Hello,
Has anyone heard of the Elias music engine?
It is a video game music engine which allows you to make dynamic game music
http://www.eliassoftware.com/
The first time I heard of the engine, I was curious to find out what it could do for the chipmusic world.
Dynamic chiptunes?
There's actually a theme the sale there, but it costs like a hundred bucks.
I was wondering what kind of stuff we could do with the engine?
It's free as long as you don't make money from a game which uses the library, too!
What are your thoughts?
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Taichung, Taiwan
pokemonmasteraaron wrote:
What are your thoughts?
defPREMIUM wrote:
fuck this shit
pokemonmasteraaron wrote:
I'm confused.
What are you confused about in that statement?
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sorry that wasn't very polite of me- i meant "fuck this shit" in the context of the prospect of this being at all useful for chip musicians...i for one am not interested in listening to some collage of canned musical phrases. maybe this has a place among game designers, but even then i question the merit of any sort of automated music program. that's just my opinion though...
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Oh, I see what you mean.
You misunderstand the purpose of the engine, though, I believe.
It doesn't attempt to automate any process that can be done manually.
Such programs are usually unreliable, hacky, and full of bugs.
It isn't some attempt to make another algerithmic composition software.
It takes wave files, written by musicians, and mixes them in a way the composer sets forth.
It does this to make a theme with variations.
Take mario for example.
There was a game where when you rode on Yoshi, bongo drums would be added to the mix.
Drums that were composed by a musician.
This does something kind of like that, but more advanced.
For example, you have the example theme which starts with a soft, almost ambiatic bed.
You tell it to go to level 15, it adds tracks written by the composer to the mix, in order to give a realistic feel that the music is adapting to the game world, just like in a film.
I suggest you check out the example theme.
It doesn't do any composition.
Composing still has to be done with LSDJ, famitracker or a DAW.
Make sense?
Last edited by pokemonmasteraaron (Jun 15, 2014 7:45 pm)
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i see what you're saying but how does this relate to chip music? this seems more related to game design, no?
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United Kingdom
pokemonmasteraaron wrote:
You tell it to go to level 15, it adds tracks written by the composer to the mix, in order to give a realistic feel that the music is adapting to the game world, just like in a film.
To be honest, if I was anywhere near able to make a game as I am now, for a chiptune based game I'd rather sort that out and mix the tracks myself and add the instruments as I see fit.
I'd rather the player experience the soundscape that I, the designer, specifically intended them to experience, rather than that generated by an algorithm.
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It isn't strictly to do with chipmusic.
I was just theorizing.
There is a chiptune made with the engine you can find on the site.
It sounds amazing.
Afrowolf, your still doing that with elias.
You do write all the tracks, you choose everything.
But if you mix it yourself, your theme isn't dynamic, now, is it?
It is static.
The exact same 2 minutes of audio will play over and over and over.
The goal of Elias is to remove and add tracks depending on what's going on in the game world.
I suggest you go on the website and watch the video, as well as check out the example themes preview.
It doesn't want to make your life easier by removing work, it wants to make the game experience richer by taking a new look on how you write game music.
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Eh, this is really simple stuff actually. You're better off making something like this in Pure Data, which is not only *really* free but works with more systems and configurations. Plus, it could not only mix dynamically, but also produce entirely dynamic sound. (there are also many examples of games which utilises pure data just for this purpose)
But on another point, yeah it would be cool to release a piece of music that every time it played generated a new mix of the track.
You should check out Fake Fish Distribution by Icarus. http://www.icarus.nu/FFD/
It's not dynamic like that- it's pre-rendered- but they made 1000 variations of the same tracks using algorithmic mixing, automation, parameter settings and so on.
Also, Batuhan Bozkurt made a release with generative dynamic music. http://www.earslap.com/weblog/music-rel … icism.html
(It executes code rather than playback sound files.)
Fuck 'fuck this shit'
Last edited by _-_- (Jun 15, 2014 9:46 pm)
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Hi,
I've looked into pure data, but once again, it appears to be composing music.
Elias doesn't compose music.
You still compose actual notes, chords, everything you do for a normal song.
I might also add Elias isn't designed for chiptunes, but as one of the themes on the website shows, it can be done.
I'm just wanting to know if someone can compose a chiptune for Elias, so we can see how it sounds.
I personally like the idea because there are a lot of really good chiptunes, but after a while, they get old.
If we had a chiptune composed for the studio, we could change keys, mess with the level settings, and basically experience the theme a little differently every time we listen to it.
Can you see the appeal?
It's still the same way we experience chiptunes, but done in such a way so the listener can have a little fun with the tune and not get bored with it after five or so listens.
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South Korea
I actually downloaded this and tried it out. It's WAY to much effort for really underwhelming results, most of us use trackers, and exporting every little loop to a wav, and then bring it into Elias just to have things seem a bit more interesting isn't really worth it. I actually said "fuck this shit" out loud, uninstalled it and then played around with ChucK.
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Los Angeles, CA
If people get bored with your mix after five or six listens, you did something wrong in your mixing.
I think that algorithmic music is interesting in theory, but is SUPREMELY uninteresting to actually listen to.
Intentionality is what makes mixing interesting. Things sounds cool because an actual human brain chose all of the disparate elements and brought them together in a fashion unique to them. It adds character to a composition. I see the appeal in a game design context, but for music outside of that context? No. Just no.
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not a fan of the anti algorithmic hate jerk here
computers r clever nd make good tunes
not sure if elias is going to be fun for me outside of games but you shoud give a blast
theres something really chiptune about taking something designed for video game music and just writing music for fun w/ it 
so doing chiptune with elias is like... metachiptune
have fun pal!
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UK
pokemonmasteraaron wrote:
Hi,
I've looked into pure data, but once again, it appears to be composing music.
wait, how is pd 'composing'?
I think it might actually be easier to write a generative music patch than it is to compose like a DAW.