Bells of Deceit is awesome! The emotion was there, and I felt like it would be something I would hear at a critical moment in a game Never look back was great too, but it felt as if there should have been something more to it. I have not listened to the original version of your remix yet but I'll be sure to reply on that as well~

Off-topic: Nice new avatar.

On-topic: Wow! Sounds amazing!
I'm pretty much a die-hard fan of SNES original music, and this sounds like a cross between DKC's Main Theme and the N64 version of Mario.
It sounds amazing! =D

Also, one thing I'd like to mention in relation to remixes: don't be afraid to change it up a lot. So long as you have the good parts in there, and it matches well enough, you can deter from the original as much as you feel is necessary to make a good remix. =]

If you'd like, you could check out OCRemix to see other remixes made of DKC music. You'll find that some deviate from the originals quite strongly, but still sound like they would belong to it.

@Nanashi:Thanks for taking the time to listen to the songs! I'm glad you liked Bells of Deceit, it is indeed written as a very dramatic piece. Also, I think I'll go back and re-do 'Don't Look Back' at some point.

@X-M-O: Thanks for listening and thanks for the link! Most of the remixes here are entirely different that what I was thinking. I think I'll stray a bit further away from the original in my next remix.

This is a work-in-progress. I'm practicing drawing torso/halfbody pictures so I can use them in my own project someday. I tried some softer shading in this one.

Hey, that looks great! The shading is looking nice as well. =]
Just remember where the light source is, and what it is, when shading; it'll help later on.

Thanks! I realized a bit afterwards that I have to re-do the shading, because light-source for an ingame sprite/face should be directly from the front. Thanks for the feedback!

Woodlands
This one was meant for a special reason! MYSTEEEEERIOOOUUUS!

A beat, bit by bit. (Edited out due to clean-up on my Soundcloud)
I found a few VSTs and dabbled around a bit, tried a few sounds, whipped this up in 10 mins-ish. I'll make a full song with this tomorrow I think. (3:35am here)

I'm currently trying different genres to broaden my knowledge. So if you have some suggestions, feel free!
Also, I'm pretty inexperienced with this particular kind of music so any tips or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Absolutely brilliant!
Woodlands is my new favourite song! >:3

A Beat, Bit By Bit, is pretty catchy. Sounds like something I might have heard in an SPK dungeon... ^^

@X-M-O: I enabled download on woodlands if you want to grab it. I'll definately experiment a bit more with the retro style, to see if I can make something more complex.

More music! (to RRR's Exclusive resources)

The Dwarven Forge
The Dwarves rallies to the sound of the march-like brass echoing through the great halls. It can be heard all the way to the Great Forge. The smiths bash their hammer to the rythm to keep the working spirit up.

Download is enabled, since it's for R3.

Excellent! =D
I'm going to put it as my ring tone. Thanks for making it available, and for making it in the first place.

The Dwarven Forge sounds brilliant! It matches the theme quite well, and sounds great. It's full-sounding, and makes you feel as though you are walking through an underground Hall of Dwarven Kings! =]

Another one for RRR Exclusive.

Enchanted Meadow
It's quite short, but just as the other ones, it loops very well. Download is enabled here as well.

@X-M-O: Let me know if there's a particular part of Woodlands you like more, I could just make a shorter version that fits better as a ring tone. Also, I'm glad you liked it so much! As for the Dwarven Forge, I'm glad it paints the same kind of scenario I was going for!

The RRR thread Exclusive boosted my productivity a fair bit =]

Enchanted Meadow is very serene. I enjoyed it very much. ^^
It actually sounds like something I would play for someone who is going away and won't be seen again for a long time. A "parting" song, at least that's how I hear it.

Oh, it fits fine on my phone, I like the full version and it's only a minute and a half; roughly. ^^

Some more music for RRR Exclusive.

A Slow Day
This was meant for a forest village. But I suppose it could be used anywhere it fits really. Download is enabled.

Been busy with life lately, but I'm going to compose for a project of a friend so some more music should be rolling in pretty soon. If I get his permission to post it, that is.

I just listened to it, as you caught me right before leaving to run some errands. =]

It's really beautiful! It's got that same soft percussion as the Woodland one, which I loved so much. =D
Brilliantly done, and especially great that you're doing these as RRR Exclusives. ^^

Perspectives of Sacrifices
This is for Beneath. It's meant to portray the loss of something important for a greater cause.

@X-M-O: The soft percussion is slaps on the strings of a contrabass. I quite like it as well, because it's softer
than timpani and snares and work well with some slower pieces. You'll hear it in the one above as well ;D. The
RRR Exclusive is awesome, because it lets me be a bit more creative with music. Everything that I make doesn't
have to be for Beneath or for a project of a friend, so in turn it gives me a bit more freedom when composing

Yes, Perspectives of Sacrifices is definitely one of those "Memories" songs that I love so much. >:3
I hope that whoever is commissioning work for Beneath is paying you a lot, because you're doing a fantastic bit of work for that game's soundtrack.

Ah ok, I wasn't sure exactly what form of percussion it was (I've heard it a bit but haven't actually spent the time to identify the instrument).
Thanks for telling me. ^^


(I may end up playing Beneath just because I keep hearing this soundtrack and loving it... XD)

@X-M-O: I'm not getting any money for Beneath at all, but that's mostly because it's my own project . But I'm happy you like the soundtrack that much . Maybe more will like it too! If you feel like trying Beneath I'd recommend waiting a bit, because the next version is in "testing-state" right now and will be uploaded within a few weeks. (The current version is very outdated.)

Trying to keep up with updating with something each time I post, so;
Darker Recreation
This is a darker version of Recreation. It's used in the first important boss fight in Beneath

No worries, I prefer playing games once they are completed. =]
So I'll be sure to wait, lol.

Darker Recreation captivated me the second I turned it on.
It's sheer magnificence all put into a beautifully dark theme. ^^
I love low-toned notes, and the dark theme is brilliantly orchestrated.
It's like every time you make another song, I like it better than the previous one! O_O;

I'm glad you liked it! Darker Recreation is actually an older piece that I never got around posting before. I can't really remember why.

If you like dark and low tones, you might like this one. It's a big composition I'm working on. It's not finished nor is it near finished, but I thought I'd post it anyways. Feedback can always help me steer in one or another direction.

Welcome to Sonryo
This piece isn't made for a special soundtrack. It's just a composition. I'd say it's about 10% done. The final song should end up a fair bit longer.

Welcome to Sonryo is probably the most professional composition I've heard on RRR.
If this is only 10% done, then you are sure to win some major international musician's award. Maybe exaggerating just a little...
Anyway, it's going in the right direction, sounds amazing, and isn't boring.
As a matter of fact, those "dead" areas are useful and almost bring a story with them.
I could easily see this being used as the intro/menu music of a fantastic professional on-line game, or easily see it as the intro composition for a story that is being told as text comes across the screen to give a player/viewer background information on a game's/film's story.

I'd say that your percussion is perfect, your balance is brilliant, and your composition is creative.

Everything X-M-O said sums up what I was going to post, it's damn well brilliant in every way, and it's only 10% finished. O_O Is the final product going to be over 10 minutes or something?

Also about X-M-O saying it could be in a MMO of sorts, I'd totally recommend this be the login theme for Guild Wars 2 or DotA2 haha.

I could totally see this composition being used as the login theme for either of those two MMOs.
I'd actually play those MMOs regularly if it had this music in it.

Thanks for being so kind! I don't know about it being the most professional composition around here, there's plenty of extremely talented musicians on R3.

The music for Guild Wars 2 is composed by the legendary Jeremy Soule (one of my favourite composers). Putting my work next to his is like comparing a turd with a 5-star chocolate sufflé. (See: Guild Wars 2 Main Theme and Oblivion Main Theme). I don't think that I'm, by any means, a bad musician, but not that good ;D.

