Omni you're going to make my head too big for my own good. ;P

As for the song, well, it represents a lot of things for me. Friendship, love, and those strong bonds we create with those special few people we come across in our lives. I have this friend you see, and she's been nothing but awesome to me. When I was involved with someone I ended up neglecting her a lot, and not verbally appreciating her as much as I should have...though I was always very thankful for the things she has done. So basically, the title comes from the idea that even though people often don't say how much they appreciate those people that have always been there for them, there will always be a place in your heart for them even if you don't tell them that as often as you should. That friend is now off to University, and I really regret not taking advantage of the time we had together because she is an amazing person, and now I rarely see and don't talk to her as much, so I never really get the chance to tell her how much I appreciate her.

Initially I wrote the song to be sung, which is why the melody has quite a few more accents than a lot of instrumental work. You could almost hear a voice in place of a flute, but I wanted a full orchestral feel so I opted not to use a crappy 'Choir Ahh' sample. :P And the flute was nice in its place. So the mental image I see when I hear it, and while I was composing it, was of a girl out on a balcony belting song out into the night sky about her 'Silent Heart'.

I'm also going to use it as the love theme for Amethyst, as my little spiel on it works in nicely to the love story I have in mind.

Do I find it superior to Anna's Theme though? Hmm...no, I don't think so. Anna's theme has far more musical ideas than Silent Hearts. The arrangement for Silent Hearts is superior, but overall I still think Anna's Theme is better.

Xenosaga eh? hehe, well I've always really enjoyed Mitsuda's dramatic battle themes. I have another one in the works right now, more for an intense situation than battle, but it's similar as well. I think that's just my style in regards to composing music for a scene of conflict.

Thanks for the comments! I'm glad you like the songs. :D

Quote:Originally posted by Omni

Well, keep in mind I'm no music expert, so your music could actually suck pretty bad. But, I think it sounds awesome!

And, this probably isn't the best question, but how exactly do you create these songs? I mean, not in terms of composition, but like setup, and procedure. I don't know how you make the music, but the quality of it sounds very good too, not just the composition and arrangement. Do you have live instruments or just really darn good samples?

ehehe, well as long as one other person enjoys my music then I'm a happy guy. ;P

Anyway, for my setup I have a casio CTK-541 (really crappy keyboard but it has MIDI in/out ports) which I use as a controller. Meaning, where some people put in each note by hand, I play it most on piano and record in real-time. That's not to say I don't *ever* use my mouse to write in notes, I do quite often, but a majority of the time I play along to a click track.

For my program I recently got a copy of Cubase SX2, but before that I used Cubase SX1. For samples I use a variety of things. I don't have any hardware synths (yet...) so I basically stick to VST instruments (software synths) and samples you'd find in any mod. My main arsenal of awesomeness is a set of VSTi's known as Edirol Orchestral which has amazing samples of all the instruments in the orchestra. But I also have Edirol Super Quarter (Contains nifty piano,guitar,bass and percussion samples) and Halion 2 (so that I can use samples you'd hear used in a mod).

This is where music is bloody expensive, but thanks to my high school and awesome band teacher, I was able to get some of it fairly cheaper than if I were to buy it straight through a store. It took a really long time though to own what I do today, and I slowly aquired all this stuff through the years. I've actually only been using the MIDI stuff for just over a year now.

But I spend quite a bit of time mixing the song so that it's of good quality. I'm no expert, and still learning in that area a lot, but I could have a song finished, musically, and spend a good week playing with levels and plug-ins until I'm content with it. It also helps to have a close friend who records/mixes music for a living so I can ask a zillion questions regarding plug-in's and how I can improve the quality of sound. It's one of those things that takes awhile to learn on your own, so I just keep composing/mixing and hope that I'm getting better at it.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. :)