Something wicked this way comes
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While finishing up for the Beta, I have been working on the most prominent track in the game: the boss’ theme song. Our game, based on the Umibozu concept document, features a large sea monster as its final boss. While the original concept document drew heavily from Japanese culture in both art and mythos, we decided to go a different route with a steampunk setting instead. So, instead of having the ”Umibozu” (sea monster from Japanese folklore), we have the scary Kraken to more fit with the setting. I have never written boss music before. My personal music is very mellow and soft, something that boss battle music generally isn’t. First, I looked for inspiration. I needed something epic, something that really feels like a big finale. I needed Dark Souls. The Dark Souls soundtrack features big, swelling orchestras and plenty of choirs. They certainly feel epic and grand. This track from the Abyss Watchers’ boss fight is a favorite of mine and the church bells at the beginning give me chills every time I play the game. Now I know what I’m kind of looking for. Something swelling and grand. Strings are a must have. Now, how could I make it fit more with the setting? How could I make it sound more like the Kraken? I got an idea. For the few people who haven’t seen the Pirates of the Caribbean films (first of all, how?), this is Davy Jone’s theme song, the dreaded ghost captain who just happened to have a pet Kraken. The track already reminds me a lot of Dark Souls and boss battle’s in general, which it basically is. Plus, it certainly has a feel of sailing and seafaring, which fits perfectly with Umibozu and our Victorian-esque setting. Also, I needed that music box from the intro. I started working. I began by writing a small and simple melody which later would run through the entirety of the track. I wanted it to be a bit more up-tempo than the Davy Jones theme, so I sped it up and moved it over to a 4/4 tempo. I plucked the notes into my digital audio workspace (I use FL studio for those wondering) and added a small plug-in synthesizer I found online called DSK Music Box. My intro was done. Moving on to the bridge and build-up, I wanted something monstreous. Something akin to a big monster roar. Turns out, if you pitch down a fog horn from a real ship, it sounds really interesting and just like a monster. I used it as the bass through-out the song. Now, the sound can’t just be music boxes and fog horns, I needed some chords and clav. For the chords, I wanted a lot of dissonance. What this means is essentially building chords in such a way that they sound ”false”, done by inverting and moving the notes up and down the octaves (so, going from e.g. C5 to C6). The Sherlock Holmes soundtrack is a good example of this (watch the volume for this one): What this does is making the listener feel kinda un-easy, like something is off. Certainly gives off a spooky feeling. Again, fitting perfectly with our boss battle. It also helps alot to have the piano out of tune. So, here’s the final track: In this big mish-mash we have: Davy Jones’ music box for familiarity, Dark Souls’ swelling orchestra for epicness, Sherlock Holmes’ dissonant piano chords for discomfort and edited fog horn roars as bass. I think it turned out quite nice. I also added some tribal drums and chants to give that feeling of ”ancient evil” and folklore, for lack of a better term.  |