Description



Summoner of Sounds is designed to be a series of interactive community events where video game music will be celebrated by the means of craftsmanship and community interaction.

Community members with experience in music production will be dared to participate in challenges testing their ability to perform well as a versatile video game composer, while the game developers with other areas of expertise are encouraged to to analyze the challenges, and provide the composers with commentary, feedback and constructive criticism.


Table of contents:

  • 1. Event Outline

  • 2. Event Schedule

  • 3. Licensing Rights & Submission Guidelines

  • 4. RMN as a Platform. What do I have to gain?

  • 5. Post-Processing Submitted Material

  • 6. Role of the Composer - Becoming the Summoner of Sounds

  • 7. Role of Other Developers and the Audience - You are not NPCs!

  • 8. Picking Favorites!?

  • 9. RMN Music Pack 2 and Guardians of the Groove







Summoner of Sounds consists of a periodically recurring series of challenges presented to the composers to participate in and for the developers and audience to engage in throughout the year.

Participants aren't obligated to participate in every challenge, but the more challenges you participate in, the greater the reward.

Presented challenges will test the composers' abilities to perform well as versatile video game music producers in a changing environment. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rules and restrictions, and a new concept where the composers will have to find a way to express themselves in.

The challenges may restrict and determine the video game genre that will need to be composed for, the game world setting to be composed for, a specific game instance to be composed for, or a specific manner to be composed in.

While the challenges will present a number of restricted aspects, each challenge will offer choice of freedom and room to stretch around in some of them.

Summoner of Sounds will be running for several months in total and challenges will be issued roughly once every month, or on a similar pacing.

Each challenge of the series will run approximately over the course of one month and the deadline of each challenge will be stated as the challenge and its ruleset are announced.
























Any work submitted to this event will be disseminated under a creative commons license as publicly usable in any way the end-user wishes as long as they attribute the work to the artist in their credits and that they also do the same themselves with any derivative work based on the artist's.

End-users of this material, and any derivative material, will not, however, be able to legally make any money from anything containing these tracks without the artists' express permission.


All works submitted to the event have to be 100% original work of the participants and must contain no copyrighted material, either compositionally or in terms of sampled sounds. Submitted works must contain no arrangements of any material of a different author, and they can not lift motifs from anywhere else, except possibly from the participant's own works.

Submissions should contain as little audio quality loss as possible, WAV file format being heavily preferred.





The RPG Maker Network offers an extensive network of gamers and game developers, both hobbyists and professionals.

This event series is designed to help the composers of the game development community come together, challenge their know-how and showcase their creative efforts, and the rest of the community to come in contact with the composers.

This event series won't have a panel of judges, and there won't be hand-picked winners. Participants are encouraged to challenge themselves and work together towards solving the presented challenges.

During the course of the event series, the composers will be creating video game music in various forms and manners, and build themselves a diverse portfolio while doing so.

The rest of the community is encouraged to provide feedback and impressions on this material and to be in touch with the composers, possibly giving them ideas, or request something specific from within the given ruleset.

RMN will bring the participants visibility, and the yields of each challenge will be shared on RMN's social media during the course of the events.



Each composer has a completely optional step to sign up for post-processing their submitted material.

In the post-process, the composer will be in touch with the event organizer who will help them personally by offering them feedback on composition and mixing details and assist them by creating alternate, OGG file format versions of their tracks with a coded-in looping point, which will enable seamless looping of their songs in the RPG Maker VX and RPG Maker VX Ace engines.

Enabling looping for the songs requires them to be composed in looped structure, with recurring sections.






Summoner of Sounds as an event series will present a series of challenges that will test your abilities as a composer to express yourself in a wide variety of restricted environments. This will help in readying you to have the tools and confidence to perform well as a composer in a wide range of video game projects.

Each challenge will introduce a different scenario where you may need to compose music for different game genre, imply a different game setting through instrumentation, cultural, and musical genre references, or approach the the task by expressing yourself with a very specific perspective in mind.

Some of these scenarios may, and most likely will, require you to research and learn new ways of designing video game music, but they will also encourage you to test yourself, and express yourself in ways that you haven't before, and you will experience the joy of discovering new sides of your creative self.

Summoner of Sounds is an event series that will be running for several consecutive months. It may sound intimidating at first, but you can decide which challenges you want to participate in. However, the more challenges you undertake, the greater the rewards.

