Choosing the right sound palate composition for any media is very crucial. It can make or break the emotional feeling you get from the media. Done right, people will remember the good scores that where developed for the media product, weather be a game or film. You must have a underlying theme first before choosing the sound palate to work with. Luckily I have established that by now in The Hands Resist Him.
So I thought I would share what main instruments I will use for this mod. There are a verity of sound-scapes that will embrace each mood of the levels. Essentially there are 5 main sound-scapes that will be presented in the mod. Lets take a look at the instruments that I will use for each of the moods. Also I will mix little elements from each sound scape to smoothly blend all the tracks together so it will not sound abrupt when the new sound scape is introduced. And of course, the instruments that are in pictures will be the main focus for that sound scape, I will also blend other instruments from Nexus 2 Hollywood 2 xp and Native Instruments Komplete 9 orchestral section as well.
Some instruments I have yet to purchase but working hard and saving as much money as I can to get the instrument I need.
Sound-scape 1: Contemporary Classical.
Having the player just beginning an adventure requires a peace of mind. Ease the player in just right and not too quick. What feeling of instruments can I bring into play to make such a setting? Given that the main places must be peaceful but at the same time, have a eerie fleeing at the same time. Something might not be right here in this place. Keeping things minimal and simple is sometimes the right choice.
Demo Track. (Please note that the piano and violin where from Nexus 2 Hollywood Expansion. I will update the piano sound to the Steinway 1969 Piano once I get the instrument.)
Sound-scape 2: Dark Drones, other worldly ambiance.
Many composers for horror will use other worldly sounds and dark drones, and this score is no different. Using the top quality instruments to bring this to life the ambiances of The Hands Resist Him. I will use both state of the art instruments and editing samples to totally change the sound to a dark drone feeling and other worldly sounds.
Sound-scape 3: Orchestral.
When things are becoming adventurous, the pacing of the story is beating up tempo, from horror, action moments, to peaceful aurora moments, one sound defines it. Orchestra is very versatile in moods. Often this is the most expensive to have for near perfection realism. Having all the state of the art virtual instruments or orchestra will cost you a couple of thousand dollars. While I will not have the state of the art sounds for this sound scape, still, the sounds will be very good to hear. Its all about how you arrange your composition.
Sound-scape 4: Fantasy Orchestral.
The things that you least expect in the story requires a bit of fantasy elements. If you entered a world of the unexpected, with different culture, language, environment styles, you would expect to hear this music. The world of fantasy orchestral music is a new beginning of virtual instruments in the market place today. The essence of this element will be mostly composition arrangements from "Altus, the Voice of Renaissance." This is an incredible vocal instrument that I stumbled upon recently. The quality is supreme.
Sound-scape 5: Character Themes / other themes.
Last but not least is the character themes. Like in many movies and video games, having character themes and other themes is I believe a good idea to implement. It grabs the listener to the mind of the character if you will. There will also be title screen, notes/memo themes as well to accompany the soundtrack.
I will also use other instrument elements in this composition from Native Instruments Komplete 9, as well with the eq and mastering effects it offers.
A look back:
I can honestly say that all of the music I was using for each level was from the Silent Hill games. The reason for it is the direction I was going with this mod in the first place was completely wrong. Can you guess was direction was it? A Silent Hill ripoff direction. Sadly, the levels that I created before looked too much like silent hill, I even used Silent Hill 2 textures in some levels! (I completely erased any SH texture from the game by now). I find to me is a shameful thing to do. Through a painful regret process of completely changing the direction of the mod, I am happy to see the almost original new direction. Lets face it, any idea we come up with is just built upon.
I have such a versatile sound palate, and to think I almost would not use it! I believe the music will stand out the most in this mod. I can safely say that the soundtrack will be very large. While I just started on composing the score, and do half to buy a few more instruments, I believe all the hard work will be worth it.
