PQ spawn & finish sound suggestion!

So, I have your attention.
I have a great suggestion how we can make PlatinumQuest much better than MBP was, with just one small change.

My idea:
Change the spawn and finish sounds so they match the background music that plays in every level.
Since the music that plays in the level is determined by the 'music' dynamic field in the MissionInfo script object, it should be theoretically possible to make the game choose the right sound depending on the value of 'music'.

If you don't understand quite what I mean, I got this idea from a game called Shenzhen I/O. Watch these two videos in quick succession:


See how the 'verification complete' sound matches the music that plays in the background? If the same thing was done to the spawn and finish sounds, it could improve the sound experience a lot, especially for people who have never played Marble Blast.

I wanted to include a zip file that had all the variants of 'spawn.wav' and 'fireworks.wav' that I had prepared, but unfortunately the file size was right above the limit
So instead I'll describe the variants of 'spawn.wav' and 'fireworks.wav' below.
For any explanations of my choices see below.

Spawn Sound Variants: (octave: whichever is closest to base)
Base: E - G - B - D' - E'
Reanimation: E - G - B - D' - E'
Racing Forever: F - Ab - C' - Eb' - F'
Good To Jump To: D - F - A - C' - D'
Chilled: F# - A - C#' - E - F#'

Finish Sound Variants: (octave: all with pitch LOWERED, except for Chilled)
Base: G - D' - G'
Reanimation: B - F# - B'
Racing Forever: C - G - C'
Good To Jump To: D - A - D'
Chilled: A - E' - A'

For musicians among the devs (especially Buzzmusic):
I took into consideration that the default spawn sound E-G-B-D'-E' was designed for a background track with tonality E, and the default finish sound G-D'-G' for a background track with tonality C. Also, while 'spawn' is flexible in both higher and lower pitches, 'fireworks' seems to sound horrible in a pitch much higher than the original, so all modifications are lowered pitch (except Chilled, which is only one full tone above base pitch).
Therefore, Reanimation and Racing Forever simply have the pitch adjusted.
Good To Jump To has the finish sound's pitch adjusted to D-A-D', as expected, but the spawn sound is D-F-A-C'-D'. This is because setting it to G-Bb-D'-F'-G' would imply a minor tonality, but Good To Jump To switches to major halfway through. So if the player respawned at that time, it would cause ear rape, which obviously we want to avoid.
Finally, Chilled was the biggest challenge. For the spawn sound, I decided to go with F#-A-C#'-E-F#', with F sharp minor. For the finish sound, after much consideration, I chose A-E'-A', because I found this to be the best combination that complements both D major and F sharp minor simultaneously. Tell me if you have better suggestions for this one.
If the PQ soundtrack has more tracks, it would be my pleasure to create spawn and finish sound variants for the rest as well!

"This is because setting it to G-Bb-D'-F'-G' would imply a minor tonality, but Good To Jump To switches to major halfway through. So if the player respawned at that time, it would cause ear rape, which obviously we want to avoid."
Hahahahahahahaha.
True, though i guess that issue would have to be dealt with in case any songs were made with multiple key changes (like some of the fubar music). Perhaps periodic changes of the spawn sounds? If that's complicated, I guess certain cases would allow us to find one note change with satisfies all the keys...

Really like this idea! Great to see some musical insight in this community; I really hope this idea isn't simply discarded by the platinum leaders
Of course, some sort of coding changes would need to be incorporated in case a player would want to change the music via the jukebox...and in case they wanted to use pianoforte, the title track in a level - since that is a major piece, it seems that it would be hard to find a set of notes where the intervals are unchanged and it would not cause ear rape as you so cleverly described it. It seems like the most preferable option would be F#-A-C#-E-F#, although the E may clash with the D#...

Out of curiosity, do you have perfect pitch? I do and it seems like you do as well (funny enough many of us do here lol)

seems like a nice idea but i'm not sure that PQ has a variable for what song is playing, nor will the devs try to patch it in this close to release

still good though. it would certainly be better than the cheesy "didn't try" synth from like 2006

I'm sorry, but I cannot stress this enough:

DO NOT CHANGE THE FINISH CUE!

I don't know about you, but I really like it just the way it is.

I'm definitely in favor of incorporating something like this into the game, but I'm not a sound artist in any way so this is not my strong point. There are quite a few more songs on the soundtrack. I have no idea what key(s) they're in but I can probably ask someone who knows music. It is very possible to change the key of the spawn sound based on the playing music. After all, the game has to know which track to play so it's not too difficult to find which spawn sound to play behind it. So that shouldn't be an issue.

I've attempted to pitch shift the spawn sounds using Audacity based on what you described. I'll probably bother some musical people I know to get the keys for the other songs, but implementing this shouldn't be too difficult and it seems like there is quite a bit of support.

By the way, if you want to upload files larger than our site supports (which is most files) you can always use a service like Mega or MediaFire.

