Rayman: Revenge of the Dark

[Adsolution]

Hai guiz we having a new soundtrak pert twennyfer:

1. "Penumbra Ocean: Down Low Discovery" - 0:00
2. "Introduction Sequence 2" - 5:45
3. "The Final Act: Phase Five (Final Aerial Fight)" - 8:50



In my opinion these are some of my favourites I've done. I draw specific attention to track two, as it's very important and had a lot of work put into it.

Comments and critique anyone? Preferably with some thought put into it.

I like the first, I love the second and I cover my ears on third one. ;P

I don't mind you having a problem with it at all, but can you at least point out what about it you don't like or what you think should be improved? Emphasis on "Preferrably with some thought put into it."

The second one reminds me of the "Academy of Evil" stage from Crash Twinsanity

Same here, fellow Crash Bandicoot fan.


RayFan, you should totally make a rock song, or at least a rock instrumental with maybe some computer generated stuff. I would like to hear that from you, and you could maybe use it as something in le game.

Aha, I'll give something rockish a go. I've strangely never even considered it before.

As for your request, I tried to record me playing some stuff on le drum set but my battery died and I was like ''oh fuck no''. But I shall try!

What on Earth are you recording it with? Your phone?

[Rulez]

As for your request, I tried to record me playing some stuff on le drum set but my battery died and I was like ''oh fuck no''. But I shall try!

What on Earth are you recording it with? Your phone?

LOL no, my camera, which I was using the whole day for an English project with my friends and just at the end of the day, DEAD DERP and I'm like

[R3fan2]

Rayfan I was wondering if I could write a book version of Rayman Revenge of The Dark. I have already written a prologue.

[Shrooblord]

and maybe more progress on the Ly we didn't see for days!

Quewhatdidyasay? Ly the fairy? Where?

I'm listening to the music right now. The ocean one is very atmospheric and perfect for an underwater scene; empty and silent at times, which allows you to sink into the situation as a gamer, if you will. Will the entire track loop through or is it comprised of several themes that will be used in different areas?
The second one is mysterious and sounds quite magical. The glockenspiels (or whatevers) really add to this. The silences in the beginning are really eerie. Mystical and with a great feeling to it.
The battle phase is exciting, though might I say a bit repetitive when it comes to chord progression; even the second part sounds like it's just a transposed version of the first one - nothing wrong with that, of course, but maybe you'd like to mix it up a little with a truely different 'bridge-like' thing. Try listening to the Rayman Origins flying score - it's really varied and stays fun even though certain themes recur (which is I think what you're trying to achieve, right?). It also sounds a lot like all the other final phase ones, which makes it fit in, but also makes it a bit of a nuisance if you're one of the more impatient of minds (not me though). I like the little solos too. The electronic instruments sound fun, but have you considered using string sections once? They work really well for dramatic and fast-paced action themes. The endboss music for Rayman 2 is done with lots of strings and an electric guitar (plus some syntesizer sounds here and there).

One comment though: sometimes the music seems to 'skip'; it sounds like the notes just don't fit to eachother and there's a brief silence of a quarter of a second long inbetween them. Between 13:18 and 13:20 is a good example of what I mean.

Great job, again. Keep it coming!

PS
Did your instruments come with Logic Pro or did you buy some VST sets? I myself recently bought Komplete Elements 8 and am mightily impressed by the quality it has - though a bit disappointed about the amount of instruments actually included; but hey, what'd you expect from a 50 euro version of an 800 euro product? Sacrifices will be made. Hopefully I'll be able to buy the Ultimate series at some point in the future. But for now, I'll make due with what I have; I've been doing that for years already anyway, so I have a feeling I'll be able to cope.

[Pusianka]

I think I once told you that on betillas garden that you should go with more simplistic styles and I gave you examples back then of how it should be but I'm on Ipod now and it would hell lot of work to give you examples of how it shouldn't and how it should be like.
So basically simplier and I'd rather you make less use of ehm sounds which are made by computers and different effects in amps. Using these should be really well thought out and they shouldn't be the main part rather. Though TK liked these so maybe you should stick with his taste (I am usually in minority - that's why I listen to cuban music but shh! Don't tell anyone...)

