soundtrack A whole Soundtrack

Hey guys!

I know this might be a lot to digest but I'd love to have your thoughts on that work. It's the first soundtrack I release as a whole. I've been working with a development team on this one but sadly we had halt the development. It has a lot of flaws but I think it is worthy of sharing with you. The game was set to be a 2D platformer story driven adventure in a fantasy world with spirits and such (inspired by japanese shintoism).

Anyway I'll leave you with the music and thank you already for any feedback you'd like to provide me with.
 

Here's the link (I don't know how to implement it as  embed media. Would love someone to explain me how to do that)

https://soundcloud.com/nicolasguerrero/sets/project-water

I'll just share my opinion.

The title theme has a lovely ambience. It makes me thing of something spiritual. The main theme isn't very strong (in the sense "easily distinguishable") but obviously I don't know the game and it's a very interesting take on the first song you hear when playing it!

Going On An Adventure kind of reinforces the main theme in some passages. It's very energetic and uplifting as well. Kind of repetitive by moments but it keeps well the mood. I really like the arpeggios.

The Cave makes me think of something heavy weighting above. The tenor(?) line becomes a tiny bit long after a moment. I like the change around 2:00 in the piano.

I really like what happens after 1:50 in Dense Forest with the bass pedal and wind improvisations. Pentatonic arpeggios on the violins really add a lot to the general ambience.

Memories takes long to develop but once it does it's really nice.

2:00 in Wonder sounds interesting, the long build up pays off. The ambiences are as always lovely. 5:15 I love how it becomes more defined, nice focal point for the entire composition.

I'll stop here as I gotta go. I'll add the rest later. Overall it's a very nice soundtrack. The ambient feel goes very well with the nature of the game and each song goes well with its title. One thing I noticed is that themes or "leitmotivs" aren't very present, but it's maybe because I need to listen more closely, and of course this kind of approach is not a must for a soundtrack. Other than that, the piano has a whole lot of reverb, in solo passages it sometimes drowns the sound, but in the end it's also a matter of taste. Some orchestral passages feel small compared to the huge (as in stereo width) and full ambient sound. But it's just my opinion and tbh I struggle with that as well. Congrats on finishing a whole soundtrack. It's a shame the game won't be released!

These pieces sound very lovely. I haven't had a chance to listen to them all, but for the ones I did, they're well made for a video game. Favourites are Dense Forest and Memories. 

Mind if I ask, how did you get in touch with developers to help create the music? It's a small dream of mine. 

21 hours ago, Krys K. said:

I'll just share my opinion.

The title theme has a lovely ambience. It makes me thing of something spiritual. The main theme isn't very strong (in the sense "easily distinguishable") but obviously I don't know the game and it's a very interesting take on the first song you hear when playing it!

Going On An Adventure kind of reinforces the main theme in some passages. It's very energetic and uplifting as well. Kind of repetitive by moments but it keeps well the mood. I really like the arpeggios.

The Cave makes me think of something heavy weighting above. The tenor(?) line becomes a tiny bit long after a moment. I like the change around 2:00 in the piano.

I really like what happens after 1:50 in Dense Forest with the bass pedal and wind improvisations. Pentatonic arpeggios on the violins really add a lot to the general ambience, it's like a bit of light shining through tree tops.

Memories takes long to develop but once it does it's really nice.

2:00 in Wonder sounds interesting, the long build up pays off. The ambiences are as always lovely. 5:15 I love how it becomes more defined, nice focal point for the entire composition.

I'll stop here as I gotta go. I'll add the rest later. Overall it's a very nice soundtrack. The ambient feel goes very well with the nature of the game and each song goes well with its title. One thing I noticed is that themes or "leitmotivs" aren't very present, but it's maybe because I need to listen more closely, and of course this kind of approach is not a must for a soundtrack. Other than that, the piano has a whole lot of reverb, in solo passages it sometimes drowns the sound, but in the end it's also a matter of taste. Some orchestral passages feel small compared to the huge (as in stereo width) and full ambient sound. But it's just my opinion and tbh I struggle with that as well. Congrats on finishing a whole soundtrack. It's a shame the game won't be released!

 

Hey Krys!

Thank you for taking the time to listen. The title theme wasn't meant to have a strong theme into it, quite the contrary actually. I wrote it for the screen you see before entering the game. And when you would enter the game for the first time the game would play Going on An Adventure. I know the name of the title theme doesn't fit it really well.

I agree with your comment on the Cave. I should have changed the tenor or even stop it singing and replace it by a different instrument.

I had a leitmotiv when writing the soundtrack at first but we had to change everything at some point and I had to re write partically the entire soundtrack.There are some songs we kept so the leitmotiv still appears in some songs but it became too discreet to be called a leitmotiv (if that makes sense). As for the reverb on the piano it was a choice of the lead developer I worked with. I get what you mean about the orchestra. I struggle to make it sound huge. I really am not good when working with the sound. That's an area I desperately need to improve!

Thank's again for listening and giving me feedback!

6 hours ago, Sepharite said:

These pieces sound very lovely. I haven't had a chance to listen to them all, but for the ones I did, they're well made for a video game. Favourites are Dense Forest and Memories. 

