How can I make my stuff less "typical"...

Well, when I posted some music I did for an RPG earlier someone commented on it saying that the music was too "typical", and therefore I want to know how to make my piece less typical. Also give some examples of what "untypical" would be, or better yet a game with a lot of "untypical" music.

Battle Theme

Village Theme

Title Theme

Possible Boss Music

A game with untypical, creative music? I can help you with that - Masashi Hamauzu's score to Unlimited SaGa! (It was a terrible game, yeah, but the music was quite wonderfull) Here; i'll upload some musical examples for you:

Battle Theme 4 - crazy chamber music

Enigmatic Scene - Situational music. Delightfull!

BT ''ultimate'' - electroacoustic final battle music

As for getting rid of your typicality, simply expand your musical vocabulary. :huh: Listen to creative music and absorb the ideas and devices used. You can start with getting a hold of this soundtrack, no?

A game with untypical, creative music? I can help you with that - Masashi Hamauzu's score to Unlimited SaGa! (It was a terrible game, yeah, but the music was quite wonderfull) Here; i'll upload some musical examples for you:

Battle Theme 4 - crazy chamber music

Enigmatic Scene - Situational music. Delightfull!

BT ''ultimate'' - electroacoustic final battle music

As for getting rid of your typicality, simply expand your musical vocabulary. :huh: Listen to creative music and absorb the ideas and devices used. You can start with getting a hold of this soundtrack, no?

While that's good and all, what's it that makes my pieces so typical?

While that's good and all, what's it that makes my pieces so typical?

Your use of notes, you don't really have anything that's truly "you" Try studying counterpoint or even other pieces by the greats. Try to look at what made them unique, I'm not an incredible expert on it myself, but that's just what I would do.

Or when you're composing try to stay alert for anything that makes it "typical" and avoid it

hope that helps :)

try not to follow well used chord progressions, use various harmonic tricks which are atypical of the genre you are writing in, my personal favourites are secondary dominants :drools:

try not to follow well used chord progressions, use various harmonic tricks which are atypical of the genre you are writing in, my personal favourites are secondary dominants :drools:

By secondary do you mean Minor?

*sighs* This is my fault, so let me address it.

what's it that makes my pieces so typical?

You stick to chord progressions, melodic forms, rhythmic conventions and ensembles that are present in all the other game music you showed me which I labelled as "typical". It's a simple concept, really. And it's not a bad thing. Innovation is not necessarily a good thing in game music; it has to remain recognizable.

Letehn, yes that was an absolutely awful game but you're right, the music is nice. You're also right, and therefore I'll reiterate, that Young Prodigy here needs to expand his listening palette to include saome GOOD game music.

Listen to the soundtracks for the Castlevania series, the Soul Calibur games, Contact (DS), and other such games to get a good idea for some good use of the Japanese game music formula. Castlevania in particular set a standard for good game music and many of the pieces that have graced the games in that series still remain as landmarks in the game audio industry.

Basically, break free from convention when you can; actually be creative with your work, don't just imitate. At the same time though, don't be anal about my comment that your pieces sounded "typical"; it's not an insult, it was an observation. Like I said earlier, with game music it is often better to stick to a certain level of recognizability if you don't have a clear and open talent for setting scenes to music effectively so that everyone can recognize what you mean. Otherwise, you end up with games where the composer has gone and made his piece more creative, but consequently ruined the atmosphere in the game by providing a completely different "feel" than was intended or expected.

So just moderate your composing; when it needs to sound original, break free from convention; when it needs to sound clearly recognizable, stick to what works and don't go too far away from the standards unless you are confident that it will work out well.

Now get back to composing and stop being so concerned about this particular piece of feedback! :)

Try even the Golden Sun series for the Game Boy Advance, the music is very riveting in those games, even for a 32 bit speaker

I knew I was forgetting one; thanks Will, that's one of the others I was going to recommend. Golden Sun and its sequel The Lost Age too; both had great music, probably the best I've seen on the system short of some of the Castlevania stuff.

Which reminds me, I had an arrangement of the Golden Sun title theme...I should post that...

I knew I was forgetting one; thanks Will, that's one of the others I was going to recommend. Golden Sun and its sequel The Lost Age too; both had great music, probably the best I've seen on the system.

Anytime Marius :)

High pitched screeching noises