My Music

[His Frogness]

Well.......I\'m finally doing it. I\'m gonna post some music for you all that\'s in the upcoming MMORPG, Horizons. I put it in this forum cause I\'m linking you to the game\'s website. I\'d love to hear any critiques, but be gentle.....I\'m sensitive images/icons/frown.gif

These are racial themes. The game has 9 or 10 different playable races:

Fiends (\"http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Fiends&play=sound\")

Saris (cat-like people) (\"http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Saris&play=sound\")

Gnomes (inventive little guys) (\"http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Gnomes&play=sound\")

Giants (\"http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Half-Giants&play\")

[£e petit Prïnçe]

I like fiends the most. A really fantasy piece of music. Sets a cool athmosphere.

The others are good as well. I would´ve expected the giants music a bit more powerful, but I don´t know, what this music is for. As a background it is good as it is.

Keep on images/icons/wink.gif

[TLarkin]

Nice music. What are the percussion loops and sounds for the Cat people?
Fiends sounds great as well.
The only suggestion I would make off the top is on Cat people, right now it sounds like a tour of World Winds and Rare Instruments, as I\'m hearing more licks from the libraries instead of your own themes using the instruments. The vibe is great, but it sounds a bit unfocused thematically.
Great stuff otherwise.
Good luck.
Tim

[Simon Ravn]

Great percussion in \"Cat People\"! Very nice stuff all of it.

[Markus S]

I like it too, could you tell us what percussions you are using (cat-people) and what reverb, I like the verb,, too. :-)
My favorite is the first one.
Good work, his Frogness!

[Marsdy]

Excellent stuff Mr His Frogness!

[His Frogness]

I appreciate the feedback guys images/icons/smile.gif

Tim, I knew there was something I just didn\'t like about it and you hit it right on. There really isn\'t a clear theme to it at all, just a lot of licks. With the exception of maybe some of the percussion, it\'s all Rare Instruments. These pieces were the first round of songs I did after acquiring GS, so I was elated just to hear such convincing instruments. What I love about some of thos instrument licks is that they incorporate some of the scales that exceed 12 tones. I don\'t know anything about writing for such a scale, so relied more on the licks. I\'m definitely going to try another round of that type but with a clear defined melody.

Prince, I agree, the giant music could be more involved. The music is very simple.

Markus, I just loaded the performance file. I used QL\'s Rare Instruments Tablas, 34\" Chinese Gong and Dragon Taiko 1, there was also a lot of percussion I got from a Korg Triton including the Orchestral Perc prog, Log Drum prog, Mega Tom prog (mixed in just a tiny bit with the same part that plays with the House Kit prog). Also, the tipmani is from Edirols Orchestral Synth and some of the smaller percussion is from Edirol\'s Percussion prog. That\'s about it. Most of the percussion is through TC Native Reveb VST, with the church setting. I took a little off the decay so it didn\'t trail as much. The QL stuff was through the GS Reverb. I used the default verb but took about 30% of the room size away and almost maxed the damping.

Again, I appreciate the feedback everyone. images/icons/smile.gif When you work at a game company and everyone\'s telling you how cool your stuff is, it\'s nice because they\'re your friends. But it\'s the analysis of the combined experience and talent of the people here at Northernsounds that I really respect. SO KEEP EM COMIN!!!! images/icons/smile.gif

[MDesigner]

Whoa..you\'re scoring Horizons! Kickass gig, congrats! images/icons/smile.gif Very nice music, too. A lot of MMORPGs really lack in the music department, but this sounds really nice.

[Marsdy]

Sam

I really should know this but what\'s a MMORPG. I know what a RPG is but it\'s the MMO bit I\'m not sure about.

[His Frogness]

Originally posted by Marsdy:
Sam

I really should know this but what\'s a MMORPG. I know what a RPG is but it\'s the MMO bit I\'m not sure about. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">The MMO is for Massive(ly) Multiplayer On-line (Role Playing Game).

The genre consists of games like Everquest, Ultima On-line, Anarchy On-line, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, and now......(trumpets).....HORIZONS..ons..ons..ons.

The genre is quite interesting as it\'s creeping towards persistent, dynamic, world simulations. When you first play one of these games it\'s really exciting. Almost like you just teleported into a new world where everything is fantastic and epic. A lot like a good PC RPG but the virtual communal aspect, the idea of playing with other people in the game and fighting together, makes it it\'s own unique experience.

If you happen to try one and end up starving to death because you can\'t manage to leave your computer long enough to visit the kitchen, don\'t blame me. (buy horizons)

[Marsdy]

Thanks Choco and His Frogness. Now I know.

[His Frogness]

Originally posted by MDesigner:
Whoa..you\'re scoring Horizons! Kickass gig, congrats! images/icons/smile.gif Very nice music, too. A lot of MMORPGs really lack in the music department, but this sounds really nice. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Thanks Sam,
I checked out your music. It\'s all great stuff. I hope you\'re looking forward to a successful career in game audio images/icons/smile.gif

[MDesigner]

Thanks, Your Frogness images/icons/smile.gif Can you tell us how you landed the Horizons gig?

Sorry Marsdy, I wasn\'t avoiding your question images/icons/smile.gif I don\'t check the forum too often so I missed it.

[Marsdy]

No problem Sam

[His Frogness]

Originally posted by MDesigner:
Thanks, Your Frogness images/icons/smile.gif Can you tell us how you landed the Horizons gig?
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Well it\'s not a contractually based relationship. I was hired at Artifact as a sound designer after I got sick of engineering out in LA. Originally they contracted the music out to Eric Speiers. He fulfilled his contract but we still needed a lot more music. In addition to sound design, I was helping with the scores for some of the trailers early on. The higher-ups were happy with what I was doing so instead of contracting out more music they just made me an in-house composer.

If all goes according to plan I\'ll be around here for awhile. I thought about maybe trying to get contracts for additional games outside this company but that\'s a lot of work images/icons/shocked.gif

I feel very grateful for this opportunity. I try and live up to the rest of you guys and earn my keep images/icons/smile.gif

[sonicthreadz]

Cool tunes, your Frogness!

images/icons/smile.gif

[D.DiAnda]

Haven\'t checked this forum much lately... did I miss out on hearing these? The links aren\'t working for me.

[IOComposer]

Hey Froggy.
I checked out your tunes. Very nice stuff. You\'re very talented. Thanks for sharing that.
-Jamey

[His Frogness]

I dunno what happened. The links didn\'t work, but I think I fixed em images/icons/wink.gif

Thanks Jamey images/icons/smile.gif Like I said before, I\'m just trying to hold a candle to most of the guys here. Good thing I\'m not senile yet and can still learn more images/icons/smile.gif

Everyone posts their demos on the sample library forum, but I thought mine should go here. Next time I know better cause certain people, and we won\'t mention names, have not voiced their honest critique of my music images/icons/blush.gif

[D.DiAnda]

Great! Thanks for sharing. images/icons/smile.gif
I really like the cat-people music. Even if there isn\'t a clear theme/tune it all fits together nicely. And in a game the main point is to help set a mood - which this does very well.

Coincidentally, I\'m writing music for a MMORPG, and recently wrote some music for a cat-people race.

[His Frogness]

Originally posted by D.DiAnda:
Great! Thanks for sharing. images/icons/smile.gif
I really like the cat-people music. Even if there isn\'t a clear theme/tune it all fits together nicely. And in a game the main point is to help set a mood - which this does very well.

Coincidentally, I\'m writing music for a MMORPG, and recently wrote some music for a cat-people race. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">You\'re kidding me. I guess cat-like people are pretty popular in MMORPGs. In Horizons, they\'re desert kitties, so I went with the eastern-type music. Well I hope you\'ll post this stuff when and if you can. I lucked out cause they added some music to the web site so I got to link to it.

Can you divulge any info about the game? What kind of cat music are you doing? Are you finding it hard to mix different styles while maintaining a continuity? I am.

[D.DiAnda]

These cat-people aren\'t desert folks, but they\'re from a nomadic culture that eventually settled down. So considering that, and their appearance, I wanted something exotic sounding... and went with eastern influences too. images/icons/smile.gif I totally agree... it has been really difficult mixing so many different styles and not having it seem like a big collection of totally unrelated music... especially when working with other composers.

The game I\'m working on is called Planeshift...
Same basic idea as your game... medieval/fantasy based MMORPG. Here\'s a link to the pics page, where you can see some of the cat-people:
http://www.planeshift.it/pics.html (\"http://www.planeshift.it/pics.html\")

We\'re a team of amateurs, doing this in our spare time for fun and experience. Eventually I want to write music professionally, but for now doing this project is perfect. I\'m learning a lot and getting used to new styles while I slowly build up my studio and sample collection.

Here\'s one of the cat-people pieces:
(I\'ve written a few for their part of the world, this is the mellow one).
Music (\"http://www.kellyleal.com/TEMP/Streets_of_Ojaveda.mp3\")

[D.DiAnda]

Just a quick P.S...
I changed the above music link from an ogg to an mp3. I prefer ogg, but should keep in mind that many people still don\'t use it, and might not have a player that does ogg.

Also, I know the cat people coincidences seem strange. Incase anyone assumed that one team was \'influenced\' by the other... The Planeshift team has had their basic settings/races in place for over 2 yrs.. And, since we are a small amateur team, I really doubt that the Horizon team would even know about us, much less be influenced by us. It is a bit surprising though, I have to admit that I\'ve never seen cat-people in any other RPGs. (Then again, I don\'t play that many of them. images/icons/smile.gif

[His Frogness]

Originally posted by D.DiAnda:
Just a quick P.S...
I changed the above music link from an ogg to an mp3. I prefer ogg, but should keep in mind that many people still don\'t use it, and might not have a player that does ogg.

Also, I know the cat people coincidences seem strange. Incase anyone assumed that one team was \'influenced\' by the other... The Planeshift team has had their basic settings/races in place for over 2 yrs.. And, since we are a small amateur team, I really doubt that the Horizon team would even know about us, much less be influenced by us. It is a bit surprising though, I have to admit that I\'ve never seen cat-people in any other RPGs. (Then again, I don\'t play that many of them. images/icons/smile.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hey Dana, I thought I replied to this already, hence my long absence....hehe.


I haven\'t played many either, but if it\'s an RPG, then there\'s a good chance it\'s based on all the old AD&D content. The evolution of MMORPGS is funny. You would think it was just an rpg that was put on a server and that it evolved from single player computer games. But actually, Meridian 59, which was one of the first MMORPGs, evolved from MUDs (multi-user dungeons), which were like little on-line text-based role playing communities. At least that\'s what I heard.

Anyway, that\'s very good music you have there. It\'s very immersive. Reminds me a bit of the old Ultima music (but a lot more advanced). It\'s perfect for an RPG. It sets that quaint peaceful feeling. Excellent. I will definitely try out your game when it\'s finished. Maybe you could let me into beta. images/icons/smile.gif