Psyched

Prelude seems a little empty, I think maybe one more instrument in there would help it establish a firm mood. However, Harbour is a very appropriate and successful track. :laugh:

The dark atmosphere you create is superb. The only real criticism I have is, as I think someone else suggested, that the march could use a bit more "power" and substance to it. Maybe some more brass - I'm sure you can think of something. Otherwise, good work. I look forward to hearing more. :laugh:

Here's the track. Go easy on the guitar sample - and if the link doesn't work, try again in a while. The host has a tendency to go down. :laugh:

Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix (Halo 2) - what can I say? I love all of Marty's work. It's all great to listen to. You're Not Alone! (Final Fantasy IX) - I also love all of the FF music, and I chose this piece in particular because I've been listening to it frequently in recent times. Enclosure (Metal Gear Solid) - a fine piece of music from a fantastic series of videogames. It manages to capture the sad emotions exceptionally well.

The link doesn't work.

Wow, thanks a lot for your help. I'm looking into the sample libraries now - the Garriton one looks most cost-effective for now. Again, thanks. ^_^

I'm currently considering the purchase of Finale, because I'm looking for the best quality samples I can get. So, first off - are all the samples superb? Does the brass sound realistic; do the strings resonate as they should? Secondly, what are my MIDI import options? If I import a MIDI, can I assign one of the high-quality samples to each of the tracks? Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your feedback. Although the quality of my strings aren't great, and I'm not entirely sure which bits to "string-i-fy", I'm currently working on updating it. As for the other critique - I'll look into changing the octave for parts of it. I appreciate your comments, and if I do change anything (it'll be when I wake up tomorrow), I'll update. Thanks. :cool:

I liked it. Very appropriate, and very effective at creating a frantic, dangerous atmosphere. If anything, I think you could make more use of the guitar introduction, but there's not really much more to comment on.

DigiBass is a Reason patch (under Bass -> Synth Bass) - and it's awesome to work with (it just sounds really nice).

What you should probably start with is a MIDI notation application - allowing you to simply input the notes into the PC, which will then play them. I started with a trial copy of one (there'll be links around the site) in about 2002, and I've basically taught myself from there, with no music lessons for ages and only recently taking up piano lessons again. I compose in a few ways - sometimes I'll think of a melody and rush onto my PC to mess around until I can successfully reproduce it. Other times, I'll record direct from my keyboard to PC via MIDI. Sometimes, I'll even play around with the notation software, and occasionally I'll strike gold. It also helps to have a piano or keyboard ready, and just to mess around until you get something that sounds nice. Have some software on hand first, though - no matter how lame something might sound at first, make sure it's recorded, because you may be able to take it anywhere. What software allows you to do is just input some notes, as said above, and it will play them back to you - in any instrument, as long as the software has appropriate samples. So, if you get a melody on the piano, but think it'd sound better played on strings, you can just change the sample and you'll have that same melody on strings. Really, just play around until you find a system that works. Once you're happy that you'll be able to compose, then you can get to it. How you build up a piece is up to you - I tend to start with either a nice melody, a cluster of notes, such as pulsing strings, or a catchy percussion riff. As soon as something comes to me, I'm quick to get it saved onto my hard-drive, as my memory is terrible. You may want to listen to some other works, perhaps ones floating around this site or your favourite movie/videogame music, to see how others manage.

It's the style, it's all very technoish (except the Desert Palace one). It's suitably different, really - on a second listening, there's actually a fair bit of variety. Maybe you could look into some different samples for future tracks, though - if you didn't already, the DigiBass one is superb. :thumbsup:

Overall, I was impressed - even if alot of it was very similar. ^_^ Can I just ask - did you use Reason to make this? I use the program myself, and the samples sounded very alike.

I agree, it's not quite an anvil (but thanks for the suggestion anyway - I've been able to create a vaguely similar sound by applying distortion and reverb to an anvil).

Theme of Fates A 3:4 time "sad" piece, there's not really much more to say, save that it's organised into three sections - a more lively first portion, a more drawn out mid-section, and then a lively part at the end (it repeats the first two sections afterwords).