The Perfect Match Official Soundtrack / The Perfect Match Official Soundtrack / The Perfect Match Official Soundtrack

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The Perfect Match Official Soundtrack
Composed and produced by: Mattias Häggström Gerdt
(also known as Another Soundscape)
Contact: mattias@anosou.com
Available for free at:
http://anosou.com/

The Perfect Match
developed by Onion Factory (http://www.onionfactorygames.com) for Xbox LIVE
80 MS: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855016f/

Tracklist:
01 The Game of Love (Main Theme of The Perfect Match) - 2:04
02 Virtual Love - 2:13
03 Making a Match! - 2:41
04 Creating a Couple! - 1:44
05 Hold on... - :39
06 Lover's Lounge - 1:00
07 Lover's Bounce - 2:15
08 Lover's Lounge (Unused ver.) - :57

Composer's comments:
For the Main Theme, I wanted to establish a memorable and hummable theme that really went with the game's mood. It was quite hard finding a good lead sound that didn't sound too cheesy though but using a "real-sounding" instrument like this bell sound worked out well, especially with a simple and memorable melody. I also tried to keep the backing groove from taking too much of a place and instead add focus to the melody. For this I used lower register instruments like the low-bar Hammond organ and the Moog-style bass and for variation introduced a counter-theme played with glockenspiel and some clavicord to add some more groove to the track.

'Virtual Love' was meant to be used for menu screens such as the options menu and, as such, needed to be more laid back and not as in-your-face cute as the other tracks. The positive side of this is that I was free to experiment some more with what kind of sounds I wanted to use. I established a "lounge" bossa-beat using a sampled Roland CR-78 together with a high-passed and slightly overdriven Rhodes keyboard. Coupled with the simple synth melodies (which are actually variations of the main theme) this gave the track a very "light" feel that I thought would fit well as a pure background track.

Both 'Making a Match!' and 'Creating a Couple!' where made to be the main gameplay tracks. The criteria was to make them as upbeat and energetic as possible while still keeping the same feel as the rest of the soundtrack. I re-used some instruments that I'd used before to connect the tracks such as the Hammond Organ, the Rhodes and the main bell sound that was used for the melody in the Main Theme. To add some extra flair to 'Making a Match!' I composed a call-and-answer section that I'm pretty proud of myself. I believe it attracts some attention and keeps the track interesting enough to have in the background during the main gameplay.

'Hold on...' is just a short jingle but I'm very happy with the result. The walking bassline especially gives off the feeling that you're waiting, which was the purpose of the track and the use of BOTH a synth sound and a bell sound for the lead made a very interesting combination.

'Lover's Lounge' is really a variation of the main theme but in a more laid back style that suited that part of the game better. It's always fun to arrange your own melodies and I've always thought soundtracks utilizing a recurring "theme" are very skillfully put together so it was a no-brainer for me to try this. The different chords and melodic phrasing really gave it an entirely different flair compared to the main theme I'm very happy with.

I made a couple of versions of this track before Nick at Onion Factory was satisfied. I included one of the earlier versions on the soundtrack as a bonus just because I myself enjoyed the new melody I used there. I do however understand that it wasn't really fit to be in game since it feels kind of disjointed. Still like it though!

'Lover's Bounce' is probably my favorite track on the album. I wanted to create a really bouncy and interesting groove since there wasn't much focus on drums in the other tracks. Layering some drum machine sounds and playing parts of a few .REX loops on my keyboard created some very nice rhythms that meshed well with the back-beat organ. This track was also somewhat inspired by a track from the anime Love Hina called 'Game of the Legend of the Sea God's Palace' in English if I'm not mistaken. Very groovy track that one.

All tracks were written and produced in Propellerheads Reason 4 using a variety of different ReFills and sound sources tailored to realize the cute bouncy style of Onion Factory's fantastic anime-style visuals.

This soundtrack is released for free as a tribute to the fantastic people in the VGM community and music lovers anywhere. A special thanks goes out to Larry Oji and all the other wonderful people at the VGM arrangement community OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org) for support and general awesomeness.

Keep appreciating, supporting and promoting video game music!

Mattias Häggström Gerdt
anothersoundscape@gmail.com
http://anosou.com/
http://twitter.com/anosou
http://www.ocremix.org/remixer/anothersoundscape/
January 19, 2009