Radiowar

the key point that is missing from your formulation here is that you can give ten cooks the same recipe you linked and get ten different dishes. the space between the statements "chicken parmagiana is chicken, parmesan cheese, and pasta" and "chicken parmagiana is a virtually unknowable quantity" is where creativity and decision-making happen. yet your analogy does not entirely hold up. recipes are to creating food as songbooks are to creating music. in this case, the chicken parmagiana recipe you linked is not analogous to "how to make video game music" so much as "a transcription of prelude by nobuo uematsu." it tells you how to cook a specific dish; it does not tell you how to become a better cook. a more accurate analogy, in my opinion, is that what you are really asking here is how to make dinner - dinner of a certain "genre", lets say italian food. the feedback you are likely to get, in this scenario, would be to start by imitating dishes you know you like. how do you know what dishes you like or dislike? you need to taste some. maybe you need help around the daw - or uh kitchen - like grating cheese, or cutting tomatoes in a particular shape, or cracking an egg without getting it all over the floor. there is literature out there that will help you to these ends: cookbooks, menus, "how to cut stuff for dummies," etc. yet to ask the question "my chicken parmagiana always comes out dry and im having difficulty improving it - anyone know any good books on the topic?" would likely be met with responses similar to those in this thread. the idea is that, at some point - and im getting the sense is that this is the point you are after - you will move away from simply recreating dishes by rote to actually having an opinion of what you like, and the ability to figure out how to achieve it. this is usually what people mean when they talk about "experience" - not the result of 10,000 hours of random, undirected experimentation, but a continuous, increasingly refined process of input and subsequent output. i agree with you, but i think you are misunderstanding what i mean by "abstract" or "theoretical." i mean that the relationship between music theory and a given work is the same as the relationship between scientific theory and a given phenomena. i dont mean to say that abstract theoretical models are irrelevant to more practical or immediate considerations; on the contrary, they are abstract out of necessity in order to draw any specific or useful conclusions at all that arent just the *shrugs shoulders* "shit happens" mentality you're talking about.

i'm still having difficulty understanding what youre after, and it seems like this kind of statement is at the crux. it seems to me that there are only a couple useful types of instruction when it comes to composition and production: those that instruct on principles of acoustics or equipment, and those that provide theoretical, abstract models of form and harmonic language. outside of that, im honestly having difficulty conceiving of what you mean by books that teach "midi sequencing stuff" and "context based instruction." i must be completely missing something here, because all that says to me is you're looking for a book that teaches musical decision-making, which is like a mathematician asking if there are any textbooks out there that tell you what are some good numbers to use. if thats not the case, i apologize for continually misunderstanding you; but if it is, then perhaps theres something fundamentally skewed about your approach to composition here.

thats interesting, because to me this is a fairly vague or generic statement (contrasts in dynamics correspond to shifts in mood, sometimes perceived as "drama") that lacks context or any specific information on how such an effect is achieved with brass/percussion instruments, except to say "add more instruments one at a time," which could be true (or not) for any instrumentation. as far as orchestration texts go, the adler book contains plenty of "functional" information specific to individual instruments. for example, information on the types of articulations possible on a french horn, the timbral qualities in different registers of a clarinet, and so on - the type of information that, in my opinion, would help to answer the question of making samples "sound more realistic," by providing a basis in the qualities of the actual instruments in question. when i say that it might not answer the specific questions you initially raised (how to sound more lively, fun, or emotional, for example) it might address them by way of examples from other compositions, or suggesting some subjective qualities of particular sounds and techniques, but would not likely attempt to define a 1:1 rule of such-and-such a technique yielding such-and-such a result.

the books i linked to - the adler and the hodgson - i believe are relevant to the questions you were asking. i was simply cautioning that these books, and any book that outlines theoretical approaches to composition, speak in generic terms and may not provide answers to the more specific or circumstantial questions you posed in the op.

sorry to nitpick - especially since i think we are in agreement about useful application of theory - but schoenberg and the particular strain of modernism he instigated is an aesthetic based almost entirely on a robust theoretical approach (which is to say that every value is accounted for). as someone who spent way too much time identifying tone row transformations, i couldnt let that statement just sit there i think that generally it is not helpful to think of the validity of music as the extent to which it upholds theoretical models. put another way, i generally prefer to think of music theory as a set of rules similar to grammatical rules in language. it is a type of analysis, as neblix said, but more broadly it is a way of interpreting meaning, which means that it is necessarily a way of creating meaning. this is why we have the cliché that "you need to learn the rules in order to break them" - breaking the rules can render a piece of music incoherent, but breaking the rules in a particular way can also create an effect which bolsters the intended meaning. a literary parallel which comes to mind would be the works of james joyce, or e.e. cummings, for example. to bring it back around to the op, this might be a situation where meteo xavier is asking for theory to do too much. i dont know of any textbook which would help specifically with getting "samples to sound more realistic" (assuming you mean utilizing samples idiomatically and not somehow improving or obscuring low-resolution samples), though if you are interested in learning more about classical instrumentation, for example, there are books like adler's study of orchestration which is about as detailed an overview of common practices you could find outside of learning all instruments individually. for questions of signal processing, a book like hodgson's "understanding records" provides a decent overview of music production theory related to a number of popular genres and styles. as for questions of popular forms ("how to use transitions and dynamics to change up tracks") this is an area which is, in my opinion, simultaneously complex and simple. it can be difficult to truly codify form in pop music which is continuously evolving and changing (or otherwise resists codification), and yet it is not difficult at all to speak about form in broad terms since pop music rarely strays from generic AABA or verse-chorus structures (this is true not only of rock music, but some forms of edm as well - especially as the distinction between edm and pop continues to blur). you could approach a study of form from two points of view: a study of formal models of classical music (not because of any "intellectual superiority" of classical music, but that it is simply the repertoire for which the most developed theoretical models exist) which would improve your understanding how form can work generally to create meaning; or, for a more focused approach to specific styles, i would recommend something like the wire magazine, or tiny mix tapes, which is to say publications which explore specific styles on an individual level, though are necessarily more of a sociological approach rather than strict modelling.

