Battle theme for mini Boss

edit:

this has changed, added horns instead of guitars and other instruments, deleted all the scattered guitar parts etc..

(desert, fantasy, harsh world...called darksun-)

The-J - Boss v2 - SoundCloud

edit:this is the old and "bad" version

The-J - Dark sun mini boss1 - SoundCloud

would gladly accept any criticism from pro's that lurk here

Ooo funky. This definitely isn't like any boss theme I've heard. It's more like jungle music, I guess from the percussive background - which is excellent. Are you a drummer?

The only thing I recommend is when creating a battle theme, actually have a melody or a motif. It just seems like random improvisations everywhere. It got better towards the end but I didn't know where it was going.

thanks, i'm not a professional drummer but i love playing drums. ideas are scattered all over the theme, the production carried me away, strong melody is great, but not always i can find it on time, question is if the atmosphere is delivered?

I have to agree with sepharite. There is too much randomness. A good battle theme should have a lot of energy that pumps you up and makes you feel like you're in a moment of intense action or conflict. You need at least a couple of straight-forward phrases to balance out the randomness. Also, though it's hard for me to tell without actually hearing it, it doesn't sound like this piece loops too well.

Edit: As for the atmosphere I think you are halfway there. A strong melody will be the biggest part of getting you all the way there. But also this piece seems a bit too casual and loose. Boss/Battle themes, I think, should generally be pretty serious and rigid.

Sorry but this doesn't feel like battle music to me at all. You need a stronger rhythmic drive of some sort, i.e. faster tempo and things of that nature, this just sounded like random blues/jazz improvisations with electric guitar over a mellow beat.

i guess its pretty scrafty, well...back to work tommorow then..too bad i couldnt hear this when i was playing it.

As has been mentioned, i really don't consider this as a boss theme. It is too avant-garde/random with a free jazz feel. If we had to take the (mini) boss directive out of the equation, then yes, it is not such a bad piece. It's quite interesting to listen to actually. For some reason it reminded me of a couple of Ron's pieces.

rowen or ron?

This definitely feels more like a prison theme. I could see this as the player is trying to escape from being imprisoned (which happens in a lot of games.)

I like the music. I agree that it doesn't work that well as a fight scene, but the music is still good.

IMHO the other part that needs some work is the mix. The Panning could use some work and more importantly the reverb settings just don't work for me. What set up are you using to create these? Granted, you might be limited in what you have available which is why I am not trying to tear the work apart. But if you are using a sequencer, you should be able to vary the reverb on each instrument to get a better depth to the piece.

If you expand on the piece, the perceived randomness could go away if you work with it.

Ron

thanks rolifer, i like it too. on what instrument did you hear that overused reverb(guitar?) or the edirol drums use too much reverb to my taste also.

on the mix part, the guitars came out way too strong on the mp3 conversion.

i'm still playing with it, trying to figure out that melody for this to fit for a battle theme, the developers dont want too much orchestral feel to this, which limited me in a way.

i've revised it, added more ideas and instruments and removed part of the mess.

The-J - Boss v2 - SoundCloud

dont know if its any better, though..

well I don't think this will work as any soundtrack but I think you could make really god jazzy song out of this, get yourself a band and find a dusty, smokey bar in LA to play it in :D

kidding... anyway, I think it has an interesting atmosphere, maybe for a movie about gangsters and such, but production wise, it needs more work. Are drums recorded live? They kinda sound like they are. Also a bit more orchestration wouldn't hurt.

Edit: I just saw you uploaded a remake. It is much better, it sounds like a cue now, not like an old delta-blues the first one reminded me of. Maybe you should change the original link on the first post, so the other people hear the better version of this.

updated-thanks for the tip phant, i was playing jazz in dusty smokey bars and still am sometimes..computer game music always fascinated me, the amount of possibilities in sound, orchestration one conductor and the challenge in performing them all.

Hey J, I think this sounds much more suitable for a game now. The only part that I don't think fits is the guitar in the first half. Everything else is great and I especially like the (flute?) melodies in the second part. I still don't think its suitable for battle music though; it's not fast or aggressive enough for that. For battle music try writing around 170-190 bpm. However, I think this piece would do well for an intense dungeon location or something similar.

Hey mate. I think I agree with what's been said. I think you have an ear for what sounds good though - it's well produced. You really need to focus on a few themes or motifs which will form the basis of the whole piece. Once you have those nailed the fun bit is playing around with them and developing them. I don't believe in necessarily having a rigid structure...but you need some sort of anchor.

You either have something melodic - Mr. John Williams is probably the best person in film to create strong melodies and develop them - or you have strong motifs and themes - Dark Knight soundtrack - very inspired use of electric sounding violin effects to denote the joker, which he developed and used so well.

You've got something there - it just needs a bit of order :-)

matt- i dont know if the tempo has anything to do with a feel, it is obviously helps to keep a tension, should revise it some more to get the correct effect, for sure still. thanks for the feedback .

parle- anchor is the hardest part in composing, sometimes you have something good and sometimes you have to make do. probably needs more composition "meat" to make a "good meal".