Ableton Forum

If you can top this, I'll bow down and bequeath you my thick horn-rimmed glasses n' bowtie.

I play Dungeons and Dragons. It's my "other" hobby, and I'm pretty into it. Normally my priorities are work, girlfriend, music, D&D and then piss in that order; but lately D&D has shifted up the ladder.

So, I decided to try to examine what makes some of the online or computer based roleplaying games more dramatic and interesting than the old books n' dice variety that I play. I found it's the setting.

So, I figured I will get the music back into my life (have been taking a bit of a break recently) by making up some theme music for my Role Playing Game sessions.

With Live, I can set long loops of various classical pieces. I don't have to be very dilligent with warp markers, I try to keep everything in "repitch" mode and keep it close to the original tempo. Anything by Grieg, Tchaikovsky or Wagner is top notch - the changes of energy in the music allow me to match the mood of the game at that moment.

Some Dungeon Masters have used pieces of music for mood before, but they had no control over when the crescendos hit. That, and they're mucking with the FFWD or REV controls on their CD player. Not cool in the heat of a big confrontation against a Dark Elf Lord.

Simply, with a few warp markers, bingo - I control the progression of the piece. I plan to map scenes to my Akai MPD-16 controller, and not even look at the Ableton Live window (I keep Excel open to track the battles and characters that I run).

Plus, when I do get around to warping some pieces fully, for some really nasty battles (when the Player Characters are winning of course), I will be able to throw in a hard 303 acid line if I need to, or a thick chunky compressed dirty break on top of some killer Wagner.

I can't top it, but you could. Give a mic and an effects channel to each player, plus yourself. You could also cue up some sound effects for common spells and such.

jh

hyerstay wrote: You could also cue up some sound effects for common spells and such.

jh

oh ya... cool! God bless those one-shot unquantized clips in RAM mode! A good synth or SFX sample CD should give me all the spell and moster noises I could possibly need.

I'll have to get some "clang"s "smash"es, "Ugh"s and "AIIIEEE"s too for battles.

hyerstay wrote:
Give a mic and an effects channel to each player, plus yourself.

Neat idea - However, if I implement it, the players don't get mics, only the Dungeon Master.

omfg Montrealbreaks you are the coolest DM ever

I suggest you mic up and record the stuff!
I would really like to hear it!!!

C

then you guys have to check out this incredible thing.
http://www.notam02.no/9/index.html
beethoven´s 9th stretched to 24 h...pretty amazing algorithm they used there...maybe ableton could take a look at that...

cheers. spacy

.. that is friggin AWESOME. Heh. I can imagine ripping some SFX from LOTR (Orc battle chants, armor klangs, Gandalf warding the Balrog), Time Bandits (GREAT SFX), Even Star Wars (A well-placed Wookie gurgle is always funny) and really setting the mood. Too Friggin cool. I be you could even set up samples for certain dice rolls (critical hits, CooDeeGraws, Critical Misses, Fatal blows, etc.) Damn, that would be cool.

I wrote my own DnB music for Neverwinter Nights music phases (until Biowhere and Wacsoft screwed the Mac users and I had to boycott)...

Nice, Montreal

PS. Sorry for the phoenetic spelling, but my Francais is Bush-ish.

Pretty cool.

I can't top you but I have a big JBL eon 15 monitor speaker that I like to put in my front window. I wait for old people, or any kind of people really - especially those with dogs - and I scare the hell out of them with sonic blasts of mangled ableton mayhem. Demonic voices are a fav.

I wouldn't say this is the nerdiest, geekiest use of Live. I think it's one of the most original uses I've ever heard. The thought process is similar to the way a composer approaches a film score, always feeling out the mood and then making music to convey emotion for that moment.

Lucid wrote:omfg Montrealbreaks you are the coolest DM ever

Thanks Lucid... That means a lot!

I haven't playtested it yet, it's still in development. I just hope it doesn't get cliché too fast - it would be a lot of work for a two or three session gig.

I'll arm recording when I play "live" in our next game session and see how things look in the arrange window afterwards...

kabuki wrote:.. that is friggin AWESOME. Heh. I can imagine ripping some SFX from LOTR (Orc battle chants, armor klangs, Gandalf warding the Balrog), Time Bandits (GREAT SFX), Even Star Wars (A well-placed Wookie gurgle is always funny) and really setting the mood. Too Friggin cool. I be you could even set up samples for certain dice rolls (critical hits, CooDeeGraws, Critical Misses, Fatal blows, etc.) Damn, that would be cool.

I wrote my own DnB music for Neverwinter Nights music phases (until Biowhere and Wacsoft screwed the Mac users and I had to boycott)...

Nice, Montreal

PS. Sorry for the phoenetic spelling, but my Francais is Bush-ish.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Kabuki!

Yeah, sucks that Neverwinter Nights abandoned the Mac. I would have gotten into that game but I couldn't play with my amigos who used PCs when I was the lone Mac dude. I don't know if it was an expansion pack issue or what, but our group tech guru tried and couldn't get it to work.

I'll have to do some hunting for samples. I figure there's enough fantasy movies out there that I can find the sounds that I need.

I wonder if this constitutes "Fair Use" for the Copyright Lawyers?



I had another thought on how to incorporate SFX samples, so I'm not always tapping my keyboard or controller - In addition to samples that I could trigger, I could have some randomized background noises; Fighting sounds, echoey drops in a cave, creaking doors, etc...

For background sounds I would place thematically alike samples in Battery kits, and then in live create a really long loop of midi notes. Throw in a randomizer midi effect, and supatrigger on the audio output randomly muting 80-90% of the output (no revs or slowdowns). Then, when the battle picks up, slide the silence value down to get increasingly frequent "bangs" n' such. That way I'm not banging on my keyboard when I should be rollin dice!

If the encounter is starting off far away and the party's outdoors, i could maybe throw a gently sloping Low Pass Filter on it (around 1000 Hz? I'll experiment), and can increase the volume / cuttoff as the party gets closer. Will work for lots of things too - maching troops, badguy encampments, etc.

If the party's in a dungeon, I could throw some light reverb n' delay on the sounds, and adjust the feedback of the delay or room size in accordance with the size and composition of the dungeon room they're in...

If I use clip envelopes, I can automate these processes - when the PCs are in the throne room, launch clip X. When they're in the crypt, launch clip Y. Control over the music should probably be dependant on the action, not the location of the characters. If I work this effeciently, I could probably get away with less than 4 or 6 channels.

Heh - this is gonna be more fun than I thought!

On Reno 911 (Comedy Central) they have a funny skit about busting these guys playing D&D or something similar - they're all dressed up in these Medieval costumes and have funny names - it's too funny

but what your doing is cool I think - Wasn't there a big scare in the 80's about kids committing suicide based on how their characters turned in D&D - wow

I have a laptop built into the headboard of my bed and can use Live to provide a seamless musical backdrop and mood to my lovemaking. Thievery Corporation segues seamlessly into the old K & D and Tosca balling grooves before picking it up a little with some speed gabba and then getting good down and dirty with 50 Cent. Where appropriate I can fire off little snippets of vocal exclamation (sighs, snorts and the odd "Oh My God"etc) together with the odd flesh puckering sound lifted from off a Limewire download. All this is totally handsfree, sporting as I do a quadraplegic's headbrace and rubber tipped pointer with which to massage the keyboard and banks of Faderfoxes positoned cunningly though precariously on candle stands around my boudoir. I don't know if this tops the D & D stuff but it sure as hell must give it a good run for it's money........shame I'm still doing it on my own though.

Peace

djadonis206 wrote:Wasn't there a big scafre in the 80's about kids committing suicide based on how their characters turned in D&D - wow

Yeah, all based around a few dumb kids that took it WAY too seriously. My mom gave me a pamphlet around that time about suicide and the dangers of Satanic cults

A few years later, she went looking for a DnD novel for my b-day and went to a christian bookstore looking for it. The clerk thought she was playing a joke on them when she asked for it. Clueless (but well intended). God love her.

Actually, its a LOT of fun. I can't wait for the day when they have "The World Series of Magic Users" or "The Super Bowl of Roll (dice)" on ESPN.


herrrk