Short Demo GOS, DDSB & SS & SW etc...

[Ken-P]

I am composing a short piece of music for a children\'s play of my father\'s elementary school. Since I am using some sounds that some of you might be interested in, I picked up first 40 sec of my music and put on my site.

Here is the address www.wisemanproject.com/ken-pdemo.mp3 (\"http://www.wisemanproject.com/ken-pdemo.mp3\")
I hope this helps some of you.

Strings - GOS and DDSS
Brass - DDSB
Woodwind - DDSW
Effect - Giga Studio

I use Giga Studio 160 in Windows XP.

Any coments and questions are welcome.

[Damon]

Hello Mr.Ken-P,

Very nice demo http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif The sound quality is really great for 128 kbps! What do you use to get your mp3s to sound so good?
I enjoyed the composition. It made me smile. It reminds me of happy little children http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
Nice job.

Damon
http://damonbbradley.tripod.com/damonbradley/ (\"http://damonbbradley.tripod.com/damonbradley/\")

[This message has been edited by Damon (edited 12-25-2001).]

[thesoundsmith]

Agreed. Beautiful work. This is worthy of far more than a play at an elementary school.

Dan Dean should be proud, too. You make his samples sound really fine.

Dasher

[Ken-P]

Thank you for your listening!

I use a certain mac software that has \"Xing\" encording engine to make mp3 file.

Sound quality of MP3 file largely depends on an encording engine that a software has. For me, bit rate is less important.

I studied and compared some of encording engine such as \"Xing\" \"Fraunhofer IIS\" \"303tek\" and \"GOGO\" before. But I think \"Xing\" is the best so far.

And I also like Sound Forge\'s encording engine.

Sorry my stupit English!

[thesoundsmith]

Ken,

I\'m not talking about the encoding-I\'m talking about YOUR preformance/engineering/mixing.

MP3 encoders differ in quality, but great music shines through anyway. I have a sample of an 11KHZ mono file of John Coltrane\'s \"A Love Supreme\" and it still gives me chills to hear it!

Dasher

[Ken-P]

Everyone! Thank you for listening and your coments!

I put a complete demo on my site (still short though).
This is the address. www.wisemanproject.com/deriy.mp3 (\"http://www.wisemanproject.com/deriy.mp3\")

Some of people who asked me to send my \"Pegasus\"\'s midi data before e-mailed about providing this midi data. So if you want to have midi data, e-mail me, I am happy to send it to you. ken-p@pacbell.net

Woodwind - DDSW
Brass - DDSB
Strings - GOS and DDSS
Piano - Steinway B
Other - UOP
Effect - Giga Studio 160
No self-edited sound

Sorry my stupit English!

[seclusion]

Very nice..
Brian

[KingIdiot]

>>>Sorry my stupit English!<<<<


I\'ve always loved this quote from you Ken http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif To be honest you\'re english has gotten much better. In fact its never been \"stupit\" http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif


Your music, of course, is nowhere near stupid, great work.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[ProfessorOak]

Ken, everything I\'ve heard of yours so far is beatuiful. I\'m curious, who are your influences?

Keep up the good work.

Dale North

[Ken-P]

>>>I\'m curious, who are your influences?

...mmm...I am the twenty-year Japanese. And I had growen in Japan for18 years. Like other Japanese people in my generation, I had always played video-games and watched Japanese animations. So I have to say that my primary musical influences are those soundtracks (most of these music are orchestral form).
In addition, in Japan, orchestra instrumental version of pops music (even rock) is very very popular. So maybe that kind of Song-Orchestra music had influenced me.

If I name one Hollywood movie composer who have influenced me, the person will be John Williams. Because of his \"HomeAlone\" music (somewhere in my memory), I started to compose, when I was 10. The melody, strings, and woodwind is so pretty and beautiful!

sorry for my stupid English

[This message has been edited by Ken-P (edited 01-03-2002).]

[ChrisAxia]

Hi Ken,

Konichiwa, Watashino oxan Nihongin desu! (This is Japanese for \"My wife is Japanese!\")

Well done, nice work. For a 20 year old it\'s very impressive. Are you also a David Foster fan? I saw him with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra many years ago. A great concert!

Keep up the good work,

Chris

[Z6]

I listened to a previous tune you posted and thought it was \'delightful\'.

The same word leapt into my mind on listening to this. Those kids are in for a treat.

What I like about your music (at least what I\'ve heard) is that it \'puts\' the listener somewhere. This tune put me right into a \'beginning\', or a \'fresh\' place (like a Neil Simon character in a good mood). Very descriptive (and this is from someone who is very sceptical about \'imagery\' in music).

Keep this up. Send it out. It won\'t be long before you get the opportunity to paint your music onto a movie.

Keep posting.

[KingIdiot]

I\'d say Uematso just because of the way this last piece ends http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Possibly Idware and Hisashi, but I definitely hear some UE http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Have to say that one of my faves is Mitsuda lately Hes been churning out alot of music, and every so often has a piece that I really like.

Man I want the chance to do music for an RPG :P or an all orchestral action game http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[ProfessorOak]

Ken, more specifically, what game music and anime composers would you say were your influences?

And definately, as Z6 said- Keep this up. I, for one, enjoy hearing it.

[Ken-P]

>>Ken, more specifically, what game music and anime composers would you say were your influences?

mmm...It is difficult to say. So many games and animes had (have?) influenced me. But since I was a child I have played \"Final Fantasy\". So it is hard to say that its music (and the composer, Nobuo Uematsu) have not influenced me.

I have almost 700 Anime and Game (orchestra arranged) CDs. These are my main refferences. Interesting thing is the differences between hollywood-movie orchstra music and Japanese anime and game orchestra music. Different orchestration, different trend of chord progression, different way of recording (sound?)....

>>>Man I want the chance to do music for an RPG.

Meeeeeee toooooooooo! But unless I am an emproyee of that company, that chance is very very low (at least in Japan).

Sorry, my stupid English.

[Chadwick]

Great piece Ken!

[ProfessorOak]

Yeah. I sensed a bit of Noriyuki Iwadare (who is, by the way, one of my biggest influences), and not so much Uematsu.

KingIdiot, Yasunori Mitsuda is my personal favorite- I noticed you said \'every so often has a piece I really like\'. Every so often?

Ken, regardless of what you listen to, your stuff is great. Lets hear some more.

Dale North

[Ken-P]

>>> I sensed a bit of Noriyuki Iwadare (who is, by the way, one of my biggest influences), and not so much Uematsu.

Ummm, I think so, too (^-^). In U.S. may be \"Grandia\" is biggest title of his music. I have played it and have CD of it. Its opening theme music is my favorite!

[KingIdiot]

http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

II say \"everyso often\" in the sense that something REALLY stands out. Sometimes tho his stuff is \"too much\" for a game. Chrono Trigger had some GREAT pieces and some ok pieces. I still haven\'t listened/played Tsuganai yet, and the \"pop\" song from the upcoming Zenosaga Kills me. In fact I really dislike it. However I haven\'t heard the other tracks and I have a feeling they will be pretty spectacular. Not to mention he lets his Celtic Influences show. Its great because he is GREAT at it, but it also gets to a point where I\'m asking for something different

UE, however mixes and matches many styles, but still bores me from time to time. tho he has some great melodies. The arranged versions of his work are still spectacular. The FF7 theme and Aerith/Aeris theme are still two of my all time favorites.

Idware has done a few games. Wasn\'t Lunar one of his?

I admit tho, that these guys are churning out SO much music that ofcourse some of the stuff is not going to be as impressive as other stuff. Not to mention the fact that alot of it is simple MIDI with low quality instruments. In fact taking all that into consideration the stuff is amazing http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

I so want to get a chance to do an RPG or atleast something that allows me to do some moody dramatic writing. Especially after the past few months of learning alot about music. I feel that I can take on the challenge of an RPG now.

Ken, again keep up the good work http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif


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Really...I am an Idiot

[Ken-P]

>>Idware has done a few games. Wasn\'t Lunar one of his?

I think so.

>>Not to mention he lets his Celtic Influences show.

His teacher at his college tought him mainly ethnic music, I have heard about so.

>>> The FF7 theme and Aerith/Aeris theme are still two of my all time favorites.

May be I have that recording too. Every time I listen Aeris theme, I am about to cry. So simple melody, but so beautiful.

[KingIdiot]

Ken,

Agreed, such a simple melody but beautiful none the less. The orchestral/arranged version is a song I can just close my eyes and just listen to. I tend to forget things and lose myself in the song. My favorite FF Music is from FF6, but my favorite arranged versions are from FF7.

I\'m a Final Fantasy geek myself http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif In fact I still remember the day I walked to the store and picked up the first one. I then immediately continued to lose 2 straight days to video ame playing till I beat it at 4 in the morning. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif....then immediately started playing it again http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif...

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Really...I am an Idiot

[ProfessorOak]

Iwadare did the Lunar games, and Grandia games, as well as some SNES and Genesis titles.

The FF7 overworld and Aerith theme appear on \"Final Fantasy 7 Reunion\"- which was the closest thing we got to an arranged soundtrack. Aerith theme is one of my favs too, and not suprisingly is known to be one of Uematsu\'s favorites also.

