{"author_link":"\/users\/andriybyelikov","author_name":"andriybyelikov","author_uid":"andriybyelikov","comments":[],"epoch":1745688810,"event":"LD57","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":415381,"likes":24,"metadata":{"p_key":"211649","p_author":"andriybyelikov","p_authorkey":"1374028","p_urlkey":"451476","p_title":"Lifted Retrospective: Music","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD57","p_time":"1745688810","p_likes":"24","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1374028","us_name":"LDJam user 374028","us_username":"374028","event_start":"1743811200","event_key":"111","event_name":"Ludum Dare 57"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD57","removed_author":false},"_superparent":406845,"_trust":1,"author":374028,"body":"Hello Ludum community!\n\nIn this post I will explain how I created the music for [Lifted](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/lifted), explaining my tought process in detail.\nHopefully this will inspire devs who have not touched music composition to give it a chance. I will mark\nmusic concepts in **bold** face so you can look them up.\n\nAs a disclaimer, I am self-taught in both modern music theory and ancient Greek music theory.\nSo I use two classifications for what is commonly referred to as **modes** or **scales**:\nthe modern or **Glarean** classification and Greek octave species and genus and I'll try to include both at least once.\nI also mix ancient **meter** (poetry) theory when dealing with rhythm.\n\nMy **DAW** of choice in which I write all my music is Bitwig (in part because it's the only commercial one that supports Linux).\n\nMy general process when composing a new piece of music is:\n\n1. Chose the **scale** (color palette of notes, each associated with a feeling\/emotion), and instruments\n2. Write a **motif** (short sequence of notes that will be the **theme** if the song and will be repeated troughout the song with variations)\n3. Create new motifs by developing the original motif\n4. Build **short melodic phrases** from motifs\n5. Derive **chords** from the melody\n6. Build **long melodic phrases** from short melodic phrases\n7. Build longer forms from long melodic phrases\n8. Mix the song (adjust volume and panning for each instrument)\n9. Add post-effects\n\nI will now explain how I created both songs in my game: Lifted and Overworld. You can listen to them in the following video.\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UaVM0hgKvS8\n\n## 0. Lifted\n\n### Choosing the scale and instruments\n\nFor this piece, which was to be the title screen theme, I chose to start with the\n*A natural minor scale* \/\n*A Aeolian scale* \/\n*Greek Aeolian tonos (diatonic genus) on A*.\nThis is a scale that evokes sadness.\nI also chose piano and violin (`Grand Piano` and `VlnEns_Trem_`) as the instruments for the parts,\nwhich are also commonly used in sad music.\n\n### Creating the motif\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the A natural minor scale.\n\n```\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1'\nA B C D E F G A'\n```\n\nWith these, I wrote the following melody.\n\n![0.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f4.png)\n\nNotes: ABCD BCDE\n\nIn this motif we have two sequences of four notes that ascend in **step-wise motion**.\nThe idea behind this motif is that the first sequence *lifts* the second.\nBoth sequences are identical in terms of relative pitch progression, but\nthe first sequence starts at A, while the second starts at B, a note higher.\nThe first sequence sets the **home pitch** of the entire motif at A so the second sequence at B sounds higher,\nand so it can be said that the first sequence *lifts* the second.\n\nWe'll label this motif as section A.\n\n### Laying out the form (1)\n\nFor starters, let the violin play section A twice solo,\nand then twice again with piano accompaniment that we will create shortly.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A\nPiano         -  -  x  x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  x  x\n```\n\n### Adding chords\n\nFor the **chord**s, I chose to go with a standard i-iv-v-i **chord progression**, which has the v \u2192 i **perfect cadence**.\nIn the A natural minor scale this is Am-Dm-Em-Am.