I compose my own music for my game..all with wav''s mixed into mp3''s, i dont do MIDI. [ samples can be found at www.geocities.com/~magux_prime/music.html ] However the principles of composition are the same. You have a main working melody. In fact the melody you have works more as an introduction theme that could build into something else. If you want i could do a simple mix of that melody into a 20 or 30 second song to show you an example. email jorganadar@hotmail.com

oops got the webpage wrong. samples are at http://www.geocities.com/magux_prime/music.html

Kylotan- great post. I think that you did as best as anyone could to basically describe orchestral music without trivializing it. I''m really impressed.

I don''t have MIDI capabilities right now, but Monday I will download your file and check it out. What I can say right now it that orchestral music relies on frequecy holes and dedicated roles of instruments (basically) to sound right. Keep your melody louder in volume and in a different octave than your accompanying figures. Keep your chord voicings open when using a computer and try and find the highest quality samples you can. I don''t know what you''re going to write this for, but getting access to a high quality sampler might be your best bet. When I was younger and had less money, I would write all my music on a crappy soundcard synth, then go and buy a really expensive sampler/synthesizer with my credit card. I would spend a weekend recording my tunes to CD with that keyboard and then take back the synthesizer. I didn''t do it that many times, but it really helped me to get some good sounding recordings.