My Superman Theme

[DrewCCU]

I'm working on a Superman game.  It's going to be original in all most every way possible.  Including the music.  Now, I debated over this music thing for a while because I'm a huge fan of John Williams and the original theme he did.  I want peopel that play my game (especially Superman fans) not to lose that sense of comfort by not including the original Superman music.  However, I really feel like all the music needs to be original to make the game better (and for copyright reasons of course).

So here's the main theme I did.  It is original but will probably sound familiar because I tried to (while keeping it original) also give it that classic Superman sound. ( I even snuck in a little something at the end of the piece).

So check it out and tell me what ya think!

NOTE: this is the mp3 version - it has better quality than the midi. Also, you are not allowed to publish this piece in anyway, be it in a game or on a website or what have you without my permission!

http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/27723_hze7d/supermangame_maintheme_byAndrewKSmith.mp3

[Quintaros]

I'm a big Superman fan myself so I'm keen to see a game made.   

I haven't listened to your theme yet but one of the staples of a good Superman theme is that the word "Superman" is actually exclaimed by the music.

Anyway, good luck with your project.

BTW, with respect to copyright laws surrounding William's Theme, you are already breaking copyright laws just by using the Superman character.

[m0ds]

Hi there, overall it's a very good track! However, I wouldn't be afraid to use the actual melody Williams used. So long as you've recomposed it there isn't really a copyright issue. Although I like your track, it only really reminds me of Superman in the last 15 seconds, where I thought wahey you were bringing in the theme (but you didn't). Great track & I'm sure it'd be ace in game, but I'm just not sure it would cut it for a game specifically about the "Superman".

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I would definitely go with a more recognizable superman theme because at times this almost sounds like the star wars theme and doesn't really make me think of superman even though it's quite good.  There's no shame in using John Williams' stuff for a freeware game, especially when it suits the character so well.

[Nikolas]

It's not really bad!

1st thing. Good thing you told us, but no need to mention it again. I don't think that anybody would mirror your music anywhere else...

RE: copyrights: as far as I listen your music, you have nothing to fear. You are not copying anything, this is simply a pastiche. It does remind me the movies of Superman (the 1st actually) so well done there!

What instruments are you using? Cause if it's midi, as you seem to imply in your post, there's really little reason to go mp3. Unless you want to add some reverb or sometiong, but it's not necessary.
If it is samples, then it could use some further work I'm afraid. Let me know what it is and I'll gladly help further...

[DrewCCU]

Thanks for your comments so far everyone.  Thanks for the heads up on the copyright info - i didn't think it would really matter (as Quintaros mentioned I'm already using the Superman name/character) but i figured 2 things: a) better safe than sorry and b) I was fixed on trying to imitate John Williams style while not duplicating his work.  I wanted to make it original with a touch of old superman thrown in there here and there (like i did in the outro of the song).  so i just wanted it basically to not sound like you were playing a batman game or some other genre - i wanted you to know it's a superman game.  I think i accomplished that - although, according to some comments I may have undershot a tad.  In future scores for the game, I'll bring some familiar themes back from the movies or something.

NIKOLAS:
you asked what instruments i was using.  I use the program Finale 2006 and the instruments i use are basically a standard orchestra (w/ a few minor adjustments).  However, you can set playback in finale to make it not sound like standard midi and make it sound more like real instruments (you can also use the Garritan software - which i don't have unfort. - and actually have REAL instrument sounds) so saving it as mp3 makes it sound better than midi cus it sounds like it does when you play it back in finale.  saving it as a midi will sound just like a midi file and midi instruments - not as good quality i'm afraid.  Hope that answers your question - it's kind of hard to explain - at least i'm not doing a very good job at it. 

[Nikolas]

I think it's clear enough.

Well, yes, Finale does have the human playback, so indeed, it does sound more real. Just try to judge for yourself if the game in the final sense will be worth an extre 30-40 Mb (an example, ok?) for the music, when it could be 50 Kb as midi files instead, since the sounds. ARE the same.

Additionally with any basic sequencers (reeaper comes in mind, and no, I'm not getting paid for this), you could import the midi file and tweak the tempo so as to diplucate what Finale is doing (which basically is that it moves the tempo too often and moves very slightly the start of the events here and there so it feels not so quantitised), and have the midi file ready as an mp3. I don't have finale 2006 or such a high version, so don't know about human playback, but I would assume that exproting a midi file, would also exprot the tempo settings. could be wrong though...