\nHowever, I realized that I messed up the placement of the third in the Am chord,\nplacing it a semitone higher,\nthus turning the A minor chord into an A major chord instead,\nand so the progression actually ended up being A-Dm-Em-A or I-iv-v-I.\n\n![1.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f5.png)\n\n### Laying out the form (2)\n\nLet's add the chord progression to the song form.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    x\nPiano         -  -  x  x    x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v I\n```\n\n### Developing the motif\n\nWe have no piano melody, so let's create a variation of the motif.\nI raised the home pitch of the motif up a fourth, from A to D,\nand made the whole motif half as long (or twice as fast),\nso it fits twice in a measure.\n\n![2.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f6.png)\n\nWe'll label this variation of the motif as section B.\n\n### Laying out the form (3)\n\nLet's add the piano melody to the song form, and\nlet's play it twice after the chord progression has played once.\nThe violin will rest while the piano melody is playing.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    -    -    x\nPiano         -  -  -  -    B    B    x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v iv-v iv-v I\n```\n\n### Laying out the form (4)\n\nLet's finish up the song by having the violin play section B once while the piano melody rests,\nand end it by having the final I chord play out solo.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    -    -    B    -\nPiano         -  -  -  -    B    B    -    -\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v iv-v iv-v iv-v I\n```\n\n### Creating the final mix\n\nNow that we're done with the score, let's adjust volume levels and panning.\n\n#### Volume\n\nI left the volume of the violin as is at -10.0 dB.\n\nFor the piano, I made the volume of the melody louder at 0.0 dB, and the chords quieter at -6.0 dB,\nas playing three notes simultaneously stacks up the volume, compared to just playing just one note.\n\n#### Panning\n\nI duplicated the violin part and panned one violin 30% to the left and the other one 60% to the left.\n\nI panned both parts of the piano 30% to the right.\n\nWith this, we are done with this song.\n\n## 2. Overworld\n\n### Choosing the scale and instruments\n\nFor this piece I chose to start with the\n*E Mixolydian scale* \/\n*Greek Ionian tonos (diatonic genus) on E*.\nI chose piano (`Grand Piano`) as the main instrument for this song.\n\n### Creating, developing and modulating the motif\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the E Mixolydian scale.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nE  F# G# A  B  C# D  E'\n```\n\n#### Section A\n\nI started with this motif.\n\n![3.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f7.png)\n\nNotes: E F# D\n\nThen I transposed it up by 1 semitone.\n\n![4.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f8.png)\n\nNotes: F G D#\n\nThen I flattened the G into an F#.\n\n![5.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f9.png)\n\nNotes: F F# D#\n\nWe'll label this motif as section A.\n\n#### Section B\n\nWe'll develop section A by opening it up a bit (spreading the pitches apart).\n\nIn this case, I flattened the F into an E, and double sharpened the F# into a G#.\n\n![6.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fa.png)\n\nNotes: E G# D#\n\nWe'll label this new motif as section B.\n\n#### Section C\n\nWe'll develop section B by adding a C# as a **leading tone** to D#.\n\n![7.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fb.png)\n\nNotes: E G# C# D#\n\nWe'll label this new motif as section C.\n\n### Adding chords\n\nI derived the following chords from the notes of each section in the melody.\n\n```\nA. D#m    from [D#, F#]\nB. E      from [E, G#]\nC. C#min7 from [E, G#, C#]\n```\n\nWith this, each section has an associated chord.\n\nBut before we start laying out the song form let's pay attention to what happened to the *color palette* of our song.\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the E Mixolydian scale that we started with.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nE  F# G# A  B  C# D  E'\n```\n\nOur song, on the other hand, now contains all the following notes: E F F# G# A# B C# D#.\nNotices that we're now using 8 notes in our song instead of 7, and that F, A# and D# are not in the E Mixolydian scale.