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A jam submission

The Damn Daniel Chronicles: The Far ReachesView project page

The "music" of Damn Daniel and his far reaches
Submitted by TossDaCook — 1 hour, 5 minutes before the deadline
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Play Abomination

The Damn Daniel Chronicles: The Far Reaches's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall Uniqueness/Creativity#24.3204.320
Overall Uniqueness/Creativity (double field for weight)#83.6803.680
Execution#363.2003.200
Overall#373.2133.213
Composing Quality#433.0803.080
Listenability#462.8402.840
Correlation to Theme#532.1602.160

Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Link to Streaming Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uK7nNFkhOk&list=PL2ZVO8vCmA_W4QxTOkzCOmLx_peJI3R8l&pp=gAQB

Description
Summary below but I highly recommend you read my story.

I feel I should also note that the first song is the most chaotic of the 4.

Damn Daniel's Horrific Idea - The protagonist, "Damn Daniel", wonders just how far he can horrifically twist the theme. His mind wanders to many places, but it's not until he gets into the bath that a magnificent idea becomes clear. He grabs the pen and paper he had on standby and decides to write down what he calls "5 concepts of comedic 'music'" in which he defines as "a far reach from music". What Damn Daniel creates is horrific but also beautiful at the same time. The concepts are listed below(It's a bit of a mess right now but I will likely come back to it once my exams are over):

---Familiarity - Familiarity is the basis of comedic music and encapsulates all of the concepts. It is in familiarity that we usually decide what is good and bad. It is in familiarity that we associate certain sounds with comedy. Some ideas of comedy will break familiar concepts, while some comedic ideas are truly only brought out from familiarity. Many comedic pieces often take familiar songs or concepts and twist them into a more comedic version, Damn Daniel remixes are an obvious example but certain creators like "Weird Al" are known to parody familiar songs as well.

---Absurdity - Whether it be an unusual sound, a strange concept, or an off-beat rhythm that takes the term a bit too literally. Absurdity ties back into familiarity by bringing something unfamiliar to music. I saw a video recently of a (rock?) band performing a cover of a song (I'm unsure which). It was going normal until suddenly, when a crash cymbal was expected, the drummer used their drumpad instead to play a Taco Bell sound. The singer could barely hold in their laughter. I feel another good example is the song "Work Harder" by Austin Jorgensen (Creator of Lisa the Painful), with the song based entirely on a grunt sample to convey a gym-like environment. There's many tracks from "Lisa: The Painful" that seem to emphasize comedic intent through absurd sounds.

---Contrast - Contrast is something that is important in nearly all genres of music, or art for that matter. Having contrasting elements can better emphasize things and bring them out. While a comedic piece can be an entirely chaotic mess, you will rarely see this; There is nearly always some semblance of something familiar to be contrasted with something unfamiliar. Going back to traditional music concepts, there are many layers of contrast, you can see this with ideas like loud vs soft, dissonant vs harmonious, fast vs slow. In my tracks, you will probably hear a silly instrument at a more serious part of the song, but it has been developed to be sort of "familiar" in the moment so it likely won't be as funny as other times. Jokes can get overplayed, and I have 4 songs that sample the same silly "Damn Daniel" audio, so I try not to exhaust those moments by making sure it blends in or contrasts with the music when it needs to.

---Context - These are the lyrics, the stories, the actions, etc. that accompany the music. While not all comedic music needs to have a context, and still remain funny, I like to view no context as something similar to a joke that is only a punchline. One of Joseph Haydn's pieces "Farewell symphony(Symphony no 45)" is a great example of the importance of context. If you were to give it a listen without seeing the performance, it would be difficult to identify any sort of comedic element. But witnessing it, you would see a composer slowly losing all his musicians as they abandon the stage. Originally meant to be a lighthearted way to tell a prince, "the musicians want to go home". Haydn implemented a comedic context to the song that people still laugh at today.

---Characterization - Characterization is in music often. You will see it often through many genres with something like motifs or recurring instrumentation, but in comedic music, characterization can lean on the side of more extreme. Intentional mistakes to humanize, pitch-bending to emphasize action, etc. Characterization in comedic music can give intent/action that can be interpreted very literally through the music, almost on the line of being called a sound effect instead. With extreme characterization though, context is incredibly important. You will often see characterization emphasized in older media that use minimal dialogue. Older "Looney Tunes" episodes have some great examples of highly characterized music.

---Conclusion - While there are many ideas in comedic music. Comedic music is something that breaks convention but also leans into convention as well. With a main emphasis on humor, sacrificing nearly every element or barely any elements can still be found appropriate to the genre. One could maybe call it a far reach from traditional music. And thanks for reading this, I don't think it is complete in-depth look into comedic music, and I maybe could've better spent my time studying for upcoming exams, but I enjoyed writing this and composing around these ideas.




Damn Daniel and the TV remote - Damn Daniel tries to reach for his remote but it is on the table which is very far.

Damn Daniel and The TV Show - Damn Daniel wants to watch a dark show he's never seen before and decides to put on "Happy Tree Friends". However, he exhausted his energy trying to get the remote earlier and now very dramatically fights off his sleep. He is also incredibly determined to type an opinionated review with a typewriter. He ends up only watching the intro with an overly excessive amount of skipping and rewinding. Damn Daniel then reaches to the conclusion that "Happy Tree Friends" is just a kids show, and turns it off.

Damn Daniel and The Internet Opinion (featuring Chopin)- Peeved from the disappointment of his show, Damn Daniel decides he wants to post the summarized opinion, "Happy Tree Friends is just a kids show", on the internet. He is also somehow incredibly horrible - like horrendously bad at typing on a keyboard, that it takes him many keystrokes to articulate his 8 word opinion. Because of his ridiculous struggle with typing, he decides to put on a piano piece that is easy to sing along to. His opinion reaches a far audience and many people believe his opinion without second thought. Many horrified mothers were created later that day.

That concludes the story of Damn Daniel, and the many far reaches he made that day.

Summary:

"Damn Daniel", the protagonist, derives some concepts from what he thinks makes comedic music funny and decides to create a far reach of what you could call "music". He then uses that to makes many different Far Reaches(A literal far reach to grab a TV remote, an assumption from a small basis making it a far reach, and an opinion that reaches a far audience).

Screenshot of DAW (required, but it can be uploaded shortly afterwards)
Any feedback is appreciated, especially regarding compression(please check the wav if you plan on doing that though, youtube kind of did it's own compression since I mixed above -14 LUFs) . Also let me know which song you found most silly/funny.

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Comments

HostSubmitted(+1)

Okay, this one is pretty creative. Nicely done.

Developer

Thank you, I really appreciate it! Also, I hope this style isn't too outrageous for a jam like this one, it is kind of out there!

Submitted(+1)

Cool ideas, the explanation, and making many tracks were probably a lot of work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you again! I maybe spent too much time on this one for such a silly idea haha

Submitted(+1)

surprisingly well made for a comedically toned submission! definitely not 'broadcast quality' by typical standards, but the tracks are nicely structured and actually well-composed. mixing could be improved - for example, i find some instruments to be too loud at times (dogsong sounding synth in Damn Daniel and The TV Remote [could be quieter, eq work might help], sax in Damn Daniel and The TV Show [perhaps a bit too much low end]) and i DID listen to the wavs, but they still aren't the nicest mixes around (although they're good enough to pull the idea off).

i appreciate the detailed description and it helps affirm to me that this is more than JUST a silly submission. the tracks are very fun to listen to for what they are. not the best fit given the picture theme for this jam, but still an interesting experience nonetheless :DD

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I really appreciate the in-depth criticism, and the fact that you listened to the WAVs too. I will definitely keep in mind the balance of the instruments more as I go along. I was a bit scared to create this because of the silly nature; I didn't want it to feel distasteful or anything to others, so it is nice to hear my description clears it up as well!

