My Personal Orchestra!, Do come in :D Options

[Shablo5]

@X-M-O: Ouch! Dental surgery is always a pain! Hurrah for improvements n' stuff! I always find it cool when my music remind others of other people's work, since other people's work in other games are usually far superior to mine

Here's something to celebrate the Swedish National Day! (It's not our anthem. In fact, it has nothing to do whatsoever with Sweden!)
Gerudo Valley Arrangement
I started this arrangement some months back, but I quickly realized that I wasn't nearly good enough to give it the treatment it deserved, so I decided to hold off on it. Until I could do it justice. For the sake of comparason, I'll also link the older version. Download is enabled since this isn't an original piece.

Hopefully someone will like it!

Look out for more random stuff! I'm off today due to the National holiday! Also, I'm bored!

Excuse me for this, but I love Zelda so I love bits and pieces of this. I find it hard to fully appreciate this track though, as I am biased to what it sounds so familiar to, you know? You have that engrained childhood track and then something mixes it up, and it just doesn't feel right.

Definitely not a bad track, just biased You do good work. I wish I could pickup someone like you, ha!

Have a wonderful day.
P.S. Bastion is great.

This post has been edited by Shablo5: Jun 7 2012, 05:57 AM

[Fateliante]

Oh Sweet Jesus! What an AMAZING remix, Stern! <3 It was a really good idea that you wanted to orchestrate this piece and look how it turned out, too, really well. A solid effort into getting the right sound out of the guitars and brass instruments. I loved the small break at 3:18 - 3:27 and kicks up to the next section after that, really good stuff, the tone is really good. I almost get the feeling of being drawn away and being imprisoned in the valley. I don't normally get carried away like this lol. The soundfonts you're using here are fantastic and love the percussion.

I'm with X-M-O on this one, I'm gonna be showing this piece to all my Zelda-lover friends lol. XD

[Stern]

@X-M-O: I'm glad you like it to an extent that makes you want to share it! It took quite the while to finish so it's a bonus that it isn't crap, at least!

@Shablo5: I understand exactly what you mean. I didn't want to make something that'd potentially butcher one of the most memorable tracks in gaming history. I also don't think that lots of people like remixes more than the source material, in most cases it's just a refreshing take on something you already liked. But I respect your opinion and I thank you for acknowledging that the track itself isn't bad .

@Fateliante: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed it and want to share it. That particular composition have been through a bunch of iterations and it makes me happy that it did come out alright in the end!


Here's some stuff!

Dead Months Ago - A Piano Duet
This one is a bit different to what I usually do. This is basically an intermediate piano duet. It could be performed solo if you arranged it slightly different and over less octaves. But the original idea was to make it into a performable duet. At the moment there is no intro and outro, but I plan to write a fully orchestrated version of it and will work on that then. Hopefully it doesn't sound too boring!

A Solid State (2 Guitars)
This was for practise purposes only, it's to compose the way a guitar is played in order make it sound less "synthy". The melody is quite mundane, but the fingerpicking sections was what I put the focus on. Making sure to stay right in the range of the guitar.

Dorian Groove
Here's a weird one. Very different sound and style from what I usually write (I say that a lot these days!). It's short and should I say... experimental? Who knows!


Thanks for all the feedback and such!

This post has been edited by Stern: Jun 20 2012, 02:02 PM

[Kaleb Daub]

first time in this forum and I say great gosh amazing-ling far out man i probably missed it but is this stuff for sell or something.

[X-M-O]

Dead Months Ago is pretty, and I can see where you're going with it, but I'm really interested in how you plan on building the rest of it (beginning/into and ending/outro). It's fairly long for a loop, but more is good until you hit the 10 minute mark, lol. ^^

A Solid State is rather short, but a neat idea. The strumming sounds are accurate, though I think the only particular issue that makes this clearly synth is that when you play the same note in succession, it sounds too perfect. Synth songs use an exact sound repeatedly for a single note on an instrument, though if you play the same note on a non-synth instrument you will always have a slightly different sound.
If you were to make edits to certain notes that happen often during a song (especially in succession) and then randomly place them wherever that note would normally be played, it might give it a more natural (less synth-like) sound.
(Yeah, that's very time-consuming, but it does make a difference in the music if you're going for less synth-like sounds.)

Dorian Groove is... I don't know! O_O
All I know is that I love it! It's quite unique, and has a quirky flavour to it. The percussion instruments really make this song.
If it is an experiment, then keep on doing this - it's brilliant!

