An Aspiring Music-Maker Rambles about Rain World's Songs
With the release of the new DLC, I've been playing Rain World again, reminding me of the great soundtrack.
I like music. While video games are definitely my favorite choice of medium, I feel like the music is what makes a lot of things shine in a game (also other media, but you know that already). If I didn't fall in love with video game OST's (like from Plants Vs. Zombies, the Pikmin series, horror games, a lot of the Mario, Zelda, and Kirby series, etc.), I don't know what my musical tastes will be nowadays.
Ever since I learned I could use a program to make music for myself, I got so excited that I got a Digital Audio Workspace called LMMS (recently I've been thinking about switching to FL Studio, but LMMS is really good). I started off not knowing how making music worked, so I took some of the sample sounds and I just regurgitated them onto the piano roll, and hit play.
...well, I somehow enjoyed it. Granted, that's a given for me. I sometimes have a soft spot for media that is not very good. Plus, I like the final boss music of Earthbound. No, not the rock song, the song that sounds like your SNES is screaming for a mercy kill.
After taking guitar lessons (and continuing to learn music after I stopped the lessons), I have a good enough knowledge on music that I can make at the very least a song that is bland but not shit (if I wasn't trying). I am aware that there are parts that I still need to learn, but at least the learning is fun.
With all of that out of the way, I suppose you're here to listen to me talk about Rain World's music.
I will say this first: I have not beaten the game, nor do I know everything about it. I want to experience all the game has to offer, and while I have heard some tracks from the later parts of the game, I do not know the content of these areas themselves.
ahem
Rain World is a survival game where you play as one slugcat out of three (eight, with the DLC) to experience their story in this strange land of dampness and industrial-ness. The AI of the game I'd liken to Minecraft's mob AI, but better. They feel alive, and that's due to a mixture of both how their brains are wired and the synergies (or lack thereof) between them and different (or even the same) creatures. I highly recommend the game, just know that it's difficult.
Now, the music of the game is, I believe, mostly synth ambient music, with a mix of "junk audio". I'll explain in a bit, but for now I should tell you when the music actually plays, since it doesn't have a song constantly playing.
There are three main triggers for music: the menu-type screens, specific rooms/room areas in a zone, and when a threat arrives.
Menu-type screens
For the most part, these themes are very soothing, serene, and yet, somber.
It fits really well with the mood of the game, since it not only does it juxtapose the ecosystem's tendency to be violent, it goes against it on purpose; the music provides comfort to you before you go off to adventure through the scarce-yet-dangerous landscapes.
Rooms/Room Areas
Each zone has quite a lot of rooms, so in order to enhance the mood these rooms get some ambience.
Oddly enough though, it's less that each room has a set theme. It's more like a set of rooms that fit a specific criteria (for example, a room/rooms to the right of one specific room) has a set theme.
These tracks are geared towards being background noise, supporting you and the feel of the game as you scavenge around looking for that one damn batfly that you almost caught, or while you're backtracking to a certain room to continue exploration over there. Now, that isn't to say that they're all quiet and almost amount to nothing. Not at all. It's supposed to be setting the scene, the tone, the feel of the place that you are currently in, but that doesn't stop it from being groovy little tunes of their own.
They're also relaxed, because it only plays outside of combat.
Threat
Here's the big one.
One of the composers (James Therrien) calls the combat songs "Threat Music," and for good reason. Whenever a creature that is a potentially direct danger to your safety is nearby, it starts. Each zone has its own Threat Music.
However, besides the intensity of these songs, there is another key difference between the Threat Music and the other kinds of music: it's adaptive.
I don't read that many news sites, but while I was browsing the comments on a YouTube video that had the first Threat Music, I stumbled across an article from The Verge (link), where it talked about how the composers made the music. In it, they stated that each track has 8-12 layers, which fade in and out depending on what's happening on the screen.
As a fan of adaptive music, I fucking love these tracks. They serve their purpose well, both as an early warning to the player & to enhance the mood once initiative is taken.
Now, one last thing: WTF is Junk Audio?
In the article I linked to in the Threat Music dropdown, Junk Audio is explained as a type of process; you record sounds made by random items, from literal junk to everyday things, then you alter & process its sound until you get a new instrument. While I'm not too familiar with it, this reminds me much of what I've heard about sound designers in general. I still remember watching a video about how some audio designers made the sounds of hamburgers falling onto the ground in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by only using wet mop heads and a washboard or something like that.
I also really admire this kind of ingenuity, because I've wanted to dabble in making soundfonts for my work (I've been using modified presets for a long while now). Hearing this story of how Mr. Therrien travelled out in the dark just to record himself hitting things in the park, silly as it may sound, is kind of inspiring. Being able to make specific sounds using actual audio is pretty cool to me.
Why use Junk Audio to begin with? Well, as I said above while describing Rain World, the game's got industrial-esque visuals. The Junk Audio is supposed to further enhance this idea that you're walking around in a huge industrial landscape made by creatures who are very much extinct. This is the kind of thing I love about music-making; if done right, it makes for such a memorable experience, and quite a fun one too.
With a hint of the rain approaching being done by a lone droplet, it's time to find shelter, lest we get washed away into the afterlife. Thank you for taking all that time to read this post, it means a lot. Farewell for now.