My first finished track for the background music in the VR experience is the one I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about our first crit. Unfortunately, due to not being able to access my laptop before the the session I hadn’t been able to upload it to the google drive for feedback, however I have now finished it.
This track was primarily based off a session I booked for myself at the synthesis workbench at LCC, and started off as a repeating sequence on the Make Noise 0 Coast synth:
I recorded the sequence playing for about 3 minutes whilst gradually adjusting the controls on the synth, adding and taking away elements of the percussiveness that make up the sound.
I then placed the London Atmos 2 patch from Native Instruments on top of the sequence to provide some ambience, and added some distortion on top.
This was about as far as I got before the first crits.
When I came back to the piece later on, I decided to keep it mostly the same throughout. There are a couple of reasons for this:
- I want to keep the tracks fairly minimal – this is so they don’t overpower the other aspects of the game
- It’s best if they are simple so they can be looped easily, as you don’t know how long a player will stay on a certain part of the experience
The only other element I added was an occasional piece of guitar feedback that comes in and out of the piece:
This sort of gives a sound reminiscent of radio static, which I feel reflects the mood of confusion and overwhelm that is going to be a part of the experience.
Now the piece is finished, I am happy with it. Obviously, this is only the first and I aim to make more for the game, but I think the use of low, repetitive synths with a clicky-percussive noise gives off an anxious feeling which is what I wanted to get across from my sonic contributions to the piece, as it represents a lot of my feelings towards university – being neurodiverse I can often feel very overwhelmed, anxious and stressed about my work. For my next piece I will try to make something that contrasts this.