{"author_link":"\/users\/robinhoodpt","author_name":"RobinHoodPT","author_uid":"robinhoodpt","comments":[],"epoch":1512755584,"event":"LD40","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":70314,"likes":12,"metadata":{"p_key":"106865","p_author":"RobinHoodPT","p_authorkey":"1052336","p_urlkey":"322675","p_title":"Dropping the Musical beat on Jazzy Beats!","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD40","p_time":"1512755584","p_likes":"12","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1052336","us_name":"RobinHoodPT","us_username":"robinhoodpt","event_start":"1512086400","event_key":"70","event_name":"LD 40"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD40","removed_author":false},"_superparent":49883,"_trust":1,"author":52336,"body":"![JazzybeatsmusicbannerMusic.png](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d5.png)\nHey there! My name is [**Robin**](https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobinHoodYT) and I joined [**Whales and Games**](https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhalesAndGames) during this _Ludum Dare_ to create the Music Composition and the SFX Design for our game, [*Jazzy Beats*](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats).\n\nI mainly do music composition as a hobby on top of being a software engineering university student. For me, my passion are games and their creation.\n\nIn this post I\u2019ll be going through the creation process of the music for *Jazzy Beats*, and in a future post I\u2019ll go through the SFX process instead in more detail.\n\n## Materials\n\nThe list of materials I used for the music composition this time around was as following:\n+ Laptop with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) installed (*Bitwig Studio*)\n+ MIDI Controller: *M-Audio Keystation Mini 32*\n+ A Pair of Standard Headsets\n\nWhile preparing for the jam, I had some problems with *Cubase*, the DAW I wanted to use for the music composition but wasn\u2019t able to. Instead, I used my backup DAW, *Bitwig Studio*. \n\n![screen_1512233989.74.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d6.jpg)\n\n*Bitwig Studio* is a rather new DAW in audio scene, but it has rather some interesting features. One example of these is being able to able to open multiple projects easily at once and switch between them (almost like *Chrome* tabs). Each plugin (or VST) runs in its own sandbox, meaning that even if the program crashes it doesn\u2019t crash the whole process together with it. Plus, it\u2019s rather intuitive for beginners like me to use.\n\n![IMG_20171208_174046-01.png](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d8.png)\n\nThis was also my first time participating in a game jam with a MIDI controller, and I have no freaking idea why I hadn\u2019t bought one of these before. The MIDI controller I use is a simple one, with only 32 keys, a volume knob and octave buttons. It\u2019s light and quite small, and, as such, it\u2019s perfect to take with me to local game jams, especially when they involve traveling to other places (picture above). \n\nIt\u2019s also quite cheap, meaning it\u2019s a perfect choice to get into music composition even if it\u2019s just for something like game jams!\n \n## Workflow\n\n![screen_1512243767.07.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d9.jpg)\n\nMusic is not something easy to create, especially during a game jam. The reason behind this is that most music is build around the visuals of something. What happens during most game\u2019s development cycles is that the music is primarily created when the art and the base game mechanics are already in a state where they won\u2019t change much. On the contrary, in game jams, what mostly happens is that you don\u2019t have the time to waste waiting out for the development of the visuals.\n\nWhat did I do to resolve this issue? After the game idea was settled, I waited for the first sketches of the game, whilst also searching for references. I also asked the game\u2019s programmer and artist for music ideas based on what they\u2019d like their characters to sound like, or asking about the games that inspired it\u2019s visual style. In this case the visuals were highly inspired by two games, *Skullgirls* and *The World Ends With You*. I started listening to some of the music in those games. This was the music track I used the most as a reference: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=58NKCwjz6e8\n\n\nAfter listening to some other tracks, I started setting up the instruments I would like to use, and getting some chord progressions together alongside them. After getting some progressions up I started searching for some non-game soundtracks to see if I could find any interesting ideas in BPM\u2019s, beats, and even in the combination of instruments.  \n \nAfter I got some ideas, I started changing the chord progressions to have more rhythm together with the base\/background instruments. The music composition kept constantly changing as new art and gameplay started emerging.\n\nAt the end of the first day I had the game\u2019s music created. Even though it was done, during the next days I needed to continue adapting the music to fit the visuals and the sound effects. \n\n![Jazzy-GIF-1.gif](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4db.gif)\n\nTo continue making those changes, you really need to find a good workflow that allows you to easily make changes, mix and master the tracks. Always be ready for more changes. The perfect workflow was something that I unfortunately wasn\u2019t able to achieve yet.