Dominion Strategy Forum

Miscellaneous => General Discussion => Topic started by: Elanchana on October 05, 2014, 12:36:20 pm

Title: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on October 05, 2014, 12:36:20 pm
I know there are some musicians on here, so post your stuff~! Or just talk about music. That's cool too.

Here's my SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana). It's mostly limited to pop/electronic stuff that I make on Reason but I do do classical as well.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on October 05, 2014, 12:51:20 pm
I created a piano piece once, but I never wrote sheet music for it. I did perform it twice on family celebrations though. that's all I got.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 05, 2014, 01:17:20 pm
Well, you can always check out my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhej89fykCoIhm5bMbhNxg) if you haven't already.

Also, I'm the composer (and the drummer and a lot of other stuff as well) in an avant-garde/industrial/folk metal band, we have 9 full-length albums and one minialbum composed but we're still in the middle of recording the first one, so nothing to post.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: sudgy on October 05, 2014, 03:27:13 pm
There's also my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEo_JfTH_9FK-7k9-mAWJkQ).
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on October 05, 2014, 03:32:42 pm
There's also my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEo_JfTH_9FK-7k9-mAWJkQ).
you can't play piano. you have no fingers. or hands.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Dsell on October 05, 2014, 04:14:47 pm
There's also my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEo_JfTH_9FK-7k9-mAWJkQ).
you can't play piano. you have no fingers. or hands.

How ableist of you.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 15, 2015, 06:06:16 pm
There are two things that I've always been wondering*: 1) How to make D'n'B songs sound good and 2) what is the purpose of sampled drum loops. I just found the answer to both of these questions and now I feel super dumb.

*: actually more than two but only two are relevant for this story.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: werothegreat on May 15, 2015, 06:23:18 pm
Yeah, I also compose.

https://soundcloud.com/werothegreat
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 18, 2015, 12:46:20 pm
My SoundCloud (http://www.soundcloud.com/seprix)
This is where I have almost 90 songs as of this post though:

www.seprix.newgrounds.com/audio
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 18, 2015, 12:53:00 am
I know there are some musicians on here, so post your stuff~! Or just talk about music. That's cool too.

Here's my SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana). It's mostly limited to pop/electronic stuff that I make on Reason but I do do classical as well.

Heh. Do do.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: werothegreat on June 20, 2015, 01:45:38 pm
I know there are some musicians on here, so post your stuff~! Or just talk about music. That's cool too.

Here's my SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana). It's mostly limited to pop/electronic stuff that I make on Reason but I do do classical as well.

Heh. Do do.

This sentiment fits well with your avatar.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 20, 2015, 01:53:15 pm
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 20, 2015, 03:00:44 pm
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP

I have commented on wero's music and your music before.


I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 20, 2015, 03:01:01 pm
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP
I think some of Awaclus' stuff is pretty good :P
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 20, 2015, 04:33:15 pm
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP

I have commented on wero's music and your music before.


I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Where did you comment on my stuff? :p don't think I ever saw it.

I need to check out your stuff.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 20, 2015, 04:46:20 pm
Where did you comment on my stuff? :p don't think I ever saw it.

I think it was in the Random Stuff II thread. Good luck finding it from there.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: pacovf on June 20, 2015, 05:29:08 pm
I believe I am a virtuoso of the triangle, if I may say so myself.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on June 21, 2015, 07:12:46 am
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP

I have commented on wero's music and your music before.


I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Thanks for the compliment. I put my pop music on SoundCloud because it's what I most enjoy making and it's where I'm most likely to get noticed by anything close to the mainstream. However, if you want variety...
The Qui Domi soundtrack (https://soundcloud.com/caitikoi/sets/qui-domi-sample-audio) is my attempt to mix my composition training with Reason's DIY and electronic nature. This (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/amazement) is sort of the same thing, though that one's a bit more just playing around.
Hide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRMb1z5zQpk) and Rise Up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXNxr76GhDE) are some of my more rock-influenced songs (I was really into Oasis at the time). I actually want to remake Hide on my own, with a sound similar to my friend's songs All On My Own (https://soundcloud.com/madridistagoblue/all-on-my-own) or Can't Lose the Faith (https://soundcloud.com/madridistagoblue/cant-lose-the-faith), both of which I produced.
Until We Meet Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UER8ASWFpo) is my one jazz song. Here's a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2vfM_U7FTU) of an actual jazz singer and combo performing it at an open jam.
(And now you guys have all seen my face. It was bound to happen at some point.)

I guess I'll take this opportunity to comment on everybody else's stuff, though please be aware that I'm TERRIBLE at giving actual feedback unless you specifically ask for super objective critique.
@Awaclus: Metal isn't normally my thing, but I do like the gothic (medieval?) flavor to the chords and some of the layered sounds. I like the way you mix the wildly different genres in your covers.
@sudgy: Better pianist than me by a mile. It looks like you transcribed those pieces yourself, which is extra awesome.
@werothegreat: You use the timbres in your large scale pieces really effectively, although it's tough to hear what the final sound is with just midi - please tell me you've looked for a real orchestra to play these at some point! My one critique is that you sometimes get locked into one key area for a bit too long (I have this problem too in my classical writing), but when you do modulate it sounds refreshing and pretty great. Random question: Have you ever considered adding a top melody/descant to Fairer Than a Burning Lily? It sounds like it would make a fantastic art song.
@Seprix: I know you already.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 21, 2015, 07:30:15 am
(And now you guys have all seen my face. It was bound to happen at some point.)

blp? (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9959.msg426068#msg426068)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 11:59:19 am
How come no one is praising my music? Or Wero? Or Ela!? WE DEMAND WORSHIP

I have commented on wero's music and your music before.


I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Is there something wrong with liking pop music? You can't force someone to be influenced by something, we all like what we like and it's unfair to judge someone else based on your tastes.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on June 21, 2015, 11:59:54 am
(And now you guys have all seen my face. It was bound to happen at some point.)

blp? (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9959.msg426068#msg426068)

That was only half my face.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 21, 2015, 12:04:45 pm
I'm sure the whole forum has been dying to see the other half
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 01:10:07 pm
Is there something wrong with liking pop music? You can't force someone to be influenced by something, we all like what we like and it's unfair to judge someone else based on your tastes.

No, I like pop music too. I was specifically talking about mainstream pop (Taylor Swift etc). There isn't anything wrong with liking that kind of music either — it's pretty hard to not like the songs you've heard over and over again, and it's pretty hard to not hear the songs over and over again. However, composing and producing that kind of music is a bit of a waste if you can't force people to hear them over and over again, because otherwise it's incredibly difficult to make people interested in something that doesn't really stand out in any way.

I'm not trying to force Ela to be influenced by anything in particular, or anything at all. I'm just saying what I think is true.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 01:25:20 pm
You're stating your opinion and then trying to force your opinion onto her like it's fact. Also, you don't know anything about what her influences are just from listening to a couple songs, so don't act like you do. Not cool.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 21, 2015, 01:40:14 pm
Really, guys?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 02:09:34 pm
Yeah really. Did you read Ela's last post? The first half is pretty much an apology. No young artist should ever feel like they need to apologize for their art. That really bothers me.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 02:21:49 pm
You're stating your opinion and then trying to force your opinion onto her like it's fact. Also, you don't know anything about what her influences are just from listening to a couple songs, so don't act like you do. Not cool.

That's because it's not an opinion, it is a fact. I believe it is true and I've explained the logic behind it. It doesn't have anything to do with my personal tastes.

Her influences are pointless (to others, anyway) if they can't be heard in her music.

Yeah really. Did you read Ela's last post? The first half is pretty much an apology. No young artist should ever feel like they need to apologize for their art. That really bothers me.

I don't think Ela has a reason to apologize.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 21, 2015, 02:23:21 pm
Come on.

I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Do you honestly mean to tell us that something is wrong with this piece of feedback?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on June 21, 2015, 02:27:40 pm
Is there something wrong with liking pop music? You can't force someone to be influenced by something, we all like what we like and it's unfair to judge someone else based on your tastes.

No, I like pop music too. I was specifically talking about mainstream pop (Taylor Swift etc). There isn't anything wrong with liking that kind of music either — it's pretty hard to not like the songs you've heard over and over again, and it's pretty hard to not hear the songs over and over again. However, composing and producing that kind of music is a bit of a waste if you can't force people to hear them over and over again, because otherwise it's incredibly difficult to make people interested in something that doesn't really stand out in any way.

I'm not trying to force Ela to be influenced by anything in particular, or anything at all. I'm just saying what I think is true.

You know, actually, I feel really weird when I listen to actual mainstream pop music. Stuff that sounds like it is fine - that's why I'm so into Eurovision artists because I genuinely do like the sound - but walking around listening to music that I know everyone around me knows makes me feel like I'm being judged, and that in turn makes me feel guilty for liking it. In fact, my song Guilty is all about that feeling in relation to a particular mainstream artist. I'm trying to get over this, because I need mainstream songs to cover on the street, but it still happens a lot. (Speaking of which, does anyone have recommendations for popular songs that are looper-friendly? My setlist still needs some work.)

In terms of my own music, each finished track/demo comes about in a few different ways. For some, I know exactly what kind of sound I want and it's a matter of getting close to it; for some, I hear a certain setting on Reason and base the sound around that; and for some, I have no idea what I want and I just try a few random things until I find something decent. I try extremely hard not to make all my songs sound too similar, but my writing is always my writing and the same trends are going to show up eventually.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 03:10:42 pm
Come on.

I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Do you honestly mean to tell us that something is wrong with this piece of feedback?

Yes. First of all, she never asked for feedback, but Awaclus comes in, tells her she's playing an inferior style of music (which he just claimed was a fact, not opinion) and that she should probably "get influenced" by other music, implying that he has a myriad of worldly influences and Ela doesn't, and just acting like the resident music authority. This led Ela to say "hey wait, I have other music too!", essentially apologizing for her pop tunes and trying to prove she has other influences. Why do you think she would make a post like that if she didn't feel like her music and her credability was being attacked?

I don't think anyone deserves to feel that way, especially a young female artist. So I think Awaclus owes Ela an apology.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on June 21, 2015, 03:31:33 pm
To clarify, I do welcome critique, but if you take a knock at my aesthetic choices, I'm gonna get defensive because that's what I do.

In this particular situation I'm also inclined to get defensive about pop music in general, because so many people make it sound like an inherently bad thing when it's just as legitimate as other musical genres. It just has different values than, say, classical or folk or rock or something. Part of what makes pop music so popular is that it values the "hook", which is guaranteed to make an impression. Of course I like it for more than that, but still.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 21, 2015, 04:35:37 pm
Come on.

I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Do you honestly mean to tell us that something is wrong with this piece of feedback?

Yes. First of all, she never asked for feedback, but Awaclus comes in, tells her she's playing an inferior style of music (which he just claimed was a fact, not opinion) and that she should probably "get influenced" by other music, implying that he has a myriad of worldly influences and Ela doesn't, and just acting like the resident music authority. This led Ela to say "hey wait, I have other music too!", essentially apologizing for her pop tunes and trying to prove she has other influences. Why do you think she would make a post like that if she didn't feel like her music and her credability was being attacked?

I don't think anyone deserves to feel that way, especially a young female artist. So I think Awaclus owes Ela an apology.

mh... okay.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 04:51:25 pm
Come on.

I suppose I could comment on Ela's music now. It's not bad; there's clearly some talent there. However, it sounds a lot like mainstream pop. It might be a good idea to get influenced by a wider variety of genres to make the music a little bit more interesting.

Do you honestly mean to tell us that something is wrong with this piece of feedback?

Yes. First of all, she never asked for feedback, but Awaclus comes in, tells her she's playing an inferior style of music (which he just claimed was a fact, not opinion) and that she should probably "get influenced" by other music, implying that he has a myriad of worldly influences and Ela doesn't, and just acting like the resident music authority. This led Ela to say "hey wait, I have other music too!", essentially apologizing for her pop tunes and trying to prove she has other influences. Why do you think she would make a post like that if she didn't feel like her music and her credability was being attacked?

I don't think anyone deserves to feel that way, especially a young female artist. So I think Awaclus owes Ela an apology.

I'm by no means an authority, but I do have a lot of experience about this particular subject. As a composer, the #1 challenge I've always been struggling with is making my songs interesting enough, and I've tried out a lot of different things from rapidly changing time signatures to polytonality in order to make the music more interesting. Getting into a lot of different genres and becoming familiar enough with them that different elements from different genres find their way to all of my compositions naturally has been a lot more useful than anything else I've tried, which is why I chose to recommend that instead of polymeters or something. I actually became interested in a lot of different subgenres of pop because of that idea, you can hear it in many of my songs and I think it makes them better.

To clarify, I do welcome critique, but if you take a knock at my aesthetic choices, I'm gonna get defensive because that's what I do.

In this particular situation I'm also inclined to get defensive about pop music in general, because so many people make it sound like an inherently bad thing when it's just as legitimate as other musical genres. It just has different values than, say, classical or folk or rock or something. Part of what makes pop music so popular is that it values the "hook", which is guaranteed to make an impression. Of course I like it for more than that, but still.

To be absolutely clear, I was only referring to the specific kind of pop music whose popularity is based on marketing, not the merits of the actual music. Pop in general is great, otherwise I wouldn't be making covers of pop songs.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 04:54:15 pm
Thank you for sharing your compositional experience. You still owe Ela an apology.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 05:10:39 pm
Thank you for sharing your compositional experience. You still owe Ela an apology.

I don't happen to share your belief that young females are unable to handle constructive criticism.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 05:13:57 pm
Thank you for sharing your compositional experience. You still owe Ela an apology.

I don't happen to share your belief that young females are unable to handle constructive criticism.

This isn't about how Ela handles herself, this is about you being insulting and rude to her and her music.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 05:20:18 pm
Thank you for sharing your compositional experience. You still owe Ela an apology.

I don't happen to share your belief that young females are unable to handle constructive criticism.

This isn't about how Ela handles herself, this is about you being insulting and rude to her and her music.

I haven't been insulting and rude towards her and her music. I've said mostly positive things about her music and nothing at all about her.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AndrewisFTTW on June 21, 2015, 05:30:54 pm
Well you should probably go back and read what you said, and imagine yourself in Ela's place. I have a hard time believing you would take it as a compliment.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 05:36:21 pm
Well you should probably go back and read what you said, and imagine yourself in Ela's place. I have a hard time believing you would take it as a compliment.

Why wouldn't I?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on June 21, 2015, 05:43:03 pm
Thank you for sharing your compositional experience. You still owe Ela an apology.

I don't happen to share your belief that young females are unable to handle constructive criticism.

This isn't about how Ela handles herself, this is about you being insulting and rude to her and her music.

Dude, let it go. I think Awa's justified himself enough by now. Even though I'm of the strict opinion that there's no real difference between mainstream and obscure pop, I get where he's trying to go with this. I'm really grateful for the defense but I think we can move on.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 21, 2015, 05:55:52 pm
Most pop music is cliche sounding. If there's a pop song with some new fresh melody, I'm down for it. Sad thing is, most pop music is made to be catchy and simplistic. I don't like that as much.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 21, 2015, 05:57:51 pm
Most pop music is cliche sounding. If there's a pop song with some new fresh melody, I'm down for it. Sad thing is, most pop music is made to be catchy and simplistic. I don't like that as much.

Try this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUaCvyFPR5c
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 21, 2015, 06:21:48 pm
(...) Even though I'm of the strict opinion that there's no real difference between mainstream and obscure pop (...)

what. what?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 21, 2015, 11:35:15 pm
I've decided to post a few newer songs I made, and comment on them a bit. I'd like some thoughts on them, you know, for self-improvement.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/electronic-sea

This song is Electronic Sea, and yes, it's a bit repetitive. That's a personal demon I don't like, but do anyways because I'm pretty lazy. I admit this song could have more variation. I still like it though.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/the-enigma

This song is The Enigma, and I really like it, because it sounds like a movie. I could totally imagine this in a Interstellar/Gravity movie clone.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/castle-crashers-peacetime

This song it named 'Castle Crashers- Peacetime' because it was for a NG contest, really. I like the composition, and unlike most of my song, it has a lot of variation.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/tom-fulp-goes-to-heaven

Another contest for NG. This one is also repetitive, but it's more dance orientated, so I feel like I could get away with it.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/composition-03

A piano piece, and one I'm the most proud of.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/sol-avenger

Made this one for a video game demo. I like the tune, probably could be a bit better, but hey.

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/penelopes-theme

Also 'remastered' one of Elanchana's songs once. I think it came out horribly, but everyone seems to love it, so eh.


So yeah. Posted it smaller so it didn't seem as much like spam. And yeah, I'm totally self-promoting. Seriously though, point me somewhere to what you guys make, I'll click it and watch.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: WalrusMcFishSr on June 22, 2015, 02:21:02 am
I just wanted to say that I listened to a bunch of the stuff posted in this thread and found it to be quite excellent. All art is a matter of taste but there can never be too much music in the world. Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on June 22, 2015, 12:25:30 pm
It's nice to have very complex music. But when presenting your work, as an artist, you need to give viewer/listener the right to decide if they like it or not. And you need to be able to take the negative opinions. That being said, when critiquing always make it sound more positive than condescending or pretentious. Say how it can be improved in your eyes, and always be sure to make it seem like it's not a fact. Writing is hard too, since we lose intonation in the words and they can sound worse than the intention.

I'd post the small recording I have of me playing, but it's so much work to put them on youtube :P
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: SwitchedFromStarcraft on June 22, 2015, 10:41:34 pm
I believe I am a virtuoso of the triangle, if I may say so myself.
Needs more cowbell.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 22, 2015, 10:43:27 pm
I believe I am a virtuoso of the triangle, if I may say so myself.
Needs more cowbell.

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/-marhari-/MoreCowbell.jpg)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 24, 2015, 02:00:29 pm
My band's debut minialbum was just released on Bandcamp as a free download.

https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/anti-puppet-theory
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: werothegreat on June 24, 2015, 03:24:36 pm
@werothegreat: You use the timbres in your large scale pieces really effectively, although it's tough to hear what the final sound is with just midi - please tell me you've looked for a real orchestra to play these at some point! My one critique is that you sometimes get locked into one key area for a bit too long (I have this problem too in my classical writing), but when you do modulate it sounds refreshing and pretty great. Random question: Have you ever considered adding a top melody/descant to Fairer Than a Burning Lily? It sounds like it would make a fantastic art song.

Thanks very much!  And I have tried to get real orchestras to play my music, with limited success.  As for Fairer Than a Burning Lily, there are lyrics to it (found in the book I wrote (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Globe-Tyr-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00LR1SZAS/)), and I'm planning on making a track of my singing the melody to it at some point.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 24, 2015, 04:11:22 pm
My band's debut minialbum was just released on Bandcamp as a free download.

https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/anti-puppet-theory

which of the members is you? you have a list but you don't use 'Awaclus'
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 24, 2015, 04:18:24 pm
My band's debut minialbum was just released on Bandcamp as a free download.

https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/anti-puppet-theory

which of the members is you? you have a list but you don't use 'Awaclus'

I'm the Pietari Virtanen one.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 25, 2015, 10:44:28 am
Is there an instrumental version of the album?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 25, 2015, 11:03:41 am
Is there an instrumental version of the album?

No, except for that one trance remix. We also had the idea of making an acoustic folk version of the titular track and an orchestral version of 20% Bonus Damage (Doesn't Stack), but I'm not sure if we're motivated enough to actually make those.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on June 25, 2015, 11:33:41 am
Mh, I somehow thought producers had all elements of the song as separate layers and could remove them easily

anyway, blackfish is a cool song. could maybe afford to be shorter though. self-titled I think I'd prefer without vocals.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 25, 2015, 11:52:58 am
Mh, I somehow thought producers had all elements of the song as separate layers and could remove them easily

Well, I had them. Then I got rid of them because that's easier than trying to keep an organized collection of old recordings that I probably won't even need.

Thanks for the feedback though!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 25, 2015, 12:16:52 pm
Mh, I somehow thought producers had all elements of the song as separate layers and could remove them easily

anyway, blackfish is a cool song. could maybe afford to be shorter though. self-titled I think I'd prefer without vocals.

We do, but of course, if you remove the file, you're boned.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on July 01, 2015, 01:49:39 pm
I finally got around to producing another track last night (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno). I'm really proud of this song - I wrote it in one day while stuck at home and it's one of my best lyric jobs to date. Of course the form is kind of repetitive, but it was a stream-of-consciousness song at the time and I think that goes well with it.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 01, 2015, 01:56:40 pm
I finally got around to producing another track last night (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno). I'm really proud of this song - I wrote it in one day while stuck at home and it's one of my best lyric jobs to date. Of course the form is kind of repetitive, but it was a stream-of-consciousness song at the time and I think that goes well with it.

1. I cannot download it.
2. It does feel a bit repetitive in the beginning, but repetition is not always bad. I just feel like more can be going on.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 01, 2015, 08:23:39 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um6m_GuqPMs

Today is my 20th birthday. Which is why it was super appropriate to make a cover of this song today! Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but seijin no hi isn't celebrated here and I don't have a furisode and it would be weird for me to wear one anway, so it's close enough.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 03, 2015, 10:59:46 pm
Yo yo.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: SwitchedFromStarcraft on July 04, 2015, 12:06:52 pm
Ma?  Is that you?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 13, 2015, 08:25:36 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/save-me-from-the-retro-demo

Made this in about an hour. Only a demo.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on July 13, 2015, 10:15:26 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/save-me-from-the-retro-demo

Made this in about an hour. Only a demo.

Cool! Got sort of a dissonant quality to it.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: LibraryAdventurer on July 13, 2015, 11:20:47 pm
I don't make much music of my own (I have written a couple songs but never bothered to record them), but I do enjoy sharing playlists of music I like. If you look you'll notice I have a kind of eclectic taste in music, including a lot of Christian music.

https://www.youtube.com/user/will2asher/playlists?view=1&flow=list&sort=lad

Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 13, 2015, 11:21:35 pm
I don't make much music of my own (I have written a couple songs but never bothered to record them), but I do enjoy sharing playlists of music I like. If you look you'll notice I have a kind of eclectic taste in music, including a lot of Christian music.

Your video does not exist.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: LibraryAdventurer on July 13, 2015, 11:26:05 pm
No. Well, maybe. Actually, it does.

(I noticed that, but I just fixed the link. Was hoping no one would notice in the meantime...)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 13, 2015, 11:35:27 pm
No. Well, maybe. Actually, it does.

(I noticed that, but I just fixed the link. Was hoping no one would notice in the meantime...)

Everyone seems to love my signature quote, despite me never ever saying that phrase until I put it into my signature on a whim.

EDIT: Club Penguin too OP
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: SwitchedFromStarcraft on July 14, 2015, 01:41:59 pm
Ok, now it's my turn to ask - how did this not get any upvotes?

Ma?  Is that you?

Too obvious?  Too obscure?  I should have quoted #60 in my post?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 14, 2015, 10:37:45 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/sol-avenger-journey
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 15, 2015, 05:28:06 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZVg-AXFjs

Made this in about 47 hours.

EDIT: If anyone has time, I would like to receive feedback especially about the drum sounds (the main drum sounds especially; not the breakbeats, although I guess why not the breakbeats too), the guitar sounds and the vocal sounds, since I totally stepped out of my comfort zone with those here.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 15, 2015, 11:42:06 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZVg-AXFjs

Made this in about 47 hours.

EDIT: If anyone has time, I would like to receive feedback especially about the drum sounds (the main drum sounds especially; not the breakbeats, although I guess why not the breakbeats too), the guitar sounds and the vocal sounds, since I totally stepped out of my comfort zone with those here.

This is going to sound odd, but it sounds like something straight out of Super Smash Bros, like one of those Metal mixes of some song from some Japan Only thing. And I like it. It's pretty nice.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 16, 2015, 06:49:58 am
This is going to sound odd, but it sounds like something straight out of Super Smash Bros, like one of those Metal mixes of some song from some Japan Only thing. And I like it. It's pretty nice.

Thanks for the feedback. Could you say anything about the sound design?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Spellbound on July 16, 2015, 09:19:59 am
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

I listened to some of Elanchana's stuff and they are really enjoyable, I will listen to more in my free time. Awesome thread :)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 16, 2015, 11:14:56 am
This is going to sound odd, but it sounds like something straight out of Super Smash Bros, like one of those Metal mixes of some song from some Japan Only thing. And I like it. It's pretty nice.

Thanks for the feedback. Could you say anything about the sound design?

My ears aren't great at this yet. There could be improvements but nothing drastic. I'll listen again when I have time.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 16, 2015, 11:15:31 am
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

I listened to some of Elanchana's stuff and they are really enjoyable, I will listen to more in my free time. Awesome thread :)

Will listen soon. I will boost the musical community.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 16, 2015, 12:01:33 pm
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

Pretty good stuff! Spicy Merchant sounds a little counterintuitive to me, but I like the older ones a lot.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 17, 2015, 11:53:06 pm
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

I listened to some of Elanchana's stuff and they are really enjoyable, I will listen to more in my free time. Awesome thread :)

Holy cow, Spicy Merchant is really really weird. And I can't say I like it that much. It's just too much at once. About 1:20, it devolves into something I can't really get behind. It all clashes and is very dissonant. I love dissonant music, but you're adding a bit too much I think. It's very very odd, and I commend you for trying something unique, but I don't like it.

The Rains Of Castamere songs are nicer sounding. I am noticing something odd here in comparison with your last song, but both underlie a problem that I can point to. In Spicy Merchant, there was too much going on. In this song, there is too little going on. There needs to be stronger percussion power via mixing, but the real issue I have is the lack of melody. We need more instruments. More music. I do like the voices though.

Spectre: I like this one the best so far, because it has something I can groove to. There's background melody, the percussion is nice, the dissonance you love using actually works because it's not as cutting.

Giraffe is unique and interesting. I like it. It's atmospheric, and the weird sounds are enough to pass without too much melody, but I wouldn't listen to this again because there isn't anything to go back for. There's no layer of melody.

That BT - Dreaming song sounds amazing, but I don't know if it's all your work or not.

I like the audio splicing and editing you do, and you seem to like doing this a lot, but again, I would work on musical composition and melody, (and mixing, but that's complex and not as important until you get more basic musical foundations down). You also embrace the odd. I love this. Keep at it, but don't be afraid to venture into the 'ordinary' sometimes and mix elements of both into your songs.

I also scouted you on Newgrounds. :)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Spellbound on July 18, 2015, 01:58:15 am
Dreaming isn't mine. It's Brian Transeau's work, I just put it there for my friends :P. If you like it you should check out his albums, Movement in Still Life is his best and Ima is awesome if you are into trance.

To Seprix, I would like to make more melodic based stuff. But often when I do, I would find it being cliché and just move on to have fun making 'that things you witnessed in my SC'. There is still some of melodic project, but it is going realrealreal slow. Anyways, your comments help me pretty much. Thank you.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: SwitchedFromStarcraft on July 18, 2015, 07:26:23 am
Ima is awesome if you are into trance.
I have only heard a bit of trance (about 15 years ago in a head shop in Seattle) but I really liked it. I never dug any deeper though, and have no idea who I was listening to.  Can anyone suggest a few artists or CDs to get an overview?

Also, what are the differences between "trance", "house", and "drums and bass"? 

Note: these questions are not addressed just to Spellbound.  Please comment - I need some fresh music.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 18, 2015, 07:45:52 am
Ima is awesome if you are into trance.
I have only heard a bit of trance (about 15 years ago in a head shop in Seattle) but I really liked it. I never dug any deeper though, and have no idea who I was listening to.  Can anyone suggest a few artists or CDs to get an overview?

Also, what are the differences between "trance", "house", and "drums and bass"? 

Note: these questions are not addressed just to Spellbound.  Please comment - I need some fresh music.

For trance artists, I think the best way to discover them is to listen to DJ sets on YouTube (they usually have the songs listed in the description). Here's one for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCfvgeeT58

Trance is around (usually exactly) 140 bpm, usually very melodic and atmospheric, rhythmically simple, uses a lot of four-on-the-floor beats, and the song structures are based around hook melodies more than other genres of EDM.

There's a very wide variety of different sub genres of house, but the basic characteristics are four-on-the-floor beats and strong emphasis on the rhythm, which is repetitive but not necessarily simple. The structure is usually the traditional drop-based EDM song structure. A lot of house tracks are around 128 bpm.

Drum and bass is around 160-180 bpm, uses syncopated beats and usually breakbeats, has usually heavier sound design than trance or house, focuses a lot on the bass and sub bass lines, and its song structures are usually basically the drop-based structures, but the drop might be longer than in other genres (which makes up for the faster tempo). There are also many different sub genres of DnB, but the concrete differences between them, while significant, aren't really massive in the end.

EDIT: these are not scientific facts, just my own observations. Someone else might find different key elements about each genre.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Spellbound on July 18, 2015, 08:39:28 am
To be honest, I don't know much about Europian or American EDM. I would recommend searching for Darude (yes the sandstorm guy) and BT for start, their stuffs are easy to enjoy.
Also check Goldenscan's soundcloud, very classic trance.
https://soundcloud.com/goldenscan (https://soundcloud.com/goldenscan)

Awaclus' explanation is good. ;)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 26, 2015, 03:19:29 pm
This was my first attempt at producing drum 'n' bass. As usual, any feedback would be appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D73YgG20zf8
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on July 29, 2015, 08:27:38 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/techtronic
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Graystripe77 on August 07, 2015, 11:50:03 am
https://play.spotify.com/user/1261281899/starred

I don't even know what I like.

Edit: btw I write music too, mostly classical-esque piano/orchestral stuff.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on August 11, 2015, 10:30:54 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/638856

I got lazy and didn't finish it. I'll do it another day I guess.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on September 03, 2015, 08:19:15 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/normalize
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on September 04, 2015, 12:28:26 am
Finally finished another track! (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/anything)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on September 04, 2015, 12:45:32 am
Finally finished another track! (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/anything)

I like the lyrics. Sounds like the Beatles. Probably why I didn't like the actual implementation of the music as much. :p
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on September 04, 2015, 10:34:24 am
Something different than writing music, I tried teach drums to someone recently. From th real basics of holding a stick and which drums are called what. It's interesting to do, and I like teaching. I'm not sure how to go about teaching fundamentals, like told and double strokes, since I'm rusty on doing those myself.

Anyone else try teaching like this?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on September 04, 2015, 11:33:05 am
I had to give voice lessons last semester. Pedagogy class helped me through most of the technique stuff, but my student didn't have a very good ear and I've NEVER thought about how to match pitch before - I just do it. So there's that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on September 04, 2015, 12:22:29 pm
I had to give voice lessons last semester. Pedagogy class helped me through most of the technique stuff, but my student didn't have a very good ear and I've NEVER thought about how to match pitch before - I just do it. So there's that.

Yeah, a lot of feeling the time signature stuff is hard to teach, for drums. I think one of the best exercises is to get students to recognize things in music. Like ask students to indicate certain sounds in music, and to try to keep time while listening to music.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 04, 2015, 02:19:54 pm
Yeah, a lot of feeling the time signature stuff is hard to teach, for drums. I think one of the best exercises is to get students to recognize things in music. Like ask students to indicate certain sounds in music, and to try to keep time while listening to music.

That's definitely a smart thing to do. Being able to listen to music analytically is super important.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 10, 2015, 07:00:52 pm
What do you think about my pipa sound?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/pipa.mp3
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on October 10, 2015, 10:11:59 pm
What do you think about my pipa sound?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/pipa.mp3
Is that a custom patch? If so, that sounds really cool!

I've started trying my hand at custom patches on both SuperCollider and Reason... still need to know the ropes...

By the way, new track deedly dee (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-voices)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 10, 2015, 11:41:06 pm
What do you think about my pipa sound?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/pipa.mp3
Is that a custom patch? If so, that sounds really cool!

I've started trying my hand at custom patches on both SuperCollider and Reason... still need to know the ropes...

By the way, new track deedly dee (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-voices)

I'm not sure what you mean by patch; it's just a single Harmor with no post effects (although there was a point at which I was using a bunch of other stuff, but that didn't work out and then I removed everything and started over). But it is a custom sound that I made from a scratch today. I usually make all of my synth sounds that way, since it's more fun than going through all of the presets on all of the synths, and for the majority of the sounds that I make, it's also faster because like 95% of the sounds I use are just various kinds of supersaws anyway.

If you want to get into sound design, I would recommend SeamlessR's YouTube channel. Most of his videos are about EDM and he makes most of his sounds on the Image-Line synths, but he's really good at explaining the concepts and if you understand the concepts, you can make anything you want with almost anything you have.


Have you considered putting (more) reverb on the drum overheads? I think that might be a good idea, since now they sound a little bit dead, which reduces the uplifting impact of the drums coming in. The song itself is more interesting than your older songs, I think.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on October 10, 2015, 11:53:24 pm
What do you think about my pipa sound?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/pipa.mp3
Is that a custom patch? If so, that sounds really cool!

I've started trying my hand at custom patches on both SuperCollider and Reason... still need to know the ropes...

By the way, new track deedly dee (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-voices)

I'm not sure what you mean by patch; it's just a single Harmor with no post effects (although there was a point at which I was using a bunch of other stuff, but that didn't work out and then I removed everything and started over). But it is a custom sound that I made from a scratch today. I usually make all of my synth sounds that way, since it's more fun than going through all of the presets on all of the synths, and for the majority of the sounds that I make, it's also faster because like 95% of the sounds I use are just various kinds of supersaws anyway.

If you want to get into sound design, I would recommend SeamlessR's YouTube channel. Most of his videos are about EDM and he makes most of his sounds on the Image-Line synths, but he's really good at explaining the concepts and if you understand the concepts, you can make anything you want with almost anything you have.


Have you considered putting (more) reverb on the drum overheads? I think that might be a good idea, since now they sound a little bit dead, which reduces the uplifting impact of the drums coming in. The song itself is more interesting than your older songs, I think.
That's awesome. I'm not brave enough to make all my patches from scratch yet, because I can't account for nearly all of the variables. Most of what I do is take an already created Reason patch and screw with it so it doesn't completely match the original.

I did put varying degrees of reverb on the drums in The Voices - I really DIDN'T want a wet sound in that song and even turning up the reverb one degree too much made it wishy-washy. The drums were screwy in any case and I went through five different loops and a ton of individual samples before settling on sounds that didn't need much reverb to provide a thicker sound.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 11, 2015, 01:42:34 pm
That's awesome. I'm not brave enough to make all my patches from scratch yet, because I can't account for nearly all of the variables. Most of what I do is take an already created Reason patch and screw with it so it doesn't completely match the original.

I did put varying degrees of reverb on the drums in The Voices - I really DIDN'T want a wet sound in that song and even turning up the reverb one degree too much made it wishy-washy. The drums were screwy in any case and I went through five different loops and a ton of individual samples before settling on sounds that didn't need much reverb to provide a thicker sound.

You certainly don't have to use all of the variables. Just start by focusing on what kind of qualities are associated with the sound you're trying to make, and then figure out how to have those qualities in it. Especially for synthetic sounding instruments, you might need only a couple of things to make the sound.

I think the kick and snare sound fine as they are, I was just thinking of the cymbals mostly.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 11, 2015, 05:06:58 pm
Speaking of new tracks, I just finished one too (unrelated to the pipa).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBgkToaLSPk
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: scott_pilgrim on October 12, 2015, 12:23:41 am
If you want to get into sound design, I would recommend SeamlessR's YouTube channel. Most of his videos are about EDM and he makes most of his sounds on the Image-Line synths, but he's really good at explaining the concepts and if you understand the concepts, you can make anything you want with almost anything you have.

I can second the recommendation to check out SeamlessR's channel.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AdamH on October 16, 2015, 07:06:52 am
By the way, new track deedly dee (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-voices)

As you may have inferred by my +1s, I listen to your songs, Ela. I have to say that they keep getting better on pretty much all account IMO -- composition, instrumentation, especially your voice. I think you've really found your identity as a singer and it shows in your last two or three songs.

This one, in particular, it was over and I was like "NEAU!!!! ME WANT OEN MOAR CHORUS!!!" you know, a nice loud one? :P Probably a nice compliment that I didn't wan the song to end.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on October 16, 2015, 11:14:26 am
By the way, new track deedly dee (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-voices)

As you may have inferred by my +1s, I listen to your songs, Ela. I have to say that they keep getting better on pretty much all account IMO -- composition, instrumentation, especially your voice. I think you've really found your identity as a singer and it shows in your last two or three songs.

This one, in particular, it was over and I was like "NEAU!!!! ME WANT OEN MOAR CHORUS!!!" you know, a nice loud one? :P Probably a nice compliment that I didn't wan the song to end.

Well shucks, I'm speechless. 😊

I wanted The Voices to end like that - it's supposed to be a bit creepy, like "oh crap, is the song not about individuality and ACTUALLY ABOUT INSANITY?!?!" The answer is, of course, I don't know. I just said words. They're vague for a reason. *le shrug*

By the way, I'm doing a project called Cover to Cover (which is a huge cover-a-thon with other songwriters in the area) so I'll be uploading two tracks on November 5th. And I'm... sorta going all out with them.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on October 28, 2015, 05:54:13 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/starcatcher

https://soundcloud.com/seprix/8-bit-building

Stuff I made over the weekend.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on October 31, 2015, 06:39:01 pm
unrelated to anything recent, some more thoughts on anti-puppet theory...

I came to like it a lot more than I did initially, especially S/T. The opening melody is just so beautiful... for me it's kind of about... resignation? like, on one side, there's the fucked up stuff the song is about, and then on the other side there's the way you deal with it/what it does to you. it's kind of hard to articulate, dunno if that has anything to do with what you were going for.

I initially disliked the growls, but now I think they work well to build up contrast. Definitely couldn't have cleans, that would ruin it.

What I have the biggest problem with (that goes for the album) is that the songs tend to feel similar... and formulaic. You always have the memorable and main melody, and then the rest of the song is structured around that. well, I guess that's true for a lot of songs out there, but it just feels a little bit too blunt, maybe because of how it contrasts to the rest of the song... I can't really explain it completely, which is why I've been hesitant to say something at all, but either way I often feel like the remainder of the album are sort of weaker takes on what S/T was doing.

so yeah. oh, and I've concluded that S/T >> Blackfish > 20 bonus damage > Reboot

On another note, how serious are you with the lyrics? My initial guess was not much, but I'm less sure now seeing your new avatar...
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on November 01, 2015, 05:02:10 am
What I have the biggest problem with (that goes for the album) is that the songs tend to feel similar... and formulaic. You always have the memorable and main melody, and then the rest of the song is structured around that. well, I guess that's true for a lot of songs out there, but it just feels a little bit too blunt, maybe because of how it contrasts to the rest of the song... I can't really explain it completely, which is why I've been hesitant to say something at all, but either way I often feel like the remainder of the album are sort of weaker takes on what S/T was doing.

That's kind of interesting. The biggest problem that I have with it, besides the fact that the production quality is less than what I could do nowadays, is that the songs don't feel similar enough — it doesn't feel like an album, it feels like a collection of songs. Which is literally what it is too; Reboot and Bonus Damage were songs that just didn't fit on any of our full-length albums and weren't inspiring enough to compose entire full-length albums around, and Anti-Puppet Theory and Blackfish were outtakes from full-length albums that didn't really benefit from those songs too much.

It's true that there's always a main melody. I don't really think our style of music would work too well without any memorable melodies. Reboot was sort of an attempt of doing that, actually (it has melodies, but they aren't memorable). Sometimes there is more than one, though.

On another note, how serious are you with the lyrics? My initial guess was not much, but I'm less sure now seeing your new avatar...

Explaining our lyrics isn't something I want to do too much, because some of them (mostly on the future albums) are ambiguous on purpose and I don't think there should be an "official" way to interpret any of them. In general, though, the lyrics are extremely tongue-in-cheek and somewhat self-ironical at times, and primarily they're supposed to be entertaining (entertaining to write at least), but beneath that, there is also a message that we're more serious about, but in way less radical ways that the lyrics might suggest.

EDIT: I'm not sure how the taijitu in my avatar makes it seem more likely that we're serious with the lyrics though.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 01, 2015, 01:50:26 pm
EDIT: I'm not sure how the taijitu in my avatar makes it seem more likely that we're serious with the lyrics though.

Ah, I've seen it as a kind of animal that's trapped...
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 01, 2015, 01:54:46 pm
Like a bird, the top right part is the tail, and the dot is an eye

even knowing what it is it still looks like that, honestly
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on November 05, 2015, 09:05:23 am
As promised, my two covers that I'm performing today
Here Are My Wrists (http://soundcloud.com/elanchana/here-are-my-wrists-cover) - I like to think I out-produced the original on this one
The Ocean's Embers (http://soundcloud.com/elanchana/the-oceans-embers-cover) - The most a cappella I've ever done for a song... almost

Oh, and this is the guy who wrote them (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOUUcZ-X74pS6Tzi6Gxqu-Q).
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: AdamH on November 09, 2015, 08:15:41 am
Thought about breaking my silence to write about this earlier but I didn't. Oh well, here it is now :)

Here Are My Wrists (http://soundcloud.com/elanchana/here-are-my-wrists-cover) - I like to think I out-produced the original on this one

Ela, I think this is your best song by far, so many awesome things are happening in it. I listened to yours and the original and I really liked what you did with it. I'm a big fan of piano-led instrumentation, especially over guitar-led (which seems to be this guy's thing) and well I like your voice better than his too :P

In both of these songs, you've taken what he made and changed significant things to suit your style and voice, and I think you made some really smart choices and it shows. At 4:35, the end of the bridge in this one, wow man, like I've had dreams of singing a part like that. That was so cool. Like, I'm really tempted to put this in my music library that's how good it is.

May I assume you've been working on your voice? I assume this because in these songs it sounds so much cleaner and more precise than in your older ones. I listened to your YouTube video where you sang live and even there you sound really good. The shape of your vowels, the lack of vibrato (which I feel is overused by so many), the way you're always in the center of the pitch. Man, that's hard, I'm bad at that stuff.

Anyways I'll stop gushing. You sound really good, Ela. MAKE MOAR SONGZ PLS
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on November 11, 2015, 05:58:21 pm
This was my first time using rap vocals in a production.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBOIsnMLi8
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 23, 2015, 02:42:35 pm
I need some help with a kick drum sound I'm working on. Input from producers, musicians and non-musicians equally appreciated.

Here's the sound in a full mix:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/drum%20design%203.mp3 EDIT 2: now it's the correct file!

I have two questions:

1) How do you like it?
2) How do you think it was made?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on December 23, 2015, 06:32:54 pm
I need some help with a kick drum sound I'm working on. Input from producers, musicians and non-musicians equally appreciated.

Here's the sound in a full mix:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16948609/drum%20design%203.mp3 EDIT 2: now it's the correct file!

I have two questions:

1) How do you like it?
2) How do you think it was made?

I couldn't really hear it clearly - the mix was a bit too... mixed. I like the overall sound though.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 23, 2015, 07:07:23 pm
I couldn't really hear it clearly - the mix was a bit too... mixed. I like the overall sound though.

I see. Is it more audible now?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 30, 2015, 12:08:31 am
I think it's about time to talk about our favorite releases of 2015.

All in all, I think 2015 was an indescribably great year in terms of new music. A ton of artists that I was already a fan of released what I think are their best albums to date, I discovered new artists who also released awesome music this year, and many artists also released not their best, but still very good albums. It even occurred two times this year that my new favorite album of all time was released, and the previous one was from 2007 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLXey82cAs), which goes to show that my mind was really blown away big time this year (since it might be hard to tell from my descriptive words alone, given how enthusiastically I tend to post about basically all the music that I listen to).

Anyway, I have a top three sorted by how good I think they are and a long list of honorable mentions (i.e. releases that I seriously could have considered for the third place) sorted by genre/availability for free download/alphabetical order (because I don't expect people to check all of these out, so I think that'll make it easier to pick just the ones that are the most worth checking out given your personal interests). Feel free to present your favorites in a different way if you prefer.

1. Kauan: Sorni Nai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO02VJEYYEk

Post-rock with neo-classical and doom metal vibes. The entire album is basically just a single 50-minute song, and it feels very cinematic. The lyrics are based on the Dyatlov Pass incident (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident) and incredibly beautiful — I've always found the incident very intriguing, but it was this album that made me also see the aspect of the incident that nine individuals actually lost their lives there — but unfortunately if you don't speak Finnish, you're SOL as far as understanding them is concerned since I don't believe they have been translated into English yet. Free to download at Blood Music's Bandcamp page.

2. Solefald: World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWgon-a7qks

A creative mix of modern avant-garde black metal, electronic dance music and African ethnic music. It's a very refreshing experience, but it is worth noting that not everyone is in need of such an experience and those who are not particularly fond of avant-garde might find this album difficult to approach. That being said, it is super good (better than anything else I had heard at that point, at least).

3. iwrestledabearonce: Hail Mary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45fvwFunaKE

Mathcore with some occasional avant-garde elements. Not anything special, just particularly good at what it is.


Honorable mentions:

Metal:
Buensuceso: Inner Winter (https://buensuceso.bandcamp.com/) (available for free)
Neurotech: Stigma (https://neurotech.bandcamp.com/album/stigma) (available for free)
Born of Osiris: Soul Sphere (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVPn666h_8s)
Dead Existence: Endless Misery (https://deadexistence.bandcamp.com/album/endless-misery)
Heidevolk: Velua (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leZar6XQLcQ)
Negură Bunget: Tău (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYvzT4F_5eQ)
Sigh: Graveward (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33_dcoedmPg)
TesseracT: Polaris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA6f6-_-INY)
Thy Catafalque: Sgùrr (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAqQpGI_6Oo)

Electronic music:
Neurotech: Evasive (https://neurotech.bandcamp.com/album/evasive) (available for free)
Knife Party: Trigger Warning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RyGqLFOXEo)
Noisia & The Upbeats: Dead Limit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owfti2Cz06c)
Noisia: Incessant EP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAz7XYzLWpg)
Zomboy: Resurrected LP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tm1-lj_BhE)

Pop/rock:
Kalafina: Far on the water (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVShwrPGMeE)
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: Mondai Girl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f712UmUYHyA)
Lapko: Freedom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EStm_WPk_18)
Mew: +- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmoMrWWFfhk)
Sallan ja Miron matka maailman ympäri: <3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13T_I-JmDcQ)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on December 30, 2015, 02:19:58 pm
I know 2 artists from Awaclus' list. Kauan is pretty great, the albums I've listened to are gorgeous without being overly complex. Kyary PP is fun and very 'pure' pop music

For me, Nämïdäë (https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/n-m-d) really outshines everything else, although I'm not sure how to describe it. It's super dense, the music changes theme and tempo every few seconds, and there's barely any sense of structure or direction to the songs, and it all sounds unlike everything I've heard before. I've listened to it probably about twenty times by now, and still don't think that I got nearly everything. It has a crazy amount of replayability. Super emotional. I also makes me want to turn up the volume, which is something I usually never do.

Not sure what genre it is. Sputnik tags it as Doom Metal, Experimental, and Gothic. Someone in the comments used the term Alien Metal.

Runner up is probably Hand.Cannot.Erase by Steven Wilson, who's pretty adamant about not being put into a genre. Much lighter stuff, everything makes sense, and a few songs are even catchy. Still a more of a sad/dark tone overall though.

Tells the story of a girl that lives in a big city, becomes tired with the nonsense of modern society, and chooses to "disappear", i.e. cut contact with everyone (not sure how she pays for stuff).

There's even a sort of blog (http://handcannoterase.com/) that tells the story from the girl's perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6m6MuzPE9I

The title track (12:18) is probably the easiest listen
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 30, 2015, 10:08:41 pm
I know 2 artists from Awaclus' list.

I know Öxxö Xööx from your list, but I didn't know they released a new album this year. I just checked it out and turns out it's pretty good. Steven Wilson was new to me but also pretty good, although I don't listen to music like that very often these days.

If you're not at it already, you should definitely check out at least the last four entries of my metal section based on what I know of what you listen to.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 18, 2016, 06:09:44 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjylD6aHeaY

I made a collaboration with J&J (music by me, video by him) and also branched out to a genre of metal I've never done before.

Warning: the video is borderline NSFW (and I guess the song too).
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on January 25, 2016, 03:25:20 pm
Somethings I've made recently that may warrant a listen:

Limited Power (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/654965)
 Beta "Remix" of Elanchana's song 'Juno', and yes I know the vocals are off at parts (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/655872)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on January 26, 2016, 01:09:37 pm
Beta "Remix" of Elanchana's song 'Juno', and yes I know the vocals are off at parts (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/655872)

Hey, can I get you to add this link (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno) to the description? I'd like people to be able to hear the original if they want to.

Actually my C2C partner recorded his version of Juno but I don't know if he's posted it anywhere.

And... tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of that song and the blizzard that inspired it. *legasp*
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on January 27, 2016, 06:00:19 pm
Beta "Remix" of Elanchana's song 'Juno', and yes I know the vocals are off at parts (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/655872)

Hey, can I get you to add this link (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno) to the description? I'd like people to be able to hear the original if they want to.

Actually my C2C partner recorded his version of Juno but I don't know if he's posted it anywhere.

And... tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of that song and the blizzard that inspired it. *legasp*

Done. Don't know how I forgot that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Roadrunner7671 on January 27, 2016, 06:06:03 pm
Beta "Remix" of Elanchana's song 'Juno', and yes I know the vocals are off at parts (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/655872)

Hey, can I get you to add this link (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno) to the description? I'd like people to be able to hear the original if they want to.

Actually my C2C partner recorded his version of Juno but I don't know if he's posted it anywhere.

And... tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of that song and the blizzard that inspired it. *legasp*

Done. Don't know how I forgot that.
Seprix is online again? Great! Go mod your Lord of the Rings Mafia game!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Burning Skull on January 28, 2016, 03:23:24 am
I'm going to a local gig in a couple of days, and among others, Kauan are playing.
I've never really listened to them, and I want to try to do so before the gig. What do you guys advise me to start with?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 28, 2016, 07:54:09 am
I'm going to a local gig in a couple of days, and among others, Kauan are playing.
I've never really listened to them, and I want to try to do so before the gig. What do you guys advise me to start with?

I think Sorni Nai is their best album and it's not really very difficult to get into, so you could start with that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on January 28, 2016, 08:46:29 am
I think Kauan is generally really easy to get into, so you can prob get into a bunch of albums until you see them.

But if you have to set priorities, I'd also start with Sorni Nai. The most recent album has the highest chance to include songs that they'll play live.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Burning Skull on January 28, 2016, 09:17:14 am
Very nice and touching music. When their vocalist grouls it strongly reminds me of Pasi Koskinen's Ajattara (possible just because they share a language).

By the way, at the gig I mentioned these two (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS-H0Q3m5OA) bands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySL1hI7d5AY) are going to play too, and I consider them both as examples of a better part of russian metal scene. Check them out!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on February 03, 2016, 11:28:35 pm
Beta "Remix" of Elanchana's song 'Juno', and yes I know the vocals are off at parts (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/655872)

Hey, can I get you to add this link (https://soundcloud.com/elanchana/juno) to the description? I'd like people to be able to hear the original if they want to.

Actually my C2C partner recorded his version of Juno but I don't know if he's posted it anywhere.

And... tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of that song and the blizzard that inspired it. *legasp*

Done. Don't know how I forgot that.
Seprix is online again? Great! Go mod your Lord of the Rings Mafia game!

Ah, I have forgotten about that. I'm still way too busy to be worrying about Mafia games right now, but thanks for the reminder!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on February 11, 2016, 12:33:30 am
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

I listened to some of Elanchana's stuff and they are really enjoyable, I will listen to more in my free time. Awesome thread :)

You don't allow PM's so I need to ask here. I'm looking for music for an animation and wanted to use a track. PM me if you still look at this forum.

For everyone else, if you have a dark track you're willing to let a university student use in an animation, let me know :P I'm looking for something with a steady beat, sounds dark, moody, and isn't too long. Something around 2mins maximum. If you have a track like this, or are willing to whip a composition, let me know. Naturally you'd get credit for your music. And if I do a good job, it might even get screened at a festival somewhere, sometime.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 11, 2016, 06:44:08 am
For everyone else, if you have a dark track you're willing to let a university student use in an animation, let me know :P I'm looking for something with a steady beat, sounds dark, moody, and isn't too long. Something around 2mins maximum. If you have a track like this, or are willing to whip a composition, let me know. Naturally you'd get credit for your music. And if I do a good job, it might even get screened at a festival somewhere, sometime.

I could compose you one, but I'd need more details than that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: KingZog3 on February 11, 2016, 11:06:46 am
For everyone else, if you have a dark track you're willing to let a university student use in an animation, let me know :P I'm looking for something with a steady beat, sounds dark, moody, and isn't too long. Something around 2mins maximum. If you have a track like this, or are willing to whip a composition, let me know. Naturally you'd get credit for your music. And if I do a good job, it might even get screened at a festival somewhere, sometime.

I could compose you one, but I'd need more details than that.

I'll work on making some sketches and PM them to you. I'm still figuring out what I want to do exactly. I'll let you know in the next few days.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on February 11, 2016, 09:01:44 pm
Here's my SoundCloud. Weirdness guaranteed.

https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29 (https://soundcloud.com/pop-pop-29)

I listened to some of Elanchana's stuff and they are really enjoyable, I will listen to more in my free time. Awesome thread :)

You don't allow PM's so I need to ask here. I'm looking for music for an animation and wanted to use a track. PM me if you still look at this forum.

For everyone else, if you have a dark track you're willing to let a university student use in an animation, let me know :P I'm looking for something with a steady beat, sounds dark, moody, and isn't too long. Something around 2mins maximum. If you have a track like this, or are willing to whip a composition, let me know. Naturally you'd get credit for your music. And if I do a good job, it might even get screened at a festival somewhere, sometime.

I can help musically as well, depends on what you want.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on February 15, 2016, 10:59:21 am
I'd love to help with the soundtrack, but I've got a few other projects going right now (including another animation soundtrack - for the person making Qui Domi). Looks like you're not without volunteers though.

As for me, I did a semiproduced video demo the other day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUnfDu37DFo
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 19, 2016, 08:20:24 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxaCGHq-vOQ

I tried making some actual dubstep. Also I like Parliament Funk's second buildup a lot so I did one of those here. Good times.

Fun fact: it's louder than Death Magnetic.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on February 29, 2016, 02:54:16 am
Introducing The Setup... my full gear for doing my busking looper set hands-free~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqZH2yjT5Aw
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 04, 2016, 07:04:34 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XupmBkz9arE

My band's upcoming album is almost ready to be released, and so I made a remix of one of the tracks as a teaser.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on March 04, 2016, 07:23:07 pm
It sounds quite different (from your last album). Although I'm generally not fond of remixes, I almost always prefer the original version.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 04, 2016, 07:34:02 pm
It sounds quite different (from your last album). Although I'm generally not fond of remixes, I almost always prefer the original version.

Thanks for the comment! Well, I didn't actually use any audio from the original song, just a couple of melodies, so it's not going to sound very much like this. Although it is also true that the actual album sounds somewhat different from our last album as well.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 06, 2016, 06:10:21 am
https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/misanthropy

And now the album is released. As usual, you can download it for free if you're interested.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on March 06, 2016, 02:37:10 pm
In my first listen right now, halfway during the third track.

As far as songwriting goes, I'm already more impressed than with S/T. Much more interesting stuff is happening.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 06, 2016, 02:49:23 pm
In my first listen right now, halfway during the third track.

As far as songwriting goes, I'm already more impressed than with S/T. Much more interesting stuff is happening.

Thanks!

with S/T

With what exactly, though? I don't think we have a self-titled album...
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on March 06, 2016, 03:05:45 pm
err... right you don't. With the first album. for some reason I've been thinking of it as self titled.

I gotta say, the Visitor... woah. Never quite heard anything like it before.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 06, 2016, 03:40:34 pm
I gotta say, the Visitor... woah. Never quite heard anything like it before.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on March 06, 2016, 03:49:23 pm
A good thing. Unique usually means interesting-- I could still grow to like it more or less with more listens, though.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 06, 2016, 04:06:47 pm
I have no idea what your musical genre is (Awaclus), though I will find out when I get to listening to your album. Thoughts will be posted then.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 06, 2016, 06:45:43 pm
Reviewing Awaclus's new album Misanthropy: I really like Cheese Knife. Sounds nice, very relaxing, sounding nothing like the album art or the band name, and then...
F*** Your Dynamic Range, It scared me half to death, because Cheese Knife lulled me into security. Oh well.

I think the genre is metal? (I can recognize elements of EDM, so it's probably a mixture) This album in that sense is not something I can really rate, since I don't really listen to metal. What I can concentrate on much better is the composition of instruments and the mixing.

