My original orchestral music samples - free! 27 total (added 7 more!)

[zephstudio]

Hi everyone, I've been composing music for a while now, and through trying to develop a presence in the gaming industry I've created a number of samples in the last 2 years to show my work.  Fortunately I've been able to get involved in a few game projects and I'm stoked to be doing well, however, I now have some samples on my site that I have no problems with people using in their games, as usual with appropriate music credits to: "Zephstudio.com".  A lot of these are older and I've improved a lot, which is partly why I don't care about people using them freely.

That out of the way, these samples were designed for various projects that either fell to pieces, or never got going to begin with.  They're all mp3s, and most of them DO NOT loop (a few aren't even finished), but they're usually over 2 minutes so that's typically okay in an RPG game when things get interrupted.  Use them if you want to.  But seriously, credit me, or better yet, give the URL to my site, or something nice. 

Here they are!

1. Scrapyard.  This song was originally intended to be used in an MMO that's still in development, but that one was taking far too long to progress, so I abandoned it.
The song is intended to be somewhat creepy music for in a scrap/junkyard, with lots of metallic sounds.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... .mp3 

2. March of the Tainted.  This song was for the same game as above.  Meant to be a march for a creepy, dark race of people.  Heavy on the horns.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... dmarch.mp3

3. Everything Has a Cost.  I don't recall what I made this for.  A fast-paced song with lots of violins. Don't know how else to describe it.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... ascost.mp3

4. Battle Music  Only 1:20 long, and wasn't intended to loop but yet it sort of does. 
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... usic-2.mp3

5. Battle Music 2 Also short, kinda cool though.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... usic-4.mp3

6. Battle Music 3 Not as fast-paced perhaps as the others, but longer and not quite as tiring on the ears.  In fact, I replaced my battle music in World of Warcraft with this, it suited it well.
Fades out at the end, not looping.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-2007/pvpcombat.mp3

7. The Emperor Very proud of this song despite it being a really old one of mine when I was first starting.  It was supposed to be the theme for one of the factions in a game I was working on.  March-like qualities, brings to mind images of an evil or struggling people.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-2007/emporer.mp3

8. Jungle First try with ethnic instruments, attempted to make jungle music.  Would probably be really good for any jungle or temple-type maps.  Used this in the Wetlands in WoW.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... ntslow.mp3

9. Eastern Mountains More ethnic sounds, trying to make music for a mountainous 'far-east' region.  Worked well!
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... ntains.mp3

10. Desert Trek Music for when venturing through a desert.  I used to have flutes but took them out because my flute samples suck.  However, still sounds like a desert with the tom drums and the horns, using typical 'arabic' chords.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... esert2.mp3

11. A Cold Death (ambience!) Not much music in this one, it's mostly just creepy sounds and would be great for a really dark cave or ghostly area.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... ddeath.mp3

12. In an Age of Nobility A 'royal' song, consisting of a few strings, with lots of horns, trombones and trumpets.
http://zephstudio.com/music/samples-200 ... bility.mp3

13. Within the Walls of Induril A fairly long and cinematic song.  Not necessarily something to use in-game, but perhaps for a little cutscene.
http://zephstudio.com/music/wallsample.mp3

13. Castle Courtyard FIRST song I ever made when I got my good sample program.  And somehow, it has remained one of my favorites. 
http://zephstudio.com/music/courtyardsample.mp3

14. The Courage of One I frickin' love this song, despite it not being technically sound and one of my earliest ones.  Something about it seems inspirational.
http://zephstudio.com/music/couragesample.mp3

15. The Chaos Rift Pretty neato song, was to be used for my friend's game but he started to get involved with other projects and school, and thus again it didn't work out. 
http://zephstudio.com/music/riftsample.mp3

16. Under Treetops Harp/flute/cello, perfect instruments for mystical forest music.
http://zephstudio.com/music/treesample.mp3

