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Adaptive Music - Sound Library - Kickstarter Campaign (Forums : Recruiting & Resumes : Adaptive Music - Sound Library - Kickstarter Campaign) Locked
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Aug 31 2014 Anchor

Hey there people I have finally decided to bite the bullet and fire up a Kickstarter Campaign to raise the needed funds so I can put together a nice collection of Themed Music Packs. I've settled on the name "Adaptive Music" as it best describes the goals this project aims to achieve.

Adaptive Music is designed to help people in the games & media industry to quickly piece together soundtracks that have a common theme and so with no further delay here is a short video that quickly goes over the basics.

Below is a link to the Kickstarter Campaign so if you could be so kind as to show your support, we will get to all enjoy the completed collection together :
Kickstarter.com

Edited by: Jax_Cavalera

Sep 1 2014 Anchor

Um... Or you could just hire a composer. Imagine that.

Sep 1 2014 Anchor

Nothing screams professional quite like MIDI-quality music

Sep 1 2014 Anchor

DeadlySparrowsStudio wrote: Um... Or you could just hire a composer. Imagine that.


Well that's true, if you were able to hire a composer to produce a themed package of music dedicated to your project for anything close to the pledge brackets as low as $5 for a full collection of 30+ unique sound blocks then sure.. but the purpose of this is to bring the accessibility of that kind of content to those working on a very tight budget who can't afford composers to produce dedicated soundtracks.

Sonaeris wrote: Nothing screams professional quite like MIDI-quality music


I agree it's rather amazing how fast the MIDI industry is moving forwards now days and how frequently professional DAWs are being deployed in favor of hiring out entire orchestras and bands.

Sep 1 2014 Anchor

Jax_Cavalera wrote:

DeadlySparrowsStudio wrote: Um... Or you could just hire a composer. Imagine that.


Well that's true, if you were able to hire a composer to produce a themed package of music dedicated to your project for anything close to the pledge brackets as low as $5 for a full collection of 30+ unique sound blocks then sure.. but the purpose of this is to bring the accessibility of that kind of content to those working on a very tight budget who can't afford composers to produce dedicated soundtracks.

Sonaeris wrote: Nothing screams professional quite like MIDI-quality music


I agree it's rather amazing how fast the MIDI industry is moving forwards now days and how frequently professional DAWs are being deployed in favor of hiring out entire orchestras and bands.


I think Sonaeris meant the music in the video... I agree with both those comments, the industry in general already treats composers like crap, putting less and less value into our music every day. I think the music in the video reflects the cheap price and it's just another kick in the teeth for all those hard-working and talented composers out there trying to craft original themes for wonderful video games. You'll never get a Journey soundtrack with this, you'll never get the next BioShock score, why? Because you can't, it's just a generic construction kit. All of us as composers for the most part score games based on the visuals...

Sep 2 2014 Anchor

DivineDeedStudios wrote: I think Sonaeris meant the music in the video... I agree with both those comments, the industry in general already treats composers like crap, putting less and less value into our music every day. I think the music in the video reflects the cheap price and it's just another kick in the teeth for all those hard-working and talented composers out there trying to craft original themes for wonderful video games. You'll never get a Journey soundtrack with this, you'll never get the next BioShock score, why? Because you can't, it's just a generic construction kit. All of us as composers for the most part score games based on the visuals...

I see where you are coming from with this point about the music not being directly tailored to individual projects the same way a custom soundtrack is generally produced. Without being provided with a full insight into what I am intending for this project I would also arrive at the same conclusion that you have.

Contrary to this, however is the truth that whilst the majority of generic music packages fail to address a unique and customized attribution towards a specific Game or Film, I have the ambitious goal of producing music content (not just with MIDI as the actual Kickstarter Page notes with mention to the currently limited resources those demo compositions were created from) that will enable the end user to choose from a wide variety of sound blocks to find the perfect fit for each moment in their masterpiece.

