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Behind the scenes: Creating music for Pony Town
🕑 Added 2021-10-13 19:28:20 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
Our composer Wandering Artist would like to share some insights about the process of creating the music of Pony Town! Enjoy!
(This post was originally available with exclusive early access on Patreon and was later made available to the public)
Writing the music for Pony Town’s Market update
I began working on the music for Pony Town’s market around the beginning of July 2021. Pony Town has a very rich soundtrack by now (more than 50 tracks), so lately I’ve decided to add music only when a new area or gameplay feature (like building) is added to the game. With the new areas, like the bakery or the beach, I tried to give them an unique sound and feel: the bakery for instance has jazzy music featuring accordion, while the beach is mostly guitars and ukulele accompanied by tropical percussion.
I always start by searching references from other games' soundtracks, mostly classic games like Zelda or Final Fantasy, just to see how great composers interpreted the same theme and to research what people expect from music in similar locations.
First attempt
At first, I imagined the market being more like a “country fair” thing, festive and full of energy; this brought to my mind a beautiful track from the game Tomba (Tombi in Europe) called Baccus Village:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xViJMxG9YlQ
From this track, I really liked the choice of instruments (harmonica that sounds like a fiddle + guitar), the country style and the simple pentatonic melody. So with this reference in mind I started working on the first sketch for the market music:
https://soundcloud.com/wandeermusic/pt-market-fiddle-ruff/s-WYFEjxtYmkd?si=094041a652a74d2094fcebd408744bf
I really enjoyed programming the violin part in this with all those slides and cool effects, but after hearing this first sketch, devs made me notice that this would probably be too much for background music, so I was asked to tone it down somehow and make it less “adventurous”.
Home-made instruments
Another cool thing that happened while working on the market music was the creation of a custom instrument. Chira, one of the devs, was so kind to record her toy glockenspiel so that I could sample it and make a Kontakt instrument to use in my music.
The result turned out quite good, and I’ve used it in the final track, too. Initially, it was mostly featured in the first draft of the night track I did:
https://wanderingartist.bandcamp.com/track/market-night-sketch
First revision
After presenting the first sketches, I usually gather feedback from the devs and start editing the songs accordingly. For the first revision, I changed mostly the daytime track (Fiddle), making it slower and less busy in some parts. This was the result:
https://wanderingartist.bandcamp.com/track/market-fiddle-sketch
The night track was mostly ok, but I wanted to make a new one from scratch anyway, and this was it:
https://wanderingartist.bandcamp.com/track/market-fiddle-night-sketch
The new version of the daytime track was much calmer, but at this point a new problem arose: the melody was too symmetric and repetitive. Changing the melody at this stage is very hard and could result in disaster, but in the end, it was what led to the final and better version, in my opinion.
The first revision was ok, but I felt like it couldn’t improve much from this point, so a rethinking of the melody was necessary to open new paths.
Melodic surgery
A melody or theme is a very dangerous thing to handle: If you make the theme too complex, you can’t develop it later. On the other hand, if you make it too simple (like in this case, where it was too symmetric), it could become repetitive and predictable. I tackled the problem on paper by writing the original melody and its direction and then experimenting with all the possible variations. This is what I wrote:
The first two staves contain the original melody, and the following bars are my attempts to destroy the symmetry. This was useful to break out of the original melody, but I didn’t end up using any of those solutions. The solution arrived when I decided to start everything from scratch.
Final melody of the track with movement analysis
Back to the beginning
We were now at the start of August, and I started everything from scratch. First of all, I searched for new references: maybe the “country fair” style was blocking me from trying new things, so I searched for more inspiration and stumbled upon a great track from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgv8W4jfSA4
and another classic, the shop theme from Ocarina of Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLAekpsclQY
I think these songs really captured the feeling of a comfy place while still being funny and energetic. I took two elements from these songs: the bass and the overall groove. So I ended up with the final track:
https://wanderingartist.bandcamp.com/track/bazar
The melody is still a descendant of the old one (4 bars out of 8 are the same), but it flows better with the new musical background. I was really satisfied with this; it was much more simple and funny than the original version.
Second revision: instruments poll
At this point, the main instruments changed, too. The violin-fiddle was now replaced by the combo of recorders and Chira’s glockenspiel. Once again, recorders were present in the very first version, too, so there was some continuity.
Recorders and glockenspiel ended up being too harsh on the first mix, so at one point we experimented with the possibility of changing instruments. I made short demos of the beginning of the track with different instruments, and we voted:
https://soundcloud.com/wandeermusic/pt-market-instruments-test/s-IPWBFsrF4VJ?si=a903d50dbe82479587d937c583af5afa
In the end, the original idea of recorders + glock won, but with some better equalization to reduce the harshness.
