Cave of Mysteries

Ken1997 just joined the crew!

We need you on the team, too.

Support Newgrounds and get tons of perks for just $2.99!

Cave of Mysteries

Author Comments

So @Chaz has expressed interest in working with me sometime. That is really cool! You may already know some of his work, but if not, he's a really talented game developer and artist (among other things).

Although I suspect that he will want some piano music once the time comes to collaborate, I thought I might as well try to make something simple of the more electronic kind, which could be used in a video game setting (which is why the genre is not "ambient"). As practice, in case I ever actually get to make some weird tracks for a game or two (my own games obviously don't count).

I actually made this piece on my birthday. I wish I would've made my birthday song with quality at least this good as so many people came to hear it, but I'll have to focus on that next year ;)

That said, this was a really lazy work, with a lot of (intentional) reverb, delay and repetitiveness. I mean, just listen to those drums. Took about an hour to make :p

Funny story; I actually had quite a headache when I started making this, but it disappeared in the process, somehow. Hopefully that means that this track is relaxing ;)

Anywho, you're probably not here to read super long and unnecessary descriptions, so:

Enjoy an Old School Final Fantasy-esque loop.

Log in / sign up to vote & review!

TaintedLogic

2015-05-11 20:35:42

Oooo...it certainly is....mysterious! :O I loved the ominous drums and echo-y synths. The (violin?) that comes in at around :57 doesn't sound great, tbh. That's either because of the mixing or the sampling, but I can't tell which. I'm serious about that whole get-rid-of-all-the-tones-under-200-hertz thing, though, although I guess when this was made I hadn't told you about that yet...Still, it is difficult to pick out some of the individual instruments in this track because of the mixing, and fixing that on at least a basic level takes only 5 minutes. Still, I'm glad you're exploring orchestral/cinematic genres a bit more recently. It loops well, and the progression and harmonies are (as always with you) quite enjoyable. Keep at it, LSD! ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yay for mystery! :D

I think I made the percussion pretty much like this: Place a few drums (in the piano roll), add some multi delay, done (well, apart from the quick and not so good mixing of course).

I really like that violin tho! It's heeeeavily modified, and doesn't sound even remotely like that from the start. I was trying to recreate something from something I don't remember at the moment, but I remember succeeding surprisingly well in the mimicking, which might be why I like it.

Oh, I don't really disagree with the whole 200 hz thing. I was just trying to say that I believe that's way too radical to generalize (as we all know, only siths deal in absolutes, DARTH LOGIC). Especially as so many music genres sound so different from each other. There are several guitars, for example, that can and will benefit from the 200hz area, while there are some that sound horrible there. A solo piano should definitely not have everything removed from there, and same goes for some vocals, which sound more full if a bit is left down there. I, personally, probably don't remove enough from that area, but there's definitely people who make it work.
I do however remove everything from everything below 20hz, as should always be done.
I think you'd understand what I mean better if you could listen to the solo intruments in EWQL, while doing EQ sweeps, which is when you'll easily notice that some intruments definitely benefit from not being silenced in low frequencies. Also, as I said, a kick and bass don't even exist in every genre, but a song would sound awfully empty if you removed all the sound below 200hz!
What I said is backed up by not only my piano teacher, but in mixing-tips articles you can easily find online ;)

I can easily pick out all the intruments, but maybe that's because I made it. It's supposed to be a bit muddy though; remember, we're in a cave. IRL, the echo and sound would be much muddier than this! That said, this kind of sounds just as much like an underwater track, I suppose.

The harmonies I used in this song are very unusual ones for me. I couldn't even have made them work on a piano, I think. This too, was however, also a very short project. It takes sooo much time to make something well thought out and good :(

Thanks for yet another interesting review! You're very fast in catching up, I must say!

LunyAlex

2015-03-19 05:13:30

I see this working amazingly well in an underwater level track involving dim light, florescent beings, adventure and exploration.

It's quirky, but also sort of majestic in its fairly unique way. Loops awesomely too. Think I'm at the 10th repeat without actually noticing when it starts over.

Great work!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yes! I can see the underwater level too. Afterall, I put quite a lot of bubbliness into the track XD
It's good that I'm not the only one who can imagine this music being played in a game scenario :3

This is actually one of my most successful loops. As long as I keep a track fairly simple, I have learned to hide the loop quite well. Although, I did instert an effect into the beginning of the track, which makes it much easier to notice :D

Thanks a lot!

themob2

2015-03-18 23:51:32

i like this loop and the name is well choose i really feel in a cave that i can relax but not to much because there more to know that is what i like of this and in a video game it would not be bad for ambient and has you said like a final fantasy when i think to that it true i remember a game dont know which one but the music sound like this when you are in this cavern
good job done lucid :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Wow, you've really reviewed a lot of my tracks! Thank you for that!!! :D

I'm glad that the name fits the music. I thought I'd go with simple this time, and maybe it worked :)
I'm sure that there are indeed many games where similar music has been used in a cave setting, as I remember a few like that myself as well :p