Post Your Music

Thank you, Ms Littlefish! I didn't expect a rundown of all the songs I posted; it is certainly appreciated! :) I really liked your composition, "When You Fell In The Fishing Hole", particularly when the soft harp beautifully appears at 0:44 and 2:20. Reminds me a little of Zelda and FFXIV:ARR.

Thank you very much for the welcome!

Aww, I always have the time to listen to music! Thank you for listening to mine. It's greatly appreciated. ^_^

Alright, this one is nothing too special (or long). But most games have them right? The little jingle that plays when you find a special item or even hear a juicy piece of info or stumble upon a secret? Yeah, that one! https://soundcloud.com/maireadgamemusic/sound-effects-an-interesting

Good stuff Neifion. Also be sure to make yourself at home in the other forums too! ^_^

I like it! It had the right mix of Zelda-style whimsy, mystery, and that definite sense of excitement you get when you find the hidden treasure! :)

Thank you! I definitely plan to; I'm very interested in game design, though I'm just a humble composer! :D Looking forward to learning more about the craft!

I just started listening to your stuff, and I really like Blind Ambition! (I'm not very far down the list yet) I love it when guitars make surprise appearances in video game music. :)

Thanks for listening, Stan! Yeah, that guitar is a bit of a guilty pleasure now. It'll definitely be making future appearances! XD

I was thinking of starting to post here but I can't post most of my stuff up because of nda (non-disclosure agreement) related reasons.

That being said, I would like to help out with feedback and stuff so if anyone wants feedback let me know!

Just make sure it's no more than 2 tracks at once :)

I made a new thing: https://soundcloud.com/satellitereboot/homework-01

My music teacher was helping me transcribe the epic Talon music from Final Fantasy Legend III, and for homework she told me to reverse engineer it to figure why it worked, and to use those ideas in something of my own.

It also has the dubious honor of being the first thing composed on my tablet, so yay for that.

I have something sort of fun. The weekly art challenge is to put a character of yours in modern clothing. So, I took one of my orchestral themes and made it into a dance tune. I'm using features and mixing I've never used but so far the progress is really coming along. 

https://soundcloud.com/maireadgamemusic/pop-version-edge-of-a-cliff

@StanManX -

So I had a listen to your track and the original track it's based on.  You've done a pretty good job for the most part matching the key, tempo, rhythm and feel of the original.

It was a very good idea for your teacher to give you that as homework.  You can learn a lot by taking apart a track and trying to make something new, so long as you keep your new track as fresh sounding as possible anyway.

You've used a good amount of variation in terms of notes for the most part but I feel like you could do a bit more with the rhythm of the lead melody, specifically with the note durations.  Sometimes you could use two notes where you have one, one where you have 4, or perhaps triplets.  Just the occasional flair that changes things up a bit :)

Good stuff overall and I'd love to hear it 8-bitified!

@Ms Littlefish -

Listened to the orchestral version and the new pop version, it's so strange hearing them one after another.  They're very similar yet so very different!

My main complaint though, is the fuzzy instrument you have playing (I think it's panned to the left?) during the louder sections.  It's quite obstructive and I'd suggest changing the synth/instrument that you use for it to something a bit cleaner sounding but possibly still with a bit of fuzz if possible.  I really like the fun atmosphere it has to it though and your use of variation throughout is great.  I quite enjoyed it :)

Thanks for the feedback. I'm on the exact same page with that part in the left ear. I'll try a few more patches on it. I like the aggressiveness of that bass but it wasn't till I went to mix it that it went all super saiyan. Edit: I'm having trouble finding a bass preset I like more so for now I've just opted for taking the bass level down in the mix. It's a little less abrasive now.

@ StarManX I love the melody in this. But I agree. I think we could work on adding some variation in this. Mix it up a bit. But the basics are good!

Hi it's me again. 
I would like to know what you think about these : 

https://soundcloud.com/galiyuka/city-of-flowers-and-dirt

https://soundcloud.com/galiyuka/brainwashing-relaxation

https://soundcloud.com/galiyuka/retro-bars-ragtime

https://soundcloud.com/galiyuka/boss-theme2
 

These are all soundtracks for my upcoming game. 

Cool, hopefully you'll find something that will make a decent substitute sound soon enough :)

Hi man!  Next time could you just post 2 tracks or just 1?  It makes it easier for us feedbackers.  I'll let you off this time but I probably won't next time  :thumbsup-left:   :thumbsup-right:

City of Flowers and Dirt -

This is a very interesting sounding track, what scale is that you're using?  It sounds very exotic and mystical.  My main problems aren't with the composition but with the sound of your instruments, mainly the wind instruments/flutes etc.  They sound slightly piercing so if you could either find a slightly softer instrument or eq the harsh piercing sound out of it that would be great.  My other suggestion would be to make the refrain at 1.06 (roughly) have a little bit more going on in it.  You could have an instrument play a light arpeggio part, have very subtle rising chord string/pad or perhaps some light percussion of a different style than we've already seen.

Brainwashing Relaxation - 

The introductory organ chord part seems a little out of place, I'd suggest either removing it or completely changing it.  I actually thought Kefka was going to appear but then he didn't :(  This is a pretty chilled guitar solo piece hehe, I'm a bit stuck on ideas for this one as the only places I could see it used in a game would be in some kind of pub or bustling city area, maybe even a character or cutscene theme.  When the guitar cuts out around 1.02 I feel like it should fade out a bit more, feels a little jarring as it is just suddenly having it cut out.  Speaking of jarring I'm sorry but I can't stand those staccato chords at the end, but it's up to you whether you change them or not as I get why they're there.  If you were to change them though, just make them a little bit less dissonant and sharp as I feel they go just a little too far.

