Hey there! Just wrapped up the first song I made with the videogame industry in mind. It's just an intro theme to something epic with lots of swords and a few horses exploding.

Your feedback will be appreciated ^^

Fins ara!

great music

Hey! This is pretty good! I hear a ton of potential here. A few ideas or points for you to consider: 

This piece is basically three segments: 

1) 0 - 22

2) 28 - 35

3) 38 to the end

I like your melody and like your production overall. What I feel is holding this piece back from being truly spectacular (in my opinion) is the arrangement and there are two issues at hand: 

A) The mini-sections between 22 and 28 seconds as well as the very short 35-38 segment don't really do much to propel the action forward. If anything, they diminish it. This can be effective when used well but in your 1:05 long piece, this lowered intensity happens quite a bit. I certainly don't mind it for the intro for the first 15 seconds but when you add in the other mini-sections listed above, you have 34 seconds of lowered intensity. That's half of the piece. To me your piece feels like it's trying to get off the ground but never quite does. 

B) The other issue is your instrumentation. When I heard your first section followed by the mini-section of lower intensity, I expected to have a larger middle section and then finally a HUGE final section. But I didn't. Each section was mostly the same. Harmonically, yes, there was evolution and progress. Nicely done might I add! But I think this piece would greatly benefit from having added instrument families or expanded ranges of these instruments for each new segment instead of the same approach each time. You DO have strings added (or mixed more predominantly) in the final section but I would've added that to the middle section. And then in the final section I would've had winds double and make things even larger. At 50 seconds you could have a wind section run into the next downbeat. Really bring the piece to life. 

Also I hear practically zero brass section swells. Considering adding these because just like a cymbal swell helps bridge sections and build excitement, brass swells will help increase the dynamic range of your piece. The same could be said for some timpani action too. 

Finally, I felt the ending could be much, much larger. This comes from both the writing and the production. Consider each impact (of the five last hits) changing the chord inversion and adding more instruments into the mix. It's kinda flat right now instead of really ending with a bang. (Pun intended.) Some really cool ideas and vibe here! Excited to hear more of your stuff!

Very, very impressive. It's clear you've had much experience in producing music.

You fill out your frequency spectrum exceptionally well. Each instrument is clearly heard and is panned accordingly. The percussion is big and explosive, but not too loud as to drown out the other instruments. I enjoyed how in the second chorus of the song (0:40), the added strings provided a new harmony with the piano.

I might consider adding more to the piece, especially after 0:55, because it ends a bit abruptly. Also, the section at 0:35 seemed to be leading into a second verse, but sort-of awkwardly transitioned back into the chorus again. I might extend that part as well.

Overall, as long as you keep this up, you will have commissions as a video-game composer in no time.

Hey! Sorry I couldn't get to you guys earlier; I was out for the weekend.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post constructive comments! It's great to get such professional feedback ^^

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

I like your melody and like your production overall.

Thanks! I've been producing bands in my studio for a while, so I believe the easiest for me will be getting the mix right. I have a very rock/metal guitar-based background tho, so there's still a lot to learn!

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

To me your piece feels like it's trying to get off the ground but never quite does. 

Yes, I think I held myself back a bit on purpose, mostly out of fear of going over the top at my first try... I guess I've been a bit conservative about certain aspects of this arrangement. But I have to say that I like the "90's TV show" feeling that the first section of the song has hahah

I guess I'll try to make it so there's more of a crescendo towards the epic-bombastic part of the song ^^

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

The other issue is your instrumentation

Yes, I agree on that. I thought about adding some brass to the song, but again, I didn't want to over do it... I will work on that and also try to enrichen the string section.

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

Also I hear practically zero brass section swells

true! I'll try that too! Thanks ^^

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

Finally, I felt the ending could be much, much larger.

the chord inversion approach is def something I must explore, thanks! I'll add the brass section and check strings with that bombastic ending in mind.

On 9/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, nsmadsen said:

Excited to hear more of your stuff!

Thanks! I've been listening to your portfolio and it's quite impressive! A pleasure joining the conversation ?

On 9/15/2018 at 7:07 PM, Alec Weesner said:

I might consider adding more to the piece, especially after 0:55, because it ends a bit abruptly. Also, the section at 0:35 seemed to be leading into a second verse, but sort-of awkwardly transitioned back into the chorus again. I might extend that part as well.

Hey! Thanks for your feedback! Yes, I wanted to have a short theme with a clear motif so I could develop it in different styles and have like 4 epic-fantasy song tied together. It does sound a bit like a radio-edit of something larger... but although I like it at its present length, I may do a longer version in the future.

Thank you very much for your comments! I'm planning to have a decent portfolio by the end of November so I can attend Barcelona Games World with something nice to showcase. I'll be posting what I put together; your feedback is very valuable ^^