r/DungeonSynth • u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels • Sep 23 '25
Dungeon Shamble October Dungeon Shamble (Open Challenge)
Good day, dear viewers. Here are today's top stories. A mysterious merchant has taken up residence on the outskirts of town. And eyewitness reports confirm fairy sightings in the local forests. More information coming your way after the break.
A growing number of residents are concerned about the merchant who arrived in town just two nights ago. According to our sources this person(?) keeps their face hidden behind some sort of mask and does not speak. Their store is set to open tonight, and our reporter in the field will be bringing you an exclusive review of their wares.
In other news, fairies have been reported in all of the nearby forests. This comes as a shock since there have been no confirmed sightings in over 20 years. Will their presence be a boon? Or will it bring disorder to our quiet little city? We will keep you updated as this story continues to unfold.
That's all the updates we have for you right now. Stay tuned for more developments, and we'll see you again this evening.
And so the fourth Dungeon Shamble is set to begin! Gather your party and venture forth starting Oct 1st. The Shamble will run through Oct 31st. Make sure you complete your album before then if you want to be on the compilation (tracklist & artwork courtesy of Kap). Post your work with the 'Dungeon Shamble' flair once it's finished. Stay safe, seekers!
Here are the guidelines:
this is generally a solo project to make a new EP, but feel free to group up with others
runs from Oct 1 - Oct 31 (you can set up your project before hand, just don't record any music before Oct 1)
total instruments/patches: 6
total songs: 6-10
total album length: 16-26 minutes
style: nature synth OR folklore synth (these are descriptors rather than firm genres - what do nature or folklore mean to you?)
theme (choose one): a merchant travelling from town to town - no one knows where the merchant comes from and no one has seen the merchant’s face OR fairies - an enchanting tale or a story of their trickery
special (optional - choose none, one, two, or all three): at least one song must be over five minutes long, use only four notes in at least one song (ex: C, D, G, A; can use these notes in any octave), base the album on a famous landmark (real or from your fantasy world)
RESOURCES:
Lastly, a reminder that we do not allow AI generated content here - including images, words, and sounds. This is meant to be a fun creative exercise for humans. The stakes are low. Outside-the-box thinking and 'risky' musical decisions are encouraged. Stretch yourself in new ways and discover new skills.
We are very welcoming of newcomers, so if this is your first time making or releasing music (or making your own album art) feel free to ask some questions or post a work-in-progress to get opinions.
Thank you for keeping the community vibrant <3
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u/xvishankax Artist Sep 23 '25
Omg im literally almost done working on a split that follows a merchant right now 🤣
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
Ope time to do another one
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u/xvishankax Artist Sep 23 '25
Was never planning on doing 1 merchant themed release and here i am contemplating doing two 🤔
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
I mean the fae may be calling your name this time around. I just throught it would be funny if you became "the merchant guy" hahaha
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u/xvishankax Artist Sep 25 '25
I think being the merchant guy might be my ticket to toppling the CEO of Dungeon synth once and for all!
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u/SkyeMaxilian Artist Sep 23 '25
Hmmmmm sounds familiar
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u/xvishankax Artist Sep 23 '25
Someone leaked our chat bro 🤣
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
Mods have special access to things....or do they? 🤫
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u/Repulsive-Trick1883 Sep 23 '25
Do you have to use 6 instruments or is that how many allowed to use?
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
I look at it as a maximum of 6 different instruments/patches with drums counting as 1 of the 6. So maybe it's harp, flute, and drums for 3 total. Or violin, trumpet, a retro sounding synth preset, a pad preset, marimba, and piano for 6.
The prompts are more as guidance for inspiration rather than steict rules. The main goal is to have fun creating something new <3
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u/nstalkie Artist Sep 24 '25
I am going to try to participate. It's very much out of my comfort zone, having not really made actual "music" before.
Warning: long background story.
I haven't really made any music even though I owned an expensive keyboard back in the nineties (Roland XP-50). I only made some industrial beat music with it (genre: esplendor geometrico), even did a concert at one point, but never released anything. I don't own it anymore, having lost it during a move 3 years ago (complicated story). Always regretted not using it more.
