Shantae: Half-Genie Hero - Shake It Up (Livestream rough draft)

This is one of two in-game tracks I wrote from scratch over the course of a few hours while viewers watched live on Twitch.tv, to help promote WayForward's Kickstarter campaign for our new game, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. It will be substantially reworked for the final game, but I've put it here for posterity.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero - Twilight Exploration (Livestream rough draft)

Music from the January 2014 trailer for SHOVEL KNIGHT
(yachtclubgames.com)

I included the choir-only part in case you want to get extra hyped and sing along or even remix it.

As a special treat, I have included a preview of the Clockwork Tower level's BGM (Tinker Knight's lair!) As with the rest of the 40+ track OST, it is fully hardware-compatible 2A03 + VRC6 data, meaning I will release an NSF file which you can play directly on an unmodified Famicom console (or a modified American / European NES.)

The full soundtrack will be available at virt.bandcamp.com, mastered through the same processing chain as FX3 and FX4, for maximum car or headphone listening enjoyment.

Shovel Knight - Trailer music

Shovel Knight OST - Clockwork Tower - Tinker Knight's Stage

Hi! I've been quietly and skeptically studying machine learning for a few years, and this is my first result worth sharing.

What you're hearing is not AI-composed, it's a cover of my own chiptune, created by Riffusion, a spectrogram-finetuned ML model based on Stable Diffusion. No external samples, effects, or synths were used, just the original unaltered NES chip track (https://virt.bandcamp.com/track/the-buzz-in-the-grotto-troupple-pond) and the following text prompt:

"A rocking latin jazz fusion track, recorded 1960, big brass sections, muted trumpet, acoustic guitar, piano montuno, flourishes and high energy throughout, salsa pop dance, it's time to party yeah boiii"

To create a stereo effect, I incremented the seed and the denoising value a tiny bit to create a slightly different mix, and panned these left and right. I suspect the reason it works is that the chiptune was already written to imitate "live instruments" in chip form. The model is eerily good at inferring the same timbre and performance techniques that I was actually trying to go for. 

In other words, you can now write a chiptune as an "MSpaint scaffolding version" and then turn it into amazing future sounds. I named the technique neurochip, and I'd love to hear other people trying it out!

I'll post a guide as soon as I can get some good screenshots of my process and maybe get in touch with the people working on Riffusion.

Neurochip 01 - Buzz in the Grotto

This is the "Flying Machine" cover I made for Specter of Torment, covered EVEN FURTHER through a fine-tuned AI. See the Buzz in the Grotto track (#01) for a fuller explanation, but the only things that went into this track were the original chiptune ( https://virt.bandcamp.com/track/a-cargo-of-fineries-flying-machine ) and the following very finagled text prompt: 

"A very energetic and thematic pop song. Driving drum beat, electric guitar lead, soaring and majestic, overdriven electric bass, brass section, anthemic, aviation, bombast"

I didn't tell it to add vocals, but I didn't tell it not to either. Sure, why not? I can't believe how similar they sound to the internal nonsense "temp" singing I hear in my head, whenever I write a song before writing the lyrics. It's absolutely uncanny.

I'll post how to mess with all this as soon as I regroup. It's been a pretty sleepless week! A new paper on audio ML is coming out almost every day now and I'm reading them all :E

Neurochip 02 - A Cargo of Finer Fineries

I haven't done much overdubbing (multiple recordings harmonizing)with the Otamatone. It's really difficult. But here's The Beatles' masterpiece Eleanor Rigby, one of my favorite songs... recorded one part at a time, because I love you, that's why!

Otama Tonely People (Eleanor Rigby)

I'm exploring ML arrangements with more than just chiptune music! I'm sharing this one out of the handful I did tonight because it went past "holy shiiit" and actually made me tear up a little.

The source song was a SNES-style MIDI piece from my Boot Hill Heroes soundtrack - basically the same notes, but with basic synth sounds. I used it unaltered as input, and wrote a prompt: "1972 soundtrack for a beloved italian wild west film about a mysterious stranger, harmonica over orchestra with (baritone guitar) and abundant choirs".

(Yes there are new notes in there. I like them too, and it took a lot of tweaking numbers and specific words to get them to do that, but it will get easier and better soon!)

Doc's Theme (MIDI) - Neural Arrangement

Original composition! I used a MIDI keyboard to play a text-to-speech with random syllables, then processed it through neural synthesis, layering over the separately-processed General MIDI backing track.

Yesterday I figured out how to make Riffusion sing on purpose and consistently, by using a free text-to-speech VST plugin, AlterEgo, as the guiding outline for the model to do its work. The same "realism enhancing" effect Riffusion has on chiptunes can be used on regular MIDI files or even text-to-speech voice. 

That is, we can now make vocaloid-type synthetic singers sound more "alive" in artistically interesting ways.

I have a video on my YT channel explaining a bit more about what I'm up to with all this, in case you're curious. Things are moving quickly!

Flashbeat2 (soulful robot voice)

From the first episode of "FUSION CHALLENGE" with Jake "virt" Kaufman, this is a combination of the music from Phoenix Wright and 80s synth rock, suggested for the debut by none other than Jake's wife Kris.

The video can be seen at http://youtu.be/dCn0bzB4wjM and all future episodes will have their tracks posted here, as well as being part of the video on YouTube.

Fusion Challenge - EP01 - Phoenix Wright - MIGHT AS WELL OBJECT

Vanguard Valkyrie is a 3D virtual reality space-shooter game being developed by Zero Transform, a newly formed independent studio focused on using the latest VR technology to make games that are innovative, beautiful, and truly immersive. 

I'm proud to be working again with my friend Justin Moravetz, having previously contributed to his amazing VR debut, Proton Pulse. I will be handling the soundtrack and sound design for Vanguard Valkyrie alongside the incredible guitarist and chiptune composer, Dan "Danimal Cannon" Behrens. It's going to be a wild ride.

The title theme features the vocal talents of Jessie Seely and the recording / engineering talents of Robert Altschuler at Command Studios in Valencia, CA.

Turn Around (Title Theme)

This is a first draft of the title theme for Adventures of Pip, an upcoming, successfully Kickstarter-funded platformer game in production at Tic Toc Games.  I wrote this from start to finish in 4 hours (not counting the time it took for me to actually stop screwing around and start writing) live in front of an audience on Twitch.tv, to help people get hyped about the final night of the campaign.

You can find out more about Pip at tictocgames.com -- the full soundtrack is going to be pretty insane, but it's for an awesome game (and an amazing development team,) so it's totally worth the effort.

Adventures of Pip - Title Theme DRAFT

Demo reel for Jake Kaufman's modern game music work, with full production value, vocals, synths, and orchestra.

Mighty Switch Force 2 - Exothermic

Vanguard V - Title

Jake Kaufman's Demo Reel for silly/fun/playful modern games, using full production and live performers.

Shantae - Dance Through the Danger

Mega Mensch (Mega Man 1 Klezmer)

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - Sunburn Island

Supreme League - Title

La Pompe

Demo Reel for Jake Kaufman's oldschool game soundtracks (including chiptune and oldies styles)

Regular Show - Area 2

Mighty Switch Force 2 - Rescue Girl

Proton Pulse - Sundance

Shovel Knight - Plains of Passage

ＥＸＰＥＲＩＥＮＣＥ 
ＳＨＩＮＪＩＣＯＲＥ

Blank Noodle

This is the song for when Kris (my wife) walks Nugget (my dog)

It is perfect for any dog or cat walking activities!

Kris Walks Nugget

LYRICS DOWN BELOW!

The very first track from the incredible feature-length virtual reality music experience, [NUREN] The New Renaissance. Over an hour of original music videos, with a heartfelt story and mind-boggling 3D visuals. Back us on Kickstarter - http://csp.industries/kickstarter and help turn our dream into reality!

LYRICS:

All the color fades away
Dusty avenues and seas of gray
Distant memories collide
Data waiting to be classified
Cast aside

Can't survive without a plan
Can't remember when the test began
All I know is what I see
All I know is that you'll always be
Here with me

Am I broken, am I perfect
Am I real or just a fantasy?
Doesn't matter if we're broken..
We're free!

Sympathetic voices rise,
Revolution dies before our eyes,
Search the ether for a clue,
Grasping on to what I know is true, 
Here with you

Am I broken, am I perfect
Just a phantom that you'll never see
Doesn't matter if we're broken,
We're free

Tonight
We cross a precipice
We share a consciousness
We can agree to see a different point of view
We are supreme
Without a dream
Without a boun-da-ry it's down to me and you

And I can't decide if the pain is gone
And I can't decide what it is we fell upon
Have to carry on

Well am I broken, or am I perfect
Is this choice or just a prophecy
Am I destined to be perfect
Or free?

Are we broken, are we perfect
Are we real or just a fantasy
Doesn't matter if we're broken
We're free (we're free)

Are we broken, are we perfect
Are we real or just a fantasy
Doesn't matter if we're broken
We're free
(We're free)
(We're free!)

[NUREN] The New Renaissance - Broken|Perfect

Dude don't use up all your Sebastian Coil, you need it for later in the level

THE MEGA MERMAID

For my friends, who help make sure I'm okay through the toughest times.

Proto Man - An Empty Home

(LYRICS BELOW) The debut single for Mint Potion, a songwriting partnership between Dale North and Jake Kaufman.
Featuring live strings by Jeff Ball.
The entire Plague of Shadows OST can be downloaded for free (or pay if you really want) at http://virt.bandcamp.com
Please support Shovel Knight and buy the game if you haven't already!

Alchemy
by Mint Potion (Dale North and Jake Kaufman)
Violins: Jeff Ball

INTRO

We've had this going for a while
But when you see me you don't even break a smile
Try not to let me see you cry..
Guess I'm the boss here, so what's a little lie?

VERSE 1

I count the days since you've been gone
Count every sunset, and every break of dawn
I dream about you every day
I'm going crazy, so hard to live this way

Girl all I want is to take you by surprise,
Tell you I love you as I look into your eyes,
I see the moon, and the stars look so sublime
My one and only... until the end of time!


CHORUS

We got 
Alchemy, girl you're
Changin me
All night long
I wanna hold you close to me

What you
Do to me
Is so plain to see
All night long
Your love is on my mind

We got 
Alchemy, not just 
Chemistry,
All night long,
I need your magic desperately

What you
Do to me
Is some sorcery
All night long
The heavens are aligned

SOLO

VERSE 2

Don't make me stand and dance alone.
I know I hurt you, for my sins I must atone,
But we're together in the fight,
I'm goin' crazy...... just another lonely knight!

Girl all I want, is to take you round the way
And kiss you gently, and come whatever may
We found each other, by luck! ..or destiny
CAN'T BREATHE WITHOUT YOU! A PLAGUE HAS TAKEN ME!

CHORUS, FADE

Mint Potion - Alchemy

A duet between two friends who love making music.
The B-side to the hit single, ALCHEMY. All of this as well as the entire chiptune soundtrack can be had for free, at virt.bandcamp.com as part of the Shovel Knight - Plague of Shadows OST!

Jeff Ball and Jake Kaufman - Le Bouquet Magique

Vanguard V is a fast-paced 3rd person rail shooter, designed for Virtual Reality. 

Help support this title at VanguardV.com and become part of VR history!

This is the background music from the second stage of the game. 

VIRT RANT TIME:

I wrote this while the lead developer of the game and a bunch of friends and strangers watched my computer screen (and perv-cams of my "is it auto-saving, or crashed" face) as I showed exactly how every note of this song was layered in from start to finish. This is one of the things we do at Mint Potion! You can just kinda ... keep us company while we make stuff. It's pretty great for everyone, you should come by. https://www.youtube.com/mintpotiontv has full-length archives of everything we do, you can watch if you missed it!

If you love this music, please help the rest of the OST (and thus the full game) get made, at least tell a friend and let's get as many eyeballs and earholes on their indiegogo as possible. I wouldn't be rolling out the 70s mecha anime soundtrack treatment for a VR game if I didn't think it was THE ACTUAL BUSINESS. VanguardV.com, gogogogo!

Thank you to anyone who has commented on the previous VV tracks or participated in our streams! Your feedback (at specific time stamps, how convenient!!?!) helps me tune my formulae and adjust orchestral ballistics, and you're all welcome in my studio any time.

Vanguard V - Level 2 BGM (DRAFT)

Everyone after seeing Dirty Dancing: "Wait a minute, it's set in 1963, how are they dancing to music that is clearly from the 80s??"
Me: "Yeah, imagine if it was like,"

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