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Block World

'Block World'

Tools used: Pro Tools, VSTs (FM8, Kontakt, Delays), FFT analysis

In 2018 I was hired to work as a Sound Creator at Active Gaming Media, where my first responsibility was to create sound assets and music for the free post-release DLC of 'Yume Nikki -Dream Diary-'. As a big fan of the original game this was very exciting but also terrifying, as its unique music and sound design are well-loved by its fans. I wanted to do it justice as much as possible.

However, recreating the original Block World music proved a challenge. It was essentially an endless 2-second loop of four dissonant percussion notes in a row. In the original freeware game this endless loop was maddening and at first infuriating, although you eventually tuned it out. As a product users would pay money for, I was told to do basically anything else than the original music!

Eventually I decided to try a 'spectralist' approach. The original percussion sound was harmonically complex, and I thought that by analysing its partials I could potentially derive a structure and 'zoom in' to the sound, essentially turning a percussion instrument into an evolving pad. I ran an FFT analysis of the original sound and created a new sound in FM8 using the exact inharmonic partial frequencies of the original sound, and tweaked the envelope of each partial to fade in gradually and separately. The resulting sound 'felt' like the original, but you would never know unless you sped it up about 800%.

Now that I had a workable sound, I wrote a very brief melody derived from the secundal motion of the original melody, and then worked on creating a 'space' using delays, feedback and sound positioning. The space needed to feel oppressive, filling in the gaps between notes with textural detail. Post-processing helped achieve this feeling with a subtle layer of tape compressing.

Players were able to navigate the new platforming challenges in this space without being irritated by the original loop, and many of them expressed that the music 'felt' similar, but couldn't quite articulate why or how. I was quite pleased and felt it was appropriate for our game, which was an 'alternate take' on the original.