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[2mass]

Couple more, bleh...

This one is some more fake orchestra stuff...

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/elijah-wood-goes-volcano-spelunking-in-the-world-of-warcraft

And this one is another old drum and bass tune which has been sitting around for a while. I saw someone on here has Shodan as their Avatar... so they might like it. I'm trying to upload some of my old stuff over the next month or so, but because soundcloud is dumb and doesn't allow you to arrange the order I am going to do it slow. Otherwise I pitty the person who is looking for some nice VGM and all they hear is weird drum and bass.

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/shodan

Thanks for the kind words @6down! I don't have any recommendations for chiptunes. Do you use the real chipsynths? I don't. Just curious. I got plogue chipsounds a couple months ago and have used it on a few chiptunes I've written recent-ish. I like it.

Also listened to your viking music @2mass, pretty sweet - I like the folksy sounding instruments.

Thanks good sir, I also listened to your dreamy forest just now, I really like it, the funny bit here, is that it reminds me a lot of this track I made last year.. Which also bears almost the same title..





I was gonna post my Sherlock track tho..

[6down]

@2mass: Thanks for the tip, I'll check that thread out!

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@Z: "Volcano Spelunking" is excellent, super ominous...there's definitely something epic inside that volcano...demons...dragons...that thing that killed all those dwarves in moria...

"Shodan" sure is intense... I've never played the game myself, but the mood seems right on; I'm taken aback by your breadth of genres, only listened to a few of your songs but they're all very distinct musical styles which you seem to know up and down.  Right when I figured the track could use a bit something more (a robotic voice, for instance) Shodan obliged.  I'll have to actually check out System Shock one of these days; heard so many great things about it.

For my chipsounds I used this this and this for the NES, and this for the Genesis.  The latter (Ym2512 VST) seems rather complex and I feel I've only scratched the surface with it, but I'll definitely check out the Plogue demo.  I'm still pretty new to the sound-tweaking scene so I tend to just fiddle with sliders, but hopefully soon I'll know what more of them actually mean.

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@Noyemi: Programming language, sweet!  I can certainly understand why that would scare off most musicians.  Thanks very much for the tips!

Those Pursuit tracks are the bee's knees!  Love the drums in Low, and that synth is smooth as a cucumber.  I'll definitely have to experiment more with chip-tune sounds going forward, I used to think the genre didn't have a whole lot of potential...not any more.  Maybe I'll try out some of that sweet pitch-bending stuff, I don't want to overuse it, but your track demonstrates how effective it can be in the right places.

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@2mass:  The Forest is very nice, love the percussion's subtle entrance and the leads' departure at 1:20, followed by their subsequent return with minor key melodies.  The shift back is abrupt, but it works great, nice musical snapshot of not just the atmosphere of the forest, but also it's roaming denizens.

Sherlock's great too, the pacing of the different sections nicely reflects the respective parts of a Holmesian story; carefully and methodically, even mathematically searching for clues and measuring footsteps, but with the ominous threat of the unknown killer, driving the song's imminence, a pacing for which the timpani is a nice starter's pistol.

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Great batch of tunes people!  Hopefully within the next couple days I'll have another to share.  'Preciate all the advice!

[2mass]

That was quite the review.. Impressive.. You should be a writer on top of composer 

[6down]

Why thank you!

Here's a little homage to John Coltrane:

https://soundcloud.com/6-down/equinaux

[デッアンソニー]

https://danthoniwooten.bandcamp.com/track/select-x-dist-file-rar

Released an electronic track with 8-bit elements~ I hope you guys enjoy it!

Also you guys are more than welcome to download it! ^^

[HoffmanIV]

Hoff, your orchestral piece reminded me of a couple tracks from Halo 1, really great mood, even if like you said the emotion is slightly ambiguous; can be appreciated from a glass-half-full and a glass-half-empty perspective, like a battle's aftermath.  War may be over but we grieve for fallen soldiers kind of thing.  I think you've successfully expanded your wheelhouse, sir.

Thank you, 6down! That's very nice of you to say. Halo 1 definitely had a lasting impact on me, I have to say -- some aspect of that soundtrack coming through doesn't actually surprise me at all, I have to say. I'm definitely going to have to keep with it.

I think the piece certainly works, though in my opinion it could use some percussive sparkle like intermittent triangle hits. The piece begs for it!

I really dig your chiptunes too, particularly "Eibensbach" from your new EP. I'm not one for making NES stuff myself (I prefer NEC PC-88 and PC-98) so I have respect for anyone who can work with that and not want to tear their hair out.

You're right on that one, Noyemi. I do want to add some percussive elements -- cymbals, triangle, etc. I want to build up the piece more first, see if it can maybe build more in the melodic/harmonic domains before introducing percussion. Because when you do introduce percussion, it's hard to take it away.

And thanks! Eibensbach is probably one of my favorites. It's got a real jazzy kind of sound to it that I didn't know I was capable of exhibiting. As far as NES music is concerned, I can't fault you for not being into it yourself -- the PC engine has a very alluring sound to it.

The only reason why I started with the NES chip is because I only just got into Trackers last July, and needed to get my feet wet with something simple but also capable of rich complexity. Well. That and I just really liked what Virt did with Shovel Knight, and that really got me off my ass and into making chiptune. It's very likely that the next album I'll be releasing will be the last "pure" NES chiptune work I'll do (outside of collabs and making music for NES games). I'm still very passionate about the NES's chip, but it's about time that I stretch my legs and get into different things. The YM2612 chip currently has my attention, but ... I wouldn't be surprised if I just end up making a SNES jazz-prog album.

Cool homage to Coltrane, 6down. The only thing it's missing is the elements of modality and switching between different key centers. It doesn't -quite- feel like Coltrane because of that.

[6down]

Thanks, Hoff!  You're absolutely right about Coltrane; I quite look forward to experimenting with modality--it's a bit intimidating what with the real depth of complexity offered by key changes, but I hope if I approach it slowly I'll be able to figure it out.  I'm beginning to play around with a piano piece that starts and ends in C Mixolydian with shifts to Ionian and Dorian, just simple changes and certainly nowhere near Coltrane or Davis' flexibility, but I think it'll be easier to get into modal jazz if I start small.

Nice electronic piece, D'An!  Turns pretty epic at 30 seconds and continues to escalate, but I love the mood shift two minutes in.  The new synth enters rather chaotically, but at 2:16 it really starts to coalesce, and the added bass helps it pop nicely.  3:30 is another well placed riff, and the cutoff as it's echoed during the ending is abrupt yet satisfying.  Keep it up!

[zminusone]

Back at it ... this one is a sort of an electro-house kind of thing I made today.
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/unix

I also fiddled with the mix and updated one I made last week, which is sort of that epic crap for trailers... I have to make a bunch of these for a friend's library... a little silly but kind of fun to make

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/moar-epic

Anyway take care guys, I haven't had a chance to listen to all the other recent posts on here yet, but hopefully I will after I eat sumthin.

[MegMcDuffee]

Whipped up this heavy synth piece ala Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter over the weekend. Definitely reminiscent of those awesome gritty 80s thrillers. For anyone who needs more synth, this is for you.

https://soundcloud.com/meganmcduffee/terminal

[MegMcDuffee]

Back at it ... this one is a sort of an electro-house kind of thing I made today.
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/unix

I also fiddled with the mix and updated one I made last week, which is sort of that epic crap for trailers... I have to make a bunch of these for a friend's library... a little silly but kind of fun to make

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/moar-epic

Anyway take care guys, I haven't had a chance to listen to all the other recent posts on here yet, but hopefully I will after I eat sumthin.

I like your string motif in the epic piece; what sample libraries do you use? Also, and interesting choice to bring in that hard lead during the climax. Makes this piece a bit different, which is good.

[TonyManfredonia]

Back at it ... this one is a sort of an electro-house kind of thing I made today.
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/unix

I also fiddled with the mix and updated one I made last week, which is sort of that epic crap for trailers... I have to make a bunch of these for a friend's library... a little silly but kind of fun to make

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/moar-epic

Anyway take care guys, I haven't had a chance to listen to all the other recent posts on here yet, but hopefully I will after I eat sumthin.

Really love the epic track. I like how there's an actual motif/melody, even if it is repeated. Too often "epic" tracks are just chords, so I appreciate taking the time to make a memorable motif!

Whipped up this heavy synth piece ala Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter over the weekend. Definitely reminiscent of those awesome gritty 80s thrillers. For anyone who needs more synth, this is for you.

https://soundcloud.com/meganmcduffee/terminal

Dig this big time, Megan. It'd be a great track for a title screen or main menu to some Noir-Sci-Fi FPS, in my opinion. That was the first thing that came to mind when I listened to it!

[TonyManfredonia]

Link: Ashes - "Into the Skies"

Here's my latest track. I made it last week for OmniVoid Studios. It's for the game, "Ashes." I posted a track from this game a while back.

"Into the Skies" mixes orchestral with synth. Synth incorporation will be a key element in the game; as tension increases, the music will be less "virtual orchestra" and more synthesized.

[MegMcDuffee]

Dig this big time, Megan. It'd be a great track for a title screen or main menu to some Noir-Sci-Fi FPS, in my opinion. That was the first thing that came to mind when I listened to it!

Thank you so much!

[zminusone]

Really love the epic track. I like how there's an actual motif/melody, even if it is repeated. Too often "epic" tracks are just chords, so I appreciate taking the time to make a memorable motif!

Thanks, what's a motif? I'll delete it right away

i - bVI - bIII - bVII all the way home! Or some variation - in my case a variation... The howard-shore-clint-mansell-journey-eminem-beatles-and-every-other-pop-song-special ... maybe I pollute the airwaves, but I guess it resonates with theater goers. 

Link: Ashes - "Into the Skies"

Here's my latest track. I made it last week for OmniVoid Studios. It's for the game, "Ashes." I posted a track from this game a while back.

