In Octave Devlog #6 - a m b i e n t

Hello! Last week I didn't write any devlog. The reason being that I couldn't get much time for the game, and thus didn't have a lot to show. And actually… I won't have a lot of time in the coming weeks either. June is going to be a busy month! Progress will be slow…

That doesn't mean that I can't work at all! And today, I'm proud to announce that the music is complete!

Paulstretch

Last time I tried to create some synthesizers, only to find out that they sounded just horrible. I need to find some other sonorities. Something lighter, peaceful, evoking glass or crystal… After listening to some low music, I realized that a lot of the synthetic instruments actually reminded me acoustic instruments. It clearly wasn't those instruments, but it shared some similarities in the vibes. Sometimes they were almost voices, sometimes it was like a stretched sound of flute or guitar… That lead me to think: why not try this?

So I selected several instrument's samples, and applied a Paulstretch effect to them. Paulstretch is an effect that stretch a sound by creating some kind of reverb to it, thus allowing to make really large stretches. You might already have heard it in some videos that slow down famous themes at 800% (they are oddly relaxing). The sounds that this effect produce are really different from the original ones (especially for percussions), but they keep some kind of essence. So I played around with that, hoping to find interesting results.

And I wasn't disappointed! Among the instruments that worked the best were the vibraphone and mandolin. Their sounds weren't constant, so I had to edit them a bit to change them into long loop. Not only do these sound feel nice, they are also more vibrant and alive, with tons of little variations! I also used a tuba, but this one was more difficult to use. See, there is a downside to this technique: stretched down, instruments don't sound tuned anymore. Frequencies variations are more obvious, and they can easily give the impression of a slightly detuned instrument. My workarounds for this were to mix them with a light oscilloscope (which is perfectly tuned), and in the worst case, try to fiddle with an equalizer to obtain a correct note.

Here is an example of a stretched vibraphone

Structure

I also changed the construction of the music. Previously, I stated that I wanted a different sound for each level. Last time, that wasn't really satisfying… It makes the level too separate to each other! They need to be linked somehow, to form a single cohesive atmosphere!

So I decided to always use the same instrument for every level, with some very slight variations. Like some added instruments: the further the player goes, the louder it gets. But not too loud of course. Just some more volume to make the player feels they are getting closer to something. I chose the vibraphone as the main instrument: it's the more relaxing, with a it of mystery to it.

I also added some abstract percussions. Well, more like ambient sounds actually. I recorded those manually, with what I had on hand (too lazy to stand up and search my apartment for interesting objects). With some reverb and other effects, I got some nice results. Alternatively I also used deformed white noise to create some waves. That always work!

However, there is still something that distinguish every level from one another; it's the “complementary” track. The one that gets louder as the player progress into the level. Each one of those use different instruments, with different effects. Some are even not sustained chords! Most of the time, I only used two notes that make a transition between the current chord and the next one. And instead of fading them immediately once the level changes, I let them fade out a bit longer. This makes a way smoother transition. And most importantly, it adds variety to the music while keeping a consistent ground.

Finally, I implemented the last bit of music (one that was already planned this time): a jingle once a new level is reached. Giving the player a nice feedback when they accomplish something. There is a different melody for every level, but always with the same instrument. This time I opted for a classic triple oscillator, with a low pass filter and some echo. Pretty close to what I'm used to do, but it creates a contrast with the rest of the soundtrack.

Bouncing instruments

Last but not least, I implemented the instruments for the balls! Remember: there are three kinds of ball, each one associated with an instrument. I decided to go with piano for the first one, xylophone for the second one, and a stringed instruments for the last one.

My first mission was to find some good samples. And it turned out to be way harder than expected! Well, seeing how it is for virtual instruments, I should have known. The worst with looking for free samples is that you keep finding loops samples, that are not suited at all for samplers! Some other samples only provide a single note, which is far from ideal. My best tip is to look for VFZ: It's a format of virtual instrument that rely on sample. Once you find one, you can easily find .wav from which it is build. There are some nice VFZ collections existing with Creative Common license.

Second mission was to add effects and adjust volume. I mostly used reverb, and echo for the xylophone. The goal is to make the instruments stand out only a little, so that they are still a part of the melody. Most importantly, there are many of them by the end of the game! So they should not fight with each other, and keep a reasonable volume.

And here is the result:

This time, I'm pretty satisfied!

There is still some sound effects missing. One for the player throwing a ball, another one for them hitting a ball. These events occur quite often, so the sounds should not be too invasive. I'll try to make them as quiet as possible.

But this won't be my priority! For next time, I want to work on one of the last thing that prevent the game to be completely finished: an ending screen. One that would display the time, the score, and basically congratulate the player. While I'm on it, a start screen would also be really nice, don't you think? We'll see If I will have time for both. See you soon!