Join me for a snow machine symphony, arranged by yours truly.

(6:51) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. In playing around with my snow machine, I soon realised that I could get a considerable variety of interesting sound variations using shunting or blasting (although I was mainly using the former). This movie is essentially a showcasing of such varitions. You'll also see some accompanying visual variations in regard to snow and bark, though that's not the focus here.

Released October 14th 2024, gameplay recorded October 9th-13th 2024.

00:02 (Variation 1 - Similar to before) As far as I can tell, this first variation is a repeat of the one featured in BCM518 around 6:37. And indeed, I hit the Scorpion in pretty much the same spot to get it.

00:22 (Variation 2) I didn't add a caption to this one but it's a bit like the later 'steam train' sound (variation 4) except faster.

00:31 (Variation 3) Following on from that situation, two shunts later I get this other variation.

00:58 (Variation 4 - Steam train) Okay it's maybe a bit of sickly steam train, and with parts rattliing around inside, but I can just about picture it.

01:13 (Variation 5 - Great rhythm) This variation, produced by shunting the turret from behind, is my favourite to listen to. Quite a nice rhythm there, and the sound is sort of musical. In the second clip I have the flashlight on, which among other things makes the pattern on the Scorpion tracks pop.

01:35 (Variation 6 - Train running out of puff) If variation 4 sounded reminiscent of a steam train, then this one sounds a bit like the train is now running out of puff! Or so it seemed to me.

01:46 (Variation 7 - Original sound but much quieter) This sounds just like my snow machine's original sound except much quieter. Unusual. There's also no snow or bark being churned out.

02:03 (Variation 8 - Crashy) After a bit of shunting turns everything off, I'm able to restart things with some more shunting. It was a case of "third time lucky"; I've cut the two shunts which appeared to do nothing. I'm rewarded with a very nice 'crashy' varation. Incidentally, after about five minutes of recording footage for potential use, I was spontaneously killed when dismounting from the side-seat. Dismounts can be dangerous with these jammed-up situations!

02:47 (Variation 9 - Hog impacts slow) After getting a quiet situation with snow churning out, a shunt from behind gets some sound going again, and it takes the form of hog impact sounds one after another, at a rate of about 65 a minute; so in musical terms about 65 bpm (beats per minute). Quite unusual.

03:19 (Variation 10 - Even slower) Even more extreme, we now have hog impacts at around 51 bpm, although they're not as distinct as before. Indeed, the impact sounds are a little faint, and dominated by a louder 'chopping' sound. Also the snow sounds relatively loud. You do seem to get 'loud snow' sometimes.

03:42 (Variation 11 - Hog impacts fast) This one is like the last except much faster; around 115 bpm instead of 51.

04:00 (Variation 12 - Even faster) The hog impacts are a bit harder to make out here, perhaps because they don't have time to play out fully, but what we've got now is around 150 bpm (variation 1 seems to be very similar to this, except faster still). If you're wondering why the Marine has his AR pointed upwards in the opening clip, it's because I'd been up on the side of the Scorpion just a few seconds ago, peering into the hog's seating area. He was still looking at where I'd been. The third clip gives a nice close-up of that guy, which I think is my favourite shot in the movie.

Actually, that last shot eventually lead me to go back and redo the camerawork for variation 4. My original camearawork for that had been one long clip from moderate distance, and had been a bit similar to the clip just before it. I revised things to a two-clip affair, with the first being similarly framed to my favourite here. That made for much better visual varation in that area of the movie.

04:17 (Variation 13 - Scraping noises) Qutie an odd one here, and much different in character to the others we've had. Weird scraping noises.

04:48 (Variation 14 - Much quieter) Scraping noises again, except much quieter. I got this with a single shunt to the back of the hog.

05:00 (Variation 15 - Bark but no snow) An unsual one this. The snow gets turned off, and although I still have bark, it's actually now cascading backwards and somewhat up into the air. There's a nice close-up view of bark fragments when I board the side-seat. As for the sound variation, it sounds to me like a fast version of variation 5. Incidentally, I also once got a variation similar to this except with much lower volume - like as if you were thirty metres away or something.

05:38 (Variation 16 - Loud hog impacts, moderate speed) We pick up the action here after about two minutes of shunt play, during which various changes occured. Presently silent, a shunt produces a nice loud hog impact sound pattern at moderate speed - around 79 bpm in fact.

A plasma grenade raises the pace, and then I have a bit of fun trying to drive the Scorpion free, which turns out to be quite easy. Actually I already knew what to do, having already made many attempts at recording an entertaining final clip such as this. During the escape, there's another sound variation when I try to drive the Scorpion forward. It's just like variation 5.

Closing remarks Just to clarify, some of these variations arose from just a single shunt, while others only came after multiple shunts.

In terms of the visuals in the movie, I did plenty of recording with most of the varitions to get multiple shots to potentially use. I wanted the movie to feature good variety as thing went along, so it was important to have a good amount to select from. Of course, most of the shots feature the left side of the Scorpion, with the Marines on. And many of them focus on the guy at the front, as the rear Marine is obscured.

While all these sound patterns were with my one snow machine, I suspect that if and when I create other such jammed-up situations, the sound patterns I get with those will be broadly similar. But we'll see.

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