Uber newb seeking help

Hello!

I do not know where to start. After long hesitation i decided to upload a song i composed, and seek for advices, what is good about it, what are the errors etc... and then hopefully i find where to start.

When telling about errors, please only tell actual musical errors, not things that are a matter of taste. You can also point out those, but it's important to me to know actual musical errors, regardless of taste.

I have no musical knowledge, i sort of self-learned all of it. Therefore i do not know the any professional musical terms. I am using Guitar Pro for writing music. It is easy to use, has a nice multitrack view, and most importantly, both a virtual keyboard, and a virtual guitar fretboard to input the notes. This is essential for me since i know what notes harmonize when looking at the fretboard, but have little idea about the actual notes.

My concept is doing monumental , sci-fi movie style music with modern sound, combining it with rhytrm often used in black and doom metal. It should be majestic and fanatical.

The song i uploaded is called 'Fall to the Dark Side' , as all my works it is first written in Guitar Pro , then exported to MIDI. Then i record the MIDI using soundfont instrument banks, to aquire better sound.

i know, it sounds still way too 'synthetic', but i know of no better ways right now, thats why im here. Also, i would like to expand my knowledge, how i can achieve correct sound, control dynamics of instruments and a whole lot of things. In short, how could my tracks become more professional.

Excuse me if it is not the correct sub-forum, please move it then. I was also not sure about the style where to post it, i went with electronic since it's 100% synthetic.

here is the song:

godofpain.uw.hu/stuff/FalltotheDarkSide.mp3

For this style of music, there simply are no errors that aren't subjective. Nothing can be done outright incorrectly, only in ways that certain people do not agree with.

As for the music, you have a very musical mind for somebody with no formal training. Your use of repeated elements and changes in terms of texture are worthy of somebody with much more of a background, and you did a good job creating what I would call a dark, more than majestic, feel.

Out of curiosity, what black and doom metal bands inspired this? Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Welcome aboard, first of all.

second : the piece.

Well done! for someone with as little musical training as you say you do, it's brilliant. Hell, it's brilliant for people with more training. To my ear, it was excellent. I really enjoy that type of music though, so I'm bias. But, if a fan of the genre enjoyed it, that means you must be doing something right.

third :

in terms of help with harmony and such, you should go to the lessons forums. lots of people there will help you with stuff... you can learn everything from basic theory (probably what you would need first) to more advanced stuff. including harmony.

Great stuff, all in all!

Well DarkestExecutor, you put me in a difficult position because I really (I mean REALLY) want to talk about this piece "subjectively". I would say that I enjoyed it, but that's just my own taste, and you have asked us to abstain from such comments. As shperenine said, there is no way to make a musical error while composing. My definition of a musical error is simply playing a note that was not intended to be played, so, unless you put notes in that peice that you did not intend to put in there, you have none.

As illustrated by my biting sarcasm above (sorry, I hope I didn't offend, I really do like the peice), it is important to accept subjective criticism in order to become a better composer. What a "better composer" is, is subjective by it's very nature. Incorporating other's views on music can help you reach your own potential as a artist.

As for sub-forum, I think your fine. Although "Jazz, Band, Pop/Rock" would also be acceptable since this is kind of heavy metal-ish.

Welcome to Young Composers, Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the very nice comments, i am really glad you like it.

Fermion, yeah it's supposed to be metal-ish, that is one of my 'features'.

Spherenine, the song itself wasnt inspired by a specific band, but i draw big inspiration from Dimmu Borgir for example. There are a number of doom metal bands i listen to, Shape of Despair, Within Tears, My Dying bride for example, but MDB has different mood that what i try to achieve with this music.

Thanks all!