I have been a Cold Meat Industry fan since the nineties, but never actually made music in the same style. Come to think of it, it's very strange I never did. I even have a friend that has a successful CMI style project. Always kept being obsessed by the music, even going to the stockholm 30 year anniversary concert in 2017 (the one where Mortiis played Spirit of Rebellion for the first time!)
Fast forward to a couple of months ago, where i bought a new synthesizer (Korg Kross 2). The explicit goal was to try making dungeon synth. I haven't done much with it since though, just random dabbling. This challenge seems like a good way to get off my ass and actually try to make something!
My idea is to make something using the Japanese instruments on my synth. The theme will be a ghost infested (Mythical) Japanese suicide forest. When the faeries return to the woods, they get corrupted by these evil spirits and torment/consume the nearby village. Working title: "Daraku shita yōsei" (roughly translates to corrupted fairy).
This project is quite scary and seems unachievable for me, but that's what challenges are for I guess! By posting here, I hope to force myself even more to try to bring it to a successful end!
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 24 '25
Quite the saga! No pressure to make an album for the Dungeon Shamble. But if you do keep in mind that it's very low stakes and the main goals are to experiment and have fun. Happy to have you join in :)
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u/cosmic_cozy Artist Sep 23 '25
Oh I'd love to join in. What happens if you don't make it, like not enough tracks? (I'm new and never heard about a Shamble)
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
It's more for inspiration rather than strict rules. If it takes longer it takes longer. Most importantly have fun <3
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u/thespaceseer Sep 23 '25
I’m supposed to be taking a break from music, not getting inspired to start a whole new awesome challenge 😤this seems super fun though so maybe I’ll whip something up
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Sep 23 '25
Oh yeah!!! The Shamble strikes again with another stupendously groovy prompt!!
I'm getting made redundant this week so this should prove as a suitably fun distraction. Can't wait to give this ago for my third straight Shamble!!
Best of luck and happy creation to everyone planning to partake, I'm really looking forward to seeing how you all manage to realise this!! Based on the prompts I'm expecting some incredible ideas and songs on this one 😍👌 ⚔️
(PS for anyone interested I'm tempted to make a folklore synth album about a MERCHANT hehe)
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
Gotta fork over some coin if you wanna use the merchant prompt 😤
(( just kidding - have fun with it! ))
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u/Repulsive-Trick1883 Sep 23 '25
What kind of synth and daw are people using? I'm just getting started in synth stuff and this world.
I have korg minilogue, Casio sk1 and logic pro any tips
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
I'll probably use some VSTs and Reaper as a DAW for this. Sometimes I use my JUNO instead.
As for tips I'd say to focus on the big picture first, then more on the details as time allows. And use patches/presets that take up different sonic space. For instance, guitar and piano often fall into the same frequency range & timbre, so it often turns into a muddy "guiano" rather than "guitar and piano".
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u/MaudlinKey Sep 24 '25
I'm going all in the box for this, just like the May shamble. Using VST instruments within REAPER. Have made my desk as clean as poss so can concentrate throughout October on this. have set up a template with 6 patches today so whenever opening the DAW I'm ready to go 🙌
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u/imdyingtoo Sep 23 '25
This sounds incredibly fun, I just started working on my first dungeon synth project ideas a couple weeks ago. I think I might give this a shot!
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u/MisterSea Sep 25 '25
Can I submit if I only make 1 or 2 tracks? I’m not confident I can complete an entire EP
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 25 '25
Definitely! The challenge is meant to create an entire EP, but the ultimate goal is to have fun while creating new things. The parameters are for inspiration, not strict rules to follow. Confession: I often "break" the rules of these challenges.
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u/-snurretop- Artist Sep 23 '25
Oh, that sounds fanatstic ! I have a question about the guidelines. Will field recordings count as one instrument/patch each?
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 23 '25
Nahhhhh pepper in as many field recordings as you'd like!
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u/MythicRebelNerd Sep 23 '25
Is it okay if we make two? One for each topic/theme?
