Fan Music for Artemis

I for one think it's cool! Thanks for sharing!

I assume you created this soundtrack yourself (based on what I can see on your SoundCloud profile)

It would be so cool put to a video of an Artemis game. I'll have to see if I can get together with a few people and make an RP Community video using it, if that is your intention. Over some awesome shots of the Artemis in combat, as well as the odd bit of bridge chatter, I bet it would make someting really cool to watch.

Oscar, that song is quite impressive! I only have two issues with it. 1. You could spend some more time in mixing, you have so many cool themes going on that are muffled under the mix. That chorus could really soar, and those drums could really move people, they just don't seem to be properly mixed. 2. The trumpet really needs to be sampled from an actual player. Everything else sounds convincing, but digital brass is always crap. I would be shocked if you couldn't find a trumpet player to play that out into a nice WAV file for you. Hell, I'd do it if it hadn't been over 15 years since I played.


I would love to see you replace the in-game songs with your own. It wouldn't be difficult to put together a 'mod' using them. Fantastic work!

Wow thank you animenanashi!

I have always wanted a great critique such as yours. You see, I am a recent high school graduate who's hobby is to make soundtracks such as these. I have always wanted to be taught correctly with music production, but all I have really absorbed from is the internet, which is quite scrambled coming from many different sources. I have never really been trained classically, the only real music lesson i got was for the clarinet for a couple of weeks until i quit. I still can't read notes. I have just been making music by ear, referencing what I have heard from videogame and movie soundtracks and trying to find the recurring rules within them.

Thanks for the support! It really does mean alot!

And xavier, feel free to use my soundtrack. Just make sure you put credit where it deserves :)

I thought it would go great in a video!!!

I learned and compose the same way you do, but I don't have much in the way of natural talent as you seem to have. I can tell you that not being able to read sheet music doesn't hurt you at all right now, and working by ear is just fine. If you learned piano, that might help you though.

What sucks is it is hard to learn mixing by ear, unlike how you can pick up on themes and patterns by ear. I don't know what software you use, but there is a plugin called iZotope that will replace your auto-mixing plugin. It does a much better job, but it is still up to you to make some automation channels and bring down some levels to let other sounds out.

I am in a band. In fact several artemis players of mine are from my band. If you need some brass I think I can hook you up with trumpets, French horns, and a bariton. Also have friends that play string and wing instruments. If you want any let me know and I will contact a couple of them and see if they are interested. No promises but I think they will Lilly be interested.

(Typed on phone. Sorry for errors)

I created a Mod for this, which can be applied using my Artemis Mod Loader.

I had to convert the audio into a mono stream, then into OGG format. I set up the Mod to replace the file "Artemis on the Warpath". Should be pretty cool, now.

ah wow!

Thats really awesome RussJudge!!!
And phenomenal work with the Mod Loader, gosh there is so much talented people in the Artemis community.

And Captain, thank you for such a grandiose offer! I may contact you again for future projects.

animenanashi, I will definitely look into that plugin! Right now Im using Maximus to mix my pieces, I have still yet to fully learn its capabilities. and I use Fl studio 10 to build my works just so you know.

I'm really glad you guys are interested with my work, there will probably be more fan music in the future!

Sounds really great Oscar! You have some nice themes and melodies going together, providing dissonance and complexity.

I do have to agree with animenanashi on the trumpet sounding really digital. Aside from that, here are some ideas on specific parts.

In the first passage, once the 32nd-note (or is it 64th-note?) part comes in panned to the left, it sounds good. But once the other parts come in (the trumpet comes back in, and the chamber choir - 57 seconds into the tune), the 32nd-note part gets kind of buried in the mix. Try experimenting with dropping the volume of the voices and let the 32nd note countermelody shine a bit more. In fact, the legato feel and reverb of the voices makes it more prominent even without large volume. The tendency when mixing is to add volume to instruments that you aren't hearing enough. Sometimes, the opposite makes the mix cleaner and achieves the desired effect. Later, in the third passage (the big chorus), you have a full volume instrumentation, so we get to enjoy the voices at full volume. Therefore, I don't think the voices need to be as prominent in the first passage.

The second thing I would point out, and this may just be a personal opinion, is that I think the bass drum and cymbal swell usage in the middle section (1:27 - 1:50) could be better placed. The swells seem to be occuring on their own, but if they hit on the down beat of '1' in each measure, I think they would emphasize the chord changes better. I also think the bass drum hitting on the 1 would work in the same matter. What I would say, is that since really, that part is a restart to the final buildup, have the drums emphasize that point. Leave the first 4 bars with just a bass drum on the 1. After that, expand on the bass drum rhythm to build up to the final passage. On measure 5,make the bass drum 2 eighth notes on the one. Then build up to a sort of fill in the 8th bar. I think that will emphasize the buildup to the final passage's continuous 8th note triplet bass drums.

Lastly, if you aren't already listening to them, check out Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica soundtrack. The drums in your piece remind me of some things he did with some of the more military pieces that I think you will enjoy. Another composer to check out, is Murray Gold's Doctor Who Soundtracks. In the 2005-2008 soundtracks for Doctor Who, Murray uses a lot of choir voices to great effect.

Those are just my opinions. I try to be as constructive as possible. Please don't think of them as bashing your piece. Believe me, it's not. Your piece sounds great!

Once again, you've got a great ear for melody and composition Oscar. Keep it up!