian note, and loved the samples, they added a lot to it. i dunno what kinds of capabilities or storage space you have to work with here, but i think it'd be awesome to have a couple quieter variations of the high pitched bongo/conga/whatever that's doing a lot of the rhythmic work, to be deployed on the weak beats. the way it is now, the rhythm feels kinda mechanical with them all the same volume. the point gets across for sure but if there's space/ability to change that, it'd be a worthy point of finesse

175098

Thanks a lot for the comment, damifortune!
Indeed, these are not intended to be video game music per se, as they often tell a bit of a story, and thus would not be suitable for a level that you can play at your own pace. I see it as a bit more like I'm scoring a movie scene set in a video game universe, if I get what you mean (the other Lux Environments track submitted on botb, Frost, Fright and Fairies, is a lot more like that, telling a full story).

Good idea with the percussion! MaxYMiser allows 8 sample slots which I've all used, but you can decrease the volume, as I've done in a few spots with the elephant trumpeting and the loud monkey squeak. If I recall correctly I did try it at first but at the lowest decrease in volume the drums were already so much quieter they were barely audible. However, I will experiment with it again, as especially in the parts where there are repeated hits on it, it does indeed sound mechanical! Another possibility would be varying the pitch, as I've done with the animal sounds, but it seemed that the instrument (a dhol) doesn't allow this IRL, which is why I refrained from it.

176389

THAT WAS TWO MINUTES?! It felt much longer, and I mean that in a good way

177736

When looking into the tune again, I found out that I had in fact used volume decreases in the percussion... I just forgot about it half-way through the tune, so it was only used in the part before the lion. xD
I went back throughout the entire tune, adding more volume decreases, but also adding a few increases, by doubling the sample (which was only possible if an animal sample wasn't playing at the same time).
I think it's made the tune as a whole sound more lively, so thanks to dami!
Here's the link to the YouTube release. https://youtu.be/4OMPQojB6XM It can be downloaded from https://607web.nl/snd/environments