[Kaleb Daub]

I really like the song Reflect man. It is some of the best music I have seen on this site or maybe any other sites like this one.

[Stern]

first time in this forum and I say great gosh amazing-ling far out man i probably missed it but is this stuff for sell or something.

@mooshra: Hey! To answer your question, I don't sell tracks that are already made, unless it's a special occasion, but I do work on commissions on a per-minute basis. I don't advertise it very much as I already have a daytime job and most of my commission work, while paid, is more to help people out in the community, rather than making money.

@X-M-O: Well, I guess when a loop hits the 10 minute mark I wouldn't really call it a loop anymore! Thanks for the tips with the guitar sounds, I don't have too much control over the sound of the samples I use though. There's still a few things I could probably improve with more irregularity with the velocity and the timing of the notes being slightly off, because no human can play it perfectly to the 0.001 sec mark! That'd be insane! But yeah, as you pointed out, it'd be very time consuming, but certainly something to keep in mind for the next attempt!

The dorian groove was just me stepping outside my comfort-zone a bit. I guess it turned out alright! More shall come!


Here's something again!
To Wed In A War-Plagued Land
It's a melody I've had in the works for a while, just never had anything to do with it, so I whipped up an interesting idea and concept. The title should explain what I was going for. A mix of a very serene and fierce sound. The soldier's shouts and church-choir should help add to that!

Thanks for the feedback!

[Kaleb Daub]

Thats A.O.K. thanks for replying man. Keep up what you are doing its totally awesome.

[X-M-O]

To Wed In A War-Plagued Land sounds like a cross between Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Carl Orff's O Fortuna.
I like the melody, but it needs something more than just the same few notes over and over. Hmm... the song seems to either be missing a chorus, or the chorus is playing throughout - can't decide which it is.
I love the concept! It's not far off from a masterpiece. =]

[Kaleb Daub]

Practically is a master piece in my eyes I need to be as good at this as you stern. may ask if you use a program to make this stuff if so what.

[Stern]

@X-M-O: Ah yes, it should probably be a bit less repetetive. I had that one "hook" and used it almost throughout the entire song, but to be honest it was just a piece I wrote hastily for a concept rather than something I worked for several hours on. I guess that came across! I'm happy that my work reminds you of stuff from such great composers though

@mooshra: Thank you! While I'm not super happy with it myself, I'm glad you like it! I use Fruity Loops Studio and a library of different VSTs to produce music, hope that helps!


Ornate Skulls
Again, outside of my comfort-zone. This is a metal-ish-battle theme. Highly experimental, but I had fun as hell while writing it. Writing a bunch of random licks and stuff. Not sure where this would fit in a game-perspective though


Thanks for all the feedback!

[X-M-O]

Ornate Skulls is the most beautiful metal-ish music I've heard in a long while.
Yes, I do love it, and I can't explain why (that's rare, lol)!

Amazing job! I want to hear more like this - and I really can't explain why!

[Stern]

@X-M-O: Hehe, I'm glad you liked it. It was one of those things I just did on a whim. I guess I'll have to raise the bar for the next metal-oriented theme! :>


The Insomniac (While I wait for dawn)
This is something I wrote just now. I thought of the concept of writing my own lullaby. It's pretty late, hence the slow pace. I went for a sad/jazzy lullaby-feel. This is some other electric guitar samples that could be used in stuff other than metal. It's pretty monotonous, but the actual song is actually only meant to be about a minute long, I just made it a bit longer so I had enough time to fall asleep! I quite like this one myself. But who knows... It's 5:30 am - When I wake up tomorrow... or later today, I might hate it!


GRRAAAAAWRR... zzz...

EDIT: Late night grammar... zzz...

This post has been edited by Stern: Jun 30 2012, 06:40 PM

[X-M-O]

The Insomniac reminds me of a song I listened to on the radio a few days ago (can't remember its name though). ><
This song has a beautiful melody and the rhythm is smooth (it is perfectly all right to be monotonous when you feel the flow of the music). ^^
It could be played in an RPG game as the theme music for a cave area, actually.

[MagitekElite]

That is a really nice song, Stern! It is my type of music!

Great job!

[Stern]

@X-M-O: Yeah, I could see it fitting in a cave area as well. I'm glad you like the melody. While it's monotonous, I quite enjoy it a fair bit myself, for once

@MagitekElite: Hey! Thanks for listening and posting! It's very appreciated! I'm glad you liked it

Here's more tracks!