[Shrooblord]

RayFan, I meant to ask you: how do you plan on incorporating your music in the game? What kind of filetype will you use, how will you loop it and how accessible are the files? You see, MP3 I guess would be better overall in quality, though would suck at looping. Certain compressions of Waveform files are excellent quality and loop perfectly, but come with big filesizes. Ogg Vorbis ones seem to take a middle road in this, but they aren't as widely supported. Perhaps you even hardcode your music in your own kind of filetype? How do you plan on looping it exactly? Do you just repeatedly play one file, looping round back as soon as it finishes? Do you use some kind of intricate system like Rayman M does or do you do something else entirely? How much protection do you put on your files? How are you going to ensure nobody will be able to alter them? Or are you exactly not doing that, allowing for custom modding and the like?

These questions arose with me as I was thinking of my own game, and I wanted to know what you think about them.

[Pusianka]

I can bet my best flip flops that Cryengine has either its own file type for music or is using already one of the above as a default.

[Adsolution]

Rayfan I was wondering if I could write a book version of Rayman Revenge of The Dark. I have already written a prologue.

Oh wow, definitely! I would love to read something like that.

Quewhatdidyasay? Ly the fairy? Where?

By days, he means years. I started a Ly model over a year ago, but I haven't gotten around to finishing it.

I'm listening to the music right now. The ocean one is very atmospheric and perfect for an underwater scene; empty and silent at times, which allows you to sink into the situation as a gamer, if you will. Will the entire track loop through or is it comprised of several themes that will be used in different areas?

They're different loops that trigger at different times, linking together seamlessly end-to-end, depending on what area of the level you're in.

The second one is mysterious and sounds quite magical. The glockenspiels (or whatevers) really add to this. The silences in the beginning are really eerie. Mystical and with a great feeling to it.

Yup, there are two glockenspiels a celesta.

The battle phase is exciting, though might I say a bit repetitive when it comes to chord progression; even the second part sounds like it's just a transposed version of the first one - nothing wrong with that, of course, but maybe you'd like to mix it up a little with a truely different 'bridge-like' thing. Try listening to the Rayman Origins flying score - it's really varied and stays fun even though certain themes recur (which is I think what you're trying to achieve, right?). It also sounds a lot like all the other final phase ones, which makes it fit in, but also makes it a bit of a nuisance if you're one of the more impatient of minds (not me though). I like the little solos too. The electronic instruments sound fun, but have you considered using string sections once? They work really well for dramatic and fast-paced action themes. The endboss music for Rayman 2 is done with lots of strings and an electric guitar (plus some syntesizer sounds here and there).

Good point Pusianka and Shroob, I'll see if I can do something about that.

One comment though: sometimes the music seems to 'skip'; it sounds like the notes just don't fit to eachother and there's a brief silence of a quarter of a second long inbetween them. Between 13:18 and 13:20 is a good example of what I mean.

I initially did that on purpose, though I made the mistake of having the notes come in late instead of the previous ones finishing early.

Did your instruments come with Logic Pro or did you buy some VST sets?

These are all the default instruments that come with Logic Pro. I do however also have the Waves plugin set, which are very high quality effects and such, but no additional instruments.

I myself recently bought Komplete Elements 8 and am mightily impressed by the quality it has - though a bit disappointed about the amount of instruments actually included; but hey, what'd you expect from a 50 euro version of an 800 euro product? Sacrifices will be made. Hopefully I'll be able to buy the Ultimate series at some point in the future. But for now, I'll make due with what I have; I've been doing that for years already anyway, so I have a feeling I'll be able to cope.

Good god, I idolize the Komplete 8 series. I'd be well pleased if you could upload a video demo with some of the instruments. My goal in the future is also to purchase the Ultimate edition.

I think I once told you that on betillas garden that you should go with more simplistic styles and I gave you examples back then of how it should be but I'm on Ipod now and it would hell lot of work to give you examples of how it shouldn't and how it should be like.
So basically simplier and I'd rather you make less use of ehm sounds which are made by computers and different effects in amps. Using these should be really well thought out and they shouldn't be the main part rather. Though TK liked these so maybe you should stick with his taste (I am usually in minority - that's why I listen to cuban music but shh! Don't tell anyone...)

Ah I see what you mean. I won't end up conforming to one style, but we'll see what happens.

RayFan, I meant to ask you: how do you plan on incorporating your music in the game? What kind of filetype will you use, how will you loop it and how accessible are the files? You see, MP3 I guess would be better overall in quality, though would suck at looping. Certain compressions of Waveform files are excellent quality and loop perfectly, but come with big filesizes. Ogg Vorbis ones seem to take a middle road in this, but they aren't as widely supported.

OGG Vorbis is the standard music format read by CryEngine.

You see, MP3 I guess would be better overall in quality,

Certainly not, MP3 is the lowest quality of all audio fileforms, even at a maximum 320 kb/s compression.

though would suck at looping.

That they do. When you save an MP3 file, there is a small gap of silence left at the beginning and end of the tracks of approximately 10-20ms, which sounds annoying when trying to loop or listen to a continuously flowing album.

Certain compressions of Waveform files are excellent quality and loop perfectly, but come with big filesizes.

WAV files in cross-terms are the equivalent of bitmaps, solely uncompressed and lossless data, resulting in perfect quality and large filesizes. FLAC files are about the equivalent of PNGs, as in they're lossless, but compressed to crop out the unnecessary data that serves no purpose.

How do you plan on looping it exactly? Do you just repeatedly play one file, looping round back as soon as it finishes? Do you use some kind of intricate system like Rayman M does or do you do something else entirely?

The first idea up there is retardedly lame, so no, I wouldn't do that. I guess it's more comparable to Rayman M, though it obviously wouldn't shift around so much since the only things the music depends on is where you are in the level or what's happening, as opposed to depending on a timer, what place you're in, and what lap you're on. I created the tracks with looping in mind, and one track conforms to one area or section.

For the game, I would slice up each track into multiple pieces for the loop, and each track has a 'beginning' point and an 'ending' point. When the track starts, it plays the 'beginning' slice once and proceeds on the first loop. If one loop finishes and it sees you've moved onto the next area of the section, it will begin the next loop end-to-end. Once you've finished the area, section or event, it waits for the loop to finish and then plays the 'ending' slice, however depending on the necessity of the occasion it will immediately cut to the ending slice. However, it won't be a straight 'cut to the ending slice,' in CryEngine you can enter the samples (time-wise) to specify 'fade points' within a loop, so it doesn't have to finish a loop to transition to the next loop or ending slice, which creates a nearly instant and seamless transition. There are also 'bridges' you can programme, which are basically just one-shot track slices that link two loops, but aren't actually included in the loop (eg: when you move onto the next section and it's time to move onto the next loop, it plays the bridge once, then goes into the next loop).

How much protection do you put on your files? How are you going to ensure nobody will be able to alter them? Or are you exactly not doing that, allowing for custom modding and the like?

They'll be pretty accessible. Not straight out in the open like folders, but compressed into PAK files, which can be decompressed provided you have the dev password I'll give out. The password gives you access to the game's scripts, models (CE format), textures sound effects, music, and one uncompiled level in a fully editable format.

I can bet my best flip flops that Cryengine has either its own file type for music or is using already one of the above as a default.

Well, that basically covers every single possibility, so, yes?

