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NP's FE:BB Music


Ninja Penguin
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So I got into the FEXNA beta. That's a thing that happened. While I continue to figure out the tools and how to make them tick for me, I've been making original music to go with my project, and critique on what I've produced so far would be deeply appreciated.

You can find the Soundcloud repository here. I'll be updating it regularly as I write more tracks, hopefully populating the full soundtrack of the game, which I'm writing to take place in the same universe as Underground, a spritefic I update when I don't have real-life obligations (read as: rarely and sporadically).

Tools Used:

GBAMusRiper to extract FE7's "SAPPY" instrument set as a .sf2 file

• GarageBand 6 for initial composition and drafting

• Logic Pro 9 for polishing, arranging, and mixing

Planned Tracklist:

1. Fire Emblem Main Theme - 100% done, uploaded, uploaded
2. ________ (Menu Theme) - TBD
3a. Heavy the Cloak (Player Phase, Darion version) - 100% done, uploaded
3b. Winding the Road (Player Phase, Morgana version) - TBD
4. ________ (Enemy Phase) - TBD
5a. ________ (Battle, Player-Initiated) - TBD
5b. ________ (Battle, Enemy-Initiated) - TBD
6. Clash of Wills (Boss Battle) - 100% done, uploaded
7. Ride With Us! (Recruitment Theme) - 90% done, preview uploaded
8. Empty Halls (Prince Maldwyn's Theme) - 40% done, preview uploaded
9. Echoing Stone (The Sorrow of King Berwyn) - TBD
10. ...
Other tracks will come as the project's development necessitates them.
Edited by Ninja Penguin
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The Fire Emblem Main Theme is alright, nothing of note about it, although I'm under the impression that this was deliberate.

Clash of Wills seems like a pretty standard boss theme. I feel like maybe it could use a bit more percussion--some cymbals, maybe? Just seems a bit vanilla at the moment is all.

I won't make any comments on Empty Halls due to it being a WIP, but there's a string sample that's much better for low notes in FE7 (0x06B87EC).

Heavy the Cloak: as this is a player phase theme, I've got lots to say about it. I feel that it lacks flavour. The tempo is quite slow, which is fine, but the melody's pace is also very slow and seems to be mostly made up of whole notes. It also has lots of very long and drawn out chords which is more suited to a event theme than a player phase theme. The entire song has a very obvious 4/4 timing which never really changes, and lack of drum fills or any diversity in the samples make the song feel a bit drawn out. The presence of a Morgana version on that list suggests that you have some other ideas in mind for the song so I'm not sure what you planned for that, though. I won't try to take over your composition by changing up the melody but in terms of arrangement, here are a few suggestions that I have (using FE music as a reference):

  • Add some more percussion. Can't stress how effective this is in FE-styled music. It's my belief that only reason it's lacking a lot in the early games is due to technical limitations. Since you have none of those, I think you should go all-out with it. For this song, added to what you already have, a basic kick/open hi-hat/kick/open hi-hat line would suit it quite well IMO. It seems to be the same repeating 2-bar line so some variety would be cool.
  • Add a bass line, preferably with the finger bass that FE7 has.
  • Change up the phrasing a little bit. The song's climax (at 0:40) is very short and feels like it lacks punch.
  • Experiment with some more samples?

These are only suggestions, though. I don't want to try and cramp your style or anything so if you don't want to take any of it onboard, that's also fine :P (P.S. can i play around with the midi)

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The Fire Emblem Main Theme is alright, nothing of note about it, although I'm under the impression that this was deliberate.

Clash of Wills seems like a pretty standard boss theme. I feel like maybe it could use a bit more percussion--some cymbals, maybe? Just seems a bit vanilla at the moment is all.

I won't make any comments on Empty Halls due to it being a WIP, but there's a string sample that's much better for low notes in FE7 (0x06B87EC).

Heavy the Cloak: as this is a player phase theme, I've got lots to say about it. I feel that it lacks flavour. The tempo is quite slow, which is fine, but the melody's pace is also very slow and seems to be mostly made up of whole notes. It also has lots of very long and drawn out chords which is more suited to a event theme than a player phase theme. The entire song has a very obvious 4/4 timing which never really changes, and lack of drum fills or any diversity in the samples make the song feel a bit drawn out. The presence of a Morgana version on that list suggests that you have some other ideas in mind for the song so I'm not sure what you planned for that, though. I won't try to take over your composition by changing up the melody but in terms of arrangement, here are a few suggestions that I have (using FE music as a reference):

  • Add some more percussion. Can't stress how effective this is in FE-styled music. It's my belief that only reason it's lacking a lot in the early games is due to technical limitations. Since you have none of those, I think you should go all-out with it. For this song, added to what you already have, a basic kick/open hi-hat/kick/open hi-hat line would suit it quite well IMO. It seems to be the same repeating 2-bar line so some variety would be cool.
  • Add a bass line, preferably with the finger bass that FE7 has.
  • Change up the phrasing a little bit. The song's climax (at 0:40) is very short and feels like it lacks punch.
  • Experiment with some more samples?

These are only suggestions, though. I don't want to try and cramp your style or anything so if you don't want to take any of it onboard, that's also fine :P (P.S. can i play around with the midi)

On the main theme; like it says in the OP, that one's probably going to get revisited. It was really just to get myself familiar with the instruments.

The notes about Clash of Wills and Heavy the Cloak's percussion are definitely appreciated -- it's where I'm weakest, and I'm given to be lazy and just loop one or two drum phrases when I finally come up with something satisfying. I'll play with them both and see if I can tease out more variety, because they're both songs that the player will hear a lot, and the last thing I want is for the first impression to be "repetitive."

(And yeah, if I can figure out how the hell to export Logic projects to MIDI you're more than welcome to it, keep an eye on your PM inbox)

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Heavy the Cloak has a huge Ogre Battle vibe. I agree with Agro's points about percussion - It needs to be punchier. I'd bring the snare forward in the mix and toss some reverb on it, and definitely throw in a full on bassline to fill it out. It doesn't feel like an event theme to me though - It just feels like a battle theme in the style of a different game.

Clash of Wills has kind of the same problem - drums feel anemic, but the winds melody is enjoyable.

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