Saturday Update!

Hello again! Sorry about the late update!

Last week was honestly pretty challenging for me. I had some health problems [ nothing major, just discomfort ] and also some mental health difficulty [ I've been crying again, fear and rage over my country being threatened with economic war and invasion ]. But don't worry, I'm feeling better today [ in both ways ] and I'm keeping my negative feelings in check. I won't let them take control or fester into hate. I'll keep standing tall.

I'm not really sure if anything I made this week is any good. I've been feeling like it isn't, but I'm not sure if that was because of my mood or not. I suppose either way it's still important practice.

I did make a lot of mp3s, but a bunch of them are variants- I want to have different versions of some things so I can have some thematic cohesion in the game / be able to change the tone more subtly than switching to an entirely different track.

I also made a comprehensive list of what I think I'll actually need. I can't show you guys since there's some spoilers, but I will need 6 songs [ 2 will be variants ], 14 loops [ 6 variants ], and if there's time, I'll add 7 more loops [ 3 variants ].

It feels good to have a plan!

Alright, here's the details of the downloadable files:

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suspense_loop_alone.mp3 and suspense_loop_strade.mp3:

These are gameplay loops, so I intend them to be kind of low-key and unobtrusive. The 'alone' version would be for when MC is by themself [ during the day ] and the 'strade' version would be for when Strade is present, but not actively harming MC.

I will probably revisit these if I can. It was a good exercise but I just don't think they're what I want yet.

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YouDied_v2.mp3:

Despite the name, I will absolutely not be using this on the 'You Died' screen. I like last week's song for that much better.

This is actually an older song I was working on months ago when I was first trying to learn the program. It was a total mess so I thought it would be good practice to see if I could fix it up and improve it.

I do believe I improved it and made it into a more viable 'song', but I feel like it's too crunchy and muddy to actually use for anything.

Still, it's valuable practice. I'm pretty certain I improved it, so I'm gonna take that as a good sign that I'm learning and my ability is growing.

Also I like the outro. That slapped.

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experiment6_survival.mp3:

My first attempt at a song for the 'You Survived' screen! This was challenging because I wanted a clean feeling to it, and for it to be a sort of mix of triumph and pain. I also tried to use more instruments that I haven't practiced with yet [ lots of strings ]

I'm getting a bit more comfortable using drum kits too.

I don't totally hate this but it's a bit short and maybe doesn't swell enough? It's a possibility, but it needs some work still.

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torture_loop_[variant].mp3:

These 3 loops are once again gameplay loops, so they're structured to keep an even vibe going and to repeat smoothly.

The names of the files are pretty self explanatory LMAO

I want them all to sound similar enough to be thematically connected, but they do need to serve different purposes and change the mood.

Like everything else, I'm not sure about them. Gameplay loops are hard because I want them to be unobtrusive enough to play in the background, looping, while a player reads and problem solves, but I still want them to have enough flavour to get people in the mood.

I think my main issue with these loops is the buzzing bass present in all 3. It's too repetitive. They all just feel too repetitive to me right now. I really don't want to annoy players LMAO

So, I'll have to either try again or keep working on these I think.

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I don't know if I can use any of these but I do think that I'm getting better at this, bit by bit. I'm starting to be able to remember what instruments sound like and to be able to think things like 'This needs a kick drum' or 'Everything is too low frequency, I need to sidechain some stuff with the compressor and add something higher frequency'. I think I'm starting to grasp the technical stuff, and I'm learning to remember where my sounds and samples are [ the program has thousands ]

The main thing I'm struggling with the most is coming up with melodies that work. That's different from technical knowledge. It's more like the creative heart of music, and I don't think I can brute force study that. I think I just have to keep trying and learning. One thing I've found that helps me a lot with that is listening to other songs and vocals, and then trying to imitate the sound myself with an instrument. I guess it's a little like drawing with a reference. I'm not good enough to really replicate stuff, but just listening to the notes and pacing of someone singing helps me understand how to make a melody. I'll have to keep practicing with that too.

And that's about it for this week!

Hopefully next week isn't quite so challenging ^^;

Thank you all so much for your support and kind words- see you next week!