I'm happy to say that today I got frontpaged for the first time, for my new version of The Median Way. To celebrate, I'll give you a full story on how this track came to be.

Last year, a friend of mine suggested that I join Newgrounds to participate in the Art Inspired Music 2023 contest. I'm a music student, and at the time, I was taking a class on music history, from the Romantic period to the present. I also had a bit of experience creating soundtrack music (see Tropical Fantasy EP), and my thought process behind "The Median Way" was similar. I'm just scoring an artwork this time. That's one reason why it sounds much like an area theme for a game; I approached it like it was. And since the artwork I chose is game concept art (created by SolarVagrant), it made sense to me.

Another factor that shaped "The Median Way" is time. When I heard about the contest, the deadline was already close, and I was in the midst of semester finals. That's why I chose to make a fairly simple ambient track, and to focus on sound design over having a complex composition. Hence the simple 808 groove and bassline. I also relied heavily on Vital synth presets, picking ones that fit the atmosphere I want to create, and making changes to make it all fit together. And to have them sound as massive as possible, with the help of the Vahalla Supermassive reverb plugin, and OTT.

There is still plenty to say about the composition though, simple as it is. The four-chord progression is very unusual, in that they are all suspensions with no release. I aim to create a feeling of being lost, perplexed by this vast, confusing space. Back to where you started. From what I learned in music history class, I chose to use non-functional harmony to convey this feeling. The emotional arc of this track goes from confusion to wonderment to how it feels to be lost in this strange place. The ending is ambiguous. There are no answers here. Only more and more questions, ad infinum.