I actually heard this a few days ago I think, but through crappy laptop speakers. I'm glad you shared because it sounds great on my monitors and in 7 to boot but it doesn't scream it which is nice! Well done!

[2mass]

The soundtrack I made for Ninja Master.. I mix asian and western music trends here.. Featuring a bunch of Japanese instruments, incl Taiko drums.

[zminusone]

Herro,

Last few days have been piano days, but I did write this this afternoon.

A little two parter in the style of Iron Maiden. Borrowed a little from Slayer as well; they is all over that Stretto.  

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/awww-a-wittle-invention-baroque-harpsichord-1



@2mass Sweet! I wrote a short piece that is sort of like traditional Japanese Gagaku once before - sounds like a nightmare. I much prefer your Asian meets western

[2mass]

Herro,

Last few days have been piano days, but I did write this this afternoon.

A little two parter in the style of Iron Maiden. Borrowed a little from Slayer as well; they is all over that Stretto.  

https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/awww-a-wittle-invention-baroque-harpsichord-1



@2mass Sweet! I wrote a short piece that is sort of like traditional Japanese Gagaku once before - sounds like a nightmare. I much prefer your Asian meets western

Cheers good sir!

Nice harpsichord piece, sounds very bach'ish despite its orgins ..I once set a bunch of fairly unknown German and Danish medieval composers to music for a game set in medieval times, in my hometown.. It's always fun to toy with ancient or old instruments..

[2mass]

We killed the tread or something, z-1. So now you have to post some more music

[zminusone]

@2mass ha, if you say so. Nice medieval music btw

Couple things I made saturday:

Been playing around more with a piano library I got a bit ago... I have a hard time finding a latency setting that feels good to me. I don't know how people on the net are saying that they can't feel a difference between 128 samples & 32 samples... I have to go 32samples + adjust the sample start point to make it feel responsive to me. Also Piano in Blue is showing some  kind of big flaws, there's actually a high noise floor which builds up on the pedal sample which is kind of shitty because you will have to denoise, which then kinda can IMO kill subtleties in the high end.
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/my-sim-plays-better-than-me-fuq-piano-improv

Also some ambiance kind of stuff - I always like how blizzard games' scores function in that they often lean more towards pure underscore and ambiance and less thematic "listen to me" kind of stuff - so been poking around making stuff that sounds like different WoW cues:
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/aragorn-killed-gimli-to-get-him-to-stfu-now-he-has-to-walk-back-from-the-graveyard

and as a bonus for @6down I dicked around on some Trane - one of the tougher giant steps cycle tunes - I do try to keep the form and time, but ya... so get lost with me and wander
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/countdown-solo-piano-improvisation

[HoffmanIV]

@2mass ha, if you say so. Nice medieval music btw

Couple things I made saturday:

Been playing around more with a piano library I got a bit ago... I have a hard time finding a latency setting that feels good to me. I don't know how people on the net are saying that they can't feel a difference between 128 samples & 32 samples... I have to go 32samples + adjust the sample start point to make it feel responsive to me. Also Piano in Blue is showing some  kind of big flaws, there's actually a high noise floor which builds up on the pedal sample which is kind of shitty because you will have to denoise, which then kinda can IMO kill subtleties in the high end.
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/my-sim-plays-better-than-me-fuq-piano-improv

Also some ambiance kind of stuff - I always like how blizzard games' scores function in that they often lean more towards pure underscore and ambiance and less thematic "listen to me" kind of stuff - so been poking around making stuff that sounds like different WoW cues:
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/aragorn-killed-gimli-to-get-him-to-stfu-now-he-has-to-walk-back-from-the-graveyard

and as a bonus for @6down I dicked around on some Trane - one of the tougher giant steps cycle tunes - I do try to keep the form and time, but ya... so get lost with me and wander
https://soundcloud.com/zminusone/countdown-solo-piano-improvisation

@zminusone: I've always been a huge fan of the original Sims soundtrack. Your improv skills are awesome, man. I would be posting some spontaneous guitar improv clips if the instrument actually lent itself to do that sort of thing well. (Alas, it does not.)

I dig the countdown solo you did as well. Because of all this Trane talk, I'm kind of inspired to want to try to tackle some of Coltrane's work (Giant Steps, Countdown etc.). But I really want to avoid lead sheets, or fuckery like looping one bar incessantly. I'm -trying- to hear music better instead of fumbling all the time. Right now I'm doing lots of backing track practice, functional ear training, transcription, visualization etc. But something isn't sticking. Any advice or recommendations, from one jazz appreciator to another? I want to bop really hard. I'm not looking for shortcuts. I'll put in a hundred thousand more hours, if it's necessary.

More chiptune stuff to share today. The first track is a progressive rock/jazz fusion piece. You'll kind of see how jazz fusion manifests in "Through Thick and Thin". The second track is sort of a seminal work that plays a pivotal role in the concept album I've written it for. I'll probably share the album with ya'll on bandcamp when it's done.

Through Thick and Thin

The Life and Times of Whiskers Mahone