With that said, I'm glad that you liked it, but hopefully you'll like the finished piece more. It'd be weird otherwise, haha.

@Shadyone: When I said 10% done, I didn't mean length-wise. It's hard to tell how long the final piece will be, but I'm guessing around 6-7 minutes. I want to have a few distinct different parts of the composition.

@X-M-O: I don't think I'll win any international awards anytime soon, I do however plan to participate in any music-related contest in R3 and win them all! Muhahahaha! Not really , there was some stiff competition last time ;D

I'll be sure to post the newer version when it's a bit more finished!

It's true, there is a lot of talent around R3, and I'm not taking away from anyone else by saying this, but your work has something professional about it that I can't quite put my finger on. It's good though, whatever it is you're doing. XD

I want a 5-star chocolate soufflé... =[
Ahem, anyway....

I'm certain to like your completed version of it, and look forward to it.

Well, whenever you get big and popular, "don't forget us little folks".

Oh yeah, I think it'd be great to have another music competition here soon! I'll have to squeeze it between the current and next art competitions. =D

X-M-O: I don't know what it is that I'm doing either, usually when I listen to other people's music I feel that my stuff is pretty inferior, but that might also be me practising self-criticism!. Also, I don't think I'll make it big XD, but I won't forget anyone!

If there's more music competitions, count me iiiiin!

Ugh! I worked 9 hours on this today, getting closer to a wrap ;D. Soundcloud is down, so youtube will have to do for now (Watch in 1080p). I'm quite happy with the last 2 minutes actually. Hope you guys like it.

I don't believe it. You've passed my previous statements and have progressed better than I could have imagined. O_O;
You are setting new standards for my opinion of the phrase "perfect composition".
My anticipation for the completed version grows stronger still!

Hahahahah it's so damn epic I had to stick it on full volume and my mum thought I was watching a movie XD

No way, nothing close to a turd.. maybe a 3 or 4-star chocolate suffle' next to his in my opinion

@X-M-O: It's nowhere near perfect, but I'm glad you're looking forward to the finished version. I worked some more on it today, but I had a silly crash and lost about an hour of progress. I then went emo and started another composition (see below).

@Shadyone: Haha! A mate of mine told me it would work as a movie soundtrack, so that does make sense! Also, I may be self-critical, but what I compose is nowhere near as epic as what Jeremy Soule makes, that is of course, in my own opinion. See this for further convincing.

Here's a song I made today with some new VST sounds I got. It took only a few hours.

Never yield
The original title was "War" and that's the scenario it tries to paint. It still needs some work, but I can't say I feel like spending more time on it at the moment.

Unfortunately, it isn't even close to being as good as Welcome to Sonryo, as it was mainly to try some new samples

Never Yield does have a lot of similarities to Welcome to Sonryo, but the pace is much more "we will triumph".
The dark theme still applies, and I really like this one as well. ^^

X-M-O: Yeah, it does indeed! Most of what I write has dark feel/tone to it, because "happy songs" just isn't as memorable. To me, that is


Here's a remix or orchestrated piece I made:
Song of Storms in C
It's my favourite piece from the OoT soundtrack, not much else to say about it

Your Song of Storms remix sounds great. =D
I love most of the music from LoZ: OoT; you do it justice.


About "happy songs": I somewhat agree, though I can name a few songs that I absolutely enjoy and they are quite memorable. I'd say that some of the OoT music fits this description for me, though I must admit a great deal of anime and Disney music also fits this quite well.

X-M-O: That's great to hear, I'm always worried when I rearrange or remix a well known piece. I don't want to offend any fans by making my own version of a song and they might think that I don't think the original is good enough or something , if that makes any sense.

