I really liked that “BNO song 1 sample 2.” I heard ecstatic, high-pitched instruments.
I think Code Pong Title Theme was way too “dirty.” Too much percussion all at once.
Also, “stol” isn’t “lost” spelled backwards, but I’m sure you chose “stol” over “tsol” because it’s easier to pronounce.
Here are the last two MIDIs I made… But they’re only basic progressions! They are MIDIs, but they aren’t complete pieces. (I figured I may eventually make complete songs based on them.) Progression 16 (Yup, I typoed the filename.) Progression 17
Hah, that’s especially interesting. A month or two ago I make a couple recordings with a similar idea in mind (although I don’t listen to Radiohead) - for them to sound like English forward, but the real meaning only heard backward. They’re on my music myspace (A Space Forth) presently.
Neat DeP . Those progressions have some potential. I think I like 16 best, eh. shrugs
Here’s a newwun of mine. It’s the title theme of my friend’s game, Silver Fountain, re-mixed into a RBG-esque style. It turned out alright, although I think it gets a little too busy at some points.
I’ve got some others in the works, but I really just come back to them whenever I’m feeling inspired. So they won’t get done too quicly. Also have others I haven’t shown, but the RBG OST shall remain at least partially buried until the release of the public demo, heheh.
Well, this is my opinion but, that’s a bit too light-hearted/happy sounding to belong to a Metroid soundtrack . You could probably make some small changes to the melody to make it a bit more mysterious or generally less cheesy. Not saying there’s no positive sound to Metroid music, it just sounds sorta goofy. I’d say that the biggest change needing to be made is, please alter and mix up the piano part a little bit! I’m pretty sure it plays the exact same 1-2 second loop throughout the entire track, which not only gets old, but the melody it plays is kinda kiddy-sounding.
Sorry if I’m being annoyingly harsh or anything to that extent, just laying out my opinions.
Ah where was that… I was reading a midi music composition guide the other day that I’d like to post on here. Had some good tips, it did.
Nice, DeP! Made some very exceptional improvements with those two tracks . There was a lot more variation than I remember there being in the stuff on that MIDI journal/blog of yours - in these two. Speaking especially so about Time Waves. I only have a couple suggestions, both applying to Time Waves:
When the bells drop an octave in the (chorus?), they get perhaps a little too low . Maybe partially opinion, but I don’t think real bells can sound that low. Perhaps you could try starting them up an octave, then dropping them down to the octave you have them starting on presently?
The drums were pretty swell, but I found that hearing them start and stop with the lead instrument was a little irritating at times. I’d say they’re alright doing that in more climactic parts of the chorus, or vice versa, but perhaps in other parts you could try just having a solid, tight, gapless beat going?
Sorry, I know you never asked me to critique your music. If you don’t plan on trying to improve those tracks or add to them at all, or you just don’t want to listen to me (loll) then just ignore everything I just said xD.
BTW, the tempo slow-down at the end of Addition caught me off guard, hehe .
Edit: Ah yeah Retro, I know what you mean. Before I just decided to deal with it and began tracking notes with the mouse, I really wanted a MIDI keyboard. Really, I had one… I just needed MIDI hardware for my computer, which I now have circa this Christmas . Now that I’m used to using the mouse though, I dunno that I’ll use it much x).
Maybe we should start a “non-midi vg music” topic. Although unfortunately I’d have nothing to do with it . At least not yet…
The bells actually already raise an octave before that part. Raising them another octave conflicts with the basic progression.
I don’t know what to say about the drums. I didn’t think my “choir aahs” would be considered the lead, and I’ve got the rhythm track (drums + high hats) running constantly after it (the rhythm track, that is) starts.
I did that tempo adjustment by hand. >.> (Pretty sure MIDI’s can’t change tempo mid-song. At the least, they can’t in the editor I’m using.)
I figured you did it by hand - I’ve had to do similar. Yeah, I don’t think MIDI can do a real tempo slowdown, but maybe. If it can, I don’t yet know how.
MIDI can do tempo changes just as it can do pitch bending and a long list of other effects. If you want to do these in Anvil Studio, though, you have to purchase an extension.
Hmm, I couldn’t tell exactly what was added, since I don’t have the original version to compare with, but it seems to me that you added a bit of percussion, and maybe one, if not two, longer-lasting background instruments? Either way, sounded just as good, if not better! It’s worth noting that the tempo slowdown at the end seemed more welcome somehow.
Couldn’t hurt to mix the drums up a bit (just changing timing and order of the hits), but is swell regardless .
Augh, almost had me there, sir Tim xP. I noticed the small text right before the first link started playing heheh.
As for the REAL song, here’s my thoughts. At first I couldn’t really tell where the beat was going - I think the delay/echo on the drums made their hits a little confusing to distinctuate (is that a word?) from one another, but maybe a more solid beat could make up for that. Otherwise not too bad, especially if you don’t have much experience with this kind of thing.
Could have used more accompaniment IMO (more, different instruments). Maybe don’t be afraid to pull off some polyphony, and to reach further into the depths and heights of the pitch spectrum, though what you do sort of depends on your experience and whatever you’re comfortable with.
On a final note, (hahapun,not) the melody seemed to lack direction, but could fairly easily work as a backup instrument methinks. Part of this lack of direction may be attributed to the fact that the drums just sort of run on after the break at the end of the intro, and don’t seem very dynamic. They don’t need to be very dynamic though - a good melody can make the drums hardly seem to matter .
Then again, you did say you were still working on it, so makes sense that it’d be underdeveloped some. Hope this helps some, Tim.
Haha! Thanks for the advice. Yes, it is horribly incomplete, but the reason I uploaded was because I wasn’t sure where to go with it, so your advice is quite helpful. I think I’ll dedicate tomorrow to listening to music I like to see what my options are. I don’t want to just copy other music, but I do want to do stuff that I know sounds good rather than just experiment until I stumble across something listenable.
Sure, no problem . I use that sort of method pretty often, or sometimes I’ll just be listening to tracks that I enjoy, and end up hearing something that I feel I could mess with and add to something I’m working on. Long sentence xD. But yeah, good luck .
. At least not yet…