The Music Box
"When I found the small contraption, I couldn't resist giving the crank a spin. Shortly afterwards the entire room, full of curious onlookers, burst into dance. It creeped me out a bit. Looking at their faces gave me the impression they were in some sort of trance. Just dancing... and dancing."

It's a short and sporadic piece. I like it for the catchy-ness of the melody, but I was a bit lazy with build-up and outro. Still came out quite nice as a loop, I'd say.

Grace At Night (Break-In)
This is for a section in Beneath where your party have to gain access to a certain building. When all else fails, they decide to break in at night time. This is a loop


EDIT: If you've been following my last few posts you may have noticed that I'm currently experimenting a lot with different styles. If you have any suggestions or challenges for me to undertake in the genre/style department, do tell! I'm running dry!


This post has been edited by Stern: Jul 9 2012, 10:08 AM

[X-M-O]

The Music Box is so appropriately named (love the description too), lol. It is quite catchy, and almost has a waltz feeling to it at a couple points. XD

Grace At Night is somewhat eerie, but in a good way. It fits the idea of your game scene (I can totally see text conversation between characters as they sneak into some mysterious/ominous building). Great job. ^^


You should branch out and do a silly tune/theme for a character that is never serious (I had a great example in my head of an existing theme, but I forgot it as I started typing this, lol). Think "Joker Theme" but with less "cruel intent". Just for fun. =]

[Stern]

@X-M-O: I thought the sound fit as well. I even originally used a music box for the melody, but had to change it to a celeste. Since a music box is normally built with a spinning gear hitting different bells as it spins around. So aside from a very mechanical sound it's also fixed to one melody, which was one too many limitations!

Here's some silly themes!

Twisted Circus
This was my first attempt. It was built on a ragtime bassline and a very syncopated melody (very out of synch with the bassline). I used a lot of dissonance to get a weird/awkward sound, but I think it might've come out a bit creepy instead. Although, I think clowns are creepy so to me it makes sense.

After that, I decided to try a new direction...
Lack of Ambitions
So, I went with some boogie riffs and basslines to get a more interesting feel. I had the yakety sax as an obvious inspiration, but in the end it turned out to something that reminds me a bit of a the doctor mario theme.

It was weird, but fun to make these pieces. Got any more challenges?

EDIT:
A very uneventful day today! So here's some more!

Abduction
She heard some faint footsteps from somewhere behind her. She looked back with an anxious expression, but to her surprise, no one was there. She felt stalked. She was certain someone was following her. She could feel the fear creep up on her. Her breathing got heavier and so did her footsteps. Suddenly everything went dark and she could feel an overwhelming smell of chloroform. She tried to scream, but her body was lifeless. It was too late.

Stockholm's Syndrome
He was resting the pipe of his loaded revolver on the back of her head, but she felt safe... Too safe. "He is just misunderstood. He won't hurt me", she thought to herself. Suddenly the lights went out. She felt her consciousness slowly fading away. Like the snow during early spring, she too would melt away.

The police report described the death of the young woman as a suicide. A point-blank shot to the head. It didn't take long until the case was closed. They'll never know what actually happened.

A simple but pretty piece. I thought the feeling of hope fit quite well, hence the short narrative.

This post has been edited by Stern: Jul 15 2012, 12:09 PM

[X-M-O]

Twisted Circus could totally belong in the old Scooby-Doo show where they were in a haunted circus. XD
Fun piece! ^^

Lack of Ambitions sounds strangely like something I've heard before, lol. Nice work on that one. =D

Abduction almost has an eastern sound to it; really it's pretty. ^^
The eerie sounds actually sound less eerie than pretty.

Stockholm's Syndrome is beautiful. =]
Very peaceful, despite what description you gave it. I think if I were the woman killed in that description, this is the music I'd want to die to. XD

[mrhawi]

Twisted Circus: It has a weird style, but it's good. I liked the sounds that you used for this song. Fits on a circus stage but in a platform game. Good job.

Lack Of Ambitions: Yeah, it reminds me to Dr Mario (I hate that game but the music was good XD). I liked the piano and the bassline. Fits on a mini game or a funny scene. I liked it.

Abduction: The title fits very well, it's a pretty theme and it has some "mysterious" escence on it. The description that you did was too close to the ideas that came to my mind while listening your song. And a last question, Which VST did you use?, I liked the sound.

Stockholm's Syndrome: I'm agree with X-M-O. Very peaceful theme, I liked it, and I liked the description of this one.

Good job! Those were great tunes, but a bit different of the style that you have usually.

P.S: Sorry about my bad english (I can read it, but it's difficult for me to write it xD)