If I\'m correct, Nobuo\'s orchestrator is his good buddy, and he does all of his orchestration work. That said, FF8\'s arranged album is one of the highlights of all VGM for me. Absolutely mindblowing.

Its nice to see people taking game music as seriously as others do with film music. It\'s a big deal to me.

Dale North

[KingIdiot]

ahh yah, Grandia forgot about those two.

The arranged versions of FF8 stuff is really good, but doesn\'t hit me in the heart like the FF7 ones do.

I honestly haen\'t been playing enough of a variety of games lately, been focused on work and stuff. I\'d like to check out more recent offerrings from more US game composers. I buy the games I know I\'m gonna want to play...not nesecerally GOING TO, play. MGS2, FFx. I haven\'t picked up an Xbox or Cube yet, waiting for games I WANT on them first.


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Really...I am an Idiot

[KingIdiot]

HHA OOPS stupid me,..yup Silent hill two is being plkayed right now. Its taking smoe time to finish tho, because I\'m playing it with my Girlfriend and we have about one session every week or two. Keeps us playing till md morning tho. Damn Pyramid heads http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

I dig it. My Girlfriend gets quite fidgety and scared tho, and frustrates me that she doesn\'t like playing it a bit louder.

That game would be awesome with headphones, and in the dark.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[ProfessorOak]

its quite an experience to play straight through, nonstop. In the dark, with your surround sound cranked. A friend and I \'teamplayed\', passing off the controller when things got freaky.

and oh yeah- Pyramid heads.

[ProfessorOak]

I follow the same pattern: only buying the must have games. I wish I had that much self control about their soundtracks http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

I noticed that Silent Hill 2 wasn\'t on your list. I\'d recommend it highly. An amazing gaming experience for sure- and the quality of the SFX and music are mindblowing. Akira Yamaoka did a stellar job- balancing both ambient scary and melodic theme tracks. Check it out if you haven\'t yet.

Dale

[Dis]

Ken-P: Yes, nice piece.

KingIdiot: Yes, FF6,7,8 etc. have mind-blowing music. My fav is still propably FF6, for example \"Forever Rachel\", \"Coin song\", Locke\'s theme are soo amazing tunes. Similar about FF7, Aerith\'s theme.. I think the original version is far much better than the arranged one. Or \"Interupted by firework\" is sooo http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif. Iwadare\'s music is also great, it\'s different from Uematsu\'s style.. Lucia vs Zophar is really amazing as well as main theme, Grandia\'s love theme is so beatiful.. And there are many many more games with great music, and also from US/Europe composers. Sadly, before some time I posted here some Iwadare\'s great music (in the context of a sample libraries discussion), and most people in this forum said that it\'s toy-like music like from some amateur sitting at home with a keyboard (they didn\'t know it were Iwadare\'s game tunes). So I think a lot of people here are almost blinded with common libraries and their using in tunes, as when they hear something much more different, they value it as \"terrible\" or \"amatuer\".

[This message has been edited by Dis (edited 01-12-2002).]

[Lance_M]

Geez, I\'m missing a discussion on video games? That\'s not supposed to happen! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Really though, I haven\'t played many games in the past couple of years (FF8, FF9, Tony Hawk 2 and a tiny bit of Grand Theft Auto 3 have been my last few). But I used to be into them quite a bit. Heck, I even worked at a gaming site at one point.

Getting back on track, I agree that there are many people that make mistakes by assuming that if you don\'t score for tv, film or concert that you\'re not a \"real\" musician and should not be taken seriously. But lots of these guys doing pieces for games do a damn fine job with what they have to work with.

Heck, some of my favorite songs I\'ve heard in my life are from amateurs at traxinspace.com. Using sometimes as little as 2 megs of samples, they\'ll create something that has more life in it than I can with gigs upon gigs of samples.

[ProfessorOak]

Toy-like music? How very sad.

People forget that simple can be beatuiful also.

Dis, thats a good point. Some people get so wrapped up in the creation of music that they forget about the music itself.

Amen, Lance_M - game musicians are real musicians too. As are wannabees. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

[KingIdiot]

Hehe..

I wondered how long it would take you two to jumpt in Dis and Lance. This thread is definitely going in your guy\'s territory http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Dis, you have to admit that you were posting Idware\'s music as a \"listen to the quality of the samples\" post not a \"composition\" post. When you listen to original MIDI\'s from SNES or even PSX the qauality of the samples being used are pretty horrid. Even on older CD streaming based stuff, the synthsbeing used dont have a \"realistic\" quality to them that most of us here are striving for. I still like myh Roland Orch Board sounds and with a lot of creative reverb and EQ I can get some great sounds out of them, but I\'ll NEVER get them to sound as realistic as *I\'d* like.