Combining metal and EDM is a clever idea. And wow, I just got to No Longer Human's chorus. That is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard in music in quite some time. I like it though. Now noticing the kick, it sounds a bit flimsy and unnatural. With all of the compression going on and the cranking up to 11 though, something has to give. In fact, the drum tracks (at least in this song) is lacking in the high end. I think it could be sharper. The more I hear that bass/guitar groove, the more I'm liking it. Not sure if the guitar is real, it sounds like a virtual instrument sometimes, but then there's a distinct guitar sound to it sometimes too, not that it really matters. It sounds great.

The beginning of The Visitor is something I'm not sure about. It's very very cool, but it's too sharp. Perhaps tone down the EQ a bit? There's so much noise going on as I'm listening to the song. It doesn't sound well mixed, everything is bleeding into something else. I don't know how to describe it. You've been bit crushing the vocals sometimes, it's a cool idea. Girl in the Shell is probably my favorite song on this album. The riff is nice.

All in all, the album lacks just a bit in mixing. It sounds flat, perhaps it's too compressed. Not enough going on in the high end, though the low end doesn't seem to have much of an issue at all. The snare needs more snap, and though the kick has plenty of kick to it, it's also lacking something. I can't say what, but it just doesn't sound right to me. The guitars were mixed top notch and the bass was very well done. The vocals were not too loud or too soft, it was mixed well into the songs.

I would be very interested in knowing how you mixed your stuff there. Ignoring the few problems I mentioned, the album has this feel to it that would be cool to try and emulate, and I like learning new things and how people do things and whatnot.
What software do you use? Any 3rd part plug-ins? Any difficulties this album gave you in its creation? Did you create this album with anybody else? How long did it take? How would you rate this album in regards to your other works? What do you consider your best song ever? I could ask more questions upon more questions, but this post is getting long enough as it is.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 06, 2016, 06:59:21 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/672163

It's not done, it's empty at parts, it has a stupid name, blah blah blah. Does it sound okay though? After this, I'm going to get set on working on an album. Big deal for me, I feel like I'm finally ready to try it now. I might even sing in it, I don't know yet. I'll have to see if I even sound good first. If not, I guess I'll go instrumental.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 06, 2016, 09:10:59 pm
Reviewing Awaclus's new album Misanthropy: I really like Cheese Knife. Sounds nice, very relaxing, sounding nothing like the album art or the band name, and then...
F*** Your Dynamic Range, It scared me half to death, because Cheese Knife lulled me into security. Oh well.

I think the genre is metal? (I can recognize elements of EDM, so it's probably a mixture) This album in that sense is not something I can really rate, since I don't really listen to metal. What I can concentrate on much better is the composition of instruments and the mixing.

Combining metal and EDM is a clever idea. And wow, I just got to No Longer Human's chorus. That is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard in music in quite some time. I like it though. Now noticing the kick, it sounds a bit flimsy and unnatural. With all of the compression going on and the cranking up to 11 though, something has to give. In fact, the drum tracks (at least in this song) is lacking in the high end. I think it could be sharper. The more I hear that bass/guitar groove, the more I'm liking it. Not sure if the guitar is real, it sounds like a virtual instrument sometimes, but then there's a distinct guitar sound to it sometimes too, not that it really matters. It sounds great.

The beginning of The Visitor is something I'm not sure about. It's very very cool, but it's too sharp. Perhaps tone down the EQ a bit? There's so much noise going on as I'm listening to the song. It doesn't sound well mixed, everything is bleeding into something else. I don't know how to describe it. You've been bit crushing the vocals sometimes, it's a cool idea. Girl in the Shell is probably my favorite song on this album. The riff is nice.

All in all, the album lacks just a bit in mixing. It sounds flat, perhaps it's too compressed. Not enough going on in the high end, though the low end doesn't seem to have much of an issue at all. The snare needs more snap, and though the kick has plenty of kick to it, it's also lacking something. I can't say what, but it just doesn't sound right to me. The guitars were mixed top notch and the bass was very well done. The vocals were not too loud or too soft, it was mixed well into the songs.

I would be very interested in knowing how you mixed your stuff there. Ignoring the few problems I mentioned, the album has this feel to it that would be cool to try and emulate, and I like learning new things and how people do things and whatnot.
What software do you use? Any 3rd part plug-ins? Any difficulties this album gave you in its creation? Did you create this album with anybody else? How long did it take? How would you rate this album in regards to your other works? What do you consider your best song ever? I could ask more questions upon more questions, but this post is getting long enough as it is.

Wow, I really appreciate the effort you've put into this. The genre is metal, specifically avant-garde metal.

The kick drum in No Longer Human's chorus mostly consists of a sample I got from a free sample pack, which I believe is sampled from an old vinyl (or a similar lo-fi effect has been applied to it digitally), and it sounds like that on purpose because I was going for an old school jungle type of sound there. It might be true that the mix in general doesn't have as much high end; I was doing most of the mixing on my earphones which are super bass heavy because my headphones were being fixed, and I only got the headphones very late and everything suddenly sounded very bright so I toned it down to be on the safe side and perhaps I overdid it on this one. The guitar is Tommi's guitar (I don't know what model it is or what pickups he has) plugged directly into an audio interface, and then digital distortion pedal/amp/cabinet simulation is applied to it.

Yeah, the beginning of The Visitor kind of bothers me as well actually. I thought that it would get better in the mastering stage when it would get the bassy impact tail from No Longer Human's end underneath the whole high frequency business, and it did, but not as much as I was planning, but changing it at that point would have required much more work and it didn't sound completely hideous so I left it like that. I haven't actually bit crushed the vocals, they do have digital saturation and tape saturation simulation on them though, and they have it all the time. Getting more clarity in the mix is certainly something that I think need to improve at, and The Visitor is probably one of the songs that are the most damaged by this because there's so much different stuff going on at the same time and some of it is kind of problematic too (like the super low rap vocals on the verses). I'm not even 100% sure if it's my mixing technique or if I'm just not supposed to arrange songs to have so much stuff going on at the same time to begin with.

I don't think that metal or EDM can be too compressed (well, they can, but that threshold is super high for both). If it sounds too flat, then maybe it's just lacking in the high frequencies, or maybe there could be more volume automation to make it more interesting or maybe the arrangements should have been different. The snare was actually all kinds of problematic, because there are times when it needs to sound massive and other times when there's a blast beat and it needs to not ruin everything. Most of what I did at the very late stages of mixing was just tweaking the snare. I probably could have spent way more time trying out different settings to get it just right, but as it turns out, we wanted to release the album pretty soon so I didn't get to do that (and I'm also somewhat glad that I didn't have to).

What the kick is lacking is the airy mid frequencies you normally get when you place a microphone inside a kick drum and record it (well, perhaps something else as well, but that's at least something that I can point out). The reason for this is that I made the kick drum sound with FM synthesis and I didn't make it have those. They would make it sound more realistic, but not fit in a metal mix quite as well as the kick does now. Perhaps I could have also synthesized that airy sound and just have it very low on the mix.

I use FL Studio 12 and a ton of 3rd party plugins, e.g. the guitar amp sim plugins from LePou Plugins and Ignite Amps, the Variety Of Sound tape/tube saturation plugins, DSK Asian DreamZ, BitterSweet v3 (I forgot which developer makes it), the Valhalla reverbs, the RC 48 reverb, FabFilter Saturn, FabFilter Pro-L, and various Kong Audio instruments. Other than that, I just use the plugins that come with FL, because a lot of them are incredibly good, and not just good for stock plugins, but like, incredibly good, period, and obviously the fact that they are native plugins makes things a lot more convenient.

Yes, there were various difficulties, mostly with the guitar sound at first and then with the snare sound, and also just arranging recording sessions with the other band members was more difficult after I moved away, then there was the whole headphone issue which I already mentioned, and it always requires some optimization to get the CPU usage lower than 100, but mostly we just missed a bunch of deadlines that we had set for ourselves (which was fine because those were never made public) and things worked out with a little bit of extra time, and there was no single problem that would have caused a ton of frustration by itself and it was a way smoother experience all around than our previous album. I did create this album with the other band members, namely Isto "Juhan Rose Hellstén" Merta (lead vocalist), Tommi Miettinen (guitarist), Antti "aiskould" Moilanen (bassist) and Johannes Valtonen (lead vocalist). I composed the songs in summer 2014, we started recording the album in I think July 2015 after our previous album was released and this year I've been just mixing and mastering it. In terms of production, I think my Gradus Prohibitus dubstep remix is the only thing by me that's better than this (and it's easier to make professional sounding dubstep mixes than metal, although the sound design is more difficult, but I'm way better at sound design than mixing), and in terms of songwriting, this is quite clearly better than Anti-Puppet Theory which is the only other comparison point, but I have to say that I have composed albums that are better than this that we are going to release in the future. Girl in the Shell is probably the best song out of what we've released so far, and it's kind of pointless to talk about songs that we haven't released yet because you don't know what they sound like.

I'll be sure to check that out later, unfortunately I'm a bit too tired to say anything useful about a song at the moment.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 06, 2016, 09:19:27 pm
Read everything, I would be interested in watching you create music sometime. Could you stream a music creating session sometime? In fact, I very much might do that tomorrow, if anyone would want to watch that!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on March 06, 2016, 10:56:28 pm
I think it's generally important to have songs be memorably quickly, so listeners differentiate between songs. The beginning of The Visitor is instantly memorable. I think it's a plus.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 06, 2016, 11:09:04 pm
Read everything, I would be interested in watching you create music sometime. Could you stream a music creating session sometime? In fact, I very much might do that tomorrow, if anyone would want to watch that!

Sure thing! I've actually kind of wanted to do stuff like that, I just didn't think there would be an audience for it. I just need to figure out how to make the audio work properly, given that OBS doesn't seem to support ASIO drivers.

EDIT: Also, after I did some other stuff, I'm not feeling so tired anymore and so I listened to the song. The melodies at the beginning of the song (before 1:30 or so) sound kind of random, which is pretty par for the course for certain kinds of video game music, so it's not necessarily a bad thing if you were going for it on purpose. The sounds sound pretty videogamey as well. I'm not a huge fan of very extreme panning (unless it's something like multitracking or different unison voices panned across the entire stereo field), so the very beginning is slightly irritating to me, but the instruments that are panned to the sides pretty extremely are not that bad later on when the main elements of the mix are mostly in the center. I like the j-pop chord progression and the song has a positive mood which is probably quite fitting for some video games.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 07, 2016, 12:52:05 pm
Read everything, I would be interested in watching you create music sometime. Could you stream a music creating session sometime? In fact, I very much might do that tomorrow, if anyone would want to watch that!

Sure thing! I've actually kind of wanted to do stuff like that, I just didn't think there would be an audience for it. I just need to figure out how to make the audio work properly, given that OBS doesn't seem to support ASIO drivers.

EDIT: Also, after I did some other stuff, I'm not feeling so tired anymore and so I listened to the song. The melodies at the beginning of the song (before 1:30 or so) sound kind of random, which is pretty par for the course for certain kinds of video game music, so it's not necessarily a bad thing if you were going for it on purpose. The sounds sound pretty videogamey as well. I'm not a huge fan of very extreme panning (unless it's something like multitracking or different unison voices panned across the entire stereo field), so the very beginning is slightly irritating to me, but the instruments that are panned to the sides pretty extremely are not that bad later on when the main elements of the mix are mostly in the center. I like the j-pop chord progression and the song has a positive mood which is probably quite fitting for some video games.

There are a couple of things you'd have to do to make it work. You'd have to download SoundFlower, get it set up (I forgot how specifically, so I'll look into it and again, I'm doing this very same task today so I'll post how I did it shortly afterwards), and then I THINK you'd have to connect Logic into SoundFlower, chaining it into OBS and your headphones simultaneously. Don't hold me to that. I'd much rather not use SoundFlower and use nothing but OBS. I think it also lowers the volume and one time there was an issue with delay in sound, though I fixed that some time ago, so yes it's a complete annoying pain but I should be able to get it to work.

As to the review: I agree with the randomness of it. I basically took the main theme from someone, and just did my own thing with it the rest of the way. The intro doesn't quite match, but whatever, I like it. That the main theme jumps in way too suddenly is more of a problem than anything, and is probably why it's random sounding. I have had problems with just 'jumping in' before anyways.

I'm not the biggest fan of extreme panning either. I felt there was enough instruments to make it okay. I consider that part to be very empty, so I think if I added more instruments, it would be more forgiving. And later on, I had another similar instrument on the extreme other side with different settings, creating this awesome phased mess that sounds central but very wide, but is really two similar instruments with different settings.

If I were to rewrite this song, I'd consider throwing out or changing the main melody, which was the whole reason I wrote the song.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on March 07, 2016, 01:38:40 pm
When I get time I'll give you a review as well - I've been crazy busy for a while.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 07, 2016, 03:51:31 pm
There are a couple of things you'd have to do to make it work. You'd have to download SoundFlower, get it set up (I forgot how specifically, so I'll look into it and again, I'm doing this very same task today so I'll post how I did it shortly afterwards), and then I THINK you'd have to connect Logic into SoundFlower, chaining it into OBS and your headphones simultaneously. Don't hold me to that. I'd much rather not use SoundFlower and use nothing but OBS. I think it also lowers the volume and one time there was an issue with delay in sound, though I fixed that some time ago, so yes it's a complete annoying pain but I should be able to get it to work.

Well, there is the problem that I'm not using a Mac so I don't have access to SoundFlower. I could do it with Voicemeeter Banana (and there are some other alternatives too), but it introduces a lot of latency because it has to use non-ASIO drivers either for the input or the output, and I don't want to do that. I could also do it with just hardware routing, but then the audio would be in mono. I'm not sure if the audio being in mono would be hugely detrimental though, and I could still record everything in stereo and post that on YouTube later or something.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 07, 2016, 04:02:22 pm
There are a couple of things you'd have to do to make it work. You'd have to download SoundFlower, get it set up (I forgot how specifically, so I'll look into it and again, I'm doing this very same task today so I'll post how I did it shortly afterwards), and then I THINK you'd have to connect Logic into SoundFlower, chaining it into OBS and your headphones simultaneously. Don't hold me to that. I'd much rather not use SoundFlower and use nothing but OBS. I think it also lowers the volume and one time there was an issue with delay in sound, though I fixed that some time ago, so yes it's a complete annoying pain but I should be able to get it to work.

Well, there is the problem that I'm not using a Mac so I don't have access to SoundFlower. I could do it with Voicemeeter Banana (and there are some other alternatives too), but it introduces a lot of latency because it has to use non-ASIO drivers either for the input or the output, and I don't want to do that. I could also do it with just hardware routing, but then the audio would be in mono. I'm not sure if the audio being in mono would be hugely detrimental though, and I could still record everything in stereo and post that on YouTube later or something.

I'm leaning towards recording and uploading to YouTube now anyways. The quality will be way better anyways, and I have a 1 TB 7,200rpm external hard drive to export to. Sure, no one gets to watch live, but who is going to watch anyways? Like 1 person?

Soundflower is total crap, it makes the audio sound 10000% worse.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 11, 2016, 01:05:57 am
Well, there is the problem that I'm not using a Mac so I don't have access to SoundFlower. I could do it with Voicemeeter Banana (and there are some other alternatives too), but it introduces a lot of latency because it has to use non-ASIO drivers either for the input or the output, and I don't want to do that. I could also do it with just hardware routing, but then the audio would be in mono. I'm not sure if the audio being in mono would be hugely detrimental though, and I could still record everything in stereo and post that on YouTube later or something.

Going live in a minute (with the audio being in mono): https://www.twitch.tv/awaclus_
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 11, 2016, 02:07:03 am
Well, there is the problem that I'm not using a Mac so I don't have access to SoundFlower. I could do it with Voicemeeter Banana (and there are some other alternatives too), but it introduces a lot of latency because it has to use non-ASIO drivers either for the input or the output, and I don't want to do that. I could also do it with just hardware routing, but then the audio would be in mono. I'm not sure if the audio being in mono would be hugely detrimental though, and I could still record everything in stereo and post that on YouTube later or something.

Going live in a minute (with the audio being in mono): https://www.twitch.tv/awaclus_

Lol, it didn't capture any of the plugins inside Patcher. Which was most of them. Well, I guess that means I'm not going to upload it to YouTube then.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: GendoIkari on March 11, 2016, 03:26:03 pm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: funkdoc on March 11, 2016, 04:20:46 pm
ok, so this isn't just for musicians? aight then


idk if we have any old-school industrial heads here, but they have a way of making me feel like a bad person for preferring early 90s Skinny Puppy to their older work.  Too Dark Park & Last Rights are both some of my personal fav albums of the whole decade.  my single fav track of theirs is from the 80s tho:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEXdhXqpKLk

a lot of their lyrics are drug-fueled stream-of-consciousness and this is the absolute pinnacle of that, in my view.  i even took the name of my blog from it
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 11, 2016, 05:39:44 pm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q

Is that Kylo Ren?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on March 17, 2016, 10:24:19 pm
https://soundcloud.com/seprix/dreaming-of-adventure

I made this. What genre would you put this in? I have no idea.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 01, 2016, 08:46:42 pm
New Moonsorrow kicks all the ass.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on April 01, 2016, 08:49:11 pm
New Moonsorrow kicks all the ass.

I liked the last one better. Apparently that's their least liked album though, even though it's their best. I'd say it seems on par with the ones before that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 01, 2016, 08:58:36 pm
New Moonsorrow kicks all the ass.

I liked the last one better. Apparently that's their least liked album though, even though it's their best. I'd say it seems on par with the ones before that.

I'd say V: Hävitetty > Jumalten Aika > Verisäkeet >> Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa > Suden Uni >> Kivenkantaja >>> Voimasta Ja Kunniasta (which is still a very decent album). Jumalten Aika might move up or down exactly one spot when I get more familiar with it (moving down probably more likely).

VKKM would be super godlike, but Huuto kind of ruins it just a little bit.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on April 01, 2016, 09:01:23 pm
VKKM would be super godlike, but Huuto kind of ruins it just a little bit.

that's hilarious because to me it's easily the best song in their entire discography.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 01, 2016, 09:14:29 pm
VKKM would be super godlike, but Huuto kind of ruins it just a little bit.

that's hilarious because to me it's easily the best song in their entire discography.

Usually I like Moonsorrow (especially Verisäkeet and newer and also Suden Uni and older) because it's larger-than-life without being overly cheesy. Huuto has it the other way around, it's overly cheesy without being larger-than-life.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on April 01, 2016, 09:19:31 pm
VKKM would be super godlike, but Huuto kind of ruins it just a little bit.

that's hilarious because to me it's easily the best song in their entire discography.

Usually I like Moonsorrow (especially Verisäkeet and newer and also Suden Uni and older) because it's larger-than-life without being overly cheesy. Huuto has it the other way around, it's overly cheesy without being larger-than-life.

I... guess I could see how you would call it cheesy, though I'd have said it's super emotional which is exactly what most of their albums lack. Do you man just the music or also the lyrics? Do you know what happens during the section of huuto?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 01, 2016, 09:39:37 pm
VKKM would be super godlike, but Huuto kind of ruins it just a little bit.

that's hilarious because to me it's easily the best song in their entire discography.

Usually I like Moonsorrow (especially Verisäkeet and newer and also Suden Uni and older) because it's larger-than-life without being overly cheesy. Huuto has it the other way around, it's overly cheesy without being larger-than-life.

I... guess I could see how you would call it cheesy, though I'd have said it's super emotional which is exactly what most of their albums lack. Do you man just the music or also the lyrics? Do you know what happens during the section of huuto?

I just mean the music. The lyrics are fine, the last people start eating each other when they run out of other food and then the last guy kills everyone else in sudden rage, and later he regrets it and starts to have nightmares about it (wasn't there an English translation though?).

How do most of their albums lack emotion? They do have tons of emotion, it's just presented very crudely and rawly. Except on Kivenkantaja where it's just as cheesy as Huuto, but it's still better because the songs are more interesting.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on April 03, 2016, 09:36:33 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/674597

How does the mixing sound so far? I know there's no lead. I might sing to this, I might just make it instrumental, I'm not sure yet. I just want to know how you all think it sounds.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 04, 2016, 05:54:18 am
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/674597

How does the mixing sound so far? I know there's no lead. I might sing to this, I might just make it instrumental, I'm not sure yet. I just want to know how you all think it sounds.

Pretty good, I just think that everything should be more heavily side chain compressed with the kick because it sounds pretty aggressive sound design -wise, but in the mix it sounds a little weak.

As a side note, why do you have so many synths it takes a long time to decide on the perfect one? For a pretty long time, I just used Harmor or Sytrus for everything and I only very recently got Massive as well, and the choice is usually pretty trivial as that's one additive synthesizer, one FM synthesizer and one wavetable synthesizer so I just choose the appropriate synth for the type of synthesis I want to do (although all of them are really good at doing subtractive synthesis so that's a little bit difficult sometimes).
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on April 04, 2016, 11:28:59 am
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/674597

How does the mixing sound so far? I know there's no lead. I might sing to this, I might just make it instrumental, I'm not sure yet. I just want to know how you all think it sounds.

Pretty good, I just think that everything should be more heavily side chain compressed with the kick because it sounds pretty aggressive sound design -wise, but in the mix it sounds a little weak.

I just learned about sidechaining as a practical thing yesterday, so I will likely do that on the bass in order to thrust in the kick more.

Quote
As a side note, why do you have so many synths it takes a long time to decide on the perfect one? For a pretty long time, I just used Harmor or Sytrus for everything and I only very recently got Massive as well, and the choice is usually pretty trivial as that's one additive synthesizer, one FM synthesizer and one wavetable synthesizer so I just choose the appropriate synth for the type of synthesis I want to do (although all of them are really good at doing subtractive synthesis so that's a little bit difficult sometimes).

Well, I don't have a lot of synths at all. 99% of the synths I use are stock in Logic Pro X, such as the EXS 24 Sampler, the newly acquired Alchemy plug-in (Apple bought it), the ES2, the ES1 (never use that, it's a sucky version of ES2), the new Retro synth (which is nice, but still basically a simplified ES2 with some different stuff instead). I do have Iris 2 from iZotope, and pretty much all the plug-ins from iZotope, but that's about the only third party purchases I've ever made.

Why it's taking so long for me to find the 'right synth' is because I'm picky, the usual synths I usually use for leads don't really work, and I also have to put on the right reverbs and delays and all sorts of other stuff.

On another note, my album is doing great. I'm writing lyrics and I have a lot of songs to write lyrics to.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 04, 2016, 12:51:07 pm
Well, I don't have a lot of synths at all. 99% of the synths I use are stock in Logic Pro X, such as the EXS 24 Sampler, the newly acquired Alchemy plug-in (Apple bought it), the ES2, the ES1 (never use that, it's a sucky version of ES2), the new Retro synth (which is nice, but still basically a simplified ES2 with some different stuff instead). I do have Iris 2 from iZotope, and pretty much all the plug-ins from iZotope, but that's about the only third party purchases I've ever made.

Well, that's a lot more than what I use. Sure, there are like 239842793847122343 different synths bundled with FL Studio as well, but for the most parts, I just pretend that the ones other than Harmor and Sytrus don't exist.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 07, 2016, 05:52:50 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07b9CBUWeg

I made a new MMD music video. I'm not sure if this is the right thread for these because I also kind of want to receive feedback about the visuals as well, but then again, I do also want to receive feedback about the music. Even harsh criticism is welcomed, but please be... djentle.  8)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 09, 2016, 12:58:02 pm
I made an original track for the Cymatics Savage Drums contest. It would be great if you could favorite it on SoundCloud since it would help me win, but either way, you can check it out if you feel like checking out some music. It's not super similar to what I usually do because I had to use samples from the Savage Drums for trap sample pack.

https://soundcloud.com/awaclus/homura-did-nothing-wrong
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: J Reggie on April 11, 2016, 06:35:25 pm
Hey music people!  I'm not sure why I haven't posted here yet, I've been on these forums a while and I'm a musician.  Anyway, here's my Soundcloud, where you can find most of my music that's currently out in the wild.  There's a demo there fresh off the press, and some stuff going back to when I was in high school, so a real range.  And yes, that's my actual name, but I prefer going by Reggie.  So let me know what you think!

https://soundcloud.com/jeff-rosenthal
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on April 11, 2016, 10:10:35 pm
Hey music people!  I'm not sure why I haven't posted here yet, I've been on these forums a while and I'm a musician.  Anyway, here's my Soundcloud, where you can find most of my music that's currently out in the wild.  There's a demo there fresh off the press, and some stuff going back to when I was in high school, so a real range.  And yes, that's my actual name, but I prefer going by Reggie.  So let me know what you think!

https://soundcloud.com/jeff-rosenthal

I'll give a listen later, but I'll inevitably forget and never give a listen at all.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 18, 2016, 07:18:41 pm
I'd say V: Hävitetty > Jumalten Aika > Verisäkeet >> Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa > Suden Uni >> Kivenkantaja >>> Voimasta Ja Kunniasta (which is still a very decent album). Jumalten Aika might move up or down exactly one spot when I get more familiar with it (moving down probably more likely).

I've gotten familiar enough with it now to say that it's more like roughly as good as V: Hävitetty. On one hand, none of the songs are quite as good as Jäästä Syntynyt / Varjojen Virta, but on the other, all of them are better than Tuleen Ajettu Maa.

In terms of pure songwriting though, Jumalten Aika might just actually be the best album (or equivalent) ever. These days, I hardly ever get impressed by any songwriting, pretty much the only artists that still manage to impress me with their songwriting are Moonsorrow and Kalafina, and this is definitely better-written than anything else by them. I don't remember having ever heard anything else reaching quite these levels of details and subtleties being absolutely everywhere, and the flow is very little short of perfection. The usage of modulations and irregular time signatures is also remarkably good.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on April 23, 2016, 09:37:29 pm
An unfinished part demo of one of my songs on the album I'm making.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/681401
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 24, 2016, 04:14:55 am
An unfinished part demo of one of my songs on the album I'm making.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/681401

The song is decent, but the drums sound pretty dead, especially the snare and the hats. Boosting the fundamental tone of the snare would already help a lot, and for the hats, I'm not sure if you want them to sound electronic or realistic so I can't suggest any ideas, but I think that doing something about them would be pretty good.

Also, the song could afford being a lot louder. That would also help with making the drums fit in better.

Some of the synths (the ones that aren't just pretty much saw waves) sound pretty cool. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with saw waves either, they just aren't quite as interesting, which is fine if that's how they're supposed to be.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on April 24, 2016, 01:34:40 pm
What's wrong with the snare? What's a fundamental tone? Does it sound flat? It could be overcompressed then? I like to make my drums nice and loud, and I may have overcompressed them as a result. I also used the same extreme compression setting for the hi-hats, so it would also sound very flat. I'm going to add more instruments to this and sing to it, and I'll have to make it louder, though it's already at almost -10 RMS, which is just going to sound really broken and distorted the higher I go. I dunno.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 25, 2016, 02:48:23 am
What's wrong with the snare? What's a fundamental tone? Does it sound flat? It could be overcompressed then? I like to make my drums nice and loud, and I may have overcompressed them as a result. I also used the same extreme compression setting for the hi-hats, so it would also sound very flat. I'm going to add more instruments to this and sing to it, and I'll have to make it louder, though it's already at almost -10 RMS, which is just going to sound really broken and distorted the higher I go. I dunno.

Fundamental tone is the base harmonic of the sound. For instance, if you play an A4, the fundamental tone is 440Hz. For snare drums, the fundamental tone is usually around 200Hz although it could be lower or higher depending on the tuning of the drum. I don't think there's anything wrong with the compression, just the EQ with the snare and I guess the arrangement with the hats, in electronic music you would usually have a faster rhythm with a few different samples with some more reverb and (sometimes very audible) side chain compression with the kick and the snare to make it sound more interesting, and with a real drummer playing the hi-hat, he would be playing the downbeat with his arm and the upbeat with his wrist (or the downbeat with his wrist and the upbeat with his fingers in faster tempos), which makes the downbeat stronger and the sound slightly different because the drumstick hits the cymbals from a different angle, which would also make it sound more interesting.

I usually go for something between -2 and -6 RMS, depending on how fast the drums are (slower drums -> louder track). Misanthropy, for instance, was at around -4 most of the time, but it was actually louder than -2 during some of the electronic parts.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on April 25, 2016, 11:20:00 am
Either this week or next I will listen to everything everyone has posted here starting with Awaclus's album. Because I would feel REALLY guilty about posting here otherwise.