The ability to combine so many sound blocks interchangeably is what gives Adaptive Music the power to claim such an ambitious title. The concept (as I have started to perform further research) is already budding among AAA game developers and I believe that this is a new turning point for musicians and content developers alike. The industry shouldn't be forced to remain a slave to the supplier, the suppliers should be the ones that step up to the plate and keep pace with the growth being demanded by its clients.

There will always be a niche market for custom art pieces and background tracks tailored to suit projects in the same way that there is still a high demand for hand crafted artwork even with so many photoshop filters and digital cameras around. The same goes for video editing, programming and any other professional trades so there is no need to feel threatened by products that seek to provide an entry level alternative into the industry as it's clear they will never be able to reach an identical level with dedicated productions isolated to a specific project. My intention is to simply provide a great variety and maximum interchangeability between individual sound blocks at an affordable price point.

The quality of the final products will clearly be of higher caliber than the demonstrations once I have access to fully licensed software, a half decent collection of hardware peripherals for capturing live instruments and the computing power to better process more complex and higher quality audio files in a timely fashion without personal restraints on my free time being diminished by financial obligations not commensurate to a commitment towards the final goal.

This product is not intending to be a "kick to the teeth" or a "cheap" and poorly produced package but has the intention of helping the community of struggling developers to get their hands on a new approach to introducing vibrant soundtracks to their work. I was of the assumption that this community was here to help those who are struggling to get a break in the industry or was I mistaken? This is one of the reasons that I felt this would be an appropriate place to mention the Kickstarter project in the first place.

Sep 2 2014 Anchor

I am absolutely not worried of the future, as I saw that (not more as I was before).
The reason is quite simple. Music is ART! That is nothing you can create on an assembly line, if you want to have it authentic and unique for your project. Music has to be created with alot of love and passion.
Not to mention that the presentation of this product is really poor. The music used in the introduction video and also if you scroll down, I just can't imagine that anyone wants to have this in his games so I guess this project will fail on kickstarter.

I understand, when you say, you want to help the poor developers! But the mainissue that has to be solved, is that the developers don't find people that want to invest into their game and make them to finish a project that generates money to cover their costs. But I see tons of devs, that don't go this way. I see tons of devs that go out, write a post here where they say: We want top-quality and pay you nothing, because our game is for free. For those devs there is already an existing solution, which is called (Free)Musicstock. But every reqest into this direction is a slap into the face already. But more it is, if some musicians go and accept those offers, which unfortunately legitimate such requests. And at the end most of those projects fail, because there is no ambition to finish the project.

*EXIA
*EXIA Composer/Producer
Sep 2 2014 Anchor

I've sat here thinking of a polite way to say this for a good 20 minutes now - but honestly I think the best thing to do is to be down to earth about it, so my apologies in advance.

Nobody wants music that sounds like they've hit play on the backing track function of an old Casio keyboard. If you're going to market something like this, it needs to stand up to the quality of all of the other composers and stock libraries out there and well... This doesn't.

The idea is okay, but I think that most developers will always prefer to contract a composer for an original soundtrack, or they'll look to the many stock music libraries that can provide decent sounding music.

Obviously I'd rather people didn't go for libraries, because I think they're devaluing the industry massively, but if someone was desperate to achieve the same goal that your product offers, they could select a bunch of stock music and use FMOD to create exactly the same effect as your Adaptive Music.

Sep 2 2014 Anchor

Jax_Cavalera wrote:

DivineDeedStudios wrote: I think Sonaeris meant the music in the video... I agree with both those comments, the industry in general already treats composers like crap, putting less and less value into our music every day. I think the music in the video reflects the cheap price and it's just another kick in the teeth for all those hard-working and talented composers out there trying to craft original themes for wonderful video games. You'll never get a Journey soundtrack with this, you'll never get the next BioShock score, why? Because you can't, it's just a generic construction kit. All of us as composers for the most part score games based on the visuals...

I see where you are coming from with this point about the music not being directly tailored to individual projects the same way a custom soundtrack is generally produced. Without being provided with a full insight into what I am intending for this project I would also arrive at the same conclusion that you have.

