sonic inst

FS-471 Wwise Interactive Music implementation assignment.
update: Video of implementation here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjtXrKpW7G4&hd=1
remix version: http://soundcloud.com/falk-2/be-wild

Credits:
Sean Folk - Piano
Nikhil Hogan - Acoustic Guitar
Ethan Lee - Guitar Solo (SECRETS LOL)

THE BAND!!!
Guitars - Fake Falk
Bass - Fake Falk
Drums - Fake Falk (yeah you get the idea)

When thinking of what game to score for my Wwise interactive music assignment, I had the bright idea a few months ago to try to do a Sonic the Hedgehog level. Firstly, because it was a no brainer, but secondly - Japanese games have had a cultural precedent of barely touching interactive scoring compared to western titles. On the flip-side, this allows the composer to do what he does best, which is create memorable melodies and hooks you can hum along to that aren't limited by the 'loose' requirements that interactive scoring demands.

While the goal of 'interactivity' and 'memorability' seem to pull in opposite directions, Sonic levels are (for better or worse) on rails, and more importantly at points they funnel you through one-way sections, meaning that I could apply a basic song form concept, assigning each part of a song to each part of a level, making sure the sections can loop around seamlessly, and then writing appropriate transitionary sections that can be jumped to from the end of each phrase within a section.

I chose Spagonia as my level, and there are many tie-ins of the composition to the level. For instance, while the violin lead parts were a feature of the original track, I maintained that as a means of tying the track to the European vibe of the level.

Since musical sync to the level is the essence of this project, one of the transition segments is the clock tower climb and subsequent grind (which conveniently enough is one-way) and is characterized by the breakdown section and guitar solo.

There's also a whole bunch of little musical cameos that connoisseurs of fans of Sonic music throughout the past 20 years -should- be able to pick up on (I hope!) be it from the 16-bit games, Sonic Adventure, hell even Sonic X anime.

This is only Stage 1 of the assignment. There's a shit ton of other stuff I still need to do before the project is deemed complete, and no, I'm not talking about implementing it in Wwise. Stay tuned!



sonic inst

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