[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] At Safe Haven

Here goes another one for scourge! :) It's a calmer, backgroundish music for wandering around the towns of the game. It's got 2 main musical ideas, and is working with a few major sections of the symphonic orchestra, mostly strings, the Harp and some brass. Good for chilling out! :) Meanwhile my composed body of music for scourge has reached 45 minutes. I guess a full album should be released soon somehow to make it easier to listen to the whole thing.

Check here: Link.

[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] Tears of Victory - outro

Next one I'd like to share with you is called Tears of Victory - it's the outro for s.c.o.u.r.g.e, playing after the final mission. It's like a 'new, peaceful day has come' thing, featuring orchestral elements along with the choir.

Check it here: Link.

[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] Infernal Dance - battle

So here is the final showdown music! I won't give you spoilers regarding the game, but I can tell you that it shows that the final act is containing great powers that are not in favor of the player! :)

This piece is constituted of four different parts, the introduction, the quick confrontation 'dance-like' part, a part for the hope of victory and one for the uncertainty, doubts and fears! It's going through most of the orchestral sections, contains a powerful drumkit and symphonic choirs too. It's rather long, as the final act takes a rather long time to accomplish as well.

So here it is: Link.

Interested project: S.C.O.U.R.G.E

Donated so far: $0.

[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] Heroes of Lesser Renown - main theme

I'm still working on providing music for the opensource game S.C.O.U.R.G.E., and this time I want to share with you the latest advance. It's an epic main theme planned to be used in the game's main menu.

It's not too long around 2 minutes, but packed with a lot of impulsive use of most of the orchestral sections and choir as well. Ranging from the percussion, the strings through heavy use of the brasswind section to the woodwinds. The choir is used to give it an even bigger accent and monumentality. It features a bit calmer part as well framed by the two more stressed 'gallop'. I hope it'll benefit the game as much as I like this one. :)

Check it here: Link.

[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] Swift Strike - combat

Let me show you the next track in the chain of Scourge music cues! Replacing the old looping combat music of Scourge gave the idea to pull in some variety - after all the combat is one of the most important parts in this fantasy RPG! So a new chaotic combat track has been born, with a lot of tension/disharmony/chromaticism and atonality, and some more balanced speed than in the previous quick paced one.

It consists of 2 major ideas plus some chaotic passing parts to give the basic urgent feeling. I have used strings and brass at start and later added some woodwinds (clarinets and contrabassoon) for a better orchestral sound and variety. Also a set of very heavy drums is used. One of the major ideas is a quite fast, impulsive and combatant part, while the other is something like the battle dance of a mad but pitiable being somehow dragged into the flowing of the story.

Have a listen: Link.

Interested project: S.C.O.U.R.G.E

[s.c.o.u.r.g.e] Till Last Blood - combat

As some of you might already know through the planet.freegamedev.net, I've recently came up with the idea to help with music in a more direct way, this time a project with a rather respectful development history, a project that is quite close to the genre I like best to create music for. It's 'S.C.O.U.R.G.E - heroes of lesser renown' an exciting opensource 3D fantasy RPG. As a first step in a row I created a new impulsive combat track for its combat mode.

The track is most notably played by the brass section with a heavy timpani rhythm, and later on in this short piece the piccolo flute comes in to accompany the quickly marching theme. It's already committed into SVN of the game.

You can have a listen here: Link.

Interested project: S.C.O.U.R.G.E

Donated so far: $0.

[Action] Tainted Vision - background

The next piece is now a more edible one probably than the previous. It's a bit backgroundish in its nature. It could fit probably an adventure or an exploratory game as well. Consists of two major parts, one slower and one more impulsive. I've used some additional drumkit to have a good rhythm to accompany the usual symphonic orchestra instruments. For me the mood of it is the mood of a not so naive and young Hero.

Have a listen here: Link.
If you'd like to use it, comment here and we can discuss.
PS: The good news is that the first track (Rolling Militia) published on this blog now has an interested project! I'm glad to see that there's some practical use of my music going on. :)

[Introspective] Moments In Discord

I'm not quite sure if this one will ever have any practical use. Anyway the next piece to be published is here. A rather disharmonic, and unkind listening probably, with some eventual more pleasing harmonies appearing abruptly. I have used some additional non-symphonic drums to spice it up a really little bit. Probably it could be used for some kind of non-thematic game after all.

Check out here: Link.

[Fantasy] Conquerers of Stoneheart Keep - main theme

The next musical track in the pipe is a proposal for a main theme of an arbitrary fantasy themed game, probably an adventure, an RPG or a strategy? I can't exactly tell, but it's up to you, people to decide. If you know a project or are a member of a project that could use it, don't hesitate to comment here so we can discuss it.

The music consists of 3 quite easily distinguishable but short parts: a quick starting with greater impulse to push things onward to a medium paced second part that's more for painting a picture of a troublesome situation, where the listener is facing the foreboding (but not overpowering) feeling of the now; and then comes the third part, medium slowly building up the possibility of the solution with a quite happy ending. I've titled if 'Conquerers of Stoneheart Keep', as I found it fitting for setting up the theme of such an adventure where the brave ones enter and liberate such a dangerous place. :)

A lot of sections of the symphonic orchestra is used, ranging from strings, percussion, brass to woodwinds and choir. The choir was the last layer that I've added. Probably the final product is a bit less easy to follow, not too 'transparent' at parts, as one seasoned musician told me, but I hope it's still enjoyable.

So if you think you can find use of it, or want to give some criticism, don't hesitate to comment here! :)

Here you go, have a listen: Link.

Donations needed for liberation to CC-BY-SA: $80
Donated till now: $0 (no donation button yet, as till now there's no interested project)

[Fantasy] Sand Swept Sight

The next piece I'd like to share with you is a middle easternish piece, kind of backgroundish, probably fitting for a desert setting, a village or walking in the sand. One friend told me it would fit well with the Prince of Persia settings probably.

Contains lots of strings and woodwinds, bassdrum and bells with a few musical ideas, some of them repeating. After tailoring together the ideas I've been putting some energy to give it a good flowing and dynamism. These factors and experimenting with progressions of harmonies are my primary focus at these times as well as learning to use the different articulations. In this piece, especially the strings got some care regarding articulations. It took me around 9 hours in total.

Okay, so here it goes: Link.

If you would like to use it or give some (highly appreciated) critique, drop a comment! :)

[Fantasy] Cavalry Untamed

Here goes a new piece of music. This time it's a music depicting some of the images of the life of a free cavalry roaming in their homeland fighting off the enemies of their people. It's supposed to depict a proud and fearless people with freedom in their heart with a touch of bitter wisdom. Consists of a lot of brasswind section again with timpani and cymbal and strings as well. A main role is given to the piccolo flute, in some harsh and some more harmonic parts as well. It contains a medium tight starting, then a rather quick charge part that returns at the end and one lyrical part.

You can have a listen here: Link. If your project is interested, drop here a comment, and we can discuss the details.

[Fantasy] Rolling Militia - warmarch

Let me share with you the first piece of music of the ones that I've created since starting this blog. I'm still quite busy with producing some other pieces, currently with no target project on mind, but this was the first one that rolled out of my production line.

It's kind of a march for a massive emotionless, dark army rolling by on the warpath somewhere. I had started this piece with the intention of creating a warmarch with no special feeling on my mind, but upon placing the first root notes of the later appearing harmonies in the first phrase it felt like echoes of a massive, faceless warmachine, and thus I pushed all the other parts into that direction, when I was building the brasswind parts upon the strings. After that came the idea of a quicker climax part to end in a high pitch final tone, and then added some variation of four parth chords built upon the three part chords - that together with the quicker ending gave an interesting rise of tension for me. Then came some tweaking of expressions here and there.

As I've already mentioned this one has no target project at the moment, so I've released only at SoundClick.com with no free licensing for now. If you're interested in using it in some way in your FLOSS game project, drop some comment here, we can discuss it, and I can release it under a permissive license (see first post of blog about details). If you've any other comments the same applies - comment here. :)

Ok, I stop talkin', you may have a listen now: Link.

Donations related to this track can be done with the following button:

This track will be licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 when donations reach $60.
So far $20 were donated.
Detailed: $20 by kripken.

Project interested: Intensity Engine by kripken.

Here I go again!

So here I go starting a new experiment - an experiment to widen my scope from a developer to a composer/developer; to turn my creative energies related to music into productivity; to create something musically useful for open source projects that might be in need of it. The primary target (and for the first time the only target) is the genre of classical music - this is what at the moment mostly interests me and this is what I have means of composition for.

I've already started to tread on this path, tho' at first only related to my own project (jClassicRPG) when I created a bunch of tracks (background music and battle music) for it. But now I would like to learn to help and actually help out other free/libre open source projects as well.

The plan for lifecylce is the following:

1. When eventually there's a request for some track and I think I'm up to that task, I will try to do my best to create it (in my hobbyist free time, so there's no deadline). If and when it's ready and the requester finds it suitable, I'll release the cue originally under a free permissive but non commercial license (CC-BY-SA-NC).
2. Then a second phase is started till the donations related to the given cue reach a previously calculated amount when I will release them under a commercially permissive new license (CC-BY-SA).
   

This way the tracks can be incorporated into the projects freely when they are ready (with a free but non-commercial license), and still there's a way for the people who eventually enjoy the piece (within the game or without) to show some financial gratitude toward the author through donation. And when donations reach limit the project and all the people will get a higher level of freedom in using the given track - for example in the freedomdefined.org related area of software/media distribution where NonCommercial licenses are considered an obstacle, (like debian Linux distro etc., I guess you know it better than me ;)). The Donations will be kept track of here on the blog so people can check how things are going at a given moment. Donations are sent through paypal, with a Donation button specially added for the given track, each track having a separate button to let me follow which one received it.

Don't forget that this all is a form of showing gratitude, not paying for something! I consider releasing the tracks under CC-BY-SA-NC license a fully formulated gift for a project and the people who listen to it. If a response similar in nature (a gift in form of donations) reassures me that I have created something good I will go further in the licensing to show my gratitude towards the community of the free open-source world.

By now reading all this you probably got why I have named this blog Music Liberation Experiment and musicliberated. So this was my first post, to define things - probably a bit vaguely, since I will have to work out a way to track request/works done, donations and such. I will do so, and I will keep you updated with new things, new tracks and all the related things.

Feel free to comment about this all!

PS.: I can produce oggs or flac files and midis of the sequences as well - though I have no way to store a large quantity of files on the web at the moment, so that would be up to the project who needs it. Anyway I will upload the tracks to jamendo or another good site for free music sharing.