My SWAT Kats (fan works) related music

[Mr. Goodkat]

All these ongoing "My art"-threads here in this forum have encouraged me to create this "My music"-thread. I don't know how much SWAT Kats (fan works) related music I'm gonna produce, but I plan to post them here whenever I've finished one.

Some time ago I've mentioned that I was working on more music for The Descent comic, hoping to extent it into a motion comic, a bit like Broken Saints. Unfortunately, Betaruga (the artist of the comic) decided to step down from the SK fandom, taking down all of her art from the fandom websites before I had the chance to suggest this. That's why I've decided to release them being detached from her comic respecting her demand not to use any of her material. This makes things a bit more difficult as you gonna have to use your imagination to visualize the flow of the scenes. Therefore, I've wrote a little script for each track explaining what happens and included links to Betaruga's comic on tumblr (see my next post).

The Descent - The Introduction
The Descent - The Prison Scene (Take 1)
The Descent - The Prison Scene (Take 2) (my preferred version)

For the sake of completeness I'm also adding the following track to this post which I had published already, having it revised concerning the volume and the quality (256 kBit/s instead of 128 kBit/s). This one was used for a Descent-trailer which unfortunately isn't available anymore.

The Descent - Trailer

Hope you gonna enjoy them.

@MoDaD: Thank you for creating the page for these music tracks.

[Mr. Goodkat]

Here are the scripts for the music tracks I've mentioned in my previous post:

The introduction
The intro starts with showing Chance and Jake in a close-up on a white background (like on the inside-cover of the comic).

In the first 26 seconds of the movie the camera slowly moves away from them while the background is slowly getting darker until it is completely black. This track includes an descending tone and each time this tone is played some text is displayed above Chance and Jake. In detail:

0:04 SWATKATS.INFO PRESENTS
0:08 A DARK SWAT KATS ORIGIN STORY
0:11 BASED OFF THE STORY "THEY THAT WALK IN DARKNESS" by KRISTEN SHARPE & SK SAGE
0:15 ART & ADAPTION by BETARUGA
0:18 SOUNDTRACK & MOTION SCREENPLAY by MR. GOODKAT
0:22 VIDEO ANIMATION & COMPOSITING by ???
0:26 <no text>

With the background being completely black by now Dark Kat suddenly appears (his image from the cover page fades in) such that the scene looks exactly like the one on the cover page. Then all three of them disappear from the scene (fade out) such that only the black background remains. This is kind of a preview showing that Dark Kat is going to drag Chance and Jake into the darkness. Then the title is displayed together with an impact sound resembling the impact of their fall. In detail:

0:27 Dark Kat emerges from the black background
0:33 Dark Kat, Chance and Jake fade away until only the black background is visible
0:37 THE DESCENT logo is suddenly displayed and then slowly fades away until only the black background remains
0:47 The prison scene starts


The prison scene
As I've imagined the motion comic a bit like Broken Saints, each comic panel would have been displayed without text at first. The text panels inside the comic panel would then appear one after another with the previous disappearing before the next one is displayed. The first take of this track ends with a weird sounding melody at the end. This was an attempt to fade this dark theme into a Scaredy Kat alike tune as Chance's flashback that happens between page 2 and page 3 leads his memory back where he is absently watching a Scaredy Kat cartoon. I didn't finish this transition into the next track (which I never composed) because I've decided to do a second take of the track. The reason was that I had the feeling that this first track is a bit too heavy right at the beginning and so the second take is way more diffident than this one. So here are the scripts for both of them and I leave it to your imagination how the transition between the comic panels would look like:

Take 1
0:00 The first comic panel of page 1 fades in from the black background
0:06 The text panel "The old guard..." fades in and out
0:10 The text panel "I can tell..." fades in and out
0:16 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "I did that a lot..." fades in and out
0:22 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "When the inferno..." fades in and out
0:28 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "Beating the other prisoners..." fades in and out
0:32 The first comic panel of page 2 is displayed
0:34 The text panel "The fire inside me..." fades in and out
0:36 The text panel "Not that the old kat..." fades in and out
0:42 The text panel "In fact..." fades in and out
0:46 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "You could put me..." fades in and out
0:52 The text panel "Couldn't coax back..." fades in and out
0:54 The text panel "Couldn't excite me" fades in and out
0:56 The next comic panel is displayed and slowly fades over into the first comic panel of page 3

