Hi, everyone.

A couple of years ago I've got my first game project and started my previous topic here. After that I have done more projects and have gained more experience. But I still feel like a beginner, and it is still pretty hard for me to find a new paid project. So I'm asking you again to listen to my music and to provide me with some wise critisism and advice.

Here are some of my latest tracks in different genres:

https://soundcloud.com/cardinalgray/denis-zlobin-feat-julia-vasilyeva-hundewache

https://soundcloud.com/cardinalgray/denis-zlobin-the-story-unfolds

https://soundcloud.com/cardinalgray/denis-zlobin-aurora

And please, feel free to contact me via denzlobin@gmail.com if you want to collaborate.

Great tracks! I love the first one -- very beautiful. I like the use of recorded atmospheric sounds as well.

I would have to respectfully disagree with Keith. Minimalism is great! You hear it all of the time in today's music particularly in games and film for good reason. Yes, popular music hooks you into listening to the music, but sometimes that's the last thing you want! That can distract from the actual game and kill the total game immersion. Sometimes music is designed purely to make the listener feel something without actually being noticed. Also, can you make awesome music with only using one repetitive rhythm? Of course, composing is cool like that. Limitations like that are great opportunities for creativity.

Of course, it all depends on what the context calls for. Sometimes you want your music to evolve and change a lot, but sometimes you don't (and everything inbetween!). There are no set rules in my opinion. :)

In any case, enjoyed your tracks! Do your two high energy tracks need to change/evolve more? I think it would work as is, but if you wanted to go that route you could consider changing things other than your rhythmic theme, like: more dynamic variety, using more variety of instrumentation, adding controlled modulation/filters to some synths for added musicality, etc. Plenty of things to manipulate if you still wanted to add more interest. The sky's the limit.

Thank you, guys!

Everything you've said about changing and evolving is a really good point, and I really understand that my music lacks that. Most of the projects I worked (casual and mobile games) didn't need that aproach, but I think that I should develop my skills to produce more dynamic and evolving tracks in future

Speaking about "Hundewache" - it was produced for an indie 2d adventure game of the same name, which, unfortunately, was cancelled about a month ago. This particular track was produced for an intro scene: old sailor sits by the seashore, right after the great storm that damaged his house, his ship and the lighthouse he has to take care of. Lighthouses are very important for this world, beacuse they are the only way to navigate between different floating islands, and our character's duty is to keep them working. He is sad and tired, but he understands that he has lots of work to do, so he is just taking a short breath before starting a long and difficult journey. The whole scene was a kind of meditative, an so is the track.

Speaking about concept - it was a kind, pensive and very intimate story, so I decided, that minimalistic and intimate soundtrack with only piano, violin and atmospheric sounds would be a perfect fit for that. This was a concept of a whole soundtrack, not this particular track. Anyway, this project is already cancelled, but maybe one day I'll find something with a similar mood to use my sketches.

Many thanks for your advice - it is very important. And thanks for the reference track, Keith - they are both great and really distinctive.

Thank you Elahrairah,

You are right, there is live violin in Hundewache. The piano is Addictive Keys, but to preserve that live sence I produced the hole track off the grid without correcting any midi-notes in my DAW.

Speaking about sound in The Story Unfolds - there is also live solo guitar, but the whole sound concept is not actually about EQing, it is more about dynamic processing: I used parallel compression for solo guitar, and a complex structure of different distortions and saturators in send channels for practically every instrument. Solo guitar is also kind of double tracked (this is, although, not a real double track): we recorded same performance on two separate tracks, one of which was distorted, and the other one was clean. After that I panned these tracks to left and right and used some different dynamic processing on the channels.