DSC Project Soundtrack - Constructive criticism wanted!

Started by Tyril132, March 31, 2010, 05:32:39 pm

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Tyril132

Well, I figure I've spent enough time lurking on the boards. Might as well throw my stuff out here to get bashed like everyone else's.  :haha:


A few quick notes:

  • Make sure you click "play hi-fi." I'm using Soundclick for third party hosting right now, and their lo-fi option takes just as long to buffer and sounds terribad.

  • Please do not redistribute or use these songs yet. In the future, I will make them freely available and will almost definitely allow others to use them for their own projects. For now, they are part of a work in progress, and I don't want fifteen versions of my unfinished work floating around. I ask that you respect this.

  • I've included a spoiler with all of the songs that include optional context. Most of my pieces are "scene pieces," written with a specific scene or purpose in mind. All of them are part of an as-yet unannounced project that is currently in production. As such, I included background information for those interested.

  • I'm currently not taking requests. I am fully scoring the DSC project, and at the moment it has about 36 tracks planned. This is going to keep me busy for quite a while. I may or may not take requests in the future.




Lightning Assault - An up-tempo orchestral battle theme. It channels a bit of Ogrebattle 64. ~75% complete. Updated!
Spoiler: ShowHide
This is a battle track used in the upcoming DSC project. It's a relatively fast-paced and heavy piece, and is used mostly for specific battles that are important to the story or boss fights. The image below is not using final enemy sprites/backgrounds, but just meant as a general indication of setting.




Heart of the Forest - A relaxed harp & string melodic piece that's very atmospheric.
Spoiler: ShowHide
An ancient ruin lies in the heart of the forest, receding into the trees and vines that surround it. The strange, archaic runes that remain carved across the alter's surface suggests a formidable power was once laid to rest here, but any traces of such an artifact have long since disappeared.



I wish I had a better screencap of this. It's only a small part of the map, which uses ForeverZero's Ccoa Advanced Weather Script edit to produce a light rain of leaves as the player goes deeper into the woods. This combines with a series of events that slowly change the screen tone towards grayscale as the player approaches the shrine, resulting in a very eery, but tranquil effect.


City in the Sky - A strong atmospheric piece featuring synthetic pads, harp background and piano melody. ~40% complete.
Spoiler: ShowHide
In a long-forgotten age, there existed a powerful civilization that was capable of building their empire in the very heavens. A great tragedy strikes this celestial capital, rendering it forever frozen in time.

Sorry, no screenshot yet. This is an extremely important and emotional part of the game for several of the characters, and I'm still working on a tileset that will bring this environment to life the way I want it to.


Call to Arms - Orchestral battle theme with some heavy percussion impacts. A bit lighter than Lightning Assault. ~80% complete. Updated!
Spoiler: ShowHide

The other main battle track for the DSC project. Call to Arms is the "main battle theme" of the game, while Lightning Assault is used for certain story-important fights and possibly bosses.

Since it's a battle theme, I suppose it's only fitting that I give it screenshot of the combat engine in action. I'll update this description with a spoiler photo very soon!



...More to come later.

Please feel free to post any constructive criticism you have! I'm in this to improve; be ruthless if you need to. If you can't think of a way to improve one of the songs, let me know what you think sounds "off" about it. Specifics are fantastic, and I will not be offended by genuine criticism. "The song is terrible." Doesn't really help me improve. "The trumpets are terrible." or "The middle part feels off to me" gives me something specific to look at, so I can try and improve the piece. Thanks, and enjoy!

Edit: April 8th, added a new demo track: "Call to Arms."
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skaraflame

A thread made yesterday? with an awesome screenshot? and no replies? that's atrocious!!!!

Will you be posting audio clips?

Jek


skaraflame

I'm watching this thread, will there be download links? are you also taking requests?

Subsonic_Noise

I listened to all your tracks and I really like them, they're amazing! I'll give ypu full feedback when I'm on my pc again, I'm currently on my iPhone, lol.

Valdred


Tyril132

FL Studio 5, Sibelius 3 (I have an academic of 4 but don't use it much), Soundforge 7 for loop editing. I usually score in Sibelius and export it to FL studio for recording. My software is ancient.

Sounds are produced using a combination of various freely available soundfonts, and a few academic license/commercial VST plug-ins.

I should probably go over this thread and start cleaning up my earlier posts, so as not to clutter it. lol
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Subsonic_Noise

April 02, 2010, 03:50:19 pm #7 Last Edit: April 02, 2010, 04:05:57 pm by Shiny Magikarp
Quote from: Valdred on April 02, 2010, 03:34:16 pm
FL studio?

