Genre/Style: Epic, hybrid orchestral
Creative Vision for the Track: As a gameplayer, I am often inspired by certain aspects of games, which, in turn, inspire me, both visually and sonically. I sometimes replay certain events in my head and imagine some acoompanying music (I have a tendency to turn in-game music right down, a sin, I know!). This track came about after an evening of riding back to my ‘home town’ of Bree, in Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). It was something of an adventure, with perils along the way, and darkness falling, giving a heightened sense of peril. This piece represents those dangers while on my horse ride home, and the eventually relief at getting home.
Composition Details (Tempo, Key, Main Chords etc): The time signature is 4/4, with reoccurring triplets in both tuned and untuned instruments (drums). Tempo is 120bpm with a slight quickening for the ‘home’ section, to 128bpm. The key is C minor to start with, the root being fixed in the bass lines for quite a while, moving through Eb minor (with chords Eb minor Gb major, B and Db major, looped) and then to F minor (chords F minor, C minor, Db major and Eb major) for the final reprise.
Main Instruments used: I used around 50 separate track parts, comprising mostly orchestral instruments, strings, brass, flute/piccolos, piano, etc., with some distorted bass/guitar for a more driving bass line in certain sections. The home theme uses uilleann pipes and a medieval stringed instrument whose name eludes me (!)
Hopefully there is some feeling of movement and progression through the piece that you can sense; a feeling of danger, and of reaching safety.
Libraries used: Native Instruments Kontakt library, BBC free Orchestra, Synphobia free orchestral VST, 8Dio’s Adagio strings libraries, Century brass library, Lacrimose choir, and Ethera Gold/EVI libraries, plus other assorted instruments, using Studio One v3.5.