Speaking as a composer who's experimented with both retro music and more modern music and combining both, I regret to say that, in my experience, you're going to do far better as a musician if you only make modern music. Yes, there is some evidence of a retro revival, but it's pretty niche.

Cover of a piece from an obscure Myst-like game.

Made something other than outright synthwave, for a change. Inspired mostly by the Wipeout games.

Well, for me, there is such a thing as too punchy. That being said, I personally look at the audio in an audio waveform viewer after exporting, in my case, Audacity, and look to see if any particular sound is so punchy that it causes clipping, which usually are drums for me.

After listening to your piece in particular, I think I can conclude that both the drums and the bass have a bit too much attack. Granted, the bass is clearly meant to have a slapped sound, but still.

As for the master bus, I almost NEVER compress the master output, though I do use a limiter to control the peaks. In the event that I do change my mind and compress the master, I try to make it as subtle as possible. For instance, I never use a ratio higher than 2:1, and usually it's lower, sometimes as low as 1.2:1, which is the recommended amount of compression according to several mixing guides.

If you feel you need to make something louder regardless, equalizing can be your friend. I personally have grown to love high-pass filter bands for frequencies below the frequencies I need for a particular instrument.

Took a listen for myself, and I'd have to agree with mscottweber about the amount of compression, though I certainly admire your goal to control the amount of compression you use, which is more than I can say for other modern musicians.

As hopeful as I was for a more thorough critique, I'm honored to have made it in the top five! I'm only sad I have to vote to see the results, an action which would definitely skew the results a bit.

PS: the soundclound preview links are broken on your music packages in the unity store.

Like I said, I gave up on selling non-exclusive music there, and since the last time I used it there was no way to properly remove products...I certainly hope that's changed, though...

Thanks for letting us know, though I kind of gave up on selling my music that way, which is non-exclusive. Granted, I've learned a lot about how to properly produce music since my last package there, but still, evidently, developers are more interested in exclusive licenses. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it means more income for the composer.

pgil, nice submission. Certainly sounds like the Lethal Weapon soundtrack, though it doesn't feel that uneasy to me honestly.

Here's my submission, which I honestly started to think I didn't have time for.

The Haunted Campus

Loosely inspired by the early 80s B movie "Final Exam".

The pain was the strings. I originally used synth strings from the Prophet VS, only to discover that it resulted in a significant DC offset.

I hope to be able to contribute to this particular challenge. You stated that you'd prefer something cinematic-themed, and it just so happens that I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks. Plus, I love dark sci-fi.. XD

Critique acknowledged, Zack. Yeah, it was difficult getting all the many drum sounds balanced in volume, and I guess some sounded louder than they should have, as you noted with the shaker. As for the climax, that sudden end was intended, as many tribal-style pieces that Ive heard tend to end similarly.

Best of luck to the finalists!

Also, sorry I took so long; had to attend a cousin's wedding, among other reasons.

Another game music remix, just to prove my YouTube channel is still alive.





Rest assured, after this, I'll try to focus more on original pieces again.

Yeah, whosampled.com sure is amazing! Definitely a way to get lost for a couple of hours .. or days.

When it comes to commercial songs sampled from, this is definitely a good resource. However, my reservation, which I'm guessing is also the reservation of the OP, is for sounds that were directly from synthesizers, which are technically not copyrighted songs as such.

I love this kind of thread, speaking as someone very much into identifying synths used in electronic music. Recently, for instance, I discovered that Mikko Tarmia, frequent composer for Frictional Games, is a Logic user like me. How do I know this? I was perusing through the sounds I have that are built into Logic, and in the process, I discovered two trademark Penumbra sounds in the EXS24 factory library (namely, "Beach Bells" and "Choirpad").

EDIT: Bearing in mind the rules to give sonic examples, this piece from the games is virtually a Choirpad solo.

Finally got around to more soundtrack-style music, even if a cover version.

https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/aom-chocolate-outline-python-blue-remix

Very insightful thread, speaking as someone who suffers from musician's block almost persistently. I think part of my problem is that when I open my iTunes library, I tend to listen to the same stuff, no thanks to seeing the same items every time I start it up; a lack of inspiration from new work, in other words.

As for taking breaks, I'm hoping that the fact that I'm taking a few more classes as of last week will help there.

Arrival of the Natives sounds great!
Good job

Thanks a lot! I realize it's slightly repetitious, but then, it's hard to make variety in a given track with just rhythm.

What Zack said, speaking as the person who asked last time.

Anyway, I made a submission as well.

https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/arrival-of-the-natives/s-O4zOn

If anyone would prefer not downloading it, I'll upload it to Soundcloud when I'm back home.

Anyway, I feel I did relatively well in abandoning my retro-style niche with this one. Only major difficulty I had was making it a suitable RMS, as I usually work with sustained instruments layered with the percussion, if the latter is even present.

Enjoy this piece, which, while without melody, is reminiscent of African tribal music.

EDIT: replaced with a SoundCloud link.

Changed my mind and decided to enter. That being said, however, I do have one more question, though it likely won't apply to what I make: are pianos permitted? Those instruments are arguably percussion, if you'd prefer against that, though, then I'll see what I can do with mallets and such when it comes to melody.

... unless the whole piece sounds like 80's scifi music with the pads).

Was this bit really necessary?

Regardless, I'm interested in attempting something. Are we allowed to use anything that's percussive in nature? As comprehensive as that list is, it may not suffice for some musicians, though I personally will try.

EDIT: on second thought, since you seem to have been implying that I'm not welcome to this challenge simply because of what I usually use, I'll just sit back and listen to those who were invited. Not that I was going to go for something retro necessarily, FYI.