Remember also that taste plays a big part in the realm of \"quality\" samples. Some people jsut like hearing a different sound.....
http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

With that said. Lance knows I used to hang out at FFO and talk a little Game music there. I wish people understood the amount of work that goes into creating in game MIDI files for games. Its way more than jsut composing, there is alot of creative sound design to making as much use out of 150k sample RAM http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif (average I was seeing on PSX)

Granted RPGs get away with using more....and you\'re allowed to compose music that is quite different than any other type of game.....so again.. I wan to do one. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

BTW. I decided to take a break from EVERYTHING \"music\", and I started playing Metal Gear Solid 1 last night since I never beat it, and jsut defeated the Hind D, and the CD WOULDN\'T LOAD!! I\'m pretty irritated! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif I\'ve been mad at myself fornot sitting down to play the games I have all the way through and let them sit, so I decided to start on one I started some time ago and finish it......It was a Used CD and apparently was used as a hockey puck or something http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[Lance_M]

lol, I wonder what\'s going on at FFO these days.

I\'d sure like to find an amateur game project to latch myself onto, whether it be as composer, animation, or whatever. I don\'t have enough time right now to try and get an actual job doing this stuff (pretty full load of classes this semester), but a freeware thing would be perfect.

Unfortunately, most people are busy making multiplayer mods and total conversions with Unreal, Quake, etc (all of which I used to work with, actually). No RPG projects. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif

I gotta start playing games again, though. Too many of my friends are shoving all these cool, new games like GTA3, Silent Hill 2, and such in my face. They\'re hard to resist. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Lance_M (edited 01-11-2002).]

[Dis]

King Idiot: But that Iwadare\'s music doesn\'t use SNES or PSX synth samples. He used a lot of libraries in this music - from AO to Emu and Roland orch. libraries, and he almost every sounds sophisticatelly edited and customized - so the result was very different sound than usuall AO, Orch.family etc., to me-much better. But the comments on his music at that forum a time ago was that it\'s like an amateur sitting at home with keyboard and play for yoursel - that\'s a type of comments which cover not only opinion on quality of samples but also on the music in complex (no way to be professional, etc.). I\'m still saying that some of Iwadare\'s masterfully edited and layered basic strings sounds are far much expressive than basic sounds of Gigastrings (which are IMHO \"again\" very very close-mic. recorded and their basic sound is a bit similar to basic Ultimate String C. sound)

[KingIdiot]

Dis, I remember the toy sounding comment, and it was from one of the basic flute songs you posted which were definitely edited samples to be smaller the loop on the flute was imediate and I believe there was one other instrument. It didn\'t sound \"realstic\". Thats the main idea that people want from this forum so it definitely got some comments it probably didn\'t deserve.
I think that good editing of samples can do wonderful things, just listen to what Thomas J did with AO and Prosonous and of course KH. He\'s got an ear and time to edit samples http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

The other Idware sample you posted which was fully orchestrated sounded much better http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif, but still not realistic. The strings sound lush and thick, but ultimately fake. The song itself was nice tho http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

I tink GOS is recorded just right, it takes VERY well to reverbs which is what I want. When I do short bows I like a little close and agressive sound. In fact I know that Ultimate Strings is WAY too close mic\'d and that GOS is far by comparison. This is just one of the things that gives US that aggressive short bow...but grainy sounding long bow.

Again its taste that plays a big part here http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

This debate could go on and on http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Have you guys listened to the FFX in game music? Some of the samples sound very good. There are some creative sound guys at Square http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

BTW I love the small \"room\" sound of the Arranged versions on Reuiniun. Its note distantly micd but has character still.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[ProfessorOak]

Yes, I\'ve listened to FFX. I have the limited edition OST. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Amazing music- even more so since I heard most of those song\'s sample data was less than 2mb.

[Ken-P]

I\'ve finish FF10!

>>> I love the small \"room\" sound of the Arranged versions on Reuiniun. Its note distantly micd but has character still.

That \"room\" or \"studio\" sounds (on-mic) of orchestra are one of feature of Japanese orchestra recording. I like this way, not hollywood-kind-of-everythings-feeling-distant recording.

Although Dan Dean family gives me sounds that I like, there is no such strings session samples. \"Smart Violin\" is close, but it is not usable sample.

That\'s why, when I used GOS first, I was very disappointed by its distant hall sound (it is not sound that I wanted).

Sorry for my stupid English