Xerol
Emperor
By this I mean any kind of music(rock, classical, etc.). How'd you get started? What insturments do you play(if any)? Who taught you to play, if anyone? Are you still doing it? What have you done?
My personal answers are summarized as follows:
I got started composing when I decided to undertake a HUGE project: Programming a fully-3d RPG in DOS in less than 2 years, using pure QBasic code. I abandoned this after a while as the project moved into windows and decided that the game would need some music. So, I composed the first theme to the game, which eventually became attached to the main character(links & filenames at bottom). I spent a few weeks planning out the first few maps for the 2d "demo" version of the game(although this version is going to have everything the 3d version will have, except with sprites instead of 3d scenes & characters), and eventually made a listing of what themes would need to be written. I went through and pumped out about 5-7 themes in a few weeks after that, although most were fairly bad and one(the original battle theme) was completely horrible. Also, problems with the volume of the MIDI notes and other issues set me back a little(still haven't solved the volume issue).
School kicked back in and I was busy for a while, but then senioritis kicked in as well and I went back to the composing for a while, going through the "second prolific wave", getting another 5-8 themes completed in a 3 week period. Some are still being modified & improved though, but for the most part the originals are still intact. I went through a large re-write of the game's script and plotline and therefore needed some more music, which is where I am at now. Recently I re-finalised a bunch of pieces and wrote a few more, and music has completely occupied my summer.
I got started with music in general back in middle school as part of the curriculum, then last christmas I got a keyboard(a yamaha PSR-170, simple yet pretty good, although the sound quality has diminished since my brother spilled half a cup of pepsi down into the keyboard a few months ago). Never really had any official instruction, but picked up tips & such here and there over time.
Links:
http://www.geocities.com/xerol2/files
all_midis.zip: All compositions up to the date on the file.
Since then:
01.zip, 02.zip, 03.zip: Performances of me on the piano, with original pieces that aren't easily transferred to midi.
Battle4.mid: The latest and probably final battle theme.
Crystallia.mid: Theme for fairly late in the game(around the middle actually)
piano1f.mid and piano_piece_1.mid: Midi versions of "01.zip". You can see why I put the mp3 up when you listen to these.
theme1.mid: An in-progress theme, a variation of the first midi file I wrote.
theme22.mid: A midi of either 02.zip or 03.zip(not sure which, it's been a while since then)
xq_battlepiano_final.mid: Piano version of battle4.mid. Working on making/obtaining an mp3 of it.
xq_sublevels_final.mid: Latest piece, a 'dungeon' theme. Pretty eerie, I think
xq_sublevels_v101.mid: Working version of "The Sublevels"
xq_worldmap_final.mid: Final version of the world map theme. Longest piece written by me at 6:24.
Inside all_midis.zip, all of the files labeled "Xerol's Quest - ## - Song Name" are the "good" versions of those songs. Some have since been dumped and replaced, or modified in some way.
Screenshots from the game:
http://www.geocities.com/qwertysoftware/combopic1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/qwertysoftware/bridge1.gif
(better version: http://www.geocities.com/xerol2/files/bridge4.gif)
(Copy & paste links)
My personal answers are summarized as follows:
I got started composing when I decided to undertake a HUGE project: Programming a fully-3d RPG in DOS in less than 2 years, using pure QBasic code. I abandoned this after a while as the project moved into windows and decided that the game would need some music. So, I composed the first theme to the game, which eventually became attached to the main character(links & filenames at bottom). I spent a few weeks planning out the first few maps for the 2d "demo" version of the game(although this version is going to have everything the 3d version will have, except with sprites instead of 3d scenes & characters), and eventually made a listing of what themes would need to be written. I went through and pumped out about 5-7 themes in a few weeks after that, although most were fairly bad and one(the original battle theme) was completely horrible. Also, problems with the volume of the MIDI notes and other issues set me back a little(still haven't solved the volume issue).
School kicked back in and I was busy for a while, but then senioritis kicked in as well and I went back to the composing for a while, going through the "second prolific wave", getting another 5-8 themes completed in a 3 week period. Some are still being modified & improved though, but for the most part the originals are still intact. I went through a large re-write of the game's script and plotline and therefore needed some more music, which is where I am at now. Recently I re-finalised a bunch of pieces and wrote a few more, and music has completely occupied my summer.
I got started with music in general back in middle school as part of the curriculum, then last christmas I got a keyboard(a yamaha PSR-170, simple yet pretty good, although the sound quality has diminished since my brother spilled half a cup of pepsi down into the keyboard a few months ago). Never really had any official instruction, but picked up tips & such here and there over time.
Links:
http://www.geocities.com/xerol2/files
all_midis.zip: All compositions up to the date on the file.
Since then:
01.zip, 02.zip, 03.zip: Performances of me on the piano, with original pieces that aren't easily transferred to midi.
Battle4.mid: The latest and probably final battle theme.
Crystallia.mid: Theme for fairly late in the game(around the middle actually)
piano1f.mid and piano_piece_1.mid: Midi versions of "01.zip". You can see why I put the mp3 up when you listen to these.
theme1.mid: An in-progress theme, a variation of the first midi file I wrote.
theme22.mid: A midi of either 02.zip or 03.zip(not sure which, it's been a while since then)
xq_battlepiano_final.mid: Piano version of battle4.mid. Working on making/obtaining an mp3 of it.
xq_sublevels_final.mid: Latest piece, a 'dungeon' theme. Pretty eerie, I think
xq_sublevels_v101.mid: Working version of "The Sublevels"
xq_worldmap_final.mid: Final version of the world map theme. Longest piece written by me at 6:24.
Inside all_midis.zip, all of the files labeled "Xerol's Quest - ## - Song Name" are the "good" versions of those songs. Some have since been dumped and replaced, or modified in some way.
Screenshots from the game:
http://www.geocities.com/qwertysoftware/combopic1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/qwertysoftware/bridge1.gif
(better version: http://www.geocities.com/xerol2/files/bridge4.gif)
(Copy & paste links)