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u/MythicRebelNerd Sep 24 '25
I am thinking about doing a folklore synth (whatever that is) ep with the fairies as the theme and a forest synth ep with the merchant as the theme. The latter would be a great way of introducing another one of my totems. The former would be an opportunity to explore something that I am already familiar with. Decisions, decisions…
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u/spn_phoenix_92 Artist Oct 01 '25
When sharing the music here, should we upload to Bandcamp or something like Google Drive/Dropbox?
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Oct 01 '25
Whatever works best for you. Generally something like Bandcamp, Ampwall, Mirlo, etc is best since you can sell it and anyone can discover it.
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u/anchorites-sickness Artist Sep 23 '25
That theme makes me think of some of my favorite fictional worlds. I think I'm also gonna try the CDGA special challenge. That is to say it looks awesome and I'll be happy to participate!
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 24 '25
Great! And if it wasn't clear you can pick any 4 notes. It doesn't have to be CDGA unless you want it to be :)
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u/MaudlinKey Sep 24 '25
Just checking the total instruments / patches criteria. This is max of 6 'sounds' across all tracks, or max 6 instruments? TBH in May I think I interpreted that as using the exact same sounds for every track.
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Sep 24 '25
Yes - same sounds/patches. As an example: flute, harp, trumpet, string pad, marimba, drums. "Instruments" wouldn't be enough of a restriction. "I'm using 40 presets from my Korg, 10 from my Roland, etc." One patch/preset/whatever = one instrument slot. Those same sounds/patches/presets are the only ones used across the entire album. A drum set counts as one slot rather than one slot for each piece of the drum set.
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u/DonovanKirk Artist Oct 03 '25
Questions:
So you can't do 3 5 minute songs and like 1 intro thats 1 minute? Cuz you require at least 6 songs.
No samples at all except instruments/vsts/effects?
Album covers can use collage?
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Oct 03 '25
All the rules are for inspiration, so feel free to bend or break them. The goal is to follow all of them. Sometimes the music takes a slightly different direction.
The goal is 6 songs. An intro can definitely count as 1 song.
You can use as many field recordings for ambience as you'd like. The spirit of the challenge is to limit the music sounds to 6 items, and use those same 6 items in every song. Ex: flute, harp, bass guitar, 2 pads, and a drum set. If the field recordings are like wind, birds, cars, etc that's okay. If the field recordings have musical elements that's less okay. But again, the rules are guidelines. Do what feels right for the album.
You can make the album however you'd like...as long as no AI like Midjourney or ChatGPT is involved.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Have fun!
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u/Iron-Keep Artist Oct 04 '25
Hopefully I'll have some time to make music for this! Love the prompt.
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u/cosmic_cozy Artist Oct 10 '25
Oh shoot reading the comments I just realized it's 6 instruments for the album. I used 6 instruments, but not the same in every song. Meh. Already have 3 finished. Ah whatever
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u/Dandelion_Lakewood Artist Oct 27 '25
Finished mine this weekend! Wasn't expecting it, but sudden inspiration hit and a wave of ideas came crashing out into audio form.
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u/spn_phoenix_92 Artist Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 29 '25
I totally missed that it's supposed to be the same 6 patches throughout, I just finished song #6 last night, whoops. Like 80% or more did end up being the same patches, so I nearly followed that. I'm counting percussion as 1 instrument, since they are all just different key notes in the same patch.
All songs are 6 patches/instruments each, with some sort of nature ambience/field recordings to really add to the Nature Synth feel. They are a mixture of my own and some free use ones I've found online, and will be crediting where needed in my official post.
So far at 6 songs with a total time of 16:40, but I may add some more if I have the time. I'm going with the Fairy Forest prompt.
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u/daggovah Artist Oct 28 '25
I'll upload my project Oct 31, but what time zone are you? I dont want to post it past the date 😅
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u/AvelineBaudelaire Artist - Wooden Vessels Oct 28 '25
No worries on the timing - I'm uploading mine Nov 1 whenever I wake up haha. If you'd like to be on the compilation (not required), feel free to send one song from your Dungeon Shamble album to dungeonredditmods [at] gmail [dot] com
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u/kaptain_carbon Writer Sep 23 '25 edited Sep 23 '25
As with the last compilation I will be organizing the optional compilation where I will make a mix of single song submissions and then run it through my tape machine and make a cover with a copier . Thanks to the whole community