Gameplay Theme

[marcusvinicius]

Hi , I´m new in the Wesnoth forum. I compose this simple theme for gameplay of Wesnoth, based in the current music of the game.

http://www.4shared.com/file/38438486/d3 ... sinf1.html


Thank´s for attention, i´m wait comments about the music

[West]

Hi marcusvinicius, welcome to the Wesnoth forums.

I think you might have a potentially nice theme going on there, I like the plaintive feel. It's very short though, and not a whole lot happens in it, so it's hard for me giving you any real feedback on the music itself. You're going to have to work a whole lot more on it, I think. Make it longer, add more instruments, make the arrangement more interesting.

Also, the samples you're using aren't very good. The strings sound like an ARP Solina or a similar analog string synth. You need to use real string samples -- violins, violas, celli and contrabasses, properly panned and arranged. The choir sample is also a little ambigous, as I can't tell whether it's supposed to be a boy choir or a female choir, and it has bad loops. Our goal is to have a pro-quality game soundtrack, which means you will have to get the best orchestral samples you can afford (and show us you can use them) if you want to contribute music.

I'm also not quite sure what happens at the end of the piece, when it first (1:47) resolves into a major chord and almost immediately (1:51) slips back into minor again. Doing creative stuff with major/minor can be very effective (this happens frequently in many forms of traditional music), but requires that it sounds intentional, like you really mean it. Otherwise the listener might instead get the impression that something went wrong.

So, at this point we can't accept your submission. It needs to be longer and more interesting, and above all you need to get yourself a better sample set.

Do keep working on it though, and don't hesitate to post new versions as the piece progresses.

[Jetrel]

Nice melody; you've clearly got some talent at composing the actual music behind this, but the synthesization of this is extremely primitive. You need better software to do this with, or you need to learn to use the software that you have (if you happen to have something high-end, like cubase or such). This sounds like a midi sythesizer, and that's simply not acceptable for inclusion.

[marcusvinicius]

Hi, tank for comments. Sorry for music errors. Im go to update the music score and the instruments in the next post.

[marcusvinicius]

Hi, this is the next update of my music with drasticaly changes in the score and the instruments.

http://www.4shared.com/file/40261948/ca ... f1_up.html

[Boucman]

I like it a lot,

It makes me think of a very peacefull place (maybe with a small river flowing) and two armies camping at either end... Right now everything is peacefull, but tomorow will be a battle

[West]

This is much, much nicer. Good work!

A few of suggestions though:

- Don't use the oboe so much; if you want that melody repeating many times, let other instruments play it sometimes. Quite frankly, after a few minutes, that theme gets very annoying and predictable. Also, remember to add breathing rests for wind instruments. It's an oboe, not a bagpipe.

- Use Expression to roll off long held notes so they sound less static. I'm thinking mostly of the trumpets (?) at 2:38-2:40. Bring the volume down slightly after the attack of the sound, let it stay at that level for a bit, and then taper the end of it so it fades out nicely instead of just going abruptly silent.

- The harp sounds oddly out of tune and banjo-esque in places, especially around 3:17. Are you using the mod wheel??

- Some more percussion wouldn't hurt in places. Not a lot though, just some cymbal rolls or a soft bass drum hit to accent the beginning of certain passages. I'm not sure about this though, as the piece works quite well as it is. But it might be worth a try.

Anyway, you have made some really impressive progress with this piece, both in terms of arrangements and the samples used. With some edits, this could definitely end up in the game. Thumbs up.

[Blueblaze]

Good work on the latest rendition of the piece.

Just to reinforce West's comments; any wind instrument player needs to breath fairly often. Lighten the oboe use, mix it up with different instruments. You might want to drop the harp glissando effects unless you can get them to sound better. Right now, they don't resonate well. The violin drop off at 0:42-0:44 doesn't sound pleasing at all to the first time listener. It has a growing appeal, but relying on such appeal is often bad. You might want to make the dip more powerful by having the other instruments rest for the 4th note. Concerning percussion, you don't -need- to add more percussion, but as West said it can add more flavor to a piece. I do like the crash used in 2:48. Finally, your plucked harp? at 3:17 to near end sounds unintentionally a lot like a mandolin. Replace this with some pizzicato violins and see how it sounds.

Oh, glissandos don't need to go directly from low to high, an example of a unique glissando that you could use is below:

[marcusvinicius]

Hi, thanks for comments for all.

- Don't use the oboe so much; if you want that melody repeating many times, let other instruments play it sometimes. Quite frankly, after a few minutes, that theme gets very annoying and predictable. Also, remember to add breathing rests for wind instruments. It's an oboe, not a bagpipe.

- Use Expression to roll off long held notes so they sound less static. I'm thinking mostly of the trumpets (?) at 2:38-2:40. Bring the volume down slightly after the attack of the sound, let it stay at that level for a bit, and then taper the end of it so it fades out nicely instead of just going abruptly silent.

- The harp sounds oddly out of tune and banjo-esque in places, especially around 3:17. Are you using the mod wheel??

- Some more percussion wouldn't hurt in places. Not a lot though, just some cymbal rolls or a soft bass drum hit to accent the beginning of certain passages. I'm not sure about this though, as the piece works quite well as it is. But it might be worth a try.

If my oboé soundtrack is a real player this already is dead suffocated!! In the next update im make the new modifications.

You might want to drop the harp glissando effects unless you can get them to sound better

Im go to make this in the next update, great idea!!

[marcusvinicius]

http://www.4shared.com/file/41165228/3f ... 1_up2.html
This is the next update with some repairs.