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Elder Scrolls - Pirates of Oblivion


John Revoredo
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(Update - FINISHED V1)

I was thinking... what would happen if Jack Sparrow came to the world of elder scrolls? LOL

Tell me if it's worth finishing it, and if you think I'd have a minimal chance of getting it accepted on OCR.

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EDIT - FINISHED VERSION

http://media.putfile.com/Prometheus-PiratesOfOblivion1b

(Slightly amplified and equalized. This was the version sent to OCR)

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well first off i would say dont worry about what the judges think. The most important thing is to ask yourself if you have done the absolute best you could possibly do, making the remix. Make sure you question that constantly when composing, even when you become confident about it. Always set the bar higher than you are capable, and see what happens to your capabilities.

Once youve got to that point, submit it and let the chips fall where they may.

Ok so here goes the analysis:

Up to time 0:05, it seems like the supporting strings are a little muddy. I might suggest making them more staccato to give them a vibrant feel.

For the most part, your samples are fantastic, but just need some velocity. I would suggest incorporating much more in the way of dynamics. As i recently realized, that can be one of the most important things to pay attention to.

I would say the brass coming in at 0:09 definitely need more beef. They have the right feel, just not the bellowing bass to really intensify the sample. Now that i think about it... i can hardly notice string bass that much either. I would say overall the lower frequencies need to come out a lot more. Also, it seems that a piece like this could do with a lot of tlc using percussion.

So yes, good work, but needs a lot of improvement (and more material for that matter).

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To pull of the "Zimmer" style you need stronger string staccatos for the rhythm, and lots of percussion. For example, on the downbeats (whether you're in 3/4 or 6/8 ) you could use a timpani with the bass drum playing the rhythm, or vise-versa. Other kinds of drums like taiko drums could help. It's up to you if you want to use snare or tambourine to enhance the rhythm. Even stomps could work. You might be building up to this sort of thing already, but I'd probably go with it right away and build up to something else later on.

For the melody you could make it sound more pirate-y if you had a high piccolo or penny whistle playing two octaves above the violins. Later on (after the key change) the brass should take over the melody: the horns and trumpets could play the violin part while the trombones take over the rhythm.

I'd get rid of the flute harmonies unless they became rhythmic too. Right now they fall into the "block chord" trap.

Here's two super secret tips for enhancing the 6/8 rhythm:

1. The rhythm is moving along 1-2-3 4-5-6 1-2-3 4-5-6 etc. so what you can do is put drum/brass hits on 1, 2, 4, and 5 with the stronger hits on 1 and 4. Common, yet effective.

2. This is usually reserved for flamenco, but another way to enhance the rhythm is to turn a 6/8 measure into 3/4 (think West Side Story.) It works well to transition into a new phrase.

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Haha, Prometheus, love the idea! Alright after my first listen, sweet start. I can tell the complete arrangement's gonna be awesome. Here are a few things that maybe you could change/add:

1. I secnod the idea of a highly rythmic piccolo.

2. Percussion (tambourine, shakers, etc) with accent on offbeats could maybe increase the movement you're generating so far. I think Sil was stressing this also. You could also do a sort of hemiola with the percussion, 1-2-3-4-5-6, accents on 1,3,5 to keep it interesting.

3. Just for me, I could really REALLY hear a bass drum hit, then a slap stick hit, alternating each bar. Sorry for the hack description, lol I'm rushing a bit here cuz I have to eat dinner.

4. Less sustained marcato strings would help also.

It's an excellent start, and I'm sure this thing'll turn out great when you're done. Good work!

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oh man... They should pay you for this :-D

Awesome advise guys, I'll keep everything in mind.

Also, I would point that the Equalizing sucks. I put some Fl filtre that is a terrible, but don't worry on the next version, I want this to turn out awesome.

Is there any ethnic/orchestral drum library/kit you'd recommend me?

Sephfire: Tell me a site where you think I can host the wip. I'd love to hear your crits/comments :-)

Davidicus: ok, I've made the brasses sound more "brassy" LOL , and also added staccato trombones for the first time evah. (Since putting beef inside my computer seemed not to work LOL)

Sil: I took the idea of turning the 6/8 into a 3/4 later on the Davy Jones (LOL) part

Robotaki: I still have to find out a way to make that magic of the "less sustained marcato string", I'll try to work on that. BTW, what happened with the collab? LOL Pick a song or something and drop me a pm!

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The other thing I would be concerned about, because there are some great concerns being raised here, is your melodic structure (overall compositional structure). You have the main melody play, then you have this measure of pause/build--but this happens 3 times. It feels too repetative--you need to break that pattern up with more material: a B section or some kind of counter melody. The first half has difficulties because of this patterning. The second half is more of a relief because it finally breaks this pattern. You might also consider breaking up the melodic pattern you have now with some triplet'ing and melodic variation.

Keep up the good work, man.

Also, with regards to the opening strings and stac strings--switch between articulations. Marc the marc sections, stac the stac sections, legato the legato sections.

Also, in the main melody part--try non-stopped/muted brass (if I'm hearing right) Zimmer always likes big, full, punchy brass for main themes. The mute/stopped brass is always best for the little character segments like your break down in the last parts.

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Man, this is fun. :-)

I'd say give the violin stab a bit higher velocity for added punch and slightly lower reverb. The snare and percussion sounds perfect. I know very little about brass, so I'll let Blake or somebody cover that. The "wind" sound around :49 is a bit odd, but the chimes sound great.

Please, please keep working on this. I love both inspirational sources you're drawing from here and the combo has all sorts of potential.

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Man, this is fun. :-)

I'd say give the violin stab a bit higher velocity for added punch and slightly lower reverb. The snare and percussion sounds perfect. I know very little about brass, so I'll let Blake or somebody cover that. The "wind" sound around :49 is a bit odd, but the chimes sound great.

Please, please keep working on this. I love both inspirational sources you're drawing from here and the combo has all sorts of potential.

okay, I'll try to change the violin stab.. (LOL nobody likes the violin.)

Anyways, thanks a lot for your comments, I feel very encouraged to keep working on this.

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Wow this was pretty cool. Gotta agree to some degree bout the string hits...:puppyeyes:

Maybe layer the violins lightly over top of the more powerful cello/viola string hits when you get to it.

Everything is sounding pretty damn awesome so far!

Thanks dude, I'm flattered by all the comments! :-D Let's hope they don't kick my ass in this week's exams , so I can keep working on it next tuesday

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Whoa, I haven't yet mentioned that this is awesome?!

Well take this then:" It's awesome!"

Anyway, I love the instrumentation, the wood blocks and other percussion give it a very authentic feel and you're definitely nailing the PotC style you're looking for. The blowing wind and ominous bells give it a nice Elfmanish contrast, apparently you really know how to execute the idea's you have. Productionwise this is very stable too, nothing jumps out at me as jarring.

What I didn't like very much was the fast jumping between different styles and instrumentations which gave it sort of a medleyish feeling. My suggestion is to play around a bit the sections you already have and possibly prolonging them before transitioning into the next one, that ought to give it a bit more consistency. Definitely keep working on it, it's awesome! (as I've said twice already =P)

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setokaibarocket: Okay, I've uploaded to tindeck (thanks tensei san), so you can listen it ! ^^

Click here to listen!

Eternal Testament: Thanks a lot man!.. I'm flattered ^^

Tensei San: Thanks a lot for the comments.. but.. medley.-ish ? LOL ..i get what you mean... the bad thing is that these 1:33 minutes of music have taken about 10 hours to be done... lol... If i ever get to finish this i might try expanding each section ^^. But ,.. thanks anyway for the advice man :D

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

I really like how you've played with the theme and turned it all pirate-y.

Being a huge fan of the original and the game, I'd be lying if I said I didn't "miss" certain parts of the original. You've only taken the opening few notes of the source and played with them. It'd be interesting to hear what you could do with some of the Oblivion theme's "body" in this new genre.

Regardless, an enjoyable listen.

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