Tune Contest (December 24th - January 6th) - CLOSED

[Jens]

The New Year rocket

A New Year rocket is lit. It's flying into the sky where it detonates in brightful glory (or dies painfully - it's up to you).

Write a tune that describes this scene.  Bonus points when it contains three distinguishable parts that express the lighting, flying and explosion sequence. (feel free to stretch time where you think that it fits; the tune does not need to be very long though.)

The contest will be closed for entries on January the 6th (dec 31 would be nice, too, but I guess not many of you will find enough time for that).

[djres]

http://www.mediafire.com/?9o0zm4zywyy

[thousandfracture]

long time lurker, first time poster

heres my attempt

mixed with headphones on, so apologies if it sounds harsh on normal speakers

[PixelPerfect]

I've also lurked on the outskirts, but made up my mind to enter this competition. This is posted on 4share and you should be able to listen it without downloading first. Just wait for the player to show.


PixelPerfect - Life Of a Rocket.mp3


Edit: Just click on the play button when it shows up in the picture.

[DrewCCU]

I'd like to reserve my spot.  I'm going to try to get it posted sometime on the 6th.

HERE IT IS!:
Title:
"Rocket '08"
Composer:
Andrew K. Smith (DrewCCU)
Length:
2:52
Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bqdmihp2rhm

Note- The quality isn't as good as i'd like - there are a couple of reasons for that - but it's late, i'm tired, and don't really have time to go in and fix it - besides it's not THAT bad ... just not perfect.  This is not (by far) my best piece but it's something i threw together for this contest.  I hope you guys enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it ... i'm going to take you through it real quick here:

0:00 - 0:39
The pre-lighting (of the rocket) ceremony

0:40 - 0:58
The fuse is lit and burning!

0:59 - 1:29
Rocket '08 is in flight!!

1:30 - 2:06
Here, the rocket reaches the edge of the earth's atmosphere and drifts into space - it slows almost to a halt as it begins to orbit earth.

2:07 - 2:52
BOOM! The rocket explodes and fireworks fly so that everyone around the world can look up into the sky and see this wonderful show!

[Jens]

so, it is jan 7th and we need a winner. I appreciate every entry here and do not really like to chose only one of them as there are a few different approaches. But we need someone to go on with the contest... so my subjective preferences will decide ^^

And the winner is DrewCCU.


a few comments on the tunes...

djres
The industrial sound you went for somehow fits to the technical topic "rocket". There are some sounds though, that don't please my ears: that is the weird scratchy noise that reminds me on old atari2600-days and the very high pitched sound that sets in at 0:43 (does it stand for the lighted fuse?).
In my opinion there should definately be more variation of the rhythm and the melody(?) in those 3+ minutes. At least after the rocket's take-off (there is the wandering high pitched sound again..?).

thousandfracture
After the fuse has been lit, you offer a nice idea for the flight. Like djres, you've used an electronic sound to reproduce what happens (setting in at 0:43).
But (personal opinion following:) if it is meant to be the rocket that is high in the sky, I would expect a change in volumeor something else to give the impression that something is exploding (powerful in the beginning, than spreading up and fading away).

PixelPerfect
Nice chords and trancy, dreamy sound. Gives me the impression of watching fireworks from a more introverted point of view.

DrewCCU
You made up a rocket-motif and structured your piece into several parts that reflect the different stages of the event using variations of this motif. Along with your description it perfectly underlines everything in a melodic way. This is the narrative way of music writing that can do a lot to make a game's story even more interesting.
Instead of using an abstract sound you expressed the take of with fitting notes (at 0:57-0:59) what I especially like.
The transition from 2:00 to 2:07 is perhaps a bit too long. It creates some suspension, but (in my opinion) goes too far with it (I thought the track would be over here). Slightly fading in the note again (instead of fading it almost completely out) before the clashing part at 2:07 could do the job. But you're a better composer than me and you know what you do


DrewCCU, feel free to start the next competition now.


Thank you for participating everyone.