Music List Thread (Post New Themes Here)

Seeing as I haven't composed anything for Thrive in a while (or anything at all for that matter), here's a Space Combat Theme I've been trying to perfect in the little time I've had over the last few weeks. I like to think of it as Pirates of the Space Caribbean.

Oliveriver wrote:

Wow! Very good composition! I love sci-fi ambiented music, i really like that bitcrushed drums and that synthwave analogue sounds, although for me it is more like a "space adventures" theme and not a "battle" theme, for a battle i imagine speedy heavier music (like dubstep lolz). Anyway i like it a lot Good job!

Madero wrote:

Wow! Very good composition! I love sci-fi ambiented music, i really like that bitcrushed drums and that synthwave analogue sounds, although for me it is more like a "space adventures" theme and not a "battle" theme, for a battle i imagine speedy heavier music (like dubstep lolz). Anyway i like it a lot Good job!

Agreed, but it still sounds applicable in a military setting. I think it might also work for...
1. Moving your fleet(s) into position before the big fight.
2. Planetary combat.
3. The cavalry arriving.

Here's an atmospheric rainforest theme I've been working on for the past few days.

Oliveriver wrote:

Here's an atmospheric rainforest theme I've been working on for the past few days.

Neat! Really peaceful, but alien-sounding, which is fitting, even for Earth's rainforests.

Did you have the forest floor or canopy in mind while making this?

Since the opening post is a little out-of-date and was difficult to update everywhere anyway, I've decided to compile all (approved) music submissions into this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1xZFxatUbjMxJ746nEKkvjVuNfSrQT7D

A note to the composers featured: I've included a few themes I think are good but could still use a lot of work. When it comes to actually adding anything to the game, these will need to be recreated to a much higher standard.

Hi, everyone.

First of all, I'm really, really sorry for how long I've been away. I've been quite preoccupied with mental issues and other problems, and unfortunately I also lost FL studio (along with most of the pieces I was working on) when my laptop got back from repairs, so until I can get a replacement music editing program, I'll have to stick to Audacity for now.

But I'm back now, and will continue composing (or trying to with limited resources) and recording.

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your problems, and the loss of FL Studio.

If you're willing, I'm up for doing a similar thing to what we did for this theme, where you send me sound snippets or ideas and I turn them into fully fledged pieces. Audacity is great for editing sounds and putting them together in a final mix, but unfortunately creating sounds in the first place with it is extremely difficult.

Oliveriver wrote:

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your problems, and the loss of FL Studio.

If you're willing, I'm up for doing a similar thing to what we did for this theme, where you send me sound snippets or ideas and I turn them into fully fledged pieces. Audacity is great for editing sounds and putting them together in a final mix, but unfortunately creating sounds in the first place with it is extremely difficult.

Thank you.

And yes please, that sounds like a great plan to me. For example, do you still have that "proto-proto-proto-prototype" of the hurricane/typhoon/storm theme I sent you a while back? I think that might be a good place to start. If it can be found again, do you think you could maybe imitate the theme in your software and expand upon it?

As for Audacity, *technically* it is possible to make some pretty bizarre-sounding things in Audacity, by twisting and bending various sounds until they sound right. Though yeah, something like FL Studio is far less "chaotic".

Hey peeps, thought I might post all of my currently finished pieces here for convenience. Enjoy. (They aren't in any particular order)
Also, should I be using proper thumbnails for these, or is what I am doing just fine?

Awesome! The image doesn't particularly matter, I just tend to use some sort of concept art related to the theme in question, but Thrive imagery is fine too. Unfortunately although they all have potential, none of them quite make the cut for the playlist of Thrive compositions. However I still love the main melody of your Progressive Arp and it'd be a shame not to use it in something else Thrive-related.

@Totemaster
I completely forgot to reply to you, but yes I still have that hurricane-sounding thing. Unfortunately I can't really do much with it unless I work out the notes you used, but I might still have a go at turning it into something.

EDIT: Actually, I have a crazy idea. The Progressive Arp is incredible for backing music but lacks something in front of it to add variation. The Hurricane Prototype is only the notes and rhythm of a main melody but would sound great with backing orchestration. See where I'm going with this? K2017, would you mind sending me some sheet music, MIDI file or similar of part of the Arp?

I would be thrilled! I'll just have to figure out how to do that first, but I'm totally up for the idea.

Edit:
Figured it out, here's the file: http://www.mediafire.com/download/bsyuyd4p7umih4v/untitled.mid (It goes through adfly for some reason)
It's only the part of the arp where it starts getting faster. I can also get you the other parts if you like.

