Out of Character post today, as I would like your help.
Part of my real life responsibilies include music composition. I do a lot of cheesy corporate elevator music type of things for presentations, websites, etc, but I also get to do the occasional epic soundtrack.
The last few weeks, I’ve been working on some theme music for Roc’s Renegades, the newly formed fleet I command for Freeform Industries.
When I work on music, this is my typical process:
1. Does it suit the environment it’s going to be in? In this case, does it sound like EVE Online, and does it sound Minmatar? Is it military enough?
2. Does it evoke an emotional response? In this case, does it make me scared of them? Does it inspire them? Does it just sound very cool?
3. I actually watch reference material to put me in the frame of mind. In this case, the big ugly mug of Roc Wieler on my desktop. Does it suit him? Does it suit what you know of him? Does it suit his vision for the Renegades?
The problem I am facing is that I’ve not done much rock style music in my experience, and Minmatars are all about the in your face, move or be moved, kind of rock.
I was originally only going to post my favourite three themes, and have you choose between them, but I decided instead to include all seven, so you really get a more indepth idea of my process.
You can download them in one zip file HERE. It’s Rapidshare, Eve Files wouldn’t recognize it as a valid type.
Here are some notes on each, without any of my opinions to sway you:
Renegades v1: 2:13
– This is epic thematic orchestral, which is my area of expertise. I threw in some guitars for good measure.
Renegades v2: 4:14
– Wrote some lyrics for this one. Tried to make it EVE centric, with my own perceptions coming through.
Renegades v3: 1:48
– This one is emotional orchestral then wakes up and grabs you by the balls (even if you don’t have any).
Renegades v4: 3:26
– Straight up, hard rocking guitar, with a touch of EVE electronica. Goes nicely with a mild mint tea. I don’t know why I said that last sentence, but it made me laugh. And now you are too, haha.
Renegades v5: 3:16
– Heavier electronica, with some industrial ambience and sampling. And of course, hard rocking guitars.
Renegades v6: 2:05
– Back to a mix of epic and emotional orchestral here. My brain was hurting from all the heavy rock. I think my ears were bleeding.
Renegades v7: 2:10
– More orchestral and guitars.
And there we are. I’ve also included a poll in this post, which will remain open for the next five days. So please, cast your vote, encourage others to cast their vote, as I really want to present a good final selection to my fleet based on the opinions of many.
And of course, feel free to make any comments you wish, as always.
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
Wow. You are cool AND talented. But we knew that, didn’t we? My thoughts (keep in mind that while I have zero musical technical knowledge and fairly eclectic taste in music, I’m never short of an opinion, LOL!):
v1: Nice but lacks some brutal punch-ups in there somewhere that would make it memorable.
v2: I’m in love. You’re in my iPod now. Little more intensity on vocals at the start of the chorus would be sexeh but I’d buy a whole CD like this right now. I’m totally serious. Where do I pay?
v3: Great texture, excellent reflection of the ebb and flow of life as a combat capsuleer.
v4: A bit grindingly intense–might actually inspire me to want to kill someone *wink* Although I wouldn’t listen to this by choice more than once, it has a hook that the others are missing. As a theme, it’s the clear winner, I think.
v5: Liked it…esp. the dramatic change at 1:15. But overall, too…level?…for a theme song, I think.
v6: Liked this but kept wanting to hear some big booms at the changes to more intense parts of it.
v7: Liked this but a bit “Star Wars theme song”…needs more drama, more cayenne, and some sampled sexeh hot breathing. If it had that, it’d be my choice for winner.
All of your candidates are good, but for purposes of becoming a theme, 3 and 4 outshine the rest. I voted for choice 4. As a non-musical but artistic person, I appreciate your talent, your effort, and your willingness to put your work out here for comment. Hope my uninformed opinions are useful in some way.
For some reason I always thought of the zamflute when thinking of tribal minmatar music.
#1 – Makes me think Caldari.
#2 – Sounds like it would make a good Alexis On Fire track.
#3 – Inspiring. Could go with any race.
#4 – This says battle, loud and clear.
#5 – For some reason this says Amarr to me.
#6 – This definitely says Minmatar. I like it a lot. Sort of like a Minmatar fleet in a Jery Bruckhiemer movie.
#7 – I see ships and pilots prepping for battle. Not really specific to race though.
If I had to choose one I’d say #6, but I hope my comments can help in general. You have a real gift. CCP should hire you to revamp their jukebox.
*swoon* I’m so impressed! You can write words AND music well. I guess I’d better stop flirting and start feeling intimidated. In other news, I agree with Mynxee and four is my vote!
I really enjoy number 6.
Fits very much the Minmatar!
Cheers
Meh, when I started playing tracks, my player decided to be idiotic renamed them all without the numbers… don’t suppose you could provide a track number vs track time list?
@Shae – Sure thing. I edited the original post, inserting the times beside the names.
Thanks ^_^
1: Sounds martial, but a bit generic
2: I’m a sucker for a silky voice; that’s just not fair! It’d be great Eve soundtrack.
3: I’m liking this one, it’s got some nice variations
4: That’s just combat music, right there
5: That sounds Minmatar at first, but it’s not as inspiring as some of the others, and I’m not sure about the synth stabs at 1:54
6: Hmmm, you should call that one March of the Ragnarok 😀
7: Sounds a bit thin, maybe, not sure how else to describe it.
What software do you use? I’ve been dabbling with Acid since before Sony started fucking with it, though most of my Eve themes use a lot of tribal drums and anren’t nearly so orchestral ^_^