Here are some hi-quality samples of all the music in Catchy Cadence along with some thoughts on the music/designs for each of the tunes/games and how they came about... or how they ended up :) Enjoy!
Update: Added full videos of the gameplay for each level so you can see how the music works with the visuals. You may also download any of the hi-quality music samples with a simple right-click/save-as now.
Much more fun!
Jump Bot : Rookie
A cute tune about a robot whose main function seems to be jumping. Lots of classic electronic instruments (arps, synth and drums) used to give the feeling of a futuristic, perseverant, jumping... trash can!
I had the design for this one sitting around for awhile, but I wanted the perfect music to match it. Surprisingly, I suddenly woke up at 4am with the idea in my head and put everything together by noon. Completely nonsensical, catchy and sounds like it belongs on a kids morning show.
Hesitation Waltz is the name of an actual Waltz dancing style. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve waiting for colored spotlights to show the dancers where to step first :) Studying lots of different Waltzes, I came up with the idea of combining a Spanish/Latin waltz and blending it into a classical Viennese Waltz. I think it came out pretty darn well.
Swing version of the classic Arvale piano theme music. Uses the Arvale: Journey of Illusion Battle music as an intro as well. I just had to slow it down and return to the original theme at the end, it just seemed so appropriate. Duncan Swinging his sword to swing music was such a nice touch. Original Arvale piano theme here. Original Arvale Battle theme here.
Yes, it's a play on words from Shake, Rattle, and Roll, and Army of 4 is poking a little fun at the American Army of One campaign, but it seemed so appropriate to the design, I couldn't resist. I would say it's a classic March in the likes of John Phillip Sousa, but it isn't. It really can't be because I never added another flat to the key signature ;) So instead, I'll just say it's a fun little march tune :)
Tennis would be so much more fun if this was how it was actually played, to a catchy beat. Blended some real instruments with lots of classic synths to get a J-pop inspired kind of feel. It's fun, it's catchy, and it strangely reminds me of tennis.
Yes, Rats on the Beach does sound like the popular romantic music album Sax on the Beach (with an American accent at least). Beach Boys/Jan&Dean version of the classic Rats level music. It honestly took longer to simply get the *right* sounding organ and guitars than it did to record all the vocals. Definitely one of my favorites :) Original Rats music here.
Now, the idea of a sandwhich making machine may seem a little strange. Okay, it *is* strange. But I thought it was funny as hell and was the perfect idea to write a catchy tune using lyrics as simple as "Tomato, Tomato, Tomato, Cheese!" Plus, I got to use a Cowbell :) It came out great, I love it!
My puns were getting out of control, so I held back from using jazz references like baby steps and Giant Steps. So we just went with plain vanilla First Steps. As for the music, it's an adorable theme in which I actually went to too many pains to get that cute, completely fake clarinet/flute/??? sound because real instruments just didn't sound bright or cute enough. Amazing how far music has come that we actually regress technology to find that certain sound sometimes :)
The first theme in this remix reminded me of some sort of ivy leage graduation, which went well with the army marching. The second theme I actually borrowed a bit from a tune I wrote a long, long time ago for a game called Medieval Folk Healer, it's nowhere near the same, but I just thought I'd mention it. The clarinet and oboe fit in quite well with the ivy leage theme, so I couldn't ignore it. As for the jazzy break, well... the fish chase needed a bit of an action boost, and jazzing up the clarinet is always fun :) Original MFH music here.
Perhaps the hardest level in the game, even harder than the Final Mix, I've heard. Deservedly, it has some pretty complex song structure (read: random). Aside from the deceptive music box intro/outro, I actually wrote the entire song with the Bass guitar first, and then fleshed out the song from that. Is that a Flanger and some compression/distortion FX on the strings? Yup. It's my music, I can do whatever I want ;)
The final stage in the game, a true remix of all the tunes from the previous stages. I could go into how much of a huge pain this was to do, combining 9 songs with their themes intact into a 3 minutes with changing tempos and differenty keys and a limited number of instruments, but I won't :) After all the other stages, when you reach this one it actually sounds and feels so natural, it seems like it was supposed to be written this way. Perhaps it was? :)
