dGeckos Covers | Sailing into the Ice Wastes @dgeckoscovers | Uploaded February 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This is another weekly challenge piece for the VGM Lounge Challenge. This time we had to create an original piece inspired by three images of winter scenes. I chose the one in the background of the video as my starting point.....
Imagine if you will, you are starting a new game, and your first task is to take an old ship deep into the northern ice seas, where the crushing pressure of the ice can turn a ship to matchsticks, or the jagged ice spires can tear through the side of your wooden vessel like paper. You must navigate your way out of the port, and through the ice to clear the harbour and finally set forth on your adventure.
This piece is my very first completely original work, everything built from scratch. I really hope it invokes for you the scene in the image.
I hope you enjoy.... "Sailing into the Ice Wastes".
To create this one I started by looking for a key signature that matched the ice cold of the picture. F Minor presented this feel. Then I created a simple chord progression to this key, and used some heavenly pads to create the scene, that rises and falls to the seas swell. I wanted the sound of ice cracking, and found this wonderful recording of the sounds of a frozen lake... its truly magical and works perfectly. Then I build up the cords with two staggered layers of additional strings, and some choir at the high point of the swell. Then I started on the melody line. That stayed simple and didn't want to change path, so it stayed that way for three cycles (maybe too long actually), with the hanging note at the end. I then added tons of automation to get articulation and volumes dynamic. Finally it was crying out for something extra, so the simple bassoon line at the start and end materialised to complete it nicely, and the tuba repeat of this at the start was added to give a boats' fog horn type of effect.
Anyway, it was an interesting experiment in a more ambient style.
If you want to learn more, join us on the Discord!
Special thanks to Jonathan for generously providing expert feedback that has vastly improved this version over the first post.
This is another weekly challenge piece for the VGM Lounge Challenge. This time we had to create an original piece inspired by three images of winter scenes. I chose the one in the background of the video as my starting point.....
Imagine if you will, you are starting a new game, and your first task is to take an old ship deep into the northern ice seas, where the crushing pressure of the ice can turn a ship to matchsticks, or the jagged ice spires can tear through the side of your wooden vessel like paper. You must navigate your way out of the port, and through the ice to clear the harbour and finally set forth on your adventure.
This piece is my very first completely original work, everything built from scratch. I really hope it invokes for you the scene in the image.
I hope you enjoy.... "Sailing into the Ice Wastes".
To create this one I started by looking for a key signature that matched the ice cold of the picture. F Minor presented this feel. Then I created a simple chord progression to this key, and used some heavenly pads to create the scene, that rises and falls to the seas swell. I wanted the sound of ice cracking, and found this wonderful recording of the sounds of a frozen lake... its truly magical and works perfectly. Then I build up the cords with two staggered layers of additional strings, and some choir at the high point of the swell. Then I started on the melody line. That stayed simple and didn't want to change path, so it stayed that way for three cycles (maybe too long actually), with the hanging note at the end. I then added tons of automation to get articulation and volumes dynamic. Finally it was crying out for something extra, so the simple bassoon line at the start and end materialised to complete it nicely, and the tuba repeat of this at the start was added to give a boats' fog horn type of effect.
Anyway, it was an interesting experiment in a more ambient style.
If you want to learn more, join us on the Discord!
Special thanks to Jonathan for generously providing expert feedback that has vastly improved this version over the first post.
