Hello all. I'm a young high school music student, and I'm interested in Game Development as well. So I decided this would be something cool to try out, so I downloaded FL Studio and some sound libraries. I had a lot of trouble getting something to sound halfway decent, and even then my result is still not great. It reminded me of slow death, so I accentuated that by putting in a faint heartbeat. I didn't want to add any other components to it, it's only my first piece and I didn't want to clutter it up. Tell me what you think! I named it Quietus. It can be looped. I can also double it's length if needed. (Two versions, one with heartbeat and one w/o) http://www.soundclick.com/nickdimoro Any and all comments suggestions and ideas for improvement are more than welcome. =]

haha with headphones the heartbeat made me feel like there was something wrong with my ear.

but the ambiance was good. I liked it. I'm having trouble visualizing how it would fit into a game though. Keep up the good work.

=D! Thanks, yes I went for a creepy feel, and I think it accomplished that.

When I made it I imagined being dead, in the game. The screen panning out from your (almost) lifeless body. But I can see what you're saying it probably wouldn't fit right with any game.

Any suggestions for a more game fitting theme?

Suggestions:
Compress / Eq the heartbeat, cause like said by alex when listening with headphones it just doesnt sound good.

The flute sound is also a bit to loud lower it a bit and add a reverb to it, to make it sound more in synch with the rest.

you are on the good track though for creating game style music. keep walking it and you'll be fine :)

I am a high-school student myself, a Junior. I am also a musician (6+ years) and C++ coder (5+ years).

I thought I may give a little hints of advice. Overall your demo sounds alright... not spectacular but not complete crap either. Sorry if I'm being a little frank, but that usually helps people hone their skills faster.

It sounds to me to have moderate ambiance, but the chord progressions aren't what would be... expected. They seem a little random, especially when the flute comes in. Usually for death scenes, a minor progression, possibly a simple C minor arpeggio progression: C, E flat, G, C... would be more suitable. You could make it sound more mysterious by possibly doing C, E flat, G, C, E flat, and then back down again. Just play with it, and have fun!

Good work, and keep at it! Too often do I find myself giving up because I think my song is bad, and I probably could be a lot better by now if I hadn't :P

Cheers!

Thank you so much Mcsnk and Alius for your honesty. I know it wasn't good but how am I going to learn to get better if I don't put myself out there? Thank you for your comments and suggestions I will put them to good use. =D

I quite enjoyed it, zeebo323 - well, as much as one can enjoy a creepy, atmospheric "death" piece. For some reason, it reminded me a little of Vangelis' music, most likely due to the ambient design. I can definitely imagine it working successfully in a video game or movie, so great work. The flute was a little off-putting, as it didn't sound quite so realistic to me.

Overall, I thought it was superb, even though "noise"-style music doesn't generally appeal to me.

How long have you been composing for, and was that seriously your first piece?!

Oh, and I think the heartbeat is fine; in fact, it adds to the almost-Blade Runner feel. It's probably because I watched the film recently, though. However, it does remind me of the subliminal heartbeat that sounds during a certain scene involving quite a lot of glass breaking, to avoid undue spoilers.

Yeah, it was seriously my first piece xD. Before I began it though I watched a lot of FL Studio tutorials so I would think that aided me quite a bit. Thank you for your kind words =]

The thing is, the 'flute' is actually an Oboe. It probably doesn't sound so realistic because it's so high up in the register. I took them out of SampleTank.