Hi, I was busy on other projects, Did you get that team up and running ? Still interested in helping out with sound and music
Hasenn
Creator of
Recent community posts
DayTime Skyway : The bells and driving rythm make me think of a lively train station swarming with interesting characters and a sense of adventure
NightTime Skyway : The place is reckognizable, but the flute harp and celesta arrangement gives me a calm and serene vibe, that fits very well an idea of the place becoming more intimate as you explore it at night
Sailway traffic in the rain : Overall a bittersweet little piece. I I like that there is a further away piano for the melody, It gives such a melancholic vibe to the track
The Hill that touches the sky : That synth was a surprise but worked very well. I would nitpick that maybe the arrangement and Ideas are a bit too similar to the third track, this track feels like a development of the previous one. That said it does feel more hopeful and resolved, like after a journey we are now at the place we wanted to be, so it works.
Great Work !
Your main theme has a joe Hisaishi quote from the Merry-go-round of life :)
I really like the instrumentation, the synths work well, and are very nicely contrasted by the miano and strings. the bit of Electric guitar hits the spot too !
There is a nice narrative to the track and interesting harmonic development, and the irregular metre gives some mean momentum
Good job !
For resolving a track you can use a simple cadence, some kind of II chord or IV, then a V (with possibly a I with the fifth at the bass coming before the real V) (in tonal music)
For overall form, common video game form is based on wether your track will loop or not :
Looping forms :
Here you want to not be too dramatic, as drama thet happens every minute doesn't work too well
Intro(:AB:) where B contrasts A
(:ABAB':) where B contrasts A and B' develops the B thing
can change the second A too to get ABA'B'
For non-looping track you can think "hero's journey", with sonata form or variations on that idea
Or more song-like with rondo form (chorus and verses with possible bridges)
Or longer things like in the celeste soundtrack where an idea goes throuh cycles of ups and downs and evolves for multiple minutes based on the video game levels
A big build up like you do can also work for battle themes and cutscenes
If you decide on these in advance you can more easily know what your goals are in each sections (establish the theme, contrast with something different, or develop some theme) and It gets easy (easier at least) to handle finishing tracks
Good job ! I tried to write as I listen to try giving more detailed moment-by-moment impressions :
The Ever Ending Waterways :
I like the texture from the start, very well produced ! The piano part feels very delicate and the whole piece makes me think of a chill night scene with some melancholy
The Wheel that Never Stops:
Similar texture to the last piece, changed towards a less serene and more tense harmony and overall feel. A mysterious synth goes wild and suddenly slows down into a sort of drop. A new lead synth plays a more determined melody and a modulation gives some dramatic intensity to the last section with an unresolved ending that leaves me wondering what is going to happen next !
Small and Insignificant:
String synth sweeps and a piano playing harp figures creates a beautiful harmonic texture that then serves as the backdrop to a lonely flute staccato melody. A synth with a strong character joins with drums, until a dramatic moment where things become serious ! We shift to a military 2/2 metre and a low synth feels me with anticipation while the flute comes back to tell us that now it's ready to roll !
Palace of despair:
Extremely low strings strings set an ominous tone, with a piano melody that is oddly serene in comparison, but occasionally deranged by an unresolved accidental. Ostinato violin feels a bit weak, which could be meant to add to a sense of despair I don't get, or just be that this particular violin sample is a bit too weak to be alone like that.
Patrol of the Underdogs:
Ah, A battle theme :)
Intro follows the last track and now the orchestration works for me and then...
Boom ! we're fighting, marcato string ostinato and energetic drum-and-bass drums tells us it's not gonna be easy. But a synth comes tell us it's gonna be fun !
Then the instrumentation shifts completely to chiptune, with syncopated rythms and a melody that succeeds in keeping rythmic momentum and energy, until a more techno-inspired 4-on-the-floor comes back with the strings to really push us to our very edge against our enemy.
Overall :
The material is very solid and the orchestration / instrumentation work is really great. But your form tends to always build up and build up and just abruptly stop at the end, which can be fine, but seems to be your default. It's okay to build down you don't have to constantly build up.
Other than this very minor nitpicking I really enjoyed the soundtrack, Great Work !
Those synths fit soo well !
I like the gamelan influence in the third track, it's very cool :) I feel like in the first two tracks you could go with a more laconic style like you can find in the minecraft soundtrack, right now the minimalism of the first two tracks can feel a bit too repetitive, but as spaced out little cues it could work well !
a common critique I can find to all your tracks is that they would really benefit from being performed by humans or by behind humanized, maybe a more realistic piano sound and having rubato / slight tempo variations would help a lot the piano-heavy pieces come to life
Track 1 and 3 in particular have passages that would rooock in a real performance