Even More Music

[sondex]

Yep, I did it again! Here's my latest songs. I have to say that of all of my songs, "A Chiseled Heart is the best! You MUST listen to it! Please! Tell me what you think. I was hesitant to release it, but I just had to. If you use it you MUST give credit! I mean, it took me HOURS to do these! Give a bro some slack...WHEW!

A Chiseled Heart http://www.sendspace.com/file/mluutm -My greatest composition.

A Tropical Sensation http://www.sendspace.com/file/inc1ru -A crack at a tropical theme.

Dun1 http://www.sendspace.com/file/ru588e -My first try at dungeon music.

Chinese Ice (Extended version) http://www.sendspace.com/file/q4yez9 -Quite the name, huh? It's not all that, really.

Turn and Face http://www.sendspace.com/file/tcyne6 -UGH! This may be the worst of the bunch... Maybe I'll improve it...someday...

Please tell me if you are gonna use any of them and PM me a link to your project. I would like to see how and where you use my songs!

Link to Chinese Ice has been fixed. Thank you for notifying me.
-Sondex

 

[tai]

check your link for Chinese Ice. Will post crit shortly.

 

[sondex]

Link has been fixed. Can't wait for your critique!

 

[tai]

I'm writing these as I'm listening to them. I'm listening to these with the SGM soundfont via TiMidity.

A Chiseled Heart
I like the use of both basses to enhance the rhythm. I've never liked synth choir, the only good choir oohs and aahs I've heard are from pro $$$ soundfonts. Bar 25 was really weird, hitting all those notes that aren't in key and haven't been used previously. I think it would sound just fine if you took it from 23. The main melody does have a very 'Theme' feel to it, and it sounds like it would be good accompaniment for a cut scene. The Fantasia voice sounds great with this soundfont too. I really like it when another line is added when songs repeat, but i think that's just a personal preference. The drum line needs work, the B-B-S-B- repeating over and over doesn't do the neat melody any justice.

A Tropical Sensation
Nice, I can just imagine the Jamaican-accented vocalist singing over this track. Its quite short so it would get annoying if repeated over and over, but I think it would be good for a light-hearted beach or resort-like theme. As a main piece I don't see anything wrong with it other than the fact the genre doesn't really fit in with the typical medieval, fantasy or mecha-military genres of RPGs.

Chinese Ice
I think you're hitting too many notes off the pentatonic and losing the oriental feel of the song. If you do want to keep the oriental feel take a look at off-scale notes, and maybe change the voice to a traditional asian percussion-string. I think for this to be used in a game it'll need to have more parts added, right now its just a solo instrument. The 16-th note part is sounding a little funky too, I think because the notes are getting cut off really fast. Try with the off-8th notes on a seperate channel to smooth out the sound if you keep this voice.

Dun1
I can tell you really like the Fantasia voice. It suits this peice well but I wouldn't compose every single song with it. Again, this is a short peice, it might be annoying if it were used in a very large dungeon. It has a very 'holy' feel to it, I can't really imagine too many monsters in this cave, instead, it seems like it would be the kind of dungeon were some important crystal or tablet or some other Key Item is hidden away and is a huge part of the history of the game.

Turn and Face
This piece is blending very nicely with the voices you chose. Clever use of the high piano notes as a percussion-like sound. I how busy this piece sounds in comparison to how simple it really is. Think this would sound really good if you reinforced the chords more, especially bars 12-13 and 16-17. Definitely my favorite of the pack.

I hope these critiques help you as much as I enjoyed listening to your pieces. Post here or PM me if you want me to take a listen at other pieces or modified versions of these.

 

[sondex]

Hmmm...I sort of understand what you mean with ACH, but I have no clue as to what you are referencing to with the bars 25 and 23. The drum line can easily be fixed. I'm glad you like the melody!

ATS was just something random, though I am still planning on using it in Forae. I see what you mean by the annoying shortness of the song.

Actually, I did not mean for CI to have much of an oriental feel. However, you critique has inspired me to listen to music from the oriental region. Who knows, I might make a new song based on them! Also, your right about the game thing...I was planning on making it with sound effects of wind but it still would be 'empty', wouldn't it?

Thank you for your compliment with Dun1. Your logic does not seem fallible in the slightest.

For T&F, I'm shocked you liked that one. It sounds very bad to me! But you seem to know than me in this area. After all, I'm still just a newbie, a person who hums tunes and then creates songs based on them!

That being the case could you ever so kindly explain the terminology you used such as bars. I think that the chords you are referring to are the guitar portion of T&F, correct?

Thank you so much for your response. I will improve based on your critiques and hopefully learn more about creating music properly. I will see if I can do some of the songs over.

 

[tai]

I'm not sure how Guitar Pro handles bars, but a bar is simply a small subdivision of a score. You composed these in 4-4, meaning four quarter notes to a bar or otherwise four beats to a bar. My MIDI player conveniently tells me what bar and beat it is on and it's a more accurate reference than min:sec. If you're still unsure about these concepts just do a web search, images can explain this 1000 times better than words.

For ATS, you have a 10-bar bridge (something that joins the main melodies together) from bars 16 - 25. 16-19 and 20-23 are more or less the same, but something really weird happens in 25. I think it would sound more natural if you just removed bars 24 and 25 altogether.

in the bars i mentioned in T&F you're doing a very nice transition. the piano and organ are playing the same notes (octave difference); it would sound nice if you could add in the notes between. I think I'll play with this song myself a little bit. :D

For T&F, I'm shocked you liked that one. It sounds very bad to me! But you seem to know than me in this area. After all, I'm still just a newbie, a person who hums tunes and then creates songs based on them!

If you have good musical sense (which you seem to have) this is a pretty foolproof method of composing songs, regardless of how much theory you know. I would compose by humming too, I just forget what I hum after i hum it >_<. must get recording device.

 

[sondex]

Lol! Yeah I forget too! Thanks for explaining the bars to me. I'm still using Midi maker primarily, but  it shows the bars. Maybe I'll do some over.