Ye Olde Blah

My only contribution to Shining Online of any quality was in producing the music, and I was very pleased to hear the good feedback it got from players. Well, having upgraded my soundcard about six months ago I finally got around to recording some proper versions recently, and here are some short samples of the now (very nearly) finished tunes.

The first tune you should all know pretty well, the second one most of you will know and the third one is brand new. Let me know what you think to the arrangements, quality of the sound and music in general.

Vagabond (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Sample%20vagabond.mp3)

Shrine (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Sample%20shrine.mp3)

Bassoons (temporary title) (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Sample%20bassoons.mp3)

Any comments at all are welcome!

Oh I just love hearing Vagabond and Shrine.  Awesome work.

Bassoons, now that sounds very promising, but is there a sense of space to the rest of the music?  It seems lacking that, but perhaps the continuation of the music makes the flow seem more natural?

Either way, the more you produce, the happier I'll be ;)

Great stuff!

Thanks for the feedback, both of you.

I think I may have panned the instruments in bassoons that I didn't in the other two, I'll check later. There's some reverb on the shrine tune but I probably need to remix it a little. I'd be happy to send the full tunes over MSN next time you're on if you want a full listen.

wow mate :O

That's a great sound, all of them. Everything is so full and rich with insturnments than as before :)

cheers! great work

Yes, very good indeed!

Thank you for your kind words, everyone.

Today I've been working on the score for a film by one of Hannah's Uni colleagues. He wanted something Max Payne-y, and this is the best I've come up with so far. There's a nice bit almost one minute in.

Tanner's theme (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Tanner.mp3)

I haven't played it for the guy who wanted it done as I wanted some more general feedback first. I've tried to keep it sparse as that's how the Max Payne theme starts out, but any other feedback - quality of the instruments etc. - is welcome.

It'll probably sneak into SOnline at some point too, hence its inclusion here.

Elvenfyre is exhausted

someone better fricken have the 120 gold to bring me back!

I nearly died, it's so beautiful.  Seriously you have outdone yourself.  Very, very good piece of music imho.

My dreams were inturrupted by the grip of the cold hand of conscienceness. The sun beggining its march over the horizon projected images of a firey oncoming. It was though all the daemons of hell were coming and i was their main course.

As the day dragged on i could only find solace in the horribly glorious work of law enforcement. Just as great carpenters construct their futures with hammer and nail, my destiny is shaped and forged through bullets and fire. Each shell casing sending its gentle song throughout the room as i had walked the very halls of valhala, dispensing justice to those with too weak a reserve to tread a decent life in this hellhole...

Haha sorry, max was always a bit cryptically poetic :) nice music mate, very dark and insightful. Absolutely max-pane-like :) Good show!

Thanks again for the feedback and kind words, you two. I have a few more tunes in a similar ilk in the pipeline, and hopefully I'll play them for the "client" soon and let you know if he likes them or not. Hope he does.

More tunes coming soon!

** have been listening to the 1 min 53 of Tanner's theme on repeat for a couple hours now.  

Just letting you know, it might actually kill me yet.

;)

Thanks, Elv. I've just finished uploading another track in the same style that's not-yet finished, but is more uptempo and hopefully keeping the same theme. I think it might work as a chase theme, or one with some excitement - hence the pizzicato rhythm and bassy trombone - but I'm not sure.

I've tried to inject a little hope and beauty into what could otherwise be quite a dark and depressing soundtrack. I don't know if it's too melodic and beautiful (sounds stupid, I know), but I guess we'll find out tomorrow when the guy comes around.

Another Tanner tune. (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Tanner3.mp3)

And as another special treat, a track I'm putting together for Phil's game.

Jumpy World. (http://www.prosody.co.uk/Bitty.mp3)

Enjoy all!

At least Richard Jacques likes the sound of it! :D

Great, your music is exactly what I'm looking for.  :D

My question is: are you interested in composing for my game DARK RESURRECTION ?

If you want financial compensation, then that's no problem at all. :)

"Should you accept this mission" ( ;) ) then PM me and we can talk some more , yes ?

