My own custom soundtrack to what is probably one of the best small D2 missions of all time. Most of these songs were not made specifically with Warp Shockwave in mind, one was made following the idea of a D3 level by WillyP, and another was meant to be a replacement for the D1 level 6 midi. I didn't really have anything in mind for the other four though.
Level 5 -- probably the most impressive fire level ever built in any Descent. Also probably the level that Warp Shockwave is famous for.
This song was meant to be a mix of the styles of D1's game06 and D3's "Shotgun" (both songs were only in levels that were on Mercury ), with some influence from Luke Schneider's work on the Entropy Experiment. Warp Shockwave follows the same storyline as the Entropy missions. If I remember right I was kind of thinking of the volcano level when I made this and I thought some music in the style of the Entropy missions would be fitting.
Level 4, and one of my favourite D2 levels of all time. This was my second try at writing music directly into FL Studio instead of performing it on my keyboard and it turned out even better than the first. I didn't use any arpeggio voices this time either. Kind of a mix between the D2 level 3 midi song and Crush from D2 Redbook.
Level 3 A cool song, a bit less intense than most of my work but it still has some nice relative buildup and a good climax. The song structure is based on Viral Evolution, one of my very early songs.
Level 2 I decided to try making a full-length song in FL Studio using only the pattern sequencer and playlist stuff... i.e. without my keyboard. Digital Worlds was the result. I think it turned out very nicely, especially considering this was my first try at "writing" music instead of simply performing it. It was made with the intention of being split up into regions and used in WillyP's IceFactor level (I know what parts will go where and there's even a death theme at the end), but there's no word back from WillyP yet.
Level 1. Silly neo-acid, only using 3 synth types: Sytrus, Wasp, and TS404. The name has nothing to do with Industrial Accident, it's referring to spilling a liquid with pH less than 7 . It does sound somewhat similar to Industrial Accident though.
I had this uploaded in another album before and there was an interesting exchange between me and Alieo. In the interest of conserving a little space I'm deleting the old version but re-adding the comments here.
Alieo: The Review: I like this! Has a well established melody, an exciting intro and good outro. I love listening to instrumental electronic music and one thing I look forward to in instrumental electronic music is a defined and exciting climatic moment to the song that it either builds up to or breaks down to... whether it be a change in beat, slows 3/4 of the way towards the end or just somehow takes all the instruments that made the song catchy and reinforces it towards 3/4ths of the way of the song followed by a wind down. Perfect examples of songs with defined and KICKASS climaxes are D2 Game03, Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin, Jackie Will Save Us by Shiny Toy Guns, etc. This song is waaay kickass, don't get me wrong, but it lacks a climax. If it has one, I barely notice it. Now, if this is to be "ambient" type of music, it doesn't need a climax, but this song sure as hell could have a good one if you just let the beat slow down a little 3/4ths of the way towards the end followed by reintroducing the intro beats, which are VERY catchy and make a good 8 measures of that with some alternative drumming, and you've got a major HIT!
Imagery: Would go well with a Descent mine with a green toxic waste theme with a slow oozing green river of toxic waste.
Reminds me of that Toxic Waste level from Crash Bandicoot.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5... give it a climax that sounds ANYTHING like the intro of this song and perhaps it could be a 6/5!
Me: You do have some good ideas, but there is also a reason I didn't do this. My idea was to have only a little bit of buildup in this song, and there is a "climax", the strings at the end with the slightly heavier percussion. I didn't want anything too dynamic because I've been doing a lot of songs like you describe recently and lately they've all been sounding the same (they were good songs, but if you listen to them one after the other it sounds like the first song is looping Tongue... listen to "Orbital" and "Gadget" on my MySpace profile to see what I mean). This was my way of stepping back, looking at what I had done, and then doing something completely different. My only rule was to make it as wierd as possible. Sort of like Aphex Twin. And yeah, I use the D2 Game03 climax for inspiration a lot. I could say Dan Wentz is one of my biggest influences just because of that song (but seriously, the Red Faction music is a big influence too). This song is a bit more like D2 Game01.
Alieo: Yeah, I get what you mean. I thoroughly enjoy Aphex Twin. Most of their stuff doesn't really have a "climaxing" part, but it's great music to veg out to. I wish I had this stuff to listen to just two days ago when I went on a tour of our toxic ship channel here in Houston. Would have matched all the industrial scenery.
This is a good piece of music nonetheless... I should revise my score and say that it's a 4.5/5 if you're going for the ambient type music score. Maybe you could do a remix of this one with different drums and a more defined climax as a different version of the song. (Or maybe I could do some "rearranging" of my own if I get a chance! lol) But yeah, don't get me wrong. I love it!