Contrary to this, however is the truth that whilst the majority of generic music packages fail to address a unique and customized attribution towards a specific Game or Film, I have the ambitious goal of producing music content (not just with MIDI as the actual Kickstarter Page notes with mention to the currently limited resources those demo compositions were created from) that will enable the end user to choose from a wide variety of sound blocks to find the perfect fit for each moment in their masterpiece.

The ability to combine so many sound blocks interchangeably is what gives Adaptive Music the power to claim such an ambitious title. The concept (as I have started to perform further research) is already budding among AAA game developers and I believe that this is a new turning point for musicians and content developers alike. The industry shouldn't be forced to remain a slave to the supplier, the suppliers should be the ones that step up to the plate and keep pace with the growth being demanded by its clients.

There will always be a niche market for custom art pieces and background tracks tailored to suit projects in the same way that there is still a high demand for hand crafted artwork even with so many photoshop filters and digital cameras around. The same goes for video editing, programming and any other professional trades so there is no need to feel threatened by products that seek to provide an entry level alternative into the industry as it's clear they will never be able to reach an identical level with dedicated productions isolated to a specific project. My intention is to simply provide a great variety and maximum interchangeability between individual sound blocks at an affordable price point.

The quality of the final products will clearly be of higher caliber than the demonstrations once I have access to fully licensed software, a half decent collection of hardware peripherals for capturing live instruments and the computing power to better process more complex and higher quality audio files in a timely fashion without personal restraints on my free time being diminished by financial obligations not commensurate to a commitment towards the final goal.

This product is not intending to be a "kick to the teeth" or a "cheap" and poorly produced package but has the intention of helping the community of struggling developers to get their hands on a new approach to introducing vibrant soundtracks to their work. I was of the assumption that this community was here to help those who are struggling to get a break in the industry or was I mistaken? This is one of the reasons that I felt this would be an appropriate place to mention the Kickstarter project in the first place.


The highlighted statement is THE annoying direction that this industry is heading. It shouldn't be a niche, it should be the done thing. AAA games hire composers, all the games and mods that are near or at AAA quality hire composers, they have unique themes. I don't think what you are planning to do will give the game a unique theme when all the other games with little to no budget have exactly the same music.

As for you MIDI sounds, I think you should have gone straight and composed the blocks to the high level of quality that you are assuring they will receive first. If you can't produce that level of quality now, how do you expect people to support you on this endeavour?

If you are going to record real instruments, know that your budget is way too low. At least if you hire renowned professionals. If you don't, you run the risk of sounding like it was played by a high school band. I don't mean to be rude here but it is just another venture into devaluing music in video games.

Edited by: DivineDeedStudios

Sep 2 2014 Anchor

Okay… weighing in again. I straddle both sides of the fence (not as a game developer per se, but as a theatre developer/writer and professional composer). I'm used to working both with my own tight budgets, and for artists with tight budgets. The projects that stand out are the ones where people figure out how to get the money they need to deliver quality, and a cohesive artist vision. This doesn't mean every job is a $150 a minute/string players hired/mastering costs, etc. kind of gig for me- most aren't. I recently did a theme for someone that they'll use over and over again for $100. Because I believed in their work- which was unique and strikingly creative- and the fact that they were making a gesture towards paying me for mine. Often I hear from game developers that they simply don't want to pay for a composer- they don't want to lose money. I often pay out of pocket for my own projects, and never have much sympathy for the designer who wants quality music, yet isn't even willing to pay a small amount for it.

A "niche market" for original music? C'mon. To me, the purpose of this Kickstarter seems to be paying for your Vienna Symphonic Libray/Hollywood Strings and outboard gear, and time off to work on higher quality loops? ("fully licensed software" "hardware peripherals" "personal restraints on my free time being diminished by financial obligations")? And I suppose if you can get people to cover that for you, so that you can then give them music for $5… more power to you? I guess. If I'm wrong on this, I stand corrected.