Retro Bar's Ragtime -

I really like this one and it's much better than any ragtime tracks I've done before, no suggestions at all for this one, it's pretty much perfect.

Boss Theme 2

Well I've definitely already heard this one before!  I loved it for the most part then and still do now.  Only thing I'd suggest is that when it gets into that thrash metal part at 0.57 that it does a slightly different melody the 2nd time it repeats at 1.07, possibly some more modulation would do the trick.

I really like the change at 1.37 and those ride cymbals are really appreciated haha.  Next section is as trippy as ever but the part where it transitions back into the thrash riff at is far too sudden, I'd recommend adding a few bars and adding a proper transition effect of some kind here.  I really like this track.

I'm going to be going on holiday tomorrow (the 11th) for a week so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to give feedback while I'm there as I'm not sure if the place has internet or if I'll have decent enough headphones/speakers to do everyone's compositions justice.

- I really like the motif in City of Flowers and Dirt. The flute soundfont doesn't bother me so much but the pizzacato strings throughout get a bit muddy (in my ears). The part at 1:12 took me by surprise. It was a little sudden. Maybe keep some rhythm element in there, or bring in the rhythm section sooner. As stands it sounded like a different piece started! I do like this piece a lot though.

- I like the organ in brainwashing relaxing actually. I like songs with a "weird" factor and if I remember correctly you're our Earthbound inspired guy. So, I totally get you on those chords at the end. :)

- It's ragtime. Therefore, win. I know it's probably played on a ragtime piano but my only complain is that it sounds like it's being played through a wet blanket. I'd try to make a tad more front and center but all the other elements are great.

- I LOVE the rhythms in your Boss Theme. It visits so many genres. I hear some swing and some metal. Really interesting and creative piece. Great percussion.

@Scythuz : Oh wow thanks for such feedback! 

Actually regarding song 2 the organ intro is simply because you enter a church that is in fact some kind of scientology parody (hence the song's name). That's why it sounds out of place, it's full intentional on this one :) .

I'll see about the rest then, thanks very much! 

@Ms Littlefish : Yes, I'm the Earthbound inspired guy :D . 

Regarding the ragtime part I tried to make it sound totally "old" but maybe has it been an epic fail lol. And thanks so much for listening and liking these works :) .

*back on the "drawing" board*

@Lars Ulrika & Ms Littlefish - About the ragtime thing?  Personally I think having it sound like it's being played through an old record player or something adds to the effect.  Depends on what you're going for though really.

Could be my hearing loss. My right ear hisses and whines a lot. It sounds a lot better to me when I unplug my headphones.

That's what I wanted, making it sound like played in an old record player :) . No fail then ahaha 

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely don't consider it "finished". I had plans for a third instrument to add more rhythmic flair, but I think I'll play with what's there first. My favorite part of the FFL3 piece is the thing in the middle that's just going nuts and adding all kinds of energy that you can feel even if you don't really notice the instrument.

I'm terrible at working solely with 8bit instruments, so I will most likely cheat a bit and have one old-school sounding synth and a bitcrushed square wave or something. :)

I don't know if either of you have ever attempted to work with FL Studio Mobile, but I found out real quick that it's a pain in the ass for anything longer than one or two measures (which is a bummer, because I love the desktop FL Studio). It's like:

1. Tap the "draw" button. A note appears.

2. Tap the "change duration" button.

3. Tap the type of note you want; if it needs a dot after it, click the dot. Don't forget the "quantize" button!

4. Drag the note to where it's supposed to go. Just kidding! Drag it a half-step too high, swear, drag it a half-step too low, deep breath, drag it way low in the hope that a big motion will make it land where you want it when you swing it back high.

5. Tap "draw" to commit the note. The note indicator thingie stays exactly where it is, so don't click "draw" multiple times hoping for some visual or auditory confirmation that it was drawn.

6. Repeat 2-5 until finished/frustrated.

7. Tap the "done" button.

I've loved it for jotting down small ideas, but it was brutal as an actual workstation -- though admittedly I haven't tried using the touch keyboard since I acquired the Android version (my 3rd gen iPod couldn't handle it so it didn't even occur to me to try). I'm going to try out Caustic for "Homework 2". I noticed a lot of people who like desktop FL Studio seemed to like it better than FL Mobile, so I'm optimistic.

Actually, it occurs to me that I'm surrounded by musicians -- do any of you have Android app recommendations for making music?

Gah, trying to keep up! XD

@Ms. Littlefish re Edge of a Cliff remix:
Love the energy in this, particularly, nice work on the percussion. Also like how it ebs between the softer bits and then the drums bring it into overdrive. The bass synth still seems a bit too intrusive; do you have compression on it?

@Lars re Retro Bars Ragtime:
Nice! Definitely could see it accompanying one of those old silent films. XD

@StanManX re Talon:
I think you've got enough solid feedback to work on regarding rhythmic dynamics, and I think the addition of a synth as you mentioned would do nicely!

I've got something new as well! It's a short loop that Engr. Adiktuzmiko recently commissioned for the forest theme of his upcoming RPG:

https://soundcloud.com/kekopro/the-forgotten-weir

I'd love to hear what you guys think!