itch.io

I spent a while finding the right plugin for reverb. Not sure what the picture is for that now, but using Neoverb has been the only one that I've really liked at the price point that I found for PC. Its still pricey, though some reverbs can get way pricier.

The problem with a lot of reverbs is that they get murky/dirty when they get too wet.

Ha! I knew I heard Rachmaninoff influence. I thought some of it also sounded kind of Gershwin-esque as well, which would also fit. Since Genshin Impact was an influence,  you could have this "Gershwin Impact."

Overall I thought it was very good and shows a lot of ability to use dissonance in a complex way.

One thing I might add as a constructive feedback is that there's kind of a vertical similarity throughout the piece, in that it feels kind of busy throughout the whole thing, without being punctuated by variations in overall amount of sounds happening at once.

Overall, very good work!

Very good! Flavor is on point for sure!  I think it's funny how the first part of yours is very similar to the opening of mine. Same intuition!

I'd say the only critique I have here is that virtual instruments on their own tend to be very choppy. A midi controller can help ameliorate this, and then adding real vocals and instruments on top can also greatly help.

Ah! Great work. This makes me want to collab with real instruments and vocals and your compositions.

Like, there are things I would add to flavor it, but it's not like I mean that as a critique - it's like I would love to do the dance of harmonizing my music with yours, adding some of my overtone flavors and folkloric textures, then get some live musicians on their instruments to play with.

Overall you did very well. I just wanted to second the opinion that a little bit more variety would be helpful.

This actually very much reminds me of a composition I did a while ago that sounded very similar and suffered from the same problem. It is very similar, including just reusing the same pattern as if it's a new voice.

If you have any instruments, just improvising music (no matter how many mistakes you make) can be a good way to train your mind out of getting stuck in those little traps. Writing music by typing it into a midi file always results in a certain type of compositional pattern I'm finding, where I can tell the ones who composed in that way, as that's how I used to compose. It suffers because your mind hears the music in real time, and it's just hard to place down the right notes. Even when I still go back to writing music in that method, it feels like I've not improved upon it.

All that out of the way.... The soul of your music is very good and my critique is only meant to be in service to helping that that spirit be expressed!

Solid!

I like how your composition contributes to the ambience.

My only critique is that I would alter the reverb, and make it a little wetter/more distant. 

This is very good. My only critique is the choice of notes on the piano at the beginning at 0:07-0:08, I think that E flat doesn't belong.

Your notes are: 

B-E flat-A-B

A few other resolution progressions:

B-F sharp-G-B

B-F-G-B

B-Aflat-G-F (descending patterns can give some context, and also naturally imply resolution).

B-D-F-G

That note is literally the only note (and when it is repeated) that feels out of place to my ear. The rest all works and fits.

Great work, great atmosphere! I love the use of the erhu.

Also don't forget to sing in the car and practice changing pitch slowly so that you can learn to accurately land on the correct pitch without having to hear it. Practice singing what you're going to record so that you are prepared so you don't have to do too many takes, which gets really annoying.

Even if you don't sing now, learning to sing is a great, intuitive way to remember musical ideas. Record them on your phone to remember your ideas.

A good microphone, practice, and using the metronome. A good mic for a good price is the Shure SM-57 - it's actually widely used in studio recording, often for drums. But it's key feature is that it has a very accurate signal, whereas other mics are more about how they color the sound.

So, for accuracy and quality, it's pretty good for a hundred bucks. You'll need a DAC to go with it. I've got a scarlet 2i2, but there are other models to look into. I'd have gone with the SM-57 first if I had known about its reputation over the past 60 years. SM58 is also solid.

One relatively low-cost thing you can do is find a decent budget microphone and a DAC, and add vocals as well. It's also a great way to blend the virtual instruments together. A good microphone is the Shure SM-57, since they've been used in everything for like half a century, they're very durable, and the sound is accurate. More expensive microphones color the sound in interesting ways, but having one that is very accurate lets post-processing programs have something to work with.

Choosing which instruments are virtual and which are real also helps. All of the instruments in my track are real, but with the drum, I found a large but modestly priced frame drum. I then used a pitch modulation plugin to shift its tone to provide a drone.

Another thing that can help tremendously is a midi controller when your virtual instruments have dynamics, so that you can do the velocity naturally.

Those are, in my opinion, some of the highest impact things you can do to provide some sound quality to your base setup. 

Ah... I think I know what you're talking about now. Some of the strings on the lyre are quieter/harder to pluck at that volume, depending, so when it gets loud, that aspect of the instrument stands out. Compression already improved that situation, but it didn't improve it as ideally as it could have. Since I designed the instrument myself, one thing I've had to do is figure out the proper string gauges, and it ends up being more finnicky than expected.

Also... the top strings are gut, which I think amplifies that effect of needing accurate string gauge to get proper tension.

Superb composition. Exceptionally appropriate. My only critique is the virtual instrument one, where its clear that given the time constraints, there isn't enough time to do all the cleanup and tweaking of dynamics to make them sound natural. Sometimes a bit of a high quality reverb cranked up a bit can help blend some of the VST sound.

Heh, I'd love to sing on a soundtrack like this to tie some instruments together. One of my favorite soundtracks is from the movie Hero. That might even be my favorite soundtrack of all time, can't decide between that and Lord of the Rings. Anyways...

Really good work. If you can find more ways to break out of the "VST" midi sound, you'll be creating top-notch soundtracks.

Hey, you got a couple goosebumps out of me on 1:37 on your first track and on the second one. I love that you also used Chinese elements.

I would love to hear this on live instruments. Heh... I think I knew I'd like yours when I saw your cover art too, where it's solid dragon iconography.

Very lovely work. Only critique is just that virtual instruments tend to sound like virtual instruments. A solid reverb can really do wonders for making virtual instruments sound more natural. My favorite is neoverb for its general clarity and control, like I don't have to futz with it too much to get really solid, clear, clean reverbs.

I love it. The first track reminds me a little of Vocalise by Rachmaninoff, which is one of my favorite pieces of music. This is my favorite rendition, if you've never heard it:

Your composition is excellent. My only constructive feedback on this is that because everything is a virtual instrument, the dynamics aren't maybe where they could be, something that can be solved with a lot of post processing and maybe a couple real instruments. But, we very little time so that's certainly a consideration.

Amazing amount of composition for 48 hours. Everything fits together and makes sense while being reasonably complex.

I love these. They're just very well done for ambient music, like they'll fit, the quality is good. I'm able to envision the game that goes with it.

You're also doing some interesting stuff with timing, varying things in a nice way.

I'd say a lot of tracks people are writing are very well composed and designed, but for some reason, I find this one to be exceptional in just how listenable it is. And, that's important for background music in a game.

Very well done.

Very peaceful and relaxing. Excellent work!

Awesome!

Given the time constraint, my only constructive feedback is something you probably didn't have time for, and that's just that the first track still has that "these are VST hardcorded instruments" where some dynamics are what stand between it and perfection.

The second track is my favorite because it sounds like you were playing the harp VST with the piano.

Really fantastic work.

Heh! I almost called mine "Hymn of the White Dragon."

I went with song because it wasn't totally hymn-like, even though it has a lot of elements of sacred music since I was going for a vibe of the dragon being a demigod. Flute is actually one instrument I'd consider adding to mine, though I would want to opt for a wooden flute with a more rustic timbre.

Anyways... I like that your voice actually sounds like a chant. The first track being real voice + instruments is great. I genuinely thought "oh, he found a nice VST for Byzantine chanting," then I read that you did your own voice.

Well done! :)

Ha! I'm a massive Ravel fan.  I recognize the Jeux d'eau little hook at the beginning! :P What piano VST are you using? I need to reevaluate the ones I have on hand.

Anyways... feedback. Overall very good. To try to find constructive feedback on this gorgeous track, I'd say maybe it potentially doesn't feel as close to reflecting the theme as it could, but that's a small matter because it still works excellently.  And, maybe it doesn't deviate enough from Ravel's existing works, recognizing that little hook and knowing his works really well I can hear which pieces were inspiration. I've been working on doing a lot of improvising to try to intuit Ravel's musical language because it's like its own genre of music. Other "impressionists" don't take me to the same world. To me, Ravel himself completely invented a new style that hasn't been adequately developed. It would be like if there was only one composer of Baroque music.

Anyways, good stuff, love geeking out about Ravel.

It's a nice chill atmosphere here.

I think I would try to not only have the same background sound. When I started making music, I definitely kind of fell into the trap of making ambient music that's a bit repetitive. One thing that pops out to me that I would want to add here is something like stop that part and then do something where you just have this very subtle soft drone, and continue the melody over that soft drone.

It's a way to add variety to ambient tracks that doesn't end up making it too thematic. I know when I was getting into composing for the first time, the Skyrim soundtrack I found to be just such an excellent example of fairly simple, but beautiful and varied ambient music. Listening to it helped me get a better grasp when people told me my stuff was too repetitive .

Anyways, well done, I'm  looking forward to seeing more! :)

Relaxing! It's got an indie rock vibe, which I have a soft spot for. Well done!

How did you go about making it, i.e. what software/instruments/virtual instruments did you use?

FYI it's not uploaded on your YouTube playlist yet; I downloaded it.

Never seen such an editor, what program is that? That's pretty neat.  I think it's fascinating that it's structured in blocks.

Anyways, you made a great melody for a fantasy RPG on a vintage device, well done!

Thank you very much!