Jax- Yes, you are correct… this is definitely an okay place to pitch a Kickstarter- but it doesn't always mean everyone is going to agree with what you're putting out there. Being a "struggling developer" myself, I don't have a lot of sympathy for those that:

1. refuse to either pay a small amount out of pocket (I lose money on personal projects fairly often)
2. don't value the music enough to pay anything at all
3. can't find some small source of funds, be it a small loan/crowd sourcing/or simply saving and pooling funds to improve the end experience.

We don't need any more games out there that are just cobbled together with no thought, and little deliberation, and no creativity. Indie doesn't need to mean poorly executed. The more personal money/savings/sacrifices that are made by the developer for the game (as in paying people a token amount, installment payments, or even profit sharing is better than free), adds to the worth of the game- and makes the developer value it more. The developer in turn promotes the game more, the composer and the rest of crew promote and supports the game- because they've had a positive experience and feel invested.

Man. I'm sorry if I come off as harsh, I'm sure we'd get along famously in real life. Haha.

Sep 2 2014 Anchor

Hey guys I don't take anything you have said to be a negative and would like to perhaps include some additional background information so you can feel a little more reassured of my motivations and intentions.

I grew up performing live music on a variety of instruments and have a strong belief in true soulful music (not regurgitated mainstream pop and remixes). I have always wanted to find a way to produce a lot of original music that can be used by others out there at a minimal cost and with the Adaptive Music project it is going to pave the way for this to become possible.

Like a lot of you, I have a family to look after and bills to pay so if i'm working full time on developing music instead of working my regular job then this is going to result in financial commitments declining to a destructive state. There needs to be a way to offset this so I can deliver a strong effort to those who are believing in this project and who will benefit from the fruits of its completion.

It is difficult to produce the highest quality music that I want to create when the initial savings my wife and I were able to make could only afford the current resources used to create what I have produced so far. The Kickstarter campaign will provide me with the necessary funds to arm myself with equipment that can be used to compose the high quality pieces I envision.

As you would all know, producing the large quantity of musical sound blocks I will be taking on is not a simple task, especially when quality is the top priority. Creating music is a time consuming and challenging process to go through, not a holiday away from work. Obtaining better resources to improve the overall quality is just one of those things that will need to happen. If I were to stop producing Adaptive Music after the Kicktarter rewards were all sent out then what would be the point to all of this hard work?

I fully intend on continuing the production of additional content beyond the end of the project so that the variety and interchangeability of Adaptive Music grows. As growth continues, the similarities between various productions that are relying on Adaptive Music will become a less common occurrence.

When I consider the programming industry, there are a lot of creative people out there who wouldn't be able to attempt to start scripting their wonderful ideas into beta game demonstrations as they just can't grasp the complexities of coding in a programming language. This is starting to change as Visual Node-Based Scripting applications are on the rise. Is it bad that we are now opening up the programming industry to more creative types who hadn't dared to dip their toes into the programming pond till now?

It has been evident that there are a lot more poorly assembled games being releases which lack quality and are somewhat infantile carbon copies of existing best sellers. There have also been a lot of really unorthodox and creative games released by "non-programmers" and are paving the way forwards in directions that traditional programmers had never considered. I see the release of Adaptive Music to have a similar effect on its own industry where there are always going to be those who slap things together and generate poor outcomes AND there will also be those who were not able to create the songs from scratch due to a lack of musical knowledge but assemble things in such a way that it creates compositions that drive the industry forwards in new and innovative directions.

I see my role being one that provides this potential growth with as many options and possibilities as I can and at the lowest possible price point I can afford to deliver them at. Crowd Funding strikes me as a great opportunity to work towards this goal with the many benefits it has over a traditional business model.

I'll finish up by saying that the long term intentions I have are to build Adaptive Music up so it can expand out into other areas within the Audio industry and provide as many talented composers and sound producers with a steady means of income doing what they love most. I don't see this as a solo project long term but as the start to something that can be shared so others can also benefit from being part of the development team.

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