RayMabry

Hello everyone. I've written a theme for Ken that I was hoping to get some feedback on "NightLife ( ) It's pretty much a rough demo written on Sibelius 6 so I was hoping for critique mostly on the composition of the piece. Any thoughts?

Thankyou I've been looking ofr more sites like this.

I had an assumption based on absolutely nothing that perhaps I could do stuff from home but I wasn't quite sure so that's good to know. I probably will end up moving regardless anyways cause I just need to be in REAL a city again.I know there aren't any in house positions. Kinda like with Disney and it's artists but I had heard that some people get hired by production studios that send out artists so I figured eventually I'd wanna do that. As far as perfecting my skills I know I'll never get them to be "perfect". I was more speaking of Perfecting them on a personal level. Learning how to mix, Learning how to use a few DAW's and having a clearer understanding of composing music for other genres of video games aside from Fighting Games, and learning other things that might be expected of me are what I meant by "Perfecting my skills". I understand as a composer you'll never be "perfect" It's too music is always changing and it's far too subjective. I just have an idea of where I wanna be before I start trying to get jobs. I can't roll just be like "Hey I know how to compose on Sibelius, and I've mostly only done Fighting Game Music. Hire me!"

One question that I should have asked a while ago was how did everyone get their first composing job in the industry? I was wondering because eventually once I perfect my skills (and probably move cause I doubt I'll find a company in Delaware to compose for) I pretty much need to know where to turn and i've heard different things. Some people have said that you get hired by music production companies and then get sent out but others do indie stuff, which I'd probably have to start out doing so how do you go about getting into the business?

I don't think he meant all at once though. If your sequencing existing music or arranging existing music then i'm sure that means you'll be writing less songs for whatever project your on at the time (hopefully). But you are right it is alot. Just writing the song (before you mix it and add effects or whatever else) is a tough enough job. But i'd imagine that all of that took place over the course of time. I wouldn't mind it as long as the money is right and I learn how to do those things properly.

It doesn't seem too bad to me. Some of the tasks seem closely related and if your a composer you need to know some anyways. A few seem like they require grasping new technology which seems to always be a constant when your working with video game music. The only ones that seem difficult are the management ones although I'm going to college for management thank goodness.

Well thankyou very much Dan. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of that out. I'm definitely going to try to learn as much as I can. I hope to someday be one of the best so i'll learn all that I have to learn and more. You seem to have alto of experience have you worked on any notable games?

Really?...geez...well i'm somewhat okay with my composing I just need to learn how to mix and produce songs better and I guess now I have to learn all this other stuff. I always thought that the programmers or sound people would just tell you how they wanted your songs and then when you finished the song they'd do the rest. I'm glad though that I found out now. I'm glad everyone here is so knowledgeable and helpful.

So i'm still a bit confused. I mean now i'm intrigued and i'll probably look into the other stuff as well. But do I NEED to learn it? Is not just enough to compose the songs they ask of you?

So is it fair to say that not only do you have to learn how to make music for games but you have to learn programming to some extent too?

MTV music generator 2 catagorizes them that way. Hardsynth has synthesizer sounds that that have a harder sort of grinding quality to the sound of each sample. Softsynth sounds have a softer tone such as string synths and bells stuff like that. I suppose outside of that it means something different but thats how I always understood it.

I need a library with pretty much all your standard instruments but i'd also like a library full of really amazing softsynth and hardsynth sounds. Does anyone know of any like that?

That actually sounds pretty solid.I really wasn't aware that most libraries had bad instruments. Oh well. Thanx though. You've changed my mind as far as Kontakt goes. I'm definately gonna put that on my list of stuff to get.

Sibelius uses the Kontakt player and I think some virtual instruments from Kontakt and I hate it so far. Are there any demos for the Kontakt samples so I can get an idea of what they sound like?

I definately have to check sampletank out because if FL Studio 9 comes with JUST the samples that are in the demo i'm definately gonna need more asap. I like to experiment alot.