Rayman: Revenge of the Dark

[deton24]

Really you haven't got that Lysol is just "bald" in Polish. I had apologised you for committing that mistake.
And you are still so proud of you by sending these criminals to to hack my accounts?
I think it is just pure immaturity, so appreciated and common among users here. It's like:
"Hey, we are just on board about game for kiddies, right? who cares.

If moderation had worked here, inapropriete contend would have been deleted, and conflict ended.
It used to work both ways on "normal" sites.

But yeah, why not to make some fun and let the people being hacked instead;
by just silent supporting attackers.

Enough of taking over Adsolution's topic.

[Harpic fraîcheur]

And you are still so proud of you by sending these criminals to to hack my accounts?

Do you actually realize you're the one who bringed this back?

Enough of taking over Adsolution's topic.

Alright, if you have anything to say PM me.

[deton24]

Maybe I will agree with you. But it's not difficult to provoke me, and you had practiced it.

[Goth Teensie]

Oh, come on people, don't hate each other. We're all here to enjoy Absolution's work, not to argue.

[Shrooblord]

1. The Land of Unimportant Proportion - "Various Ventures" 0:00
2. The Dream Forest - "Urky Murky" 4:27
3. The Dream Forest - "Half-Light Shanty" 8:34
4. Canyon of the Lost: The Spirit Mist" 12:27
5. The Penumbra River - "Dark Green" 16:15
6. The Penumbra River - "Fluoral Garden" 20:27

Made in Logic Pro X. Tracks 3, 5 and 6 are entirely new this time, whereas the others are remakes/reimaginings of older tracks. Additionally, in order to have them sound more like the older tracks, I made extensive use of my Yamaha MO8's samples, especially in "The Spirit Mist". While I often incorporate some acoustically-recorded instruments into each track, "Half-Light Shanty" contains the highest number to date, with recorded flute, oboe, violin, guitar and vocals, all of which are performed by me aside from the violin, which was played by my brother.

I came here to listen to this thing, and comment.
Can't wait to hear #3; I don't think I've ever heard your brother perform yet. Quite intrigued to find out!

1. The Land of Unimportant Proportion - "Various Ventures"
0:03 - I'm feeling something Zeldaey.
1:40 - I'm well into the feeling of this. It's upbeat, got interesting chord progression and grandiose, even though it's supposedly about a miniature land, right? Nice contrast.
2:38 - The theme of the song carries well into the third minute; not repetitive and plays very nicely with the other subthemes and motifs going on.
3:25 - This is the third time this progression has come in and I love it. It's also got a variation at the end. What I like about it is that it's both dark, ominous, light-hearted and carefree at the same time.
4:05 - Why does "Hans Zimmer" spring into my mind??

2. The Dream Forest - "Urky Murky"
4:45 - Clean opening. Can someone pick up that phone, please?
5:10 - Three-part marimba. Heavy yet still light. Love the sound of wood instruments.
6:12 - Piano riff YES
6:35 - The bass guitar is very relaxed. This tune is suave.
8:00 - Overall I feel this track is a nice, "easy listen". Non-intrusive and relaxing, but not boring.

3. The Dream Forest - "Half-Light Shanty"
8:45 - ALL NEW AND SPARKLY HERE IT COMES
9:05 - It feels somewhat zen/spiritual. I like the backgrounds of birds' song.
10:00 - Ah-ha!!
10:45 - Your vocals are always so ethereal. Eerie vibe but in a calming way. how do you give me these weird conflicting emotions??
12:00 - This was a calm track. Mellow yet forlorn.

4. Canyon of the Lost: The Spirit Mist"
12:30 - Oh something exciting is about to happen, isn't it?
12:45 - Oh yeah, I can feel the build-up.
13:20 - Loving the overall vibe of this. It reminds me of the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava soundtrack (my absolute favourite in the entire score Chevalier did).
14:00 - Those synth reeds(?) add nice depth.
14:15 - Mmmm... delicious melodies from the piano.
15:15 - It sounds airy, breathy. Is it wind or gheist? Breath of life? *checks title* Ah yes.
15:35 - Sweet harp. I can't get mine to sound that crisp!

5. The Penumbra River - "Dark Green" 16:15
16:25 - It begins ominous and heavy. I feel darkness.
16:55 - Faraway brass echoing from caves in the distance. It's remote.
17:40 - Am I being lifted from a dream?
18:10 - This track is chilling. I'm feeling icy cold.
19:15 - Is that the sound of a cave's heartbeat?
19:58 - Woah. E---eeww--ew very nice. Quite creepy.

