I need a really epic song idea.

Write your own.

Melectric, by Ramona Falls.

What is it for? Understanding the material that will be paired with it, will help with song choice.

Moondance by Nightwish and The Dead Sea by Saviour Machine are the best instrumentals under four minutes that I know of. I’d like to know how a song under four minutes could be epic though, all the truly epic songs I know are between 7 and 24 minutes.

the “Marche Eslave” is a great dramatic piece by Tchaikovsky. I’d recommend an excerpt from it, even though we have no clue what your material is.

@rangerr – Definitely not.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard – That song is awesome, except it has singing. I need this to be instrumental. Is there anyway to get that without the words? Haha

@rpmpseudonym – It’s a short film I’m making about a man who is about to die and he’s flashback from his life. The flashbacks start off slow, but gradually build up and get faster and faster until he dies. Which is the climax.

@iam2smart99037 – Great song, thanks!

@crystalvegan, I dunno, there may be some karaoke program that will let you strip the vocals.

@FireMadeFlesh – The whole song doesn’t have to be under 4 minutes, I just basically need under four minutes of it leading up to the climax.

Love is Blue by Paul Mauriat

@davidbetterman – Fantastic!

Is The Ride of the Valkyries, by Richard Wagner recognizable?

This is all I can suggest at the moment. It’s a bit over 4 minutes though.

Regardless of if it is unknown or not, if you use it, you need the artist’s permission. Otherwise you are just a petty thief.

Maybe L490 by 30 Seconds to Mars?

When you get to this search result, click the play button that appears first. If you go directly to Lala, it will ask you to make an account.

@Keysha: nonsense.

@crystalvegan In that case, try the introduction to A Change of Seasons by Dream Theater. It is 4:36 till the vocals start, but you can chop it down quite effectively. Your best bet in my opinion is probably Elegy by Becoming the Archetype though. It has a brilliant instrumental from 5:30 to its finish at 11:14, with an amazing build up. Again that is quite a bit over the four minutes, but you can chop some of the piano off and start at 7:14 if you like.

My biggest question is: “What’s this for?”

If it’s a school project that no one’s ever going to see, and you won’t even remember doing in a few years, I’d suggest listening to Fate’s Warning’s “Pleasant Shade of Grey” album/song, and finding a bit you like.

If it’s something you’re hoping to market, perhaps you could scour MySpace for young talent, and offer one of them the chance to appear in your film for portfolio and exposure?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeaVs6aMlSI

@the100thmonkey As someone that has done graphic work and had it turn up as almost public domain by thieves, I can say you must be one of those that feels that anything you can get your hands on, where no one can stop you, it is yours.

It may be nonsense to you, but to someone else, it may be their attempt to make a living. If you are so petty you need to steal from an unknown, or little known person, then you are more pathetic than anything else.

@Keysha – It’s for a school assignment, not for sale, so I’m not actually stealing anything. Also, I only want it unknown so people don’t start making immediate associations with the music when they should be concentrating on my film.

I’m a photographer, and I know all about copyright. I’m not stealing, and this is for my portfolio only. In no way would I take the song, and call it my own.

@Seek_Kolinahr – This is just for a school assignment, but it will always be in my portfolio. I just don’t want the song super recognizable….I don’t want the viewer thinking about the music when they should be thinking about my film. I want it to enhance, not steal attention away.

@Mike_Hunt – Haha That was awesome. I haven’t heard that in forever.

@bob_ – Yeah, it’s pretty recognizable, but still great. Thanks!

@monocle – That was beautiful. I’ve never heard of them, thanks a lot!

@Fred931 – Thanks for the song, I hadn’t heard that one. It was great.

@crystalvegan I used to think 30 Seconds to Mars was all dark metal, until I checked out this album on Napster. Try some other songs from the same album, they have similar qualities to each other, but L490 seemed a bit far-fetched from the rest to me.

@Keysha: Actually, I write my own music and make it available under a Creative Commons license. It’s impossible to ‘steal’ what I write because I set the conditions such that people can use it and abuse it without prior consent.

I told you you were talking nonsense because you are, for several reasons:

1. Theft is depriving someone of something they possess. Copying something doesn’t do this. You should check your definitions before calling people out on things. It’s not even “piracy” because piracy is defined as the making of profit from distributing someone else’s work without their permission. Check your facts.

2. Putting a song into a school film as a soundtrack for an academic, non-commercial, scholarly assignment without prior consent is not ‘theft’ – it’s fair use. I suggest you read up on it before posting something tangential to the thread that just makes you appear to be an angry, combative person with nothing to add.

3. As it stands, if I choose to copy something, it’s not “mine” – it strikes me as rather strange to claim ownership of a string of 1s and 0s. In the example of music, should I buy it? Yes. Do I? Yes. Would I be a thief if I copied a song? No. Am I a thief? No, but thanks for calling me one.

You have a great debating style~

In short, I suggest that you calm down and read the thread before posting, as your first comment on this thread was nonsense.

@crystalvegan: Cups, by Underworld. It’s a bit long (11:45), but it builds into an interesting climax starting at around 7:45.

@the100thmonkey I believe that is the first time that I have ever seen the ~ used to denote sarcasm.

@the100thmonkey You need to check a few facts as well. Just because you decide to post your works under a creative commons license does not mean everyone would. At the point of my post, the asker had not specified that it was for a school assignment, but only that it was for a short film.

As far as ‘theft’ versus ‘copying’, the massive number of lawsuits the recording industry is putting out over P2P ‘sharing’ says you are wrong. When it comes to digital media, the difference is more subtle. If you own the original works, either by creativity or by purchase, you may copy it for your own use. If you do not own the original then for you to copy it is, in fact, theft. If you wish to nitpick it is copyright infringement. copyright Infringement .

If you care to debate this issue with me further, I would be happy to. I do not recall calling you, specifically, a thief. I said, if you check, if you use a work without the artist’s permission, you are a petty thief. At the point I said that, I again point out, the asker had not said it was for school. The sticky point, even with that, is that the asker is not a teacher, but is using it for classwork.

According to the fair use act: * the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes—uses in nonprofit educational institutions are more likely to be fair use than works used for commercial purposes, but not all educational uses are fair use.

* the nature of the copyrighted work—reproducing a factual work is more likely to be fair use than a creative work such as a musical composition

You are upset because you feel I called you a thief, yet you continue to say I spout nonsense, without checking how much of what I say is true. I think you have no room to cry foul.

@the100thmonkey – I love that! Thank you!