new gameplay theme

[marcusvinicius]

This is my first sketch for the music. Im use only Edirol Orchestral samples for this music, in my oldest compositions im have used soundfonts.
http://www.4shared.com/file/42955864/c53a810b/osn2.html

[marcusvinicius]

Hi!This is the next update with some modifications.
http://www.4shared.com/account/file/435 ... 2_up1.html
Im want know about the possibility of this piece join the game, it has many errors?

[ancestral]

My first impressions: the first part of the song, up until 0:26 sounds like band music, or maybe circus music. You're using a lot of cymbals there in the beginning, and feels a bit like marching in a parade, not so much preparing for war or marching into battle.

[West]

Spontaneously, this sounds like a very good piece! It'll take a few more listens before I can give you any detailed feedback though.

However, I have one request. Currently the mp3 is sampled at 32000Hz and has a 112kbps bitrate. Could you please upload a higher quality version (44kHz, 128kbps or higher)? I't very hard commenting on sound quality and production when the audio is of low quality. Thanks.

[marcusvinicius]

My first impressions: the first part of the song, up until 0:26 sounds like band music, or maybe circus music. You're using a lot of cymbals there in the beginning, and feels a bit like marching in a parade, not so much preparing for war or marching into battle.

The first part realy need more atention, im go to make more goods percurssions in someupdate of this song.

However, I have one request. Currently the mp3 is sampled at 32000Hz and has a 112kbps bitrate. Could you please upload a higher quality version (44kHz, 128kbps or higher)? I't very hard commenting on sound quality and production when the audio is of low quality. Thanks.

I´m Sorry! This is high quality sound(44kHz, 320kbp/s):
http://www.4shared.com/file/43587984/d9 ... n2_HQ.html
The download is compressed. Thank for comments.

[West]

I think I'm gonna have to agree with ancestral, the intro with its busy cymbal/snare stuff and oompa-oompa tuba bassline does feel a bit like circus music . I suggest you tone it down a bit, unless a slight comic feel is what you're after.

The bassoon melody at 1:40 has some unmotivated pauses and slightly weird phrasing in general.

The piccolo is a bit overused IMO. Normally, piccolos aren't used a great deal for lead melodies but rather for ornaments like runs, trills, and octave-doubling of other instruments. AFAIK this is partly because its piercing tone gets tiring very quickly, but also because a piccolo is notoriously hard to play in tune. At least, I think that high wind instrument you're using is a piccolo. If it's a flute, it's way out of its range in places.

Also, the notes in the piccolo trills bleed into each other -- keep in mind that a wind instrument is monophonic. Either shorten the notes a bit or set the instrument to mono mode. And yes, trills are REALLY hard to fake in midi, so no matter what you do it's not gonna be 100% convincing.

Now, I hate to say this but... Edirol Orchestral doesn't sound that great. I know, I used it myself on some tracks in mainline, so I can't say "sorry, your samples aren't good enough". But honestly, it sounds very synthy and kind of... weak. It has no bite, no body, no character. Admittedly, some instruments and sections sound good -- the strings are warm and expressive, and it also has some very good horn samples -- but generally speaking, EO sounds kind of low budget despite its pricetag. You can try using an external reverb instead of the muddy built-in ones -- I had some success with that, but IIRC setting all up is a PITA as EO doesn't save channel routings between sessions. You're gonna have to load a preset file for every instance of EO everytime you load a song.

Nonetheless, I think this tune shows promise. For general gameplay music, you're going in the right direction. But you're going to have to spice it up quite a bit, making it sound more alive and exciting.

Good work. I look forward to hearing a new revision.

[yobbo]

The first thing I notice when listening to this is that the instruments both don't seem to have an individuality, and don't seem to have any cohesiveness. They seem like they were just pointed at some notes and they happen to be playing them at the exact same time as each other.

[Smashworth]

This is great! There are a few harmony problems near the beginning, but this is a really nice composng and arranging. The start doesn't bother me at all, I like it. It reminds me of a national anthem of some breakaway Soviet republic.

It's always nice to get better samples, but this work stands on its own.

Yobho: There is absolutely nothing constructive about your comments, there is no way the composer can possibly do anything with what you wrote.

[marcusvinicius]

next update with external reverb

My first impressions: the first part of the song, up until 0:26 sounds like band music, or maybe circus music. You're using a lot of cymbals there in the beginning, and feels a bit like marching in a parade, not so much preparing for war or marching into battle.

I think I'm gonna have to agree with ancestral, the intro with its busy cymbal/snare stuff and oompa-oompa tuba bassline does feel a bit like circus music . I suggest you tone it down a bit, unless a slight comic feel is what you're after.

This problem has been fixed.

The bassoon melody at 1:40 has some unmotivated pauses and slightly weird phrasing in general.

The piccolo is a bit overused IMO. Normally, piccolos aren't used a great deal for lead melodies but rather for ornaments like runs, trills, and octave-doubling of other instruments. AFAIK this is partly because its piercing tone gets tiring very quickly, but also because a piccolo is notoriously hard to play in tune. At least, I think that high wind instrument you're using is a piccolo. If it's a flute, it's way out of its range in places.

Also, the notes in the piccolo trills bleed into each other -- keep in mind that a wind instrument is monophonic. Either shorten the notes a bit or set the instrument to mono mode. And yes, trills are REALLY hard to fake in midi, so no matter what you do it's not gonna be 100% convincing.

Really is very hard make good trills in MIDI but the edirol mono mode is very very synth sound!! I have used the mono mode in this update but the audio not is good. The piccolo is minus used in this update, i moved some notes to woods.

It's always nice to get better samples, but this work stands on its own.

Now, I hate to say this but... Edirol Orchestral doesn't sound that great. I know, I used it myself on some tracks in mainline, so I can't say "sorry, your samples aren't good enough". But honestly, it sounds very synthy and kind of... weak. It has no bite, no body, no character. Admittedly, some instruments and sections sound good -- the strings are warm and expressive, and it also has some very good horn samples -- but generally speaking, EO sounds kind of low budget despite its pricetag. You can try using an external reverb instead of the muddy built-in ones -- I had some success with that, but IIRC setting all up is a PITA as EO doesn't save channel routings between sessions. You're gonna have to load a preset file for every instance of EO everytime you load a song.

I Know about the Edirol Orchestra bad samples, the sound not have body and some instruments is very synth, in specially
the brass sections(trumpet and trombone). I used the EO because of the very good MIDI automation and the plugin interface. I have also the Garritan GPO but is hard make expressive sounds with it and is very hard to move from Edirol to GPO.

[marcusvinicius]

This is one simply test for compare Edirol and GPO:
GPO
Edirol
Woodwinds sections of GPO

[Tyler Johnson]

Do I have to sign up to hear it?

[marcusvinicius]

Do I have to sign up to hear it?

No. Wait to show the download file button in bottom-right of screen.

[marcusvinicius]

I have a new solution for edirol orchestral bad samples, the squidfont soundfont. Listen this simple piece maded by me with squidfont(strings,woodwinds):
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... ID=6510894

The trumpet and xilophone are maded with westgate and campbells soundfonts.
squidfont download

[Rain]

Hey there Marcus. Those samples do sound pretty nice. The sound of the actual instruments reminds me a ton of the sound settings used in Final Fantasy Tactics. Especially in regards to the strings and woodwinds. (the oboe specifically)
Kind of a floaty feel, very atmospheric, lots of reverb and a nice far away sound. Some of those trumpet samples sound wonderful! Sounds pretty realistic to me. Were these samples all free for download?

As for the composition, I like it. I don't think you were writing this specifically for Wesnoth, but it definitely sounds like you know what you want compositionally and go after it. For some reason, this music reminds me a lot of the Princess Bride soundtrack. A good thing to be sure. Very lighthearted and happy.

Have you tried integrating these sample-types into a battle track?

[marcusvinicius]

Hey there Marcus. Those samples do sound pretty nice. The sound of the actual instruments reminds me a ton of the sound settings used in Final Fantasy Tactics. Especially in regards to the strings and woodwinds. (the oboe specifically)
Kind of a floaty feel, very atmospheric, lots of reverb and a nice far away sound. Some of those trumpet samples sound wonderful! Sounds pretty realistic to me. Were these samples all free for download?

Thank Rain! The campbells xilofone and westgate trumpet can be downloaded on this site http://www.sf2midi.com/

Have you tried integrating these sample-types into a battle track?

Yes , some of the SQUIDFONT , of the Garritan Orchestra and others samples.

I will be post the results later.