Also, the dogsong synth is a damn daniel "AR" vocal chop! But it does have a similar degree of silliness to it haha

Submitted(+2)

Damn Daniel ! Had a good laugh, poor chopin, will definitely remember... XD thanks mate !

Developer

Thank you, I am glad you found it funny! I believe Chopin would absolutely despise my song if he ever heard it haha

Submitted(+1)

Probably the biggest submission in the history of this website.

I laughed so hard at Darth Vader's “NOOOOO” in particular, I was so not expecting it (that and obviously lots of other things).

DAMN DANIEL GOOD JOB

Developer

Thank you! and you can expect big things from this submission (perhaps a Damn Daniel Chronicles: PART 2!!! [uh, if it isn't deemed too silly for a jam]). I am glad you find the "NOOOO" funny too; It was originally a Talking Ben "no" but I didn't think it was funny enough or fit well in the TV story, so your comment makes me feel like I made the right change!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Absolute cinema ✋😲🤚. I do love the samples used and this is definitely the funniest interpretation of the theme. Going in the playlist rotation frfr. I think my most favorite sounds were the metal pipes falling in Damn Daniel and The Internet Opinion (Featuring Chopin). Keep up the work, very cool!

*Edit: I can't stop listening to these tracks, prob my fav submission in the jam.

Developer

Thank you! I expect the playlist to be on a 24/7 loop B),  "Damn Daniel's horrific idea" is also a nice bedtime song I believe. I am glad you like the samples as well! I am a bit surprised about favorite though, but it is a pleasant surprise!

Submitted(+1)

Damn!  

This was goofy but well mixed, well composed, well orchestrated and fun.  Nice job!

"Damn Daniel tries to reach for his remote but it is on the table which is very far."  This is an interpretation of "the far reaches" i can get down with LOL

Developer

Thank you! I appreciate the compliments and I am glad you found it fun! And I am glad you like that interpretation; It was the first silly inspiration for this entire soundtrack!

Submitted(+1)

Five stars for listenability, it was very fun xD

Developer

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it! I was a little afraid maybe no one would because of the style haha, so this is nice to hear

Submitted(+2)

Somehow this reminds me of some Undertale compositions like "Tem Village", "Tem Shop" or "Dogbass".  Comedic music definitely has it's place especially in gaming soundtracks but I do wish you could've tried to incorporate the theme a little more while keeping your light-hearted funny compositions. Otherwise, really cool ideas here that I could see fitting more comedic game moments. 

Developer

Thank you! I did use some soundfonts, so that may be part of what attributes to that Undertale feeling some! I think I may have misunderstood the theme some; I thought the picture was optional from the text so I wanted to twist the theme into far reaches attributed to action and thought process, but I appreciate your insights!  Thanks for listening!

Submitted(+1)

I'm giving you a plus on the creativity side for the comedic approach, but not at all what I was expecting for the jam, Im evaluating a lot based on the image and what it represents, with your approach there is nothing tangeable besides being the far reach, I think you could still take the comedic approach but more focused on what the painting has to say :)

Developer

Thank you and thanks for listening! I kind of interpreted the theme could be separate from the picture similar to Lone Rabbit's jams, so there may have been a slight misunderstanding there. The bathtub stream is at least inspired by the picture though!

Submitted(+1)

I don't understand, I'm being genuine here is this meant to be a shitpost or something?

Developer(+1)

Sort of, I maybe put too much effort into this abomination to be considered purely a shitpost but it is in the spirit of the jam. I wanted to tell a silly story so I decided to implement it through silly "music". I also feel that this side of music isn't really explored much (mostly because it's not listenable in the same way music usually is), so that was part of the reasoning I went this route as well. Hopefully that clears things up but I'd be happy to answer if you have any more questions!

Submitted(+1)

very creative. 


and funny.

Developer

Thank you!