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The Monster Inside - Film Noir Game Soundtrack

Kralc

Kralc

Senior Member
This weekend I had the pleasure of writing some Film Noir style cues for the Ludum Dare 72-Hour Game Jam with Tyler Owen, a developer I've collaborated with on some Ludum Dare Jams previously, and most recently for the game TIMEframe.

The theme being "You're the Monster", a moody and gritty Film Noir text adventure game was the plan. Which meant I got to have some fun with a Jerry Goldsmith China Town/LA Confidential style sound.



And you can play the game here.

Samples used were:
Mural 1, The Grange, Cinebrass, SF Labs Vibes & Mini Dulcimer, Imperfect Steinway, and the Evolution Perc Europe Timpani.
Click to read more...
 
Yay. First comment.

I like the mood. Admittedly, I think my favorite piece is the title track (The Monster Inside).

I'm sure because it's a game (and a serious, moody Film Noir-ish one, at that), you didn't want the music to be overbearing or too intrusive to the gamer but I couldn't help but wish for a little melody to latch onto (for the 3 tracks that make up the bulk of the playlist). I was also hoping to hear a little more embellishments but again, that's just my unreasonable yearnings when listening to music on its own and not in the context of its intended use.

On a seperate note, I really like how you made a nice, cohesive, identifiable sound with just a handful of libraries. The sparse,"pitter-patter" of the drums really added to the mood.

All and all, I think it's really cool.

Thank you for sharing!

Edit: I also wanted to add that even with my itty-bitty earbuds, I like how natural it sounded; like a good cream for your coffee. And taking a very brief look at the graphics of the game, the subdued, not overplayed, but mysterious soundtrack is very, very suiting. Good job!
 
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TomNoyd said:
the subdued, not overplayed, but mysterious soundtrack is very, very suiting. Good job!
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The time constraints probably helped us in that area!

Yeah, I did want to have a little more melody in the 3 middle tracks (they're when you're investigating different crime scenes, the outer two are for your dimly lit detective's office), but I wanted to try for more of a texture/mood setting for those. Originally, I was going to have another track that would develop the main melody a little more, but ran out of time.

TomNoyd said:
The sparse,"pitter-patter" of the drums really added to the mood.
Click to expand...
Absolutely loving The Grange, it's a really versatile library!

Thanks for comments!
 
You certainly nailed the atmosphere of Chinatown and LA Confidential. When you brought in the vibraphone you were getting into James Bond territory!
 
Nice tracks. Perhaps not much melody, but great ambience. A game track shouldn't be too distracting anyway (IMO). And quite a lot of music for such a short time frame.
 
Very nice! Really nailed the China Town vibe in the title piece. Superb!
The Park is very John Barry circa From Russia with Love. That's a good thing. Love the orchestration. The strings sound wonderful.
 
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Good vibe!
Only criticism is that I couldn't really lock on to the melodies in Rectified and The Monster Inside. I think there is some way to make it atmosphery and still have some sort of a tune to lock on to.

Or make a track with a really in your face tune and use variations of that in the texture tracks.

But nice work!
 
Lovely work! I agree with Cathode - you definitelly nailed the atmosphere of Chinatown and LA Confidential.

If you dont mind my asking, what are the two opening chords in "Rectified"? Thanks!
 
JH said:
Good vibe!
I think there is some way to make it atmosphery and still have some sort of a tune to lock on to.
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The quest I shall continue on!

First two chords are C#min7(9) (C#,G#,B,D#,E) and F#min7(4,6) (F#,A,B,D#,E)
 
Hey Clark, very nice music!
I also had a listen to your TIMEframe soundtrack on bandcamp.
Great stuff. Hopefully I will be able to record some music with live players at some point!
 
MA-Simon said:
Hey Clark, very nice music!
I also had a listen to your TIMEframe soundtrack on bandcamp.
Great stuff. Hopefully I will be able to record some music with live players at some point!
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Thanks man! The strings on TIMEframe are just one live player. :) Hannes Frischat, who hangs out around here often, did all the string work on there. He was awesome to work with!
 
Sounds nice. May I ask: what trumpet did you use in "The monster inside"? Or is it a real trumpet?
 
The trumpet throughout is Cinebrass Core's Solo Trumpet patch.
Or in an alternate reality where I didn't stop taking trumpet lessons when I was 11, it'd be real. Dammit Clark... :mad:
 
wow these pieces make we want to go out and buy cinebrass, i'm never happy with sample brass sounds. these sound like the most lush realistic samples i've heard and you've utilized them perfectly. my favorites were rectified and the monster inside. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks Danny! Yeah, Cinesamples make great stuff. I've only ever really used the Solo Legato patches to thicken the Section Patches, so it was fun to have a play around with it by itself.
 
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