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

@pLasterbrain:
I'm genuinely feeling this. It has a lot of action in it, perfect for a battle theme! I'm not sure it has a lot of "fight for your life" in it, but it's still really awesome.

@fxsnowy:
I really like the percussion you've got going on there. Some of the synths were a bit strange, but overall it works great.

@mjshi:
Uh, I don't think this fits at all. o.o
@fxsnowy : There are some things I don't really like, like the first synth at about 0:17 (but it's only a matter of taste this time, I must admit its sound sets the mood well), or the fact that you use about 5 cymbal crashes in less than a second sometimes (again, it's maybe only a matter of taste, I don't use this kind of sound really often, only when needed to add something more without overdoing it). But overall, it's a really good one as well.

@pLasterBrain : It began quite well (although I don't really like thesound of the brass at the beginning), but from 0:28 and until the end, the "bossa nova-ish" accompaniment doesn't really fits the theme IMO (although it still works with the guitar), and it's definitely difficult for me to see a battle on the section beginning at 0:37.
I tend to refer a bit too much on a more action-oriented interpretation of the theme though, but... I don't really know, something disturbs me, it sounds maybe too "happy" to me, in some way, or too diverse.
author=nhubi
bulmabriefs144

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.



All the same, BattleTheme2 is okay for a fantasy setting. I'm gonna try it on one of my battles later today. #1 yea, I can do without too.
Just submitted my track ! Well, actually I'm almost sure I'll once again make some emergency changes just before the deadline like the last time... Anyway, enjoy ! ;)
mjshi
Jack of Most Trades
6414
author=TheRexion
@pLasterbrain:
@mjshi:
Uh, I don't think this fits at all. o.o


I have no other choice then.. there's one day left. Congrats to all who made it, I'll let Happy judge whether or not anything I made counts.
Threw this together. :)

http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/RMN_Summoner_of_Sound__Challenge_2_Looped.ogg

I tried to go as low-bit as possible, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of the piano. Hope y'all enjoy!
Ha, right? Organic instruments all teh way
author=SignInColor
Threw this together. :)

http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/RMN_Summoner_of_Sound__Challenge_2_Looped.ogg

I tried to go as low-bit as possible, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of the piano. Hope y'all enjoy!


This is awesome! So catchy and fast paced, I loved every second. The outro was perfect. <3
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
author=mjshi
I have no other choice then.. there's one day left. Congrats to all who made it, I'll let Happy judge whether or not anything I made counts.

I think the straight justmandolin one is the closest you've got to the theme, but it's just the choices you are making in regard to instruments that is causing this not to feel like it fits. I understand you appear to have a limited selection and that is why you are not availing yourself of the types of sounds that would fit with a futuristic battle scenario. That is unfortunate for you, and means for those of us listening we can't really say anything other than we have since you don't have the tools to take us where this challenge is meant to go.

e: Looks like there are a few new ones, I'll listen later today and give feedback.
author=SignInColor
Threw this together. :)

http://rpgmaker.net/content/events/sos/files/RMN_Summoner_of_Sound__Challenge_2_Looped.ogg

I tried to go as low-bit as possible, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of the piano. Hope y'all enjoy!


That should be like a DDR beat.
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
Well there's still a day left so maybe I can do something Part of the problem is that the main "melody' track started out as drums.

author=mjshi
author=TheRexion
@pLasterbrain:
@mjshi:
Uh, I don't think this fits at all. o.o
I have no other choice then.. there's one day left. Congrats to all who made it, I'll let Happy judge whether or not anything I made counts.
Likewise. I've had other things on my mind so haven't' exactly been giving my all here...
It was quite hard to choose my favorite one. I had to exclude some great pieces though because they didn't fit the theme like pLasterbrain's piece (doesn't really fit to a futuristic setting in my opinion).
But I think that "Challenging Fate" was the best one.


DieSection187 is my second place by the way.
I « reviewed » (it's more like some random advices for each track actually) some of the submitted tracks… I'm maybe a bit late for the challenge, but I hope it can still help !
Oh, and by the way, don't worry if I only talk about the negative points and forget the more positive, I've never been good at pointing out the more positive points. Oh, and by the way, the feedback I haven't put as “spoilers” contain some advice that someone else could maybe find useful.

SignInColor - RMN_Summoner_of_Sound__Challenge_2_Looped.ogg

Good work, with interesting melodies, although I'm not fond of the mixing. For example, I don't like the reverb you have on your kick/low percussion – the low frequencies can become really messy easily if you have too much reverb in there.

Also, when you have repeated notes of an acoustic instrument (here, the piano), I highly recommend to vary the velocity of the notes to avoid this machine-gun effect. With some sound libraries, it will only change the volume, but with some others, it will trigger another sample, with a softer or harder note. This avoids the to be repeat too much the same sound. Also, it brings some more realism, since a real piano will never make the exact same sound two times, and even a good pianist will never be able to hit the same key twice with exactly the same velocity.


Trihan - battle_stations_v3.ogg

The mix really lacks a lot of energy : almost everything is far in the background, even the drums, and it makes the whole track feel empty. It looks like you're afraid to make your lead melody disappear behind everything else, and because of that, everything else disappears behind it.

If you want, I can send you a quick example of how it could sound with only a bass synth and some drums added to your track, just send me a PM if you're interested ;) I'm pretty sure you don't realize how much space you leave empty in your mix, and it may help you to see what I'm talking about if I show it to you on your own track.

By the way, I don't really understand why at 0:35, your drums suddenly come more in front of the mix before disappearing again. And at 34,3 seconds exactly, your audio peaks a bit too high and saturates (just open it in Audacity or something like that and you'll see what I'm talking about). It's something you must avoid, since getting higher than 0.0dB will result in an irreversible distortion in your final audio file.


Shade_Hunter – Fight_on_the_Orbit.mp3

Your track lacks some energy too, because the drums aren't mixed well. All their high frequencies are cut out, and they are at a really low volume – they add little to nothing to your track this way. Don't be afraid to bring your drumkit a bit more in front of your mix. Also, I feel like all your track is drowned into a reverb, most of the sounds used lack clarity and presence. If you're using reverberation plugins, try to decrease the amount of reverb added, this might fix the issue.


Anorax - SoS_Ch2__Call_of_the_Chromed_Commandos.wav

Already gave my opinion on this one, but I think it still deserves a star ; I especially like the general idea of the track, even if the mixing doesn't always make it justice.


Fulminis-ictus – Assault_Action__Techno_War.ogg (edit : Thanks for the star ! :p)

I don't really like the dissonant melodies you have in your track, but they add to the mood in a good way. I'd have liked some more variation though, because I'm pretty sure this can get repetitive over time.
I'm not completely sure the trance/techno genre was a good idea for the challenge : It has a futuristic feel, yes, but I tend to associate these genres to racing games like Wipeout more than epic battles. Maybe it's just me though.


TheRexion – march_to_death.mp3

Your lead melodies are really blend into the background, and it's both a positive and a negative point. As a background music, it works and doesn't draws the listener's attention, but it also has much less charisma when listening to the music only.
Your track fits the theme, not in the « OMFG DAT BATTLE IS BADASS » way, but in a more subtle manner, and while I don't think it would fit into an action-oriented game, it could definitely find its place in something more strategy-oriented.


Giznads – Your_Moms_A_SciFi_Warrior.wav

+1 star. Actually, I love the retro feel of this one. And… sorry, I don't know what else I could say. xD


Oshimura - Cyber_Assault.ogg

You may find me harsh, but… It sounds random, exactly like if you had put random samples and loops at random places into your DAW. The different « parts » all sound completely different, with a completely different sound quality and mixing between each. It sounds awkward, disturbing, random and incoherent, and you probably just sliced different songs, samples and loops before putting them back together in a strange fashion. If not, then someone has to tell you it sounds like that. Sorry.


larrylpope – OuterworldBattleTheme2_1.wav

A lot of tension, it reminds me of Final Fantasy for some obscure reason – probably because of the small percussive segment around 1:10. This is a good track, but I'd see it more in a crucial scene just before an assault, or maybe as a boss battle theme in a turn-based RPG against bosses that require not to max out damage against them (like an unbreakable barrier), but to use specific elements on the battlefield in a clever way (for example, something that would disable the barrier).


Giznads – Giznads__Summoner_Of_Sounds__Assault_Action-1.wav

I'm a bit skeptical about the structure of the track. The intro sets more a scenery of infiltration, while the main part of the track is more action-oriented. Ingame, I don't feel like it would work well, because of this difference between the intro and the rest, and because the infiltration-like pace lasts almost until the middle of the track.
Attempted some better mixing, modified the wobble's timbre (though who knows if for the better), and fixed some tag loops, because sample data in a WAV file != sample data in an OGG file. So, yeah.

EDIT: Deleting OGG version of the first submission, because its loop data may not be correct.
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
I hope mine counts. I must admit I've not been 100% invested in the project lately, so some of my work may be half-assed jobs. I've had other things on my mind.
I think we wait and see what Happy has to say. *shrug*
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
author=Anorax
I think we wait and see what Happy has to say. *shrug*
What do you think of mine, BTW if I dare ask? *Just played it in reverse and it is terrifying, so may submit that*
I honestly haven't really listened to anyone's submissions, from either chapter, mostly because I'm pretty tied up between IRL stuff and other projects for other online communities. I know, I suck.
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289