Composing Character/Guild/Whatever Themes

Wyrmrest Accord
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After sustained hiatus, I have returned to do… more of the same!

TLDR: Writing music for commissions. Charging 25,000 gold for MIDIS and 40,000 gold for Live Recordings (Yes, in game gold).

Do you wish that your character or guild had it’s own theme song? Or do you want original music for something else? Or, do you want to request something awful, just to see if I actually do it? These reasons and any others are good enough for me!

I’m offering to write music for characters or guilds (Or any other purpose). Just give me a basic synopsis of the character or guild, any ideas you might have as to instrumentation or style, and I’ll crank out a theme of roughly 2-5 minutes in length.

In terms of what I can provide, I can offer any type of orchestral instruments in the form of finale midis. This means they won’t be super high quality performances (It’s just computers, after all), but I’ll do my best to wrangle the program into submission for ya’. I can also do recordings of more rock type stuff. I have a guitar, bass, and a decent synth at my disposal, along with amp software and Reaper, so these tracks can sound pretty OK. Due to the higher time commitment, however, the price will be increased.

On that note, let’s talk pricing. Currently a WoW token stands at a price of about 120,000 gold. Since I don’t feel like setting up an actual payment system, I’ll take gold for these. However, I’m upping my rates substantially from the last time I did this, as the value of gold is inflating out of control in the game. A standard finale MIDI is going to put you down 25,000 gold. Using the price of the WoW token, this is roughly equivalent to $3.00 USD. I think that’s pretty cheap, to be honest. If you want a live recording, it’s going to be upped to 40,000 gold, which translates to about $5.00 USD. Still pretty cheap (About 50 cents an hour!).

Well, I can talk all I want, but I’ll probably need something to convince you, right? Here’s some examples of my work:

Lyreth’s Theme: This one has lots of layering, with a choir track recorded on my synth, and a guitar track, all layered over a finale midi.

Kass’s Theme: The very first theme, and yet still one of my favorites.

Steel Pub Shanty: Written to be a loopable tavern background.

Wenzle’s Theme: Supposed to be fast and upbeat.

Blair’s Theme: A live recording of a pretty standard rock track.

Bridge to Eden: This one’s not a commision, but is a pretty good example of how I’ve updated my recording methods since the last live recording I did.

Waiting List:
Brycel

6 Likes
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Hey, glad to see you about again! Would it be possible for me to commission you for two songs at once? I’d like to do a themesong for my guild and also for one of my characters. :slight_smile: If that’s not possible, I’d like to do the guild first? Either way, both just MIDIS!

For the guild, we’re a traditional tauren tribe that’s neutral in the faction war. Our goal is only to maintain tauren culture and traditions, nothing more. As such, the tribe often feels overwhelmed by the war going on in the world, and especially it feels as though the Horde is slowly eroding away at the traditions of the tauren, as the Horde tauren now settle and go to war and tear up the land for resources. Some way to get across this feeling would be neat! As well as some drums? Uhh… I’m not very good with music. XD

And if you’re able to do a second, I’d like one for my character Rowtag. He’s a simple druid who likes to play music, specifically drums and his flute. I’d really like something that could sound as though he himself is playing it! Just a calming, serene tune and steady beat, I suppose, if that’s at all possible.

Thank ya! Apologies if I didn’t express any ideas well enough.

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Wow! This is some really fantastic work that you have here! What’s the best way to reach out to you about this- just this thread here, or would you prefer being contacted in-game?

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Karanga: I tend to write some of my better work on your commissions, so I’m looking forward to starting on both of those!

Hildira: Just leave a post here, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I see it!

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Awesome! Can’t wait to hear it. :smiley: I sent you the gold for both songs.

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Karanga: Here’s the theme for your tribe. I’m hoping you like the direction I took, as I decided to do a kinda gradual “angry” kinda thing… idk.
Here ya go!

3 Likes
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Ahhh I love it! <3 Thank you so much! It’s perfect. :smiley:

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Karanga: Here’s the theme for Rowtag. Flute and drums, not much else to say here.
Hope you like it!

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I have to say man you’ve definitely got some talent. Consider me signed on and sold for this. This is a super neat, creative and fun idea so feel free to let me know when you’re in game and we can chat.

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This is awesome! Thank you so much for taking on both of these. <3 I love them.

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Do you take gold for this on A-side, or just Horde? I might be super interested in this but a lot of my gold is over on the other faction.

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Kelanadawn: I can take gold A side, sure.

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AAAAAAH YOU’RE BACK. I WANTED TO COMMISSION YOU SO MUCH :smiley:

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I’d be absolutely interested in getting one or two of these!

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Here’s a theme that I’ve had for a while. I was working on some writing for school, but now I’m on spring break, so I hammered it out. The request wasn’t made here, but I’ll post it anyway.

Pretty straightforward ABA style tune, I like how it came out.

As for Gazwhack and Chkalla, just leave a post on here. I’d prefer that over ig mail, as then I have to boot up WoW before I start writing.

2 Likes
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You have a lot of talent and with pricing this reasonable, you can consider me sold! I’d love to have a proper theme for this character once you get around to me. I’ll do what I can to keep my post from being an eyesore, but I do have a question and if you have some for me or otherwise need to work something out, please let me know. (By the way, you should probably link “Oddysey” as part of your portfolio, it’s excellent and really shows off your abilities.)

Bry’cel is one of my reoccurring antagonist characters in the campaigns I run and is the villain protagonist of most of my short stories. He’s near and dear to the heart, so having a villain theme of his own that keeps in the right spirit would have great personal value to me.

What is your request for Bry'cel?

For Bry’cel, I would want a theme that is sinister to its core, has this ominous and unsettling if not creepy quality, while also radiating power and evil. If possible, I’d like it to have an element of class and the occasional faint slip into having a distant and melancholic undertone to signify a once good man lost to great tragedy. I would like for it to strike a thematic balance between conjuring up images of enterprising demon lords, influential crime bosses, and formidable RPG villains.

What can you tell me about the character's personality and roleplay style?

The best way I can describe him is that he’s a devilish character, objectively more demon than man at this point in his life. He is powerful and influential, as well as intelligent, suave, refined, classy, and ambitious; balanced against a cunning, ruthless, arrogant, and sadistic soul. Above all, he is vainglorious, nihilistic, and diabolical. He thrives on and yearns for chaos and destruction on some deep-seated level, which is juxtaposed against his cautious and patient side which plays the long game, scheming and pulling the strings of puppets to make exponentially greater impacts than he could alone.

Due to his ambitions and scheming, his influence and activities tend to branch out, leading to frequent genre leaps in his RP, where he goes from being among cults and covens to collaborating with organized crime syndicates and the occasional rogue paramilitary, which leads to him swinging between occult/dark fantasy to intelligence/political intrigue with espionage and business themes as well as the occasional covert operation.

Do you have any questions or additional specifications for your request?

There is one thing in particular I’d like to work out with you. Bry’cel does have a consistent shift in presentation between contexts given the nature of his RP. Most of the time, he is characterized by subtler moments. He appears from the shadows from time to time to haunt or manipulate travelers, pawns, or campaign heroes; he overshadows others during shady deals or negotiations from a position of authority; he schemes with his coven during secret meetings; and at times he simply broods alone and has a somber internal monologue.

However, he does have these intense moments which are usually centered around unit movements during campaigns. Picture militarized demonic squads or armed cultists storming villages and searching houses, secret bases being stormed by these unholy forces, and hard clashes between two malevolent factions leading to open and chaotic moderate-sized battles.

Would I be better off (and how much would the price be impacted by):

A. Having one long theme with a subtle beginning, a moderate core for the bulk of the track, and then a transition into a powerful, militaristic finish for the last 20-30% of the song?

B. Splitting the request into two tracks, where Bry’cel has a defined theme/leitmotif but the first track is longer and designed for subtler moments with a mild rise to something moderate but not flow breaking, and then having a secondary track using the same leitmotif but being musically presented as a 60-90 second loopable, emotionally grim war march?

You've had this character a while. Do you have any placeholders to reference?

I most certainly do, but I’ve got to warn you… Brace yourself: They’re tacky.

For the first few years of the character’s existence, I juggled “Those Chosen by the Planet” and “Mephiles’ Whisper” as placeholder themes since – reputation and sources aside – they did create the right sort of feeling for what I was looking for during Bry’cel’s scenes. They still do, honestly. Aside from those two, in more niche situations that call for full subtlety, I’ve also used “Sosa’s Theme.”

Now, I realize these don’t have that whole “march” feel that was proposed in the last section, which brings me to another placeholder and comparison. If you were to look at the soundtrack for the first Witcher game, take track “15. The Order” and compare it to track “38. Order Theme.” Similar, but one is clearly a dark march. If the theme were to take a militaristic/dark march shift or have an alternate track, I’d like something in the same spirit of track 38, only a little less evil paladin and a little more demonic legionnaire, while still guided by Bry’cel’s leitmotif.

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Brycel: It sounds like an interesting project. As for your question, it’s really up to you. One long song offers a much greater opportunity to write a coherent and dramatic piece of music, while two shorter songs can be much more targeted and direct. This also means both shorter songs probably won’t be that exciting, as you have some very specific requests in terms of mood and themes. I personally feel like I will probably make something better with one long song, but if you really want a loop able thing, I can do the other way. As for pricing, I’d say 40,000 is appropriate, as you’ll either get what is essentially two standard commisions, or one song which is 5-10 minutes long, which is at least double the length of a standard tune. This will also take me a bit longer, as I can’t crank out a ten minute tune in 2 hours like I do with a lot of these, but I welcome the opportunity. I haven’t done a lot of uniform thematic based writing, so it would be a fun change.
But ultimately, I’ll do whichever one you want, based on what I’ve said here.

1 Like
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Excellent! I agree entirely with your reasoning, and as per your recommendation, I will formally request one long song. Your price fits perfectly into my budget and I know it’ll be worth every copper. That said, take your time. I understand fully why this could be a while.