The Mana World Forums

Somehow reminds me of Zozo from Final Fantasy VI

Rotonen wrote:Powergrinders usually average out on 8 to 10 hours of consecutive grinding (plus maintenance time in the towns afterwards) and hence just switch off the game music and have their own playlists running.

But yes, 5 to 10 minutes should be something we are aiming for. Fools the ear enough with variation over time.

Whoa... 5-10 mins? On each/most tracks?

In my experience, after long sessions of level grinding, I find my ears just tune out the music, it just becomes one long background sound, regardless of being rubbish or excellent ... the visuals serve their purpose and I'm no longer admiring the crazy lighting/spell effects. A rather all-encompassing de-tune really... anyone else get this?

Surely 3-4 mins average length is a more reasonable expectation?

With regards to lengthening, as in collaboration with nycsounddesign, am posting a bit here for integration, could work with or without the drums, I was thinking possibly as a bit at 1:03, but could go in between other bits...

http://www.mediafire.com/?rwychmmfna2 (1st version)
http://www.mediafire.com/?n5mc3uyfu0d (pokey)
http://www.mediafire.com/?qdjn2ywyqha (sweepy)

Same material, different synth patches and quite different feels for it...

The melody sounds good. It doesn't sound like a cave to me, though. The various melodies could be used for similar areas that are spread around the world, each with a different sound to match it's surroundings.

A more reasonable expectation, yes.

I usually work in negotiations by providing extremes to the table so people know the playing field and can work towards a reasonable compromise. This helps people not be limited by previous information usually.

I'd call the 3-4 minute mark close enough to the 5min mark on my scale. As you know, it all boils down to the actual song, not length statistics.

Then again, when we fall back to complete classical compositions, we are talking hours, not minutes. Although those are full story telling "evening shows" to entertain people and are put together from multiple parts even though composed as one piece.

jaxad0127 wrote:The melody sounds good. It doesn't sound like a cave to me, though. The various melodies could be used for similar areas that are spread around the world, each with a different sound to match it's surroundings.

Doh! Yes, my friend said he first thought of Dr Who when listening to this... I was like

As for the melody itself, this is actually taken from nycsounddesign's original track as these are intended to integrate within... of course, may work a bit better if we're able to find a way to integrate these materials as seamlessly as possible - that's the biggest challenge here for me, but interesting to work with...

On that note, have two more bits, comprising another 10 bar section of classical guitar (will probably do a better version of this very soon) and then a 42 bar section (I think) of more defined cellos with some more decorative elements around it...

http://www.mediafire.com/?zujn1qpjytt
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmjz4nvxcjx

nyc, feel free to all, any, some or none of these. You might like the ideas and want to change a few things or re-do whole sections as you see fit. If you prefer MIDI, let me know as I expect this'll give you more freedom to shape this...

Hi, I've got the files dariunas posted, and have been listening to them, and integrating some of them into the mix.
I've changed a few things on some of them, and am using them as templates to make more movements for the song.
It's sounding great, and It's awesome to hear these sketches we've been working on slowly getting fleshed out into a cave song suitable for power-grinding.
There is a lot of nuance starting to happen in the newer mixes I'm mixing, and that is going to make everything more enjoyable for the listener, as well as becoming a longer song.

I will post a new mix as soon as I can!

A new mix is available through the link below.
It's not done yet, but I like where it's going.

It incorporates some new parts based on some of Dariunas' concepts, and ends on one of
those concepts as well.
It's not a loop at the moment, but finished song down the road will be set up to loop nicely.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nmdgn4zzndn

Definitely the way to go. Yes.

We're getting there, still the drums at ~1m give me some troubles when there's a cahotic acceleration.

ElvenProgrammer wrote:We're getting there, still the drums at ~1m give me some troubles when there's a cahotic acceleration.

Chaotic? I think it's a little busy, but it sounds if anything, very precise and controlled? The complexity effectively reaches a nice little anti-climax at 1:03 - Also the prefect transition into the more electronic variant of the theme. Of course the end decision is not mine, but I feel unique elements which are only heard once in a track like this are best kept, as they help in preventing a track become monotonous with many repetitions. Even if it sounds little trippy - it gives the track a little edge...

Its quite soft (too soft IMHO).

nycsounddesign wrote:A new mix is available through the link below.
It's not done yet, but I like where it's going.

It incorporates some new parts based on some of Dariunas' concepts, and ends on one of
those concepts as well.
It's not a loop at the moment, but finished song down the road will be set up to loop nicely.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nmdgn4zzndn

Sweet! Nice job man

I liked the 'drop-out' section 1:30-1:42 a lot! 'Ethnic' woodwinds and synth bells in next section to 2:20 sound great. I'm liking the way the texture morphs through sections

jaxad0127 wrote:Its quite soft (too soft IMHO).

Hmmmm... I think I agree with you there, probably a result of reverb but easily solved with

some EQing at the right place in the signal chains (before reverb?)
maybe dialling back the reverb on some of the potentially sharper/rougher elements

Actually, this might be something I can look at; creating some 'rougher' textures to incorporate. Should be easy with the joys of granular synthesis (and my copy of Digital Music Maker walking me through the nuances of in-depth synthesis)

dariunas wrote:

ElvenProgrammer wrote:We're getting there, still the drums at ~1m give me some troubles when there's a cahotic acceleration.

Chaotic? I think it's a little busy, but it sounds if anything, very precise and controlled? The complexity effectively reaches a nice little anti-climax at 1:03 - Also the prefect transition into the more electronic variant of the theme. Of course the end decision is not mine, but I feel unique elements which are only heard once in a track like this are best kept, as they help in preventing a track become monotonous with many repetitions. Even if it sounds little trippy - it gives the track a little edge...

Ah don't get my opinion as a professional one, it's just my personal feeling. I trust you more than me in this field.

Hi, jaxad0127, in regards to it being too soft, do you mean in feel, or volume-wise?

I haven't done any eqing, or mastering or anything, and all of the effects are on their own channels, so any reverbs can be pulled back, and extended.
Once a version that most people like is uploaded down the road, all of the loudness will be increased, and everything will get properly mixed so that it pops through the speakers, and is at the level of a standard audio file.

I'm going to let all of the feedback settle in, and then work on a new mix soon.

My current goal is to add some rough textures, scale back on the reverb a bit, and
I might try a different type of drum fill, where it was mentioned that it was chaotic.