Labz Werx - Feedback?

[Kenogu Labz]

Hellooo, OCR!

I've only submitted my first remix a few months ago, so I'm technically relatively new to the scene here. However, back in my teen years, I was trying to actively compose music for indie projects that never came to fruition. (Note: make sure your team members are actually disciplined enough to finish what they start!)

Anyway, I haven't done much composing for a couple years; but now that I'm on my own, and have lots of spare time with little else to do, I'm really starting to consider composing as a source of income. As such, I really need to sit down and evaluate where I'm at musically. And that's where you come in.

If you have the time, it would be a big help if you could give some constructive criticism (or destructive, if necessary) for my previous and current works. It would mean a lot to me, and at least help me know where to start.

One thing to note: most of my compositions have been made using Modplug Tracker; I am currently looking into other tools for composition. I already own Fruity Loops (FL version), but I'm still not very familiar with how to use it properly.

Chiptunes

• Battle with the Void (2005, made for a small chiptune competition)
  
• Mansion of Forgotten Eulogies (2006, another competition)
  
• Reign of the Fax Toner (2006, competition, a bit cliche and bubbly, but the theme was brighter, not quite my strong point)
  
• Mercurial Commodore (2006, messing around with some pseudo-Commodore 64 samples; recently rewritten)
  
• Corroded Carnival, [NES rendition] (2006, competition again, but restricted to using two samples, so had to use a little creativity to work in drums and bass. Converted to a standard chiptune in 2007 to flesh out the composition)
  
• Flamboyant (2007, another shot at a light-mood chiptune for a competition. The section at 0:50 has been compared to a 'German über-polka')
  
• Integral Energy, [NES rendering, NSF] (2007-08, a more action-based NES chiptune for another competition; we were restricted to NES channels. Someone argued mine didn't fit the standards, so I remade it in an NSF to prove it did.)
  
• Coconuts and Skulls (????, I was obviously in a piratey mood for this one. This one's a short little guy, made for the fun of it; it turned out to be a little too catchy.)
  

Game Soundtracks

Heimdall Project (Clan Varpi, Action Platformer, 2005, unfinished; marked by poor mastering and volume control)

• Final Boss (One of the first songs I made for a specific purpose)
  

Outer Lane 3014 (Clan Varpi, Racing, 2007, unfinished, heavy use of loops)

• Title Theme (All Sony Acid package loops)
  
• Main Menu
  
• Astroport Track
  
• Nexus Track (derived from an earlier competition submission, also titled 'That Intangible Fact')
  
• Apocalypse Track
  

The Tower (Prolific Demiurges, Metroidvania, 2007, unfinished)

• The Tower is Quiet...
  

Circular Avalanche (Flash game, 2009, most recent work)

• Sniper Skies
  

Concept Soundtracks

• Aurora Island - Crystal Canyon and Emerald Eagles (2006, Platformer idea; song contains both zone and boss music)
  
• .Elementa - Project Reality - Kroger Fight (2007-2009, Hacking game concept I've been working on. This depicts the dialogue, fight, and fanfare of one of the final bosses. Note that the dialogue and part of the battle are derived from 'Integral Energy', another song I plan on adapting as Kroger's theme.)
  

Arrangements

• Clash of Eras 2A03 (2009, Chrono Trigger 'Battle'/'Boss Battle 1' in NSF. Chrippy.)
  
• Weeping Shards [WIP] (2009, Final Fantasy IX 'Crystal World'/'Prelude', Wild Arms 'To the End of the Wilderness')
  

Other

• No Time Remaining (????, This song was an attempt at a more new-agey kind of song. Plagued by bad samples with lots of white noise, and not-so-creative composing. Happens to be my dad's favorite, for probably obvious reasons.)
  

[Fernito]

Man, I really couldn't help with some technical criticism, but I consider myself as someone that can appreciate good music, and I liked all the tunes I listened at. I dind't downloaded all of them, only 5 or 6, but all they were really good stuff IMHO.

PS: Would you mind telling me what chiptune VSTs you use? I'm specially interested on a good chiptune percussion VST, which I haven't been able to find on the net.

[Kenogu Labz]

I don't use any VSTs, as Modplug doesn't support them. I simply use raw chip samples, which is what Modplug Tracker works with.

Wikis:

Trackers

Modplug Tracker

The Mod Archive (Look here for great demoscene/chiptunes; you can open these in Modplug and rip the samples, then use them; alternatively, you can make your own: just save them in .wav format and import them.)

[Fernito]

Wow, thanks a lot man! I'll take a lot at those later

[Kenogu Labz]

Added a couple more songs, and updated the link to Weeping Shards (which has been redone for submission to OCR).