Halcyon - OST Composing Jam #8

Everyone's itching for their summer vacation, especially yourself; But come one summer spent in Halcyon, nestled between the surrounding hillsides and a mighty lake, you, your friends, and the foes you encounter will synthesize a fantastic experience that may turn out to be far more than you bargained for. . .

Soundcloud link - https://soundcloud.com/nova-607800663/sets/halcyon
Youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MToryoKjW6E

Welcome to the lakeside city of Halcyon! This small metropolitan Persona-esque JRPG soundtrack is based on the Twin Ports metro area, which in real life bridges the two states of the upper Midwest through the cities of Duluth MN and Superior WI. I wanted to give myself a reason and go hog-wild trying a bunch of things I struggle with (drum production, guitar programming, etc.) and remedy that by creating some jazzy, lofi, and surf rock inspired tracks with shared instruments between all of them.

TL;DR: Everything below is just me vibing and describing the process of making these tracks. Feel free to skip it and just download or listen using the link above.

Genres: Jazz, Blues, Funk, Lo-fi, Surf Rock, really the whole gamut.

Composition:

- FL Studio 25 - Soundpaint (8Dio) libraries - SINE Player free libraries - Cymatics free samples (ambience, some percussion and loops) - A lot of other free samples / cut-up loops that I had laying around my hardrive - Guitar amp is Archetype: Cory Wong X - A Kawai WK50 keyboard I used to compose and play most of the midi - Masterbits Vocals II (Rhapsody) for the vocal backing tracks

Game idea:

Persona / NEO:TWEWY JRPG with time management elements and multiple characters to encounter, befriend, or challenge over one summer break / vacation in the port of Halcyon. Halcyon is based on the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior in the upper Midwest, which is split and shaped by Lake Superior. Powers are based on chemical element manipulation and the enemies start as some strange crab monsters, but ideally I'd tie in an environmental message about the mining industry in town causing crazy stuff to happen (and it makes for good theming and enemy designs). I wanted to have combat or important events happen during dusk or dawn hours, but I wasn't sure how to convey that musically. The music would ideally get less smooth and more industrial / metal the further in the story progresses, while retaining the blues and jazz for the city and themes of the characters.

Track list:

- Welcome to Halcyon

We open on a splash screen displaying cool calm waters on a lonely pier, before beginning a loading procedure and moving across the large lake. Once loading is complete, at 1:15, the fog across the water parts to slowly reveal the city of Halcyon basked in the dawn sun. From 1:38 onwards are establishing shots of various corners of quiet hustle and bustle of the port, some aerial shots, character shots, you get the bill. I put enough "events" in the track so my mind could run wild with shot compositions. There's a couple of leitmotif ideas here I planned to call back to in future tracks, but the only one that does it verbatim is the last track.

- Chemical Symbiosis

The general overworld theme while waltzing around Halcyon. It has a techy / chemical name to tie into the power system of the game and the focus of a chemist "in the lab ready to (explore/explode)" ties into your actualization of making bonds, spending time with people / the city and creating "symbiosis." I wanted it to be hippy and trendy-feeling since our MC (guy or gal) is most likely a young adult in their early 20s. I challenged myself to use the organ as the main instrument and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

- Rumble in the Twilight Harbor

I had in mind a crab-themed first enemy for training or regular battle purposes, so I decided that some surf-rock themed combat would be really interesting to make. I realized about halfway through I had ended up making a Teen Titans backing track, but I think that's what I was going for anyways lol. There's a bit of a story to this theme - 0:00 to 0:37 would be considered a prep section, so maybe there's a choice of settings before combat starts. I wrote it like you have to "turn on" your  powers, so the drums double down once your powers start working smoothly. I wanted to use guitar resonance as a stand in for the newness of the MC's power control, so you're constantly adjusting the guitar overrun while in combat to tie in that feeling.

Once we're in combat proper, my biggest complaint is that this desperately needed a 3rd section with a guitar or organ solo but for the life of me I could just NOT get it to sound right, so I cut it. I included the section at 1:01 as a critical hit / low health warning, but I'm not sure how you'd implement that. Still fun as heck to make.

- Towering Vantage

The final track was meant to be window dressing or an overlook or vantage point of the city. I've found myself many times at the windows of the Enger Tower overlooking Duluth late into the night, so I wrote something to capture that feeling of small majesty the city gave me. I find it fitting, but this one suffered the most from time crunch and it could be expanded upon. If it could fit in Cowboy Bebop, than I did my job right!