17. The Depths I guess this is more cave or dungeon music.
http://zephstudio.com/music/depthsample.mp3

18. Rest and Rejoice Simple inn music.  Good for an inn or pub.
http://zephstudio.com/music/restsample.mp3

19. In the Front Lines I made this when I started playing Mount and Blade and added it to the music.  It suited horseback fighting at least.
http://zephstudio.com/music/frontsample.mp3

20. Frontier of Creation I don't know.  Kinda.. mischievous?
http://zephstudio.com/music/frontiersample.mp3

21. A Horse Called Trust A song I wrote for my uncle who paints horses, this was the music inspired by one of his paintings in particular.  He's not using it for anything though, so you can use it.
http://zephstudio.com/music/ahorsecalledtrust.mp3

22. Fall of the City I like this one, lots of violins and quick horns.
http://zephstudio.com/music/fallofthecity.mp3

23. Perseverance Fast-paced, 'press-on' type music I suppose.
http://zephstudio.com/music/Perserverance.mp3

24. Outskirts A song intended for an MMO, outside the area of a particular faction.  It never came to pass so here it is.
http://zephstudio.com/music/SenkaOutskirts.mp3

25. Set Them All Free A song used as the theme for a video I made for a protest.  That's all it's for, so no big deal about using it.  It's just a solo piano piece.
http://zephstudio.com/music/setthemallfree.mp3

26. Templars A theme for that same MMO mentioned above.
http://zephstudio.com/music/TemplarTheme1.mp3

27. Warrior in a Merchant Despite the unintentionally dirty title, this song was strictly to try to sound 'cinematic', and was about the transformation of a merchant into a warrior.
http://zephstudio.com/music/warriorinamerchant.mp3


****Edit****

I've had some questions asked regarding requests and projects.  Currently I'm extremely busy and involved in other projects, as well as my own RPG game.  Therefore while I'm not taking on new projects, I'll be posting most of the music I make for my own game for everyone to use.

I'll be happy to take requests, on two conditions: 1. I'm not held to a timeframe (I can only work on requests in rare moments of spare time) 2. You don't expect 'exclusive rights' to the songs, unless of course you pay me to make it.  Otherwise, once I do a request, the song will be available to the whole community.

****Edit2****

Added 7 songs that I forgot about!

 

[Leknaat]

Nice!

I was wondering, though, do you use a VST sampler for your music? And if not that, what program?

 

[zeldrak]

zeph, this is an awesome list. I will be contacting you if you'd like to help with a project of mine.

 

[Gilleece]

From a fellow composer, great work.

I like Every thing has a cost in particular, again, great work.

 

[moog]

Nice!

I was wondering, though, do you use a VST sampler for your music? And if not that, what program?

This.

Also, this is pretty impressive. Great job.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Oh my gosh!
That is some kickin' music ya got there!

 

[zephstudio]

Thanks everyone.  I use Fruity Loops for the composition, and my main sampler is East West Quantum Leap's 'Symphonic Orchestra Gold Pro XP'.  This one cost me a pretty penny at $1400.00 CAD (the price has since gone down a lot).  I also have a few demo CDs for various Collossus samplers.

A note on EWQL - I never would have bought it if I realized how memory intensive it is.  5 or so instruments and all my ram is eaten up.

 

[Gilleece]

I use silver and its the same with me, heck just loading the full piano eats it all!!

I use Finale to compose, then export the midi into FL and load all the instruments and export the final product that way I do not have to suffer with the huge demands on power for long, especcially considering my new pieces have 15+ instruments!

Listen to some of my pieces if you like, [its the topic "Original Music" just the next one beneath this topic] I would love to hear comments from someone like yourself!

The 2 zip files posted futher down the page are the ones done with Symphonic Silver [there is 3 zip files, "source of ignition" uses a different program]

Eastwest is brilliant, I love the sounds. Gold is a huge improvement but for my budget silver suits perfect!  :thumb:

 

[mega_man_aXe]

Beautiful!!!  GODDD, I wish had money!!!  I have so many songs I've written on Anvil Studios/Guitar Pro I want hear sound better...but 1200 bucks??!!!  DAMN!

