I don't have a lot to show this week. It turns out being sick doesn't put in the right mood to write music!
Anyway, let's talk about the made progress:
Corridors
As you may have noticed, rooms can play on different chords. When the player go from a room to another, there is a 3s fading to make the create a smooth transition and give the impression of moving inside an auditive space. Still, some music section can't just be next to the other without sounding wrong. This is one of the reasons I divided the manor with several corridors and little transitions room, to create gap between some sections. The other reason is that I want the manor to be like a confusing small mansion, not gigantic but with enough rooms and passages to lose you a bit. I've actually made a map of it before writing!
In the first floor, there is a “main corridor” with three aisles: West, East and South. Each one of these allow to go to different rooms, as well as upstairs and to the basement. Player will go there just after the lobby. So its purpose is to quiet down the music a bit, and prepare for other rooms. The music must make it clear that the player is between two rooms. For this, I've chosen to use only percussions, and play the manor motif with a contrebasse. While the contrebasse remains in the three aisles, each one has its own rhythm.
Say, how does the transition between the lobby and the ballroom sound? Let's find out. (seriously, I have no idea as I'm writing this. Crossing fingers) (game dev, so exciting)
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0SqciutIEH2
So, not so consistent in a musical perspective. But there is some story-telling here!
Anyway, the other corridor I've been working on is… The second corridor. Yeah, not a super original name, I know, but how do you name corridors in a house? The second corridor leads to the dining room and the lounge, two very different places: one is busy and chaotic, the other one quiet and elegant. I intend to work on them next. For now, I have prepared their grid chords : the dining room will use Em - B - Am B / Em - B - C - B, and the lounge A7 - A7dim - G7. To compose the transition between the two, I took chords that are shared between the two or close to them: B - C - A. We'll see how the transition goes… Since this is still a corridor, I've kept the contrebasse from the main one, as well as a similar percussion. However, I add some piano for the motive to hint on what's awaiting behind the doors! Let's say it's the "second" touch of the second corridor. I then used a high pitch guitar to play the chords. I had some trouble with this one. I didn't want to use the piano again, it felt redundant. But with synth instruments, you're quite limited. This guitar doesn't sound too bad, so I've decided to go with it. Hopefully this is not an area the player is supposed to drag in!
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0x2PuunBj2n
Next week, if I heal a bit, I intend to work on the dining room. This will be quite a challenge, because it's the pure electro-swing part, and I've never composed that! Plus, using virtual instruments can be quite challenging. Eh, I'm here to experiment anyway! :)