The Mana World Forums

At the moment the swamp, with the woodland music, feels oddly cheerful, which I don't think is the intended atmosphere. So I made this swamp track, hoping to get it in before TMW music 0.3 is released.

Here's a short first draft. I'd like to expand on it, make it longer and add more variation; I just want to know if I'm going in the right direction here.

it's a good music

No constructive feedback but I redrafted it anyway.
Improved the opening and structure slightly and made it a bit more varied.

Reminds me somehow of the work of Michael Land from the early Monkey Island games.

The softer tone of the wood instrument elements hurts my head less in the second version, but I'm in no condition to actually output anything too constructive at this time.

Rotonen wrote:Reminds me somehow of the work of Michael Land from the early Monkey Island games.

I'm assuming that's a good thing, seeing as the Monkey Island games are awesome.

Rotonen wrote:The softer tone of the wood instrument elements hurts my head less in the second version,

Does it still hurt your head a bit in the second version? If so, why? Is it too loud/high-pitched or something?

Rotonen wrote:but I'm in no condition to actually output anything too constructive at this time.

OK.

Feline...

Some thoughts...

The music is ... busy. When I clicked the link for the music, i was expecting something that would almost have... dare I say it? ...the fog of the swamp in the music.

If I were to edit your composition... I think I would slow it down some. Then I'd take some space within the middle of the song and bring the tempo to a halt, maybe just sustaining some low note, and add ambient white noise like the rain stick, frogs (like we hear in some films), the occasional lonely bird, etc., and then bring the melody back.

The key is the "mood". And the melody seems to be a bit too dominant. Foggy swamps should be pretty eerie and creepy. Even adding some reverb (the instruments are too dry for my taste) would "soften" the sound somewhat.

The music shouldn't sound hurried. Swamps aren't in any rush to get anywhere. And the music should reflect that.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback. It was very useful.

Actually I did try slowing it down at one point, but the melodies simply do not work at a lower tempo, so if I wanted it to be slower I'd have to rewrite it completely.

Unfortunately my Mac, which I use for making music, is very broken. So I won't be updating this any time soon, and if I can't repair it I will have lost the original file altogether.
However I do at least hope to salvage the files from it.

I dont like the syncopation....BUT its quite good! if u fix that it would be perfect to me =)

Doulos wrote:Feline...


If I were to edit your composition... I think I would slow it down some. Then I'd take some space within the middle of the song and bring the tempo to a halt, maybe just sustaining some low note, and add ambient white noise like the rain stick, frogs (like we hear in some films), the occasional lonely bird, etc., and then bring the melody back.

The key is the "mood". And the melody seems to be a bit too dominant. Foggy swamps should be pretty eerie and creepy. Even adding some reverb (the instruments are too dry for my taste) would "soften" the sound somewhat.

The music shouldn't sound hurried. Swamps aren't in any rush to get anywhere. And the music should reflect that.

Lizandra *agrees with Doul*

Shame I like syncopation.
Guess it is meant to be background music though.