The final mix was done on the 13th of August, and the final master was delivered on the 5th of September.
Conclusion
So yes, this is the work that usually happens behind each Pony Town track (inspiration/references, sketch, revisions, final mix, master).
You could feel sad to throw away your initial idea or work, but being able to revise the music or to rethink it from scratch really improves the music itself, especially for me. If I compare the initial sketch and the final song, I can see how bold and messy I was with the first idea and how elegant and smooth the final version has become.
You can follow Wandering Artist on Twitter and find the Pony Town OST and his other music on Spotify, Bandcamp and YouTube.
Comments
Jerry collado
hey I really need some help I just got tire 2 and I never got it.
PonyTownTeam
Hello, for everything unrelated to subscriptions please send an email at ponytownhelp@gmail.com
FebeCakes!1!1
I Need Help with something, for some reason I was normally waiting in a rating line until I realised people kept going infront of me. When I went to my freinds they ignored me. And I asked my friend on discord why they were ignoring me and they said “what do you mean? You are offline” but I was literally right infront of them. So apparently no one can see me and I have no idea why
PonyTownTeam
Hello, according to the information available to us, your last successful payment was on August 2nd, and you had no successful payments in September, which is why your benefits are not active.
don't copy丨here's william
I need help. I was a supporter in the past, but he didn't give me the corresponding authority. Can you solve this?
PonyTownTeam
Please send us a DM here on Patreon so we can look into it further.
Pico — Wicked
I’m going to need help. Am i able to get what it originally took from me, back? I have screenshots that it did take $9 from me, not the full $12. Then, cancelled my benefits later on even though I originally wanted tier 3? Is there anything I can do or have I lost my money.
Pico — Wicked
So what do i do? It took some of my money.
PonyTownTeam
Hello, according to the information, visible to us, you had no successful payments in September. Patreon tried to charge $12, but it didn't go through, so it marked the subscription as Declined.
Pico — Wicked
So, if patreon took a half payment, why won’t it take the rest? I clicked the $12, and it didn’t take it all. Will it take the rest? There’s money on my card, so I don’t understand, will you have to refund it??
PonyTownTeam
Past supporter benefits were not official and were by now removed due to issues with its implementation.
Pico — Wicked
PonyTownTeam
Hello, it seems like you had 2 partial payments in August - one at the very start of the month, and then one at the very end of the month. Patreon always charges the full amount at the 1st day of each month. In your case that payment was not successful, marking your subscription as Declined.
Pico — Wicked
Hey, i had a membership for $12, and its been two weeks. It says i bought on August 28, it’s September first, but my supporter membership is gone? Is something wrong?
PonyTownTeam
If Patreon charges you $24 for August we'll be able to refund your previous payment. Right now your subscription will work for the whole August without you having to pay anything more.
Bmw 238
Тобто мені потрібно знову купувати саппортера за 24 долара? Навіщо я тоді платила 1 числа
PonyTownTeam
Здравствуйте, ваш платёж был выполнен в июле по временным зонам Patreon, и любая покупка подписки в июле распространяется только на июль. С вас за должно было быть списано только $19 за этот платёж т.к. у вас уже была подписка за $5. Мы вам вручную продлили поддержку до конца месяца, сейчас всё должно работать.
Bmw 238
1 августа, я решил купить 4 уровень. Заплатил за него 24 доллара, мне его дали. Я спокойно играл, а 2 числа его убрали! Почему!? Я же купила на весь месяц! Верните мои деньги, либо верните саппортера! Деньги списали, чек у меня есть, но пишет, что платеж не выполнен...
PonyTownTeam
Facebook should work just fine for the main game.
PonyTownTeam
Hello, you need to connect Patreon to your Pony Town account. Instructions on this page show how to do it patreon.com/posts/how-to-connect-17356112. After connecting Patreon, it might take up to half an hour for the data to update and for you to get supporter in the game.
Yan Sun-Moon
Wait I have it in a different PonyTown game I have Breezy PonyTown cuz my PonyTown app I couldn't get logged in with my FB account and I only used my FB account with it!
Yan Sun-Moon
Hello that's cool um I have a question how can I have my account get this to work I payed for tier 3 but then I didn't have my patreon connected to my account on it and I think it didn't work or something I just connected my patreon to my account but then I don't know how to unlock my tier 3 into my account...
PonyTownTeam
You could use an imgur link.
rhythm
How do I post pictures on here? A
II Braindead! II read b4 int !
ooo, seems cool!
Nightfall Gloam
I've always really enjoyed the music in PonyTown, and it was fun reading this last night and learning some of the process that went into making the music!
mild rev-td and sltd
such a interesting story! thanks for the insights, it makes it alot more clear on how you make these beautiful songs!