[Shrooblord]

Oh, thanks for clearing those things about audio filetypes up for me. I'm always a bit confused about which has what attributes and so forth. The comparisson to image files makes things a lot more understandable.
I'll see what I can do about the demo thing. I would sure like to make something to show off the styles and such. Later on, if I finish one of my tracks for my own game, I'll definately upload it to SoundCloud and you'd be able to access my account via my sig with the SoundCloud button, but as I have nothing uploaded yet, it's still inactive. In the meantime, why not check this video and its related ones out? It's them that really got me a taste of what Komplete can do - as well as the official site, of course.
On the subject of Komplete, I may have mentioned before that it lacks a guitar section. There's none at all, besides a nylon guitar, and, although it is great and sounds realistic, it hardly fills in for an electric one in for example exciting rock tracks. The site at Native Instruments gave me the impression there'd be electric guitars included, but I guess that's sneaky and smart marketing for you. Would anyone care to tell me if they know a good VST for electric guitars? Also, does someone here know how to record directly from an electric guitar into the computer (without use of a microphone so it doesn't lose any of the quality to background noise or room acoustics)? Would something like line-in do?

For the game, I would slice up each track into multiple pieces for the loop, and each track has a 'beginning' point and an 'ending' point. (...) but aren't actually included in the loop (eg: when you move onto the next section and it's time to move onto the next loop, it plays the bridge once, then goes into the next loop).

I'm not sure if I understand this whole section completely, but I guess what you said was that you've created tracks, plus track transitions especially created to transit between one theme of the track to another, or perhaps even from track to track (tracks being distinctly separate compositions, such as your 'Final Battle Phase #' series; they're composed of multiple tracks). Sounds like a good way to do it.
Does the music cease while the game loads a new area, like in Rayman 2, or does it continually play, like in games like the Sims (couldn't really find anything better to compare it with - sorry)?

[Adsolution]

Also, does someone here know how to record directly from an electric guitar into the computer (without use of a microphone so it doesn't lose any of the quality to background noise or room acoustics)? Would something like line-in do?

Look up Guitar Rig, it's exactly what you're looking for: a virtual amp. You may need some sort of pre-amp though, I'm not entirely sure.

Does the music cease while the game loads a new area, like in Rayman 2, or does it continually play, like in games like the Sims (couldn't really find anything better to compare it with - sorry)?

The music will stop during loading screens, but it fades out instead of abruptly cutting out. Yes, it also has a large image for the loading screens of the upcoming area as well as the progress bar underneath. However, it will probably take closer to ten or twenty seconds to load an area as opposed to Rayman 2's one or two seconds for obvious reasons. The areas are larger though.

[Shrooblord]

I always liked that loading screen. The team at UbiSoft always managed to capture a far more artistic view of an area than can be regularly seen while in-game. This is especially in Whale Bay the case, I believe - the picture of that moon is really scenic.
About Guitar Rig, Komplete Elements does actually come bundled with Guitar Rig players and amp effects. I believe the only thing I would really need is something to record the raw sound. The Guitar Rig controller is 250 euros and I'm not really all that into it at the moment to wish for something as advanced as that. All I need is something to record my sound with. Something cheap is of course an even better alternative, but quality over price so I wouldn't be that bothered to pay a little more for some better quality, however, the full blown extensiveness of the Guitar Rig Controller is a bit over the top for someone like me, who really just wants a recording device. What would you do? Do you use microphones? Do you even utilise electric guitars for your scores?

[Pusianka]

<<<assholeness censored>>>

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

[Rulez]

[Music Spam] http://www.gamefront.com/files/21355789/draft1.mp3/ [/Music Spam]

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

Pusianka, kocham cię jako Polaka i to nie w homoseksualnym sensie. Oprócz mnie, Stana i Louvis jesteś najbardziej przyjaznym Polakiem na tym forum. A teraz GIMME DE TINGZ

[TeensieKing]

[Music Spam] http://www.gamefront.com/files/21355789/draft1.mp3/ [/Music Spam]

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

Pusianka, kocham cię jako Polaka i to nie w homoseksualnym sensie. Oprócz mnie, Stana i Louvis jesteś najbardziej przyjaznym Polakiem na tym forum. A teraz GIMME DE TINGZ

Traduction: Pusianka,I love you,and not in the homosexual sense.Besides me,Stanna and Louves,detective,you are the most friendly person in this forum

[Rulez]

[Music Spam] http://www.gamefront.com/files/21355789/draft1.mp3/ [/Music Spam]

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

Pusianka, kocham cię jako Polaka i to nie w homoseksualnym sensie. Oprócz mnie, Stana i Louvis jesteś najbardziej przyjaznym Polakiem na tym forum. A teraz GIMME DE TINGZ

Traduction: Pusianka,I love you,and not in the homosexual sense.Besides me,Stanna and Louves,detective,you are the most friendly person in this forum

Close, but no cake for you. Stanna? Louves? Stan and Louvis would be sad
Where did you get ''detective''?

[Mr. Dark Thingamajig]

Hai guiz we having a new soundtrak pert twennyfer:

1. "Penumbra Ocean: Down Low Discovery" - 0:00
2. "Introduction Sequence 2" - 5:45
3. "The Final Act: Phase Five (Final Aerial Fight)" - 8:50



In my opinion these are some of my favourites I've done. I draw specific attention to track two, as it's very important and had a lot of work put into it.

Comments and critique anyone? Preferably with some thought put into it.

the second is beautiful

[Adsolution]

[Music Spam] http://www.gamefront.com/files/21355789/draft1.mp3/ [/Music Spam]

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

You know? You remind me a lot of my father, the only difference of course being that over the internet, muscle isn't a factor. You have this ridiculous attitude of superiority, and you always seem to be trying to make some 'point' that serves no purpose and pisses everybody off with its irrelevance to what's important or what's actually on-topic. You seem to think your view on things is of a higher intelligence than others, as you keep causing pointless shit arguments with comments like these:

Though TK liked these so maybe you should stick with his taste (I am usually in minority - that's why I listen to cuban music but shh! Don't tell anyone...)

It's like some completely futile attempt at reverse-psychology.

I like Cuban music too by the way. And for the love of god, this:

[Music Spam] http://www.gamefront.com/files/21355789/draft1.mp3/ [/Music Spam]

OH GEE! I have 305 useless tings! What am I gonna do with them?! I guess its time for a contest called "FAKE ADORATION". Express your (fake) love for me (my tings). The owner of the most interesting post gets the prize.

Just post it in the RaymanPC music thread and I would happily comment, or update your own music thread. I don't appreciate you trying to leach your 'popularity' off me because you don't get quite as many replies as you'd like in your thread. I know what I said may have sounded arrogant, but I'm being completely honest about the situation. I have just as much a word in this as others, don't I?

Currently, if this were a real life situation, we are the people trying to work and laugh together and enhance the project, and you're the backshadow who every so often throws in a pessimistically sarcastic comment far more seldom than anything useful, then mopes around, calling everybody else assholes when told to 'shut up.'

[Pusianka]

I assume you're in bad mood today, because if you were in good mood you would realise that everyone above this post (except for you) is having fun...
What's the point of bringing up the things from my earlier post even though you already commented them earlier and didn't get pissed? If you got angry with Music spam thingy: Fine! Tell me that directly instead of going on me for no real reason...

I haven't even been rude lately! Geez!

[Adsolution]

I assume you're in bad mood today, because if you were in good mood you would realise that everyone above this post (except for you) is having fun...
What's the point of bringing up the things from my earlier post even though you already commented them earlier and didn't get pissed? If you got angry with Music spam thingy: Fine! Tell me that directly instead of going on me for no real reason...

I haven't even been rude lately! Geez!

I initially found them quite annoying, but I didn't say anything, nor did anybody else for the obvious conclusion of "letting it slide."

And I did tell you directly. I just did above.

And yes, I am in a bit of a bad mood.

[Rayman fan2000]

Rayfan, will the Ly model ever see the light of day again? Just wondering, you left it on a lonely page while we all gravitated away and then forgot about it.