Music of Elementia

[Alexinactive]

Matters of personal concern hindered my ability to work on my video game project in general for a while, but I'm now eager to get back to composing music.

Okay honestly, don't listen to me because I'm not all that great at composing either. But.

I get the feeling that you are trying to convey in the song. To be honest though, it kinda just feels like it might be lacking something. You are right, part of the issue is just that you are using Online Sequencer (which is more of an online music sequencer and MIDI creator) rather than using a more professional music making software or DAW.

There are a few things you could improve on musically as well, but it's hard to say specifically what to add or improve, especially since this is your creation heh. I think this version is definitely an improvement, but there's always more that can be done. I personally think you could have more harmonics like chords layered on top of the main section because it kind of feels "thin" (as in the musical texture is thin, or there isn't much layering or anything going on) - but if you go to add more layers of notes, beware that while a thin texture can be bland and boring, it is also possible to create something that has too much going on or too much layering.

I guess the other thing is the melody is a little random and doesn't feel quite right. Not sure how to help out there. Maybe it's just because it's too repetitive. Maybe try thinking of making another melody and adding it on. Musical form comes in different shapes, and oftentimes goes in sections like A, A, B, A. But since this is going to be for a video game, there's probably less importance of musical form - maybe A, B would be fine. 

(Think of your favorite movie. Most of the time there is a theme that comes to mind, especially with films like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or The Avengers, or with games like Mario, Zelda, or Halo. In Star Wars, John Williams created one main theme and many other smaller themes that were associated with settings or characters and relationships between characters. Every now and then these themes can be heard as the characters or settings are shown in the film. In Mario, an original theme was created for the overworld and was re-used most times during the grassy overworld phase. The themes changed as the character entered the underground or underwater, but the main theme would return when the character returned to the overworld. And these themes were reused and remastered in future Mario games, making the themes even more iconic. There is something about these themes, something melodic about them, they are songs you can think about and hum, songs that have a certain emotion. Anyway, that's my take on the matter.)

(anyways sorry, don't take any of this too seriously. i don't really know that much about music i just try to make it look like i do :/ )

The song still has a lot of potential. Maybe some good composer on OS could make some edits to it and save it at another link. If someone could get the right feel going, maybe that would be enough to keep it going or inspire you. Anyway, just some ideas, hope this helps :/

There's no need to apologise, I believe that your feedback is excellent. I was hoping that I could just wing it (like I successfully do with visual arts, and hopefully do with literary arts, although English was my worst subject in my final years of high school; I'll need to find feedback for the literary component of my video game later), but I clearly need to learn more about music, and I'm okay with doing that. So, I'll spend some time learning more about music; then, I should be better at musical composition.

Tips for melody making: hum the melody before trying to put it in the OS. Also, to get better structure, try making the sections in groups of 4

Thank you, I'll try that.

My plan for now will be learning more about music, then I'll remake my first piece again. I don't know how I missed this before, but Casey Rule is a very good alternative to midi.city: I can combine using Audacity and Casey Rule to compose music, with negligible technical difficulties unlike when I combined using Audacity and midi.city. I'll still use Online Sequencer, of course: the feedback I've been receiving here has been very helpful. I think I'll compose music using Audacity and Casey Rule; replicate it in Online Sequencer as a chiptune; upload the original on my Google Drive; and share a link to that – as well as the OS sequence – in this thread, so you can both see its structure and hear how I intended it to sound like with classic instruments.

Edit #1:

So, I ended up being able to use MuseScore. In hindsight, it's stupidly simple to use and so much better than everything else I've tried so far, but when I first tried using it, I had practically no experience with musical composition and software – I'd never composed a piece before – and my musical knowledge was extremely limited, so I was intimidated by musical notation. Now that I have more musical experience and knowledge, I can easily use and appreciate MuseScore (especially as it comes with over a hundred decent-sounding instruments, so I don't need to worry about installing soundfonts and such). So, I won't be using Audacity in combination with Casey Rule to compose music; instead, I'll be using MuseScore. I know that I can export MuseScore projects as .mid files, so I should easily be able to upload my work as chiptunes on Online Sequencer. I still want to learn more about music before remaking my first piece for the second time, though: I now know enough to be able to write and read sheet music and play something simple on a piano, but I still have much to learn...

Edit #2:

The online textbook here has been most helpful for learning more about music; at the time of writing this, I've just finished learning about musical textures. In hindsight, I was stupid trying to compose music without trying to learn anything about music theory, but what's done is done... I should be finished with my research before the end of this week, and I'll hopefully finish re-remaking my first piece next week.

Edit #3:

So, I pretty much just skim-read everything related to chord progression, but I think that's okay: I have a much better understanding of music now. Having started re-remaking my first piece, I've decided that I won't export my MuseScore projects as .mid files and upload my work as chiptunes on Online Sequencer, because I just can't do that. The lowest playable note on Online Sequencer is C2; the lowest playable note in my first piece will probably be E♭1, as played by the double bass. I also plan on using the cello and the bass trumpet; I know, it's a lot of bass (I've only done 12 bars so far, though; I might change it later, if I think that something else would work better). A quick Google search shows me that people upload sheet music on DeviantArt, so I think I'll do that and redirect people to music I'll have uploaded on my Google Drive from there, rather than to this thread. I'd still greatly appreciate feedback from anyone willing to give it, so I'll continue to post in this thread as long as I continue receiving feedback for my musical compositions.

Edit #4:

Something I'm going to try doing is re-remaking my first piece using just a piano, then I'll remake that using various instruments. Also, unless I give up on composing music, this should be my last edit for this message: I can't think of any other ways I could try improving my music.