If you want to achieve the very best yields, then the series will also test your ability to perform under pressure as you'll need to be undertaking all the challenges.

It will test your ability to practice your trade under discipline, not only when you are motivated, and it will test your adaptability at the times when you'll have to find your creative freedom and inspiration while you still have to make your visions meet with a set of pre-existing rules.

Remember, you are not alone! This is a collaboration event. You may work alone if you wish, but you are allowed, and encouraged to collaborate with other members. Do you have the same Digital Audio Workstation as the other participant? You can work together! And if you feel like discussing how to approach any of the issued challenges with the other participants, then nothing stops you.

Building an extensive network of colleagues and other practitioners of your trade will also work greatly in your favor!

Will you be able to take on the challenge? Can you become the Summoner of Sounds, or even something more?

Introduce yourself at the Composer Introductions!





Video game composers wouldn't be composing music for video games if there were no video games, and video games with no music, or audio, would offer us only an experience with half of the things to sense, than what they do with audio, so let's agree that sound design is an integral part of game design.

Video game audio does not only offer us audio clues on game mechanics, but music activates large parts of our brain on fast rate and communicates us a great variety of information, which married with the visual material will bring the gaming experience to a whole new potency.

That being said, video game directors should not underestimate the importance of solid audio design, and advanced communication with the audio designers plays a major factor at what the end product will communicate to the consumer.

Music helps to communicate ideas which aren't visually present, it may also underline and empower the visual ideas present, or it may change the way we perceive the visual clues completely when the marriage of the visuals and the sound refers to a completely new impression than what either part of the combination would carry across alone.

Video game directors need to be able to communicate their vision to the sound designers and together with them, find a way to communicate this idea to the consumers.

While the Summoner of Sounds challenges will introduce composers to predetermined rulesets, the rest of the community may still engage in the process by discussing each challenge and the methods fit to completing the challenge.

Everyone can take the role of a critic. You don't need to be educated in music theory or terminology to be able to tell whether you find a musical piece fitting for a specific game genre, instance or setting. Communication matters, even if you don’t have the most optimal tools for it.

Express yourself with your own words and impressions. A composer will be glad to hear any of it. Tell the composer what their music communicates to you: feelings, impressions, visual images or atmosphere, for example. Does their track fit the description of the given ruleset?

Everyone may also post ideas of any themes they would like to hear. If the ruleset permits, a composer may very well decide to compose your idea.


While there isn't a panel of judges, or winners for the event, everyone is still encouraged to show appreciation for entries submitted to the event.

Simple feedback and commentary alone is welcome enough, but if you really like some track, give it a star to mark it as your favorite! You can give stars for multiple tracks if you wish. Stars play a part in event visibility and achievement mechanics.

To reward composers with stars post a reply to the event explaining which track, or tracks you want to give favorites for. Attaching a star image to the post helps the process.

Image code for the star:
[img][url]http://rpgmaker.net/media/images/events/sos/sosstar.png[/url][/img]







As of today, one of the biggest, if not the single biggest achievement of the composer community of rpgmaker.net still is the release of our RMN Music Pack!

It's a great quality pack of music that we can be proud of, and an achievement that we were able to put together with collaborative effort and all thanks to the network and community that RMN is.

Reception of the RMN Music Pack was overwhelmingly positive and it has been a good while since its release, so it is time we set our sights on the future, and to the release of its successor, the RMN Music Pack 2!

The journey for RMN Music Pack 2 begins with Summoner of Sounds.

Summoner of Sounds is designed to work as a count down and prepare us to bring RMN Music Pack 2 to a whole new level.

While Summoner of Sounds works also as the countdown for the RMN Music Pack 2, Summoner of Sounds will still be the greatest undertaking of the RMN composer community as of today and it will challenge everyone's creative abilities.

Summoner of Sounds will be creating composers a portfolio, but it will also be creating the community a whole lot of great video game music!

If you like what the composers of the community do and you want to show your support to them, you can be directly in contact with them, but if you want to show your support to the community as a whole and help us arrange events such as the RMN Music Pack, Summoner of Sounds and the RMN Music Pack 2, you can now become Guardian of The Groove and donate to the cause!

Every penny counts and the money will be used first and foremost to have artwork to go with the music and then to offer rewards for participating members. Any extra funds to the cause will be spent on future RMN Music events.

To get the Guardian of the Groove achievement you have to PM Happy after the transaction goes through, so that he knows to apply the benefits to your RMN account.

Thank you everyone! Let's do our best!

Illustrations: カラカモ @ twitter / 烏鴨 @ pixiv
Event concept design, visual design, direction and supervision: Happy @ RMN / Matias Heimlander @ tumblr

Details

  • 05/01/2015 06:57 PM
  • 07/01/2016 11:59 PM
  • 3
  • Happy

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for Summoner of Sounds.

Teams Members Entry
Team Happy!
My Composing Stick is Ready
Team Meat
Sum On Her Off Sow And
Team Failed Harmony
Team Where Am I?
Team The Team
Out of practice, so let's get back in practice!
"Insert Team Name Here"
I'll Do My Best...
Chaos Harmony
Symphony Of Enthrea
Super Merengue Bros.
The Spoony Bard
Music for humanity
Bring back the dinosaurs
How do I Music?
Team Drass
Ark of the Arts
Team Koi
To the Beat of a Different Drummer
Team Toni!
Dysergy
Jingle Jangle Jingle
Ylmir
Azhthar
Team Amazing Hotdog
Firah
Team Last Minute Production
Ogarth Munchies
The One-Ghost Gaggle
Team Giznads
Fungus Happy
Maat Wants His Cap Back
Misoundthropy
Rastapopoulos
Sweaty Angle~~~ <3
OneByOne
Toms Introduction Team!
Team Midi
Legion of One
FoxAudio Creations (AKA Team Oh God Who Let the Furry In Here)
Happy Rainbow Panda Bears
Team Curry
Acidbath
Jar Studios
Aersia Sound Team
Plastic, Meat, Smoke, Metal, and Sugar
Team Megollyen
Niyane's Team
Team Unhappy!
The Sword Of The Crest Heart And The Bird That Learnt That Hope Would End One Day
Team Neutral!
Team Probably Not Appearing In This Event
Scion Genesis
Without Creativity
Team Random
Team Cheese
JStewartMusic
No Excuses!
Team currently busy but what the hell
Team Yup
Uncanny Warriors
Team Jawns AKA Boring Team Name
A Team of One
The Singularity
The Duke's Jukebox
Sound Master
Entry Status Key
  • - Pending
  • - Validating
  • - Accepted
  • - Rejected

Posts

BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
author=bulmabriefs144
Well, I can produce semi-tonal music too. My songs produced so far"


I'm not sure if I can pull off battle song or sad song, but you get the idea.
Just do your best and don't let me give you a hard time. Anvil Studio also lets you use the writing keyboard to play notes, so some of the tedium might be reduced. As for copy-and paste, not a bad idea- just try doing it with sections instead and alternating them. I liked the first song on the list- haven't listened to the others yet- so keep at it!
author=Trihan
Thundering Assault
Very esoteric, maybe a little high-frequency to begin with? You've got the modern/futuristic part down but it's not very confrontational-sounding. This is another one that I think would work well for an exploration/dungeon theme but not very well as something indicating battle or conflict.
I'll keep on trying out new pieces if i can- I have studying to do, so that comes first.. (In fact i think i have a bit of legacy stuff i can mix in..; i also wonder if a change in tempo and instruments might do it...
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I think lowering the frequency of that high-pitched thing, whatever it is, and upping the tempo a bit would make a huge difference.
author=Fulminis-ictus
larrylpope

Because of the sound of the instrument at the beginning I'd expect this piece in a somewhat retro inspired game at first. Probably because it reminds me a little of Resident Evil Gaiden. ^^
The part of this piece which I thought fit the theme the most was at 1:10 - 1:12 because the drums managed to create a sense of coming danger. It's too bad that it's so short though.
The rest of the piece was unfortunately rather calm and didn't evoke the feeling that you were currently fighting an army of soldiers with technologically advanced weapons.
In conclusion I think that you may have made this piece better if you would have used more instruments which may have implied that the world this piece is used in is technologically advanced (like synth instruments) and you could have expanded the part around 1:10 and shortened the calmer parts. It's not a bad piece though but it would fit better to another situation than the one described in the event description.


Thanks for the feedback! I might try to do another version of the song with your comments in mind. The current version might fit better in a sequence in which a battle is imminent rather than already underway.

New to this site, here is what I am working on for round 2, almost finished. I still need to mix and master it, as well as give it a proper ending.

Don't know why there is static at the beginning, doesn't appear when I play it through my DAW, will have to fix that.

Finally have an idea going, so time to crunch this together just like last time!
author=TungerManU
Which of the snares you're saying is especially loud?


I'll put my text into spoilers in case the others don't want to read my weird explanation of normalizing and RMS.
Especially the one which you used in the faster part. But I don't think that you have to make it quieter actually. It does sound pretty good how it is in relation to the other instruments in my opinion. The only problem is that it mostly clips at the points at which the snare is played. If you have an audio editor (I'm using Audacity for example) then you should be able to fix this problem by selecting the whole piece and then "Normalizing" it. I usually use the setting -0.1. This lowers the amplitude down to -0.1 dBFS (0.0 would be the maximum). If the amplitude goes over 0.0 then it's clipping. If you would look at such a piece with clipping audio in an audio editor then the peaks would look like they were cut off at the far bottom and/or top part (picture, +V would be 0.0 dBFS in this case).

Explaining RMS is quite hard for me, I already had a hard time understanding it myself when I was learning about it. RMS basically tells you the perceived loudness of a piece. But your best bet would probably be to educate yourself with books or the internet if you want to learn about it. I mentioned the bass by the way because long and low frequency notes boost the RMS a lot.

I hope that I didn't bore you with my explanation. ;_;
Peaks show immediate loudness (sample by sample), RMS shows the average loudness over time (say, average loudness for every 1 second or every 1/8 second).
Just noticed someone posted music completely unrelated to the first two challenges. It's a shame actually, because it sounds good.

About my entry... well, I still have nothing, so maybe I won't able to enter for this round. But there is still some days left before the deadline, so I'll see what I can do.
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
author=Trihan
I think lowering the frequency of that high-pitched thing, whatever it is, and upping the tempo a bit would make a huge difference.
Hmm. Is it a beep or a bell? I wrote a midi, then used soundfonts to render it, so there are 2 places I can alter it. *thinks he can transpose the midi tracks but use the same soundfonts for output*
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
I decided to just lower the speed. While In Audacity I can adjust tempo and pitch separately, just slowing it down turned it into a sort of march. http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/Thundering_Assaultv2.ogg
I haven't gone through any of these yet, but the free packs at SoundMorph seem like they were designed for this challenge, lol

http://soundmorph.com/?page=free
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
It's almost the end of the month and I haven't commented on any of the pieces that have been submited thus far. Real life is really getting in the way lately.

Ok, in no particular order

TungerManU - Thunder Ride

Oh yes I could see this one as a battle theme, it's up tempo enough to get the blood moving, especially after the 39 second mark where it steps it up a notch. I like this and can see it accompanying a street scene with soldiers or mercenaries clearing an area.


chenbaiwan - Warzone v2

I like the discordance in this, a feeling of a world slightly out of kilter. Though I'm not sure it's quite martial enough for a battle theme, it works as background music for a dystopian type world, but oddly it feels more like it would work better for a chase scene than a fight. A situation that is still fraught with danger but with less urgency than a fight to the death.


Trihan - Battle Stations

Nice beat, the melody line is quite addictive and I found myself tapping my fingers whilst I listened. I'm not sure if that is a good thing for a battle theme since I probably should be concentrating on the combat but as a standalone piece I really liked it. It doesn't feel particularly urgent to me, but perhaps with visuals of a fight incorporated it would work as a whole. I just don;t see them when I listen.


Giznads -
for YMASFW

Ok two to choose from, Assault Action has a strong start with that lovely slow pace to begin. This is great background music to a SF game. I could really see this playing as I make my way over a broken landscape, peering through the wreckage on the look out for enemy combatants. I wouldn't say it's the music I would expect when I'm in the battles though, but it's the one I would want to come back to when they are done, it carries a great sense of space.

YMASFW - now this is more like a battle theme, fast paced with heart thumping beats. I know that I'm not hearing bagpipes in the back but oddly that actually make it feel even more martial since those things were used to scare the willies out of the enemy pre-battle. This makes me think of a fight, so well done.


mjshi - March Loop

Sorry, no this doesn't work for me as a battle theme, though given it's name as 'March' were you aiming for it more to be something used on a parade ground than a battleground?


clubfungus - Die Section

There are some great oriental themes in this, and the overlays work well to create a chaotic and frenetic feel, which you do need for a battle scenario, though when it drops back down to that sort of machine gun heartbeat at around 1:40 it kind of loses impetus for me. Still I think it's a great piece.


larrlypope - Outerworld

Ok the darker melodies with the choir are great and they really appeal to me, but they feel more along the lines of a dark fantasy setting. I mean it could easily be a dark fantasy set in space which covers the theme, but it just doesn't feel that way. Though given the title 'outerworld' I think that may have been what you were going for, a world that isn't our own that we have visited bu that is set in that fantasy era. It's just a little too slow for the sort of thing I'm looking to hear in a battle theme. This doesn't get my pulse racing, it makes me nervous.


Fulminis-ictus - Assault Action

Fast from the get-go, which is just what I'm looking for to accompany my battle, but it doesn't seem to build very much it's all a much of a muchness. Fast and boppy but still a little light. I could see this being used in a light SF battle, something with anime robots rather than space marines. It fits the theme though and was one I liked.


BurningTyger -Thundering Assault

Definitely in the SF realm, but I don't get a lot of urgency with this one either. Perhaps it the high pitch of most of it, it just doesn't seem to have the boldness I expect from a battle theme. I listened to version2 if that makes a difference, but it doesn't really even match the name, there is no hint of thunder in this piece.


TheRexion - March to the death
because I can give more than one.

Not bad at all, upfront pace, good back melody, definite SF pedigree, yes I could see this one playing for a battle theme. Something a little different though, it almost feels like you are incorporating a particular villain's theme into the piece so this would be the one you use when going up against him/her/it rather than a generic 'battle' theme.


bulmabriefs144 - Battle Theme

To answer you team name question, I do. Sorry this was just too random for me, and would just really irritate me if it was playing as I was trying to fight someone.


Matt

MTOJV - Wasteland music, this speaks of empty places left behind after civilisation has fallen. I really like it, but I'm not sure how well it would translate to a battle. Personally I think it would be great as mood setting music for a particularly dysfunctional future. I could see this as the sort of thing a bunch of wasteland survivors play sitting around a campfire from the instruments they have salvaged from the wreckage with no knowledge of how they would normally go together but making a whole that is better than the sum of it's parts. I really like this, I just don't think it fits the 'battle theme' mould.

I'm assuming the Lakeside town one you've submitted was for the previous challenge, because it really suits that light of heart theme brilliantly. If I could give retroactive stars I'd give you one for this. It's just lovely.


I think that's everyone so far, I'll pop back and check before the month ends.

22
mjshi
Jack of Most Trades
6414
Edit: The deadline is approaching, might as well just submit this. Seems like I need to watch more war films, haha...
It loops well.
http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/justmandolin.mp3
The voice counts as an instrument, yes? Thus, this one was created as well. (SFX belong to their respective creators on soundbible, 99sounds, etc) Hopefully grunting and blunt impact sounds will make it sound more fightish. Ugh. I am definitely not happy with the two I've submitted, but... onto the next one, I suppose.

Old post:
This piece is unfinished, but I'd like an opinion to see if this line is worth pursuing, because I'm really having a hard time composing "assaultish" music...

I'm thinking of adding techno-sounding stuff as well, but I'm really not sure where to go with this.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1rEAEUR6HCF
The file is only finished up to 0:22ish. At that point it's just snares, so you can close out.
Submission submitted! Both WAV and OGG available.

Made with a s*** ton of libraries from Impact Soundworks, and three other synths.
I'm almost done with mine. I think I'll upload it tomorrow (still have the mixing/mastering to do).

@Anorax : Really good, although I don't find the wobble synth really convincing.
Also, it feels like it could have a lot more energy if you mixed it differently. You should put the drums louder, maybe turn down the volume of the lead synth a little bit as well.
You could also add some compression on the master track in order to make the overall track sound louder (especially for the "metal" parts). Then, turning down the loudness a little bit on the "electro" parts of your track could create some more contrast between these sections.
Oh, by the way, it's currently 3 am where I live, so maybe I'm too tired to even think correctly and these ideas are just plain stupid. ^^
@Ylmir yeah, the wobble is really lackluster. It's not exactly my area of expertise, so I basically picked a random preset with a certain feel and ran with it.

As for the actual mixing, that's still something I have so much difficulty with and need to spend plenty of time working on.
Ok just submitted mine

http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/Battle_for_Xaetera.wav

I'm new to this and don't know how to set up the loop / ogg file thing, so I just faded out the song.