Zero Warrior

[GorgeousGabe]

My solo electronic music project, here she is

http://www.myspace.com/zerowarriormusic

I like pretty much all of the tracks that I've put up there.. so tell me whatcha think

[huxtaposition]

Well I've just listened to the five songs you have up there.

I listened to Ruby Weapon first and didn't wanna listen to anything else. But I did. It didn't draw me in.

Wait For Death was fantastic, my favorite. Great ambiance about it. I'll be listening to it from time to time.

Power Fiending and Lucky Lazer Beam both confused me 'cause for some reason Power said it was 10:34 and Lucky 14:25 though they're not that long which was relieving, not to say I didn't enjoy them. Power more so once it gets rolling, wasn't too into the piano work in the beginning but the piano at 20 seconds grabbed me.

Shredder says it's 15:01. I thought it was good, but at 11 or 12 seconds in that little drum sound (excuse my lack of drum knowledge) comes in and was distracting. I thought it was too loud.

All in all I enjoyed what you did.

[GorgeousGabe]

Thank you, I'll take that into consideration.

that little drum beat is EQ'd for when everything else is on top of it, so I'll probably drop it down or keep away from the scattered triplets until the melody and bass comes in because they sound a bit jarring without everything on top of it

thank ye!

Here's my newest, or at least, the first 50 seconds of it. It's nowhere near finished, but I think it sounds so good that I want to share it anyway

http://media.putfile.com/Zero-Warrior---Ultima-Weapon

[Everdrift]

Sounds like you could license some of these for video games. The music often has a bubbly, bouncy sound to it. The sounds you choose are very synthy, moog-ish even. I'm a big fan of some of these retro synth sounds. They have a good warm analog feel to them.

"Ruby Warrior" was pretty good, I think this one really sounds like a video game piece. The beat drives the song along nicely, as you get into some pretty densely layered polyphonic territory. You seem to have something of a talent for layering repetitive, yet widely varying ostinato parts so that they fit together well.

"Shredder" has some interesting rhythmic experimentation that starts immediately with those polyrhythms. You create a pretty unique sound with this one. You're not afraid to occasionally choose notes outside of typical tonal schemes. I'm not a fan as much of the synth tones on this one. They sound thinnner and more lifeless than some of the other one's you've used.

"Power Fiending" begins with a decent piano part. It could be made better by working more closely with the velocities of the notes, if you have that option. In particular, whenever you have a repeated note, you usually want to make the second one a little softer (especially if it does not fall on the beat), as this is what a human would do. In general, I think a little attention to velocity would help your music a lot. Then you could get accents that fall at regular intervals that give the music a groove that it's missing. It sounds flat a lot of the time.

I will agree with the former reviewer that "Wait For Death" is the best. The sampled strings are not bad sounding. But if you ever are interested in real strings, I'm a cellist with a master's degree--let me know! The song does have a good melancholy ambiance. It's darker and trippier than the others. Very good job on this one.

[GorgeousGabe]

Thanks, that's kind of what I aim for. In terms of just how I compose, I can't help but to be influenced by all the video games that I play.

It's always been a dream of mine to compose for video games, I don't know how to find my 'in' on that front though. it's cool that you picked up on that right away

You're right about the velocity thing- I don't really pay attention to it. I'll probably end up going back to ALL of my pieces and working on that

I am interested in real strings, I mean... it's one of those things that, if it doesn't sound great, people don't really notice, but it DOES make a difference when they sound legit. it's the difference between liking a song because of something that you don't really notice, and not liking a song because of something that you don't really notice

[huxtaposition]

Yeah I definitely noticed the video game thing too. The Ruby Weapon and then Ultima Weapon gave it away.

You could maybe find on craigslist a videogame designer looking for a musician (that's going out on a limb). Maybe search for a prominent game designer forum and advertise yourself.

A quick google search turned up this little bit of information:

"Try looking in websites that either deal with video game music, or video game design. Ocremix.org is a great site for freelance musicians. Their work is not bought or sold, but I happen to know for a fact that people in the game industry keep their eyes on that site. Gamasutra.com is a great site for designers and people in the industry, but I'm not sure if purchases or deals take place there; I'm not familiar enough with the workings of the site."

You could also check out http://www.vgmix.com/

Good group of guys in there that might be able to give some more help. I know a few of them have done original music for games.

[Everdrift]

If you're interested, contact me at acellist1@hotmail.com to see about sending me some tracks to play cello on. I assure you I have an amazing sounding cello and a great mic to record with.

Cheers! :chug:
Mark

[GorgeousGabe]

thanks so much, hux- I'll probably get more serious about it once I upgrade my software a little bit, because I've got a few limitations right now that are pretty tough to work past, most notably with drums

and snazzy e-mail, acellist1, I'll see if I come up with something you can help me on!