Well, summer is taking its last breath up here in Sweden, so I felt like composing some summerish tunes to try to prolong it a bit. :)
I couldn't find much inspiration with the leaves falling outside, so I dug up some old midi tunes I composed several years ago when the Yamaha XG and Cakewalk Pro Audio was all the rage, and gave them each a face lift.
This one is an all out reggae tune with subtle hints of soul:
http://hem.bredband.net/b280734/spirit.mp3
And this one is somewhat of a calypso/bossa monster featuring Barry White:
http://hem.bredband.net/b280734/pinja.mp3
Finally, a tune slightly inspired by the Monkey Island games. The ending is a bit abrupt (I got tired of working on it):
http://hem.bredband.net/b280734/caribbean.mp3
Not very polished yet, but I hope you like them!
About the Reggae/Soul tune: Excellent. Marvellous. I enjoyed listening to it. Nothing really wrong with it.
About the bossa type tune: Awesome. Reminded me of those 80's romantic movie songs/ early 90's sitcom songs.
About the MI style caribbean tune: Magnificent! I love it. You're brilliant. Only crit would be to raise the main piano and organ melody volume slightly. You're great!
Thanks Haddas! I had a lot of fun making these so I'm glad you like them. :)
The "piano" in the MI tune is actually a set of steel drums but I know that it doesn't really sound right. I had lots of problems finding good steel drum samples and this is the best I could come up with. I'll see what I can do about it. :)
Thanks for the crit.
how big are these files?
edit: thanks OZ
Around 2 mb each.
Aah! Lovely! I love them all, make an album with songs like these and I will buy it. Nice atmosphere, and I like how you have used those vocal samples in those songs. My favourite is the "spirit" one.
Great!
[/praise]
One word: crisp!
I really like all three of them, great work!
Spirit:
Needs a chunky rhythm guitar on beats 2 and 4. Double that with a quiet piano and you've got one killer reggae rhythm section. It sounds like you have some kind of guitar doing such, but it's really quiet. Also the organ tone isn't really appropriate for the style of reggae I think you're going for (at least I think, it's just my opinion). Try out a more rock leslie sound rather than a percussive jazz organ. I wanna try doing a remix. This'll be fun.
Pinja:
No comments. Good job! Nice dynamics on the piano.
Caribbean:
Same kind of comments as with "Spirit". Try adding a really cutting, bright reverb to the trumpet fills.
Sounding good!
Dude you rock! excellent work! :o
Remix of Spirit:
http://www.sonic.net/~schlae/herculeaneffort/spiritremix.mp3
Quote from: Geoffkhan on Wed 08/09/2004 22:54:53
Remix of Spirit:
http://www.sonic.net/~schlae/herculeaneffort/spiritremix.mp3
Hmmm, I see your point, about the rhythm guitar, but it sounds a bit out of tune (or not matching the basic chords) in the remix. ;) I'll bump the track volume up and see if it works out because like you say, there is a guitar playing the 2 and 4 beats but it's quite faint.
Thanks for the crit!
I must've forgotten to tune my guitar before I recorded. I also was quite too lazy to get the chord progression right. Just wanted to give you an idea of the groove.
Awsome!
I really love them, very peacefull (makes me close my eyes and smile), i especially like the raggae one althought i would take back the voice if i had to use it in a game, but that's me :)