Another new MIDI for C&C - 'atmospheric desert screen'

[Gonzo]

In my game, the player character becomes stranded in a fairly arid area, there's basically a bar and not much else, but he can explore around a little. For the outside screens I was trying to create a kind of atmospheric feel of desertion, fairly minimal in actual instruments (acoustic guitar, bass, drums, low xylo notes, a little smidgen of electric guitar), but with some odd effects here and there like blow bottles and whistling. I'd like to know if it works.

The MIDI is here: http://www.sylpher.com/gonzo/deserted.mid [13K, 2 mins 48 secs long]

Two concerns:
1) Are the drums too active? For an atmospheric kind of scene where the music is just supposed to be taking a bit of a back seat, at points they seem overly heavy, as if someone let Animal on the kit for a minute. Maybe they need to be a bit more understated for it to work?
2) Does the bridge fit at all? I was rather stuck for a way to go from the bass riff to something else, as I thought it might get boring, but this bridge seems to come out of nowhere sometimes when I listen...it's a bit awkward. I like the whistling on it, but it may be better suited in another MIDI. If it's rubbish, I could just remove it, and keep it on the one bass riff throughout and see how that works...

[Flippy_D]

Not bad at all, in fact, very good. The only trouble is this didn't scream to me 'desert'. Sorry to be so blunt. I think this would really be more suited to a swamp and/or tribal village (don't ask). I love the wood block work, and the drums are just fine. However, I'm concerned about the bass line.
In fact, I'm afriad I've bastardised the song. I tried replacing the electric guitar with timpanis, and muting the bass... I also made a custom bass on teh kalimba... I'll post it if you want, but it's not perfect yet. What I do feel is that my version portrays the desert slightly better, but that's a rather arrogant-sounding remark. Try doing what I did to your version and check whether you like it.

[Gonzo]

Well thanks for liking the basic music, I'd agree with you it doesn't entirely scream 'desert'. The desert isn't like the sandy sahara, its actually more a wasteland plain, and it's on a alien planet (not actually too alien though, it has a bar etc. and there's a big city far off in the distance, so this isn't the same vibe as 'The Dig').

It's also worth remembering that it's outside the bar, which will have a fairly lively, slightly rock MIDI involved, so perhaps if it was too sparse and desert-like and exotic the contrast would be too awkward...

I don't know if that makes this MIDI any more suitable. The whole song was actually built on the bass riff, I'm not sure about muting it. I may add an extra track with timpanis, they do have a nice sound, just tried them out.

An extra question: what MIDI instrument do I need to use to get a 'rattlesnake' type sound? In lots of films in desert scenes there's this nice shuffly sound effect that creates a bit of atmosphere. It might fit in this song somewhere if it's possible with MIDI.

[Flippy_D]

Simple, just search the treble clef of the drums, there's a sound in there just like it.... use the smallest note (value 15) in a line and it should get the wanted effect. I'm going to send you* my modified version of your song via email, you can see what you think of it (I can't host it and neole's thing is down)



*ah, no email avaliable.

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

One thing that struck me was the way the guitar 'banged', instead of being strummed, like real guitars are, and real guitars also sound a lot more sustained. I decided to have a go fixing this and came up with this:

http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/deserted.mid

It's exactly the same as yours, excet midi ticks per quarter note has been increased to 240, the guitar part has been 'strumified' (lol) and I've put some sustain controls on it.

Oh yeah, I also panned the bass guitar nearer to the centre. I hope you don't mind, it was just bugging me a bit.

[Gonzo]

Archangel: You're spot on about the guitar...originally that track was a Rhodes Piano but I thought an acoustic guitar was a bit more suitable. I didn't go to any effort to make the actual voicings and sustain like a guitar though, which was lazy of me.

To be honest I haven't a clue what you've done there, but the acoustic guitar does sound better, how did you 'strumify' it? Also I'm not sure I know what a sustain control is. The bass guitar pan now does sound better, much better with it more central...

Flippy_D: As I said on IRC, the timpani probably is a bit too dramatic for the feel I'm going for, but I like the kalimba on it, that's very cool. Little touches that these instruments can add can really improve stuff.
I'm about to give muting the bass a spin...

Anyone else got anything to add?

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

Here's a step-by-step of how I created the guitar effect:

1. Set MIDI ticks per quarter note to 240 (this will allow resolution down to the hemidemisemiquaver level)
2. Set the grid that notes are snapped to to 15 ticks (a hemidemisemiquaver)
3. The basic principle of creating the strum is that the last note played is at the time you want the chord to actually sound, with the other notes occuring before the beat. That probably didn't make sense, so just grab the bottom note of your triad and move it back 15 ticks. That pretty much sums it up. For a more relaxed feel move the bottom note back 30 ticks and the middle back 15 ticks; I randomly used this instead of the former to make it sound more live.
4. The sustain pedal effect is normally used on pianos, but apply it to guitars using one of two methods:
a. be lazy (like I was) and set the sustain controller to 127 at the start of the piece and never take it off, or
b. if you're heading for an uber-1337 solo accoustic guitar masterpiece, set sustain to on (127) when the fingers are going to be on the fretboard, and off (0) when the player would take their fingers off.

[loominous]

I agree that it doesn t sound very much like a desert enviroment, n neither does it give me a sense of being stranded.

What I think might push it a bit in that direction would be some sort of chords sweeping in n out to give the feeling of the wind blowing across the dunes and the tempo could be slower to make it sound more desolate.

Here s a quick attempt just adding some chords with the whistlesound:

http://w1.865.telia.com/~u86517124/Downloadable/deserted_m.mid

(not the best choice of chords perhaps since they don t fit the rest very well but they should give you the idea)

[Gonzo]

I'm not too bothered about recreating a desert environment, as this isn't the traditional kind of desert anyway, plus what I've already said about a contrast with the bar MIDI. But a feeling of desertion would be good to have.

As Flippy says, try muting the bass guitar, I'm in two minds about it, but perhaps that makes it more 'sparse' feeling without the driving bass rythmn, more deserted.

I'm thinking of starting on this particular desert MIDI again but using the one I've already made elsewhere in the game. I like your whistling over dunes idea though, so I'll have a play with that.