Electric Moo: Nox Archaist Video Game Soundtrack, Discrete Quad, lossless

[Sonik Wiz]

I recorded a lot of the sound fx myself, with a field recorder: tromping around in the mud at 2am ( it's too noisy during the day!! ), lodging a mic with a windscreen down in the rocks by the water; having to edit helicopters, airplanes & speedboats out, to get useable material.

Funny: I had a family of raccoons move into my attic at one point. Since I had sound fx library material, I put some snarling lion, tiger, hyena, alligator roaring sounds etc on a loop and cranked a pair of PA speakers up towards the ceiling!! It was crazy loud!!

Haha they were gone a day or two later!!

Edit- oh, and that's why you hear a terrified raccoon somewhere, in the soundtrack

Maybe you can do a Surrealistic Version with helicopters & speedboats. I had some crazy destructive raccoons living in my attic several years ago because of a tree branch piercing through my roof. Scared 'em away with loud Chemical Brothers.

 

[Electric Moo]

Haha!!

Allright in the manual, the game preamble includes a shipwreck, which is where the character begins.

I didn't really have any way of fitting that into the music, which was mostly done by the time I got the manual. And I was working on a deadline, to meet the game release date. For the promo video ( posted above, for the kickstarter campaign ) I created an "Epic" sounding track they could use, and gave it an extended ending, long enough to talk over & use as background filler. But it was too long & sort of boring to listen to on it's own, so I cut it down to 2:30 for the original soundtrack.

Working on this quadraphonic version, I took the original long track, dubbed the pirate's dialogue from the manual ( the character is freed by a pirate on a sinking ship ) and tried to simulate a shipwreck driven onto rocky shores by a crazy storm.

So it ties into the game story, and segues into track 2 nicely too, which starts out with footsteps tromping through the mud. Which then progress through fields & farmland, to a road, then cobblestone, and eventually a city gate.

 

[GOS]

It's a great sounding experience. Also, I totally dig all the animal and night sounds. Good stuff...

 

[Electric Moo]

Hey thanks!! Glad you like it, and thanks for the support!

Funny, that song gets the most shazam hits, from all over the world. So it's nice to know:

1. People are listening to the soundtrack
2. It piques people's curiosity enough to shazam it. I'm guessing it's people other than the listener, since the listener is playing the files, which are labelled & named?

 

[Electric Moo]

For anyone on twitter, here is Steve Wozniak's post about Nox Archaist:




In the world of Computers/Apple, that's like getting blessed by the Pope! Pretty cool.

 

[Electric Moo]

Ah, I was trying to delete this post! It appears I cannot. Apologies

>.>

 

[Electric Moo]

For anyone into computers/gaming/programming, "The Making of Nox Archaist" book is now available.

"In 2020, for the first time in 30 years, a commercial role-playing game was released for the Apple II computer. Join Mark Lemmert, the creator and lead developer, as he gives the ultimate insider’s account of the making of Nox Archaist."

https://nox-archaist.myshopify.com/collections/nox-archaist/products/the-making-of-nox-archaist

 

[The56Kid]

The discrete sonics and separation are very impressive. I’m diggin’ the musical portions quite a bit and the sound effects are a blast. Admittedly, not having visual accompaniment is slightly disconcerting, but aurally this is a lot of fun and well done. Kudos, Electric Moo!

 

[Electric Moo]

Thank you!

It is pretty cool that something that began as a figment of my imagination is now a *thing* that people can listen to and enjoy.

As far as visuals, the game is built for the Apple II, so it looks like this: these guys ( The Lost Sectors ) have a bunch of game playthroughs on youtube



Hopefully the music ( especially the surround mix! ) stirs the imagination enough to create some imagery too.

Glad you are digging it!!

 

[Electric Moo]

It's funny: I am looking at exporting these songs in 8 bit format, to simulate the actual sound of an Apple II computer playing the files....but because I played all the parts manually with no quantization, it sounds like crap because the timing isn't synced tightly enough!

So the subtle timing inaccuracies that make the sound of human beings playing instruments pleasing to our ears, is a real mess when you convert it to 8 bit vintage computer sounds.

Ah well. At least you can automate some of the conversion!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

It's funny: I am looking at exporting these songs in 8 bit format, to simulate the actual sound of an Apple II computer playing the files....but because I played all the parts manually with no quantization, it sounds like crap because the timing isn't synced tightly enough!

So the subtle timing inaccuracies that make the sound of human beings playing instruments pleasing to our ears, is a real mess when you convert it to 8 bit vintage computer sounds.

Ah well. At least you can automate some of the conversion!

8 bit, hmmmm? Rock on, Future Boy!

 

[FalmatTaali]

That's some impressive work you've done on the Nox Archaist Video Game Soundtrack! Creating a discrete quad mix from scratch must have been quite the challenge, but it sounds like a rewarding project. It's a shame about the vinyl pressing delay, but having the 5.1 FLAC container version with an LFE channel is still awesome for those with the right setup.
Thanks for sharing, and if you're into gaming, you might want to check out apps that pay you to play games like free wizard of oz slot game. It could be a fun way to unwind after all that hard work!

 

[Electric Moo]

Thank you!!

Yes it was an absurd amount of work. But it's satisfying to look back at a completed project, that turned out ok.

I think the quad version is the definitive format: I added some unique elements, like the siege equipment going by in "march of the horde". And the storm in "sea voyage" sounds better in quad. Those pings at the very end work well too, echoing past the listener back into the depths of Vacous

 

[Electric Moo]

Aside from the orchestral bits, I used a lot of analog, real instruments on the soundtrack. For the curious, here's another page of liner notes: