New Composition

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Theoden
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New Composition

Post by Theoden »

Hi I've been working on this orchestral composition and thought it may be suitable for BfW. Here is a link to file as a .wav .
Any feedback? :)
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West
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Re: New Composition

Post by West »

Hi,

Please convert your track to mp3 or ogg. Thanks.
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Theoden
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Re: New Composition

Post by Theoden »

Yeah sure, here is the song in .ogg format.
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Unnheulu
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Re: New Composition

Post by Unnheulu »

Any updates on this song? I know the composer (Theoden) is willing to make any changes needed to it.
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West
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Re: New Composition

Post by West »

Right, sorry.

First of all I'm not clear on what "suitable for Wesnoth" means in this case. UMC? Absolutely. Mainline? Not in its present form, a lot of the samples are too lo-fi sounding.

Still, a cool composition that moves through a lot of moods with a good sense of flow. Some remarks:

- Too much glocken! It's playing almost constantly, to the point of getting on my nerves ;)

- No reverb? Why?

- The percussion is very loud, like it's in front of everything else.

- I would like to hear more brass and woodwinds. It's kind of samey in terms of instrumentation right now. Try creating variations here and there, e.g. switching out a strings accompaniment for brass and letting the winds handle the melody.

All in all a nice tune, though a bit rough right now. First thing you need to do is add some reverb so this sounds more orchestral.
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Theoden
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Re: New Composition

Post by Theoden »

Okay, added reverb to everything (now wondering if I've overdone it a bit :? ), removed a lot of the unnecessary glock parts and added a few more oboe/cor anglais parts. Here is the updated version.
Radh
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Re: New Composition

Post by Radh »

I listened to the updated version, and am no expert -- but I do really think it could work with the large dungeon crawler maps. I know we have a lot of those in user campaigns, and I feel this fits more accurately than some of the songs they use.

Also -- the ending is a bit too dramatic to be looped over and over like in a game. I think it should transition into the beginning of the song.
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Flameslash
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Re: New Composition

Post by Flameslash »

I can really picture this being used for cinematic scenarios, but don't really see it fitting with normal scenarios.
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Tyler Johnson
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Re: New Composition

Post by Tyler Johnson »

Hi Theoden, the piece could work, but it needs work. You need to invest in some high quality samples. What are you composing this with now? The snare has that machine gun effect.

Also, one thing with the harmony, aside from the opening bit, you're relying on i-VI-iv way too much. The era for this game is mostly romantic classical, listen to Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov's Orchestral work, or Gustav Holst's The Planets! Major works there, and the orchestrations and harmony is just amazing. Learn from THOSE guys, not what's on the radio today. I would even go as far as to say there aren't a whole lot of real talented 'Hollywood' composers today. I think we could do better than them :)

As far as that glockenspiel, try replacing it with a flute right around the 2:00 mark, see how that layers. I think it may work better for that section than a percussive bell...

But yeah, overall, I like the piece. It just needs higher quality samples, and maybe a few harmonic changes to fit the era of the game.

-Tyler

EDIT: Very nice harp work at the end, it was hidden in there, barely noticeable but still there.

And check the expression/modulation release at the very end of the song on your gong, it jumped up a bit there in volume.
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