0:50 in The Last Dragon Dance I want to be an entire song, or at least repeat that part a few measures and introduce a melody because that part is very strong.

Nicely done!

0:50 in The Last Dragon Dance I want to be an entire song, or at least repeat that part a few measures and introduce a melody because that part is very strong.

I can definitely see myself playing a game with this music! 

It's very chill and relaxing.

That's high praise coming from a very strong entry. I am humbled!

Thank you! :)

This is awesome! It's very peaceful.

I really love 1:26 on your second track in particular. I'd love to hear it on an erhu.

Thank you! 

Thank you!

I layered the instruments, so one of the tracks isn't as loud so that it sounds more like there are multiple people playing the same instrument. I think that's what you mean? I did apply compression to the lyre, but I didn't notice any artefacts arising from compression.

Yep! I think this is just more of a limitation of equipment than skill.

Makes me think that next time I want to find a group of people.

This is very chill, I like it a lot.

I think the one thing I would maybe spend some time with would be development of the themes more quickly, or adding things. There's a dance to it, IDK how to describe it, it's something I'm working on myself. 

Good stuff! :)

Good stuff.

For some reason the bassline at 1:40 makes me want to hear it slide down on the last note of that motif, like that smooth continuous organic sound would create some contrast with the very staccato fast paced sound of the rest of it

I like this one, this is really good. :)

Good, this is chill, I like it quite a bit.

I feel like the clarinet (?? idk if that's the instrument, woodwindy one at the beginning) sounds a little thin and raspy and that kind of cuts into the overall excellent composition, but that can be one of those things that's more a matter of access to resources than it is a matter of skill.

Overall I like the tone of this a lot. Excellent work!

Heh this is a great reply, it brings me much joy and makes me feel like you've seen some of what I'm trying to get at! :)

Thank you for these observations. What's funny about this project is that part of what started it for me was that the "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" from The Hobbit films doesn't accentuate the "O" in "Over" on the downbeat, and rather  "ver" lands on the downbeat, when the iambic tetrameter of the poems is pretty clear when you read them aloud:

Far O ver the MIST y MOUNT ains COLD

to DUNG eons DEEP and CAV erns OLD

we MUST a WAY ere BREAK of DAY

to SEEK the PALE en CHAN ted GOLD

One thing I also notice in the structure of these is that the third to last line in each stanza has an inner rhyme to it (away ere break of day, dragon fire from twisted wire, places deep where dark things sleep). Makes me wonder if I did enough to reflect that! Heh.

The thing that is challenging about writing a melody to this is that if you just go at it in this form, there are no places to pause for breath. Tolkien, reading the Song of Durin (same structure), actually runs into this problem!

So, the true purpose of this project is to try to write music that as closely honors the poetry that Tolkien wrote. One of my prime interests is early music, particularly this historical revival of old instruments and understanding the way the instruments were used and the philosophy of writing music at the time. This effort lead to a wealth of incredibly beautiful, robust, multi-dimensional interpretations of people like Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, etc. The thing that makes this so beautiful is that it creates this living connection to the people who came before us, but it's also this amazing process of both creativity and discovery.

That is why I am setting out on this project - I want to connect with Tolkien's vision in this deeper way. I.e. no one has made a Misty Mountains rendition that actually uses all of the instruments called out in the books, and much less, no one has ever even tried using a viol in a recording that I've found. I've been collecting instruments so that I can actually fully write music to it (and in a way that virtual instruments cannot capture). It's quite an ambitious undertaking, to say the least, but that's part of  the joy of it. So, it's like "take the philosophy of historically informed performance and revival and apply it to Tolkien's songs" to get something that is as faithful to what he would have envisioned, but perhaps would go beyond what he would have the capability to write.

Also the Simon and Garfunkel thing is also kind of funny - you're not the first to make that comparison. I also spent a lot of time singing Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens, but also Scarborough Fair by S&G longer ago. Funny thing... you could throw "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" into the same poetic structure of Scarborough Fair (though you have to place the pickup/anacrusis mindfully in a couple places to do this).

Thank you again. This is really awesome feedback.

Next competition I'm going to "finish" everything a week early so that I can fix everything I hear wrong with it.... lol.

Anyways, good entry. :)

I think I would say I didn't quite fully develop the whole piece in the musical sense of the word development, where things are added in and it builds and those things are related to each other. The intention is definitely for it to build up. I'll have to think more carefully about doing that, especially because that's what allows a song to be repetitive without the repetitiveness becoming grating.

I like the idea of some punchier drums. The context here is that Bombur is the drummer (lol)

Good feedback! Thank you!

Specifically they're kind of high on the upper register, so I'd EQ the top range down.

Excellent piano playing! Heh.

What do you use for piano?

Really very strong entry. These are just straight up pleasant to listen to. I don't know what I'd add or change.