\n\nYou can listen to the [game\u2019s soundtrack here](https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/robinhoodpt\/sets\/jazzy-beats-official) on my personal soundcloud account and if you\u2019d like to give the game a try and have a listen to the music compositions on the game itself, [give a look at the game over at our game page](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats)! Thank you! :whale:","comments":2,"comments-timestamp":"2017-12-09T12:53:52Z","created":"2017-12-08T17:34:31Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":70314,"love":12,"love-timestamp":"2017-12-08T22:33:59Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-12-09T12:53:52Z","name":"Dropping the Musical beat on Jazzy Beats!","node-timestamp":"2017-12-08T17:53:04Z","parent":59382,"parents":[1,5,9,49883,59382],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats\/dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats","published":"2017-12-08T17:53:04Z","scope":"public","slug":"dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":205504},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"70314","n_urlkey":"322675","n_parent":"59382","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats\/dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats","n_slug":"dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jaz","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"52336","n_created":"1512754471","n_modified":"1512824032","n_version":"205504","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats\/dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats","text":"![JazzybeatsmusicbannerMusic.png](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d5.png)\nHey there! My name is [**Robin**](https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobinHoodYT) and I joined [**Whales and Games**](https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhalesAndGames) during this _Ludum Dare_ to create the Music Composition and the SFX Design for our game, [*Jazzy Beats*](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats).\n\nI mainly do music composition as a hobby on top of being a software engineering university student. For me, my passion are games and their creation.\n\nIn this post I\u2019ll be going through the creation process of the music for *Jazzy Beats*, and in a future post I\u2019ll go through the SFX process instead in more detail.\n\n## Materials\n\nThe list of materials I used for the music composition this time around was as following:\n+ Laptop with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) installed (*Bitwig Studio*)\n+ MIDI Controller: *M-Audio Keystation Mini 32*\n+ A Pair of Standard Headsets\n\nWhile preparing for the jam, I had some problems with *Cubase*, the DAW I wanted to use for the music composition but wasn\u2019t able to. Instead, I used my backup DAW, *Bitwig Studio*. \n\n![screen_1512233989.74.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d6.jpg)\n\n*Bitwig Studio* is a rather new DAW in audio scene, but it has rather some interesting features. One example of these is being able to able to open multiple projects easily at once and switch between them (almost like *Chrome* tabs). Each plugin (or VST) runs in its own sandbox, meaning that even if the program crashes it doesn\u2019t crash the whole process together with it. Plus, it\u2019s rather intuitive for beginners like me to use.\n\n![IMG_20171208_174046-01.png](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d8.png)\n\nThis was also my first time participating in a game jam with a MIDI controller, and I have no freaking idea why I hadn\u2019t bought one of these before. The MIDI controller I use is a simple one, with only 32 keys, a volume knob and octave buttons. It\u2019s light and quite small, and, as such, it\u2019s perfect to take with me to local game jams, especially when they involve traveling to other places (picture above). \n\nIt\u2019s also quite cheap, meaning it\u2019s a perfect choice to get into music composition even if it\u2019s just for something like game jams!\n \n## Workflow\n\n![screen_1512243767.07.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4d9.jpg)\n\nMusic is not something easy to create, especially during a game jam. The reason behind this is that most music is build around the visuals of something. What happens during most game\u2019s development cycles is that the music is primarily created when the art and the base game mechanics are already in a state where they won\u2019t change much. On the contrary, in game jams, what mostly happens is that you don\u2019t have the time to waste waiting out for the development of the visuals.\n\nWhat did I do to resolve this issue? After the game idea was settled, I waited for the first sketches of the game, whilst also searching for references. I also asked the game\u2019s programmer and artist for music ideas based on what they\u2019d like their characters to sound like, or asking about the games that inspired it\u2019s visual style. In this case the visuals were highly inspired by two games, *Skullgirls* and *The World Ends With You*. I started listening to some of the music in those games. This was the music track I used the most as a reference: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=58NKCwjz6e8\n\n\nAfter listening to some other tracks, I started setting up the instruments I would like to use, and getting some chord progressions together alongside them. After getting some progressions up I started searching for some non-game soundtracks to see if I could find any interesting ideas in BPM\u2019s, beats, and even in the combination of instruments.  \n \nAfter I got some ideas, I started changing the chord progressions to have more rhythm together with the base\/background instruments. The music composition kept constantly changing as new art and gameplay started emerging.\n\nAt the end of the first day I had the game\u2019s music created. Even though it was done, during the next days I needed to continue adapting the music to fit the visuals and the sound effects. \n\n![Jazzy-GIF-1.gif](\/\/\/raw\/07c\/c\/z\/e4db.gif)\n\nTo continue making those changes, you really need to find a good workflow that allows you to easily make changes, mix and master the tracks. Always be ready for more changes. The perfect workflow was something that I unfortunately wasn\u2019t able to achieve yet.\n\nYou can listen to the [game\u2019s soundtrack here](https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/robinhoodpt\/sets\/jazzy-beats-official) on my personal soundcloud account and if you\u2019d like to give the game a try and have a listen to the music compositions on the game itself, [give a look at the game over at our game page](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/jazzy-beats)! Thank you! :whale:","title":"Dropping the Musical beat on Jazzy Beats!","wayback_source":[]}