A song I made in LMMS. I’m fairly new to composing and not really a music person so I don’t really know music theory. most of the time, I don’t know what instruments to use so I just resort to using chiptune instruments, so I would like instrumental or soundfont feedback as well.
4 Likes
Length needs to be dependent on average boss fight length. Also needs better ending.
1 Like
Music advice mumbo jumbo, if you just want feedback just skip to the bottom
Let me tell you a secret: You don’t need to learn music theory to make good music, If it sounds good to the majority of people listening to it, you are already most likely using the fundamentals of music theory without even knowing it.
I don’t know what kind of style of game you’re making, but a general “rule” for making music for a game Is to try and match the atmosphere, emotion and pace of the game
Lets say for example you were making a fast-paced Futuristic FPS shooter, I would make the song try and match that description. So a high BPM energetic futuristic sound.
In your case for a boss fight, I would think about how you want the emotion/tone of the fight to feel, a common tone for a boss fight is something that could be tense, menacing, or uplifting, but really it only matters that it matches the pace and energy, the tone and emotion is up to you, context for the fight if there’s some kind of story could help you decide what you want for that.
im going to use Toby Fox’s music from undertale for some pretty easy examples that I think would help you most since it’s boss battle music with chiptune instruments similar to what you’ve got
One last example from a more acoustic instrumental sound track thats a lot more tense and menacing than anything you can find in Undertale.
The actual feedback
As i mentioned before, I don’t know how your boss fight looks, the context to it, the style of the game, etc. But what I’m picturing while hearing this is a fast-paced voxel/chiptune style game, so that’s what I’m going to critique it as and form my opinions from.
0:00 - 0:19
I like the chord progression and the build up of strings you have leading up to the chiptune synth, my only nitpick is that your piano sounds thin, which I think you could solve by copying your root notes from your chords (the bottom most note) then pitching them down 1 octave (or 12 notes), But do what sounds best to you.
0:19 - 0:28
Good build up, not much to say here.
0:28 - 0:38
Many music artist follow a “Two Loop Principal” where they loop a certain arrangement of a song twice before moving to a new arrangement (which would be what comes after 0:38) Not certain if thats what you did here or not since is was only 10 seconds long. I would try extending it by 1 more loop to see how it sounds.
0:38 - 0:58
I really like the short break, before picking it all back up, my only issue is that you didn’t make it longer.
0:58 - 1:07
Another good alternate break, however I think its too soon after the first one, which is part of the reason I said 0:38 - 0:58 could be longer
1:07 - 1:27
I like the ending you have for the most part, I didn’t like how it ended so abruptly though, if that was done so it would loop better, thats okay, but if that was the goal, I think you could achieve that better by reintroducing the piano chords from the beginning.
Overall
I don’t know how long you’ve been composing but it’s actually pretty good, most of the mistakes I think are there are some very minor things that can easily be fixed or changed. You have a good selection of instruments, I would just play around with your arrangement for the most part.
2 Likes
I feel like it could have more put to it. The starting seems too slow for a boss fight.
I think the intro has some issues with loudness(or rather the whole track), or that it is a result of having too high compression. Everything is flat and doesn’t pack a punch because the transients are chopped so harshly. Please consider not overly using compressors/limiters.
Because of the “compressed” sound we have now, it is very difficult to tell how balanced the mix actually is. Despite that, we can still hear the progression. For what it’s worth, it doesn’t have the most impactful cadences, but it is comprehensible by ear.
I would probably recommend trying to listen for other sounds/music for comparing the mixing between the two. It will help setting things on “equal footing” and best of the sounds you can put up with.
Hi, thanks for replying. i didn’t really account for duration when composing this song, nor plan on using it for a game. looking back, I do agree that the ending seems to be lacking, likely because I don’t really have a sense of song length choice. i guess you could consider it as a placeholder, as I might continue the song from before the ending.
Thank you so much for such a extremely detailed reply! for song inspiration, I was mostly going for a DM Dokuro style but also trying not to lean towards chiptune too much. i didn’t have a game that I made to match a style from but I did try to imagine a Terraria boss fight of some sort. I think I have been composing for about 6 months to 1 year, but I mostly do it when I have free time.
For your feedback, i agree that some parts of the song are too short. I guess I replayed the song over and over so many times that i found it more efficient to make certain parts shorter rather than accounting for listeners and making it longer. For the ending, I didn’t plan on looping it, as I wasn’t sure what to do to continue the song. I think i was planning to make it a slower part of the song and then continue with a more intense part. I will try out your suggestions and make an update if it works out.
I agree, looking back. I was planning to make the song longer, so I started slow to have a dramatic build up, however i think need some tips before I can extend the song, so that’s why I made it short for now.
Thanks for your reply. I did compress the song into an mp3 before uploading it but it doesn’t seem to sound too different than the higher quality version, and I don’t hear the choppy parts. I agree with your statement about audio balance. I think i have an issue with balancing instrument volumes, because I can’t decide what volume to set each instrument to, so I’ll try following your equal footing suggestion.
It really does sound like a Terarria mod if you think enough. This sounds great! What did you make it using?
Hi, I used LMMS. I did try my best to replicate DM Dokuro’s style and also try out a few things to make it more original. I’m glad you like it.
1 Like
Hello world - i updated the song and tried to implement all your suggestions, let me know what you think.
2 Likes
nameless deity sounding ahh music
Anyways, I will give this a 8/10, idk what boss you are going to make but my complaint is to make it more melodic and impactful depending on the boss.
Dope. The bells are actually awesome!