\nIn fact, our song is now closer to the C# Dorian scale than the E Mixolydian scale.\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the C# Dorian scale.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nC# D# E  F# G# A# B  C#\n```\n\nThe only note that our song uses that is not in the C# Dorian scale is the natural F.\nSo that is the **chromatic note** in our song.\n\nWe started writing our song with notes from the E Mixolydian palette and\nended up creating a song using an octatonic scale,\nwith notes from the C# Dorian palette\nand the natural F as an extra 8th color.\n\nTranslating the chords into Roman numerals we end up with ii (D#m), III (E) and i7 (C#min7).\n\nLet us now lay the song form.\n\n### The short melodic phrase\n\nI decided that the song form will consist of playing the original motif, that is, section A, twice,\nand then playing the derived motifs.\n\n```\nPiano         A  A  B   C\nPiano (bass)  ii ii III i7\n```\n\nWith this we got ourselves a **short melodic phrase** that is 4 measures long.\nWe'll label it S.\n\n![8.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fc.png)\n\n![9.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fd.png)\n\nNotice how this chord progression looks like a small move upwards, followed by a large move downwards,\nas if saying \"We thought we would leave the depths (1 note up) but decided to stay in the depths.\nNot in the physical depths, however, but deep within ourselves is what is above the depths\n(double meaning, therefore 2 notes down)\".\n\nAlso notice that this song can't be played by a single piano because the melody and the chords are on the same octave.\n\n### The long melodic phrase\n\nWe can build a **long melodic phrase** by repeating the short melodic phrase twice that is 8 measures long.\nWe'll label it L1.\n\nLet's develop the long melodic phrase by adding a fugue to it,\nwe will add a contrabass playing the same melody as that of the piano,\nin the same key, two octaves down and starting a quarter tone later.\nWe'll label it L2.\n\nLet's develop it further by adding drums to it.\nI will define two patterns labeled 1 and 2.\nEach pattern will have the duration of one measure.\n\n```\nBeats:\n\u25e1 = Short\n\u2013 = Long\n\nDrums:\nH = Hi-hat closed\nR = Rim\nC = Cowbell\n\n(1) HHR\n    \u25e1\u25e1\u2013\n    (anapaest monometer)\n\n(2) HHRCCC\n    \u25e1\u25e1\u25e1\u2013\u2013\u25e1\n    (tribrach+antibacchius dimeter)\n\nSD = 1112\n```\n\nOur drums short melodic phrase will play the anapaest monometer 3 times and\nwe'll finally play a tribach+antibacchius dimeter\nto mark that we are about to repeat the short melodic phrase.\nWe'll label L2 with the drums as L3.\n\n### Putting it all together\n\nThis is the resulting song form hierarchy.\n\n```\nLong melodic phrases   L1                        L2                        L3\nShort melodic phrases  S1           S1           S2           S2           S3           S3\nContrabass             -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C\nPiano                  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C\nPiano (bass)           ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7\nDrums                  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  1  1  1   2  1  1  1   2\nLoop point                                       ^\n```\n\nL1 is the intro and will only play once, then L2-L3 will loop indefinitely.\nWe ended up with a 24 measure long song.\n\n### Creating the final mix\n\nNow that we're done with the score, let's adjust volume levels and panning.\n\n#### Volume\n\nI left all the instruments at -10.0 dB except for the drums,\nwhich I lowered to -15.0 dB to give a sense that they are moved to the back.\n\n#### Panning\n\nI panned both parts of the piano 30% to the left (even tough technically a single piano is not enough to play this song),\nand the contrabass 30% to the right.\n\nWith this, we are done with this song.\n\n## Things I forgot to do\n\nBecause I was in a hurry for this game jam,\nI forgot to apply post-effects, such as reverb and compression, especially compression.\nBecause of this, the quietest instruments may be not heard at all and the loudest instrument may be too loud.","comments":2,"comments-timestamp":"2025-10-13T17:06:22Z","created":"2025-04-26T17:26:59Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":415381,"love":24,"love-timestamp":"2025-10-13T17:05:22Z","meta":[],"modified":"2025-10-13T17:06:22Z","name":"Lifted Retrospective: Music","node-timestamp":"2025-04-26T17:33:30Z","parent":407712,"parents":[1,5,9,406845,407712],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/lifted\/lifted-retrospective-music","published":"2025-04-26T17:33:30Z","scope":"public","slug":"lifted-retrospective-music","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1312521},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"415381","n_urlkey":"451476","n_parent":"407712","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/lifted\/lifted-retrospective-music","n_slug":"lifted-retrospective-music","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"374028","n_created":"1745688419","n_modified":"1760375182","n_version":"1312521","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/lifted\/lifted-retrospective-music","text":"Hello Ludum community!\n\nIn this post I will explain how I created the music for [Lifted](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/lifted), explaining my tought process in detail.\nHopefully this will inspire devs who have not touched music composition to give it a chance. I will mark\nmusic concepts in **bold** face so you can look them up.\n\nAs a disclaimer, I am self-taught in both modern music theory and ancient Greek music theory.\nSo I use two classifications for what is commonly referred to as **modes** or **scales**:\nthe modern or **Glarean** classification and Greek octave species and genus and I'll try to include both at least once.\nI also mix ancient **meter** (poetry) theory when dealing with rhythm.\n\nMy **DAW** of choice in which I write all my music is Bitwig (in part because it's the only commercial one that supports Linux).\n\nMy general process when composing a new piece of music is:\n\n1. Chose the **scale** (color palette of notes, each associated with a feeling\/emotion), and instruments\n2. Write a **motif** (short sequence of notes that will be the **theme** if the song and will be repeated troughout the song with variations)\n3. Create new motifs by developing the original motif\n4. Build **short melodic phrases** from motifs\n5. Derive **chords** from the melody\n6. Build **long melodic phrases** from short melodic phrases\n7. Build longer forms from long melodic phrases\n8. Mix the song (adjust volume and panning for each instrument)\n9. Add post-effects\n\nI will now explain how I created both songs in my game: Lifted and Overworld. You can listen to them in the following video.\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UaVM0hgKvS8\n\n## 0. Lifted\n\n### Choosing the scale and instruments\n\nFor this piece, which was to be the title screen theme, I chose to start with the\n*A natural minor scale* \/\n*A Aeolian scale* \/\n*Greek Aeolian tonos (diatonic genus) on A*.\nThis is a scale that evokes sadness.\nI also chose piano and violin (`Grand Piano` and `VlnEns_Trem_`) as the instruments for the parts,\nwhich are also commonly used in sad music.\n\n### Creating the motif\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the A natural minor scale.\n\n```\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1'\nA B C D E F G A'\n```\n\nWith these, I wrote the following melody.\n\n![0.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f4.png)\n\nNotes: ABCD BCDE\n\nIn this motif we have two sequences of four notes that ascend in **step-wise motion**.\nThe idea behind this motif is that the first sequence *lifts* the second.\nBoth sequences are identical in terms of relative pitch progression, but\nthe first sequence starts at A, while the second starts at B, a note higher.\nThe first sequence sets the **home pitch** of the entire motif at A so the second sequence at B sounds higher,\nand so it can be said that the first sequence *lifts* the second.\n\nWe'll label this motif as section A.\n\n### Laying out the form (1)\n\nFor starters, let the violin play section A twice solo,\nand then twice again with piano accompaniment that we will create shortly.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A\nPiano         -  -  x  x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  x  x\n```\n\n### Adding chords\n\nFor the **chord**s, I chose to go with a standard i-iv-v-i **chord progression**, which has the v \u2192 i **perfect cadence**.