Here's another track, this time for a stage in an upcoming adventure game.

https://soundcloud.com/echocore/weaving-valleys

Just released a new area track for SOUL, check it out on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/echocore/bustle-trading-city-of-bursa

Hey all!

I'm a professional composer and sound designer. I thought I'd drop my website here to showcase my music, in the hope that someone may find them catchy and enjoyable.

You can find examples on the landing page under Demos, and my released work is located in the menu, where it says "Music". Enjoy!

Vivid Sound

You can contact me at [email protected], or just by shooting me a private message on this forum.

Thought I'd share a track from a concept soundtrack I'm working on:

https://soundcloud.com/echocore/x-mad-mechanic-denos-battle

Wanted to capture the essence of madness, and also add an Eastern sounding made-up-language hook.

This is a battle track, so it is meant to be driving and powerful! Enjoy.

[Vivid Sound]

Greetings all!

I am a composer and sound designer with many years of experience, and I figured I'd drop my portfolio site here.

Vivid Sound

My style could be described as flexible, but I have a large focus on creating memorable tunes that I find fun to listen back to myself.

My area of expertise would definitely lie in RPG soundtracks, but that's not where my paid work has come from. I've created soundtracks for multiple iOS and Android games, mostly platformers and fighters. You can find more information in the Music section in the top bar.

On the landing page are a few demos of my tracks, ordered by context. I'd recommend listening to at least one from each, if you're interested

Thanks, and don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected], PM me here, or shoot me a carrier pigeon if you'd like music for your game.

Glad that you enjoyed PAX so much, it really is a great experience.

I like the concept of this game and it's looking pretty good so far.  As with the controls, I believe someone mentioned above that Ape Escape shied away from industry standards in that regard and was successful regardless.  It really depends on what you think is right, though I for one am always advocating giving the player the choice; I find it strange that games that use a controller exclusively (console games are a great example) in most cases don't allow you to rebind buttons.

Good luck with the rest of development.

I hope to enter this one, if I have some time in between everything else!

I post probably 70% of my unused tracks to my Soundcloud.  They're rather eclectic and often a bit experimental, so I feel it gives a nice example of what I can do under different genres.

Everything I DO release officially goes on my Bandcamp instead, so there's a definite line between the two.

I'd encourage you to release most unused tracks without too much hesitation; no use having them floating around doing nothing, after all.

Definitely get in touch with some local universities/other higher education places and ask if the head of music could forward your email on to the students.
I frequently get these sorts of emails from the head of composition / head of school at my uni.

Alternatively, have a look out for instrumental teachers on the net or wherever else. That may be more costly though.

Good luck

Absolutely this.

Additionally, check out Facebook groups for musicians in your area.  If you live away from a city centre (or smack bang in the middle of nowhere) it could be more difficult, but otherwise you can find some excellent, talented musicians.

While for some this is an issue of contention, in most cases the use of a loop is still fair enough.

I myself try and steer away from it as much as possible, and if it is used, then I at least try and change it so it's far beyond recognition, or simply use it as a starting point for something more original.

I agree on the fact that it's a bit disappointing that it's the main theme of the track, however.

Loving the ideas behind this.

Would be great to see where this goes!  Following.

I wish I had known this earlier. Absolutely love the sound.

They're beautiful, aren't they?  One of my favourite instruments.

What are circlebells?

These things.

Awesome, will get to writing some pieces for this ASAP.

I guess I'll have to go with the Pan Flute, then.

Slumb'ring in a dark abode
Deep below the earthen roads
't toss and turn to visions hate
Of lust, of rage, of hands of fate
It sees not air, nor earth, nor sun
Not war, not famine, not wounded ones
The silence tells a greater tale
Than broken skin, cold and pale
And whence it crack those sullen eyes
its fingers shall unfurl
't bringeth forth a new demise
to the unsuspecting world

Do we have to pick one?  ...  Just one?

Okay





Everything about the soundtrack is perfectly haunting and grim, like the world it represents.

I cannot express my love for this soundtrack enough.  The game itself has made rounds simply because of how brilliant the soundtrack is.

Also Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Shadow of the Colossus, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Bastion, Zero Divide 2, Megaman Battle Network, Ace Combat 5, Soul Calibur, Binary Domain, Shatter, The Binding of Isaac, Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIII-2, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Catherine, Destrega, Odin Sphere, Lord of Vermillion, Breath of Fire IV, Breath of Fire V....  the list is too long.

- Hang Drum
- Circlebells
- Ambient recordings (this counts as an instrument, right? ... right?!)

[LMMS]

LMMS seconded, however, it can be a bit impenetrable for beginners wanting to jump in, and when I used the program it was a bit unstable.  While this is all true, there is still a huge amount of stuff you can do with it, and it's open source, meaning there's bound to be plug-ins and all sorts for it.

If you'd much prefer Windows, and really want to delve more into the professional side of electronic music, I'd recommend simply grabbing the Demo version of FL Studio.  In this case, you are able to save, but can only open the files with a full version.  You can, however, export to MP3, OGG, or WAV.  Not only is this good practise (creating a song in one go is great fun and extremely good experience) but you have full access to all the aspects of a DAW without having to pay.  If you love it, want the ability to save, but don't have the money, pirate it and buy it when you finally have enough.  If you do purchase it you get lifetime upgrades and full support, along with access to the forums, a great resource for any composer using the program.

Anvil Studio has been touted as a great MIDI arrangement program, but I much prefer Musescore and Aria Maestosa for more traditional score creation.  Both are open source and completely free.  They're but a simple Google search away!

If you want a more recording focused DAW rather than the electronic arrangements of FL Studio and the like, Reaper is an excellent, high quality "donationware" DAW that was developed by the same team who made WinAMP.  There is a nag pop-up at start-up, but that's about it.  Reaper has made a name for itself as the "industry standard on a budget", and has some support for MIDI and electronic arrangement as well, along with a brilliant array of great plug-ins you can process your music with.  It's great as a second pipeline for your music.

That's about it, I think.  I know this is a bit in-depth, but take a look at each and see which one suits your fancy.

Good luck, and happy composing!  

There's a huge amount of studio headphones out there, and it really depends on what you're going for.

I personally use a combination of Beats Studio headphones and Shure SRH 940s for headphone mixing, as they are both excellent quality and each have a different approach, and a wide variety of lesser speaker systems and earphones to test out the mix fully.

It's important to note that many engineers and composers do not like mixing on headphones; this is really a matter of personal preference and your situation.  If you're in a busy dorm, or some other area with a lot of people, mixing on loud, bass heavy studio monitoring speakers is obviously not something you can do.  Also, headphones tend to exacerbate stereo width issues, allowing you to nip them in the bud.  Not only this, headphones are far cheaper than professional monitoring speakers by a long shot, so it's great for a budget conscious producer.

I highly recommend Shure's monitoring line, especially the SRH 940s, though I wouldn't purchase Beats Studio headphones unless you can find them cheaper than $200 (the price is awful).  If you're not willing to spend $300 on Shure, you can go for their cheaper range, which is still pretty damn good.  AKG is also a serious competitor, but not having used them I can only go by the various reviews and impressions I've heard from friends.

Just keep in mind that if you want something better later, you can always save and upgrade, but DON'T THROW OUT YOUR OLD HEADPHONES!  They are vital to helping you create a balanced and listenable mix on a wide variety of systems.  Just like microphones, different, cheaper headphones simply have different uses, rather than being "crap" and "not crap".

Hope this helps you decide!  

EDIT: Whoops, you've already bought the BeyerDynamic!  Haha, well hopefully this advice can help some people anyway.