Hey all,
I made some new stuff… About 4 new songs. I have one more I will post later too…
If you haven’t noticed already, I always gravitate toward movie type music. especially the ones that sound “epic”.
-D
about 3 mins each
The best advice I could give you in regards to the composition. and what I feel these pieces lack most, is to spend a lot longer refining a simple melody and building upon that rather than reeling out piece after piece. John Williams said in an interview he’d spend hour after hour just finding a few simple notes that just work and it’s the best way to work really. If you can’t create a catchy melody, or at least a catchy rhythmic/riff melodic part then the pieces for most applications just won’t do anything for any listeners 
In terms of the midi stuff, even without the most up to date sample libraries, copy and pasting leaves things sounding robotic and inhuman, try to vary the velocities in a more random way (obviously having accents for the passage/sections/riffs in the correct places) and also the start and ends of notes if you didn’t do it already.
Aside from the lack of up to date sample libraries, the compositions sound too empty because of lacking instruments and orchestration standards when writing in these kinds of genres.
The music just doesn’t reflect the titles you give to them. I know you’re aiming at the genre in the titles, but you might wanna tone it down a little with the title names for now.
“Suspenseful Fast Epic Action Music instrumental Intense Dramatic song Film Movie Soundtracks” as the video title name is totally overkill considering the music doesn’t sound much like any of those descriptions. Just trying to help, don’t mean to be offensive ^^
Keep up the learning and good luck with your next pieces. 
dang man you owned me. OWNED!!! Now that my brave spirit is crushed, onto my reply(don’t worry I’m not offended at all):
-I don’t have the money to get more libraries at this time, unfortunately.
-What do you mean by saying " lacking instruments and orchestration standards when writing in these kinds of genres"? Do you mean to mix in more instruments?
I really like that advice about John Williams. Will definitely try that.
-I’m not just pumping music to pump it out. I actually put time into this stuff and enjoy doing it. Sometimes I make a few songs, sometimes not for even a few weeks. It’s whenever inspiration comes I would say.
-Also, honestly some of the music is just meant for background, so it really wouldn’t make sense to just listen for a song alone. Since I love movies so much, I imagine scene and just make a song to fit the background. that’s really the goal i was going for. That’s why some of these don’t even have any or much melody. I know in movie scenes music should not get in the way. Sometimes a melody really works, but sometimes it has to give more room to the scene.
-As for titles, it’s for the search terms that’s all. And which is why it is long. The actual title of the song is in the description or photo.
Hello -D,
I understand you are into film stuff, but YouTube is not the best
way to showcase audio.
FYI, the first link in your thread had an auto-roll advertisement at the head of the clip,
and an invitation to “click here to skip”, a poifek invitation for virus downloads and trojans, etc.
I’ve never seen such a thing on YouTube before…but then again I don’t get out much.
If these ads are now normal, forget what I just wrote.
Still, I just want to hear your music, not be irritated by commercials.
So, I bailed. Sorry.
Jet
Those adverts are normal these days, the skip button on Youtube is safe 
Hi, for the most part I agree with jonathan 5456…you really need some sort of tune area that catches the mind, something you can return to a few times here and there…and If sir dancelot comments I’m sure he will have something to say about lack of dynamics…he’s put me right a few times…onwards and upwards tho…keep on keepin on.Kevin
Hi mrd. I think you’re using the forum for exactly the right reasons. I think there are some nice enough ideas in there to warrant encouragement but, as others are pointing out and you are aware, you have a bit to go yet.
#1 - those drums are too dominant, you need to work on the overall dynamic, layer things a bit more.
#2 - I think this would benefit from some longer delays, say on the drums, pushing some of those sounds further back in the mix to distinguish better from the odd bits of melody that come through from eg the violins at time. Dynamics again.
#3 - initial strings not pizzicato enough or natural sounding (velocities), piano is the wrong sound (try cellos?), nice melody though, work on the expression facilities.
#4 - Sack the drums at the start.
How are you playing this stuff in? Sounds a bit ‘on grid’. Perhaps you should try using timebase - i.e. free-playing.
In general:
- The titles and images may work against your music if the listener doesn’t hear what they are telling you
- Work on dynamics, don’t bring everything in too early, decide what you want up front and push everything else back into the mix.
- Some of the sounds are a bit naff in a synthy kind of way but some are the wrong instrument completely. Try a few things out.
- Some of the parts could be thinned out and still be effective - the old ‘less is more’ cliche is a cliche for a good reason. Never be afraid of making the audience… wait for the next note.
- Good ideas will always shine through and if you’re really going for it then it will all end up being re-recorded with real instruments. You know if an idea is good when you catch yourself humming it.
All this is imho, of course. Keep at it.
really good advice from Crotchety there !!!
There’s some really good advice above… I’m thinking about it in terms of my own music!
I think good musical ideas are just the starting point. Then the hard work starts!