Tune Contest - Oct 26th to Nov 13th - The Big Adventure [WINNER ANNOUNCED]

[nihilyst]

Hey, folks,

sometimes, fishing a coin out of a storm drain with a chewing gum attached to a weight attached to a self-made fishing rod isn’t enough. Sometimes, you just need to go on a big old-school adventure -- like finding Atlantis, obtaining the Golden Fleece or the lost documents of the Library of Alexandria. Unfortunately, one can’t be a famous adventurer without some theme song. Indiana Jones surely wouldn’t have found anything without the aid of John Williams, and Nathan Drake wouldn’t be the same without some good music.

You probably don’t know this, but there are many more adventurers waiting in line, yet without a theme song, they can’t get going. So it’s up to you to get them started. Write a theme song or a tune in general that evokes feelings of the Big Adventure, travelling around the world in search for artifacts, visiting ancient ruins, discovering secrets no one has ever stumbled upon.

I’ll choose a winner around November 13th.

Let us have many great entries

cheers
nihilyst

[Viking]

Well, this was a fun experiment!  I decided to write something in one of the musical styles that's popular at blockbuster movies these days -- kind of a ripoff of Orff's Carmina Burana.  There's not much to this piece musically, except that the main theme (after the flute intro) is in regular 11-beat phrases, which is somewhat unusual.  I should mention that I struggled with my notation program quite a bit trying to get the glissandi and grace notes to work properly, and they're still not quite right.  On a real flute, the first part would sound much better, and the slides that most of the orchestra and choir does right near the end would sound way better.

At any rate, enough excuses!   The piece is scored for 3+3+3+3 4+3+3+1 timp. + 5 perc. + strings + choir, with the third flute doubling piccolo and the third clarinet doubling bass clarinet.  It's supposed to evoke trekking through a jungle in search of some ancient temple or whatnot.  Without further ado:

Jungle Trek

Hope you enjoy it!

[nihilyst]

Too bad the glissandi and the slides sound a bit awkward, but I could totally imagine a trek through the jungle. Good work!

[janleht]

Here's music for action-packed adventure...
No much room for tender love scenes in this story.

ADVENTUROUS

[m0ds]

Oh, deadline! I enjoyed the works above I'll enter my BlueCup Diner theme I wrote today, it's for a scene in Ravenwood but has 'going on an adventure [game studio]' feel to it.. OGG version I didn't get time to compose something original for this comp but love the theme nihilist!

[AnalogGuy]

Perhaps I could try to do something but is it yet too late to participate?

[nihilyst]

I'm on a short trip until sunday evening, so please feel free to enter. The more, the merrier

[AnalogGuy]

Of course, I forgot today evening. I'll try to do something quickly tomorrow.

EDIT: Okay, I completed the contest song. It was really improvised (everything played in live, at once) with only one keyboard and by hand and you can hear it. For the first time I tried my clever multi-layering system and volume pedaling together to achieve this fantastic result of complexity but I am only very shamed how greatly it failed, in terms of monitoring and mixing: It clips and the sounds are very unbalanced. I rushed everything because I didn't really have enough time and I literally improvised this at once (plus my hands failed to keep the rhythm anyway). I hope you enjoy.

P.S. Sorry if it became way too "action" style. I was trying to describe an adventurer that is immediately taken into "good vs. bad" fighting situation by cunning evil rival archaeologist... 

http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~patalus/new_stuff/Improvisation_stuff/tune_contest_(action).mp3

[nihilyst]

Okay, time to roll this up:

Viking: Evokes jungle trek feelings indeed. The choir gives it a vibe of mystery, forgotten ruins, then the second part kicks in and promises some good action parts. Great! As said, the glissandi sound awkward, but that’s okay with me.

janleht: Reminds of an upbeat and wacky adventure trip with lots of laughs, action and weird situations. Could imagine this in a game instantly.

m0ds: Begins soft and almost romantic, like someone standing on a rooftop watching the night city flow by. Then he nods, books a flight and goes on a journey. He visits many different cities in search for something he once lost. Your track could work great for a trailer, as it explores many different moods and pacings. I like that.

AnalogGuy: For an improvised song, this is pretty awesome, and I don’t think you have to be ashamed of that. Too sad that, in the middle part, the drums dominate everything else. It’s hard to focus on the strings, but I could imagine this to work very well if it was mixed better.

For me, it was a close call between Viking and m0ds. I’ve heard both of them multiple times, and I feel m0ds’ track growing on me. So I declare m0ds the winner. Like he said, it wasn’t originally for the contest, but he made it during the contest and not simply dug it up from the depths of his harddrive, so that’s okay

Thanks for participating, everyone

[Viking]

Cool, congratulations, m0ds -- well deserved!  And thanks for hosting, nihilyst!  I look forward to the next competition.

[m0ds]

Oh crazy, thank you!! Glad you enjoyed. I enjoyed all the other entries too. I'm busy this weekend but will get my thinking cap on for a new theme early next week! Thanks again nihilyst!

[m0ds]

I promise to have the new comp online in the next day or two at the most. I wanted to post a sample track to emphasize the theme but have lost it, so want to make a quick new one to go along with the post. XMAS!

[PeterT]

Thank heavens, m0ds!

I popped my head my back into Big Blue Cup after an almost 10 year hiatus, and was devastated to find I'd just missed the previous comp. I've been checking daily to see when the next one would appear :-)

[Diamond16]

What a fantastic idea! It's great listening to what everybody came up with! I look forward to participating in the next one!