Soil 2 (Variation 2) (Unused) - Pikmin 2 (High Quality + Oscilloscope)

250
0
Published 2023-07-14
Internal name: cavesoil_05_2.cnd.
BPM: 100.
Music by Hajime Wakai, Music recorded in Logic Pro X, visuals made in Corrscope.
Download: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tvmv_qN8H6JgYgCvUX…

This is one of the unused variants of Soil 2. As usual, the melody is slightly altered in each, but theres some extra notable weirdness in all 4 of the extra variants. Firstly, the Jethro Flute in the treasure mix just uses the note information from the tuba instead of using its own unique gesture set, so it will also glide its notes. There's also no echo on the pizzicato and brass tracks.

The music will activate extra instruments depending on the game state:
Main: 0:00
Working: 1:33
Carrying treasure: 2:31
Enemy near: 4:04
Battling enemy: 4:55
Near burgeoning spiderwort: 6:28 (Unused)

More things can affect the music too but aren't demonstrated in the video, such as the rhythm changing when swapping between characters, the tempo decreasing when low on health, and instruments intentionally skipping notes if the player's Pikmin squad gets a huge bite taken out of it (the music will begin to sound like it has "holes" in it).

Pikmin 2's cave music also infinitely, randomly generates! It uses a "gesture" system: instruments in a specific song pull basic sequences of notes from a gesture bank and play them, also sometimes at random times according to some extra defined rules. (You can think of it like a folder containing a ton of tiny MIDI files of few notes, which are then randomly puzzle-pieced together, infinitely)

Instruments used:
Bs_melo: Roland - Sound Canvas SC-88
Pizzica: Roland - Sound Canvas SC-88
Brass: Roland - Sound Canvas SC-88
Bassdru: Kurzweil - K2500R
Obyrez: Kurzweil - K2500 FARM: ANACOMPS
Organ: Kurzweil - K2500 FARM: ORGANS
Wire: Kurzweil - K2500R
Jetfl: Kurzweil - K2500 FARM: BRASS
Harpsic: Roland - Sound Canvas SC-88
Tom: Kurzweil - K2500R
Timpani: Roland - Sound Canvas SC-88
Snare: Kurzweil - K2500R
OrchPad: Kurzweil - K2500 FARM: ANAPADS

Instrument ramblings (Feel free to ignore):
The main instrument of this song is the low melodic tuba. It's pitchbent around in this song, making it sound that extra bit unnatural on top of having a slight digital vibrato. It always plays at the exact same timings, differing it from Soil 1 and Soil 3's approach.
The pizzicato plays randomly plays some short gestures (there are just 3) at a high frequency to fill in some of the ambience.
The brass is also consistent with its timings, like the tuba. As a background instrument though, it plays much less frequently.
The bass drum that beats every 2 bars is from the K2500's jazz kit.
The last instrument in the main mix is, returning from Soil 1: Obyrez! It plays infrequently like the brass, and only has two gestures, but this synth's inclusion adds in the necessary cave music weirdness that makes these tracks stand out.
In the task mix is an organ and a new snare drum from the jazz kit. The snare is interestingly called "Wire" here, and it's not too clear why. My guess is a slight stretch, but I think it could refer to the fact it's a brushed snare sample.
In the treasure mix is "Jetfl", known fully as "Jethro Flute" on the K2500. It's a small reference to Jethro Tull, a band that frequently features flute. It's essentially the default flute sample, but it has a loud chiff added to the attack. This instrument is also used in the Wistful Wild later on, but it distinctly has a lot of vibrato for its use in this theme in particular.
The enemy mix adds in this simple looping harpsichord sample. The harpsichord is from the SC-88 and its sampled from a high A4 note, which results in a bit of a unique sound when sampled and digitally lowered in pitch with its timbre still intact from that higher register.
The combat mix adds in the same tom set from Soil 1, and a pitched-up snare sample that will play right on top of the brushed on in the task mix. Joining these is a timpani, the only non-drumset instrument to be used in any of the Soil cave song combat mixes.
All of Wakai's cave songs also have a complete spiderwort mix included; each uses the exact same synth pad instrument. The pad's playing method is also the same for every song, and it just plays some simple preset chords that fit the song.

All Comments (2)