In the meantime, stuff I've been doing:
Remix of Armenia's Eurovision song (https://www.sendspace.com/file/l52vh0) (here's the original for reference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7m3wOGhEvE))
Soundtrack to a friend's short animated film (which I'll post here when she makes the video public)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 26, 2016, 12:47:01 pm
In the meantime, stuff I've been doing:
Remix of Armenia's Eurovision song (https://www.sendspace.com/file/l52vh0)

Is this available for streaming anywhere? That site has three buttons, and they all look a lot like the kind of buttons that I don't really want to click.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on April 26, 2016, 01:11:08 pm
In the meantime, stuff I've been doing:
Remix of Armenia's Eurovision song (https://www.sendspace.com/file/l52vh0)

Is this available for streaming anywhere? That site has three buttons, and they all look a lot like the kind of buttons that I don't really want to click.

The blue rectangular download button is the one you want. I'm gonna put it on YouTube at some point.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 26, 2016, 02:13:55 pm
At least it's slightly better than the original for sure, but it sounds pretty much the same except for the drums.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Elanchana on April 26, 2016, 02:40:01 pm
At least it's slightly better than the original for sure, but it sounds pretty much the same except for the drums.

That was kinda my intention. I thought the original sounded like someone deleted the drum and bass track, so I "put it back in". It's not exactly a remix I guess, but to me it makes the song way more listenable.

Edit: The YouTube upload finished!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGs--eLw_Z4
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 26, 2016, 03:42:26 pm
I thought the original sounded like someone deleted the drum and bass track

Here's a drum 'n' bass track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWsdwEZj2M
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 01:40:09 pm
And here's a hardstyle track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfpl3d_HUSE
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 04:56:59 pm
I like your logo. I don't like the remix. But I'm a lost cause when it comes to remixes most of the time. It just sounds like effects and stuff more an not like "real" music.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 05:06:06 pm
I like your logo. I don't like the remix. But I'm a lost cause when it comes to remixes most of the time. It just sounds like effects and stuff more an not like "real" music.

Do you like hardstyle in general?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 05:08:56 pm
Don't know that genre tbh
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 05:09:15 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuHHSm_Obo4
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 05:20:10 pm
mixed. I liked e.g. the hanging tree song (that's from the hunger game movie btw in case you don't know) in the instrumental parts. the vocal parts are irks.  I can't stand singing that sounds... well, artificial.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 05:36:41 pm
mixed. I liked e.g. the hanging tree song (that's from the hunger game movie btw in case you don't know) in the instrumental parts. the vocal parts are irks.  I can't stand singing that sounds... well, artificial.

 ??? How can you like some songs, but not the others? They're all basically the same song (which is not to say that hardstyle producers are unimaginative, but that the hardstyle scene is puritanical enough that all the songs need to sound exactly the same or they suck).
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 11, 2016, 05:42:01 pm
mixed. I liked e.g. the hanging tree song (that's from the hunger game movie btw in case you don't know) in the instrumental parts. the vocal parts are irks.  I can't stand singing that sounds... well, artificial.

 ??? How can you like some songs, but not the others? They're all basically the same song (which is not to say that hardstyle producers are unimaginative, but that the hardstyle scene is puritanical enough that all the songs need to sound exactly the same or they suck).

SS didn't like the vocal bits, and he was commentating on only one song.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 06:14:58 pm
... yes, and that's also not true. Isn't that like saying all hip hop is the same, or, for a genre I know a bit better, all melo death metal? Surely there's much less variety than in e.g. prog, but they're not all the same. You can like somehting purely based on the melodies.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 06:37:21 pm
... yes, and that's also not true. Isn't that like saying all hip hop is the same, or, for a genre I know a bit better, all melo death metal? Surely there's much less variety than in e.g. prog, but they're not all the same. You can like somehting purely based on the melodies.

It's not even close. Like, if you show a hip hop fan two songs that you think sound similar to prove your point that all hip hop is the same, he's going to show you something wildly different. If you show a hardstyle fan two songs that you think sound similar, he's going to tell you that one of them is not real hardstyle.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 07:15:13 pm
Well I can't really judge that so maybe you're right  :P
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 11, 2016, 07:17:35 pm
I don't think all hip hop is the same btw, I think more that there is a lot of hip hop which is irritatingly similar (and pretty shitty) but then also plenty of stuff that's different. Same is true for metalcore.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 11, 2016, 07:25:16 pm
Most of rap is total shit, mainly because it's repetitive and the lyrics are boring and cliche.

I follow iZotope regularly, so here's something for some music enthusiasts who maybe want to get better at music production, like me:
HERE (https://pae.izotope.com/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=MailChimp&utm_campaign=PAE+Launch&utm_content=Newsletter+List+Minus+Registered+Users&utm_term=PAE+Launch)

It's pretty basic stuff, but of course, having taken no classes ever and being totally self-taught, I've found use in this stuff so far.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 11, 2016, 07:32:50 pm
Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that it's a thing. It certainly makes it very interesting and fun to produce, because getting that meticulously distorted kick drum just right is far from trivial (I spent like 5 full days working on that kick drum sound and the rest of the remix came together in a couple of hours, to give you some idea, and I bet that more experienced producers take even longer to design the kick drum sound).

Most of rap is total shit, mainly because it's repetitive and the lyrics are boring and cliche.

Rap is a vocal technique. Saying that most of rap is total shit is like saying that most of vibrato is total shit.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 12, 2016, 07:01:46 am
Rap is a vocal technique. Saying that most of rap is total shit is like saying that most of vibrato is total shit.

Rap is also a genre, so I disagree.

Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 12, 2016, 07:11:21 am
Rap is a vocal technique. Saying that most of rap is total shit is like saying that most of vibrato is total shit.

Rap is also a genre, so I disagree.

It is not a genre, just like vibrato isn't a genre. It is very commonly used in some genres of music such as hip hop and nu metal, though.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 12, 2016, 07:27:34 am
Wikipedia says you're right that it's not technically a genre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping). Nonetheless, a lot of people associate it with one I believe.

But I was talking about hip hop, anyway.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 18, 2016, 01:06:44 pm
Can someone recommend me some metalcore tracks that you think are really well produced and professional sounding? Preferably ones that have both clean vocals and screaming. Doesn't matter that much if it's a good song or not, I just need them for reference.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 18, 2016, 01:10:11 pm
Oh, that's an idea. Using professional songs for reference! Why did I not think of this before?

Sadly, I have no roots in metalcore.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 18, 2016, 06:59:13 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/684335

Do the drums sound better in this, Awaclus?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 19, 2016, 10:27:51 am
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/684335

Do the drums sound better in this, Awaclus?

Significantly.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on May 19, 2016, 11:21:50 am
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/684335

Do the drums sound better in this, Awaclus?

Significantly.

I lowered the gain from the compressor, and I also compressed it a lot less. I think that was the problem, though I never heard any problem. I don't know, sometimes I feel like I can't hear problems other people can.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 19, 2016, 12:33:43 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/684335

Do the drums sound better in this, Awaclus?

Significantly.

I lowered the gain from the compressor, and I also compressed it a lot less. I think that was the problem, though I never heard any problem. I don't know, sometimes I feel like I can't hear problems other people can.

I don't think it was too much compressed. I think you can safely have around 20 db of gain reduction on a snare drum before it even gets noticeable when it's playing that slowly, and it's usually fine to push the compressor even harder because it's not really a downside in electronic music if the compression on the drums is slightly audible.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on May 30, 2016, 11:05:46 am
I added you (Awaclus' band) to Sputnik (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands/Necro-Cannibal-Machinery/78285/)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 01, 2016, 08:47:38 pm
Wrote some songs recently:

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/687129 (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/687129)

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/687124 (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/687124)

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/685937 (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/685937)

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/685857 (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/685857)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 04, 2016, 01:05:42 pm
Good times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THnNH54SUSk
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 08, 2016, 04:24:00 pm
Can someone recommend me some metalcore tracks that you think are really well produced and professional sounding? Preferably ones that have both clean vocals and screaming. Doesn't matter that much if it's a good song or not, I just need them for reference.

For the record, this was for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwJsUAEb5TU

The video was made by Ho-kago MMD.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on June 10, 2016, 09:50:06 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/688455?updated=1465609419

I made some song that came straight out of an 80s sci-fi movie.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on August 07, 2016, 12:28:36 pm
I made some music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZix37WZhuk
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on August 07, 2016, 01:45:06 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/696009

Something I worked on recently. I am very proud of the drum mixing, although I wish I did more variance with them. In addition, I think I could have boosted the bass a bit more.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 08, 2016, 03:17:02 am
I made this with my sister.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0L2ynvdK0
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on October 08, 2016, 05:13:07 am
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/699574
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on November 27, 2016, 12:25:01 pm
I made a collaboration with the very talented vocalist SEiMEi from the Philippines, which turned out to be quite the project. I spent a total of 155 hours producing the music over the course of one year, and now it's finally done. Phew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0WIE9vZhHM

Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 28, 2016, 04:38:26 am
155 hours for five minutes? :o

That's 155 hours for 300 seconds, making over 1 hour for every two seconds.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on November 28, 2016, 04:59:06 am
155 hours for five minutes? :o

That's 155 hours for 300 seconds, making over 1 hour for every two seconds.

Yeah. Something like 20-40 hours per song is more typical for my productions.

It should be noted though that the length of the song is largely irrelevant (it only matters for recording, and even then you can copy&paste a lot). Rather, what makes the production take longer is having a lot of complex sound design, and this song certainly had that because I designed all the sounds from scratch multiple times since I improved a lot on the way. Also there are like a dozen of different lead synths.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 28, 2016, 08:58:13 pm
Yeah the complexity definitely comes through.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 29, 2016, 03:57:14 am
How long did you need for The Visitor?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 03, 2016, 10:53:13 am
How long did you need for The Visitor?

40 hours 37 minutes.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 18, 2016, 10:14:03 am
I made this with my mom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9qKepeisM

Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 23, 2016, 07:46:40 am
My band's new variance in production mix of one of our songs from Misanthropy was included on Folk Metal Grove's compilation album (which is free to download). There's also a lot of other cool bands there so it's worth checking it out.

https://folkmetalgrove.bandcamp.com/releases
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on December 23, 2016, 08:34:58 am
by the way, what's up with that title?  :P
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 23, 2016, 09:31:22 am
by the way, what's up with that title?  :P

Just commentary on the whole "dynamic range day" thing, which is basically a music production equivalent of all these movements where a guy says something and then everyone just sort of believes that guy even though common sense would tell you that he's not entirely correct, just because holding the same opinion as that particular guy is cool. It has even gotten up to the point where platforms such as Spotify and YouTube automatically reduce the volume of songs that don't have much dynamic range (although Spotify lets you turn that feature off in the settings), and it's ridiculous.

Basically, there is a belief held by some that dynamic music would sound better than loud music but mastering engineers who work on commercial productions will master their albums louder so that they'd stand out more, and that this is a bad thing. However, if you actually look at the list of albums and their dynamic ranges (http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/dr) and sort it by dynamic range, you'll find out that the absolute worst "offenders" on that list are all kinds of noise albums which are supposed to sound very distorted, and then you get a long list of EDM and metal albums which are supposed to sound loud, not a list of the most commercial pop music. Obviously, the reason for this is that these genres just sound better when they don't have much of a dynamic range, but this gets largely ignored by people who buy into the dynamic range appreciation narrative, and then you get producers and other people complaining about the lack of dynamic range in metal or EDM, and whenever you listen to those genres on YouTube, you need to turn the volume up.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on December 23, 2016, 10:22:34 am
I tentatively sympathize with that position, mostly based on having a friend tell me that Gangrene (Mirrorthrone album) is bad because of a low Dynamic Range.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 23, 2016, 11:26:16 am
I tentatively sympathize with that position, mostly based on having a friend tell me that Gangrene (Mirrorthrone album) is bad because of a low Dynamic Range.

It's not even that low (although it's certainly low enough to get told that it's low — according to the Dynamic Range Day website, a dynamic range should be roughly twice as high to not be horrible), it's higher than most of my stuff.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 28, 2016, 10:51:44 am
What are everyone's favorite releases of 2016? I have a top 3:

#1: The Violent Sleep of Reason by Meshuggah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtO3VCu5wv4

#2: Jumalten Aika by Moonsorrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcuusxiIWrc

#3: Metsutan - Songs of the Void by Whispered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q8ecGbfXUs
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on December 29, 2016, 11:32:14 am
Sure!

I like Moonsorrow's second last album more than anything of the last two years (even Namidae), but the most recent one still didn't get better, so it's not on here.

#3 Insomnium - Winter's Gate
Though nothing on here is as good as the title track of In the Halls of Awaiting, as a whole listen, this is probably their best album. One 40+ minute song. The lyrics aren't nearly as poetic as they were way back, (http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/insomnium/inthehallsofawaiting.html#10) but they've been getting worse with their last 2 albums, and this is definitely breaking the trend, which is nice and rare. I love part 3.

Can't find it on youtube. Probably banned in Germany.

#2 Tarja – The Shadow Self
Her last album was not good, and I didn't expect her to ever release another good album after it, but she did! So much energy particularly in the middle of the album, where on the last one it felt tired and repetitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF7SV5q8R9c

#1 Cobalt – Slow Forever
Very dark. Very metal. I'd call this controlled aggression. Gets first place for the interlude + title track on the second disc. So much emotion in here. I also largely endorse the message on writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVo_W5XYq_k

starts at 01:06:15

Hnorable mention to Affinity from Haken. Listen to The Architect, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug6_SD3MXwU) super well written track that gets better on every listen, enormous replayability (rest of the album is whatever). Also Alcest's Kodama (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQsXnldCDeU&list=PLwQ1EmeGPtWkQ7TMZ-m4SwTEqRyeFnTYy) for being all-around pretty and enjoyable (also quite accessible), and Awaclus' album for The Visitor.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 15, 2017, 09:55:47 pm
I liked this song so much I just had to remix it, and I wanted to get into trap production so this happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arUW7bQXkVg
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 22, 2017, 06:29:56 am
This is another pretty long project of mint. I started planning on making this in 2014, I started actually working on it in 2015, and now it's finally done. I didn't spend that many hours on it though, I just had very long breaks in between. As a side note, it was incredibly difficult to find a kagura suzu sample anywhere (hell, it was pretty difficult to figure out what the instrument was even called in the first place, since the only thing I knew about it was the sound it makes), but I ultimately managed to find a low quality sample by searching for it in Chinese and make it sound pretty okay in the mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcMvDXf3sdE
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 03, 2017, 02:17:52 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxyvJl8RjE
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 06, 2017, 06:07:26 pm
I tried to make some epic cinematic music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf0QT1XeEQ8 (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/a/ae/Coin0star.png/16px-Coin0star.png)

That coin symbol was a misclick but I thought it was funny so I left it there.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Seprix on February 07, 2017, 01:19:51 pm
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/723190
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on April 04, 2017, 01:25:14 pm
Months later, The Visitor is still one of my favorite songs. And the rest of the album is also quite pleasant. I don't  really have other music which sounds like that, so it's a nice thing to return to.