Cheers   

Those are great tracks! I like Shrine and Tanner's theme a lot.

A new soundcard is a great investment. I invested in a second hand M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 last year for doing music production. It's a high fidelity audio-dedicated soundcard that's really great. Can't use it to play doom tho. You can, but u dun get all the multimedia perks.

In tanner's theme, the flute seems to be a tad soft, being overshadowed by the piano arps. It could be just my soundsystem tho.

Great to see u're still doing music. I'll stop by prosody later :D

Great minds think alike, L@zy - that's the soundcard I bought :D It's a cracker, I'm very fond of it although I did object at first at having to buy converters from 3.5mm to RCA. Still, I think I'm over that now.

I haven't written much recently apart from a snippet of a song under my Prosody name, which sounds quite nice without going anywhere. There's also a nice piano lullaby that meanders towards the middle which I have to sort out. Hopefully I'll be able to post about this wonderful 80-piece orchestral track I'm starting soon :)

HAH! I can't believe we have the same soundcard! Yeah the RCA jacks kinda freaked me out at first cuz i got the soundcard second hand at S$70 last year october which is abt US$35 i think. The RCA outputs are mainly for Mixers and preamps i think. I use RCA converters now tho.

80-piece orchestral track!? That sounds sweet! Can't wait to hear it man! Your PC doesn't lag with tt many instruments going on?

Shrine - It has a lost feeling to it. I get the idea you are aiming for sorrow as a theme, or at least some longing quality. For the most part, its there, but that major chord near the beginning at about 5-8 seemed very out of place. Keep it minor, and roll with it, you had it working so well for you the rest of the piece.

Vegabond - Another piece with great potential. I would look into some small percussion that are as simple as some soft Djimbe behind it or a woodblock with some shakers or maracas. Something to keep the waltz-like feeling going since it could be hard to hear the downbeats of the tune that would normally bring someone into the feel.

Tanner's Theme - Get that solo audible better. Everything else fits so nicely I would smite you for not getting that hidden melody out in the open. ^^ Perhaps moving to a different instrument would be better. It sounds like the harmonia track but I cant really tell. Stick a solo line on solo horn, violin, english horn, flute, or trumpet (I recommend English Horn, French Horn, or Flute).

Another Tanner's Theme - I would take out the piano and put in the violas, cellos, and bass in that way it runs linear to the pizzicato strings you have in the beginning. Then keep that idea rolling and play around with it some more, maybe add a solo instrument to linger on top to better define your melody and the tune. ^^

Jumpy World - Better developmental styles and the theme properly presents itself. I guess, in my own opinion, I would really not make everything so short and staccato with a long lead on top. But that is just me. ^^

Many thanks for the in-depth advice, Maestro. I haven't touched those tracks in a while - which I guess means my skills haven't improved, sadly - but I do appreciate your composer's ear and the time you took to listen and give feedback.

I know technically my compositions are always extremely simple, usually revolving around four to eight chords (if I'm feeling wild!), and the same could be said for my orchestrations. My problem is I always have a very rigid view of the melody and find it hard to progress beyond my initial idea of the tune. I'm quite good at improvisation but my composition lets me down usually, I'd say.

I also hate doing drums, as you can tell! There's a revised "Jumpy World" that uses bongos in my feeble attempt to match the "black bottoms" of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?", although I can understand why that wouldn't work as it's a most unlikely accompaniment to a video game song!

Thanks again for the advice - I have a few days off, so if I can I'll try to improve some of my tracks, or do something even better!

The more you work on it the better you will get. There are lots of ways to learn how to orchestrate and implement instruments better to your works.

I would recommend some texts you could read as well as, per say, take a community college course in beginning percussion and do a community college percussion ensemble for at least 5 months. That will, hands down, give you all the experience you need, help you develop a better foundation for your rhythmic skills and your ability to write for percussion. In all honesty, I was a woodwind pedagogist and performer for the most part, so that was always easy to write for. But I went the same route I refer you to do and now it is just part of habit. ^^

Anyway, your getting there one step at a time and practice makes perfect. For every piece I write there are at least 6 versions before it that I butchered in order to make a version I am finally happy with.