6. The Penumbra River - "Fluoral Garden" 20:27
21:00 - The Penumbra River tracks all have this "darkness" and remoteness about them. They're murky, deep, endless.
21:30 - I can imagine a vast cavern, a deep well, or maybe even the emptiness of outer space.
22:00 - There's a lot going on here in this scene. Something captivates the eye, something wondrous. Maybe terrifyingly crushing to the heart, but wondrous or great in stature or importance. There could be a dramatic reveal here of sorts. Or maybe it's just the environment's inherent epicness.
22:45 - Love the subtle vocals as always.
23:25 - That's a real recorded flute right?
24:10 - The themes of the song return now with bass and piano and more pronounced choirs(?); your reprises are very satisfying. Never boring.
25:00 - I can hear so many instruments subtly mixed in or only playing the one note they need to play to complete the track.
25:05 - I wanted to listen to this flute solo twice. It's beautiful. Distant, emotional, it's weeping. It carries you with it in its phrase.
25:50 - And it all disappears into the vast expanse again, ebbing away into the deep.
26:18 - Wow! Half an hour very well spent.

-----

Overall, I'm still mega jealous of how polished and 'produced' your music always sounds. I've gotten quite a lot better over the years (coincindentally just listened to all of my work in Cubase from over the past 5 years (what?? yeah, that long, wow) and notice a definite improvement in the songs I've been editing/mixing/scoring/composing up until recently versus the ones I haven't touched since 2012-2013ish), but I need to git gud and git on ur lvl!!!!

PS
Forget that Hans Zimmer masterclass I was looking into, I want one from you!

[gamerz31w]

Adsolution can you show us early designstages of Raven, please?

[thecraftinatorx]

-Hey adso, do you use an specific level design tool?

[Adsolution]

-Hey adso, do you use an specific level design tool?

I build the levels in the CryEngine editor. What do you mean exactly?

----------

Can't wait to hear #3; I don't think I've ever heard your brother perform yet. Quite intrigued to find out!

It's actually very subtle. I'll be featuring him more prominently in some later tracks that focus on the violin.

1. The Land of Unimportant Proportion - "Various Ventures"
0:03 - I'm feeling something Zeldaey.

Haho, someone said the same thing in the original 2012 (part 22) version of the track which didn't even have that intro section.

1:40 - I'm well into the feeling of this. It's upbeat, got interesting chord progression and grandiose, even though it's supposedly about a miniature land, right? Nice contrast.

It's a hybrid miniature/regular/macro land, given the name of the world. Nothing is sensibly scaled, but that somehow works just fine for the land's inhabitants.

2:38 - The theme of the song carries well into the third minute; not repetitive and plays very nicely with the other subthemes and motifs going on.

I'm actually surprised how long some of these tracks end up being, because I feel like they're going through very fast, brief motions, and yet somehow a repeat of a small three-section motif ends up being like two and a half minutes.

4:05 - Why does "Hans Zimmer" spring into my mind??

Lolo, I'm not quite sure, but I'm glad it worked.

2. The Dream Forest - "Urky Murky"
4:45 - Clean opening. Can someone pick up that phone, please?

Oh yeah, it does kind of sound like that. Ask 2010 me why, since this one is a remake of a part 8 track.

5:10 - Three-part marimba. Heavy yet still light. Love the sound of wood instruments.

That Project Sam: True Strike percussion kit I bought back in 2013 was one of the best purcahses ever.

8:00 - Overall I feel this track is a nice, "easy listen". Non-intrusive and relaxing, but not boring.

This one is the perfect example of what I said earlier: I have no idea how this track is actually four minutes and not like 2-2.5.

3. The Dream Forest - "Half-Light Shanty"
8:45 - ALL NEW AND SPARKLY HERE IT COMES
9:05 - It feels somewhat zen/spiritual. I like the backgrounds of birds' song.

I was hoping you'd notice, but: notice that the birds are actually from the Rayman 2 Woods of Light ambience (I think only used in Revolution - it's on RayTunes).

10:00 - Ah-ha!!

hn yes

10:45 - Your vocals are always so ethereal. Eerie vibe but in a calming way. how do you give me these weird conflicting emotions??

I usually try and make my voice sound as childlike as possible for things like this, and I guess children are real evocative (they are for me )

4. Canyon of the Lost: The Spirit Mist"
(...)
13:20 - Loving the overall vibe of this. It reminds me of the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava soundtrack (my absolute favourite in the entire score Chevalier did).

Does it? I'm curious, can you elaborate?

15:35 - Sweet harp. I can't get mine to sound that crisp!

They're just from the Kontakt factory library, so you definitely can! I want to Skype you soon..!

Fun tr(f)ac(k)toid: this was the second track I ever arranged, on my MO8 back in January 2010, in part 2. It kinda rips off OneRepublic - Apologize a bit, and the funny thing is, this remake actually rips off Apologize's sound way more than the 2010 version does.

5. The Penumbra River - "Dark Green" 16:15
(...)
16:55 - Faraway brass echoing from caves in the distance. It's remote.

Ah yes, the brass effect, which I do by distorting a (suitable) synth (kind of) and then rolling it off.

