Phonetic Hero

I know I've suggested it before, but I really can't say enough about how helpful transcription is for me. If I'm feeling like I don't have much creative juice in the tank, transcribing takes a lot of the stress of "being creative" out of the process, and I always learn something when I'm so closely analyzing someone else's music. Just getting something out, even if it's a straight transcription, comes with the added bonus of feeling accomplished for finishing something, which I think is important for building confidence. If you find yourself inspired in the middle of the process and feel like changing some stuff around, roll with it and have fun - it could even turn into a remix if you're really feeling it (but doesn't have to!). I keep a notepad document on my desktop with suggestions for myself with games and specific tracks from those games that I like and feel I could learn something from. My go-to right now is the Mega Man X: Corrupted soundtrack by Dominic Ninmark - a fanmade game with some super great SNES-inspired MMX tunes. It's completely unrelated to what I'm working on outside of the transcription, but that separation further helps me find my motivation again.

I'm SUPER glad you're not suffering from video game addiction, but please don't assume it isn't a real problem just because you don't have it. Keep in mind people used to doubt addiction to hard drugs and alcohol in the same way, attributing their addictions to "bad choices" rather than the actual neurophysiological changes that had taken place. Pretty much anything that produces a dopamine response can be addictive and lead to problems with impulse control as well as being extremely disruptive to motivation and memory circuitry. An inability to abstain is the feature of addiction, and video games are designed to keep people playing. This applies so much more strongly to modern games considering developers have had decades to refine their methods, and in a lot of cases modern games are downright predatory in this way (games that combine gambling with gameplay in particular). Not everyone who plays games will be addicted to gaming just like not everyone who drinks will become an alcoholic, but it IS an extremely fast-growing issue.

Super cool track!

Can't say if I'd be "likely" to sign up at this point, but I'm interested for sure

Daaaaaamn Jesse you killed it! For sure the most polished vocal performance I've heard from you. Great moves, keep it up, proud of you

In general, yes. The idea with the dummy instruments is laying down the harmonic foundation and figuring out how the track will progress on a larger scale. I'm not looking to find the perfect instruments at that point, just figuring out what chords I want to use and probably chunking out some melodies to be molded as I go (it's almost never perfect the first time, so iterate!). It can be easy to get overwhelmed by feeling like you have to make all the right choices right off the bat. So don't! Don't worry about it until you've put down the basic notes you want. Instrumentation/orchestration and voice leading can come later. If this is still difficult, I recommend simplifying even further. Try writing chiptunes and imposing most, if not all, of the limitations of the hardware on yourself. If you can't/don't want to emulate things exactly, that's fine! Remember, the goal is to get more comfortable with laying down notes and get a feel for structuring a track, not to write a perfect chiptune. By purposely limiting your options for production and instrumentation, you'll have a much clearer focus on the composition and an easier time learning about harmonic relationships.

If you're having trouble focusing your learning process, I can relate - I have minimal formal theory training as well, and it can be especially hard to know where to start when you don't really know terms. Here's the resource that's helped me the most lately: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeZLO2VgbZHeDcongKzzfOw/videos If you're having issues with composition specifically, I'd particularly recommend any of his videos that talk about utilizing motifs. There's a Dark Souls vid and a Zelda: Link's Awakening vid that talk about motif use and transformation pretty thoroughly, and it's really made a huge impact on my writing lately. Aside from that, the best recommendation I have is to transcribe. A lot. Even from your own tracks. If you find a chord progression you really like, throw down a dummy instrument (my go-to is a simple triangle wave), write it out and examine it isolated. Or if you like the interplay the chords had with the melody, put down another dummy for the lead and look at the relationships between the two. When you find something you like, even if it's from someone else's work, try emulating it. Don't feel bad about borrowing elements from music that inspires you, especially when you're learning something new! Adding techniques to your repertoire will make you a much more effective composer when it comes time to write to a client's specs, and I find that the more comfortable you get with a new trick/technique (even if it's "borrowed"), the easier it is to implement it into a track with your own spin to make it sound more unique. It's not necessary to rediscover every composition technique for yourself, only that you can use it effectively. The chord/lead dummies also translate into my own originals and arrangements, not just transcription. Blocking out a new section can help you determine how well it flows with the preceding material, and it really helps me avoid wasting time fleshing out an entire section only to find it won't work structurally. I also have to echo Timaeus that if it's possible, make at least a little time for music stuff almost every day, whether it's starting a new tune, transcribing one of your favorite game tunes, or making a new synth patch. But don't beat yourself up if you miss a day and definitely take a day or two off if you need it. The mind needs time away from conscious processing to recombine novel information and let what you've learned solidify. It functions a lot like a muscle; overtraining is more detrimental than it might seem on the surface, so if you find that it's too stressful doing X number of days per week, back it off a bit and make sure to focus on enjoying the process. Maybe even just pick a few days of the week to purposely be away from music, or schedule out what you want to work on for which days - it's the consistency that's most important rather than the sheer quantity of time you spend with music. Hope that's helpful

It is great and I love it (surprise!), should be at the top of everyone's "to listen" list

Watched it and loved it! The faithfulness to the Castlevania canon with a bit of added depth was great, and I was kinda surprised at how well it works as an adaptation. I wish the music would've been more memorable and melodic in keeping with the games' soundtracks, but it fits well enough. Reeeeeeaaally missed a good opportunity for an emotive Bloody Tears arrangement though...

WOW what an impressive track. Great work!

Holy smokes, masterful arrangement. Keep kicking ass Alex

Wow, super disappointed with the new DLC info. I'd assumed they meant a legitimate new dungeon, not a 45 room wave-clear D: As much fun as I had with the game, really not feeling the need to shell out more cash for the DLC... hope the next round is better

Amazing stuff. Glad you worked through your initial doubts and put your nose to the grindstone - it shows

The support means a whole lot man :'D Never thought I'd be here just 5.5 short years after joining the forums! Goes without saying, but HUGE shout outs to the community for fostering my musical growth during some very formative years. Wouldn't be where I am without y'all <3 Thanks! And fair enough, though if you're conflating AW with Fire Emblem, I think that's a bit of a mistake. The two play really differently from a strategic perspective - I personally am not a big fan of FE (RPG elements take out a lot of the strategy), but I LOVE Advance Wars. I haven't played a game that captures its take on the tactical genre since.. the last AW game, which came out almost a decade ago now (not to mention Days of Ruin was way different from the rest), so I'm just as excited to play the game as I am to write for it

Nintendo just did a Direct featuring some of the upcoming indie titles for the Switch: ...Also I'm doing music for Wargroove (14:23 in the vid)

I'll grant you most of your points, at least in that I think they're subjective enough that I don't think critical discussion is all that necessary, particularly your gripes with 3D platforming. I often dislike 3D platforming too, but personally I find being able to "see your feet" doesn't help all that much (Devil May Cry, as just one example, has some AWFUL platforming sections). I'll even let your complaints about the visors being gimmicks slide, even though I disagree (and I think saying the gameplay was "shoehorned" into the artistic vision is extremely overdramatic imo haha) The map design I found to be pretty brilliant though, with a few exceptions. One of these is the one you mentioned, right after Ice Beam - it tripped me up EVERY TIME for many, many playthroughs, and it is especially annoying with poor visibility before you get Gravity Suit (I have absolutely no idea why they made that choice). In general though, there's very little backtracking involved (MUCH less than some other titles in the series) and every time I play it through, I'm consistently blown away by how well everything comes together once you hit the Phazon Mines: You proceed through the Mines for the first time and grab power bombs On your way out, you notice a pile of rubble in front of a morph ball mechanism that can be power bombed away, which leads to Grapple Beam Nearby, there's an elevator to Magmoor Caverns, which takes you VERY close to where you need to go next to grab the Plasma Beam There's another elevator nearby that leads to Tallon Overworld, where you grab the X-Ray Visor Yet again, there's an elevator nearby that leads back to the Phazon Mines, which is quickly traversable and makes progressing to Omega Pirate easy As to your other points regarding the game's layout, you can turn off the hint system in the options menu if you'd rather just explore (this was the beginning of the hand-hold era of video games, after all). The Artifacts I had no issue with - 2 are very easy to find early on, and when you visit the Artifact Temple for the first time and place them, you get hints about almost all the rest of them. The hints have locations in the form of area names coupled with word-for-word room names, and planning a route to get them quickly isn't very difficult at all. It also fits into the games narrative really nicely and it gives me an excuse to look for other pickups on the way, so I personally have no issues here.

IT'S REALLY GOOD go listen

Been a whiiiiile since I posted in the WIP forums, how's everyone been? I ended up getting stumped on an orchestral remix commission and took some time to transcribe a tune from FFT (with probably more on the way) to help get me past the blockage and stay productive. I added a bit of light interpretation in the form of a pizzicato double bass section for some low end support and some choir chords for added harmonic coloration, based off of the implied harmonies in the source. I included a MIDI download in the description on soundcloud as well as some additional notes for anyone interested. This was mostly for my personal studies (and for fun), but I figured someone might enjoy it anyway

There are definitely some great moments. I say play till a little way into the last area (the Sanctuary) and if you hate it, stop playing because it only gets worse at that point. But hey that's just me, plenty of people like it even more than the first!

Agreed, this looks awesome! Great work on all fronts man

I'm fine excluding MP2 from this statement

Thanks a lot dude! The percussion in the Metroid Prime OST is very much at the forefront of its tunes as a result of all its unique timbres, so it seemed like a natural fit for me to try to emulate. It definitely wasn't easy and I really had to push myself, but overall I'm really happy with how things turned out. I have to agree that the execution is probably better on the other two tracks than on the opener. Hatchling is such an ambitious track, I really wish I had more time to sit with it and massage it a bit more to smooth out pieces of the structure and round the edges on some of the percussion. But hey, at least I've got loads of thematic material to work with for future installments! Even considering the deadlines and unfortunately having to rush things a little toward the end, I'm very happy with how all the tracks turned out. This has been by far the most personally fulfilling music I've ever released, and I'm looking forward to doing more Sequence Breaker releases in the future

I feel sort of the opposite haha, I'm actually glad they haven't remade Metroid 2 so the fanmake could flourish. Finished all of AM2R yesterday and it's incredible. I have my issues with it as an assy game critic, but they're pretty few in number and overall it's a really great play. There's so much added material and it's such a creative and obviously impassioned take on the original, weaving in the series lore and making nods to games that, chronologically, come later in the series. Really, if you're a Metroid fan, I can't recommend it highly enough!

Surprised there wasn't already a thread for this, but happy 30th birthday, Metroid!! This series means so much to me, and Metroid Prime in particular is one of my favorite games ever. Anyone doing anything to celebrate today? I'm working my way through AM2R, the fan remake of Metroid 2 with my roommate - the full version FINALLY released today after years of hard work and the game is seriously amazing, highly recommended! Any favorite games from the series, or even more specifically, moments from games? I probably have too many to list, but a couple for me are: First stepping foot in the Chozo Ruins in Metroid Prime and having the camera pan around to show the abandoned temple structures Pretty much anything to do with avoiding the SA-X when it's revealed how powerful it is and knowing you're no match If anyone's got any fan works, I'd love to see/hear them! I've been hard at work myself over the past 6 months or so, putting together a few original tracks to try to capture what the series means to me (made a separate thread for it, if anyone's interested). If you've made anything to celebrate Metroid recently (or maybe not so recently!), post it up!

SEQUENCE BREAKER Happy 30th birthday, Metroid!! I've been working for the last half year on a few original tracks to pay homage to one of my favorite series in the most unique way I can. The tracks heavily emulate the sound choices of Metroid Prime, my favorite game in the series, to give the listener something familiar but also something new. Thanks for listening From the album notes: " "Sequence Breaker" is my personal love letter to the Metroid series, encapsulating the wonderment inspired by the striking beauty of the games' environments and introspective storytelling. The soundscapes in each track were chosen - and often created from scratch - to heavily emulate the music from Metroid Prime, my favorite game in the series, while keeping each piece unique to me as a composer. Every melody, chord progression, and percussive hit was crafted with a deep love, and I truly hope you enjoy this impassioned tribute to an amazing series as much as I enjoyed creating it! Each original composition was inspired by specific pieces, moments, environments, or characters in the Metroid series. Some are fairly overt, others less so. Since creating a consistent and enveloping atmosphere is so crucial to the series' emotional conveyance, each track was designed with the same sense of sentient world-building. My goal was to enable the listener to create their own narrative as the album progresses, walking through familiar worlds or exploring new ones in their mind's eye. Above all else, this release is a gift to Metroid fans everywhere, including myself. Please enjoy the first installment of what will assuredly be an ongoing project, with many more releases in the future!" Pete