Desolate Town Explore

So after visiting an abandoned village I created a background track that combines the visuals with the music.

What I seek to convey is add more sense of atmosphere to the track so it vibes in with the visuals

My inspiration is the last of us hbo tv series



 

Edited January 30, 20233 yr by Zimr Music

Hi I like the independency of the instruments. 

Hi! Let's see:

• The low-pitch piano notes seem to be always a good choice for resembling shady —not necessarily abandoned though— places, I myself have one (which I will not publish so the topic keeps focused on the proper subject). 
• I didn't like the synth as much as the piano and drums, but it's okay overall.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.
 

Hi @Zimr Music,

Wow the low pitch piano and drums are so cool at the beginning. But I agree with Daniel that it's not quite abandoned, but more chill for me. I actually love those synth sounds, since they appear naive and desolated. It gives me the abandoned feeling more than the beginning!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

Hey there

Cool vibes in this one. The piano low notes are well used to create that atmosphere.

There was something off to me with the kick drum, like it was slightly out of tempo. Maybe that's intended? Did you record this live or via midi input?

The synth wasn't quite convincing to me either. It sounded like it kind of mimicked the kick drum hit points. But that aside, there were a few sections that sounded out of place (especially the :59 mark). I like the in-a-key-but-with-wrong-notes flavor of it, but I just feel like it could have been systematically a little better. To me, the synth was begging for some sort of atonal melody, rhythm aside. There was some great work done on the Matrix soundtrack, where the composer used serial elements to create that type of sound. It may be worth checking out.

Overall though, cool music! I feel like the next step is being able to create a dark non-tonal atmosphere using a system that's proven to work, rather than what sounds like you playing a melody but randomly hitting wrong notes to give that type of color. Great start and experimentation, but I'd love to hear you develop these skills further!

It's an interesting piece in itself - as others have said, the deep piano is all about dark and shadows. If the intention was to suggest creepy it seemed too percussive for that. More like in some of these video games exploring a warehouse full of clutter knowing there's there's something there but not quite what.

When you talked of an abandoned village I was expecting to find emptiness, stillness, an uneasy apprehension of black through glassless windows, stirrings that might be a solitary dweller...or not.  It didn't come across like that and I think it would need to be a lot longer to really convey atmosphere, possibly through a change of instrumentation.

However, it has quite some potential. You could even try plucking the piano strings and/or having some notes very quiet by contrast. If you do develop it, I'd be interested to listen. 

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