Spoiler: ShowHide


I listened to all your pieces, again (lol), and I must say - they are just amazing. This is professional level video game music, I could imagine the second one to be played in a forest in Baten Kaitos, and that game has music by Motoi Sakuraba, so it's a big compliment coming from me. xD
Since I don't really have anything to critique about the music, I'll just make some suggestions how I think you could make it even more amazing.

Lightning Assult - This one is pretty much perfect as it is, I just could very well imagine a chorus singing some random latin sentences (nobody actually understands latin, so it could be anything) to this to make it even more epic. Then again, those chorus VSTs are quite expensive.

Heart of the Forest - As mentioned above, this could be played in Baten Kaitos as it is. Then again, I'd love to here some percussion in this. Nothing too complex, just perhaps a timpani or drum setting some accents, with alot of reverb... I think that could sound awesome.

City in the Sky - I'm not gonna repeat myself again :V I just think the bass is a bit too dominant in parts. Also, this piece is literally crying for timpani. xD EDIT: I just noticed that there actually already seem to be some. I, of course, meant LOUDER timpani! *hides*
You could even let it just follow the piano rythm and it will sound great.

Overall, awesome music, would love to hear them in-game. ^^
Btw, would you like to do a collaboration sometime? :3

Tyril132

Thank you very much. I'm not sure about "professional quality," but I do feel like I'm starting to find my own style. Coincidentally, I'm not surprised you hear a bit of Sakuraba in there, as he's one of my three biggest eastern influences alongside Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu.

You were gracious enough to critique multiple pieces, so I'll split up my response accordingly:

Lightning Assault: ShowHide
It's funny, in the early stages of the song I did experiment with a male chorus pad. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, quality vocal pads are very expensive, very large or very hard to get. I wasn't really satisfied with the sound, so I switched to bass strings and upped the percussion. I'd like to bring the chorus in for the second half, but we'll see what happens there.


Heart of the Forest: ShowHide
I agree that it sounds "empty" but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to add without sounding distracting. I may sample through triangle and other light percussion sounds later today and see what I can layer in. Sadly, percussion is probably my weakest skill as a composer. :(


City in the Sky: ShowHide
This is the piece I've been stuck on for the longest, so I appreciate the feedback. I agree that the bass piano is a bit too dominant. It does use a timpani/taiko combination, but they're very soft. I'll try to bring those forward a bit more. It's been a long time since I've worked on this piece, so it may be better to start over.


I'll put out a demo for DSC at some point, but this is a long term solo project with ~35 hours of projected gameplay. It's... a little too ambitious for its own good. Heart of the Forest in particular fits the atmosphere of the scene very nicely. lol

As for a collaboration, it's an idea that interests me, but I honestly have no idea when I'd have enough free time to commit to it. :(

Edit: I trimmed the topic a bit by getting rid of my earlier posts that have been incorporated into the first one. Ouch: post count -3.  :^_^':
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Tyril132

A lot of views over the last week and not a single comment on the new addition... lol
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Subsonic_Noise

CRITICISM!!

I listened to that song, and I like it, I do have some things I'd like to point out.. basically one thing, lol.
While the backing track is nice and dynamic, the melody seems, sound-like, somehow "muddy" and undefined, perhaps exchange it with another sound. In general the mix should be improved to get a clearer and morevoluminous sound... maybe play around with the reverb if you used any, lessening the room size might do the trick.
Also, the melody perhaps could be improved. And can't say where exactly, but it went down or stayed on the same note at places where it could have gone up to sound really, really epic.
Last but not least, perhaps add some solo instrument after a certain time, maybe a sakuraba-esque (:P) solo violin? Might fit well if you do it right, and I think you can. xD

That's it basically, have fun. (lol?)

Tyril132

Much appreciated. No idea why people are randomly de-leveling me all of a sudden. lol

I've been stuck on that piece for the last few days (mostly the melody, like you pointed out,) so I'll definitely take your feedback into consideration!
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WhiteRose

Quote from: Tyril132 on April 13, 2010, 04:51:29 pm
Much appreciated. No idea why people are randomly de-leveling me all of a sudden. lol

Pay no mind to the random de-leveling. It is a result of the actions of, to quote a friend of mine, "people with insignificant gentilia."

On-topic: Wow! I am really impressed. I haven't heard game music this good for quite a while.

Tyril132

July 06, 2010, 01:51:54 pm #13 Last Edit: July 06, 2010, 01:55:42 pm by Tyril132
A bump from beyond the grave. I'm continuing to make progress on the DSC project, but it's slowed down substantially due to family coming down here for an extended stay from July through September.

Pruned a few of my old no longer relevant comments out of the thread to save space.

New demos of Lightning Assault and Call to Arms have been posted. They are both starting to near completion and will probably have final versions posted sometime before September.

I'm currently working on new versions of a few songs in the DSC soundtrack that haven't been posted yet: Well of Eternity, Cestos' Theme, and Prologue - Kingsmarch.
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