Hello people on DevForum! I have recently been making some music for my game, and I wanted some feedback from some people (just to avoid biased opinion). Please give honest feedback, and also opinions about where I could improve:
Dictatorship - dystopian/heavy tech
Unamed music - calm, introductory to game
Running out of time - chase type of music
Symphonica - theme music
Mysterious person - secret area theme or mysterious person (as name suggests) music
Disco - heavy tech, as a disco/house music
Introduction - similar to unamed music (introduction to game)
I had to compress these
Hope you enjoy some of them!
Please note: All of the music should be looped, so just play the music again to see the transition.
Addittional note: Music types are not strictly defined, due to the music being experimental.
These music are peak this reminds me like old Roblox and these retro games. I would tell you these musics fits into something like retro style third person fighter.
If you want to make these this genre of music here is some examples from Half-Life: Element 64 that you could inspire from them, I think they would fit too.
For me your music is fire but you there is missing a cherry on top but still good music but there is missing something like you feel power but you don’t feel it at maximum it is like 99% but not 100%. You have so good talent to make musics and I am so jealous for that xD music is so important and to find good music to fit the game is so hard and it taking a lot of time and copyrights system sucks.
I gave some of yours musics to my friend who is a girl to test it and here is her opinion:
Dictatorship - There could be a little more of these effects in the background, you know, I can’t explain it, it’s the same note all the time and there’s this boom, this boom, there could be more
Disco - 7/10 a bit of a synchronous beginning, but overall it’s also very nice Introduction - 10/10 I like it
My Song 7 - 9/10 I don’t really know what the vibe was supposed to be like, but it was a bit holiday-like. It actually turned out well :DD also awesome.
Mysterious Person - not my vibe, I think I like it the least but for example for some game it would be cool, 7/10, the ending is the best because of some time synchronization
Symphonica - 10/10 THIS IS EXTREMELY COOL IT REMINDS ME OF AMONG US or some other games where you have to solve tasks to move on and that would make these tasks incredibly fun
P.S I recommend to edit your post and put titles to musics it would be better to figure out which soundtrack it is and what kind of genre it is.
The reason why I didn’t label the musics, is because I don’t really have a title for them, or what their purpuse could be
Edit: put rough labels for indicating for what purpuse music could be.
Also, the music was mostly for testing my ability to compose, and it is great to hear that you consider I got talent (if you couldn’t tell, this is my first time making music).
I suppose the only thing that could be missing are some “boom” effects, but I don’t really know how else I could improve the music. Maybe you could add some detail on how I could improve my music (i.e from what point is the music bland/could have better tunes – exact time in the recording would be useful).
Thanks for the Half Life 2 music as inspiration, as I also want to make my music more complex. It is very useful!
I can hear the use of Garageband Apple loops in many of the songs, but I think you used them very well in the song! I can hear the use of your own simple MIDI and honestly are very solid songs.
Suggestions:
Add some more progression, your songs show some progression but there could be some additional background melodies
Maybe play around with the beats, your songs could have some more interesting beats.
Playing around is one of the best ways to learn things like Garageband.
Edit:
I personally started with Garageband too, now I use Logic Pro which is like the professional version of Garageband. While this may be a little controversial, I feel like many people go to FL Studio too often, so I am happy to see someone using something different.
It might be surprising to hear, but I actually didn’t use many Garageband Apple loops (I only used it in Dictatorship and Unnamed music). Otherwise, I created my own beats, using the drum kit, and then the music itself was composed by me.
I agree that my progression is quite simplistic, and possibly too repetitive, so I will try to make things more complex in the future.
Fun fact: I only used Garageband, because it is free, and something that I was already confident in using lol.
All of the music took around 2 months to make - most of the time was taken by me experimenting with notes. Actual composition took maybe 8hrs in total.
Idk why I said “many” lol, I mean’t the some of them had loops, but after taking a second listen I agree that most of the songs don’t use apple loops.
Tbh, I mainly listened to the 2 you mentioned which is probably why I thought you used more apple loops than you actually did.
I learned that sometimes being simplistic is actually good, especially when making demos. After that, you can add stuff like soundscape and automation to the song, unfortunately, Garageband doesn’t have dedicated mixer or control for the instrument. Generally, you have to use plugins and automation to do that.
One question, which Garageband do you have? Garageband for MacOS or Garageband for iOS? (in other words, is it the mobile or computer version of garageband) I personally used the MacOS version but that doesn’t have beat maker unlike the iOS version.
Idk why, but some of your songs remind me of this song I made recently:
I personally have Garageband iOS, as I don’t own a Mac – useful is some things, terrible in others, compared to the one on MacOS.
I really like the song that you made – really has some depth within it! If you don’t mind, would you be able to send a screenshot of the actual project (notes and stuff) just to see how I could structure my songs. I just want some inspiration.
So when I heard your music it was feeling like 99% of power not like 100% like it means it is good music but there is missing a cherry on top and I think:
You should put additional instruments that is playing on back something like: (0:15)
First instrument is playing main melody
Second instrument is drums and bass
Third is playing similar main melody but mixed with bass tracks
Maybe you should try to making soloing section like it is going straight down and then is building to top (1:40)
Bossfight - Milky Ways
About your chase music it should me something more like you should feel fear in and tension I think you should try with dramatic instruments like orchestral, violins and trumpets. And you need to make static tempo on your melody it is like in yours melody there short pause between looped main melody it should be static, pauses are recommend when you are switching to next melody
Painkiller Black Edition OST - Shadowland
For secret area theme it is good but I think secrets should more like calm or something like ambient, your music is something more like for shop or dealer than for secret area. Secret themes should be for people making them curious and interested into area
I used a ABAC layout for this song, as you can see in my image here.
Note:
I made this in Logic Pro on a Mac, so it may look a bit different, it shouldn’t be a problem because the tracks in Garageband and Logic Pro look about the same.
