quentinivy

[quentinivy]

Flash back - Live Looping tribute to 90s / 2000s Racing Games

RESEARCH

My live looping project draws from the audio-visual world of late 90s / early 2000s video games from PS1 and Nintendo 64 – an aesthetic comprised of glossy graphics and postmodern settings, in which the immersive experience is often provided by up-beat, high octane soundtracks. Here are some examples of this:

Whilst researching game composers and jungle artists, one of them particularly stood out to me – Hideki Okugawa, the composer responsible for the soundtrack to all 3 Street Fighters. Here are a couple examples of his work.

I admire the intensity that Okugawa manages to capture through all his work, nevertheless, I’d like to allow for some contrasting laid-back sections to better match the ambience that I’m after. After some online research on forums, and speaking to my peers, I created a playlist of various tracks that would correspond to this aesthetic.

One of these songs is View of Life by Moonchild, which perfectly captures the nostalgic essence of old video games. The intro section lasts for just over a minute; this adds to the tension and sense of anticipation that one might experience whilst playing a high adrenalin first person shooter or racing game. I have created a mood board to display the desired tone of the project.

As much as this project is a tribute to 90s/2000s classic video games, I also wish to convey a sense of nostalgia.

Another inspiration behind this project was seeing an Instagram user create a live loop to the same aesthetic:

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The style is slightly different, but it reinforces the notion that this genre has become a trend.

PROTOTYPE & REHEARSALS

In the prototype phase of this project, I made the first version of the track, which was a lot slower, and less energetic. After having delved into breakbeats and jungle, I was drawn to higher tempos, and a slightly different sound pallet.

(google drive link)

I increased the tempo from 125 to 165 and created a new intro (inspired by the aforementioned ‘View of Life’ by ‘Moonchild’). After this I focused on highlighting melodies, rhythms and textures that would be interesting to loop whilst carrying that adrenalin fuelled, ‘racing’ narrative.

Once the arrangement had been completed, I ordered the different audio and midi regions into separate sections; these sections would then become scenes once imported into Ableton. I divided them into 10 sections (some of them repeating), before stemming each track into one of seven folders (one for each scene). I then imported them making sure to de-select warp on each track. I have added sped up screen recordings of this process in the OneDrive folder.

Originally, I had planned to play my set in the same way as Elise Trouw in this video:

She uses arrangement view to input midi notes that she has midi mapped to different functions such as record, stop, playback, loop, etc. This means that those set functions will activate automatically in relation to the timeline. which is useful for handsfree, seamless transitions. Although this is a great technique in some circumstances, it comes at the cost of freedom; I wanted my track to stay structured whilst being able to improvise melody lines and transition to whichever scene suits me in the moment.

The hardware I used to create the set comprised of a Maschine MK3 Mikro, an ableton launchpad, an RD-08 keyboard and a sustain pedal. I used a filter plugin on the stereo out and mapped the cutoff to the Maschine MK3’s fx strip in midi mode. I had originally mapped it to the keyboards modulation wheel, but I found it to be less intuitive. I also mapped the sustain pedal to control the delay feedback on the e-piano.

Should I do this again, I would like to find a way of mapping different parameters to an xbox or ps4 controller, in the spirit of the theme.

I have included a screenshot of my performance to highlight my set-up.

I set up my phone camera on top of a lamp, which worked well regarding the placement but ideally, I would like to find a more secure place to hold it as it fell several times. I would like to keep this camera angle going forwards with this type of content as it showcases the both the hardware and the way it is being used.

FINAL PERFORMANCE AND DOCUMENTATION

The final performance consisted of a one take recording with seven scenes being triggered in different orders, with four midi tracks being controlled by a keyboard and drum pad and used to improvise melodies and chords throughout the performance. The premise was to have slightly different results every take whilst retaining a sense of structure and coherence. As a result, whilst being intelligible for the listener, the piece remains original and interesting every time.

The improvised melodies reflect the motion of a video game, be it the tension of a tactical rpg or a race in a futuristic landscape. This way, the soundtrack becomes the narrative. In order to push the idea of this narrative I structured each new scene to represent a new levels or areas in a game, with the intro ramping up to the chorus, and abrupt transitions mimicking the erraticism found within these landscapes. I made use of real-time triggered effects throughout the performance to further simulate this experience.

I used a birds eye view angle to capture my interactions with the hardware and showcase exactly how the piece was constructed. In the editing of the video, I chose not to include any cuts in an effort to present the set as clearly as possible. I also included a split screen format with a portion of the screen showing gameplay from extreme g racing to make the experience more immersive. This is the final render: