Music Sketch

Create music and sound effects for mainline or user-made content.

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Totoro
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Joined: April 18th, 2013, 10:56 pm
Location: Mexico, Mexico

Music Sketch

Post by Totoro »

Does this sound like something interesting?

Somehow I feel that it is way too close to an existing Wesnoth piece... But can't figure out which.

Very rough sketch. Get's sketchier and sketchier towards the end. No panning, mixing, etc.

Looking for some feedback.

http://snd.sc/ZAdYJa
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doofus-01
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Re: Music Sketch

Post by doofus-01 »

Hi,

I'm not a musician, so take what I say with a large grain of salt, but it sounds like you need better samples. Especially in the beginning. But the part around 0:45 could be useful.

There is some thought that Wesnoth music track is complete, but really, if you had something that started off strong, like what you have near 0:45, but put that at 0:01, that would be different and useful.

I'm not a musician, just a UMC author, but I appreciate the efforts that musicians put in.

Hang in there, Totoro, and eventually someone real will come to answer you.
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Totoro
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Location: Mexico, Mexico

Re: Music Sketch

Post by Totoro »

Thanks for the comment.

The samples are EW QL Symphony platinum - so that means that the problem is more likely my lack of skill in using them. Was it the woodwinds or the strings that sounded iffy?

Anyway, I took down the older version and put up this one. Many problems with balancing. And the percussion just disappears from everywhere but my head towards the middle.

I don't know if the piece is progressing towards being more game-like or less game-like, but I tried to build some more grand moments like the one you liked.

I would be happy to also work on it for UMC. Or other games.

https://soundcloud.com/alvaradodavid/al-alba/s-t8Mtw
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Crow_T
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Joined: February 24th, 2011, 4:20 am

Re: Music Sketch

Post by Crow_T »

I think the woodwinds could use some help? I'm no musician, but for a graphics comparison I'd like to open the curves tool and adjust the contrat/saturation a bit ;) They seem flat to me. I like the spirit of the piece though, more music is always good!
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Totoro
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Location: Mexico, Mexico

Re: Music Sketch

Post by Totoro »

Definitely a little more saturation. Could be the lack of mix, but while I worked on stuff, it seems it became a little blurry/muddy.

https://soundcloud.com/alvaradodavid/al ... -2/s-hkrZ4

At this point I can't tell if it's game-like. Don't know if the city walls at dawn with hordes of enemies pouring down the mountainsides are still there.
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pyrophorus
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Joined: December 1st, 2010, 12:54 pm

Re: Music Sketch

Post by pyrophorus »

Hi !
I would say first your piece is already very fine. Nothing to say about orchestration and harmony.

But I would say too it seems to me more a patchwork of short ideas than a really built piece. For instance, brass seem to come randomly. Because they're too loud from the beginning, they don't create a dramatic crescendo. Because they don't come regularly, they don't introduce a repetitive structure like in rondeau or songs. It would be better in my opinion, if you could develop a general idea, like a dialogue between strings(winds) and brass, and make it more obvious during all the piece.

And I think you should review the cadence. Here, the strings flourishes are not conclusive, so the piece seems to end abruptly.
Hope this helps...
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Totoro
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Re: Music Sketch

Post by Totoro »

Yes. I feared that in working on the individual parts I kind of squished a bunch of different ideas together and the whole structural rhythm got lost (if there ever was one). The loud brass, agree, a product of changing some soft samples from the sketch with some cooler, albeit louder ones. The cadence at the end was not the final one, but now that you mention it, maybe once I restructure the rest of the material, I can make it a final one. Or leave it hanging on a dominant tone...

Thanks for all the feedback. It's good practice for RL composing, and hopefully we will come up with a usable product for Wesnoth/UMC.
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