Tune Contest March 4 to 11

Ghormak · Thu 04/03/2004 19:49:16

Hello. It's time again for one of these contest thingies! We've had a lot of rules dealing with odd time signatures and re-defining of the word "music", so this time I thought we'd do something simpler, and adventure game related.

Newbie McNoob has asked you to make a song for his game. The game is a serious science fiction game, where the hero is all alone on a space station where something has gone horribly wrong. Our Hero has seemingly no way of escaping as he wanders through the dark and cramped hallways of what used to be the most prestigious Orbital Laboratory ever launched. And what are those footsteps coming from the vents? Maybe Our Hero isn't alone after all.

McNoob would like some ambient, subtle music to fit this supsenseful theme.

No restrictions.

Gregjazz · Fri 05/03/2004 00:15:01

I'll see if I have time to come up with something! Nice rules, too.

EDIT: Okay, here's my entry: http://www.sonic.net/~schlae/herculeaneffort/entry030404.mp3

The song should sound best through stereo speakers, not single-speaker or headphones. There are a few little atmosphere tricks that I did that only work through stereo speakers. I put in the middle section to provide relief from the nerve-racking first and last sections.

Guest2 · Fri 05/03/2004 05:02:14

flippin' cool

Peter Thomas · Fri 05/03/2004 08:58:42

I am liking this competition to a great extent 8)

I shall enter.

Archy at skool · Fri 05/03/2004 13:15:13

Teh awesome tune, Geoff ^,^

If I get a minute over the next week I'll whack together some diminished chords and pass it off as an entry.

Gregjazz · Fri 05/03/2004 21:32:23

Thanks. I'm not too keen on that middle section, though. As background music, I'd probably put in a section similar to that so it doesn't get too nerve-racking. We'll see, maybe I'll remake it.

Listen closely to that last part of the song, and try moving your head side to side. Weird, isn't that?

Peter Thomas · Sat 06/03/2004 08:16:15

ack! YOU MESS WITH MY HEAD!!

Evil, evil, evil......

[/dies]

BOYD1981 · Sat 06/03/2004 09:56:34

here's my entry, it's a 54 second long loop (although i suppose in reality a loop is an infinite amount of seconds long), you might have to load it up in a sound editor and remove the teeny weeny little bit of silence at the begging that the mp3 conversion seems to have added to make it loop properly, it's short because i didn't want it to get too complicated or too large, it comes in at around 860kb and i think it does the job pretty well in minimal kind of way...
click on my wee matey below to download the track

MillsJROSS · Sun 07/03/2004 06:26:14

Okay, finally got a spring break and some time in which to participate in one of these things.

http://www.geocities.com/millsjross/tune.mid

-MillsJROSS

Peter Thomas · Mon 08/03/2004 07:41:21

We're sorry, but this page is currently unavailable for viewing.

Sorry, Mills.....

EDIT: Okay - I haven't started my entry yet, but I WILL try to finish it soon. If not, I'll post a resignation, but I hope it won't come to that.

Peter Thomas · Tue 09/03/2004 12:22:13

Here is my entry.

It's short, because I originally thought the closing date was the 9th (not sure why) and I only started this on the evening of the 8th. So yes, don't expect any symphonic wonderments, but I still think it's nice....

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/space_theme.zip

MillsJROSS · Tue 09/03/2004 22:38:10

With geocities currently usually implies a one hour interval, because if a website exceeds a certain amount of space in an hour the account is frozen for an hour. In any event, it just worked for me, so no worries. And as it's a MIDI, it should put too much strain on space...howeve if it continues, I will update it to my uni account which is more stable (I just don't like using it because it's intent is educational).

-MillsJROSS

MrColossal · Tue 09/03/2004 23:21:20

if i just click on the link it doesn't work, but if i shift click it works or if you copy and paste the url into the address bar

Peter Thomas · Wed 10/03/2004 04:11:11

argh!

how could I forget about 'copy and paste'

I'm such a n00b!

[/dies]

Ghormak · Thu 11/03/2004 22:25:01

Right! This contest is officially over! This is becoming a clichÃ© saying, but I really had a tough time deciding on a winner this time. I enjoyed all four tunes.

First a quick review for every tune:

Geoffkhan
Really nice. Really nice indeed. It has the ambient, mellow atmosphere I was looking for, and the sound is really good. If I had to find a fault, I'd probably say that it's maybe a bit too generic. Slightly more innovation and this would have been... well, even better!

BOYD1981
Also a very nice sounding tune. It's kind of old-skoolish, and for some reason it reminds me of the (excellent) AGI game Enclosure. As with Geoffkhan's tune, the only thing I'd ask for is more variation and innovation. It's nice as it is and would fit just great in a sci-fi game, but some more chords and other changes would make it more memorable.

MillsJROSS
Our only midi submission! And it is also a good one! There's nothing to dislike here, I think it fits the theme just right, and it never gets repetitive. Nice one.

Peter Thomas
The most experimental tune of the bunch! I like it a lot. I especially like the sound of the first high pitched strings that bend down. Very atmospheric. Perhaps not ideal for exploration background music, but as you said you did it quickly, and you have indeed every right to think it is nice!

So there you have it. Out of these four, I am supposed to choose a winner. I'll just get it over with and choose one quickly:

MillsJROSS!

You win! All the other tunes recieve a very honourable tied 2nd place.
Go ahead and start the next one whenever you're ready.

Tune Contest March 4 to 11

Guest2

Archy at skool