New Music - Sylvia's Theme (Patreon)

Another month comes with another great track from our composer Will "Ultigonio" Bowerman. So far in these updates we've simply posted the tracks with samples from its development so you can hear how the track progressed. This time, we're letting Will himself narrate how the track developed, and you can follow along with the sound files attached below

So, for Sylvia's theme I very quickly got the idea that I would like a song that one might "strut" to, since I felt that Sylvia was very much the "strutting" type. I wanted her theme to give off a sense of confidence. So big piano, a solid beat. Breath instruments for a bit of sexiness. Those were the initial thoughts I had. Also, I'd just bought some new jazz-oriented virtual instruments, and I really wanted to use 'em.

(Sylvia A)
Very big sound!! Too big, really - the piano and drum both sound like they're being played on a big stage, which is a bit too "epic" for a laid-back VN like Mice Tea. Thus, we iterate. Still, I like where this starts - in particular, I'm proud of the movement that happens with the piano in the last few chords, that's something I don't usually try.

(Sylvia B)
Testing out ways to chill things out, I start with the drums. Still sounds a bit too big, so...

(Sylvia C)
There we go! That's relatively intimate. Dropping the tempo helps to "relax" the track a bit, too. Also added a guitar for good measure (per a suggestion from Brit, but also taking some inspiration from the recent Animal Crossing's 5pm track), but it bugs out and doesn't start playing until partway through. Oh well.

(Sylvia D)
Had an idea for the bridge (or would this be considered the chorus?) during a meeting with the team - so I went ahead and drafted it up real quick. Also gives a quick peek at how weird the flute sounds without any reverb or delay attached to it. Some of these chord choices are a *bit* ugly and end up getting changed later, but I liked the general feel of this - the thicker, longer block chords change the pace of the song enough to serve as an adequate break from the first part.

(Sylvia E)
It's starting to come together! I really enjoy layering the more obviously-fake instruments like the sax under more realistic instruments like the flute to give the latter more body while hiding the less appealing parts of the former.

(Sylvia F)
Zoe mentions maybe wanting a bit of a lead-up before we starting using the guitar, which I initially interpret to mean an "intro", so here's that.

(Sylvia G)
I decide to keep the intro anyway, I like it! But also, there's that lead-in without the guitar, as well as some more development on the track itself. Why is there a key-change? I dunno. That's just what came to me at the time.

(Sylvia H)
Testing a removal of the key change, partly to give myself a chance to adjust to the idea (since, if you listen to something too many times, you normalize the ways in which it may be jarring to other listeners).

(Sylvia I)
Aaaaand here's everything all together! But the filename for this is Dangerous Curls v1.mp3, which means it can't be the final version of the track, so -

(Final Track)
Here's just a liiiiittle more polish to feel satisfied with the work. The main things that change here are the addition of a few guitar riffs in the back half of the song (for the sake of not getting too boring) and also some adjustments to the vibraphone in the first half. Both KD and Zoe mentioned that it sounded "fake" compared to the second half of the song and this initially puzzled me because like - it's the same instrument. But I think me layering the vibraphone with itself but an octave higher was probably creating that sensation, so I ended up removing that for the first phrase, and then toning down the higher vibraphone notes for the second. Anyway! It's done! Phew!

Thanks to Will for taking the time to explain his process and of course for creating all this great music!

Stay tuned for this month's release later this week.