Castle Paradox

[St. Ajora]

So... apparently school and work are important. Still, I've managed to come up with something in my absence. It's not a lot, but it's a good song.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Lifeless.mid

Also, the media page on the website is now updated with all 12 of the finished songs. As soon as I finish all of the partials on my computer, I'll have 17... more than halfway done.

[LeRoy_Leo]

I can definiely sense some elements of "lifeless" in there. That's a rather interesting mix of instruments. Theres the element of rock and roll as well as blues and even some flute. The flute part reminds me of EverQuest (although I cringe at mentioning it). God. Now I miss that game. BLAST YOU!

Overall, this song is very slow and drawn out. I suspect you use it in a long dialog with a character (vilain?). On second thought, it does sound good enough to be a character theme for cut scenes with dialog, but doesn't feel menacing enough for a vilain. It would make a great forest dungeon or town song, I suppose.

Keep up the good work.
~I like 'em fiesty;
Leroy
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Calehay]

Main Theme:
The only thing I can say is I hope their a bigger version of this somewhere in the game. I'm assuming this is really more of the sketch version, and in its Finale Ultimo, it will be big and heartgripping. But otherwise, it's a fine piece(song? I'm not sure which you prefer.)

Freedom:
My, what a change from all of the other music! If you have room, I would add an instrument to double the sax(?) in the non-diatonic chords (like 0:07) maybe a flute or something to that effect.

World Theme:
I'm assuming you're a fan of old rock, you have a knack for composing piano in similar fashions. The only things I can say is that the harp's run is a little weird sounding, I think a straight gliss. would work better (but I've heard that type of thing done lots of times before, so it can work, I'm just not a fan of it.)

Compassion:
I feel that the low bass line (bassoon?) is far too low. It leaves a large open gap in the middle, and the ear somewhat feels like it wants it to be filled. I'm not sure if this is what you wanted, but it does sound a bit awkward.

Truth:
This is fine to me, but I would have to see it in context to see how effective it is.

Revolution:
Again, if you have room, I would double or harmonize the horns in the B section with something (Clar. or Oboe?) Other than that, it's wonderful.

Lazy Pianist:
I don't think it sounds lazy at all. In fact, everything melodic is left to the piano. I would at least add a bass instrument to at least double the bass of the piano. MIDI and BAM Pianos don't give that much.

Lifeless:
In BAM, the bass eats up everything else and you can only hear it. I would pick a softer bass (and maybe not even a bass at all. Maybe some Rhodes Piano or Electric Piano or something like that.) If you do end up using a bass, you might have Setu rearrange it for the recording. I used my sampler thingie (it's not that great, but it's better than MIDI) and the bass is pretty realistic, and it completely didn't work.

Overall, it's great work. The details I pointed out are really just nitpicking little details, you've really done a lot of work.

And...
(Quote doesn't work)

"...and the drums you wanted so badly..."

Don't change anything unless you want to. Music can have infinte suggestions, and in the end, the composer should compose for themselves, not for others. The only time you should use a suggestion is if you feel it would help the music in your eyes.

Sorry to go on another music rant, but this is really wonderful music. How many songs (pieces?) do you plan to have?

[/quote]
_________________
Calehay

[Ssalamanderr]

Wow, these songs are really great. Truth has to be my favourite though. I can see Lifeless used for a scene just before a battle, or during some other grim time. Anyway, I'm not really a composer so I'm not sure how to critique your songs. They sound good to me.
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Ukelele no good!

[St. Ajora]

Wow. Thanks for the comments, especially Calehay. You brought up a lot of concerns I've had with my own songs and raised some valid points I hadn't thought of.

To answer your question, I'm shooting for 30 to 35 tracks/songs/pieces/whatever you want to call them. I'm a little weird about my compositions. I can go for a month without writing any, then have a surge of inspiration and blast out three in a day. Usually this comes in the form of me punching keys on the piano until something strikes me. "Lifeless" happened this way: I stumbled onto the chords that became the guitar part. Slightly jazzy and I loved it. I had plans for something upbeat, but I discovered that it worked so much better this way. Creative processes are fascinating, are they not?

On most of them, I've tested the BAM conversion and was fairly pleased with the results. Some of them required modification. I haven't tried the newest ones yet, though.

Regarding Lazy Pianist: I've gotten several comments that this song does not, in fact, resemble a lazy pianist in any way, shape, or form. I gave it that title after writing the first few measures, in which the treble piano part is highly syncopated. Yes, I agree that it no longer sounds lazy. Yes, I'll change the title later.

Theme.mid is more than likely going to be the song played in the opening plot sequence. If DH were a FF, then it would be called Presentiment, in the grand tradition of 4 and 5. Of course, it is only the fundamental theme, which will inevitably be layered throughout the game.

Thanks again for the comments. More songs to come as soon as I get out of exams week!

