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#1 Colin

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Posted 23 July 2012 - 05:25 PM

This topic's purpose will serve as a comprehensive MIDI database of all of the music I have written.

That said, there are a lot of MIDIs that have mixing issues from a time when I would throw down as many instruments as possible at the same time and potentially overload a motherboard's ability to process every note at the same time resulting in a garbled mess. So, I will take "fix-up" requests of MIDIs I have made that have potential, i.e. you like the song, but the quality of the mixing or anything else is lacking.

Another purpose this topic will serve is to post my WiP music and take criticism for improvement.

I know custom MIDIs aren't a big priority to a lot of the members who use ZC here, and I understand. Hell, I even understand if my MIDIs aren't that pleasing to listen to, but what I'm doing here is to maybe make my music more appealing, so good criticism would be appreciated.

I will also take requests for writing custom music for users who ask (Via PM). Just know that I have my own very busy schedule, and I'll try my best to get it to you in a timely manner, but sometimes I forget, or the challenge is too big to me. I'm only human. I know historically people have asked MIDIs from me and I couldn't deliver and that is a fault of my character. Usually, a big help for me is to request a song, and then find a song that sounds like what you want so I can have some inspiration/help.

For a few of my songs in MP3 format, check my Tindeck page. On request, I will turn some of my complete MIDIs to MP3 and upload them here.

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Strato's Music

All Music posted is subject for Fix-Ups by request.

Also, if I post a song that I wrote for a specific member, please PM me if you would like to make it private(meaning, you are still working on the project I wrote it for), I can't always remember who I have written music for and who I haven't.

THP indicates that the song was originally written for Migokalle's quest, The Hylian Phoenix
BoaB indicates that the song was originally written for Castchaos' quest, Ballad of a Bloodline

Two dashes indicate that the songs are "partner" songs to the previous song, they go along with each other, or follow a similar theme.
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Complete MIDIs

Anxiety (THP)
--Anxiety Minimal (THP)
Archipelago
Atmosphere
Bass
Black Fire
Bliss (THP)
Blitzkrieg (BoaB)
Bohan (THP)
--Demon Bohan (THP)
Catacombs (THP)
Creep (THP)
Suspense
Dark Day (THP)
Dark Funk
Dawn Beauty
Death Bell's Toll
Electric Ascension
Experiment
Experiment 2
Fated Ascension
Forest (THP)
Forest Techno
Forgotten (THP)
Gauntlet
Gloom
Graveyard (THP)
Besieged
Sir Greg's Mansion (THP)
Harps of the West Cape
Heights (THP)
Holy Realm (THP)
Dark Castle (THP)
Ice Cold Misery
Ice's Lullaby (BoaB)
Island (THP)
Junkyard
Undersun
--Kizol
--The Scarlet Seer
Machines
Mechanical Anthem (BoaB)
Newsong
Pendulum
Places
Project F
Project G
Rockslide
Salow Cut
--Salow Cut Alter
--Salow
Shadow Temple (THP)
--Sea of Dead (THP)
Singing Phoenix (THP)
Spring
Steam (BoaB)
Steel Sparks (THP)
Subtle
Temple
Terrorists
Tezzek Tower
The Hylian Phoenix (THP)
Torrent (BoaB)
Town
Town (THP)
Traps
Waxing Crescent (BoaB)

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Incomplete MIDIs
Completion by Request

Apocalypse Metropolis
Aquadrift
A Walk in the Rain
Back
Big House Sketch
Blap
Bug
Clockwork
Cold Jazz
Das
Death Bell's Gate
Death March
Des 2
Escape
Faj
Fauna Whirlwind
Final Boss Theme
First
First 2
Harp Of Love
Holy
Hyrule Remix
Ice
Industrial Poison
Lumberer
Maybe
Mechanical Anthem Death Mode
Metal
Midi A
Migo 3
Overworld
Pizzicato
Project E
Project H
Rock
Set it to Flame
Sketch
Sketch 2
Sketch 4
Sketch A
Sketchy
Song 15
Song 3
Storm
Suck 1
Swirlz
Theme
The Professor
The Tears of the Clouds
Town 7th
Underworld
Vibrations
Waxing Finale
Waxing Gibbous
We Mean Business

Edited by Strato, 24 July 2012 - 01:18 AM.


#2 Russ

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Posted 23 July 2012 - 11:45 PM

I feel like a little kid who just found that a nice store giving away free ice cream popped up next to his overnight. These songs are all amazing! Thanks for posting them!

#3 Colin

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Posted 24 July 2012 - 01:18 AM

Well, be even more excited, as I have now edited my original post to include links to all of my incomplete MIDIs.

This is about 75% of any and all work I've ever done with MIDIs (I have lost some over the years, so this is the stuff I have uploaded). This is 121 links total, 63 complete songs, as of now.

