Day 9 - Spirit of the North

This is a video game that I've come to admire. I've never played it, but I've seen and heard clips from it. I think my fascination with it started because I found out that a man at a church I used to go to actually made it! He and some partners ran a small game development studio and created it. I think there's a fascination when you know someone who does something cool. It's sort of like, "Hey, I have this personal connection to something cool that everyone can admire. "

Anyways, How I handled the audio.

First, I recorded patting myself to match the footsteps of the fox. I played the video at 0.25x speed to make sure it matched. Then, I needed to come up with the sound for the lights that come from the tail of the fox, and light up the stone. I started with a soft synth sound, mixed with a bit of noise to play through it, as an undertone. Then, I recorded a similar synth playing an Arpeggiated F Major chord, coming back down on an Eb Major chord, and sped that up so it happened very quickly. I added delay and reverb onto that and placed it when the lights left the fox's tail.

For the stone lighting up, I added a few elements. First,a nice solid F chord again, just so it doesn't clash with earlier. Then, I wanted a lower, deeper sounding element, so I recorded myself growling, then pitched the formant down, tuned the pitch down a bit, and slowed the recording to 0.75x speed. I added delay and reverb to both of those elements.

Lastly, for the sprite that sort of follows the Fox, I recorded myself sort of sighing, pitched it up, and wouldn't you guess it, added delay and reverb once again. I made sure everything was matching it's frame, and boom! All done! I'm not sure what the sound design for the original game sounds like, or I I have seen it, the memory has long escaped me.

You may also notice that this clip is longer than 5 seconds. Keeping it at 5 seconds meant to cut the reverb short, and I thought that letting it ring out a bit more seemed more appropriate. 5 seconds just seemed so abrupt. 7 seconds seemed about right. Enjoy!