New Music

[Binky]

I think it sound better at 115% speed - otherwise very good

[Bollen]

What do you mean? A bit faster?

[Binky]

Yes. If 50% is half speed, 200% is double speed, that music sounds best to me at 115% speed

[Arthur]

Bollen, this music is really good and very varied yet coherent! Congratulations!

Now for the "bad" news. Not bad, really, but to be honest, I feel like this piece would be better suited to Hacienda than Amazonian Journey. The latino feel kind of suits it more, even though I know Spanish and Portuguese is very prevalent in South America. But the good news is, a unique piece for Hacienda was needed as well, in my opinion, since we used the same ska music for both The Island (which the ska fits perfectly to) and Hacienda.

So, I suggest that we use this for Hacienda, and maybe you could come up with something "more ethnic" for Amazonian Journey? I know this must seem a little annoying: first you make something very ethnic, then you were asked to change it, and now in my opinion we need to have something with a more native South America style again. But you made something which would fit Hacienda very well, we get less repetition of music among the tracks, so it's a win nevertheless.

The above is just my opinion though; let's wait and hear what others say. Hopefully you won't get discouraged by all the differing opinions.

[KroArtem]

Actually I agree with Arthur, it sounds more like a latina music (moreover, I'm sure it's possible to dance samba or salsa with this track) for me.

[Bollen]

Oh no! Not at all, I'm not discourage nor do I find it annoying. I like a challenge and I'm really pleased that this piece found a home. Unfortunately I'm away again tomorrow so won't be able to do much till I come back next week. But when I do I'll speed it up and post it to see what you guys think.

Personally I also found that this piece was too "Latin" and even maybe a bit too Mexican/Cuban, but I didn't want to go another week without submitting something. Every time I try to write something more ethnic it ends up sounding either too obscure (sombre) or too avant-garde (classical-contemporary music). I'll have a think about whilst I'm away.

Until then...

[Auria]

I agree, I think it would be excellent for hacienda didn't turn out as expected, but very nice work
(for jungle, for the record, I still think your first attempt at it was very close - maybe by adding a little flute something like the flute in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXE-5Nr ... re=related would bring sufficient diversity to it)

Now I wonder, is it possible to have a version that has very little compression? We like having higher-quality versions of our songs, in case we wish to re-export them

Also which license would you release it under? CC-BY-SA 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ), or something else?

[Bollen]

Hello Auria, thank you for your comment. As I said at the beginning when I began this project: everything I'm submitting is JUST A SAMPLE. Once the music has been approved by the community I'll do a proper mix/master and I will submit the WAV files. It takes me a day to do this (if not more), so I don't want to have to do it for every sample prior to approval... It's just not efficient.

Concerning the first submission, I found the uncanny valley concept quite valid so I don't want to go back to that piece (I can always use it later in life for something else). The link you sent me was very nice, but that music is Andes not Amazon (trust me, I lived in South-America for 10 years. For them there's quite a difference). The problem is that Amazonian music is quite primitive and I haven't been able to find a good instrumental compromise i.e. something that works with bass and harmony. Just give me a few days to think about it, I really want to nail this. I will only be happy if most of you say "Yes! Spot on!"

[Arthur]

By the way, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I suggest that the end or beginning could be changed just a little bit, to smooth out the looping. For example, you could have a short bridge at the end, like in the attachment (I converted to mono because I currently only have one speaker connected). By the way, I looped with the beginning before fading out, so that was just for demonstrating how it loops now. And I only cut out from the previous bridge for demonstration purposes, so do whatever you want - I just feel like the current looping is a bit awkward. Don't bother if you disagree though; it's not that important but just a minor detail I think could help.

[Kinsu]

Nice sample, I like it ! If you choose to modify it for Amazonian journey, make sure to keep the first version for Hacienda
Keep up the good work !

[lexx_koto]

That new track is sounding great, but it does sound like it'd suit Hacienda better. Having said that, I do like the "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho" song that's used on Hacienda and The Island.

[Auria]

I would suggest that the second one is pretty much ready for being mixed (and actually it already sounds qyuite good enough to me)

[betharatux1]

oh yeah, its agree for hacienda track theme song ... awesome.
Auria good suggestion ...

[qbgeekjtw]

Perfect for the track!!

Having played the original TuxKart myself, I kinda like the song for minigolf.

[Bollen]

So I was thinking maybe we could just use it for Island track... I had another couple of ideas for Hacienda that I would like to do..... More mexicana/mariachi type stuff.

Still struggling away with Amazonian. I came up with a very ethnically southamerican piece (I will post it later tonight or tomorrow), which is alright but not great... I'm getting Andes but not jungle. The problem is that musically the Amazon is not very rich musically speaking.... It is tempting to go African and include marimbas, koras, harmonies, etc. But I fear it might be offensive (and ignorant) to do so. Amazonian music, besides a few basic percussions and flutes, doesn't have any other instruments besides voice. So it is incredibly difficult to find variation with such a limited scope/range of instruments.

[Auria]

I think that song is too latin-sounding for the island track, besides I like the current song on island no IMO it really belongs in hacienda

And regarding jungle, I think you can be less strict about making music that sounds like real music from this area. Anything that sounds jungle-like will be accepted by us I think, since we have no desire to be realistic

[mollah]

About the first take, I like it! But maybe it lacks a bit melody, and maybe some of the vocals can be let out, or made less dominating. I'm not an expert, but I think Auria has a point about not being so strict. It should have some junglefeel, but it doesn't have to be exactly like real jungle music.

Also I have to say, I'm very happy a skilled person like you want to improve STK's music. I think you're good

[Bollen]

Thank you Mollah for your kind words. I am very committed to getting it right and will not give up, I assure you all. However, I've become a lot busier than I expected this summer, thus I'm running behind. But worry not! I will continue to write ideas in my free time and post them here.

I attach the Hacienda track a 115% faster, I don't think it works and personally I think it sounds silly.

[Bollen]

Now 130 bpm seems to work ok if you actually want it that fast:

[Binky]

Now 130 bpm seems to work ok if you actually want it that fast:

sounds good

[Auria]

Now 130 bpm seems to work ok if you actually want it that fast:

Around that speed sounds quite good to me I think it's quite fitting
If you confirm the license you release this under I would be most happy to include this track in the game

[ctdabomb]

If you confirm the license you release this under I would be most happy to include this track in the game

Yay! congrats Bollen. if you have a question about the license, I would suggest one of the creative commons ones

[Bollen]

Thank you guys! I have two more ideas I will submit later today. I really like one of them but I'm not sure what you will think about it....

Concerning the license, I've read through it and I confess that most of it went right over my head.... Ha! When you say "one of the creative commons ones", I could only find one main document so I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to choose. I don't mind the work being distributed, copied, adapted, etc. As long as it stays within the context of Super Tux Kart. So please advise and explain the procedure.

Lastly, I'm not sure how you guys want to go about this. I prefer to have all the tracks selected first and then do the production (mix, master and polish the loop) of all of them. It's easier to keep it consistent sound-wise. But if not I can work on them as you approve them...

PS: The Wav files are too heavy to be posted in this forum. Are there any other places for uploading?

[Auria]

We suggest this license : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This page should make clear what it says. Now understand that we cannot limit the song to be usable only for STK, because we are open-source and being open means we can't limit that (if we limited that we would need to find a new host since sourceforge requires that we be open ^^) However I have myself almost never seen soundtrack being copied between games since all games want an original soundtrack, so I think it's quite "safe".

[Bollen]

Thank you Auria, that's good enough for me! I appreciate when you say "the page should make it clear", I understand the license but what exactly am I supposed to do? Do I just say "yes" here in the forum? Or do I attach a copy of the license to the files when I upload them... Sorry if I'm being a bit thick, but legalities have never been my forte...