Dark Passage

[Jetrel]

This is a great piece. As others have noted, it's a bit too bright, and/or a bit too active to be "creepy". One thing about creepiness for me tends to be an unrelenting stillness in the creepy elements. I mean, in real-life situations, I usually tend never to be spooked by quick-moving things. Those might startle me, but the real fear comes from the unknown - from still silent places, or from places with enough white noise for something to hide in (typically, the white noise can't imply the presence of people - voices of crowds instinctively embolden us against fear of the supernatural/wild).

Also, one thing I've noticed is that fear is like sex. Dread has to build with foreplay. You can startle people just fine with sudden, unexpected things, but the real fear builds in -anticipation- of something scary. And it really hits when you you build a bunch of anticipation, and culminate in the sudden delivery of something terrifying. Which might translate very well into musical phrasing/pacing.


As for creepiness and musical phrasing/pacing, the things that seem to creep me out are when you're in some still place, and you hear hints that something is there. Like, being in an empty classroom, and hearing someone make a footstep on the other side of the room. Intermittent enough that you're not sure if you're just hearing things. But just enough that you wonder. Just enough that you suspect that just maybe, there might be something there. Watching you.


Anyways - despite a possible failure to make something "creepy", this is a roaring success at making a great cave theme. Rock on.

[Rain]

Dread has to build with foreplay.

lmfao. True.

[Akkarin345]

I really like the piece.
I think it is really effective how after 1.00 there is music and then a pause, this really adds to the suspense IMO. At 1.38 i really like what ever string instrument is playing that melody and its repetition with overlaying other sounds is really effective.

[Mabuse]

sounds good.
i would use this one in a scn.
(and its not that i'd use everything )

'nuff said

[PPH]

This is very good.

[Ferrous]

Although it looks like discussion on this piece has died off, I thought I may as well add my two cents.

(granted, while I'm a musician and a gamer, I'm new to the art of video game music composition. So these are just my thoughts, take them as you will)

00:00: A very captivating and dramatic entrance.

00:13: Bringing in the clarinet is excellent, and adds a nice tone to the piece. I always like to think that the number of instruments reflects the size of the scene - a solo clarinet with a few percussion instruments may reflect a small, narrow passageway, whereas a fanfare of trumpets and other brass might be an open field or a large city. Also, using the woodblocks (?) here is done quite tastefully. Later on in 00:21 when you bring in the flute, I think it help adds a lot to the feeling of suspense.

00:37: Bringing in the brass for a statement of the theme. Nothing high pitched, granted, but I think a muted trumpet could be used to good effect around here.

00:44: My first problem with the piece. As the theme goes up, and comes back down, there is a particular chord that seems just a bit out of place. The chord that lands pretty much on 00:44 seems just a little bit too benign. My ear isn't good enough to tell what it is that could be changed though.

00:50: Moving into woodwinds. The way you do this reminds me a lot of Robert W. Smith's compositions, and not just because it has so far been only winds and percussion. As you move into 1:00, where you start to have a steady beat, I sorta feel like this is where you start to lose the "creepy" sensation. I think it's a saxaphone (soprano?) that you add, which makes a nice touch, but reintroducing some of the instruments from the beginning might help reinforce the creepy association.

01:03: Anti-climatic, but that could be partly to the fault of my computer, and partly to what I'm used to hearing. Your first minute or so feels very charged - creepy, mystical maybe, but certainly charged. As soon as you reach this point, I'm expecting at least either a large change in dynamics (which, as alluded to before, could be to the fault of my computer), or a major change in tempo, neither of which I heard. Additionally, it's entirely possible that this is what you were going for, but if so, then I find the large sections of rest following your phrases somewhat draining of the piece. The start of the piece had a lot of action going on, however subtle, and that entirely disappears during this section which I found very jarring. I would humbly suggest putting back in the solo flute (or some other instrument) to fill the void and keep with creepy suggestions from the beginning. Increasing the tempo probably couldn't hurt either.

01:18: Introduction of the strings. Given the previous parts of this piece, I find this choice of instrumentation a little out of place. Until this point, it sounds like the piece could easily be written for a Wind Ensemble. Is it bad or wrong? No, but at this point, the piece really starts to feel like it's dragging. If there wasn't a dramatic tempo change before, this would be the place to do it. You reach the climax with the strings included for a very brief period, and then start to go into your conclusion of the piece. Why not increase the tempo, and ride out the energy? You start the piece very charged, and it feels like it should be building up to an incredibly exciting climax. Make that climax charged, stretch it out with some fast paced notes, and then go into your conclusion.

01:38: Going into the conclusion. I really like this part, as it seems to be an appropriate ending to how you began the piece.

01:50: Introduction of theme 2? This part seems a little misplaced. I'm not sure how I feel about this part yet. I think creepy music usually should have some kind of resolution, which this part would fulfill, but I'm not sure I'd be content with it. As an alternative, you could simply have the previous section fade out. It'd make the piece shorter (if you otherwise kept it as is), but I think that'd be okay.

Overall: I really liked the intro and the part at 01:38. The middle could probably use some work in tempo, and maybe play around with instrumentation as well. I liked that you kept a pretty consistent theme, which adds to the piece a lot, but I think a little more consistency in instrumentation would help as well. Since your piece was largely without strings, it reminded me a lot of Robert W. Smith (which, depending on your own musical experience could be a good thing or a bad thing), particularly of the piece "The Inferno", or at least parts of it.

And there you go. As I said, you can take these opinions with a grain of salt. There certainly is no definitively "good" and "bad" in music, these are just my humble opinions. My friend and I are investigating exactly how to go about making our compositions into files accessible to Wesnoth, so hopefully you'll be able to critique our pieces someday soon as well. Cheers!

[Jetrel]

Also, one thing I've noticed is that fear is like sex. Dread has to build with foreplay. You can startle people just fine with sudden, unexpected things, but the real fear builds in -anticipation- of something scary. And it really hits when you you build a bunch of anticipation, and culminate in the sudden delivery of something terrifying. Which might translate very well into musical phrasing/pacing.

To lend some weight to this hypothesis, here's an example of an absolutely [censored] scene that somehow manages to be really creepy. Purely due to 'direction' or 'cinematography'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pdd9VBS ... re=related

[West]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all your feedback. I'm sorry I haven't responded to any of it yet, but I'm sort of in a rut right now. I can't stand the sound of my arrangements (or my samples for that matter) and I need to back away from it all for a little while. When you've listened to your pieces a thousand times you lose all objectivity. Right now, all I hear is how cheap and amateurish my tunes sound, and that is not the best mental state for music making.

[marcusvinicius]

When you've listened to your pieces a thousand times you lose all objectivity. Right now, all I hear is how cheap and amateurish my tunes sound, and that is not the best mental state for music making.

It's realy true.

[Temuchin Khan]

I can't stand the sound of my arrangements (or my samples for that matter) and I need to back away from it all for a little while. When you've listened to your pieces a thousand times you lose all objectivity. Right now, all I hear is how cheap and amateurish my tunes sound, and that is not the best mental state for music making.

I have the same thing happen, sometimes, with my writing projects. After I've put it aside for a while, though, I'll come back to it and think, "Hey, this isn't as bad as I thought! In fact, it isn't half bad!"