Some Video Game Music

These are some background music cues I've written for a myst clone video game. Some are designed to be an ambient background loop to be faded in and out, others play at the beginning of a sequence. Let me know what you think of them:

Underwater Theme (background loop): http://lzr.cc/music/Ilathid/Il_mx_aq_underwatertheme0002.mp3

Tower of Tears Theme: http://lzr.cc/music/Ilathid/Il_mx_mn_toweroftears0001.mp3

Control Panel area theme (Background Loop): http://lzr.cc/music/Ilathid/Il_mx_aq_controlroom0001.mp3

Island Theme: http://lzr.cc/music/Ilathid/Il_mx_aq_islandtheme0002.mp3

Pratahm Theme: http://lzr.cc/music/Ilathid/PratahmTheme.mp3

These are lovely, Leeran!

They're all quite thin in terms of orchestration, but I expect that was at least partially intentional given the fact that you say they're going into a game similar to Myst. In terms of being memorable, they're really not, but that is probably a good thing if you're going to be hearing them over and over again as you try to solve puzzles as a user. The fact that they're understated is better than them being obtrusive.

Generally speaking I found your production skills to be very good as well. The tracks are rendered with some very nice sounds (what libraries are you using?) and mixed tastefully. I liked the sequencing especially — you make good use of the sounds you have and they all show a good musical sense; there's manipulation of dynamics, expression, etc.

All in all, very good incidental work. Gentle harmonies, pleasing and relaxing to listen to, and not bothersome after extended listening. Thanks a lot for sharing! :)

Brilliant work! I could tell by the names, that you just got the right feeling about this. For example the island track, that has these open guitar sounds. You seem to understand what

As the others said above, great work. There wasn't one piece that I didn't like and I listened to them all. I really like the minimalistic feel and I didn't feel like anything was lacking. Were the acoustic guitar parts in our island theme tracked live or was it a good virtual instrument - if it was virtual, you did very good job conveying accurate acoustic performance! Great material man, I look forward to hearing some more of you work.

Yes, very nice. Very ambient and fits in very well with the genre you are writing for.

I loved it! this is the kind of music i would buy the game soundtrack for

These songs are relaly amazing!! Unfortunately I can't actaully really picture them in a video game, I guess i'd probably have to see the game at the same time to get it.

They're excellent ambient songs though!

Hey btw what program do you use for the intruments (or are they all real?)

Thanks for all the comments. The game is an ambient puzzle game, a lot like Myst. All the outdoor areas don't have music, just ambient sounds. In some of these, a little jingle is played when you first get there, though not looped. Pratahm Theme and Island Theme are two of the intro jingles. Then, indoor areas have background music, but everything has to be ambient cause your solving puzzles, not killing enemies or anything. When I wrote control room, they said "Write something I could solve Calculus to." So, I hope that clears some things up as to why they sound like that.

As far as whether the game will be released, it doesn't show signs of nearing completion. It's an Indie project, and I was just doing it as something to do right before I composed my musical. They have a demo on their site, and the graphics are really good. The gameplay is so-so, but it is a pretty early demo. If it never gets finished, then at least I have some more songs for my portfolio. :)

I use Logic Studio 8 to make the tracks, something I strongly recommend if you use a mac. For only $500 you get Logic Pro, a professional DAW; all the Apple Jam Packs, which are really good for the most part; a ton of audio instruments (esp. Sculpture which I use all the time to make natural sounding synths, plus a Hammond B3 simulator, and a rhodes simulator, and some analog synths); really high quality effects, and tonnnns of them (good reverb, compression, EQ, pitch correction, ringshifter, chorus, everythingggg), Soundtrack Pro, an audio editor; Mainstage, for doing live shows, Quick Time Pro, which has been surprisingly useful; and probably a bunch of other things I haven't had to use yet. Everything is really easy to use, and if you have a good sound card, you can record high quality audio as well. I've used it to record jazz combos, and it works great for that stuff too. For movie scoring, you can import video and keep your place with the movie. I don't work for Apple or anything, but this is a pretty amazing deal if I say so myself.

EDIT: I forgot, all the piano sounds are from my keyboard which is a Yamaha S90 ES.

Ohhhh that makes alot more sense lol, sounds like they'd fit very smoothly over a game like that :)

I've only ever used logic once, and I really liked it, but unfortunately I don't have enough money for a mac (i'm so sick of windows :S) Sounds like a good deal for $500!! I use cubase and reason (rewire) but it get's so messy when you have alot of instruments at once.

Well let us know if the game ever does get released ^_^

Yeah, I used to use Reason (v 2.5). I actually like how some of the Orkester sounds more then Logic. It had a "vintage" quality to it. But Rewire was more hassle than it was worth. Here's a track for another video game that I made back in 9th grade using Reason sounds: http://lzr.cc/music/ovid/theme.mp3 (I didn't manage to finish programming the game until 11th grade, but at least it's all done). I liked using the sound where you pressed a note and the violins would automatically do a major or minor scale up really fast. Plus the brass had a cool quality.

But Logic is so much better organized and the sounds are more polished, but they sound a little too polished.

Yeah, I use reason 4, and I am always impressed with the strings and brass. THe piano sound always annoys the hell out of me though... it's decent, but it sounds muffled, and the piano they sampled from sounds really crappy in it's higher register.

haha I liked the ovid the owl theme.

I guess the only way to get a crystal clear true represtentation of instruments is to use them, but the technology of smapled sounds is still pretty good, we're lucky we're in an age where we can almost get away with not using any real instruments anymore... it makes it alot easier to be a musician.

Actually the composer for the tv show 'buffy the vampire slayer' said he used pretty much only virtual instruments, just used one or two real ones to make the rest seem real. Amazing.

Anyways, i've got my first day of work now but i'm sure we'll chat another time ^_^

These are all just beautiful. I've always loved the Myst soundtracks for their ambient melodic quality, and your music here certainly contends with them! I have no trouble imagining what these would be like in-game. Great work.

The ones I listened to were quite good.

Nice little throw away tunes that fit well into games.

Nicely done

Ron