Possible atmosphere track submission

[Alex]

First off, Hi everyone, I've been following this project for a while, since I am a great fan of the original UFO Enemy Unknown...  I really think you have all done a great job at coding & designing a fitting tribute to the original and I really think this could be one of the best tributes to an old game I've seen so far...  

Having said that, after playing UFOAI for a few hours last week I decided to whip out my trusty studio software, as I was in the right mood to create some brooding atmospherics.

When I was creating this, I had strong mental images of a small squad of soldiers creeping with flashlights through dark sewers or mines, not knowing what was around the corner and hearing all these strange noises that could be the wind, rats, or a slimy alien hell bent on the destruction of mankind.  (Would it be possible to have flashlights in-game?)

Anyway here is the link to the track: http://www.soundportfolio.com/music/soundtrack/brooding/fightmare.mp3

Personally I think as a piece of music its not exactly the kind of stuff you could play at a party, you really have to close your eyes and picture the effect of having this dark, brooding ambience to complement a dark and sinister environment.

All feedback is welcome, and if you want to hear any different styles please let me know since I really feel I could make some positive contributions to this project.

[Mattn]

i like this track - good stuff - but please reencode it as an ogg file.

and you have to agree to release it under some open source license - of course you will be listed in the credits

[Alex]

i like this track - good stuff - but please reencode it as an ogg file.

and you have to agree to release it under some open source license - of course you will be listed in the credits

The GPL is cool with me, is there anything official I need to do or is my word here enough?

I'll get the OGG version to you ASAP...  One quick question is that I can render this track to play on a continous loop (the trailing sections at the end are looped to overlap the start creating a seamless transition from the end to beginning)...  Is the AI engine able to play the track on a continous loop or should I render it to fade out at the end?

[Mattn]

we have auto fading at the end - nevertheless it would be nice if the start end end would be seamless

thanks for your contribution

[Alex]

Ok I'm currently uploading the OGG version...  give it 5 minutes or so to upload then you can get it at:

http://www.soundportfolio.com/music/soundtrack/brooding/fightmare.mp3

Onto the next thing, I have in mind a track thats a more creepy outdoor night ambience, with a few layered textures of creepiness mingled with shuffling paper, distant footsteps, a tin can rattling in the distance, crickets chirping etc...  Should I proceed?

[Mattn]

the versions are "scratching" somehow - or is it only me?

[Alex]

Scratching?  I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Which versions are you talking about - the mp3 or the ogg?  Maybe I messed up my OGG encoding (theres literally thousands of ways to cook an ogg).

[Zenerka]

For me both versions are scratching - that is making some noise like, you know, scratching .
The noise like the damaged speaker is generating when playing music, or something like that. The noise like the old music played by the gramophone from vinyl used to generate. (I am sorry, I don't know how to describe it nice way in english).

[Alex]

Is the scratching sound occuring all the way through the track or does it get worse in certain places?

Thanks for the feedback - I am not sure if we are hearing the same thing but if there is a problem I want to get it fixed.

Cheers

[Zenerka]

For me it scratches with random period during the whole track.

Please, take a look at http://voovoos.killfile.pl/roznosci/winamp.jpg it's my winamp playing this file. During almost whole track the two first bars are almost always at maximum value. I know nothing about music/sound but I suspect that those frequencies are just bit too high. Similar scratching effect I can get with any music file when raising first two bars on winamp equalizer to max.

[Alex]

Ok thanks for pointing that out, seems I need to roll off lower frequencies and do some mastering to clean this one up.

Overall do you think the higher frequencies could use a slight boost?

[Alex]

Zenerka: Try this version and see if thats fixed it.

http://www.soundportfolio.com/music/soundtrack/brooding/fightmare_2.ogg

I think the problem may have been caused by the fact that I am spoilt with my studio speakers.  When sub-sonic frequencies find their way into the music, these speakers will handle them with no problems, I've seen the cones moving at frequencies lower than 1hz.  With less capable speakers, these frequencies cause distortion.  If I had the lights on when I was making the track, I would have seen the cones moving excessively slowly...

Anyway I should really have spent the extra hour necessary to clean up the inaudible frequencies in the first place, but at least the problem was picked up now rather than later.  I simply stacked some parametric EQ's to roll off frequencies from 30Hz down (most people can't hear below 20Hz anyway), and I boosted some of the upper frequencies to bring out the movement in the middle to high sections of the track.

I'll do the same with the other track I submitted to make sure the same problem doesn't exist there.

--edit: Can we commit this one instead of the one already in there.  I'd do it myself but I'm not sure how to access the SVN.

[Zenerka]

Thanks for your work, the new version does not scratch and is very nice. Commited to repository.

[Alex]

Thankyou...  *wonders what to do next*

[inquisiteur2]

very good x-com feeling in this track.