 

[Venetia]

This is ... Wow, this is incredible. It really sounds professional. I have to say, you're very, very talented. I especially love Courtyard and Jungle. They set the mood ... Perfectly.

 

[zephstudio]

Thanks again.  Just wanted to let people know that I added 7 more songs, because I forgot that they hadn't been put on my sample page on my site. 

 

[Sparta]

Thanks for this. I may aswell use this in my RPG that I am currently working on.

Good job

 

[Mascarpone]

it's all very good. but melancholy. Got anything happy? lol (i love to see diversity. but you do do what you have here quite well.)

 

[jtbengal]

What I've listened to is very good.  But with EWQLSO, you can turn on Direct From Disk streaming in the included Kontakt sampler.  Check for updates if you don't have it.  It uses a LOT less ram; I have a powerful computer, but with that, I can load 4 instances of EWQL with a full 8 instruments each without much problem.  Just wanted to let you know about that.

 

[Link in Pink]

These are amazing O_O

 

[Mustardy85]

Number 22: Fall of City ~The link for that one sends me to a 404 error page. You might wanna fix that one.

But all the others are awesome! Sends chills down my back.

 

[Axerax]

Damn man, this stuff is very good. Normally I don't pay attention to musician stuff often on forums, but that first song, It reminds me so much of Unreal Tournament songs, very very good.

To bad you aren't signing onto projects, people would pay good money for this kind of stuff
~Axerax

 

[Dopples]

I like this stuff man. Sounds really professional. I may snag your battle themes infact!


Also, a question, but is God of War an inspiration for your stuff?

 

[Samboy]

Wow... number 25... you couldn't post the sheet music for that one, could ya? I would seriously pay money for someone like you. I'm actually considering requesting some *scratches chin* (with a little added "motivation" if you know what i mean...)

EDIT: You should certainly play/listen/illegally acquire the soundtrack to the game Oblivion. It'll blow you away.

 

[zephstudio]

But with EWQLSO, you can turn on Direct From Disk streaming in the included Kontakt sampler.  Check for updates if you don't have it.  It uses a LOT less ram;

Yeah, I do use DFD but it still doesn't seem to cut it.  Part of it might be that I'm on a 32 bit XP OS, so I can't even use the 4 gigs I have.  I haven't actually updated in a long time so I'll give that a shot, maybe I'm missing something.

Number 22: Fall of City ~The link for that one sends me to a 404 error page. You might wanna fix that one.

But all the others are awesome! Sends chills down my back.

Whoops, I didn't notice that.  I'll double-check it after posting this, thanks

To bad you aren't signing onto projects, people would pay good money for this kind of stuff
~Axerax

If money's involved, I try to make room :P I've only had a few offers with money, mostly because everyone just wants to make a game but nobody has any financial backing.  Right now the projects I'm working on are bringing me a very small amount of income (equivalent to about 1 dollar per hour!).  Once I finish with what I'm doing, I'm going to look for a larger project, possibly a full soundtrack.  For now though if anyone here does have a project in mind they want help with, please still ask. If it's something that interests me whether it's in an RPG Maker program or otherwise, I'll think about it.

Also, a question, but is God of War an inspiration for your stuff?

I haven't played God of War, or heard the music other than what's on TV commercials.  I've heard good things though, I'm always open to try it out especially if it has killer music.

Wow... number 25... you couldn't post the sheet music for that one, could ya? I
EDIT: You should certainly play/listen/illegally acquire the soundtrack to the game Oblivion. It'll blow you away.

I can't post sheet music because I don't know how to read or write music, otherwise I would.  Maybe I can find a notation program or something that'll do it for me.  But I regretfully only play by ear, though I'm considering going back to take piano lessons again to learn to read.  Also, Oblivion has great music, I played the game a lot but I can't sing praises for the game itself.  Oh yeah, and Everquest II gets my vote for some of the best music out there also.