Makin' Music

So Jac pointed out earlier that there's a Music thread in gen chat but none here. I've been working with MIDI stuff for a while, so I figured it was worth making a thread for ET-made music things.

Pretty much all of what I've been doing so far is character themes for a semi-nebulous game I theoretically want to work on in the future. Currently I've got three done, and a couple others are nearly wrapped up; This western-y one, this one which is trying to go for something more solemn, and this villain theme which I completed yesterday.

Input is appreciated and any other musicdudes feel free to post their musicduding!

I played music for a while but it's been long enough now (five years already? oof) that I've forgotten most of the terminology so there's not much specific I can think to say other than "I think you did best on that second one".
The other two are good but they sound, I don't know, sort of ponderous? Like there isn't really any buildup or momentum, they just start and keep going and then finish.
This is also true of the more solemn one but it seems more appropriate there, and it has more of a defined beginning and middle (maybe not ending, it sort of just cuts out, but if it's meant to be looped that is fine).

With this'n, I tried to work more on defining a progression (not sure if I succeeded at all, though). I was also working more on harmonics and such, which I'm fairly sure turned out well?

Main trouble I had was dynamics; for some reason the contrabass feels really quiet. Maybe it's supposed to.

Oh hey I made another piece! A jazz one even! Jesus has it really been almost a month since the last one. I have been busy and this one was hard to finish and I'm still not too happy with the ending bit aaaaugh. Also I couldn't figure out a good way to shift the dynamics around so I'm worried it sounds too uniform??

Aside from that I was pretty happy with though! And I have a couple more melodies I've just started to work on, so that's good.

Feedbaaaack as per request! Anything I suggest may not actually improve anything, just sayin' that's what comes to mind when listening! As I told you before, it's all really impressive work and if you disagree with anything I say you're prolly right 'coz since when am I a music expert lol. XD

March of the Red Ranger- Repeat listenableness: 4/5
Like listenableness: 4/5
Atmospheremoodness: Tranquil but focused

Really awesome, I love it! Original, too! But sometimes I feel like one of the instruments/channels playing is kept going just for the sake of it, and with a bit of silence from that particular instrument in that particular moment in time it would sound better. For instance the voice in the beginning- maybe it should not come in so soon? And past the middle of the song there's a part where the string instrument goes up and I think maybe it would improve the song not to have the string instrument continue uninterrupted in that portion .

Introspection- Repeat listenableness: 5/5
Like listenableness: 5/5
Atmospheremoodness: Epic Orchestral Version Playing in Head Even If It's Probably Not Supposed To Be Like That, Sorry

I am incapable of giving useful feedback for this because the tempo of bell sounds and the tone of the song trigger my Xelor fanperson and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Iloveitok [can I has download plox]

The Hellmarch- Repeat listenableness: 3/5
Like listenableness: 3/5
Atmospheremoodness: Calm

It starts off with a bit too familiar an arrangement to think of it as original, but that thought is soon removed by what follows next in the song, so I was pleasantly surprised. ouo It works well with the description you wrote of an oafish villain, and it's really cute! I get the feeling it'd be even better if instead of all of the notes being so low, a single higher-sounding instrument was introduced somewhere to add to the somewhat flat (but still fun!) soundscape, and maybe a sort of cymbal strike at the same time of the 5th note in the string of 5-close-together-drum-sounds somewhere close to the beginning? I think that was a good pattern btw (the 5 drum notes together at the end of a part of the song that I'm tempted to call a sentence for some reason), so maybe it should repeat moar, elsewhere in the song, too OuO Idk if that'd just change the tone of the song too much though. The ending of the song works really well but again, I think a cymbal at the end would be way cool XD

Imperator- Repeat listenableness: 3/5
Like listenableness: 3/5
Atmospheremoodness: Dramatic tension, endgame cutscene-ish

Going to refer to specific parts of song:
-The part after the beginning segment's drum notey end, where the organs and additional voicen are added: "A"
-The part with only the voice singing with dramatic pauses in between a few lone notes "B"

Between A and B it's kind of noisy and the pace/melody feels like it got lost and tangled in all that noise, so I don't like that part much, but the beginning itself (before A) and everything that follows from a little before B (where it quiet downs), throughout B, and after B is REALLY GOOD. >O Once again you're good at song endings, too. xD

The Big Time- Repeat listenableness: 3/5
Like listenableness: 3/5
Atmospheremoodness: Easy listening

Why are you so good at the ending portions of songs? Seriously, that ending was awesome. 8D I'm not just talking about the last few notes, I'm talking about a distinctive part of the song that leads up to the last few notes, too. Anyways, it seems like a good experimentation piece and even if you didn't intend it as a game song methinks it'd fit in well in some kind of investigations part of a game? Idk but it's cool! As for how to improve it... I would probably say that like the Hellmarch, it's starts to feel a bit flat somewhere (except for the end where it's not like that at all). Would probably try to put a bit more feeling/emotion in the song somehow, maybe by adding more variety in the loudness and range of notes.

Hope this helps in some way!

I think the western and jazz ones are really neat.

What software are you using to make these?

I think the western and jazz ones are really neat.

What software are you using to make these?

MuseScore, which is MIDI software that 1) has a very well-designed UI and 2) is free. Previously I was using Anvil Studio which filled neither of those (half the reason I switched was because AS wanted an upgrade to export files longer than a minute. Fuck that).

MuseScore is a little glitchy at times but rarely anything insurmountable. And it's got a decent sound quality for most instruments which is nice.