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Swashbuckling music!

jamieboo

HoO Team Member
Music and SFX
Provisional
Hello folks

Posted this here some years ago, but there seems to have been much progress with the game since then!
This thing I wrote is kind of an old-school swashbuckling piece.
Might be useful in some of your videos etc? Let me know.

Fair Winds!

Moving forward I may be up for writing some more pieces specifically for the game, my schedule is a bit up in the air at the moment but things should be calming down in the coming months.
Let me know if any of this is of interest! :)

Thanks!
 
That truly sounds absolutely glorious!
Totally old-fashioned pirate music, which is for certain my favourite type of pirate music.
So you may consider me VERY interested.

@Flannery is in charge of music on Hearts of Oak and I'm sure he'll drop by soon.
Maybe he could somehow even help you update your sample libraries.
It does sound a bit "synth-ey" in spots, which is a bit of a shame, but I doubt that would be easily addressed.

In any case, good job on it indeed! :bow
 
Thanks very much Pieter

Yes, old-fashioned, but hopefully not in a bad way!
I'm just not really a fan of the modern Zimmer style and it's four-chord-ostinato-loopiness! ;) I think good pirate music should match the churning protean swells of the ocean itself! (Hehe, what a wanky thing to say!)
So I prefer composers like Williams and Goldsmith (and Korngold, if speaking of legendary pirate scores). And of course classical Masters like Stravinsky, Holst, Debussy and Vaughan Williams.
Anyway, thanks for having a listen! Now I'm going to go and have a cornish pasty for I am hungry.

Jamie
 
Yes, old-fashioned, but hopefully not in a bad way!
Definitely NOT a bad way. I like old-fashioned. :cheeky

I'm just not really a fan of the modern Zimmer style and it's four-chord-ostinato-loopiness! ;)
When I first heard the music for PotC, I really, really liked it and thought it was actually quite good.
This despite me being a MASSIVE John Williams fan, to the point of being a member of JWFan.com . :cheeky
Then I heard Cutthroat Island by John Debney and that set me straight again. If you aren't familiar with that, listen to it immediately!

When we added new music to our PotC: New Horizons modpack, logically the PotC film main theme should have been added to the main menu.
But since I am actually in charge, I put in the Cutthroat Island main theme instead. So much better! :whipa
 
Yeah, when I first saw PotC the music was the first thing I hated about it! ;) Ah well, different strokes...
I know Debney's Cutthroat Island very well - a beautiful, fun score! And your using it for the games's main theme is a testament to your excellent judgement! ;)
Quite a brave decision though as I'm sure it baffled expectations!
 
Yeah, when I first saw PotC the music was the first thing I hated about it! ;) Ah well, different strokes...
I don't like it myself much anymore either and now I wished Alan Silvestri had been allowed to do it, like he was meant to.

Quite a brave decision though as I'm sure it baffled expectations!
:rofl

Actually, I don't remember hearing any negative feedback on it.
Rather, some people wanted to know what it was as apparently they quite liked it. And for good reason! :woot

Some people did complain about me adding the "Charting the Course" track as "Sailing music" in the mod though.
Apparently it is "too epic and dramatic". But I don't care, because it fits so well!

I know Debney's Cutthroat Island very well - a beautiful, fun score!
Do you have the extended version? That's a must, really. The 18-minute final Battle track is truly awesome.

I've made it one of my life tasks to find as much "seafaring movie/game music" as I possibly can.
So I've got a very wide range of it by now. If you're curious about that, let me know and I can send you some details. :doff
 
Gah! A painful subject! I lent my extended version to someone years ago - and now it's been lost to the caprice of friend-lend-turbulence! So I just have my standard version. :(
Och well.
I really enjoyed the music to the PotC and AoP games, some nice creative complexity going on in some of the tracks.
As for film soundtracks, all the old Korngold scores are classics. Much of Williams' work has a swashbuckling spirit if not actually set on the high seas. And even Goldsmith's majestic first Star Trek movie score had the producers worried as to them it conjured up images of the Age of Sail rather than starships!
There's lots out there!
 
Gah! A painful subject! I lent my extended version to someone years ago - and now it's been lost to the caprice of friend-lend-turbulence! So I just have my standard version. :(
Care for some MP3s?

