Orchestral Scoring - Theme Music

Hi there!

I'm totally new to the forum, I found this via the indie game database and I saw that the developers are currently looking for a composer for original music. I am an audio engineer and composer and I'm looking for a new project. It looks like there's been quite a bit of debate over the theme music as I have read and I would like to lend my talents to this community in order to make Thrive an outstanding game. Here's what I have seen in the forums regarding theme music

-A need for an inspirational, orchestral track that captures the idea of simplicity, science, and beauty in the main theme, which can be easily hummed (ear bug, for those of you that know music!).
-Multiple themes - as in Space, Underwater, Desert, Grassland, ect.
-Combat themes? I thought of this one by myself. If there is to be combat, there needs to be some pretty strong and forceful music (not necessarily fast, but full of impact for sure!)

These are a few things I have noticed throughout the forum. I do have the tools necessary in order to create MP3's of a theme. I use Cubase, Sibelius, Reason, and FL Studio and DO own a license to use all of these products and their VST libraries. I believe I will mainly be using Reason, Cubase and Sibelius to create a full orchestral track for Thrive. I will work on making the music this week. At the end of the week on Monday (12/12), I will do everything I can to post a what I have come up with. Please let me know if you have any more suggestions for me while I am working on this. Thanks!

-hongchong7

It's great to have you! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with! You've pretty much got all the music types we need, but the other members may think of some others.

Anyway, welcome to Thrive!

hongchong7 wrote:

Hi there!

I'm totally new to the forum, I found this via the indie game database and I saw that the developers are currently looking for a composer for original music. I am an audio engineer and composer and I'm looking for a new project. It looks like there's been quite a bit of debate over the theme music as I have read and I would like to lend my talents to this community in order to make Thrive an outstanding game. Here's what I have seen in the forums regarding theme music

-A need for an inspirational, orchestral track that captures the idea of simplicity, science, and beauty in the main theme, which can be easily hummed (ear bug, for those of you that know music!).
-Multiple themes - as in Space, Underwater, Desert, Grassland, ect.
-Combat themes? I thought of this one by myself. If there is to be combat, there needs to be some pretty strong and forceful music (not necessarily fast, but full of impact for sure!)

These are a few things I have noticed throughout the forum. I do have the tools necessary in order to create MP3's of a theme. I use Cubase, Sibelius, Reason, and FL Studio and DO own a license to use all of these products and their VST libraries. I believe I will mainly be using Reason, Cubase and Sibelius to create a full orchestral track for Thrive. I will work on making the music this week. At the end of the week on Monday (12/12), I will do everything I can to post a what I have come up with. Please let me know if you have any more suggestions for me while I am working on this. Thanks!

-hongchong7

Suggestions?

Please don't post in mp3. I cannot legally include an mp3 decoder in the program.

Ogg vorbis (or ogg) is the most popular free audio codec, if you would like to contribute music, please encode to that.

Thank you

Hello and welcome!

Also I have something that could be a good inspiration for a space/exploring theme



obviously, I didn't make it, and it's from another game so we can't use it, but it might give someone ideas.

hands up who likes it

Welcome!

FrogEmpire wrote:

Hello and welcome!

Also I have something that could be a good inspiration for a space/exploring theme



obviously, I didn't make it, and it's from another game so we can't use it, but it might give someone ideas.

hands up who likes it

That sounds interesting, but it is not quite what I had in mind. I have a few ideas plus a ton of free time tonight to whip up something special. I will let you all know what it is by the 12th. Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Thanks for joining us. If you don't mind since you have alot of "expensive" programs rendering scores for me, i mean us. (but also me)

I'm greatly looking forward to what you have!

Yes, there will be combat. Lots of combat. For a while we were actually in danger of becoming combat-centric. So combat music is good, though it'd be especially amazing if we had different themes depending on the nature of the combat. My thoughts being that the theme you had playing as a fish trying to eat another fish should be a little out of place while you watch a fleet of heavily armed starships crawl toward enemy lines.

The theme doesn't actually have to be orchestral, but that'd be lovely too. Also, make it up-beat. There are to many 'realistic' games out there that are just depressing. We don't have to inspire awe nerely as much as I think would should inspire curiosity.

And lets not worry about format right now. We should be able to switch it out later, correct?

I have decided to take the bull by the horns. I know I said I would put my work on by the 12th, but I have been working over a hot VST library today and have created the following demo track for the main theme of Thrive.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BND56GJD

I saw many different suggestions on the board, but many were contradictory. Some people wanted an upbeat theme, others wanted a majestic theme, or a mellow theme. Unfortunately, I followed my heart's desire and composed what I personally felt the theme should sound.

The key is F Minor, one of my personally favorite keys. The chord progression is standard of typical film and movie scores, in fact the chord progression is very similar to the theme of Assassin's Creed II ( I - bVII - vi - V7 - I), yet the melody takes a different route.

I went for a more "Majestic and Powerful" Theme. We ARE talking about Space here, and Space is pretty big the last time I checked.