EDIT: Yes, you're right, there's a lot of memorable "happy songs". I just think that the majority of very memorable songs are sad/dark-ish. A very good exception would be the Super Mario Theme and the Zelda Overworld :]

Something I really want to do, is make all the ocarina songs from OoT fully orchestrated and maybe rearrange some of them, but I suppose that's a project for another time

Actually, maybe it is just me but I enjoy hearing remixes of music that I love, and because I like it so much, I'm very forgiving if someone remixes a song and screws it up. You haven't done that though, but even if you had I believe I would be thrilled simply that the fact that someone else likes the song so much they'd want to remix it.
Some fans are die-hard "it must be this way or else", and I find that to be childish, lol.




I can definitely agree with that. =D
And yes, I actually prefer the dark themes/songs much better. Hehehe... XD




Yes! Do this! O_O
I will love you forever unless I see a cookie and love it more! =D

Some OoT stuff!

Bolero of Fire
My 2nd favourite piece from OoT, I haven't gotten very far with this one, but so far I'm happy with the general direction it's going in. It's quite tricky to make an entire composition from a 20 second melody without changing it too much, which goes for all ocarina songs >_>

Gerudo Valley
This one is a bit more finished, but I'm not entirely happy with it, Some of the transitions and the progression sound a bit strange to me.

Bolero of Fire was a little quiet, but very nicely done. =D
For a remix, it is unique and... I like. >:3

The issue with Gerudo Valley is that when you get to the quieter areas, it is too quiet to recognise the notes played on the string instrument(s).
I would like to mention that I've probably listened to this song the most, of all OoT songs, as I have many remixes of this song on my PC.
One of my favourites, so hard to go wrong, and you didn't go wrong but there is room for improvement. =]
I would like to say that you've got a WHOLE LOT right, but just some transitions aren't as smooth as they could be, and the quiet areas are a bit too quiet to recognise the tune.
Despite that, it's very nicely done and I'd love to hear more improvements from this one in particular. =D

first of all thanks for introducing me to Gerudo Valley!! Absolutely one of my favorite Link tunes of all time, it captures a truely unique essence. Your remix has great potential and I agree with XMO, there are some minor things I could hear like at 0:20, the woodwind that kicks in seems unbalanced set to the string pattern that plays at the beginning. I'm not up on musical terms but it sounds slightly out of chord.

But if you pull a link and temper those small details out this remix would sound even more awesome, the instrument quality is very nice btw.

As for the Bolero of Fire overall it sounds like you are on the right track, the reverb in a few places was a bit extreme. I can't remember listening to the original track in OoT, is this in the mountains on the way to fight Dondogo*? Anyway good choices man, some of my favorite music came from the Link series!

ps. i might have to make a Link remix myself now lol, I really like the castle theme of a Link to the Past. Have you remixed it?

Thanks for commenting Daven!

Gerudo Valley
A while after I remixed this I realized that the original is in a different time signature, at the time of making the remix I was way too tired to even realize that (apparently). So it sounds very funky when the different melodies comes in. I need to go back and fix it along with some transitions n' stuff, but right now I'm spending most of my free time on the competition entry, so it will have to wait

Bolero of Fire
This song is taught to Link when he enters the Fire Temple for the first time as an adult wearing the red suit. Shiek meets him at a bridge over a pool of lava and teaches him the song. The reason why there's a lot of reverb is because I wanted to make the song sound like it's played from within a cave, as the original was. I might have overdone it a bit though .

I haven't remixed the castle theme yet, I'd love to see what you can make though!

@X-M-O: At some point, after the R3 music stuff, I'm going to go back and redo much of the GerudoValley remix and change more of the original song. I want it to be more unique

They're pretty good especially Perspectives of Sacrifices, Recreation and Reflective .

Thanks for listening and commenting titan_jojo!

I haven't posted something for Beneath in quite a while, so here goes:

Obsessed
This is written for a certain scene/plot twist taking place in Chapter 4 in Redland.