Take 2
0:00 The first comic panel of page 1 fades in from the black background
0:06 The text panel "The old guard..." fades in and out
0:12 The text panel "I can tell..." fades in and out
0:18 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "I did that a lot..." fades in and out
0:24 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "When the inferno..." fades in and out
0:28 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "Beating the other prisoners..." fades in and out
0:33 The first comic panel of page 2 is displayed
0:35 The text panel "The fire inside me..." fades in and out
0:39 The text panel "Not that the old kat..." fades in and out
0:43 The text panel "In fact..." fades in and out
0:47 The next comic panel is displayed and the text panel "You could put me..." fades in and out
0:50 The text panel "Couldn't coax back..." fades in and out
0:52 The text panel "Couldn't excite me" fades in and out
0:54 The next comic panel is displayed and fades over into the first comic panel of page 3

I hope these scripts helps you to visualize what I had imagined for the motion comic.

[MoDaD]

As I alluded to in a previous thread when you first introduced this, I think the style really fits, and I couldn't resist dropping it into a hastily made video which has since been removed by request. It sounds really professional, and I liken it to the soundtracks of Metroid Prime and Dredd, both of which I really enjoyed.

I can really picture each scene as you timed them out. Maybe someday we'll be able to do more than imagine

[Mr. Goodkat]

After almost one year I finally finished working on another SWAT Kats fan work related music track and had the guts to upload it to SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/goodkat-music/cyberspace-ride.

The title of this one is Cyberspace Ride and it's kind of a self inspired work as it's a musical interpretation of Specter's ride through Cyberspace on his virtual Cyclotron as described in chapter 13 of my fan fiction story War Games.

Hope you gonna enjoy it.

Cyberspace-Ride-400px.jpg (56.52 KiB) Viewed 12295 times

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EDIT: Added the cover used on SoundCloud / Fixed URL.

[MoDaD]

That's really cool - it definitely fits the scene, and the tone it conveys is really a neat mix of retro 80s with contemporary electronic (at least I think it is - I'm not really a music critic so I could be mistaken in my terminology).

And, that reminds me, I'll be making an effort to shoot some LA/Hollywood footage for B-roll to use in intros and transitions. Would it be okay if I used your track(s) in those transitions? Perhaps (and please forgive me if this is too big a request) you'd be interested in composing original tracks I could use? I don't know if you had anything in mind for a low decibel loop that can play in the background during dialogue, something that could be used in 3-5 second transitions, and maybe even a 10-15 second intro / exit?

[Mr. Goodkat]

Sure, you can use my tracks for your footage if you like. Since I didn't activate direct download at SoundCloud I could send you the Cyberspace Ride track by using a different way to transfer it if you need it.

As I haven't created music for video footage I'm not sure if I can provide anything which would fit well into it (especially without having the footage), but I'll try to send you a few samples.

EDIT: Fixed URL.

[Mikazo]

I must not have seen this when you first posted it, but I didn't know you did music too! Thanks for sharing these. They seem to have a dark, ambient quality, with a sense of anticipation or suspense. The third one reminds me of this tune from the Serious Sam soundtrack.

I would be interested to see if you could make any more music that would fit action scenes, tracks that are fast paced and dynamic. The new one you just shared is a good step in that direction.

[Mr. Goodkat]

I've released my second track which will probably be the final one concerning my own fan-fiction story War Games.
Here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/goodkat-music/airborne-kats

Airborne-Kats-400px.jpg (39.83 KiB) Viewed 12295 times

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I had the idea to compose a title melody for the Airborne Kats game (which is mentioned in the story) quite a while ago and now I was finally able to finish it. The theme of the game Falcon Patrol II created for the good old Commodore 64 was actually an inspiration for this.

Again, I hope you enjoy it and if you like you can like it, share it and so on.

EDIT: Fixed URL.

[Cait]

Nice tunes you got there

[Mr. Goodkat]

I've uploaded my two cover versions of the first season's intro theme to SoundCloud. I've created and provided those for the Get-Together video clips which have been (or gonna be) published on the swatkats.info YouTube channel.

SK-Season-One-IntroCover-Electronic.jpg (66.36 KiB) Viewed 12140 times

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Link: https://soundcloud.com/goodkat-music/sw ... onic-cover
This cover has an alternative beginning, is a bit slower than the original and also has a darker mood.

SK-Season-One-Intro-Cover-Orchestral.jpg (66.44 KiB) Viewed 12140 times

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Link: https://soundcloud.com/goodkat-music/sw ... tral-cover
This track is kind of a by-product of the electronic version above as I was curious how the theme would sound when being played by a classic orchestra.


Thanks to MoDaD for providing the background image which I've used for the cover images.

Enjoy listening.