[Music] Strung out in FFTactics' High

  I've been listening a lot lately to the music of Sakimoto and his ilk (the guys who did Vagrant Story, FFTactics, FFXII, etc.), and I thought it would be neat to use them as an inspiration for trying to get back into the groove of more traditional RPG tunes.
 Both of these are battle themes, I suppose, although they could stand to be a little longer. 
 Then again, I suppose I don't really have to worry about that stuff. It's not like anything will ever come of this, so who cares?! Anyway, love them/hate them, tear them to shreds.

 I guess this isn't really in the style of Final Fantasy Tactics, but I figured it would make more sense to put songs in topics that I've already started, so that I don't end up with a huge string of topics with one or two posts at best.
 

Song of Battle -

   Strikes me as more of a "revelation" theme than a battle theme. With a lack of percussion, it doesn't have that frantic and fast paced feel that makes battle music exciting. Not to say that it isn't good, because I do like the time changes you've put in there. My favorite is the 5/4 6/4 part.

Untrod Ground -

   I think I like this one a little more. It gives the feeling of stepping into a cave or something and finding you've been trapped, and must escape. That or a noble city that's been claimed by some dark source. Again, a little percussion would help with the tone, but I do like this one a lot.

Battle (2) -

   I like this one too. It has a similar style as the rest, and maintains that tension that you've established in your previous works. A little auxiliary percussion goes a long way. The only thing is that static-sound happening on the "and" of one in every measure. Is that meant to be in there?


Your songs are pretty good overall. I would say try branching out into other styles a bit. I would be interested in what you could do for a calm theme, or even something ballad-ish. One thing I would suggest trying is lowering the reverb on your overall mix, as sometimes it makes it hard to hear the overall instrumentation.

Keep writing though.

 I actually do have quite a few different styles of songs (my other posts have some), but obviously orchestral is my passion. Whether or not I'm good at it is a matter of great debate, but what can I say?
 The Battle(2) song does have one of those bead/snake sounding things that I suppose sounds like static. Is that what you meant? I kinda did overdo it, but when I was making the song, I was so focused on the trumpets and strings that I failed to notice the first time around how terrible it is once you actually notice that it's there. So my bad...
 As for calm sounding things, how about this one?

I agree with what Holk said about Song of Battle, but another thing that kills the mood a bit are the soundfonts/patches you're using. The strings and woodwinds swell a lot, and don't have much attack, and it takes away from the UMPH of the piece.

Untrod ground was good, but I felt like it should have been part of song of Battle. Really, it sounded a LOT like Song of Battle.
Again, though, your choice of patches/soundfonts (or maybe you're stuck with them) sweeten the theme a little too much at times.
It's not really your fault, in terms of writing.

Battle(2) was better. Had much more atmosphere, but again it sounded pretty much exactly like the other two.
By the end of it, after listening to all 3 of them in succession, I was BEGGING for a change up, or a key change, or SOMETHING different.

So, try branching out and trying out some techniques like changing keys or using non-standard chords. It really spices the music up, and lessens the monotony.



pre-edit: The calm piece is very nice, but my "criticisms" remain the same. What you have is very nice, but very simple. You're very good with melody and expression, but your choice of chord progressions leaves me wanting more.

 Thanks, guys. That's exactly the kind of feedback I need.
 While my sound font library is rather limited, there are at least several different kinds of strings/trumpets that I could use to mix things up. I'll try to keep that in mind for future songs.
 And S e, you're right on the money with regard to chord progression and key changes and whatnot. That's something that I tend to struggle with, so I generally try to rely on making songs with a tendency to evoke a certain emotion, rather than being musically "interesting". As a musician, I suppose that's a rather glaring flaw...but I'm trying to work on that, as well.
 The one thing I would argue with you about is that the songs all sound alike. While they do use all of the same kinds instruments, that's the only reason I could conceivably call them similar. Would it make more sense to answer your point of contention by mentioning that they were all made for the same game?

Well, the point I was trying to make is that all three of the first songs could have been movements in one symphony or something like that. They WERE all in the same key, and used similar chord progressions.

But maybe it's just because I'm basically the complete opposite from you in terms of composition (I love chord progressions, and struggle with counter-point and interesting melodies) and my mind is geared more towards that one thing, or maybe it's because I listened to all 3 of them at the same time.

Anyway, I wouldn't say not using advanced chord progressions means your music isn't interesting, I'm just saying it's another basic factor of music that, if you messed around with it, could open doors to better ideas. And that's what all composers are after, afterall; better ideas.

They WERE all in the same key, and used similar chord progressions.

 Then you, my friend, are an infinitely better musician than me at this time. If you're already at the point where you can tell what key something is in just by listening to it, my hat's off to you. At best, I can only read and determine what key something is in by looking at the scale...
 But now I have to go back an listen to everything I've done to see if this is some sort of chronic problem for me. I'd hate to think that everything I've made up until this point is just rehashes of songs that are all in the same key...

 Got some more. These are just a mix of every kind of thing- experimenting around with some different stuff.
 AuriaBattle is a final boss theme...thing.
 I've got three more to post, but since they lowered the file upload size limit (and since I don't want to post three times in a row and end up looking like a great fool), I'll space them out or something.

To my mind, this sounds more like a Langrissery piece. Not in terms of style, but in terms of "I think this tune suits a top-down turn-based wargame more than a FF-type game". That said, it's well good. The intro was my fave part, but it's all good!

Not to be critical, but I think "Untrodden" was the word you were looking for?

 Here's another one. It's another calm sort of piece, but hopefully it's a bit better with regard to changing keys or whatnot. If it isn't, well, I'll just have to do better for next time.

 And Billy, I did actually mean Untrod. "Untrodden" would be wholly inappropriate, I think. Not only do they mean entirely separate things, but the latter would have made no sense with regard to the setting that inspired the song.

untrod
      adj 1: lacking pathways; "trackless wilderness"; "roadless
             areas" [syn: pathless, roadless, trackless,
             untracked, untrod, untrodden]

untrod
      adj 1: lacking pathways; "trackless wilderness"; "roadless
             areas" [syn: pathless, roadless, trackless,
             untracked, untrod, untrodden]

 Untrodden can also be a verb.

un·tread     
–verb (used with object), -trod, -trod·den or -trod, -tread·ing.
to go back through in the same steps.

 But yes, the more technical aspects of grammar and word usage aside, I still prefer Untrod to Untrodden. Untrodden sounds so stiff.