I really enjoyed the music to the PotC and AoP games, some nice creative complexity going on in some of the tracks.
Yuri Poteyenko who composed the music for both games also did the music for Sea Dogs (possibly the best of the three) and recently also a Russian film called "Fort Ross" which is quite piratey.
I bought those CDs from Russia last year. Good stuff. :yes

Much of Williams' work has a swashbuckling spirit if not actually set on the high seas.
Don't forget about Hook! And also The Adventures of Tintin has a proper sea battle in it.

And even Goldsmith's majestic first Star Trek movie score had the producers worried as to them it conjured up images of the Age of Sail rather than starships!
Have you heard the most recent complete release of that one? There are some alternates on it that sound even more seafaring.

Apparently James Horner was instructed for The Wrath of Khan to deliberately make it nautical-sounding.
 
Very kind of you sir! But no, I reckon I can still get my copy back - in fact I had forgotten about it til you mentioned it. I might fire off an email to my friend and threaten them with unpredictable broccoli-based violence unless they return it.
Exactly, Hook is great! I was slightly disappointed in Tintin though. Jaws has some great seafaring music too. And yeah, I have the recent Star Trek Motion Picture release. Magnificent music! Horner's subsequent scores were lovely but not quite in the same league.

I was just listening to Captain Blood this morning. Old and cheesey, but so fun. And Korngold's orchestrations are so incredibly dense, it's fascinating to pick them apart.

But I don't want to derail my own thread further! This is about promoting ME!
MEEEEEEEE!!!!

;)
 
Hello @jamieboo

What an exciting and thrilling score! :)
I (as Pieter) am definitely interested in having this in HoO.

What kind of hardware/software equipment is it recorded on?
All though I think the composition is excellent - I too share Pieters opinion about the sample quality of the music.
The samples does not quite do the composition the justice it deserves....
I know how hard it is to get woodwind, brass, flutes and strings to sound very good :fiddleand how expensive it is to acquire them.

But I feel that perhaps baking it in a little more reverb just to add the feel of a bigger room or hall might help blur the digital feel of it a bit.
Other than that its very well mixed and balanced in my opinion.

Are you interested in producing any more music for the project or is this the piece the only you are interested in contributing with?
 
Thanks very much Flannery!

I very recently built a new machine with my music in mind:
i7 5820k, 32gb RAM, 4xSamsung Evo 500gb SSDs, Steinberg UR22 (and 980ti gpu - but not so relevant to audio)
Cubase Pro 8, EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Diamond, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Era II Medieval Legends, QL Spaces for reverb.
And I just bought EastWest's Voices of Passion and Gypsy in Amazon.uk's ridiculous recent special offer - Got 'em both for £55! Absurd!

That is my system now, but I wrote 'Fair Winds' a few years ago at time when I only had EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum and Cubase 5 and a less powerful machine. And at the time I wrote it I was in talks with an orchestra and it was likely going to be performed - but then that probability sadly collapsed.
To be honest I don't know if I still have the Cubase file for the piece but I suppose I could add a subtle overall reverb to the mp3/wav.

I would be interesting in writing some more for the project, it's just a question of scheduling. I've just got a flurry of acting (my main job) and voice work coming up, so that's occupying my time at present.
What kind of time frame are you needing music at the moment?

Anyway, thanks for the interest! :) Do have a listen to the other stuff on my Soundcloud page!
 
Very nice @jamieboo

We have almost identical rig, hardware and software! :cheers

I have 13 of the major EWQL sample banks.

It truly is a shame that this piece was not done with your upgraded equipment - as I am sure it would transform from its current "awesomeness" to simply being EPIC :aar.

But if you don't want to, or can't find the old files to work on it again - I am sure that playing a little with the environment aspects of it (reverb, EQ and perhaps some subtle delays) could make it sound less digital.

But either way I am happy to use it.

And should you want to create more, I am certainly not going to stop you :wp:pirates
 
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I would be interesting in writing some more for the project, it's just a question of scheduling. I've just got a flurry of acting (my main job) and voice work coming up, so that's occupying my time at present.
What kind of time frame are you needing music at the moment?
There is no real pressure.
Hearts of Oak is a freelance project, so whenever you feel like composing something new is fine.
It is up to you and we're happy with whatever you like to contribute. :doff
 
What he said xD:doff

The game itself will still not be finished for a long time - so no rush at all.

And as long as the music is either cinematic with folk/classical elements from the era - or flat out time correct trad/folk/classical (self composed or old material from the time) - we will welcome it all and put it to good use ;)
 
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