A well-timed synergy of two goals: wanting to model Terraria’s bosses in 3D and needing a tonne of music for the time-lapse videos, and wanting to experiment with sample-driven music. My digital music making journey is almost a year old now (from the Game of Thrones intro parody video). Being a life-long hip hop fan, I caught myself wondering “why use samples when making unique sonic ideas in this day and age is two mouse clicks away?” This project is an attempt to answer this question with a set of samples built from music I’m all too familiar with: Resonance Array’s under-appreciated Terraria soundtrack, a perfect blend of orchestral music and old-school video game sounds.
Album Cover
The album cover is a parody and fusion of Nas’ Illmatic (the translucent overlay of the archetypal Terraria character reflecting on the crazy world he inhabits) and Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, M.A.A.D. city (the white frame and graffiti text). However, instead of a Polaroid photo, it is a CRT monitor, a nod to the retro aesthetic of Terraria.
Inspirations
Warbeats’ Dr. Dre-style composition recipe was the launching pad for this project, with the use of crisp drum samples, orchestral hits, and the “West Coast whistle” sine-wave phrases defining some of the earlier tracks. Over time, the tracks get increasingly experimental and draw inspirations from Death Grips’ and RZA’s abrasive and coarse-cut sampling styles.
Visualisations
To accompany the music videos on YouTube, I modelled and rendered some of Terraria’s simple but iconic objects in turntable animations and plastered graffiti all over them.
01 – Make My Slime the Blue Slime
85 bpm, C Major
Inspirations: 2001-era Dr. Dre
Samples: “Overworld Day“
Bespoke Sounds: Piano chords, synth whistle and bass line
Visualisation: Terrarian tree
02 – Suspicious Wandering Eyes
90 bpm, B♭ Minor
Inspirations: 2001-era Dr. Dre, “Dilemma – Nelly & Kelly“
Samples: “Boss 1” and “Girl hurt” sound
Bespoke Sounds: Piano chords, synth whistle and bass line
Visualisation: Archery potion
03 – Purple Spiked thing
85 bpm, A♭ Minor
Inspirations: 2001-era Dr. Dre
Samples: “Corruption“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Demon altar
04 – Making the World Bloody
90 bpm, B♭ Minor
Inspirations: 2001-era Dr. Dre
Samples: “Crimson“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth whistle and bass line
Visualisation: Crimslime
07 – You are a terrible person
90 bpm, D Minor
Inspirations: “Apollo Kids – Ghostface Killah“, “One Mic – Nas“
Samples: “Boss 2“, “Underworld“, “Wall of Flesh Otherworldly“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Guide voodoo doll
08 – The Land of Deceiving Looks
100 bpm, A♭ Major
Samples: “Queen Slime“, “Hallow“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Angel wings
09 – Why Do I Hear Boss Music?
100 bpm, G Minor
Samples: “Underground“,”Boss 1“
Visualisation: Magic mirror
10 – Soul of Might
85 bpm, C Minor
Inspirations: Death Grips
Samples: “Boss 3“
Visualisation: Night’s Edge
11 – Skeletron Sans
90 bpm, C Minor
Inspirations: “Megalovania – Toby Fox“, Death Grips
Samples: “Boss 3“, “Megalovania – Toby Fox“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line, electric guitar
Visualisation: Stockade crate
12 – Reign of Terra
95 bpm, A minor
Samples: “Underground Jungle“, “Plantera“
Visualisation: Turtle shell
14 – Prismatic
120 bpm, E♭ Minor
Samples: “Empress of Light“, The Attic’s Lo-Fi Jazz Chords, SampleRadar’s 8-Bit Bonanza
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Prismatic Dye
15 – Mutant Terror of the Sea
90 bpm, E Major & B Minor
Samples: “Ocean“, “Duke Fishron“
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Sextant
16 – Lunar Lunatic Lo-Fi Beats to Cult Out To
90 bpm, D Minor
Samples: “Lunar Towers“, The Attic’s Lo-Fi Jazz Chords
Bespoke Sounds: Synth bass line
Visualisation: Mysterious Tablet
17 – Call of the Moon Lord/Journey’s Beginning Outro
75 bpm, C Minor
Samples: “Moon Lord“, “Journey’s Beginning“, “Overworld Day“
Bespoke Sounds: Piano chords, synth bass line
Visualisation: Angel Statue
A Retrospective
In retrospect, it’s difficult to gauge how successful this project was. Sampling ideas from the game’s extensive soundtrack is like panning for diamonds in a pile of gold. It’s impressive how little repetition the game’s tracks use, and yet each track has so many sonic and musical ideas that can be expanded to full tracks that stand on their own.
Terrarian State of Mind’s compositions have tried to do many things: clean, Dr Dre-inspired (Make My Slime the Blue Slime); multi-section, highly-layered (Honeyed Herplings, The Land of Deceiving Looks); minimalistic, sample driven (Skellington J. Skellingsworth, Why Do I Hear Boss Music?); crescendos (You are a Terrible Person); industrial (Soul of Might, Skeletron Sans); lo-fi (Lunar Lunatic Lo-Fi); and straight experimental (Call of the Moon Lord).
I often revisit the individual tracks from Terrarian State of Mind, and my enjoyment of them as a piece of music is erratic: sometimes I think I’ve struck gold, other times I might think the same track is a dud. Regardless, it was an enjoyable journey, and the foremost priority was experimentation: trying to recontextualise samples, layering different sounds, making each track different, and creating a soundscape as wild, chaotic, maximalist, flavourful, and multi-faceted as Terraria itself.