[Closed] Minecraft Ace Attorney: The Official Soundtrack

[UltrawaveStudios]

Minecraft Ace Attorney for Ace Attorney Online has been cancelled. However, I am working on the game for PyWright.
Go check it out on the Court Records forums when the thread is posted!
-UltrawaveStudios

[DeeYo]

Sigh... As an amateur composer myself, will you allow me to give some (hopefully constructive) criticism?
(Note: at the time of writing, only the two CE themes are up.)

Spoiler : Do not read if you aren't ready for criticism :

Honestly, I'd go crazy if that was what I had to listen to during a cross-examination.
First off: CEs usually have a distinct melody. That means you don't add notes to every single 8th or so. That makes the whole song 1) pretty expectable and 2) pretty boring. The bass putting in notes at completely regular intervals don't help either.
Solution: Try playing with rhythms.
(1.5: The main goal of a CE theme is to increase tension. You can achieve this by omission [see the rhythm of AA1] or by volume changes. Or some other methods, possibly.)
Hint: Try listening to original CE soundtracks, or even fan-made ones. Emulate the rhythm of the melody.
Second: The instruments. Piano, bass and drums. ...Which don't really add to the originality. Nor do they give that AA feel, but I can excuse that since you may not go for the AA feel.
Solution: Add more and different instruments.
Hint: You may go for the orchestral feel with strings and less drums, or the Danielinhoni feel by mixing synthetic and orchestral sounds. Also in AA CE themes I've never heard a piano playing the melody.
This is the point where I grow tired of having to write a critique so I will just throw everything at you.
An Allegro theme was the perfect opportunity to insert an interlude in a different key, so as to break the monotonity. If you're going to repeat the song all over again, don't do it for any other reason than smooth looping. Why does the piano play the 8th notes when you have a drumset or a bass that could do that? What composing tool do you use? Some variation with the drums, please. Why is the whole thing written in a major key? A testimony isn't a happy thing.

[E.D.Revolution]

I have to agree with DeeYo. These two CE themes don't feel like CE themes, and they're pretty forgettable. I'll tell you this much: you're going to need more than 2 instruments to compose these themes. In the real games, there's as many as 16 channels per track, meaning 16 different instruments. I would suggest you look for soundfonts so that it doesn't sound so generic and boring.

[UltrawaveStudios]

Second: The instruments. Piano, bass and drums. ...Which don't really add to the originality. Nor do they give that AA feel, but I can excuse that since you may not go for the AA feel.[/b]

Well, you can blame Minecraft Note Block Studio for that. It only has the instruments that Minecraft has (piano/harp, bass, snare drum, bass drum, clicks), so it might seem a little bit boring. Although I DID see an "Add instrument" option, so I'll see what I can do there.

[DeeYo]

Going for the Minecraft feel in everything may be harmful. You'd do better by copying Minecraft songs' /atmosphere/ and not their /instruments/. (and by Minecraft songs, I mean the ambient music.)

Edit: I quickly installed Minecraft Note Block Studio and checked out its capabilities. It's not much. Still, I recreated AA1's CE theme under 2 minutes just to show that composition matters. (Of course, not even the best composition could go over "decent" with this composing tool.)
If you still want to compose the soundtrack using this tool, I have no qualms about it. Just make sure that your compositions are adequate.

[UltrawaveStudios]

UPDATE: Okay everyone, I'm doing the request thing again (Although a little differently). Read the first paragraph on the main post again to see what to do. Thank you, and I hope to see some submissions soon.

[Phantom]

Dana, the reason Zinle's stuff is good is because of his focus on composing music that matches close to what you can hear in the actual AA games. But in order to truly accomplish that, he's got to have the appropriate soundfonts that includes instruments VERY similar to the actual AA games.

Why do I know this? Because I, Phantom, supplied him the actual soundfont from the games. You hear AA-instruments a bunch in the OST he posted up for that fangame

I'll have to agree with DeeYo that if you stick with the Minecraft composing tool or w/e, you're going to be VERY limited in how you compose your music.

It's okay to break away from the standards set by a game sometimes (in this case, the music of AA is VERY important due to the way a visual novel works, and the minecraft versions you posted up do not reflect anything close to AA).

This is just something to consider

[1230james]

Something bothers me about that CE music.

Whenever I hear Moderate/Moderato soundtracks, it helps me think.
This does the opposite.

Maybe it's just the instruments used, I don't know.
All I do know is that I can't imagine myself trying to focus while listening to that.

I'm not saying it's terrible, I'm just saying it needs a little extra work.

(And I think a brilliant idea hit me for Cornered music. )


And a side comment about the logo.
You just pulled off an infinite loop for the logo, didn't you?
The guy holds a CD.
That CD has a guy holding the same CD.
And that CD has another guy holding the same CD.
And THAT CD probably has a guy holding the same CD...
Etc.

[UltrawaveStudios]

Whenever I hear Moderate/Moderato soundtracks, it helps me think.
This does the opposite.

Well, that's why I put it up as a draft for others to expand and improve on.

(And I think a brilliant idea hit me for Cornered music. )

Great! Can't wait to hear it then!

And a side comment about the logo.
You just pulled off an infinite loop for the logo, didn't you?
The guy holds a CD.
That CD has a guy holding the same CD.
And that CD has another guy holding the same CD.
And THAT CD probably has a guy holding the same CD...
Etc.

^_^ Yep

[1230james]

My Cornered attempt kind up screwed up and it turned itself into more of an Objection theme.

Mind if I submit it as that instead? (once I'm finished, of course )

[UltrawaveStudios]

My Cornered attempt kind up screwed up and it turned itself into more of an Objection theme.

Mind if I submit it as that instead? (once I'm finished, of course )

Go right ahead.

[V3R]

What do people generally use to make soundtracks for the editor?

[UltrawaveStudios]

What do people generally use to make soundtracks for the editor?

Whatever they like to use. :/

[Lind]

What do people generally use to make soundtracks for the editor?

Whatever they like to use. :/

I'm pretty sure they were asking for examples.

[Nearavex]

FL Studio is definitely one of the common tools, for all I know.