Post Your Music

er~ Something I've been working on recently. This is just a short demo of the track's music box version XD




Oh, I just listened to my old stuffs. Here's one of them. I'd made this since I started learning to make music. Nothing but random chords & random notes XD

The first one is very good. The second, oof! >.< Those chords are loud, and, apologies, they sound completely off-key. But, since it was one of your old pieces, it was probably better than my first pieces. XD

This just seems really random with very little structure or cohesion. I'm not sure what to recommend outside of learning a bit of music theory and some part writing theory.




I dig this a lot! My only criticisms involve the mixing and the fact that the intro is a big too long. In regards to the mixing, the bass instrument gets really loud as the filter gets removed. I'd recommend either automating the volume or adding a compressor or limiter to prevent this. 




As much as I liked the composition of "Fes", I think your mixing needs work. It's like all of your instruments are competing for attention with their volume instead of sitting comfortably next to one another working in harmony. For each section, it would be good to use volume to emphasize the instruments that you want to draw the listener's attention to and push the other instruments a bit to the background so that they can still be heard, but aren't fighting with the other instruments.


I also think the chord progression of Launch could use a bit more fine-tuning. The voice leading isn't there, so they feel like random chord choices for the most part.




 "Unholy Waltz" is okay. Nothing that really grabs my attention. "I know nothing" is... xD. "You've definitely improved" is all I can say!

Something I made for no reason.

Here's a little field theme I made while I've been gone that I thought I'd share:

@chungsie for battle of towers, the song doesn't seem to have a clear melody; there is some strange panning going on with the guitar (or harp is it?) in the right. 


@Tirian I like where you going with this: I hear some 80's retro, and a kind of David Wisesque style during the peak parts of the composition. There's no problem for the beginning to establish the musical setting, but perhaps you could add in more ambiance or create a stronger crescendo.The drums seem to have the right amount of punch to it, they sound good overall. Be careful not to have the oscillating synth to be too loud when the filtered is removed; it's bordering the clipping point.


@Hibarist Launch is not bad and has potential, though I'm unsure what it is attempting to become. In video game brand jargon, it's unsure whether it wants to have the solace of kingdom hearts, the melancholy of final fantasy, or the feeling of a temporal uncertainty in Chrono Trigger (and there's a tinge of the world map music of Chrono Trigger in there with those violins). Unless the ambiguity of mood is intentional, there doesn't seem to be a coherent mood, but I believe a track can have all three, if not more, of those moods together. I suggest parsing those moods, to allow various musical sections to flow together. From what it sounds like overall, it contains a compilation of varied musical themes but without a strong sense of direction.    


Fes has a sweet taste to it! I agree with Tirian: the piano does sound very midi but that's not a huge problem to fix. The piano, however, may need to blend better with the overall orchestra that emerges later on.


 @callmedan The musical box of unholy waltz seems fine; "I know nothing" trends on some atonality but has some purpose to it (which isn't easy to pull off). Or in other words, it has something pretty similar going on themes from Lisa: the Painful (if you know what that game is). From a stylistic standpoint, I'm not entirely opposed to it, but it also seems that more can be done with the composition altogether.


 Hey @Wonderfull Darkness, song sounds very random but I suspect its the brainchild of boredom and randomness on a very rainy day.


@Kaptain J the piece is pretty good, with some nice touches here and there. The instruments all sound very distant from each other. The horns sound fairly artificial (but that's okay). Perhaps you could use the horns to play the harmony in order to support the lead oboe(?). So far, the horns are playing an octave lower from the melody, which isn't doing too much to the piece. The ukulele, tambourine, and harp mix sounds very nice though. And the introduction of the flute seems good too. 

  In any case, I'm looking for some feedback about the music in this soundtrack, to discern whether I have grasped an overall feel of music making. I'm aware that some pieces need better mixing, but a comment about ways to improve the various mixes is also welcomed.

Thanks a lot for the criticism!


My turn:




I like the melody of Unholy Waltz, though the "click" is too loud compared to the notes, so I don't know if you can tone it down individually or through EQ, but it would sound better.
 




I don't know how I could give criticism here, the only thing that separates this from atonal music is the presence of rythm/tempo. Other than that there is no clear melody or tone, and your song loops four times without any variation or new instruments.
I would suggest starting with more simple melodies, even ones that already exist, and build upon that, add variations and instruments until it sounds like a different song. This is a good way to understand what makes a song good.
 




The song sounds very dry, but as a whole the melody and arrangement is very good!
 




Your mixing/mastering sounds like you pushed the gain to 200% and put a brick-wall limiter.
Another thing that bothered me a bit was the sample quality, but that's forgivable.
What I do for my mixes is that I mix my song so my final mix hits -6dB at most, then apply a multiband compressor to the master chain. I then raise the gain of each band (listening to them individually) until it's as loud as possible without having any distortion. With all the bands combined it should sound clearer, but still as loud.
Other than that it sounds great, you nailed the melodies and everything :)


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So for Christmas I got two sample libraries: Tina Guo's Legato Cello by CineSamples and Mercury Elements: Boys Choir by SoundIron.


