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[Nick]

Originally posted by ReamusLQ@Sep 5 2005, 04:52 PM
w00t for another composer. Right, so this is a pretty groovin' tune. I hope you don't mind, but I opened it up into Finale so I could read the score as it played for me. Now comes some of my own personal input that you might want to keep in mind for your next midi.

I really like the little motif/melody you have through out the whole song. I actually smiled when you did the little call and answer portion around measure...(checks)...25 and again around measure 50. This added a little more flavor to the song, and kept it from being too repetitive. My only advice when you do this, would be to increase the dynamic of the first instrument (the piano in the first staff?) because it's melody is kind of lost behind the Overdrive Guitar.

The little harp effect thing is cool too. I don't know what it's called in Cakewalk, but all I know is it sounds like a harp. Around measures 41, 57, etc. Whenever the sixth staff has running sixteenth notes. This adds more drive to the song, as does when the guitars start pushing the sixteenth notes. It's cool.

I liked the bass line, it was groovin'.

One of the neat things you did was the layering of the song as it goes on. It seemed (to me at least) that you introduced each of the instruments, then at the end you layered all of their melodies and lines on top of eachother so it became a whirlwind of sound, with the melody constantly being played. You need to be careful when you do this though, because when trying to create this effect people often have TOO much movement going on, and the effect is muddled and lost. You did a pretty good job controling it in this piece, but there were times when the sound started to become muddy instead of cool.

Overall, this was a cool piece. You need to work on some of the dynamics between the instruments, because some are naturally more overpowering than the others. The piano, for example, can in no way compete with the guitars in volume, so you should bring them down and the piano up a bit when they are doing the duet. Basically, whenever something has the melody, you want to bring those running lines around them down (the running sixteenths) so that they don't over power and distract. The melody is the salad, and the running lines are just little croutons and bread crumbs, there to give it a little more flavor. You don't want a loaf of bread in your salad.

My last criticism, is to make sure you don't become too repetitive. You had a cool melody, but it was almost run into the ground. What you should have done is composed variations on that melody throughout the piece. You could have done as one would have in a fugue, and inverted the notes but kept the rhythm. An easy way to write variations on a melody is to just write the melody a third down and adjust for the chords it's being played over. This makes people be like "Hey, I know that melody but it's...different..." Howard Shore did this a lot in the Lord of the Rings' soundtrack.

Those are my two cents. I would very much like to hear your next piece, you have talent.

Thanks. I'll keep in mind, what you've told. k:

[Indignus IV]

Eh.....I've heard better. I don't mean to be a twit, but I thought it was a bit...dry.
I mean, you have a great start and all but then it just sort of repeats itself. Lay off the electric guitar and the irish theme, and start to put a little fast synth and beat into it. I had a bit of trouble tapping my foot to the song, because the instruments were a bit befuddled.

Please don't hate me for the criticism, but I am very picky with midis. I would demonstrate my talent for you guys, but my synthesizer broke a year or two ago


I can see you put time into the song though, Nick and you definitely have potential. Keep on playing!

[Nick]

Originally posted by Indignus IV@Sep 30 2005, 12:47 AM
Eh.....I've heard better. I don't mean to be a twit, but I thought it was a bit...dry.
I mean, you have a great start and all but then it just sort of repeats itself. Lay off the electric guitar and the irish theme, and start to put a little fast synth and beat into it. I had a bit of trouble tapping my foot to the song, because the instruments were a bit befuddled.

Please don't hate me for the criticism, but I am very picky with midis. I would demonstrate my talent for you guys, but my synthesizer broke a year or two ago


I can see you put time into the song though, Nick and you definitely have potential. Keep on playing!

No problem. I need to hear different opinions.

[Nick]

Here's another thing I made. Does it fit to be a level theme for some game, as I planned?

[Blood-Pigggy]

That main piano chord in the background reminded me of a toddler pressing the same buttons on a keyboard over and over.
Fantastic tho'.

[blastradius14]

Pretty incredible there. All I can do is sing heh.

Can you do some up tempo'd battle theme type music? I think indi would like that

[Eagle of Fire]

Rebirth; I like it a lot. Somehow reminds me of MegaMan tunes, it would fit very well as an ending theme.

The second theme reminds me of FF3. Would works great as a sad tune with tads of hope in a RPG.

[blastradius14]

More like Tales of Phantasia. That's what the second one sounds like to me hehe.

[ReamusLQ]

Another good creation. I'll give some comments, but I'll try to keep them short.

I noticed you brought back your melody from the other song, or something very very similar to that motif around measure 21 and 45. That made me smile. The underlying chord progressions did get a little monotonous. I understand what you are trying to do by laying down a chord structure and then changing what goes on over the top of it, but remember...a jam can only go on for so long before it gets kinda boring. It would have been cool to start as you did (in the key of G I think?) and then have modulated to another key, or change the progression around a bit. The only thing you have keeping it from being extremely boring is that guitar solo that comes in. Even the harp line that does the variations kind of ends up doing the same thing over and over. Variation needs to happen in chord structure and rhythm, not just notes.

The melody seemed very similar to the pentatonic scale, which is fine if you want it to sound asian/japanese.

Over all, it was good. Just remember to change things up so it's not soooo repetitive.

[Reup]

I agree with Raemus on the repitive bit (I don't understand the rest he's sayinh :whistle and the fact that it has a certain oriental ring to it. Other then that k: