AngelCityOutlaw

When I think Tactical RPG, I think more along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. Assuming that's what you have in mind, the main series that stands out for me is Shining Force.
 
Shining Force I & II are both Genesis games. They're fun, but admittedly there is a bit of level-grinding around the middle (though nowhere near as bad as FF Tactics). If I didn't play them emulated with the ability to speed up things, it probably would've been a little more irritating. Nevertheless, the strategy is good, and the fact that nearly all battles are story-related (i.e., very few random encounters) helps to keep it from feeling repetitive.
 
Shining Force III is one of my favorites. It contains a very epic story that spans across three episodes. That is, there are three separate games, each of which is from a different character's perspective, and they're interrelated such that certain events in one game affect certain events in the next. The strategy is challenging, and while it doesn't require leveling up per se, I did find it really difficult without a bit of grinding. Unfortunately, there are two major down-side: it's only for Saturn, and only the first episode was ever translated. (...I have a Japanese Saturn and all three episodes, so this wasn't a problem in my case, but the rarity might make it prohibitively expensive.)
 
 
So, well, if it's not apparent from my signature and name I can elaborate a bit on this {^^}. To give a few 10-second reviews of the games (not counting imports)...
- Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS1): Major overhaul of the first Lunar game (The Silver Star for SCD). Feels like a classic JRPG though with a richer backstory and mythology. It's not my favorite of the series, but it sets up the universe and is relatively the easiest one to find. I didn't find it terribly difficult, but I've heard varying opinions on the challenge level.
- Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1): Remake of the second Lunar game (Eternal Blue for SCD). This is a more epic and longer JRPG and goes deeper into the background of the world. This is my favorite of the series, though it's better to have played SSS first. This is also one of the more challenging games of the series, though not as difficult as the original SCD version.
- Lunar: The Silver Star (SCD): The original and first Lunar game. This was ahead of its time in terms of the music (which is fantastic), voice acting (...perhaps only so-so by today's standards), and depth of the world. I also like the original more than the remake. The challenge level here isn't too high, though, especially if you're used to more recent RPGs.
- Lunar: Eternal Blue (SCD): The original sequel. This and EBC (the remake) are very similar, and (unlike TSS/SSS) the remake added a lot and only removed a few things. This is also possibly the most challenging game of the series, and requires you to consider position, turn order, and a few other factors well beyond "which one's stronger" in battles (unless you toss up your hands and just level-grind).
- Lunar: Legend (GBA): Very toned down version of The Silver Star / Silver Star Story. Not worth playing and the challenge level is a complete cakewalk.
- Lunar: Dragon Song (DS): THIS GAME DOESN'T EXIST MOVE ALONG NOW
- Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP): Toned down version of Silver Star Story with a few added plot points. It's... all right, and gives you the same story, so it's worth it if you can't find Silver Star Story. It's much easier by comparison, though.
 
I admit my own bias here, considering these games formed a core part of my life. So, I won't go into talking up the games (and don't feel bad if you find them a bit meh). KF

Some interesting suggestions thus far!
 
 
 
I haven't witnessed many JRPG storylines that actually make sense. 

You've got way too much time on your hands. 

A different mindset that I take with this that others are going to disagree with:
 
If you don't know how you want to remix something, don't remix it. Trying to force a track where you have no idea what you want it to sound like is not an organic process.
 
Get better at writing and learn how to wield different styles effectively. Make sure you *enjoy* these styles, too. If you know what a style sounds like, you're more likely to be able to hear a certain song and imagine it in that style, and that ability is the foundation for starting your arrangement. In my experience, arrangements that were born out of request or specification (I need to remix [insert name here] tune for project/compo/because I like it) always paled in comparison to arrangements born out of initial ideas ("The Fire Emblem theme from Smash Melee, but cranked to 11, and with orchestral part writing in the bridge!")
 
That's not to say you can't have inspired ideas in projects/compos/picking your favorite tunes; you definitely can, and you should enter compos to exercise that. But even in compos, I've had a few instances where I simply just was unable to think of a clear idea on what to do and was essentially forced to output a grinding of the gears, so to speak. I had to completely revert to mechanical, theoretical understanding without enjoying what I was writing and just do "the melody" and "the other melody" and "making sure the harmony is correct" and "adding cymbal transitions" and then mixing it together. I've also committed to projects and then left after picking a cool source and not actually thinking about how to arrange it.
 
