PA Songwriters'/Composers' Association

If there's an attachment function, I don't know anything about it. If you don't want to post the publicly online, you can post them privately on soundcloud and post the secret link here.

There's another chorus at the end so I might do a slightly altered version to make the theme feel more firmly established. This will be the first song on an EP and is kind of one-sided because I want to explore the flip side of the sentiment on the second song. Especially since this song has very limited lyrical space and the next song has a lot of real estate. This is a statement of goal and the second song will be a statement of doubt.

There are definitely undertones from the Book of Genesis, though I was thinking specifically of the division of sky and sea. The theme is definitely wanting to be in touch with the real world, being caught up in daydreams and depressions.

Here's an updated version of Solid Ground:

Edited by Polymorphia - April 27 2015 at 21:00

^Tried it, it's really interesting and I'm loving that hammond sound. Yet it worked a little bad on my computer, but maybe it's just me. Also I wasn't able to download the song either on wma or mp3.

Edited by Littlecarrots - March 02 2015 at 15:39

I eventually gave up on the home recording and started going to a studio - I didn't have time to become a recording expert in addition to playing the music itself.  The down side to that of course is expense.  It's taken me a long time and a chunk of my income to get my music to where it is now.  Some people are naturals at putting this all together in their own homes, but I'm not.

And even now, there are compromises.  There are parts that should really be played, for example, by a real violin or cello but I have MIDI in there instead.

Keep writing - you are obviously passionate about this and it shows.

^Hey  floflo! Glad you're back. :)   Cool, I got a sense that there was something behind it, when I do a net search for Vango book covers come up, is this one of them?

When I've been inspired in the past to write music based on a book it's never really been a narrative of the events in the book, more of a series of feelings based on it, is that how it is here?

I'd love to hear a real-instrument version of this.  I can identify the Gentle Giant and Pink Floyd influences in this now that you mention them, especially Gentle Giant.  But this definitely has a quality of its own.  I agree that Vango II is more mature, but there are parts of the first one that are really good.  It takes time and practice to become consistent, I've been writing music for about two decades and I'm still not there.  I look back at older music and realize how "kiddish" it is.  But I also find that as I get older I see ways to change earlier songs to make them better.

Have some feedback on more of your music, Littlecarrots.  Didn't listen to it all yet, was practicing guitar for a long time.   Here you go so far:

#11 (Little carrots) – I would describe this as “sweet.”  I’d love to hear this with more realistic MIDI sounds or, even better, a real orchestra.  We all can hope, right?

#4 (Little carrots) – I feel like I’m listening to a soundtrack here.  It’s nice music, easy to listen to.

#6 – Wow, this forcefully reminded me of some of the music from an old video game called Legend of Dragoon.  I loved that soundtrack.  And as this progressed it became simply beautiful.  I don’t think you should change anything about this.  It feels as if it’s telling a wonderful, positive story.  This composition did what all my favorite music does: it took me on a musical journey that was so compelling I couldn’t help but follow, and want to take the journey again.

#5 – A nifty creepy interlude.

StringHead Pts 1 – 7 : I like how this one flows from one theme into another seamlessly.  This one is more interesting for me on an intellectual level rather than having emotionally caught me up (like #6 did).  However, I think this has great potential, I would like to hear this performed, not entirely, but partially by human beings to add more expression to the textures, which currently don’t vary much within each theme.  Whenever there are electronic drums, I tend to find them lacking, and the ones toward the end of this seem lackluster to me.  I’d prefer a human performer.  There are probably many people who don’t mind, though.

Benjy – Creepy, it reminds me of some stuff from Final Fantasy 6 again.  Definitely could be video game music.  One of those tracks that I would like in a game but would probably skip if it was on a CD I owned. 

By the way - what happened on #6 doesn't happen often.  It takes something special for me to really get lost in it.

Edited by Star_Song_Age_Less - February 25 2015 at 00:54

^Yeah, me too.  I grew up playing video games almost as often as I listened to music.  When I was much younger, friends used to tell me that my music sounded like it came from such-and-such video game. It was fine with me, I liked it.  It made me ridiculously happy when Yes wrote "Homeworld" for a video game.  I felt irrationally validated.

I've never used Melody Assistant but I agree being able to write on a staff is convenient.  I don't mind the typical MIDI interfaces, though.  I think I'm just used to looking at the MIDI lines in Cubase now.  A version of it came with a keyboard I bought and I've been using that since then to record and mix, but I'm no great hand at mixing, either.  I doubt that will ever be my strong suit.

I would like to check your other stuff out - I thought your playlist jumped to someone else's music, I'll take another look!

^I enjoyed your composition, Littlecarrots.  I like that you employed the random number generator idea in a way that would still leave you with some creative freedom - the result was interesting!  I'd like to hear more.  What program are you using to generate the sounds themselves?

Agreed that Vango II could easily be a video game soundtrack, but oddly your composition reminded me much more of video game stuff than Vango II did.  There were definitely some moments when I felt like I was on my way to see Kefka in his tower. :)  (Love FF6).

floflo79, I just finished listening to Vango II (first part) for the second time.  I haven't gotten to the others yet.  I have basically the same impression of this as I did for Vango on your soundcloud, which is that I'd much rather hear it done with physical instruments.  For me, pure electronics are incredibly useful to do things that can't be done with real instruments (for the most part), but when taking the place of a guitar or bass and just doing what those would have been doing, something always seems to be missing.

That said, you have a lot of interesting composition ideas but they all seem to be flowing the same way.  That may be intentional, as these are all part of what seems to be an instrumental concept album.  But I'd like to hear you step outside of your comfort zone and do something really wild since you have the electronic tools at your disposal.  It sounds like you're doing this all with MIDI - is that so?  I'd love to hear what you could do with a synth...

I hope you're on sometime soon so we can converse. :)  I feel like I'm talking your ear off, here.