I'll probably just use the audio straight from your video and add more on top - the MIDI file was just needed so I know the tempo, time signature, key signature, mode and main notes used.

Oliveriver wrote:

@Totemaster
I completely forgot to reply to you, but yes I still have that hurricane-sounding thing. Unfortunately I can't really do much with it unless I work out the notes you used, but I might still have a go at turning it into something.

EDIT: Actually, I have a crazy idea. The Progressive Arp is incredible for backing music but lacks something in front of it to add variation. The Hurricane Prototype is only the notes and rhythm of a main melody but would sound great with backing orchestration. See where I'm going with this? K2017, would you mind sending me some sheet music, MIDI file or similar of part of the Arp?

Okay, well, my advice is just to fiddle around a bit with the notes, and you should find them eventually. I'm sorry I can't offer anything better... XP
And yes, the prototype is indeed just that. A prototype. For a more advanced version, a big dramatic orchestra is a given. Also, here's one of the themes that inspired it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0mi_LBJUw (Those "twirling" flutes in particular are awesome)

So far it's not sounding much like that, but with a few added flutes, string glissandos and more brass it'll certainly replicate that feel, but I doubt it will get any closer due to the heavy electronic influence of K2017's arpeggio. I did eventually settle on a melody within K2017's key signature that resembled your original - combining 4\4 with 3\4 was the most difficult part.

How do my respective collaborators like this then? It may be a bit too heavy on the percussive side, but I'll leave that to everyone else to decide.

Honestly, imo that sounded terrible.
Composers generally work better on their own since each have their own vision, and this is a great example. It just sounds like one song at the beginning and then turns into like 3 different songs being played at the same time. The rhythm is all messy, there's quite a bit of unresolved dissonance (Unless thats what you're going for) and in general I have no idea what you're going for.
And yes its too heavy on the percussive side, if you think "it may be a bit too heavy" then tone it down, don't doubt yourself.

Ehhh, honestly, I don't think it sounds very good at all. I was expecting you to use my melody with a different instrument, not sure what though. I think the track would work better without my component. Just my two cents.

Oliveriver wrote:

How do my respective collaborators like this then? It may be a bit too heavy on the percussive side, but I'll leave that to everyone else to decide.

Hmm... it sounds okay. However, I agree with the others. The percussion should probably be "thinned out" a bit, and made to sound a bit less "techno-y". I'm thinking that a greater emphasis on big, booming, classic drums would work better (almost as if they're representing the thunder and lightning in the storm).

Also - and this is just my opinion - the overall tune should be quite a bit deeper and "darker". Thinking back to the inspiration in JPOG, if you were building something in that game and then heard this theme start... you knew that you were about to get royally [EXPLETIVE]-ed. In Thrive's storms, I want players to feel that same fear of looming disaster.

Psych0Ch3f wrote:

quite a bit of unresolved dissonance (Unless thats what you're going for)

That's exactly what I was going for, but maybe I didn't go far enough with it, as Totemaster didn't think it was dark enough.

I think I was too eager to upload this theme as soon as possible (likely a problem with my compositions in general, as there are things I wish I'd changed on pretty much all of them) and had forgotten how it sounded when first approached, seeing as I'd been listening to it repeatedly while composing. For now I'll take the video down and I might return to it at some point with far less percussion.

After a long break I finally got myself to finish a theme wich I started about 3 weeks ago.



Primordial Waters is a Multicelluar/Aware stage theme wich is meant to be played in deep and lonley oceans. It's still not very complex in its construction but in comparison with my older themes I think it's a bit more interesting. What do you guys think?

Great work! For me it's just about at the right level of variation - I'd possibly like to hear that watery sound at 3:17 some more, as it's a shame just to use it once for a couple of seconds. Also, the whole thing feels somewhat heavy on the bass side, could you try adding a bass-subtractive EQ to see whether it improves it? (If you don't know what that is just ask).

Anyway, until you get around to those minor details, I've added this to the approved submissions playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrscy5uOkJc&list=PL1xZFxatUbjMxJ746nEKkvjVuNfSrQT7D

Alright, I'll take care of it. But what's bass-subtractive EQ?

Somewhere in whatever program you use to compose, there should be an option called EQ, Equalisation or a similar variant. It should look something like this:

Spoiler:

To remove bass from an instrument, add an EQ module to it and click to create a node in the left ~quarter of its display. Click and drag this downwards until the bass level sounds about right. I'm assuming that most audio programs use a similar system, so if you're having trouble try searching for an EQ tutorial focusing on whichever program you use.

New theme for a peaceful area in the Aware Stage: