Kilin's Recent Musical Adventures

Posted by Castypher on March 3, 2014, 12:16 a.m.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, so I decided to go with the thing I produce most easily – music.

It's good to see that after a couple months of not composing, I'm still unable to produce music to fit a particular purpose. However, it's been some solid experimenting with new patches and new instruments.

These two tracks were attempts at a "generic boss" theme. I've been attempting to take inspiration from the Lufia 2 and Rune Factory: Frontier boss themes, but it never seems to work out well.

And, for those who didn't play Tempust, here is perhaps one of my better compositions so far, in that it sounds good, is rather moody, and hit the nail on the head in terms of fitting a purpose.

https://soundcloud.com/kralys/winters-soul-dance

I really really really really really need new string patches. Every VST I've used has sucked balls so far. They either lack dynamics, attack, or usefulness in both fast and slow sections. And as you may know, violins are Kilin's favorite instrument both for leading and supporting roles.

I'm not going to show off Terminys because Taizen's been doing enough of that for me. I also have no idea what I'll be doing for Acid's comp next month, but I'm aiming for something small, manageable, and expandable, so it can replace Summer's End as my first public game.

Note: the only reason I'm shelving Summer's End for now is because, as usual, Kilin aims too high with every project ever.

Now excuse me while I go write about dead people.

And if you hit the +1 button without commenting, I will end you.

Comments

Acid 10 years, 9 months ago

This music reminds me of space westerns and it is fucking cool as fuck. Seriously. It makes me want to make a Firefly/Serenity-esque game. Damn you, Kilin - I don't have time for this!

Visor 10 years, 9 months ago

Nice music you have there!

I prefer the second piece. They both sound somewhat Celtic to me (which is actually pretty damn cool).

Keep it up!

Quietus 10 years, 9 months ago

very good Chinese restaurant music Kilin 10/10

link2x101 10 years, 9 months ago

I hit the +1 button without commenting….

Wait. No!

I used to have a really good string .sf2, but that hard drive is unstable and not in use right now. If I can find/obtain them, I'll get them to you as soon as I can.

Currently, I'm using the strings that came with Kontakt with my Maschine, but those aren't spectacular either (they come in late nearly always, and are a bit too inconsistent). Strings just aren't nice.

I like the tribal feel of the drums at the begining of the first track.

I really like the guitars in the second track, as well as the droplet sounds near the end.

The drums are really nice in the both of them. In my opinion, the best part, actually. (What plugin/samples are you using?)

I hear what sounds like a lot of compression/limiting in both tracks. It's not a bad thing, as I've heard that sound work really well in some awesome soundtracks (Iji comes to mind for reference, IIRC), just something I noticed.

Overall, they're pretty nice tracks and I'd love to hear further work on them.

Afterthought (didn't see the link):

Winter's Soul Dance is really really nice. The compression is really problematic here, though, in my opinion. That piano deserves to shine a bit more, but the bass is really kicking it out of the mix.

Castypher 10 years, 9 months ago

Thanks bros. Steven, I'll have to look into that when I have a little more money, because it's a reasonable price, and I remember thinking it sounded pretty good.

Quote:
very good Chinese restaurant music Kilin 10/10
Go to hel.

Quote:
The drums are really nice in the both of them. In my opinion, the best part, actually. (What plugin/samples are you using?)
It's actually a pack of samples called (wait for it) NSA Custom Series. They're mediocre raw, but after some processing, they turn out pretty well. Sadly, you can hear in the second track that they're not EQ'd very well. I did this entire track in a few hours and usually it takes me a week of mastering to be happy with it.

Quote:
I hear what sounds like a lot of compression/limiting in both tracks.
I haven't gone through and hardcore-EQ'd these, mostly because it's something I'm not particularly great at, even though these are among the few modern tracks of mine that sound this muddy. That's mostly because I don't consider them finished, though, since THEY BOTH FAILED TO MEET THE CRITERIA.

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The compression is really problematic here, though, in my opinion. That piano deserves to shine a bit more, but the bass is really kicking it out of the mix.
I haven't noticed anything like that, but it's probably due to Soundcloud's compression. I usually cringe when I upload tracks to Soundcloud (or maybe I just need to stop exporting to MP3). Normally I don't have the bass so loud, but I was aiming for trance and an ambient sort of sound, after all.

Astryl 10 years, 9 months ago

Quote:
And if you hit the +1 button without commenting, I will end you.

Come at me, bro.

I love the first track more than the second one. Sounds like something I'd use as an epic boss battle theme :P

Oh wait. Second one just picked up really nicely. Now I'm torn between the two of them…

Iasper 10 years, 9 months ago

The first one sounds very nice, not much to say on that one. The drums in the second one feel as if they kick in a bit soon, they don't really match the guitar's atmosphere. After the strings start though, it sounds much better. After a while, it starts feeling a bit empty. I love the glissandi on the strings though.

Castypher 10 years, 9 months ago

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Now I'm torn between the two of them…
Good, now you're in the same boat as I am, because I still can't figure out which one sounds better for a fluff boss, or whether I should scrap both and rewrite it yet again.

Quote:
I love the first track more than the second one. Sounds like something I'd use as an epic boss battle theme :P
I guess this is a good start, but I never really got the "epic" feel from it, nor did I intend for it to be that way.

Ah, the woes of a video game composer.