Mind if I ask, how did you get in touch with developers to help create the music? It's a small dream of mine. 

 

Hey Sepharite

I don't mind at all :)

I made a post on the Unity forum and some developers contacted me to work with them. As simple as that!

Thank you for listening!

 

Sounds easy enough! As a starter composer, are we expected to do charity work to build up our portfolio? Thanks :)

On 12/10/2017 at 12:33 PM, Sepharite said:

Sounds easy enough! As a starter composer, are we expected to do charity work to build up our portfolio? Thanks :)

 

Honestly there's no fixed rules for that in my opinion. I'll tell you what I did though : I've composed several pieces of music. All were meant to be part of a unique soundtrack (for a game that doesn't actually exist). Like an album of sort. Then I went offering my services to the Unity community with that soundtrack as a showcase of what I could do. And it worked for me. So in a sense I did charity work (since I wasn't paid to compose my imaginary soundtrack).

I'm sure everyone has its story to tell in that matter. I hope my answer will be helpful!

Title Screen - Amazing. Very soft, gentle, ambient. Lovely use of the sounds; it makes me feel as if I am about to experience a very deep story.

Going on the Adventure - Adventurous with a hint of a dark side to it; very unique. Like saying although we're starting our journey, expect to face many obstacles. I love what you did with the strings and woodwinds. The percussion could've picked up in tempo a bit throughout to make it more enticing, but overall it had me on my toes! 

The Cave - Dark and mysterious, something terrible is about to happen at any moment. Love the piano work. The sustained male choir got a bit dull after a while though. 

Dense Forest - Like The Cave, this was also dark and mysterious but with enough distinct sound to make me feel as I am in fact going through a dark forest. The low strings was done well and then the flute that played above that was just....wow. Almost has a wild west feel to it as well. Awesome job.

The Clearing - I'm beginning to see a pattern in your music, from The Cave to The Clearing your own unique style shines through clearly. The Clearing kinda sounds like the aftermath of a long war and when the percussion come in, I can imagine from that point forward seeing it play during the credits. It's dramatic and intense and I love it.

Memories - Soft ambience. I like the chords you used here. Now mixing wise, I hear sort of a subtle but very rough edge behind the reverb. Not sure if that's a instrument you used or...? But overall, good job. When the strings came in...honestly I thought it didn't fit as well because the buildup and the layering had me believing it was going to explode into one huge Orchestra at its climax but it didn't lol.

I think the rest of the pieces were really well done especially The Fall. That crushing, in your face sound I love it. 

Great work on the soundtrack as a whole, you've definitely gained another follower and fan from me brother.

On 15/10/2017 at 7:11 PM, LostSamurai said:

Title Screen - Amazing. Very soft, gentle, ambient. Lovely use of the sounds; it makes me feel as if I am about to experience a very deep story.

Going on the Adventure - Adventurous with a hint of a dark side to it; very unique. Like saying although we're starting our journey, expect to face many obstacles. I love what you did with the strings and woodwinds. The percussion could've picked up in tempo a bit throughout to make it more enticing, but overall it had me on my toes! 

The Cave - Dark and mysterious, something terrible is about to happen at any moment. Love the piano work. The sustained male choir got a bit dull after a while though. 

Dense Forest - Like The Cave, this was also dark and mysterious but with enough distinct sound to make me feel as I am in fact going through a dark forest. The low strings was done well and then the flute that played above that was just....wow. Almost has a wild west feel to it as well. Awesome job.

The Clearing - I'm beginning to see a pattern in your music, from The Cave to The Clearing your own unique style shines through clearly. The Clearing kinda sounds like the aftermath of a long war and when the percussion come in, I can imagine from that point forward seeing it play during the credits. It's dramatic and intense and I love it.

Memories - Soft ambience. I like the chords you used here. Now mixing wise, I hear sort of a subtle but very rough edge behind the reverb. Not sure if that's a instrument you used or...? But overall, good job. When the strings came in...honestly I thought it didn't fit as well because the buildup and the layering had me believing it was going to explode into one huge Orchestra at its climax but it didn't lol.

I think the rest of the pieces were really well done especially The Fall. That crushing, in your face sound I love it. 

Great work on the soundtrack as a whole, you've definitely gained another follower and fan from me brother.

 

 

 

 

Hey LostSamurai!

Thank you for listening to the soundtrack! I really put a lot of myself in the process and it's always rewarding to see the final product appreciated.

I do agree about the tenor choir becoming quite boring after a while in the Cave. I could have done it different. I was trying to impose an opressive/claustrophobic feeling through this never ending note. I maybe should have put it in the back after some time.

You are right about the mix of Memories, there's a rough edge that wasn't meant to be there, I'll fix that. As for having the buildup exploding into a huge orchestra part I did consider it while writing the song. But since the song was to be under a flashback scene I made the choice to keep it simple and personal. Didn't want to overdo it. So it's all about choice. But it sure would have been awesome with a big orchestral part as a climax.

Again thank you for the kind words man! It means a lot.