Hi everyone! Glad to see so much positive feedback on my idea, I was afraid it wouldn't reach the devs
Eguy, you mentioned a use of Pianoforte. As far as I know, Pianoforte is in B major in the mixolydian mode (Google it if you don't know what it is), so the option that corresponds best to the scale (B - C#' - D#' - E' - F#' - G#' - A') is your suggestion F# - A - C#' - E' - F#', because all of its sounds are included in this scale. The finish sound could be F# - C#' - F#', just 1 semitone below base pitch. You don't have to worry about E clashing with D# or anything, after all, Pianoforte doesn't cause ear rape on its own, even though it's by Phil, not Buzzmusic
Also, as far as I know, PlatinumQuest does have a dynamic field, just like MBP does, otherwise it couldn't possibly associate Training Wheels with the track Reanimation or Terrace Tundra with the track Chilled. So there should be no problem with using this dynamic field to adjust the spawn and finish sounds. I don't know any Torque programming, so what you are about to see may be nonsense to you, but given that Torque is in C++ it could be something like this: or something along those lines.
HiGuy, please do make sure Buzzmusic hears about this idea. I'd really love this to be incorporated into PQ, because aside from remodeling duct fans it's the only thing I would change to the otherwise awesome Marble Blast mod. It would be my pleasure to create versions of the spawn and finish sounds for the remaining parts of the soundtrack, too
In fact, I wanted to go ahead and change the gems and checkpoints too, but the gem sound is horrible with modified pitch, while the checkpoint sound has Matan's voice built in, and I probably won't want to change the pitch of Matan's voice (we don't want Alvin or Sauron )
Also, yes I do in fact have perfect pitch, Eguy. Glad to meet someone in the MB community who does.

This sounds like an interesting idea and something I never would've thought of. The examples you gave in your first post actually sound really cool and I'd love to see this put into PQ. I've also gotten horribly sick of the current finish sound.

FK99 wrote: Also, yes I do in fact have perfect pitch, Eguy. Glad to meet someone in the MB community who does.

There's quite a few others who have perfect pitch. I know of you, Eguy, myself, Nature Freak, hPerks, and probably one or two more. (Wouldn't be surprised if Buzzmusic has perfect pitch.)

FK99 wrote: Also, as far as I know, PlatinumQuest does have a music dynamic field, just like MBP does, otherwise it couldn't possibly associate Training Wheels with the track Reanimation or Terrace Tundra with the track Chilled.

Yeah like I mentioned, finding the name of the playing song is as easy as doing $currentMusicBase.

FK99 wrote: HiGuy, please do make sure Buzzmusic hears about this idea. I'd really love this to be incorporated into PQ, because aside from remodeling duct fans it's the only thing I would change to the otherwise awesome Marble Blast mod. It would be my pleasure to create versions of the spawn and finish sounds for the remaining parts of the soundtrack, too

No idea where Buzz has been around, although that shouldn't be much of an issue; actually we're getting it sorted out as I'm writing this post. Fan and button models have been updated since the demo.

FK99 wrote: In fact, I wanted to go ahead and change the gems and checkpoints too, but the gem sound is horrible with modified pitch, while the checkpoint sound has Matan's voice built in

Sound changes like these have actually been on the todo list for a while, but (as I mentioned earlier) none of us are sound people. We'd be open to suggestions if you want though.

This idea sound pretty good, but that will include re-composing a short melody for every soundtrack!
For sound artists like Buzz, that'll be a lotta work!

Also, just so you know, I started modifying and changing powerup sounds.

No, it's just changing the pitch. Just open the .wav file in Audacity and shift the pitch by a few semitones. That simple.

FK99 wrote: No, it's just changing the pitch. Just open the .wav file in Audacity and shift the pitch by a few semitones. That simple.

I recommend doing it with FL Studio, because, with Audacity, it will "distort" the sound a bit, and it will sound strange...

Here are my ideas for spawn and finish sounds corresponding to the classic MBP and MBG tracks (I assume PQ will include these).

MBP:
Grudge (Phrygian mode on E):
Spawn E - G - B - D' - E'
Finish E - B - E' (because B - F#' - B' would clash with the F of the Phrygian mode).

Endurance (Doric mode on A):
Spawn A - C' - E' - G' - A' (goes well with the modulations into D and E Doric modes)
Finish E - B - E'

Rising Temper (Egyptian scale on E, which is E - F# - A - B - D' - E'):
Spawn B - D' - F#' - A' - B' (G would clash)
Finish B - F#' - B'

Seaside Revisited (Egyptian scale on G, or G - A - C' - D' - F' - G'):
Spawn D - F - A - C' - D'
Finish D - A' - D' (both work well with the modulation into A Egyptian scale)

Astrolabe (Phrygian mode on G):
Spawn G - Bb - D' - F' - G'
Finish Bb - F' - Bb' (both work well with the modulation into E flat major)

MBG:
Beach Party (F major):
Spawn C - Eb - G - Bb - C'
Finish C - G - C'

Groove Police (Mixolydian mode on G):
Spawn D - F - A - C' - D'
Finish D - A - D'

Classic Vibe (Doric mode on A):
Spawn E - G - B - D' - E' or A - C' - E' - G' - A'
Finish E - B - E'

Let me know if you have any better suggestions or if you're confused by my choices (I tried to explain them where needed).

I'm just dropping in to mention that if anyone has GarageBand, it's pretty easy to just remake the start and finish sounds from scratch--they use default GarageBand instruments. This would probably be the best way to do it, as you don't have to worry about editing the sounds after the fact, which will probably have minor quality issues no matter how you do it.

Rosie wrote: I've also gotten horribly sick of the current finish sound.

No comment.

However, this idea might actually be pretty cool. However, as someone who really likes the current spawn and finish sounds, I would suggest having the option to use the old sounds if desired.