This song might not have the same quality as my previous works, it's simply because my 7.1 headset is glitching about. I don't have 100% sound on my left ear-cushion which makes it very hard to pan different instruments/parts of the song (I don't have speakers!). I did the panning on a whim, but I hope it turned out ok.

Also, this silly headset issue is making the work on the R3 competition annoying, because, again, panning becomes difficult. Hopefully I'll find a substitute headset til' the deadline date!

Yeah, hopefully you get that headset replaced. D=

It really doesn't sound bad at all, despite you mentioning panning issues related to the headset's left side being inoperable.

I really do love the melody, and the tone, of Obsessed. It's strangely pleasant, and strangely sad. Love it!
(The piano part is beautiful.)

@X-M-O: Unfortunately I didn't get my headset replaced, but hopefully it shouldn't be noticeable :]

Here's something new I'm trying!

This is basically a song broken down into the 5 steps I go through when making a composition. Each part will add more and more to the song.

The first step in any composition I do is live improvisation/midi editing or whatever you want to call it. I basically plug in my keyboard to the PC, pick a scale/key, improvise for about 3-4 minutes and import it into FL studio. From there I edit/cut out what I didn't like and add/remove single notes/chords. At this point, I have spent roughly 20 minutes on this "version".

So here's Part 1 out of 5
Disclaimer: The song may be vastly different in the final version.

Hopefully this should be fun to listen to, but if not, it's still fun for me!

EDIT: Step 2 out of 5!
This is where I choose the instruments and general feel of the composition. Currently, the used instruments are: 2 Violins, 1 Bassoon, 2 Cellos, 1 Viola, 1 Contrabass, 1 Trombone, 1 Trumpet, 1 Tuba, Snares, a Wagner drum, a Timpani, a reversed Cymbal and a French Horn. At this time, I've spent about 1 hour on the composition.

The actual song is still unedited from part one. I pretty much try to create a nice sound to use for the climax, which will be edited in part 3!

So here's Part 2 out of 5

Hopefully you'll notice a difference from part one and two.

I love this idea! Being able to hear each bit as you work on it is quite a treat. ^^

Definitely a huge difference between the two parts, but it is amazing how you go from a single melody on the keyboard to suddenly a fully orchestrated melody.
It's quite well done. ^^

Can't wait to hear the next part; especially since there are 5 parts and that was only the second one! =D

X-M-O: I'm glad you found it interesting. I was a bit afraid that it'd come off as a bit arrogant in the sense of: "I'm so awesome so I shall show you how to do this shiiiizzzz!". Which is the exact opposite of what I was going for! I'm self-taught and I've only been composing music for just a bit over a year and I wanted to show the style I've sort of adapted after trying different methods. Someone might find it useful, someone might have some useful feedback, in any case I'd be happy

I refuse to post without an update of some sort, so here's a bunch of stuff!

Walk The Streets 3 out of 5
This is the third step, where most of the progression is laid down and the intro/outro base is made. At this point I've spent about 3 hours on it.

Walk The Streets 4 out of 5
This is the fourth step, where I actually start editing melodies/basslines to fit the progression a bit better, I also complete the intro/outro parts. At this point I've spent about 4 hours on the piece. Also, I made the download available, so feel free to use the song as long as you credit me!

I also thought it'd be fun to post a few ideas/doodles that I wasn't quite happy with and decided to not finish

So here's a few:

(All of the below links are dead due to clean-up on my Soundcloud. Sorry!)

Poking Around
As a self-taught musician, I often experiment with new methods as I learn them. This is an example of this. It's therefore very short.

Random Orchestrated Beat
I made this piece at a LAN party. All the beds were taken so I couldn't sleep anywhere. It was made 6am in the morning and I thought it sounded kickass. That was until I woke up and realized it was pretty lame.

String Beat
I made this because I was bored and thought I'd make an entire song with just string instruments. Yeah.... No.

A Pitch for a Friend and A Doodle For a Friend.
Both of these are/were melodies I pitched to a friend that I'm composing a sountrack for. Still awaiting response on the first one!

