Kaimen

It's time for some more examples of what I can do when I'm promised some money in return! That's right folks, these two songs here are commissions made for a game by Nio Kasgami. Now even with proper album cover and all. :3 This song plays in certain safe areas where you're supposed to save your progress. Will it require a typewriter and ink ribbons? I don't know. I'm just the composer. Anyway, I decided to mainly use "light" instruments in this one. Harp, music box, piano, flute. Add in some choir and you've got yourself a nice lullaby-esque theme. Yes, I know, the pun in the song's title is terrible (that is, if you even get that it's a pun in the first place...) but I couldn't think of a more fitting name for this track. This is the character theme of the Zomposer - a character that's actually based on yours truly. Yes, I'm going to make a cameo in this game and this is gonna be my theme. Gotta say, I consider this one of my best works so far. To make it sound less serious (yes, this song is still in a minor key) I used a technique I call "Kirkhope-izing". What that is, is taking a song and apply the typical Grant Kirkhope features to it like the tuba and marimba in my case. Worked out quite nicely and resulted in a very catchy tune. ^-^

So... I haven't been very creative lately but I managed to finish at least one song aside from a commission I did. And that song was more of a practice than anything. I was trying out some new modes and scales and discovered harmonic minor. So... I made a desert theme. There you go. To be honest, I'm not quite satisfied with how this song turned out. There's something that still bothers me about it but I don't know what it is. Might be the loop. Might be that I decided against adding choirs. Might be the strings. I dunno. Might rework it in the future.

Well, it's been some time since I last made a chiptune. Gotta say though, I'm getting good with the chip sounds. But listen for yourselves. Probably my best retro tune so far. However, it is, again, one of the songs I composed without anything particular in mind. I guess it could be a dungeon theme or a villain theme. Maybe even a stage theme for an action/adventure game or a side-scroller.

One of the most essential things that would be handy to know is how music actually "works". By that I mean, get to know the essentials of musical theory like scales, modes and the like if you haven't already. If you got a good ear you might be able to bypass that but it's still good to know nonetheless. It sure helped me a lot to know what scale I'm actually composing in. Makes things a lot easier.