With the direction confirmed, I rebuilt the track from the rave reference point outward. The structural logic is now driven by a heavy dotted beat using 808s layered with the Dark Souls New Area sound, with the game audio samples repositioned as textural and atmospheric layers sitting under and around it.
Key decisions so far:
- BPM and rhythmic feel: 125bpm, dotted rhythm
- Drum programming: I worked on some drum hits to give more structure to the overall beat, mostly through resampling and processing, A hat and snare at the end of each bar emphasises the structure. the drum hits are deliberately quite washed out and blurry rather than clean and precise, as I felt this was cohesive with the overall structure. I layered many elements for the low end, duplicating the same sound and processing them differently to make the groove more interesting by removing particular layers for certain hits to increase or reduce weight.
- Sample repurposing: The Dark Souls material now functions primarily as harmonic material, the new area sound is layered with the 808s to fuse them into one sound. The Twilight Princess Midna fragments are used rhythmically and are more prominent in the bridge in the middle of the track. I used these to emulate what I imagine the female character’s voice could sound like.
- Sidechain: I used multiple return tracks with diferent compressors sidechained to differnet elements of the track, such as the kick and glitchy percussion. This was to create a pumping effect prominent in much rave music, giving it body and weight while also cleaning up the mix.
- Vocoding: I userd vocoders on multiple elements of the track, using external sounds routed into them and automating parameters on the eq to give a watery squelchy effect that I wanted to keep as part of the composition.
I sent a work-in-progress version of this file to the group, and they liked it, and encouraged me to work on getting it mixed and finished. The main constructive feedback I recieved was to reduce the overall length of the track, as it was over 4 minutes, and they wanted it to be closer to 3 minutes.
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