Battle Theme Idea
While making this I thought it sounded cool, then I changed my mind :>


Hopefully some of these will be fun to listen to!

Still loving the "Walk The Streets" series, and can't wait to hear the final one. It's beautiful thus far.

Poking Around couldn't be named better. I also like to dance my fingers on the piano at times. XD

Random Orchestrated Beat is also well-named, lol. It's short and sweet though. ^^

String Beat is definitely RnB-ish, as you describe. It's interesting, and can turn out all right, but you'd have to really put some powerful strings in there (it's too smooth and quiet, as-is). =]

A Pitch for a Friend & A Doodle for a Friend are pretty cool. The former sounds like it could belong in Fire Emblem, and the latter is very short but sounds about as good as Poking Around; fun. =D

Battle Theme Idea sounds very close to something that could belong in Donkey Kong Country 2. Has a Samba-ish sound to it, but overall I think it could develop into something really good, even if you don't seem to like it as much.

@X-M-O: Thanks for the reply! I'm quite surprised that you seemed to like some of the "scrapped" stuff I posted . To me they weren't really ever meant to be revisited in any way ;p.

Here's something short, but sweet (imo)!

I'm sad, so I'll whistle for a bit.
For once I think it came out pretty nicely, not much more to say!

The whistling song almost has the same tune as one of the old classics I've listened to in the past (can't place it with a name at the moment...).

It's really fascinating, as I usually avoid whistles in music because it almost always comes out wrong, but you've done quite well with it. =]

(You need to make shorter song titles, lol. Just for convenience if anything. XD)

@X-M-O: Hey thanks! I'm happy that it didn't sound wrong as the other whistle-tunes you've heard did D:

---
I haven't uploaded anything in a while now so I think it's time. Here are two very different, yet quite similar pieces.

The Desperate Pianist
A very piano focused orchestrated piece. It's quite short. This is mostly because I wasn't entirely happy with it.

Ostinati-Classical Inspired
A piano-only piece that was made more like an experiment rather than a full song. Hence it's length.

I think I know what you're missing in The Desperate Pianist. A second melody that matches well enough to be played in the song. I hear the same melody played throughout the entire song with only a few slight variations to it, where I'm thinking it needs a second melody to match up with it (similar to how a song has verses and then the chorus; this piece sounds like several verses and no chorus, though it has the right amount of everything else). I'm not sure if that helps or not. D=
At any rate, this is a beautiful piece.

The Ostinati-Classical Inspired piece does sound very much like a classical piece; almost all of the elements are correct. ^^
The only thing I'd say sounded a bit off was the dynamics. You crescendo and decrescendo a little too early in some places and a little too late in some places. I think a little work on that, and this will sound much better. =]
It's a very nice piece though, and I think it definitely matches the classical style you were going for. A "hit", not a "miss".

@X-M-O: Yeah, I think you're right about the second melody. The song gets quite monotonous. As for the second piece, I will remember the advice, I didn't make it to much of a song and therefor the crescendos started very early just to rush to that special "classical" feel.

Funk n' Death
I've grown weary of RPG-style fully orchestrated themes and I started working with other instruments. I have a few tracks similar to this one in the works. It mixes some elements of jazz/funk with more traditional sounds. It should be an insteresting listen.

The Amazing Me!
This was my submission for the RRR Music competition. Just thought I'd throw it into this post.

Also, I've been lazy with posting music lately and it probably won't get better as I've been commissioned to write about 40 songs for an original soundtrack. As of now, I'm unsure if I'm allowed to post them here.

Oooo you has some good stuff here. Listening to "The Amazing Me!' right now, I like the noble (if that's the right word?) tone of it, especially when contrasted against the more somber piano part that pops in for a bit. I don't have much time to listen to anything else at this moment, but I'll definitely keep my eye on this page :3

What VSTi plugins do you use? I want to expand my collection a but and I enjoy the quality of your instruments a good deal.