I like the conclusion personally.
Mind telling us the process that you went through to make this? I am interested. Like how you came up with the idea, who the vocals are, and such.
Actually, it was easy.
A year or so ago, I was mulling over how I can do better than Jagex at pretty much anything musical they do.
Sea Shanties are the easiest pieces of music for me to write, don't know why. 6/8, modal, verse/chorus structure perhaps.
So I jotted down a melody (which you hear in this song) that I thought would go well for Port Sarim, where the original RS sea shanties can be found.
Lyrics have always been easy for me so I came up with the pirate verses and the chorus, a simple 1-minute song, and I had a decent pirate voice so that was simple.
When the time for the Golden Gnomes came and i was afforded four minutes of time I drew on the old Port Sarim song, because it had wider appeal than my WG Flash vids.
I'm very keen to win this one... when I saw there was a category for best use of sound, I figured I should play to my strength as a composer.
I expanded on the Port Sarim song, thinking of all the ways I could enhance the sound: instrumental section, different voice types and instruments, male chorus, key change.
The accordion is a good instrument for sea shanties - it is portable and therefore can travel on ships. Similar to the guitar, which is why I used the guitar for the adventurer's verse. It's the ultimate traveller's instrument. The recorder which flutters in and out sometimes is one of the oldest wind instruments in Europe, which gives the music a medieval feel. The pipe organ gives a sinister sound to the music when Korasi comes looking for the pest, and transitions beautifully into the Entrana section, since the organ is associated with churches. The A Capella voices backing the Entrana monk give that extra holy feel. My percussion is sparing because it keeps the music lighthearted and makes it feel like a folk-song. Tambourines and bass drums - very folk-music.
I notated on the computer instrument parts on Sibelius, converted into a MIDI file and then imported it to a program calls Mixcraft, which makes MIDI sound closish to live instruments. In Mixcraft, I sang over the backing track I made, and those parts I didn't do (the female and the cello solo) I recorded off-site and dubbed over. For those parts where there are multiple singers, I just recorded over myself many times. It was that easy.
Basically, Jagex needs to regret turning me down twice, because this really does shit over their Sea Shanties. Have you heard theirs?
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