Music samples (waddaya think?)

[Pussycat669]

Well, not so much music samples as more a music teaser since the tracks are mostly short and unspectacular. I wanted to analyze if I'm going into the right direction with them. They are for my super duper sci-fi RPG I'm working on (or should be working on before I found this free music composer software). Since I'm not a very musical person, chances are high that the melodies are ripped out of my memories by my subconsciousness.

PCs theme
Marsh of the absent minded (Marine)
Hard coded (IT Engineer)
Lonely Heartbeat (Spy)

I'm rather unhappy with the spy at the moment since his music is unintentionally repetitive and some of the sounds I could find didn't quiet fit, especially the heartbeat. The end is also lacking due to the short frequency.

NPCs theme
Samuel (The Janitor)
Jen (Network Maintenance)
Tay (Electrical Engineer)

Samuel's theme is probably too fast for a man close to his sixties. Jen is the only one I think I got right from the start. Her melody is a lot more organized (/dull) than those of the other NPCs, yet there is still the possible tendency to hysteria. Tay is probably alright considering that I thought of him of the jolly type of guy although a guitar may sound a little out of place for a sci-fi setting.

Random
It just never stops (Combat - Easy)
A very dark place (Dungeon music)
You didn't survive (Game Over)
Return to safety (Homebase)

The bridge at 0:10 during the combat music is a little too sudden for my taste. As far as I can tell, the dungeon theme must be heavily inspired by old Sierra adventure games. The drums at the end may build up unwanted anticipation. A friend of mine told me that the flutes in track number three are too shrill and the music overall annoying. I like this one however since I believe that I got pretty lucky with the timing. The last tune holds too long though. I'm not so sure where to put the Homebase theme. Either it is spawned from my childhood memories with RoA or some japanese rpg. Sounds like for a high fantasy game. Trying to combine several choirs at the end was a rather bad decision as well, me thinks.

 

[Section8]

I think there could be something here, but you need more layers. It seems that each one has a single piece of percussion and a single melody line, and that's not really enough to make it interesting. The other thing that you really need are some variations of volume and attack, to lend a bit more subtlety to the composition. Right now they're blunt and simple, even for sketches.

 

[Pussycat669]

You simply can't appreciate musical genius! Just kidding. Of course you're right about the lack of alterations. I will have to stretch those tracks quiet a bit before I get something really worthwhile. That will take time though, considering that I got the musical affinity of a protozoon. I find this especially hard for the marine and the IT themes. The melody of the marine is fairly enclosed and continuing jamming away with the guitar, combined with the disjointed rhythm of the drums might turn out annoying pretty quickly. I could spread two or three more guitar solos in though or even a little drum solo for a change. The IT song is a song without any highlights as fitting for the PC but this brings the problem that I could continue on spamming random notes as long as they keep up with the leading tune. The NPC themes can only be called intros if I'm really generous. I'll see if I can find some good continuations for them to go along.

The volume and attack part is a bit tricky. I know it is too much to ask but could you think of any concrete examples which would improve what we have here (if you can squeeze it in that is)?

Are there any other things that stick out negatively? Like the choice of instruments, tunes, bar or lack of accompanists?

I thank you for you input though, nevertheless.

 

[afewhours]

It sounds like you're throwing random notes at a midi editor to see what sticks. Composing stuff entirely on a screen without an instrument to hand *is* possible, but not unless you've got some background in music to draw from.

Have you got any instruments at all? A midi-keyboard could work wonders, even if you don't really know how to play it. Even if you don't know music theory, you can play one major scale (C) and one simple minor scale (Am) by playing only the white keys. You've got a major pentatonic (F#) by playing just the black keys. You'll be able to come up with coherent themes and melodies with greater ease. If you plug the thing into your PC, you'll learn how to notate because what you play on the keyboard will come up on the screen.

Perhaps you can get one of those programs aimed at layman music creation? Like, I remember eJay from years ago, but I don't know if there are any modern equivalents. Even something that bashes out relatively simple 4/4 dance music can teach you chord progression, dynamics, drum programming etc.

Of course, this is all making some pretty major assumptions about your working knowledge. Feed me. Exactly how much do you know? If I ask you what notes make up an A7 chord, would you know what I'm talking about? What software are you using? I can download it myself and have a look at it so I know what you're working with.

However, I'll say right off that I'm not too good with midi. I use hardware synths, and I'm more comfortable editing audio than midi.

I don't wanna sound too negative, but I think you've got a lot of work ahead of you. I'd encourage anyone to get into music production, it's one of the most satisfying hobbies you could hope for. It's also time consuming, and you can spend a lifetime developing and learning new tricks. If yer making a full game, while trying to learn an entirely new craft... well, I'm not saying it's impossible, but you may not see light at the end of the tunnel for a very, very long time.