Comments on: Audio transitions: a smarter way to approach adaptive music?

By: Torley

Torley — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:44:33 +0000

@stefkeB: While I'll agree that too many transitions can be distractingly amateurish, for some deliberate formats, like glitchy music videos, they're just the thing. Also, there are many subtle variations on the crossfade which don't steal your attention, but provide nice touches — one of my faves is a crossfade + blur.

Musically, there are ways of enharmonically meshing frequencies and other ways to make music blend together. Exciting times!

By: stefkeB

stefkeB — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:48:58 +0000

FWIW, in many movies and videos, they often fall back on simple cross-fades or instant cuts. While there are tons of transitions in most video software, they are often a sign of amateurs at work.

Yes, Star Wars has some non-default transitions, but they are more a reminiscence of the past, rather than forward thinking, I believe.

The idea is nice and filters and slicing might go a long way to make it also nice to listen to, but to me cross-fades are still mostly valid.

I usually don't listen to DJ-based music, but old Pink Floyd albums come to mind: just simple cross-fading over soundscapes is effective enough.

By: Torley

Torley — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:38:41 +0000

@Geneko: It JUST SO HAPPENS Todor Fay, DirectMusic visionary, heads NewBlueFX who I consult for. How's that for AWESOME CONNECTION? He's still cooking up brilliant, interactive ideas — with ease-of-use in mind — which have also got me thinking.

By: Geneko Nemeth

Geneko Nemeth — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:19:58 +0000

There's Microsoft DirectMusic which, in addition of playing MIDI, allows you to stitch short segments, play riffs, and change the chords in almost real time.

Too bad neither of the two MMOs I've seen have exploited this fully: Strugarden uses it to play, basically, real-time synthesized canned BGM, and Mabinogi uses it to allow player-created content through the Composing and Playing Instrument skills. You can find many player-uploaded music samples on Youtube and fansites.

I wonder it there are other games out there that takes advantage of this ? Of course, the fact of Direct Music producer having an interface geared towards pros doesn't help…