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Post by windgeist on Apr 18, 2020 13:12:43 GMT -5
Hello Dungeon Synth Community!
I am a fan of the Mortiis Era 1 stuff and Burzum's early electronic works for quite a long time, but just realized that Dungeon Synth is a genre of it's own a few weeks ago. Inspired by some of the great works I discovered since then, I decided to try composing some music myself. After a lot of trial and error and some reading about music theory I managed to produce a short song that is worth sharing (al least I hope so - It's still no masterpiece for sure) and would like to have some feedback.
The song was composed using LMMS and mastered with Audacity.
I'm not sure where to go from here. Maybe I will try to compose a few more songes in an similar style and put a short album/EP together or I will leave it as is and experiment a bit more to find my very own style.
I would be happy about any constructive input.
P.S.: I hope this is the right sub-forum for this post. I think this project is in an bit early state for the chambers.
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Post by thedungeonking on Apr 19, 2020 8:49:44 GMT -5
I think this track goes in more dark ambient-like zone,i realy like the melody, but i think little bit of lo-fi mastering will make this even better.
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Post by windgeist on Apr 19, 2020 12:36:31 GMT -5
I think I got what you mean. The whole song really is a bit like Dark Ambient, but I think you can't draw a strict line between both genres anyway.
I loaded the song into audacity again and tried to remaster it.
Now the flutes moved a bit more in the background and got a little echo effect as well as a slow fade in when they kick in first. The track with the melody got its bass boosted a little and also is a bit less loud now. Furthermore it got a more gentle fade out.
Finally the Silver Bell sound at the end of the song was splited into two tracks. One is still normal the other one is reverted and turned much more silent, so it is mostly 'hidden' below the first track but adds a few creepy vibes at the end.
All in all the song sounds even more ambient-like now but also invokes a stronger feeling of beeing in a giant cave full of nordic dwarfs forging mysterious items (what is the whole idea behind the song ).
I uploaded the remastered version here. Please let me know what you are thinking.
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Post by underking on Apr 19, 2020 15:44:09 GMT -5
The changes you made suited the song. I think it sounds more dark and dungeonlike than a lot of music released as dungeon synth.
I would try playing the opening two note melody 4 times before the drums join in instead of 3 like you do now. You wrote that this is your first released song ever. Did you make any music before? Playing/looping riffs and melodies in even numbers(4,8,12,16 etc) is a standard patern in popular music. It might not be right to stray away from that rule this early in the song as it is just starting out and is bulding up. I would also try to extend the part with drums and the flute melody that now ends in a pause at the one minute mark with 4 times. I think the song sounds like it is moving on a bit quickly after the flute reaches full volume. The rest of the songs flows nicely.
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Post by thedungeonking on Apr 19, 2020 23:24:04 GMT -5
Yes, now it's gets more atmospheric, i feel this claustrophobic ambience you talking about. It will be interesting to see where it leads you in your music later.
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Post by windgeist on Apr 23, 2020 16:15:17 GMT -5
Thank you very much for the input!
I re-arranged the song. I've tried to avoid uneven numbers of loops, like underking recommented. This does a lot for the song. Starting and end of single tracks sounds much better now, even without fade in/out effects. I also extended the middle part a bit, so the song is 90s longer now. I consider this track complete now and will move on making more music. Maybe I'll have enough material for the release of a EP soon.
You can hear the final song here. I'm looking foreward for your feedback.
underking: No I just started making music. What I produced before was simply not good enough to share it to other people. The current song is no masterpice as well, but it is kind of a milestone for me. I hope I'll be able to compose much better stuff someday.
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Post by Niair de Nasqda on Apr 24, 2020 17:57:09 GMT -5
Personally I prefer the second version. The last one sounds too lo-fi and lacking bass frequencies for me. But then, that's a matter of tastes. I also think the second one is the one that captures better the dungeon feel.
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Post by windgeist on May 2, 2020 7:13:07 GMT -5
Thank you for the feedback so far! I took a few steps back and listened to the song again. Niair de Nasqda is right. The last mix has a lag of bass and doesn't sound very cave-like because of this. I've changed this and updated the song. Furthermore I've finished a second song I'm kinda proud of. It makes use of some field recordings. It adds some nice dynamic to the song. The idea was walking over a field full of ruins of an ancient village, that was destroyed during a battle in long forgotten times, while a thunderstorm approaches from far... At least this are the images I had in my head...
Feedback is like ever highly welcome.
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Post by underking on May 6, 2020 16:18:07 GMT -5
I like the new track! Tastefull atmosphere and melodies.
I might agree on that the second version of Β«The Forges..Β» is the best. New one seems a bit tamed. And some of the changes introduced seem a bit strange (extended quiet midle part, and the great bell melody at the end gelled better with the progression on v2)
Let your creativity lead the way. Do not be afraid of breaking the rule of playing loops/bars/measures/riffs in even numbers if it turn out great.
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Post by windgeist on May 9, 2020 2:48:07 GMT -5
Thank you a lot for your kind and helpful feedback!
I think "Forges of Svartalfheim" has some potential but doesn't come to unleash it. I didn't know anything about my DAW and hadn't found a proper workflow when I was making this. I tried to do things while mixing and mastering the song, that already should have been done while composing it.
Now I know just a little more, but at least I've emerged some kind of workflow. I think I'll just look over this song one more time.
In the meanwhile I've also finished one more song and started working on another. But I won't release them now but together with the two from here as an first album.
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