And thank you for the compliment, Russ. It's what inspired me to get to posting my incomplete MIDIs as well.

Edited by Strato, 24 July 2012 - 01:20 AM.


#4 Colin

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Posted 27 July 2012 - 12:26 PM

I would like to take this moment to draw attention to my MIDI "Traps". This song was used in Castchaos' Ballad of a Bloodline in Level 8, Clockwork Cathedral.

I have 3 different versions.

Traps V1
This version is the original. What I like about it is that it has the original powerful feel. However, this was also made in a day and age when I had an awesome sound card in a desktop PC that could handle this many MIDI events at the same time. Listening to it through my laptop, the MIDI "clips" on many of the long notes, leaving empty voids where notes should be held out.

Traps V2
This version is my first Fix. This is also the current version in the database. This version includes a pretty hefty cutdown of both duration (needless repetition clipped out) as well as the clip out of a few instrument tracks and general decrease in volume. What this lacks is the power from the first.

Traps V3
This version is the second Fix in response to Purplemandown's comments on my DB submission.. This version is an attempt to add some of the power back to the first fix while still avoiding the clipping problems experienced in the first version.

Traps in the Database

I will eventually resubmit Traps to the database to include all of these revisions. I would like to know from any potential listeners of what could be done to further fix and revise this song. It has one of the best melodies I've written (in my opinion) and I would appreciate good critiques on it.

I would also like to point out Espilan's excellent remix of the song. Please have a listen.
Espilan's Traps Remix

Edited by Strato, 27 July 2012 - 08:54 PM.


#5 Colin

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Posted 03 August 2012 - 06:53 PM

Is there any interest in this? If not, I understand. I can go ahead and let this thread die. I'll give it one last shot, though.

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TL;DR SECTION

Undersun

Hero goes to a place where he can save the world.

Undersun MP3 (Tindeck link)
Undersun MIDI
Undersun DB Submission

Kizol

Hero's friend who is being mind controlled shows up.

Kizol MIDI

The Scarlet Seer

Hero fights his friend to the death.

The Scarlet Seer MP3 (Tindeck link)
The Scarlet Seer MIDI
The Scarlet Seer DB Submission
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So, today's highlight is the Temple of the Undersun.

The Temple of the Undersun was a chandelier, suspended from the ceiling of the Underworld. At its base, it held a great glowing orb, the Undersun, which provided light and warmth to the denizens of this subterranean land.
This temple was most holy, even to those who lived on the surface. Great magic coursed through this temple which attracted sorcerers to perform powerful incantations to further their knowledge and power.
During a great war, however, a group of foul sorcerers sought to destroy the world. Unfortunately, they succeeded. Through their sorcery, a great layer of gas, debilitating to humans, coated the surface of the entire planet. Few survived, either mutilated horribly by the gas, or forced to live at great heights on mountains...
A hero, the only person who could breathe the gas without dying or undergoing some mutation process, took a heroic journey to rescue the world...
At the end of his journey, he found himself at the King's Ring archipelago, an aptly named ring of islands which surrounded the spot where the Temple of the Undersun sat deep below the oceans and even further below the land...
He performed an unsealing ritual, and brought the temple above the surface of the great ocean, and took his descent into the hallowed grounds to undo the terrible ancient magic...

IPB Image
The Temple, unsealed.

Undersun MP3 (Tindeck link)
Undersun MIDI
Undersun DB Submission

The Hero traveled through the temple, fighting off the corrupted forces that kept the sealing chamber protected. The Hero reached his end destination, found the foul artifact, a stone statuette, that kept the evil magic running rampant through the world, and destroyed it! The gas flooded into the chamber in a chaotic maelstrom, coursing into the remains of the statue. Some time passed, and the gas was gone. The chokehold it kept on the planet was gone! The Hero slowly began to approach the exit of this evil chamber, when a familiar face appeared in the room.

It was Kizol, the scarlet Seer, the Hero's guide! But something was wrong... Kizol had a look of sadness on his face, and a look of alienation and great distance in his eyes. This was not the Kizol that the hero had known. The conversation between the two was awkward and strained...

Kizol MIDI

The Hero was to be killed... as a sacrifice... to bring back the council of sorcerers who brought the great destructive magic to the world in the first place! Kizol was being controlled, by the evil spirits of those exact sorcerers, long bound to the temple!
The Hero could not allow this to happen. Remorsefully, he drew his blade...

The Scarlet Seer MP3 (Tindeck link)
The Scarlet Seer MIDI
The Scarlet Seer DB Submission

The demonic forces that controlled the seer's body became apparent, Kizol had swollen into devilish monstrosity. The two did battle, but the hero soon rose as the victor...
Battered, the Hero watched the malformed Kizol return to his natural state.
"There is still more to be done, hero..." Kizol choked, "head to the land of the Macyrii, for there, a great evil will take its opportunity on the new purified world to control the nations... stop this evil, to ensure that the world may never degrade back into the hell that it once was."

-------------------------------

That is a very simplified version of the story that involves the Kizol character and the Temple of the Undersun, and I tried to explain it as well as I could for people who don't know the full story. I wrote these three songs for this place and character.

Please critique, I would love opinions.

Edited by Strato, 03 August 2012 - 07:04 PM.


#6 Russ

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Posted 03 August 2012 - 08:36 PM

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 3 2012, 04:53 PM) View Post

Is there any interest in this? If not, I understand. I can go ahead and let this thread die. I'll give it one last shot, though.

I'm interested in this, I just didn't see your last post. I don't have time to give any critique right now, but later tonight, I promise I'll critique all the ones you just posted, and then a few of the older ones I've actually saved to use for my own project. Don't let this thread die, I love having all these great midis here.

#7 Colin

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Posted 04 August 2012 - 02:42 AM

Thank you so much for showing interest, Russ. I look forward to your critiques. icon_smile.gif

Now, while I'm here, I'm going to link a song that I'm currently working on fixing and completing. For my first fix, I have cut down extremely on the amount of tracks used to allow the MIDI more room to breathe. For the next fix, I will bring back a bit more power to it, as I feel the cut overcompensated a tad. Another fix I will attempt to make is to try to fix the "rhythm" guitar part to make it less choppy, I will end up probably rewriting it. The next fixes after those 3 will include probably cutting out some of the repetition while adding more content to vary up the sketch. The song duration I am shooting for is around 2 minutes.

Escape

Escape V1 Original sketch
Escape V2 Fix 1

Please critique.

Edited by Strato, 04 August 2012 - 02:45 AM.


#8 Sheik

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Posted 04 August 2012 - 01:48 PM

I haven't listened to all of these, but I just wanted to let you know that the sheer amount of them is quite impressive. Two thumbs way up!

#9 Colin

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Posted 05 August 2012 - 07:01 PM

Thank you for your compliments, Yoshimi.

Today, I began to fix up 2 more MIDIs.

Black Fire

Black Fire Original
Black Fire Fix 1

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg Original
Blitzkrieg Fix 1

Both of these MIDIs were used in Castchaos' Ballad of a Bloodline. Black Fire in the Hylia Wastes, and Blitzkrieg in one of the sections of the final dungeon, Akumajou Vaati.

My current plan for Black Fire is to dissolve the "Brightness" track, or rather, the track with the main melody in it. The track itself could be divided into a few tracks, and I could accomplish a better effect in the sound. Also, I need to work with the ending to make it more loopable.
My current plan for Blitzkrieg is to fix the volumes throughout all of the tracks to achieve better balance among the parts. I also think I'm going to remove sections containing "Mechanical Anthem" and "Traps" melodies to make the song a bit more consistent. I will also probably remove the chaotic string part as well as the guitar solos near the end. I will have both a full version as well as a clipped version.

I look forward to any and all critiques on my current projects.

Edited by Strato, 05 August 2012 - 07:06 PM.


#10 Sheik

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Posted 06 August 2012 - 10:31 AM

By the way, I just wanted to let you know that I've actually listened to all the music you did for THP back in the day. It's much more practical to listen on it on Youtube (or soundcloud even). There wasn't a single tune that let me down.

I would love to give more useful critique but I really don't have much of an understanding of music and I can pretty much only say whether I like it or not. It's definately been some of the best custom MIDIs I've listened to and better than much I've heared in official video games.

#11 Colin

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Posted 06 August 2012 - 11:06 AM

QUOTE(Yoshimi @ Aug 6 2012, 09:31 AM) View Post

I would love to give more useful critique but I really don't have much of an understanding of music and I can pretty much only say whether I like it or not. It's definately been some of the best custom MIDIs I've listened to and better than much I've heared in official video games.


I understand that this is probably the sentiment that most people have in regards to musical experience. Still, I appreciate any and all critiques you may have for me, and I thank you for the compliments.

I'll see what I can do about getting my MIDIs uploaded to youtube or soundcloud. Alternatively, I could start converting a lot of these songs en masse to MP3 and loading them to Tindeck.

Edited by Strato, 06 August 2012 - 11:07 AM.


#12 Sheik

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Posted 06 August 2012 - 11:17 AM

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 6 2012, 06:06 PM) View Post

I'll see what I can do about getting my MIDIs uploaded to youtube or soundcloud. Alternatively, I could start converting a lot of these songs en masse to MP3 and loading them to Tindeck.

But MP3s are evil. Big and evil icon_frown.gif
And they probably sound better. But: evil!