Do you have another album scheduled?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 04, 2017, 01:44:30 pm
Months later, The Visitor is still one of my favorite songs. And the rest of the album is also quite pleasant. I don't  really have other music which sounds like that, so it's a nice thing to return to.

Do you have another album scheduled?

Currently, we have one full-length album and a 25-minute single-track EP in our "production queue", so to speak, and we have the music written for 11 other future albums but we haven't decided on the order in which to release them, yet.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on April 04, 2017, 04:19:51 pm
Oh, wow. I was going to say make more songs that have weird out-of-left-field shifts in the middle but I guess that ship has sailed.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on June 18, 2017, 06:50:05 pm
This is actually a slightly older production of mine, but since it was a collab project with HetaVocaCore (who was responsible for the animation), it only got released just now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQmxKCBWZE
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on July 23, 2017, 07:44:39 pm
This, on the other hand, is a brand new production of mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS40BPKibVQ
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 03, 2017, 01:16:39 pm
Tracktion 6 has now been released for free, which is pretty neat if you're looking for a DAW.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 07, 2017, 04:24:27 pm
Does anyone have recommendations for new age artists that go for a somewhat darker sound than the "relaxing yoga mix" stuff I can find on YouTube? I know of Era and Kalafina.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 20, 2017, 09:18:41 am
I made another collab with SEiMEi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBFHxDdokrg
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 22, 2017, 04:50:59 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_cW7ysyAT0

New Kauan is astonishing. So far I'm thinking it's about as good as Sorni Nai, which says quite a bit.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on September 23, 2017, 01:22:55 pm
If it had female cleans instead of male cleans I might like it as much as you.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 23, 2017, 01:23:53 pm
If it had female cleans instead of male cleans I might like it as much as you.

It has female cleans.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on September 23, 2017, 03:07:24 pm
I know but not primarily.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 13, 2017, 05:08:28 pm
Here's the first single from our upcoming album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTddBO77ac
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 20, 2017, 07:10:13 pm
And here's the second single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KER90-6Npg
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on October 28, 2017, 07:39:58 am
It feels a little weird to keep posting when I'm the only one posting ITT, but I guess other people aren't making a lot of music recently. Here's my hardstyle remix of a track from my band's upcoming album (I'll post the album next Saturday and then I'll stop spamming for a while)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFOZMjrco-A
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: ThetaSigma12 on October 28, 2017, 09:05:49 am
It feels a little weird to keep posting when I'm the only one posting ITT, but I guess other people aren't making a lot of music recently.

I've been transcribing a lot of music I compose recently actually. I'm just not as keen on sharing it. But if anyone cares to listen to some mediocre piano music, here's one of my personal favorite compositions: https://musescore.com/thetasigma12/scores/4579816
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on November 03, 2017, 06:30:04 pm
https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/fractures

Here's the full album, available for free/name-your-price download and streaming on Bandcamp.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on November 04, 2017, 08:45:21 am
I would post music too if I were capable of making it ~

First spin of your album – I quite like Collapse and Dummy (minus the title) and the Anti Puppet Theory Remix. Rest has to await futher listens.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 22, 2017, 04:19:38 pm
Ignite Amps's The Anvil 3.0 was released today so I made a quick remix of Square a Saw's Lightning to test it. The video also doubles as a tutorial where I explain how I made the guitar and bass guitar tones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJH6bmWvk1w
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on December 28, 2017, 07:48:49 pm
It's time for favorite releases of the year again. I have a top 5 + 1 HM this year:

#1) Kaiho by Kauan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2aCaYlaeqw

#2) Into The Half Light by Echotide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWl5WdOBrcs

#3) Forever Digital by MUST DIE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1balBIKhnE

#4) Look At Yourself by Emmure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ui8CseC1A

#5) Drum Nation by Wiwek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzstAwOshww

Honorable mention: Kelle Surut Soi by Havukruunu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54yv5MO9d84
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on December 31, 2017, 01:15:14 pm
Blargh. I didn't even listen to enough new music this year to compile a list. There's actually no album that I like enough to want to mention it.

I'll say that Mariner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_O-NZfzvj0&list=PLJ4ijS8hCBs0CjAfJKJKz8YUMcuUFuRN1) would have easily gotten AotY last year had I listened to it then. That is one incredible album.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 11, 2018, 04:04:21 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpFfu5LkgTg
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 23, 2018, 04:03:11 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf-A8YzqldQ
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Roadrunner7671 on January 26, 2018, 12:31:02 am
Culture 2 anyone?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: sudgy on January 30, 2018, 03:13:11 am
Alright Awaclus, I'll help you not feel lonely.

Here's me singing in a Christmas choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww8ll93dYCQ

I'm the furthest guy on the left in the front row wearing the plaid shirt.  I'm singing bass, if anybody wants to try to pick out my part.  It might be more interesting to head to 8:37 in the video, because there we do a couple Pentatonix songs with a smaller group.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 11, 2018, 05:23:19 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxHabOuRAjg
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on March 12, 2018, 07:41:13 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwa0w91ptA
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on May 26, 2018, 09:16:53 am
I got some new drum mics and acoustic treatment, here are the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQv1LBBQhA
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on August 21, 2018, 03:54:13 pm
Didn't post something in a while. I'm super into Kashiwa Daisuke's stuff lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqRaPud8JE
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 17, 2018, 01:46:15 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpPSF7-Ctlc
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Donald X. on September 18, 2018, 06:36:26 pm
There may be a general tendency, but that sure doesn't describe me at all. In 1983 I was listening to the Beatles and some stuff we can lump together as folk-rock. If I put on any of that music now, it will be like having nothing on at all; my brain edits it out. It's just too familiar. My favorite year for music overall is 2006; my favorite song of that year is A Method by TV on the Radio. You will not confuse it with folk-rock, though I guess you can say "well it's trying to do something different, like say the Beatles were, bam, identical." My favorite album of this year so far is Superorganism (followed by I Like Fun from TMBG). In the early oughts I thought of trying music from the 20s-40s, and I like a lot of stuff from then, that era that those cherry-picked Beatles-haters preferred.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: ipofanes on September 19, 2018, 10:30:38 am
There is definitely something to it but the video this responded to had some facts and figures that are conveniently ignored here, for instance that a multitude of chart songs have the same composer/writer, and concentration seems to run deeper than Holland/Dozier/Holland in the 1960s, Chinn/Chapman in the 1970s and Stock/Aitken/Waterman in the 1980s. Also, one can argue that The Beatles were a step down in structure and substance from The Great American Songbook.

Obviously, original video talked about the charts which can't be mistaken with contemporary music, which is incredibly diverse. Also, the charts back then had not only Stevie Wonder but also The Archies, Middle of the Road and Boney M. But it's very hard to imagine that a song with only the depth of "In My Life" would enter today's Top 40, and I wonder if someone who knows much more about contemporary pop music could name the "Exile on Main Street", "Revolver" or "Songs in the Key of Life" of the recent 10 years.
 
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: DG on September 19, 2018, 01:07:26 pm
As another older poster here, I'd have to say that I've separated out my cd collection into a 75% that I don't listen to and a 25% that I do, and the 75% is mainly composed of CDs that I bought in my teens and early twenties. I'm willing to dig out stuff from any decade now and if an album has great songs, or the artist can take you a specific time and place with their music, then the decade doesn't matter.

What stops me from appreciating a lot of modern pop music is that I don't like the vocal style, much in the way that I don't like musical theatre vocal style. If I'd grown up listening to that style all the time then yes I might appreciate that and not appreciate the Beatles, say.  This is compounded by so many modern songs lacking the musicianship of previous decades, so there's no point in me listening to a vocal I don't appreciate, put onto a synth backing track or looped sample, probably overproduced, even if the song is good. On the plus side, I heard a great new track from Rodrigo y Gabriella the other day so I might have to search out their new album.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 19, 2018, 01:40:22 pm
This is compounded by so many modern songs lacking the musicianship of previous decades, so there's no point in me listening to a vocal I don't appreciate, put onto a synth backing track or looped sample, probably overproduced

There's probably way more musicianship going into the creation of the "overproduced" synth "backing track" than The Beatles playing their instruments.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: DG on September 19, 2018, 01:57:56 pm
This is compounded by so many modern songs lacking the musicianship of previous decades, so there's no point in me listening to a vocal I don't appreciate, put onto a synth backing track or looped sample, probably overproduced

There's probably way more musicianship going into the creation of the "overproduced" synth "backing track" than The Beatles playing their instruments.

Hmm, have you forgotten that Sir George Martin and the Beatles are renowned for their innovation in the studio as well?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on September 19, 2018, 02:55:54 pm
This is compounded by so many modern songs lacking the musicianship of previous decades, so there's no point in me listening to a vocal I don't appreciate, put onto a synth backing track or looped sample, probably overproduced

There's probably way more musicianship going into the creation of the "overproduced" synth "backing track" than The Beatles playing their instruments.

Hmm, have you forgotten that Sir George Martin and the Beatles are renowned for their innovation in the studio as well?

Nope, I have used some of those techniques myself. That being said, the level of knowledge in music theory that is required to use synthesizers to create your sounds is insane, and a lot of modern producers are great at designing synth sounds.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on February 11, 2019, 03:42:16 pm
Awaclus hasn't been promoting it, but NCM has a new release, Serenity (https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/serenity), and it's pretty great, unless you're one of those boring people who doesn't like harsh vocals.

It feels more serious and more folksy than previous albums, which is both good. It also feels like there's more stuff going on, though I could be wrong.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 11, 2019, 06:52:13 pm
Awaclus hasn't been promoting it, but NCM has a new release, Serenity (https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/serenity), and it's pretty great, unless you're one of those boring people who doesn't like harsh vocals.

It feels more serious and more folksy than previous albums, which is both good. It also feels like there's more stuff going on, though I could be wrong.

There is definitely a lot more stuff going on, but I don't think it's significantly more serious than previous albums? If anything, I think we were fooling around more than we usually do. Unless you mean serious as in better production quality, which it has.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on February 11, 2019, 07:16:48 pm
There is definitely a lot more stuff going on, but I don't think it's significantly more serious than previous albums? If anything, I think we were fooling around more than we usually do. Unless you mean serious as in better production quality, which it has.

No, I meant serious in the usual sense, less tongue in cheek, more heartfelt etc. If that's not the case, I was just wrong.

Btw are you doing the clean singing?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 11, 2019, 07:38:13 pm
There is definitely a lot more stuff going on, but I don't think it's significantly more serious than previous albums? If anything, I think we were fooling around more than we usually do. Unless you mean serious as in better production quality, which it has.

No, I meant serious in the usual sense, less tongue in cheek, more heartfelt etc. If that's not the case, I was just wrong.

Btw are you doing the clean singing?

Well, I suppose different people can have different interpretations. If that's how you hear it, then it's not wrong, I just didn't really see it that way myself.

I'm doing the lower harmony in the choruses (the one which is barely audible) but the main cleans and higher harmonies are Juhan.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Puk on February 19, 2019, 06:51:57 pm
https://soundcloud.com/user-829978167/addiction

well so i finally managed to put some of my music online, not really clean takes cause well, i don't know anything about the technical side of recording and all that, but hey anyway, there's one english song so i decided to post it here.

go ahead, and laugh with my english :)
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 20, 2019, 03:33:52 am
https://soundcloud.com/user-829978167/addiction

well so i finally managed to put some of my music online, not really clean takes cause well, i don't know anything about the technical side of recording and all that, but hey anyway, there's one english song so i decided to post it here.

go ahead, and laugh with my english :)

What kind of equipment are you using? I might be able to give a few tips about the technical side of recording and all that.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 17, 2020, 11:25:57 am
It's been a while since I shilled my stuff on f.ds, but here's my band's new single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUKr-fbKK7Y
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Jack Rudd on January 18, 2020, 06:11:48 am
I should probably post a link to the song I wrote last year. https://musescore.com/user/33488759/scores/5845571
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on January 23, 2020, 05:22:40 pm
^^ Did you actually film landscapes and replay with increased tempo to create this video, or did you get the footage from somewhere else?
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 23, 2020, 06:11:04 pm
^^ Did you actually film landscapes and replay with increased tempo to create this video, or did you get the footage from somewhere else?

It's Creative Commons footage by Hidden Thicket Productions LLC.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 07, 2020, 03:14:51 pm
The entire album is out now.

https://necrocannibalmachinery.bandcamp.com/album/flock
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on February 09, 2020, 03:31:35 pm
♥ Hollow ♥
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: silverspawn on February 10, 2020, 03:37:53 am
The lyrics of that song are impressively depressing.

Assuming you wrote them, did you have a particular person in mind? It seems like the narrator is meant to be female.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on February 11, 2020, 02:19:08 pm
Assuming you wrote them, did you have a particular person in mind? It seems like the narrator is meant to be female.

I didn't write them (beyond suggesting a few minor changes, which I don't remember if I did for Hollow), it was mostly Johannes's doing and I don't know if he had anyone in particular in mind. I can see how the narrator could be male or female, the fact that it has both male and female-sounding vocals kind of supports this.
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on January 23, 2021, 01:11:57 pm
My band's first music video just came out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHpzvVntl8
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Glitters on March 29, 2022, 09:56:14 am
How talented you are, guys!
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: spineflu on August 01, 2022, 12:57:43 pm
https://youtu.be/KqjxnAreV2o
just found this and i never expected the beach boys to work so well in a mashup
Title: Re: Music talk
Post by: Awaclus on April 07, 2023, 07:07:28 am
I would appreciate it a ton if you could do me a favor and vote for Birds of Necama (TL note: the blue hyväksy kaikki button accepts all cookies, then you have to scroll down a bit until you come across the poll, and voting just takes one click at that point).

https://www.ita-savo.fi/paikalliset/5839463