This runs true in many other mediums of creative output as well. A similar sentiment is shared in screenwriting. The top screenwriting books will always tell you that you have a hot concept if you can describe it concisely while capturing the essence of it and differentiating it from what's already out there.

Thy wish be granted
 
Also, you could go to loopmasters and download some of the free demo packs and practice mixing the loops together. 

I don't want to derail this thread any further past this post, but
 
Who are these "theory nerds" you speak of, who can't compose a song? I've personally never met a musician who knew a lot of about music theory who were flat-out unable to compose. It doesn't really make any logical sense to say that someone who has a strong understanding of musical terms, how it functions etc. wouldn't put those into practice. Maybe you mean some of these "nerds" don't compose music you like. Or maybe if they feel they can't do it, it stems from a lack of experience actually practicing it. It doesn't mean they wouldn't know what they're doing, though.
 
As for the "classical nerds", well "classical" music historically was often a lot more strict and composed rather than Jazz which has historically been spontaneous. That being said, improvisation is still based on the same musical principles as regular composition because the only difference is that in improvisation, it happens spontaneously. If a classical musician supposedly can't improvise, I suspect this means they can't improvise to your liking or simply don't do enough of it. 
 
None of these invalidate the worth of music theory.
 
I can agree that at a certain point, some concepts of music theory don't serve much in the way of practical uses for composing or performing music. 
 
 
 
Flip that switch and I will still be able to explain what you did and why it worked (or maybe didn't) with theory anyway. When I'm composing music, I don't really consciously think about music theory beyond what key, scales and chords I'm using, but just because I'm not over-thinking it doesn't mean the knowledge isn't actively being put to use.

Making your own sound is okay, but a good sound is never going to fix your writing.
 
Music is about ideas. Writing music is about presenting those ideas, developing them, showing them in new lights, and referencing them (among other things I'm forgetting).
 
The most standard musical "main idea" is called the melody. The melody has something to say in the music, and it's closely related to chords. The chords define how the melody functions (its core essence) and the melody itself is the representation (or if you'd like, the execution) of that core essence. 
 
I notice a lot of people kinda just lean on one of them sometimes, especially people getting their chops from OCR. They write the melody, then kinda just add chords that sound like they fit underneath, or, they have some chord progression and then just slap in some notes in a lead synth to make their melody. This doesn't ever really work because it doesn't really wield an understanding of why chords and melodies are so closely related.
 
A melody has a start and an end. Depending on how out your style is, your melody may or may not resolve. It may move across different tonalities or it could just be something really simple and catchy. Sometimes, melodies are very transparent and non-catchy (and that's fine, and if anyone tells you otherwise you smack them upside the head) when the musical presentation is supposed to be about color (harmony/texture) and not statement (main idea presentation).
 
Sometimes you don't have melodies at all, instead your music is about presenting and manipulating color. Even though melodies are hard to write, color music (most popular in the impressionist era) is actually harder to write, since it's kind of abstract. In electronic music, it's a little easier, since you're forgiven for lots of repetition (which you can use to build up your tracks more linearly instead of moving around organically).
 
You should listen to music, especially symphonies. The old guys were masters of using music as a means of communicating ideas. They had their melodies (themes/motifs), then gave them to different instruments, changed their keys, swapped major/minor, chopped them up, etc. All of these things are valid ways of manipulating and presenting ideas.
 
When you're writing music, you have to have "something". There has to be something where you say "I want this to be developed". It can be a cool synth arp, or a wacky chord sample, or it can be a full melody. You have to build your track around presenting whatever that is. You need to foreshadow it, lead into it, show it, then hide it, lead out of it, bring it back in a different way (or the same way). Don't do all that stuff in that order all the time, the point is there's all these things you can do with one idea, so the more you do, the longer your piece/track gets and the more dynamic it is.
 
Then start piecing together ideas and having overarching progressions.
 

is a perfect example, since this band does this thing a lot where they build a track out of 3 or 4 main ideas. At 1:36, the entire direction (rhythmically and harmonically) of the track shifts someplace else. The mood and part-writing style changes considerably. It's a "new idea", it's "we're done with that, here's something new". Again, they do this at 2:15, and I would argue the second idea foreshadows the third one with the way its harmony works. That's up for debate, but the point is the song moves to different places. That's progression! In each of the three sections, they do a lot with their main ideas (having melodies, b-section melodies, changing texture, changing chords), but the sections also flow together as one big unit. 
 
This is just a snippet of advice. Learning how to write takes lots of practice, study, and mentors. I can't fix you in a forum post, but I can help change your mindset a little. My recommendation is learning more music theory. You need to get past chords and rhythms, that stuff is where people usually stop and it's not really what music theory is about at all, and thus it pollutes the general populace understanding about music theory and people think it's too basic or rigid to have anything general to say about music.

Alright, I've almost contacted everyone about the feedback. Anyway, YESSSSS it's approved!
 
This means we can unveil the album contents! The album has 20 track by 22 artists, divided into two discs (making us officially the largest BadAss). Disc 1 has a runtime of 43:51 and disc 2 of 42:18, giving you almost one hour and a half of BadAss music to enjoy! This is the final tracklist:
 
Disc 1:
 
1-01 Lashmush - Monument of Non-Existence [Dancing Mad (Final Fantasy VI)]
1-02 Sbeast - Zeromus Sum Game [The Final Battle (Final Fantasy IV)]
1-03 Kammo64 - Darksightedness [Dark Bowser (Mario & Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story)]
1-04 Chernabogue, AngelCityOutlaw, Furilas - The Metal Emperor [Machinedramon (Digimon World)]
1-05 GamerShredding - Warriors of Shredder [Mid-Boss Battle, Boss Battle (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project)]
1-06 HoboKa - Jaded by Death [Deathevan (Breath of Fire II)]
1-07 Chernabogue - Crescendo to Chaos [Last Battle (VS Rival) (Pokémon Red)]
1-08 XPRTNovice - The Power [Grahf, Omen (Xenogears)]
1-09 Mak Eightman - Amputate Your Metal [boss Battle (Wild Guns)]
1-10 Chernabogue, Tuberz McGee, Furilas, Mirby, Brandon Strader - Are You BadAss [sturm (Advance Wars)]

Disc 2:

2-01 PabloComa - Opening the Way [The Opened Way (Shadow of the Colossus)]
2-02 pu_freak - The Dark Defender [Magus' Castle, Magus Confronted (Chrono Trigger)]
2-03 David L. Puga - (Progeny) Of A Frail Humanity [Wesker Theme, Wesker - Beginnings, Mercenaries - Wesker, Winds of Madness (Resident Evil series)]
2-04 neshead80 - Fortress of Doom [sub Castle BGM (Super Mario World)]
2-05 Chimpazilla, Redg - Molgera's Love [Molgera (The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker)]
2-06 Kammo64 - Mad Jack's Drop [Mad Jack (Donkey Kong 64)]
2-07 SkyRiderX feat. XPRTNovice - Twisted Rebirth [Dark Samus Theme, Tallon Overworld, U-mos Theme (Metroid Prime 3, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2)]
2-08 timaeus222 - Soiled by the Egyptians [Cave2 Tank, Day 5; Arctic Ridge, Day 9; Hydroponic Lab (Vectorman 2, Vectorman 1)]
2-09 Darkmoocher, timaeus222 - Become Death [Day 4; Absolute Zero, Day 15; Worldlink Center, Day 2; Metalhead, Day 16; Twist and Shout (Vectorman)]
2-10 Lashmush - Seed of Perdition [Lavos' Theme, World Revolution, Last Battle (Chrono Trigger)]


Only a few month before release, so start getting ready to be blown away

I'll be honest, I never did like this band
 

 
but that new track up there is pretty good. Sounds like the oldschool thrash metal bands and that is totally Hangar 18 at one part.

My favorite part of the Music Composition/Production forum is watching Timaeus and Neblix fight.

My favorite part of the Music Composition/Production forum is watching Timaeus and Neblix fight.

I guarantee that if you "throw it all out the window and play what you feel from the heart" it's going to sound like shit.
 
A good instrumentalist knows what notes to play during improvisation because they have a general understanding of how to stay in key and make specific choices when playing accidentals. They know this because they've played and practiced for a long time; they may not be theory experts but they still know what's going to work and what isn't going to work. An instrument is a tool used to manipulate sound, and instrumentalists have to achieve a certain proficiency with that tool in order to produce the sounds they want. That means actually knowing how to play an F# or a Bb when they need to, and that means they're making the choice to play an F# or a Bb for specific reasons. That choice can be made within an instant, but it's still a choice that's being made.
 
I always roll my eyes a little when people talk about improvisation in these really romantic, cerebral terms where a person is just "feeling the music." There's a lot of study and practice that needs to be done to get to the point where an instrumentalist is proficient enough to be able to make those choices sub-consciously and let muscle memory guide their playing.

It's very simple; you will never fool the people you're trying to fool. Most people who hear music don't question the realism of your samples or anything silly like that, they just listen for things they like. The people who you want to fool are the ones who will always notice. Just make things sound good without trying to make them sound "real" and you'll end up making much better music.

Modes are basically asking you to shift your hand to the next note in the original key while retaining the intervals of the original key, and use that as your "new" key, so F# Dorian is E major starting on F#. (Personally, I found it confusing too that "F# Dorian Mode" means it's the Dorian mode in which you start on F#, rather than the Dorian mode of F#, which starts on G#.)
 

 
Notice how its four sharps are F#, G#, C#, and D#, which implies the Ionian mode (or original key) is E major.
 
It would help though if you showed us the actual piece.

I'd say you're having trouble because most of those tunes are really difficult to categorize into a genre. Most RPG town themes never fall into one category of music.
 
Most commonly though, it's just a more relaxing piece of music that is either a lullaby or ambient tune.
 
Like, in most of the examples so far, it is basically a string instrument (or something emulating one) playing a progression of arpeggios and a melody. Wind instruments, a music box or another string instrument usually carries the melody. There is usually not much in the way of percussion either. It's all pretty minimalist. As for harmony, just use a lot of extended chords etc. in either a major or minor key. Lots of 7ths, 9ths and Sus chords for example.

What Tim said, basically.
 
Though at a certain point, you may need better samples than whatever you're using. Lower end libraries etc. tend to not have much in the way of articulations and you can only simulate so much through other means. The mixing will not make it sound more "real". It'll just give you a better mix of fake sounding instruments!
 
Also, respect for the Avatar avatar and name.

The official tagline should be: "There, you can all stfu now."
 
Was never a huge fan of the game, but I'll definitely give the remake a spin. I'm also excited because this game may very well dethrone GTAV's "best selling game ever" title and I'd love to see a game that's not about lowlife criminals shooting hookers take that title.

Here's my attempt at a "Drum N' Bass" style 30 second tune composed and mixed with the volume off. I just used a preset slidey-synth lead I made with Sylenth a while back, a sine wave for the bass and a supersaw for the chords. Drums are just a random loop I had sitting in a lonely folder somewhere. A flanger on the lead as well and cutoff filter intro always sounds cool. 
 
https://app.box.com/s/mtjtbfecd9q3wjwjccag1it07kpk52zx
 
Prepare yourself for suckage, but to be fair that's the same line I use on music I made when actually listening to it.

OMFG
 

 
This looks so good - favorite thing I've seen from E3 so far. I also love all of her commentary. Someone put me on a spaceship that will go around the Earth so fast that time will dilate and it will be 2016 and this game will be out next week from my perspective.

What is consensus? A miserable little pile of opinions

WHO WANTS TO MAKE A MAD MAX UKULELE!?
 

Resident lurker, here.
 
Watched it, loved it, nothing more to say on the matter.
But for all that is holy; buy the damned dvd/blu-ray when it comes out and show some support for the practical effects that the movie has majestically graced us with.

hahaha, the salt is real. what's wrong with watching a movie and not caring about the agendas that may or may not lie behind the movie? mad max was good. it was fun to watch. the action was entertaining, the show-don't-tell style was breathtakingly fun to experience, and the characters weren't cookie-cutter characters. i didn't go to see it because of the triumph of women over oppressive male entities or something, i went to see it because they had a flamethrower guitar and the movie's a freaking two-hour car chase combined with dune and borderlands, and that sounded awesome. did it have feminist underpinnings? maybe, a lot of the arguments both for and against are pretty solid. that said, who cares? i don't, and saying that i don't have a ball in that court doesn't make me sexist any more than not really caring about r&b makes me a racist. just pointing a finger and spouting hot-button words doesn't make you look educated and relevant. it makes you look ignorant and puerile.
 
the endless need to ascribe a crusade to everything is abhorrent.
 
edit: the fact that an action film with a script the size of a child's flipbook is raising this many questions about the intentions of the writer(s) is actually pretty cool. as i said, i don't really have a ball in this particular court, but the noise that's being raised (on both sides of the issue/question/whatever) is definitely interesting.

djp, i think you'll make your point better if you use more bold and italics, just sayin

Damn! This is some great stuff, man! I'll have to buy this EP soon. It would make for some great summer night cruise music! Making a trip out to a beach town next week with a dodge viper and this kinda stuff is suitable to blast for such an occasion. 
 
Time Machine is just...that is a fucking awesome track.