Visit Mexico - Ruta Maya « Dizzy Banjo - Soundtracking Virtual Worlds

Visit Mexico - Ruta Maya

I was very excited on Thursday evening. The second stage of Mexico’s official presence in Second Life was opened to the public. I was lucky enough to be commissioned to write the score for the project by Advanced Virtual Inc. a company developing the official presence of the Mexican Tourist Board in Second Life.

Ruta Maya is a 2 sim extension of Mexico’s presence in Second Life. It adds a new trail of Mayan sites to the existing very successful Chichen Itza exhibit. The project features a huge rainforest ( by Kriss Lehmann of Straylight fame ), a number of scaled reproductions of Mayan temples and ruins, a beach, the city of Campeche, a fort and a pirate ship. There are loads of things to do around the build as you explore, including hang gliding, rope slides up in the rainforest canopy, a waterfall you can walk behind, lots of animals to interact with, horse riding along the beach and much more.

You can visit the Ruta Maya sims here : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Visit%20Mexico%202/201/95/30

My role in the project was two fold. Firstly I created a very detailed environmental soundscape and secondly an orchestral score featuring authentic cultural instrumentation.

Here are some of the ’sleeve notes’ from the sound track :

In 2007 I provided a soundtrack to a promotional machinima of the Visit Mexico Chichen Itza project, to assist it’s successful bid to become a new wonder of the world. It was such a wonderful experience working with the team on the project that when the chance came to expand the already very successful Mexico presence in Second Life, I was very excited. The commissioning of a large scale custom soundtrack for the project was a tantalizing opportunity.

During the project process we had many discussions about the nature of the soundtrack, covering a wide range of issues, including how it should convey Mayan culture while remaining contemporary and emotional, and how it should be pitched in terms of emotional involvement and underscore. I would visit the sims under construction regularly and as the build grew up around me it became clear that this would be a stirring emotional place. To reflect this some parts of the soundtrack are quite rich and sensual, with rousing melodies and uplifiting drive, while other parts are more relaxed and contemplative. There are also some parts of the score which provide a more primal rhythmic pulse to underscore exploration.

Instrumentally the soundtrack features a wide range of authentic Mayan instrumentation, from many clay and wood flutes and ocarina, through water drums, a wide range of wood percussion and chonch shell horns. It also features full orchestra, with a large contingent of mallet instruments, including marimba and both metal and bamboo vibraphones.

It was a great honour to be commissioned to write music for this the official presence of the country of Mexico in Second Life and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.