\nIn the A natural minor scale this is Am-Dm-Em-Am.\nHowever, I realized that I messed up the placement of the third in the Am chord,\nplacing it a semitone higher,\nthus turning the A minor chord into an A major chord instead,\nand so the progression actually ended up being A-Dm-Em-A or I-iv-v-I.\n\n![1.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f5.png)\n\n### Laying out the form (2)\n\nLet's add the chord progression to the song form.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    x\nPiano         -  -  x  x    x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v I\n```\n\n### Developing the motif\n\nWe have no piano melody, so let's create a variation of the motif.\nI raised the home pitch of the motif up a fourth, from A to D,\nand made the whole motif half as long (or twice as fast),\nso it fits twice in a measure.\n\n![2.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f6.png)\n\nWe'll label this variation of the motif as section B.\n\n### Laying out the form (3)\n\nLet's add the piano melody to the song form, and\nlet's play it twice after the chord progression has played once.\nThe violin will rest while the piano melody is playing.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    -    -    x\nPiano         -  -  -  -    B    B    x\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v iv-v iv-v I\n```\n\n### Laying out the form (4)\n\nLet's finish up the song by having the violin play section B once while the piano melody rests,\nand end it by having the final I chord play out solo.\n\n```\nViolin        A  A  A  A    -    -    B    -\nPiano         -  -  -  -    B    B    -    -\nPiano (bass)  -  -  I  iv-v iv-v iv-v iv-v I\n```\n\n### Creating the final mix\n\nNow that we're done with the score, let's adjust volume levels and panning.\n\n#### Volume\n\nI left the volume of the violin as is at -10.0 dB.\n\nFor the piano, I made the volume of the melody louder at 0.0 dB, and the chords quieter at -6.0 dB,\nas playing three notes simultaneously stacks up the volume, compared to just playing just one note.\n\n#### Panning\n\nI duplicated the violin part and panned one violin 30% to the left and the other one 60% to the left.\n\nI panned both parts of the piano 30% to the right.\n\nWith this, we are done with this song.\n\n## 2. Overworld\n\n### Choosing the scale and instruments\n\nFor this piece I chose to start with the\n*E Mixolydian scale* \/\n*Greek Ionian tonos (diatonic genus) on E*.\nI chose piano (`Grand Piano`) as the main instrument for this song.\n\n### Creating, developing and modulating the motif\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the E Mixolydian scale.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nE  F# G# A  B  C# D  E'\n```\n\n#### Section A\n\nI started with this motif.\n\n![3.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f7.png)\n\nNotes: E F# D\n\nThen I transposed it up by 1 semitone.\n\n![4.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f8.png)\n\nNotes: F G D#\n\nThen I flattened the G into an F#.\n\n![5.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7f9.png)\n\nNotes: F F# D#\n\nWe'll label this motif as section A.\n\n#### Section B\n\nWe'll develop section A by opening it up a bit (spreading the pitches apart).\n\nIn this case, I flattened the F into an E, and double sharpened the F# into a G#.\n\n![6.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fa.png)\n\nNotes: E G# D#\n\nWe'll label this new motif as section B.\n\n#### Section C\n\nWe'll develop section B by adding a C# as a **leading tone** to D#.\n\n![7.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fb.png)\n\nNotes: E G# C# D#\n\nWe'll label this new motif as section C.\n\n### Adding chords\n\nI derived the following chords from the notes of each section in the melody.\n\n```\nA. D#m    from [D#, F#]\nB. E      from [E, G#]\nC. C#min7 from [E, G#, C#]\n```\n\nWith this, each section has an associated chord.\n\nBut before we start laying out the song form let's pay attention to what happened to the *color palette* of our song.\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the E Mixolydian scale that we started with.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nE  F# G# A  B  C# D  E'\n```\n\nOur song, on the other hand, now contains all the following notes: E F F# G# A# B C# D#.