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Training Green Men - Craft Building Music

Jatwaa

By Jatwaa
in KSP Fan Works

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Scotius

Scotius

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Not bad. But in this case i'd prefer something more industrial: some drills, rhytmically beating hammers in the background. When i'm listening to your track for some strange reason i'm imagining little ducklings playing in the pond :confused:

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Jatwaa

Jatwaa

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Thanks for the honest feedback. I am always open to ideas. You are right! It sounds too kiddie and could use some industrial effects. I think I will revamp this one. If you get bored, and since you have given great insight, check out some of my other tracks and let me know what you think. I am always in need of critiques :D

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Scotius

Scotius

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I did listen to your other tracks. They are easy on the ears - i liked that one march for returning Kerbals. But, for a 'spacey' music i prefer more classic-style, instrumental tunes ( i grew up on 2001: Space Odyssey and Star Wars - "Also sprach Zarathustra" plays in my mind every time when i see sunrise from the orbit in KSP). If i want music playing in the background, soundtrack to Homeworld games is my go-to piece. It just fits space better in my mind.

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Duxwing

Duxwing

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NOTE: I have only three years of middle school band and a few months of piano lessons to back up my opinions, but I can 'feel' the errors in your music.

Dawn of Humanity is calm, cool, and fresh, but fails to fully explore the thematic contents of its title because the vastness of space is not mentioned, and it lacks enough details about early life on earth to make such a flaw acceptable. I see five better alternative approaches to the one that it takes, and what I've seen in your other work makes me think that you're talented enough to take any--or even all of them in order as a narrative concerto:

  • Early Earth: enrich the landscape of chirping birds and bubbling brooks with other details--such as tiger's roars, tribal drums, and mountain winds--to portray the daily struggle for survival that humans faced without mention of the cosmos.
  • Childhood of Humanity: Early Earth through the wondering eyes of a child, enthralled by the sights, sounds, and smells of its surroundings.
  • Ignorant Savages: Interpolate the beauties and wonders of the cosmos into "Early Earth," but don't have the two tracks interact; that way, the humans seem to ignore the heavens and stars.
  • Worshiping Savages: Interpolate the beauties and wonders of the cosmos into "Early Earth," and let the human track react in awe and wonder to the cosmic one, which, in its greatness, does not react; alternatively, they can slowly discover the heavens and then be struck by a climactic epiphany regarding its beauty.
  • Ascent: Tack the sound of plinking hammers, shouting foremen, and good ol' SRBs onto the end of "Wondering Savages"
  • Glorious Beginning: a no-nonsense piece of humanist teleology that starts with flutes, progresses to soaring strings, blaring brass, crashing cymbals, and thundering timpanis, and ends with a hopeful decrescendo of woodwinds to relate the ascent of Man from idiot ape to angel of the stars. Make Wagner eat his heart out and Rousseau turn over in his grave.

Orbital starts off with a strong space-military tune, but then simply veers off into a confusing panoply of other noises. Perhaps the soundtrack of

could inspire you.

Overall, be bolder and more purposeful in your work: use the full range of pitches, rhythms, and volumes available to you; follow musical 'paths' of all sizes directly to their logical conclusions; and focus on maintaining harmony--that critical element of classical music--among and within your instruments. Your openings are strong, even tear-jerking, but they need to be followed through in every step of your music. Let each note lock in with the last in a great architecture of sound.

-Duxwing

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Jatwaa

Jatwaa

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NOTE: I have only three years of middle school band and a few months of piano lessons to back up my opinions, but I can 'feel' the errors in your music.

Dawn of Humanity is calm, cool, and fresh, but fails to fully explore the thematic contents of its title because the vastness of space is not mentioned, and it lacks enough details about early life on earth to make such a flaw acceptable. I see five better alternative approaches to the one that it takes, and what I've seen in your other work makes me think that you're talented enough to take any--or even all of them in order as a narrative concerto:

  • Early Earth: enrich the landscape of chirping birds and bubbling brooks with other details--such as tiger's roars, tribal drums, and mountain winds--to portray the daily struggle for survival that humans faced without mention of the cosmos.
  • Childhood of Humanity: Early Earth through the wondering eyes of a child, enthralled by the sights, sounds, and smells of its surroundings.
  • Ignorant Savages: Interpolate the beauties and wonders of the cosmos into "Early Earth," but don't have the two tracks interact; that way, the humans seem to ignore the heavens and stars.
  • Worshiping Savages: Interpolate the beauties and wonders of the cosmos into "Early Earth," and let the human track react in awe and wonder to the cosmic one, which, in its greatness, does not react; alternatively, they can slowly discover the heavens and then be struck by a climactic epiphany regarding its beauty.
  • Ascent: Tack the sound of plinking hammers, shouting foremen, and good ol' SRBs onto the end of "Wondering Savages"
  • Glorious Beginning: a no-nonsense piece of humanist teleology that starts with flutes, progresses to soaring strings, blaring brass, crashing cymbals, and thundering timpanis, and ends with a hopeful decrescendo of woodwinds to relate the ascent of Man from idiot ape to angel of the stars. Make Wagner eat his heart out and Rousseau turn over in his grave.

Orbital starts off with a strong space-military tune, but then simply veers off into a confusing panoply of other noises. Perhaps the soundtrack of

could inspire you.

Overall, be bolder and more purposeful in your work: use the full range of pitches, rhythms, and volumes available to you; follow musical 'paths' of all sizes directly to their logical conclusions; and focus on maintaining harmony--that critical element of classical music--among and within your instruments. Your openings are strong, even tear-jerking, but they need to be followed through in every step of your music. Let each note lock in with the last in a great architecture of sound.

-Duxwing

Excellent review! Very detailed and insightful. Good points too. I find myself trying to compensate for my lack of samples. I am planning on changing to EW sounds to alleviate the problem. I always feel the beginnings and the ends of some. But without the samples i hear in my mind I lose the path and have to make due with what I have. That part saddens me and at times make me just finish the track. But I shouldn't let it stop me. I need to carry the feeling through the track no matter the available sounds. I have years in bands and marching competitions and want to recapture the feeling of being on the field bread and drums blaring. But I digress.

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Duxwing

Duxwing

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Excellent review! Very detailed and insightful. Good points too. I find myself trying to compensate for my lack of samples. I am planning on changing to EW sounds to alleviate the problem. I always feel the beginnings and the ends of some. But without the samples i hear in my mind I lose the path and have to make due with what I have. That part saddens me and at times make me just finish the track. But I shouldn't let it stop me. I need to carry the feeling through the track no matter the available sounds. I have years in bands and marching competitions and want to recapture the feeling of being on the field bread and drums blaring. But I digress.

I'm glad that you've found additional tracks to use; in the meantime, you could use the fixed, limited nature of your set of tracks to your advantage by forgoing smoothness and communicating through a 'language' of motifs. E.g.:

Bicyclist flattened by truck:

Bicycle bell rings, and the piano goes da-da-daaaa!

Breathing

Happy melody

Truck engine starts: Da da DUM.

Wailing violins

Truck engine runs

Da da DUM! Da da DUM!

Brakes screech, violins wail

Cymbals crash!

Sad piano melody.

-Duxwing

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