Ravnir's Saga [alpha state]

[Paul Battersby]

That's quite the ambitious project you've started. You do a good job of establishing an atmosphere both with the music and with your story telling. I was listening to Ulvheim and was disappointed when it ended. I look forward to hearing more of that. I thought Far Away really did give the feeling of a being in or traveling to distant land. I like what I've heard and read so far.

[Mattias Westlund]

Thanks Paul!

New version of the Ulvheim theme, using my new orchestral template.

[Samulis]

Sounds good Mattias! If you'd be willing at some point, I'd love to get my hands on one of your tracks like this to run through some hardware and software. Your compositions always have a really good handle on writing for virtual instruments (for obvious reasons).

Sounds pretty cool with the two versions overlaid-
https://instaud.io/15ox

[Mattias Westlund]

Thanks Sam! Yeah, I'll see what I can do. Exporting midi from huge projects like this always gets kind of messy, but maybe something from Waters of Redemption would be more manageable?

[Nayrb]

Well, you know you have my full support! I like this idea very much. I think you have a great idea with the Asian influence, too. I always like to incorporate that myself, because there are a lot of interesting tone colors to play with (percussion, for instance: I'm partial to gongs of all kinds).

As for dwarven music, you do yourself a great favor by making the story and sound already very "northern" to begin with. Since Dwarves often get the "northern" treatment on their own, you can now experiment with other ideas to help them stand out a bit from the general milieu of viking-types you're already dealing with. I can't speak for you on what your own vision is, but much as I love the traditional dwarves we're used to seeing, I also like more adventurous takes such as Tad Williams' dwarrows (aka dvernings / Tinukeda'ya) from Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and the Dwemer from the Elder Scrolls.

I've also always found Conan to be a great source of inspiration and I feel that over the years it has created a sort of unique "barbarian" type that is almost a sampling of a variety of different cultures from all over. So there's plenty of room for mixing it up.

As for the extant music, I'm digging Far Away and I think it has great potential to be, as you say, an "Into the West" king of track with vocals and all.

[Mattias Westlund]

I've strung together the Ulvheim theme with what I call the "fate theme" plus the B part of Glory of Khai and whaddayaknow... this is starting to sound a lot like an opening track. Still a lot of work needed though, on both the composition and the orchestral template.

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-16-2017, 10:22 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Well, you know you have my full support! I like this idea very much. I think you have a great idea with the Asian influence, too. I always like to incorporate that myself, because there are a lot of interesting tone colors to play with (percussion, for instance: I'm partial to gongs of all kinds).

As for dwarven music, you do yourself a great favor by making the story and sound already very "northern" to begin with. Since Dwarves often get the "northern" treatment on their own, you can now experiment with other ideas to help them stand out a bit from the general milieu of viking-types you're already dealing with. I can't speak for you on what your own vision is, but much as I love the traditional dwarves we're used to seeing, I also like more adventurous takes such as Tad Williams' dwarrows (aka dvernings / Tinukeda'ya) from Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and the Dwemer from the Elder Scrolls.

I've also always found Conan to be a great source of inspiration and I feel that over the years it has created a sort of unique "barbarian" type that is almost a sampling of a variety of different cultures from all over. So there's plenty of room for mixing it up.

As for the extant music, I'm digging Far Away and I think it has great potential to be, as you say, an "Into the West" king of track with vocals and all.

Thanks Nayrb. Yes, I suppose the dwarven music doesn't have to be truly unique-sounding; like you say the music already has a northern feel to it and having simply a recognizable "Dvyrnir Theme" will maybe suffice. Like you I also love unusual takes on dwarves, though the ones in Ravnir's Saga are fairly generic.

As for the Conan influence, I was thinking more of the movie soundtrack than the stories themselves (though I confess Crom, rather than Odin, was more of an inspiration for Ûthun). While I did enjoy reading them years ago I will not be exploring the pulp-style sword & sorcery theme with this story.

[Nayrb]

(07-17-2017, 02:16 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:

(07-16-2017, 10:22 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Well, you know you have my full support! I like this idea very much. I think you have a great idea with the Asian influence, too. I always like to incorporate that myself, because there are a lot of interesting tone colors to play with (percussion, for instance: I'm partial to gongs of all kinds).

As for dwarven music, you do yourself a great favor by making the story and sound already very "northern" to begin with. Since Dwarves often get the "northern" treatment on their own, you can now experiment with other ideas to help them stand out a bit from the general milieu of viking-types you're already dealing with. I can't speak for you on what your own vision is, but much as I love the traditional dwarves we're used to seeing, I also like more adventurous takes such as Tad Williams' dwarrows (aka dvernings / Tinukeda'ya) from Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and the Dwemer from the Elder Scrolls.

I've also always found Conan to be a great source of inspiration and I feel that over the years it has created a sort of unique "barbarian" type that is almost a sampling of a variety of different cultures from all over. So there's plenty of room for mixing it up.

As for the extant music, I'm digging Far Away and I think it has great potential to be, as you say, an "Into the West" king of track with vocals and all.

Thanks Nayrb. Yes, I suppose the dwarven music doesn't have to be truly unique-sounding; like you say the music already has a northern feel to it and having simply a recognizable "Dvyrnir Theme" will maybe suffice. Like you I also love unusual takes on dwarves, though the ones in Ravnir's Saga are fairly generic.

As for the Conan influence, I was thinking more of the movie soundtrack than the stories themselves (though I confess Crom, rather than Odin, was more of an inspiration for Ûthun). While I did enjoy reading them years ago I will not be exploring the pulp-style sword & sorcery theme with this story.

I was actually referring to the movie as well. Now that I think of it, the cultures were a bit more recognizable than I at first thought. I might just be thinking of the general "barbarian" class idea that took influence from the movie and spread out through games and such. In any case! The WIP is sounding good, definitely seeing some bird's eye camera shots in my head.

[Mattias Westlund]

Here's a brief, sketchy attempt at Anvil of the Blind God. The instrumentation is just from the top of my head right now. However, I have two versions of it. The only difference between them is scalar and should be easy enough to spot (it's only a semitone!). I would like to know which one you prefer.

I know which one I like best, but out of curiosity it would be interesting to hear what you think. I'll let you know about my thinking regarding that particular semitone in a little while

Anvil of the Blind God A

Anvil of the Blind God B

[Samulis]

I think it depends on the culture behind the scene. The first is European to me, while the second is more eastern. Personally, I prefer the first (it almost sounds like an old work song or something), but if it's set in a culture closer to the middle east, it might be better to do the latter.