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Iter in Saecula Saeculorum (An Adventure Medley)

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Author Comments

Jeez, a month may not be a long time for a hiatus, but think about how the internet is. A month for the internet is quite a while, but it sure goes by fast.


Also, I am back! As promised, I present to you, MY 400TH SONG! As with songs 200 and 300, I try to look in a new direction for this piece. My theme for this song is... adventure! I have done adventure songs before... space, an abandoned world (remember Strong Force?), emotions, and much more! What I haven't done is do a song solely based on the idea of adventure itself! Here I present a medley of what some of my thoughts of adventure are (or rough ways to portray them through music).


Along with that, I also decided to bring back some old presets (like... from 2017) and decided to make a few of those as background effects. I basically combined my 2017, 2018, 2019, AND 2020 styles into one song if you think about it... but my 2017 and 2018 styles aren't all that great.


Also, the name of the title is what's called a "double translation". Allow me to explain:

The name of my track is in Latin, literally meaning "Travel Forever" (original title is "Journey of the Century"). The original name of the track was Journey of the Century, in which was translated "Iter in Latin". The theme of the name points towards the theme of the song being based on an orchestral atmosphere, with an electronic combination. The cleaner translation of "Journey of the Century" should be close "Iter in saeculorum". The term saecula is Latin for forever, Saeculorum is Latin for the phrase (for the) ages. The track's additional translation is Journey for the Ages, pointing at the song's theme of multiple genres. I do realize that Saecula Saeculorum is a redundant phrase, but that phrase itself can roughly define to numerous other things... such as: eternal ages, ages forever, ages (referring to long-term), everlasting ages (there are other Latin terms for these phrases as well). The phrase iter in saecula translates to travel the world. There is a lot of other things I could discuss.


This was inspired by my last medley earlier this year, Deus Ex Machina and is actually inspired by the story elements of that medley as well. Most of the background effects are done from scratch.


Tempo (in case anybody is confused): 145 -> 145-150 -> 174 -> 174-128 -> 128-180 -> 180-80 (end)


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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/realgdjk/iter-in-saecula-saeculorum

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3FiYlurnlhkAfXqi3aV4ho?si=dvw9GzKRSE-v23XSbx3VvA

YouTube: https://youtu.be/JW1mvfooFI0

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Wow! Cool!

How do you make music so fast? also you seem very active, very underrated

Kysertron responds:

I've still been very active. I needed a break (that lasted over a month) before I made this song.
My strategy... well, I don't really have one for making so much. I just so with what I think of first, and then go from there. If something doesn't work, I think of something else. However, I try to stick to the themes of my songs.

I wasn't familiar with your work but I'm must say, I'm impressed. I know the word is corny to use nowadays; but it is really EPIC. Technically, the clarity and gravity of the mix are immaculate

Right off the start there the impacts piano melody's and string arpeggios set the mood, the string motifs serves as a good section melody. Good progression atmosphere building, I wish those impacts sound effects weren't as loud and present in the track, it gets a bit tiring after a while. The drop sounds very good at first but gets a bit dull after some time, I wish there were some melody or motifs and not just the chord progression with supersaws and gating variation ( personal taste) .
I dig the switch up at 3:31, keeping the same sonorities but with higher tempo and different composition makes the transition coherent and fresh, I love how sounds that filtered bass, really heavy and clear.

Good drop: again, a matter of personal taste I wish there some melodic and rythmic development, Otherwise, everything sounds good, you're really good for building these very charged yet clear sounding wall of sound. There are so many elements and I can hear all of them distinctly.

At 4:50, there's that low tempo part, really digging that part, the slow down, makes you imagine the hero has been harmed very bad and is rebuilding himself to attack. I like how cinematic/synthwave at this moment the atmosphere is, with its rubbery bass and faint arpeggios.
very good build-up the synth introduced at 5:36 fits perfectly.

Drop at 5:50:
Same complaint as before, although a sort of melody appears at 6:05, but its more of a arpeggio harmonic backing.

Good ending, slow down and there's that kind of vocal synth that sounds like someone dying,
really reminiscent of a cinematic synthwave aesthetic.

In conclusion, I like the track, very impressed by the technical aspects, arrangements and atmosphere building. Nice and bright, good blend of orchestral instruments and trance synths. However, I have trouble to be truly impacted by it, because the drops sound in my opinion musically dull( my only complaint really), I may not be really used to hear that kind of music. This lack of distinctive hook would make the music more suitable as a movie score or video game score IMO.

Kysertron responds:

Thank you so much for the review! :)

Most of my drops are very basic, so yeah I can see the reason for your complaint. Since I don't use Serum or Massive most of the time, I use whatever LMMS has (which is usually ZynAddSubFX) plus ToneZ (which is the only VST I normally use). Most of the time results in basic drops, I try to layer a lot of synths for fullness (most of the time it is just to fill absent yet necessary frequencies).
The low-tempo part took a lot of work, and the initial mix of it is actually a lot different than the final mix (i.e. the rising synth in the background was lot included, along with the crescendo short strings). The synthwave synths were originally going to be just for the uptempo section, but I saw it fit for the low-tempo section as well.
I also noticed you said it lacked something to be suitable for movie score or video game score. Although, the theme was to mimic an adventure from a movie or video game, I wasn't really trying to aim for the song to be suitable for a score (although that would be nice). If I try to make a score-related song, it usually is significantly short than this medley. For example: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/863178

I have done orchestral-electronic combos a lot before. This is just one of the first times I've ever done it in the form of a story. I've done it before, but it wasn't quite as successful:
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/880232
My past attempt at an orchestral-electronic combo with drops was also not quite as successful either: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/918959

This was made in LMMS? Impressive. Just, "limiting" yourself like that. Hee hee. get it? Very "in character" of an LMMS author to post a 10 page manual about their song. But... but some parts are empty-handed! Whenever the strings drop, the track eats it a little bit. It climbs up here and there and I'd rather just see it incorporated into the drop as being part of the main element. The time changes are also a hodge-podge of inflated convolution done right. But why? Maybe LMMS made you do it...

Kysertron responds:

I've tried the string-drop combination before here: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/918959

I'll try to keep the string-drop combo in mind so I can do it again in the near future. I'm not that well making them since I use the strings as backgrounds most of the time (usually in the latter parts of drops).

Most of the stuff you mentioned was intentional, although the strings were not much so...
Also, I like how you used the term "limiting", which actually brings up a great point. Beside the "limiting" without the use of a limiter (I try to not use one since it makes my music overcompressed), I use "limiting" in reference to themes... a lot (as you can see in this song).

Sure, LMMS has its quirks, but I don't see it as a very limiting DAW by any means. In the right hands, you could do LOADS of stuff with it. Check out this song made by LMMS: https://soundcloud.com/ptchwrkmusic/blossom

Also, I've used LMMS for so long, I find it difficult to settle into another DAW (I tried Ableton in 2018, I felt like I had just started music again).

Credits & Info

Listens
671
Faves:
3
Downloads
15
Votes
13
Score
4.55 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 27, 2020
9:00 AM EDT
Genre
Fusion
File Info
Song
18.2 MB
7 min 57 sec
Software
  • 3x Osc
  • LMMS
  • BitInvader
  • ZynAddSubFX
  • Vestige
  • ToneZ
Misc. Kit
  • LMMS - Organic

Licensing Terms

Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.