#13 Russ

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Posted 07 August 2012 - 02:17 PM

Alright, time for me to start critiquing these. I'll get to the ones from the top, giant list later, but for now, lemme tackle these posts.
QUOTE(Strato @ Jul 27 2012, 10:26 AM) View Post

Traps V1
This version is the original. What I like about it is that it has the original powerful feel. However, this was also made in a day and age when I had an awesome sound card in a desktop PC that could handle this many MIDI events at the same time. Listening to it through my laptop, the MIDI "clips" on many of the long notes, leaving empty voids where notes should be held out.

I like the song, but it seems like the bass is really drowning out the melody, which is a problem. It might just be the soundfont I'm using though; it had a tendency to make certain instruments louder than they ought to be. Other than that, it's a great song though. Very powerful feeling.
QUOTE

Traps V2
This version is my first Fix. This is also the current version in the database. This version includes a pretty hefty cutdown of both duration (needless repetition clipped out) as well as the clip out of a few instrument tracks and general decrease in volume. What this lacks is the power from the first.

Okay, this one sounds much better. Less powerful, yes, but I can hear the melody much better, which makes the song have a bigger impact on me. This song, all around, feels more suited to a ZC quest than the first one.
QUOTE

Traps V3
This version is the second Fix in response to Purplemandown's comments on my DB submission.. This version is an attempt to add some of the power back to the first fix while still avoiding the clipping problems experienced in the first version.

And it gets better still. I'm not sure what to say about this one really. It's... perfect. It sounds like what the song is supposed to sound like, if that makes any sense. There's... I don't even know how to describe it, the kind of echo-y smooth sound in the background really helps draw it out.
QUOTE

I would also like to point out Espilan's excellent remix of the song. Please have a listen.
Espilan's Traps Remix

As always, Espilan delivers. I'm not sure... I think I like your second fix better, but this one's very good too, in a sort of different way.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 3 2012, 04:53 PM) View Post

Undersun

Hero goes to a place where he can save the world.

Undersun MP3 (Tindeck link)
Undersun MIDI
Undersun DB Submission

I've heard this one before... where have I heard it before? I know I've heard it before... either way, the MP3 version is new to me, so I'll critique that. The song is very good, one of my favorites from you. I really don't have any complaints at all.

QUOTE

Kizol

Hero's friend who is being mind controlled shows up.

Kizol MIDI

It's very... haunting sounding. A hint of depression there, some mystery... I like it. Perhaps a bit short, but I'm guessing it's supposed to be.

QUOTE

(Going off the MP3 version again here.) And now this one takes the cake. It's big, it's powerful, but at the same time, it's restrained. You really get the feeling this is a fight he doesn't want to fight, but he knows he has to. It's as tragic as it is intense. Superb work here.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 4 2012, 12:42 AM) View Post

Escape V1 Original sketch

While I like the melody here, it feels too chaotic. Too many instruments going at once, which is really distracting for me. It makes it sound kinda... scratchy, cluttered.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 4 2012, 12:42 AM) View Post

Escape V2 Fix 1

This one fixed the too many instruments problem, but it now sounds too relaxed, not powerful enough. I'm not sure if there's some middle ground you can find between the two versions, but that would be ideal.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 5 2012, 05:01 PM) View Post

Oh hey, I remember this one. The ocean sound effects seem kind of odd for a desert sounding song, but it fits, given the area of BoaB it was for. It's very nice, but gets a bit overbearing around 50 seconds. Very nice, nonetheless.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 5 2012, 05:01 PM) View Post

And then this one fixes all my complaints about the first without losing the feel of the song. Nice work.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 5 2012, 05:01 PM) View Post

I like the melody here, but the instruments just feel all wrong. They feel like they're fighting each other, rather than contributing to the song. The song itself is good, but the instruments detract from it.

QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 5 2012, 05:01 PM) View Post

This is a step in the right direction. Some of the instruments, the crystal one at the beginning in particular, still feel kind of off, but it's much better than the first one.

#14 Sheik

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Posted 07 August 2012 - 02:29 PM

Undersun really is very good. There's something about it that reminds me of older video games, but in a good way. (What I want to say is, I suppose, that it's not the kind of music you'd hear in Skyrim for example.)

#15 Colin

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Posted 07 August 2012 - 08:42 PM

Well, Undersun was my attempt at making a song like the Venus Lighthouse song from Golden Sun. At least, I drew inspiration from it.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=q5d1rrbNo3o

Anyway, thank you for the critiques, Russ. I've taken into consideration what you said about Blitzkrieg, and I experimented with something...

Blitz

I'm also taking into consideration what you said about Escape, and I will attempt to find a middle ground, as well as complete the MIDI.

Thank you very much for the critiques and compliments.

Edited by Strato, 07 August 2012 - 08:47 PM.



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