Pixelated World

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Pixelated World

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Author Comments

Despite having exams right now, during random session on the piano I thought of a really nice VG-ish melody idea, and because of the curse that musicians get where if you keep song ideas locked up in your head they will drive you mad until you turn it into a song, I spent my study breaks making this (yeah I have a bad habit of making complex sentence structures...).

So yeah, here's my first original Video Game song. I made a few other similar ones before, but those were remixes, while this is completely original. I tried to give it a lot of classic Video Game influences (laser sound effects, a square wave lead, an 8-bit-ish bass, etc...) but at the same time make it sound modern with a lot of sweep and cymbal effects, trancey drums, and so on. Yep, basically this is to prove that I don't just make orchestral :3.

This uses a heavily edited soundfont for the square lead, z3ta+ for the background arp, synth pluck and bass (also edited), Vanguard for the pad which I edited too, Vengeance for the drum samples (obviously I layered them and put tonnes of effects/EQing on them), Fruit Kick for one of the laser sounds at the end, a synth I made with Sytrus for the synth at 2:12, and other random royalty-free laser sounds I got from http://www.partnersinrhym e.com (I think). I also used a noobish FL preset (a SimSynth preset to be precise) somewhere in the song. Cookie to whoever finds it :D.

So after 71 patterns, 15 automation clips, and a hell of a lot of hard work, here's Pixelated World (if anyone can think of a better name, please do so :P). I'm quite proud of this submission, and while it definitely doesn't match up to some of the other Video Game songs here because it's my first submission, it really was a blast to make and I think it's one of my better submissions. Also, thanks to Decibel, SCTE3 and Bjra for hearing it while it was still a work in progress and giving me some tips and pointers. Also, this is heavily inspired by Bjra's Video Game songs, among them:
http://www.newgrounds.com /audio/listen/381080 and
http://www.newgrounds.com /audio/listen/367863

Check them out, they're a lot better than this. Anyway, thanks for listening, for reading this far and I'd appreciate a review! Also, as usual, sorry for the long Author's Comments :P.

Enjoy!

EDIT: Removed a weird blip at the end (takes too long to explain why it got there so I won't :3). Thanks to camoshark for pointing it out, for hearing this and giving feedback.

EDIT 2: Mrmilkcarton has remastered this track. Massive thanks to him for making it sound a lot better :3. If anyone wants the old version to compare, then PM me!

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NurtleThurtle

2015-08-29 17:06:17

For a first ever original, this is EXTREMELY good. I can't wait till you actually get some practice, and make even better. Props for a great first ever

Step responds:

Really glad you enjoyed this! It's a very old song. Hopefully you'll enjoy my newer ones a bit more. But thanks for dropping by.

Epicmangokid12

2012-03-05 20:10:34

I've seen many 8 bit style songs and this didn't cease to amaze me! Honestly I love the way it captures a modern and retro feeling at the same time! This fully deserves to be in an epic retro platformer game. Haha keep up the good work mate! :D - Ryan

Step responds:

Awesome, that's good to hear! I especially like that you think it blends modern and retro well together, because as you might have read in the author's comments, that's what I was trying to go for!

Thanks for the review, and sorry for such a late answer. The staff are redesigning the audio edit page so I can't see when I get a new review. I only just happened to stumble upon this review by chance :P. Thanks again man!

mistaratealot

2011-10-21 10:21:26

great song

this is an AWE-SOME song!!!!!!!!!!!

Step responds:

And you deserve an AWE-SOME thank you :3.

Glad you enjoyed it dude!

DarkKyoushu

2011-10-01 20:06:04

:'D

I can imagine some retro-looking game menu with some guy running over green spring planes to this music.

This shall be on my Walkman.

Love the rythm.

Step responds:

Aw thanks :3. Glad you liked it!

FightingSeraph

2011-09-26 18:30:47

Finally, some more original VG songs!

I have to agree with Haggard, Realmguys, and Toasty on this one, and also like the fact that this is original. (Note: I have nothing against the remixes, but some more variety would be nice.) Let me get started...

Instrumentation: I am really liking your selection on this one Steph. Clever mix of modern synthesizer beats and NES samples. I think more people on the Audio Portal should consider mixing the two together.
Composition: Definitely enjoy the rhythm, tempo, and the notation on this one. This really shows that you have the ears of a composer, and it also has actual melody and harmony.
Miscellaneous: As said before, I have no problem with remixes as long as it's a good one. Of course, I'm also for something new and original, which this is. (This also sums up my opinion on Flash movies and games.) However, the only problem I have this this is the filesize: A really HIGH quality song (200 Kbps or higher) has a bigger filesize and as a result, takes longer to download than lets say a 96-132 Kbps song.

What I do like:
-Finally, an original video game song
-Has a solid melody
-Good rhythm and tempo
-Clever instrumentation

What I don't like:
-Huge filesize

Overall: Stephan, I usually don't write music reviews, but thought that this needed another one. Here's your ten, and I hope that more people in the Flash Portal turn to you for creating custom tracks.

Step responds:

It's always great to see big reviews like this. Thanks a lot!

"I have to agree with Haggard, Realmguys, and Toasty on this one, and also like the fact that this is original. (Note: I have nothing against the remixes, but some more variety would be nice.) Let me get started..."

Oh I totally agree with you about that. The Video Game section is riddled with remixes and it's a big breath of fresh air to hear a Video Game-inspired original song. Probably why I enjoyed Bjra's Video Game songs (which I've linked in the Author's Comments if you're interested!).

"Instrumentation: I am really liking your selection on this one Steph. Clever mix of modern synthesizer beats and NES samples. I think more people on the Audio Portal should consider mixing the two together."

Agreed. I remember approving a song to the Audio Portal ages ago and it had a similar style in case you want to check it out.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/418308

Pretty nice song, although it's not as "modern" as Bjra's Video Game tracks or this one.

"Composition: Definitely enjoy the rhythm, tempo, and the notation on this one. This really shows that you have the ears of a composer, and it also has actual melody and harmony."

Aw, thanks :3. I've been making music for quite a while now so I'm glad my composition skills got somewhere!

"Miscellaneous: As said before, I have no problem with remixes as long as it's a good one. Of course, I'm also for something new and original, which this is. (This also sums up my opinion on Flash movies and games.) However, the only problem I have this this is the filesize: A really HIGH quality song (200 Kbps or higher) has a bigger filesize and as a result, takes longer to download than lets say a 96-132 Kbps song."

Hm, I'll have to disagree with you on that. 96 - 132 Kbps is generally considered low quality (it's very easy to tell the difference between a song with a bitrate in that range of Kbps and a song which has a bitrate of over 200 Kbps). I usually try and make the quality as high as possible within the filesize restrictions, because what's a few extra seconds of downloading compared to a better-quality sound file? :P

"Overall: Stephan, I usually don't write music reviews, but thought that this needed another one. Here's your ten, and I hope that more people in the Flash Portal turn to you for creating custom tracks."

Thanks a million for the wonderful review! I'm surprised you don't usually write music reviews because you seem to be good at it!

Thanks again - the detailed review and 10/10 are very much appreciated!