19:15 - Is that the sound of a cave's heartbeat?

I sort of pictured the sound of water sloshing against the inside of a small open cavity in the cave, creating little pressure pops and the like.

19:58 - Woah. E---eeww--ew very nice. Quite creepy.

This has become something I do a lot since I started working on my ambient album, and I love the sound, since it makes me think of strange underwater creatures communicating via sonar through dense walls of water.

6. The Penumbra River - "Fluoral Garden" 20:27
21:00 - The Penumbra River tracks all have this "darkness" and remoteness about them. They're murky, deep, endless.

Aye. It's all about the mystery and beauty. The idea that each of these worlds have so much more to offer than you'd ever get to lay your eyes on, despite the vastness of the areas you're already able to explore. The idea that you/Rayman could just set up camp in any one of these worlds and forget about the outside world, for all intents and purposes.

Setting up camp underwater though? Well, shortly before this level begins, Rayman gets a power that allows him to breathe underwater. As much as I love Whale Bay, its atmosphere and music, I really wish games would allow you the freedom to explore their underwater worlds without worrying about having just enough time to bolt from one breath source to the next, especially considering the fact that underwater environments can house some of the most beautiful and timeless visuals imaginable.

21:30 - I can imagine a vast cavern, a deep well, or maybe even the emptiness of outer space.

Speaking of environments, I can give some insight:

Dark Green takes place in the second area of the Penumbra River, where you're pulled deep into a trench and are navigating through pitch-black rock and dense curtains of seaweed (hence the "dark green") (inspired by the beginning of Finding Dory), illuminated by lantern fish swimming up and down.

This track's title is a pun on flowers and fluorescence, implying, of course, that the plants glow It takes place shortly after Dark Green, where you find yourself in a garden of highly dangerous but beautiful underwater foliage, before you arrive at the final section of the level (a sunken ship).

22:00 - There's a lot going on here in this scene. Something captivates the eye, something wondrous. Maybe terrifyingly crushing to the heart, but wondrous or great in stature or importance. There could be a dramatic reveal here of sorts. Or maybe it's just the environment's inherent epicness.

Like a few levels in the game, this is one of those where Rayman's only goal is to navigate through it from beginning to end - nothing of narrative interest happens aside from whatever you make of it. It's all environmental.

22:45 - Love the subtle vocals as always.

;D

I actually use recorded vocals very densely in a lot of tracks, but they're very background and ambiguous - I boost the trebles a lot, and they often are what adds a lot of the "whooshing spice" . It allows me to very easily create massive washes of treble that swell in and out, since the automation is all done with the vocal cords, of course. This track, for instance, has at least 3-4 vocals going simultaneously during 22:45. Fun in the Snow had seven going at once in multiple places.

23:25 - That's a real recorded flute right?

Aye.

24:10 - The themes of the song return now with bass and piano and more pronounced choirs(?); your reprises are very satisfying. Never boring.
25:00 - I can hear so many instruments subtly mixed in or only playing the one note they need to play to complete the track.

I know how much you love that kind of thing.

One of those subtle instruments is a really mellow jazz guitar, which is responsible for some of the right before each downbeat. You can hear it quite clearly at 25:40 and onward, on the downbeats.

25:05 - I wanted to listen to this flute solo twice. It's beautiful. Distant, emotional, it's weeping. It carries you with it in its phrase.

Part of that is actually aided by my relatively mediocre flute skills, which make it sound kind of shaky and sharp, almost as if it were weeping and crying out. Of course, if I were better, I could be doing those things intentionally if I wanted to, but here it's one of those cases where I'm turning a negative into a positive.

Overall, I'm still mega jealous of how polished and 'produced' your music always sounds.

Hue! Well, for me, the effects are just as important as the composition itself, depending on the track. Tracks like Dark Green were "composed" on the spot in all of 10-15 minutes, and the other four hours or so were spent on production and automation. Morphing very basic synths to create a soundscape and sound however I want them to.

Forget that Hans Zimmer masterclass I was looking into, I want one from you!

Lolo! Well, like I said, I'd love to Skype with you again and show you some neat stuff.

[thecraftinatorx]

I build the levels in the CryEngine editor. What do you mean exactly?

Hey Adso, I hope you're doing fine, I was wondering if you usually design the levels in a prototype before building them on Cryengine, have a nice day.

[Adsolution]

It depends on where I get the inspiration for an area from, but in most cases I'll think up something in my head, whitebox (model a crude outline directly in the engine), gameplay test it, then model the actual environmental assets. I think that's a pretty standard workflow.

[Shrooblord]

4. Canyon of the Lost: The Spirit Mist"
(...)
13:20 - Loving the overall vibe of this. It reminds me of the Sanctuary of Rock and Lava soundtrack (my absolute favourite in the entire score Chevalier did).