\nNotices that we're now using 8 notes in our song instead of 7, and that F, A# and D# are not in the E Mixolydian scale.\nIn fact, our song is now closer to the C# Dorian scale than the E Mixolydian scale.\n\nThis is the palette of 7 notes of the C# Dorian scale.\n\n```\n1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1'\nC# D# E  F# G# A# B  C#\n```\n\nThe only note that our song uses that is not in the C# Dorian scale is the natural F.\nSo that is the **chromatic note** in our song.\n\nWe started writing our song with notes from the E Mixolydian palette and\nended up creating a song using an octatonic scale,\nwith notes from the C# Dorian palette\nand the natural F as an extra 8th color.\n\nTranslating the chords into Roman numerals we end up with ii (D#m), III (E) and i7 (C#min7).\n\nLet us now lay the song form.\n\n### The short melodic phrase\n\nI decided that the song form will consist of playing the original motif, that is, section A, twice,\nand then playing the derived motifs.\n\n```\nPiano         A  A  B   C\nPiano (bass)  ii ii III i7\n```\n\nWith this we got ourselves a **short melodic phrase** that is 4 measures long.\nWe'll label it S.\n\n![8.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fc.png)\n\n![9.png](\/\/\/raw\/c05\/b5\/z\/6c7fd.png)\n\nNotice how this chord progression looks like a small move upwards, followed by a large move downwards,\nas if saying \"We thought we would leave the depths (1 note up) but decided to stay in the depths.\nNot in the physical depths, however, but deep within ourselves is what is above the depths\n(double meaning, therefore 2 notes down)\".\n\nAlso notice that this song can't be played by a single piano because the melody and the chords are on the same octave.\n\n### The long melodic phrase\n\nWe can build a **long melodic phrase** by repeating the short melodic phrase twice that is 8 measures long.\nWe'll label it L1.\n\nLet's develop the long melodic phrase by adding a fugue to it,\nwe will add a contrabass playing the same melody as that of the piano,\nin the same key, two octaves down and starting a quarter tone later.\nWe'll label it L2.\n\nLet's develop it further by adding drums to it.\nI will define two patterns labeled 1 and 2.\nEach pattern will have the duration of one measure.\n\n```\nBeats:\n\u25e1 = Short\n\u2013 = Long\n\nDrums:\nH = Hi-hat closed\nR = Rim\nC = Cowbell\n\n(1) HHR\n    \u25e1\u25e1\u2013\n    (anapaest monometer)\n\n(2) HHRCCC\n    \u25e1\u25e1\u25e1\u2013\u2013\u25e1\n    (tribrach+antibacchius dimeter)\n\nSD = 1112\n```\n\nOur drums short melodic phrase will play the anapaest monometer 3 times and\nwe'll finally play a tribach+antibacchius dimeter\nto mark that we are about to repeat the short melodic phrase.\nWe'll label L2 with the drums as L3.\n\n### Putting it all together\n\nThis is the resulting song form hierarchy.\n\n```\nLong melodic phrases   L1                        L2                        L3\nShort melodic phrases  S1           S1           S2           S2           S3           S3\nContrabass             -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C\nPiano                  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C  A  A  B   C\nPiano (bass)           ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7 ii ii III i7\nDrums                  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  -  -  -   -  1  1  1   2  1  1  1   2\nLoop point                                       ^\n```\n\nL1 is the intro and will only play once, then L2-L3 will loop indefinitely.\nWe ended up with a 24 measure long song.\n\n### Creating the final mix\n\nNow that we're done with the score, let's adjust volume levels and panning.\n\n#### Volume\n\nI left all the instruments at -10.0 dB except for the drums,\nwhich I lowered to -15.0 dB to give a sense that they are moved to the back.\n\n#### Panning\n\nI panned both parts of the piano 30% to the left (even tough technically a single piano is not enough to play this song),\nand the contrabass 30% to the right.\n\nWith this, we are done with this song.\n\n## Things I forgot to do\n\nBecause I was in a hurry for this game jam,\nI forgot to apply post-effects, such as reverb and compression, especially compression.\nBecause of this, the quietest instruments may be not heard at all and the loudest instrument may be too loud.","title":"Lifted Retrospective: Music","wayback_source":[]}