[St. Ajora]

Back with a pair of new songs.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Remorse.mid
This is a piano solo that sounds like it might've been taken straight from a Seiken Densetsu. A slow-moving piece that embodies the feeling the party might have while looking over a town in ruins.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Cave.mid
Caves are tricky -- they're quiet, they're deep, they're calm and dangerous at the same time. In this piece I tried to capture the acoustics of a cave.

[Ssalamanderr]

These two aren't bad, but I don't think they're as good as your previous ones.

Remorse- This one sounds really dissonant, like some times it's out of tune. I think this was what you were trying to go for, but maybe you went to far.

Cave- hmmm. This was really, really repetitive. I think I would go crazy listening to this for a whole dungeon. Maybe make the chimes quieter so we can hear the melodic part more.
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Ukelele no good!

[St. Ajora]

Boy is my face red. The balance was way different before I uploaded the cave song. The chimes should be very distant background and the bass guitar should be a lot louder. Try downloading it again now.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Cave.mid

I still don't like what Quicktime does to it. Maybe it'd sound better in WMP? Anyway, it's supposed to be mellow and not annoying/repetitive, so you should really hardly hear the chimes.

Also, dissonance is your friend! Really... I don't think it's that dissonant.

[St. Ajora]

Inspired by a certain song that plays for about half a minute in the entire game of Secret of Mana, here is the background music for a race against time in the later stages of Deviant Hearts, which I have been working on, by the way.

As the clock counts its way towards midnight, our heroes race to save a friend. Count the clock strokes for the full experience.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-ClockTower.mid

For the curious, the song that inspired this is "One of Them is Hope," the song that plays on the top of the Mana Fortress. The resemblance is passing at best, but since that one is such a great song, you should give it a listen as well.

I suppose this is also partially inspired by the escape theme to the original Metroid, wherein the alarm played a part in the harmony but also was the bomb beeping for you to get out of there. That's another must-listen for would-be VG musicians.

[Fernurion]

Clock tower sonds great. I can hear the resemblance in it. Although not the fastest peice, it does have a sense of urgency to it. The clock strokes also add to it quite well. Great work!

[St. Ajora]

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Crossing.mid
Another dungeon theme, more outdoorsy than indoorsy. I'm not quite sure I like the ending, but it's a good piece overall.

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-Loss.mid
The game's theme is present in the obligatory "sad song." This one was sitting on my computer for a long time until I thought up the piano part today. The rest of the song came easily.

[St. Ajora]

"Leave me be. The world is dying; why bother me in these troubled times?"
"Because I can tell that, unlike everyone else here, your heart still beats. You're not the only one here who knows, but you're the only one who cares."

http://stajora.castleparadox.com/DH-HeartStillBeats.mid

I've been working on the actual game portion of the game lately, but this tune came to me last night at work. It's kind of, sort of a counterpart to "Lifeless"? It's slower, a bit sadder, and yet more hopeful at the same time.

[LeRoy_Leo]

I'm going backwards to make up for lost tracks.

"Heart still beats": I can sense the beat here; a nice effect. It's a bit too soft, for some reason. I had to turn my speakers way up to hear it. Well, not WAY up, but you know what I mean.

"Crossing": Feels pretty good: a sort of walking pace with a consistant rythm.
I think it could use one more supporting part in the back. Maybe it's just me, though.

"Loss": Orly? The melody sounds very good. It sticks out and is very devious, complex, and more attractive to listen to than a traditional melody (Traditional melody: the result of suckers who study one music theory, no doubt). It's hard to hear the harp at first. Didn't even notice it til the end. Maybe darken the contrast there a bit more? Other than that, I don't know. Did I mention this sounds adequately full as far as support goes? I didn't? I did now.

"Clock Tower": The ticks at the start were great. Why didn't you keep them up? I also like the bell. At least you kept that one up. Soften the "ahhs", or what ever the background instrument is. Sounds like "Ahhs" to me.

"Cave": I swear, I totally swear. I've comment on this before, I know it. Once a blue moons age ago. I like the plucky bass in the back. I think this song could use a more echoing acoustic, but I realize how difficult that is to implement. I've yet to do it, but my little brother did it. That little brat.

"Remorse": Sounds sketchy. There is a lot of space in this piece, which makes it feel very empty. That may be good. If the party is looking over a ruins, isn't their a wind blowing, or anything else to fill some of the silence? Just wondering.

I'm not much of a music technician (Who need those conformist dorks, anyway?), but I DO know what I hear and when I like what I hear. You know what? I think a fade in and a fade out dynamic at the beginning and end of your music would give it a nice rounded feel. This way you can start out quiet (shouldn't be hard because they are already quiet, so they just need a couple adjustments), then get louder, then softer at the end when the song begins it's third or fourth loop. Doesn't that sound delicious?
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[St. Ajora]

I could easily add an echo effect and fading to the songs, but the echo would muck up the conversion. As for the fading... I guess I'd just rather have the songs sound the way they do in the game.

Setu took the liberty of adding a nice ambient sound to the MP3 version of the cave song, though, so anyone who's buying the OST CD will have that and other surprises to look forward to.

[LeRoy_Leo]

Obligatory-ness: JOY!
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "