Duration: 1:16:34

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Video recording of myself producing "Zero Lives OST WIP 1" in one hour for OHC671: http://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/OHC671
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Tonight's theme is a picture theme. Please see the resources.

http://compo.thasauce.net/files/materials/OHC671_OHC_671_1.jpg
http://compo.thasauce.net/files/materials/OHC671_OHC_671_2.jpg
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My latest commission project is writing the soundtrack for "Zero Lives", a retro-styled precision puzzle platformer with shoot 'em up elements: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1581880/Zero_Lives/

I'm specifically being commissioned to bring my trademark "9-bit" chiptune style, so I channeled that as best as I could here to make a high-energy track. I already made one song for this soundtrack at 140BPM, so I chose to write at 110BPM this time and tried to use a different sort of progression to change things up.

The C - F# interval gives things a bit of a spooky feel in the first half, but later on it settles into a more energetic vibe. The melody/riff at 0:44 (G-F-Eb-C Bb-C) is the musical motif of the soundtrack and was also featured in my previous track. I'm aiming to have this recur throughout the OST in some form or another as that was part of the request.

The same section features an interesting filter effect where the lowpass filter on the pads is linked to the peak volume of the drums, giving the pads an sort of rhythmic/percussive pulse.

The pulse wave leads are doubled here, with the second channel playing more softly, pitched higher, and delayed slightly for an echo -type effect (a fairly common technique in chiptune). In this case, this is in addition to -- and not in place of -- my normal longer delay/echo effects, so there's a lot of echo going on here.

This maybe still fits the theme, as "space station" music?