Dungeon Synth on Digitone (or M:C)

I can’t believe I just thought of this now, but the Digitone is the perfect instrument for making Dungeon Synth genre!

I found one person on YouTube with a few examples:

This album is all Digitone:

Anyone else?

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What is this?

In the words of a BandCamp article, Dungeon Synth is described akin to ‘the intro track to your favorite metal album, but stretched out to album length’. Not sure how to feel about this.

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Gawd!!

Actually to get that real authentic dungeon synth sound, you need to leave an MS20 in a basement for a few years so it collects some damp, rust, mouse shit, lots of spiders make their home inside, filling it up with cockroach carcasses. Then you retrieve the crusty old synth and sample it on a korg ESX-1 that you bought from cash converter in Brighton in 2004. Then you have to record all that on your mates 4track (tascam or fostex accetable) onto tapes that have already been used a dozen times.

Then you release it through a fanzine, (chain)mail order only.

Anything else is just fake pretentious bollocks…

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One of our own already kinda nailed it.

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Also

Around the 10 minute mark, i like.

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I made a little Zelda dungeon synth thing a while back. Not sure it’s 100% on topic, but you know, dungeons and synths…. :smiley:

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Okay so if we’re making music like the Zelda 2 dungeon theme then I’m all for this genre! That feeling of dread and excitement upon entering a new area, the thrill of pondering what loot lies in wait beyond the polished marble walls and the horror of encountering new and powerful foes.

Two of my favourite old-skool videogame OSTs are Miracle Warriors on the Master System and Gargoyles Quest for the Gameboy. Man those are ridiculously gorgeous soundtracks dripping with atmosphere.

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The dungeon level of The Last Ninja on the C64 is one of the best synth dungeons to ever exist. :wink:

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Dungeon synth is quite a (too?) narrow genre. And, yes, you’re supposed to use old romplers to be considered a trve warrior. Which I’m definitely not :3

If you listen to David Bowie’s Warszawa, you already get that vibe:

(And you can deny toxic people their claim as the genre pioneers, which is a nice bonus.)

(P.S.: I recently acquired a liven 8bit warps, and it delivers crypt noises too.)

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I dig this! I really like Erang’s take on the genre and the world building he does with his albums.

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I have an old MT-32 in the dunge… I mean basement. Maybe it’s time I buy that wallwart. :smiley:

MT-32, the original ROMpler, (for dungeons…)

:rofl:

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Didnt know dungeon synth was a thing until i stumbled upon the youtube channel ‘dungeon synth archives’, which is just a fuckton of dungeon albums, pretty cool shit. Also, its gotta be just about the nerdiest genre based around what is already the nerdiest instrument

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Dungeon Synth Archives is a treasure trove. As for the actual genre, it feels like hauntology’s basement dwelling, D&D/ Tolkien obsessed cousin. I don’t know the true origins, but the first tracks I heard were black metal interludes. Probably has origins as outliers to the old depressive BM, neo-folk scenes if I had to guess.

This is my favorite upload of theirs:

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That’s the thing, the origin is (to my knowledge) said to be this album (written in jail by a far right figure, church burner, murderer and racist survivalist) : Dauði Baldrs - Wikipedia
But Mortiis early works seems older (and less problematic): Mortiis - Wikipedia

I still prefer the David Bowie origin’s story, personally (1977 is hard to beat) :slight_smile:

If you hear or read of another one, I’m interested!

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Thanks for sharing this masterpiece! Left the guy a comment :raised_hands::exploding_head:

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(Shameless plug)

This track I made a while ago was inspired by dungeon qwesting. Made fully on a Monomachine.

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I missed an opportunity to self promote here :man_facepalming:
This is an early track I tagged as mainly dungeon synth:

It’s almost entirely made with the digitone (I only got the OT then and it’s on really basic sampling duty). One of the exceptions being the crypt chanting which is the waldorf streichfett (another cool “modern” synth for the genre) trough a lofi reverb resampled.

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No worries. The man’s a wizard with an electribe.
His halloween DnB set from 2015 I think it was, total genius