Does it? I'm curious, can you elaborate?

Naturellement. It all starts with those electric keys that the track starts with, which reminds me of the glockenspiel/celesta(?) opening that Chevalier did in the Into the SoRaL track.
Then at 12:45 you have those chimes running through from high to low, much like Éric did, except with that awesome sample he uses that sounds like it comes from a wood instrument of sorts, which play together with low, long-stretching and ominous notes.
In general the track's got an epic, adventurous and "forgotten" feeling to it. You're experiencing something that has long since passed, but whose grandiose splendour you can still walk amongst even now.
14:05 Then of course there's a little hint of harp, which features prominently in Into the SoRaL.
There's also something about the chord progression that just reminds me of it. This one is harder to put into words so I'm trying my best here; I know it's vague but I can't do any better than vague on this specific point.
15:35 the harp arpeggios are clearly reminiscent, like I said before about 14:05 - but now they take the lead to the foreground so the reminder is stronger. By the way, I love how they arpeggiate up and down twice, then reach out to this higher note and arpeggiate back down again. Good writing.

15:35 - Sweet harp. I can't get mine to sound that crisp!

They're just from the Kontakt factory library, so you definitely can! I want to Skype you soon..!

YES GOD YES
i will arrange this with you in more detail... elsewhere....

This track's title is a pun on flowers and fluorescence, implying, of course, that the plants glow

Heh, I got that straight away.

I actually use recorded vocals very densely in a lot of tracks, but they're very background and ambiguous - I boost the trebles a lot, and they often are what adds a lot of the "whooshing spice" . It allows me to very easily create massive washes of treble that swell in and out, since the automation is all done with the vocal cords, of course. This track, for instance, has at least 3-4 vocals going simultaneously during 22:45. Fun in the Snow had seven going at once in multiple places.

I love reading your thought and design process in this. Very insightful, and fun, too.

24:10 - The themes of the song return now with bass and piano and more pronounced choirs(?); your reprises are very satisfying. Never boring.
25:00 - I can hear so many instruments subtly mixed in or only playing the one note they need to play to complete the track.

I know how much you love that kind of thing.

Haha you never fail to deliver on the earcandy.

One of those subtle instruments is a really mellow jazz guitar, which is responsible for some of the right before each downbeat. You can hear it quite clearly at 25:40 and onward, on the downbeats.

Some of the what, before each downbeat? C'mon man, don't give me a cliffhanger like that!

25:05 - I wanted to listen to this flute solo twice. It's beautiful. Distant, emotional, it's weeping. It carries you with it in its phrase.

Part of that is actually aided by my relatively mediocre flute skills, which make it sound kind of shaky and sharp, almost as if it were weeping and crying out. Of course, if I were better, I could be doing those things intentionally if I wanted to, but here it's one of those cases where I'm turning a negative into a positive.

Hahahaha "All planned, of course. "

[Keane]

Does Rayman get the girl at the end of the game?

[Adsolution]

How did you know?


I started working on recreating this today, which will appear in the game:

[Master]

Huh, it looks very cartoon-like. Are you using a cel-shader or something of the sort?

[Adsolution]

Ja, it's just one of 3ds Max's default shading modes. I aim to have some kind of oil-cel-shading in the game as well, though much more subtle.

[thecraftinatorx]

Hey adso! I have one question, the world of Rayman RotD is gonna be "Open World"?

Btw i hope you're doing fine dude!

[Shrooblord]

That's definitely gonna make some people fanboi out Addy

In fact

its making me... must
resist

cannot

full moon

the fanboi
awakens

OH
MY

GOOOD SOO AWESOMEEEEE YES RAYMAN 4 CONCEPT ART IN 3D WHADDAFAKWADDAFAKWADDAFAK SO COOOOOL

mor pls

[raymanHUN]

Wow, these soundtracks... just listened part 33, and it was like... god, it was AWESOME I haven't been this hyped about a soundtrack since the old Total War Eras'... Seems I just found the perfect music to listen to while programming. Keep it up!

[Adsolution]

Hey adso! I have one question, the world of Rayman RotD is gonna be "Open World"?

You progress through the levels linearly, except for one part about two thirds of the way through where you have the option to tackle five different levels in any order. However, the individual levels themselves range from being linear to entirely open and explorable.

Wow, these soundtracks... just listened part 33, and it was like... god, it was AWESOME I haven't been this hyped about a soundtrack since the old Total War Eras'... Seems I just found the perfect music to listen to while programming. Keep it up!

Hey thanks! Very much appreciated.

mor pls

yes, yes, soon !! i am first doing this:
i also spent about 2 hours rigging two of his fingers last night. let's see if i can finish them today.

[Shrooblord]

A cloth physics! So cool.

Can't wait to see them wave in the wind during a slippery slide, or maybe a ride with Ssssam?