...is the bomb.

Anna's Theme sounds like it could be from Lord of the Rings, or, if you've played Tales of Eternia/Destiny II in the US, the very beginning of Anna's Theme reminds you of the intro. It is very soothing, and very awesome.

A Tragedy is also an excellent piece of work that will inspire you to imagine creative tragedy scenes for video games.

Also, Rysen's FF music remixes in 8-bit form are very good. The FFVII Aeris theme in particular reminded me of how much I liked Final Fantasy VII...geez, that's been so long. FFVII was a great reason to get a Playstation. It's like a beautiful movie. The last twenty seconds of Anna's Theme, I believe, remind me of Aeris's Theme.

Very well done stuff. Rysen makes me wish I could make my own music...which, with a bit more free time, I may at least give it a try. Maybe I'd start with a simple 8-bit NES theme or something.

Uh...wow.

I really don't know what to say. I really appreciate the compliments...it's...a pretty amazing feeling to have someone, unprovoked, praise the very thing that you strive to be the best you can be at. I've never composed music for the sake of having people compliment me, but I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that comments like yours inspires me to do more. :)

Uematsu is the reason that I compose today. He really opened my eyes (well..ears I guess ;P) to the idea of instrumental music. I got into music early in my life (I began playing guitar at the age of 8) for the sole purposes of becoming a "Rock star". :P And of course at that time it wasn't "cool" to like classical, or instrumental music. But after hearing the Aria di Mezzo Caraterre for the first time...my mind completely changed. Then VII came out, and I fell in love with Aerith's Theme even more, (which is still my favourite Uematsu composition to date.) So it's really not surprising that you would find things that would remind you of that in Anna's Theme.

The NES stuff, heh, kind of started as joke. I did the FF5 one, sent it to a couple of people, and was then asked to do more. :P I actually have a couple of Chrono Triggar remixes on my hard drive that I haven't bothered to upload yet. I have a ton of stuff that I'd love to upload, but I am too poor to have my own web space. :(

Music is awesome, and I hope that if you ever get the time to try and get into it, that you get as much out of it as I have. Just remember that you won't make a "masterpiece" over night, and some times that can be discouraging. I always laugh when I listen to my first attempt at tracking and compare it to something more recent....I also recommend seriously looking into studying music theory. It really opens your eyes to things that you'd never think of trying before. But most importantly, compose, compose, compose. The more you do it, the better you get. :)

Thanks again for the awesome review. It's a really great feeling to hear the things that you've said.

Check out Troupe's music as well. He's a great composer, and really knows how to use a tracker. :)

Troupe: You can download all the music that he talked about by following the music link on my web page.

Aria di Mezzo Caraterre is the song Celes sings in FF6. The whole opera is great, in my honest opinion. So much so that it actually inspired me to go watch a real one.....as much as I like to consider myself a fan of all types of music these days, I must say I really didn't enjoy it. :P It was called La Traviata, in case you're wondering.

When it comes to music theory, I'm actually mostly self taught. I bought a couple of books, and there are some great sites on the internet, that really helped. I took band in high school, but didn't really learn anything I didn't all ready know, theory wise anyway. It was a great experience to hear all the different instruments, and listen to how each part made up the song as a whole. I played bass guitar, and being a guitarist years before, it really wasn't difficult to pick up. I really regret not trying something different like a woodwind or brass.

My family never had a lot of money, and music lessons can be very expensive, so I was pretty much forced to teach myself. If you play an instrument, this is even better in that, as you learn songs, you notice that certain chords sound good together, and that certain notes sound good while a chord is playing. Theory, harmony, etc, just makes you understand *why* this is the case, as you learn about scales, keys, modes, etc. But that's not to say that you *need* to know theory in order to compose, to be honest there was a time when I thought I wrote better before I learned the "rules". I guess it just kind of helps to understand it a little more, and that if you're ever stuck you can revert to them to help create your next musical idea.

Also, I am a big fan of j-pop! And from your list, I'd say you have a pretty awesome taste in music. ~_^

Thanks Rysen :) All the stuff I've been working on recently is for Midsummer (Alexandir's game), but when he gets his progress page up everyone can check out whatever music he puts up there. And I think I'll get your tunes tonight at Rage's house (he has broadband =D).

Omni, Rysen said it first, but you definately have good taste in music. You are obviously a Yasunori Mitsuda fan (whether you know it or not) and he really inspired me more than Uematsu. If you can strive to produce music like what you mentioned above, I'm sure you can make some really awesome stuff! But like Ry said, it takes lots and lots of practice. I don't usually laugh, but cry when I hear my first tunes. The production is terrible, a lot of it doesn't make any sense, and its obvious I didn't know what I was doing, but hell, at least it was fun.

I was also self-taught in pretty much all my tracking (and non-tracking musical endeavors). It really helps to know how to play an instrument. Trememndously. Astoundingly. Even if you can just play some chords on the guitar, it helps your melodic sense a lot. To be honest, I don't really know theory that well. I just think up a melody, put it down, and then play the song over and over and follow it to its logical conclusion. That said, not everyone is going to track like that, so figure out what works for you.

The most important thing- LISTEN TO MUSIC!

And, that was me :)

Viva la musica de Rysen! Keep them fingers trackin' mate.

Also...is there any one good "introduction to tracking" tutorial you guys might know of?

Zaril's the man, and the reason I got into tracking. He introduced me to modplug, and listened to hours of questions, and horrible first attempts. One of my all time favourites by him is "Flying on a Dragon". I want to hear new tunes zaril! It's been too long since we've spoken. :)

As for an introduction to tracking, heh, well oddly enough I had an article with that title uploaded to the Vergesource. I found my copy on my hard drive, but about 90% of the links are now dead, meaning the article probably wouldn't be of any use to you. There was one thing out there called "The Trackers Handbook", which was pretty good....ah, here's the link:

Clicky!

That should help a bit, but as Troupe said, get on IRC and questions!

Thanks for the compliments. Anna's Theme truly is my pride and joy. I should've released a bunch of crappier ones first, so that I wouldn't have to live up to that song though. ^_^;

I remember Zaril's Solemn Night. That was awesome. Very good jazz.

Solemn Night, Flying on a Dragon, Indescribable Love, Spiritual Starshine, Spacious Earth. When I first came to Verge in 2002 I downloaded all that stuff from the Vergesource and listened to it while I read through Megatokyo for the first time. Fond memories, really.

I agree with Rysen, too--Flying on a Dragon is the bomb. Thanks for the tutorial link :)

Hey, really cool site! And you've got vinter on there, I listened to that for an hour and 15 minutes once...

And also Zaril, you really have made a huge impact on the VERGE music community (whether you like to admit it or not), and I (and I'm sure others) thank you very much. I'm sure neither Rysen or myself would be half what we are today if it wasn't for your influence.

Cheers to Zaril!