I made a very quick song with both of them to see what it's about, so I haven't mixed it properly.


Here it is, and Merry Christmas to everyone! :D




(Pro Tip: pull up a picture of Dalaran while listening for maximum effect :p )

@Tirian Thanks for the pointers! Those were really well needed. I'll be sure to make those changes;


Ahh Tina Guo's cello: if only you could have Tina herself play the cello for you! A nice showcase of both samples that sound wonderful

@Jescmo I really enjoyed listening to your compositions. They all sound lovely and feel like they're all a part of the same game. I especially liked the jazz shop track! I wish I could offer something more substantial critique-wise, but I'm a beginner.


Here's what I have so far for my game, everybody. I compose here and there when I have an idea, some time, and the desire. I recently got Xpand 2 as it was on sale for a $1 last week, so most songs have improved instrumentation to them.


https://philstortzum.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-legends-of-adrigal

This is the music I just finished making a game for!. It took me forever to make this but I know you will like this a lot!!!! Enjoy!!!

Lately Ive been working on a small LP consisting of Drone, Ambient Rock, and other genres I think sound cool I guess




Heres one of the track I made for it, only one Im gonna upload for now

@Hibarist I really like those two pieces of yours but as Tirian said, your piano sounds too midi for me. If you could find some better quality samples, it would improve your pieces a lot.


@yopeople I guess you have a classical background no ? Because those pieces sound very classical to me. Personnaly, I find them too 'same-y' and I think they could use more work. Try adding some instruments or vary the tempo a litte bit more often to make things more interesting and surprising.


@Phil32 Across the plains is not bad at all but it sometimes sounds a little bit random. We lose sense of the melody and I tend to disconnect because of that.


Be careful and be cautious is better in this regard but the guitar sample (is that a guitar?) is playing with my nerves. As with a lot of people here, having better samples would improve your music tenfold.


@.Gage I really like the beginning and how you establish a great ambiance. At I am not so sure about the vocal part though. At first it blends in a weird way with the other sounds. More of a mixing problem maybe ? I think I would like it more without the vocals but it's nice too hear something different and more cinematic.


Good job overall !


@Jescmo Denebola is really nice. I like the vibe and the bubbly piano. The mixing could use some work but it did put a smile on my face.


Musica has a nice atmosphere. Sounds very anime-like. Love it. As you said, the mixing needs some polishing. Try some highpass eq on all your instruments and compress them too but not too much.


@Tirian Choir and cello demo sounds lovely. If you could expand on it and make it a full mastered song, I would be a happy man ! ;)


I love projet 8 demo too. It has a great retro vibe and it made me think about the movie Drive which is not bad at al, if you ask me.


By the way, I finished a remix of one of my song using a lot of those EastWest samples from the Composer's Cloud. I know you wanted to hear about those so here they are. The beginning section uses a lot of Ghostwriter and then the orchestra later uses those Hollywood libraries. Tell me what you think about it. I need to work on them more but as of now, I think they sound nice.

@Tianlong Yeah I do. It's probably because this is very midi and it sounds on tempo too much. But i've been meaning to explore various rhythm patterns in my work.


Thanks for the tips!

@Tianlong Thank you for the insightful feedback! I have more confirmation now on what I need to resolve

I just finished the "loopable" version of my track Fairy Forest (I've already posted it here). I think it's much worse than the full version :(

@callmedan : WOW, I liked it, it's very sweet and dolce. My favorite part is after 1:12.


Here it my last song created for my book's history

Welcome, my new track of wonders!

To be honest I think both versions are really good! The first one had a percussion and guitar part, but the second one works just as well for a more "peaceful" environement. I'd use both of them in a game, just in different situations (for example the second one for when the player is walking around and the first for a fight in the forest).




So.


Judging by the picture I imagine this is a song that plays when the player dies (or the situation is dire). So you made your song very dissonant.


But it doesn't really work; here's why:


Using dissonance is complicated, you don't just throw notes around to make it sound horrible. Dissonance works best for creating tension, but that (often) implies some kind of release. There can be a majority of dissonance to create more tension than release, but if there's only dissonant chords without structure, it doesn't work in my opinion.


Hope this helps (and that I didn't sound too harsh) ^_^


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Here's something I've been working on myself, I'm not too happy with the second part and don't know how to make it better / continue the song




(please excuse me for that horrifying picture)

@Kvothe @Tirian Thank you for your kind words! :D


I really like the song but the high notes from 2:15 . They're too high to me :p


That cover tho XD Er~ I agree with you, I expected something different in the second part. Btw, what libraries or VSTs did you use ?

Albion One by Spitfire Audio for ensemble stuff;
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/albion-one/

Tina Guo Acoustic Cello Legato by Cinesamples for the solo cello;
https://cinesamples.com/product/tina-guo-acoustic-cello-legato

Mercury Elements by Soundiron for the boys choir;
https://soundiron.com/products/mercury-elements-player-edition

The Giant by Native Instruments for the piano.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/the-giant/