|
Post by skirmisher on Jan 12, 2020 17:37:07 GMT -5
So I finally decided to finish a project and put it out. This is very AD&D inspired and some of it was composed to be an ambient soundtrack for dungeon crawling. It's been a long time coming. The first time I composed something akin to this was 16 years ago I think. This sure feels like coming back home. I just took a very long break and did something else for a while. Finally being able to use the kind of sounds I was inspired by and the sounds I wanted to be inspired by back then. It feels great. Now that I actually completed this debut I'm probably going to be creating more. There's so many sounds, styles and feelings I want to explore along my world building. Hope you like it.
|
|
|
Post by crystallogic13 on Jan 18, 2020 7:41:07 GMT -5
Hey, I had repeated listens of this one!! It has some nice stuff indeed and I'd say the best of the tracks would be "Flight Across the Frigid Skies", very very nice atmospheres there, rusty sounding too.. "At the Gates of..." also should be checked out although I kinda felt it was way too early Burzum - ambient influenced, but still in the same vein so I guess fans will enjoy since many people go for that sound on some stuff they do.. Can't wait for your next stuff mate, keep it true!
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Jan 18, 2020 10:04:54 GMT -5
Hey, I had repeated listens of this one!! It has some nice stuff indeed and I'd say the best of the tracks would be "Flight Across the Frigid Skies", very very nice atmospheres there, rusty sounding too.. "At the Gates of..." also should be checked out although I kinda felt it was way too early Burzum - ambient influenced, but still in the same vein so I guess fans will enjoy since many people go for that sound on some stuff they do.. Can't wait for your next stuff mate, keep it true! Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate it and I'm glad you liked it. What you say about early Burzum is true and most likely not a coincidence. I'm a massive fan and it played a big part in my upbringing. I presume you noticed the Tomhet-sounds from there. I actually had a Casio CZ-1000 at hand which is the full size key version of the Casio CZ-101 Varg used on Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. After having specific sounds drilled so deep in your brain it tends to subconsciously make you gravitate towards that. The track has sounds from other sources too but I don't think any Burzum fan will miss those. I've started working on the sequel for this already. I've been struggling with having too much options when it comes to sounds to be honest so I decided to limit myself drastically and see how it'll work out. The next one will be 100% FM synth only. And not just any FM synth I can get my hands on but using the Yamaha DX7 engine exclusively. No samples, nothing else. We'll see how that turns out. I've found that when you have limits to what you can achieve technically you must force yourself to be creative and come up with unexpected things. So far I'm happy with how it's coming up. It's probably going to be a little bit more experimental than the debut in some ways but more cohesive too. Or maybe not? I don't know. We'll see where it takes me.
|
|
|
Post by crystallogic13 on Jan 18, 2020 15:58:50 GMT -5
Yes indeed mate Tomhet immediately came to mind indeed! I don't think it is an issue since most people are inspired more or less from the whole of 90s DS spectrum, which is always a good thing. Thanx for the info on your keyboard choices, appreciated too!!
|
|
|
Post by mithrandir on Jan 19, 2020 7:28:27 GMT -5
Great work! I Can't stop listening to 'Flight Across the Frigid Skies' and 'The Dark Lord Rises'.
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Jan 19, 2020 15:00:04 GMT -5
Great work! I Can't stop listening to 'Flight Across the Frigid Skies' and 'The Dark Lord Rises'. Thank you. I'm glad people are appreciating it because I debated whether or not I want to publish any of my stuff in the first place. I'm coming out of a period of doing music only for myself and not releasing it anywhere. I just haven't had any interest in doing that. Now I feel like releasing more. I'm 6 minutes in composing and arranging the next one and I feel very good about it so far. Cheers!
|
|
|
Post by mithrandir on Jan 19, 2020 17:05:01 GMT -5
It was a good decision to release it. Listened to it yesterday with my MERP (Middle-earth Role Playing) round while playing and your release created some great atmospheres. I would be pleased about a further release. Keep the great work going!
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Jan 19, 2020 19:16:27 GMT -5
It was a good decision to release it. Listened to it yesterday with my MERP (Middle-earth Role Playing) round while playing and your release created some great atmospheres. I would be pleased about a further release. Keep the great work going! Hey that's excellent to hear since while recording tracks 2 and 3 I specifically imagined them as role playing backdrops. I'm glad it works. I'm pretty confident there is more to come. I finished composing and arranging a big track today and I have a theme set and the main keyboard line recorded for the next one.
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Mar 11, 2020 16:16:03 GMT -5
THE NECROMANCER RETURNS!
The dark lord is back. The horizon is ridden with dust and bone as he marches his army of undead through the plains of Gildanea poisoning the land and leaving nothing behind. This is the story of Solevinn Hammerwill, the humble yet proud blacksmith from the village of Nifares, and his war against the necromancer's army. It is an epic tale of loss, remorse, vengeance, magic, war and most of all a spiritual struggle against the forces of evil. It is a wholehearted concept album little short of 30 minutes. I built the world and wrote the story beforehand and composed the album to be a soundtrack for the story. It is also a straight up sequel for the first album "Necromancer's Bane." Be sure to read the lyrics of the songs on Bandcamp since they contain the story backdrop for each track. Skirmisher - The Necromancer Returns
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Mar 11, 2020 16:18:41 GMT -5
I wanted to try and make an album 100% with FM synthesis and see how far I can push it. And not just any kind of FM but exclusively the Yamaha DX7 engine. The only instrument used on this album is the DX7 emulator plug-in Dexed. Some of the patches I have built from scratch, some of them I modified from patches I've found and some of them are presets used as such. Being FM synthesis it started going very video gamey right off the bat so I embraced what it was turning into and just went with what I felt. You can probably hear my video game influences if you played the same games I did.
I'm very proud of this one. Hopefully my concept also translates to you guys.
|
|
|
Post by MazeLord on Mar 11, 2020 19:26:44 GMT -5
I love this.
Some parts and elements remind me of Legend of Zelda, Rygar, Castlevania, among others - some evoke memories that I can't put my finger on. Warriors of the Eternal Sun and Sword of Vermillion come to mind. some is very sega 16 bit era remeniscent. The timpani sounding beat at parts of Solevinn Hammerwill reminds me of a certain cyborg which i thought was appropriate, especially with the associated foundry imagery. I think this is a very good release, as well as it's predecessor (of which i especially loved Frozen Tower). I'm glad you decided to begin publishing your music. "Wrath of the Woodsman" is awesome. I like the story. The whole thing. I will definitely listen to this while goldbox gaming.
|
|
|
Post by jorvvik on Mar 12, 2020 5:01:13 GMT -5
Ok so I thought I would go back to your first release (Necromancers Bane) and start there. I noted down some thoughts as I listened so here they are...
1 - Awesome atmosphere and love the sounds used. Minimal but so effective.
2 - The intro sound is nice, didnβt expect the saxophone type sound but it worked really nicely with the theme of the track.
3 - This one creates a bleak, dark atmosphere and the different ambient sounds added in at different parts adds to the eerie Vibe.
4 - Such a strong intro on this one and that carries on through the track. Love the use of the percussion and great melodies too. One of my favourites so far.
5 - I love the melodies in this one too. I think this one fits the title very well.
6 - The main sound used in this is absolutely gorgeous. Great end to the album and I think this is my favourite overall track.
I really enjoyed listening to this and am definitely going to add it to my collection. Itβs a really nice mix of tracks with different feels to each one but they all come together to make a great story.
Iβm gonna give your new release a listen this afternoon and I will give some thoughts on that soon.
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Mar 12, 2020 15:03:53 GMT -5
Thank you guys, I really appreciate this feedback.
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on May 4, 2020 1:59:44 GMT -5
So I ended up doing tapes of both releases. There are 20 copies of each and some of them are already sold. It's 5β¬ each plus shipping. Shipping from where I'm at can be very expensive but if you're interested in these, just contact me and I'll see what I can do. These tapes are completely DIY. Recorded, printed etc. by me. If any labels are interested in distributing my stuff, please contact me. Probably the smartest thing in this scenario would be for me to send the materials and then record, print etc. them up wherever they might be distributed from since shipping the actual tapes is incredibly expensive. These are not hand numbered, I do not wish for my music to be exclusive, limited or collectible and if there is demand, I might just do more of these, we'll see.
|
|
|
Post by skirmisher on Jan 23, 2024 10:27:50 GMT -5
The Necromaner trilogy is now complete. The last part of the trilogy is a lot shorter, also completely different. I wanted to go old school and recorded it on a 4-track tape recorder and one 90's synthesizer and some hardware compression, saturation, reverb etc. Here's Black Blood and Necromancy.
|
|