The melody is incredibly simple, and easily singable. Quite the ear bug, as I have it stuck in my head. I added Celeste for a more "Cosmos" feel and a Synth for a "Technology" feel. The melody is incredibly easy to sing or hum for good reason. I have watched the escapist video someone had posted on the forum, and took the advice of it. The theme can easily be looped. I have NOT figured out what type of form I would like to develop yet. Personally, I'm sick of composers that just through-compose everything and keep no form. Drives me nuts...

I understand the lead programmer wanted this in OGG Vorbis format, but I do not have the tools to do that, yet... As said before, this can easily be converted.

If needed, I can release a paper score via Sibelius for transcription. I will also be working on several more themes in the meantime.

I had a lot of fun working on this short piece. Please let me know what you think.

CREATED with REASON 4 - SIBELIUS 6 - AUDACITY

THAT IS GORGEOUS.

I'm not gonna lie. Absolutely fucking gorgeous. Only the tiniest tweeks are nessicary to pull that together as our glorious theme.

Now here's the challenge.

Remix it.

I know how that sounds. But that's part of my point here. It's everything we said it needs to be, but unless we can bend that tune to fit something utterly different, than my vote won't go for it.

Right now though, that's REALLY hard to do. God... SO GOOD.

This theme is simply stunning, however I beleive that a one minute loop will get repetitive quickly. Perhaps it should be developed more, I'd say some 3-5 minutes...

An artist whose style we could look into is Jean Jarre, specifically his early works (oxygene and equinoxe mainly), the minimalist style could be explored for some effect.

I also thing we should explore leitmotifs to give the different tunes some relationship between each other.

One day, *sigh*

Suppose I'll continue to work on my music. Wasn't late but my new music equipment doesn't come in for a few weeks >_<

I do like the piano addition in the background.

Actually, I tell you what.

You and I should talk. I'm currently limited with my equipment, but I have a shipment of some really high end stuff coming in within a few weeks. It's a whole new game then. I think together we could come up with something really cool and worthy for a theme song.

I put this together within 5 minutes, but I figured it'd be a tune that kind of went with what you have. Once the new stuff comes in, well, I think we can push it far beyond anyone's expectations.

This has not been tweaked or balanced, as I gotta get some sleep, so it's not "tested" on how well it'll sound on different speaker systems, nor have the sound levels been balanced, so I do apologize.
I hope you can pick up the bass.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VRKXK8L2

If for any reason the download link fails, I have a much lower quality version of it here, but at least it's streaming.
http://soundcloud.com/rpthehotrod/sample-music2


If you wanna hit it up together, contact me at dangearn22@hotmail.com

Hey!

I'm totally down for working together. My email is bjunya@iwu.edu. Looking forward to it! i will work on getting some "remixed" version up tonight. In the meantime, keep writing stuff and I'll give you my honest feedback.

Do you have Aim msn yahoo or the like?

It's temporarily unavailable.

And everyone says it sounds so good... I want to hear it!

EDIT: Got it now.
Bit short, maybe you could make a longer piece, it seems like just a start with no ending, but what is there is good.

Awesome to have your skills here! You and Hotrod both seem to be very capable of coming up with some great stuff. I suggest you work together if you can.

I do have AIM. My screen name is hongchong7 (whodathunk?). I will be on AIM as soon as I am back at home, as I am posting from my mobile phone right now. We can exchange stuff then. Also, I sent you an email earlier today. I don't think my screenname is on there, but you've got it now.

-HG7

Just heard that example. The descending line brought a tear to my eye. Beautiful, it speaks of growth and destruction.

Im happy to know that he music Thrive will has is in good hands.

This makes me even more excited.

Edit : My brother however, says they both lack something. The "Essence Of Creation" as he calls it.

Hey all!

I've been looking at all of your replies and have taken into account as many opinions as possible. I have a treat for you - Version 2.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GBEG9T3O

I've been really enjoying creating this music. However, I could not bring myself to extend it any longer than is. If I extend it, I'll have to just make a new track altogether.

So here it is. People seem to dig the melody. I kept the track the same from Version 1, I just added on some stuff to make it more upbeat and longer with some percussion and bass. There's only about 5 or 6 instruments in this entire track. I kept it to that much for the purpose of Simplicity.

I can imagine this being main menu music and have the main theme of Thrive be the melody.

This melody is easily transferable to different dynamic settings, whether it be underwater, space, grassland, desert, ect. That's the point of a theme. Make the theme dynamic for a dynamic game. We NEED the theme to be memorable! This is also easliy looped. Very memorable, and incredibly easy to sing/hum.

Have fun with this guys. I am having an absolute BLAST composing for this project!

-HC7

We will be keeping all further song posts in the MUSIC TEAM thread so it'll all be in one easy to access place. Keep your eyes peeled and ears open!

Once again, version two is great. However, there is no melodic variation (Especially with the piano) and that stagnates and stunts the overall peice. I can come up with at least twelve right now that you could try. I just wish I could give them to you by means other than vainly humming at my computer screen like a deranged muppet.

This song demonstrates the kind of variations on a central theme I'd like- the chime melody from the beginning is traded among instruments and varied in parts.
Warning: Death metal

You would, scio.

On a related note, I'm having trouble downloading the links. (I don't have an account, but apperently someone in my dorm does, because it says I've exceeded my download. I'll try again later and put in my vote.)