AngelCityOutlaw   Members

Holy hell, that's awesome! Congrats!

Yeah, this. I think that for the kind of music you want to compose, something like Reaper or Cubase might be easier. It's probably a good idea to just try the demos of Fl, Reaper, Cubase and whatever else you can find to see which one suits your Jazz compositions best. What does that have to do with writing music? I would say that if someone were to start writing music for the first time and immediately start using a thousand-dollar sample library, they probably wouldn't have a clue how to use the sample library and make it sound realistic.

Do a lot of drugs and have dread locks. That's how Bob Marley did it. Also, major keys with off-beat guitar strums. Use extended chords - especially 7#9 chords like Jimmy Hendrix loved so much. Also, use latin percussion and trumpets. Also use either a piano or hammond to double the guitar rhythm. That's it, really.

Yep, lol. Was specifically told the main theme had to feel like "1970s Martial Arts". Or at least, that was the original idea.

The remixed SFIII music beat the crap out of the original. Come at me, bro.

I can't remember if I've shared these before or not, but here are a couple tunes I wrote for an indie game when I was about 18. The tracks were produced by Glyn R. Brown and he also added some of his own accompaniment, melodies and stuff. It was a cool project. https://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/cool-clash-rooftop-rumble https://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/cool-clash-main-theme-original

I really don't like the arrangement, honestly. It doesn't really have any of the original's intensity except towards the end. It feels like it's always building up, but it never really lets loose. The arrangement is kind of empty feeling; devoid of a bassline in a lot of sections. It's also pretty random on structure and this makes the vocals feel like a tacked on addition rather than building an arrangment around the vocals. As a result, it doesn't really "flow" for lack of a better term. It also ends incredibly abruptly. I know it's a WIP, but that still caught me off guard.

Just kinda wondering how everyone goes about choosing the instruments for their compositions? I personally just start with the entire thing on either a piano or guitar and then choose the appropriate instruments to play the different parts after the composition is done - even if it's an electronica tune. I know that a lot of people don't do it that way, though. Lots of people I know just load up virtual instruments and start playing. What do you do? Do you decide what kind of instruments and sounds you want to use before hand or do you orchestrate/arrange it later?

I posted a WIP of the Dahaka theme in the private forums.

All of the posts here have been great, thanks for all the tips, advice, thoughts etc!

So I heard this awesome tune in Tomb Raider that was basically this ambient-dance track that was just this one riff repeated, yet not boring to listen to. This is my failed attempt at writing a track with a similar vibe https://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/club-hypnos

Glad you all like it! Yeah, I've enabled the download on soundcloud - download away!

My hatred for Naruto knows no limits. Regardless, this song isn't bad but we all know this track ain't got shit on what you do now.

Odd. I was following you as well, but it gave me the option to follow you back. Oh well, problem fixed! Nice description by the way and I'm glad you like it!

It could be worse, it could be happy tree friends. Seriously, whoever was behind that show should be locked up.

Basically, I find clean electric guitars with reverb to sound soothing. Also, snares with delay sound trippy. This is also me learning how to use Reaper better. https://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/somber-skies

That's why I call him "Technical Tim".

At least in my experience, your non-musician friends will always be the least supportive people of your music. They generally believe that music is some special talent rather than a craft and skill that can be learned and improved upon. They just listen to whatever is on the radio and top 40 hits. Unless you're in this category, they don't give a shit. They won't take the time to press play on a track of yours because if it's not some shit they heard on the radio or a song all their friends are ripping from a YouTube video with over a million views, they don't figure your music is worthy of their time. If you do manage to become a successful musician, they will just name-drop you to boost their own status and boast to their friends that they know a cool musician with a song on the radio. They've still probably never listened to your stuff. It's like this one girl I've known for over 10 years has still never bothered to take 2 - 4 minutes out of her life to press play on one of my tunes. Hell, even most of my family never has.

This is probably what I'll wind up doing. The thing is, I can't decide on what kind of theme and genre I would do. Electronic dance stuff? Rock/metal? Film score orchestra stuff or Jazz? That probably also argues in favor of putting out singles or EPs instead. Another problem. If you put out an album's worth of EDM and your next one is a metal type of album, your previous listeners are likely EDM fans and aren't going to care about the next album. You'd probably have to pick a style and stick with it (which would probably get boring) unless you want to use multiple names.

I've thought about it numerous times and recently a guy I know has been trying to convince me that I should put out my own album's worth of music as I still have tons of songs that I've never finished and many more that I've never bothered to record/produce. Clearly, this guy has bad taste in music. The thing is, I just don't see the point. Whether it's on bandcamp or you have a record label, what is the point? It seems like a lot of work and money to go through for something people aren't going to buy or listen to anyway. May as well just post the occasional track on soundcloud. So for those of you who made an album of your own original stuff, how did it turn out? Was it worth it and why was it worth it?

Sounds great as always!

Just because you release something for free doesn't validate sacrificing professional integrity. It's kind of like how OCR's albums are free, but on average they're still high quality and the downloads usually work. Therefore, I fail to see how you have more "wiggle room" to have a completely unplayable launch to a game you've been working on for at least a year when you're supposedly a world-class, state-of-the-art studio. Like, if you can't make a free product work properly, what incentive is that for people to spend money on your products that cost money?

If someone made Silent Hill with Oculus Rift and 3D stereo I would probably walk away with PTSD.