i would say it comes down to a combination of finding the right amount of swing when you quantize and just straight up performing certain parts with little to no quantization at all, adjusting for how loose of a feel you're going for. goldbaby has some free midi groove templates that you may find useful, though most daws will let you adjust the swing "intensity" when you quantize. generally you want a value somewhere in the range of 16th note @ 55-65%. there are also some decent video tutorials out there on hip-hop groove production, which could be applied to the kind of up-tempo breakbeat style you're going for.

i dont know that its possible to do multi-page posts with tumblr, but i think even though the most popular stuff on tumblr tends to be short text posts and gif sets, long-form blogs are not uncommon. one thing tumblr has going for it imo is the subscription/feedback/sharing system is built in, which could potentially help a blog reach a wider audience than through something isolated like wordpress.

whoa looks like hyper IC's + zelda or smth. this could be sick

ive got that tune stuck in my head now...i definitely wanna try this out

i was typing fast give me a break lol . my point was that the texture led me to anticipate some sigur ros-esque electric bass, which i think would sound better. but i know wes disagrees with me D:

thats what im saying, it kind of denies the existence of the swedish/european scene entirely. yeah his US record alone might seem sparse, but im pretty sure to this day he has not dropped a set in europe in like 5 years. that seems noteworthy to me, that somebody basically owned an entire continent for the better part of their career, not to mention singlehandedly redefining peach as a character. but i understand that it's a lot to ask of an independent fan documentary to travel to europe and do all the work and research to tell that side of the story, so i dont really blame them. same goes for the scenes in japan, etc. as i recall it ended with wes saying "people choose to be offended, so really it's their problem not ours." thats a pretty clear statement to me. the whole thing seemed very "who me?" tongue-in-cheek. as opposed to players like scar who seem to be making an effort to promote inclusiveness in the scene.

i liked the documentary overall. lots of great footage from the early days of the scene, and the narrative they put together is pretty compelling. it's unfortunate that it's so U.S.-centric, sidelining Armada almost entirely, but i suppose that's to be expected. also that random segment defending the smash community's insistence that their brand of misogyny and homophobia is just super cute was off-putting. but it seems like the documentary has had the effect of breathing some life into smaller local scenes which is great !

im pretty sure leaving it in the shrink wrap does more damage to digipaks than unwrapping it and just like treating it okay

yeah memorizing lyrics - or just the music in general - is generally a must when you're playing live. or perhaps a better word is "internalizing." if it means something to you, if you understand it fully, that feeling of natural expression is gonna come across. it's like learning lines in a play, you need to believe it and own it in the moment 100%. then theres the more practical fact that if you dont know it, you will forget it. playing on a stage in front of an audience is just a different environment, and anything that can possibly go wrong probably will, especially things that have never happened before. i'm of the mind that there's only so far you can get with independent practice. part of that practice has got to be putting yourself in that completely unfamiliar environment where your heart is pounding and your hands are cold and your legs are weak and you cant hear yourself very well and theres a bunch of people staring at you. im always like, you're gonna feel that nervousness no matter what, and you just need to let it hit you, find a way to turn that nervous energy into excited happy performance energy. in general i think it takes probably 2-3 times of doing a particular set live before i feel like i reach some base level of comfort with it. the first time is pretty much always a throwaway, something where you do it and then afterwards are just like "ok what the hell just happened" and then you do it a bit better the next time.

i was just playin level 3 cpu's with pikachu in turbo mode and already im like this mode is completely FUCKED i havent tried it yet but it seems like moves autocancel on contact so could you theoretically pick fox and hit someone's shield then just keep pressing down b down b down b down b down b

yes. yes!! agreed this could be very good though my immediate impression is that the sounds do not "blend" atm. some of it is due to fakey-ness (i really wanted to hear a better electric bass sound there) and some of it is just too pretty, like that sitar (?) and a couple other things...in general i think it could be dirtier. is also a good reference here, i think

score study, score study, score study also hopefully establish some kinda regularity with submitting things to ocr. i make this resolution every year and have yet to pull it off

man i was super skeptical about this console and the 3d stuff before but now im playin zelda with the 3d on max like WOW IT IS LIKE LOOKING THROUGH A WINDOW im told it wears off

i just got a 3ds ! my last handheld console was a gba so i am kinda like at all the stuff the system can do. my friend code is 1263-7041-3359

it's actually not all that important to be able to write without any reference. most composers, generally speaking, use the piano to some degree when writing (which has its own pitfalls, but thats a different discussion). if you are hearing a melody or a harmony in your head, theres no reason why you shouldnt just go find it at the keyboard. you dont need to have perfect pitch to write, though if you find yourself in a position where you dont have any reference available, i like to reference certain pitches i can call up in my memory. A440 is a pretty good one to know, for example. or if i need an A-flat, i think of of 'I Will' by Radiohead.

i am curious about this as well !

man check out the alt costumes they posted on the project m twitter

:shock::shock::shock: yoshi and samus look amazing

the source breakdown show could be interesting as long as it isnt "music theory" a la that game music theory tumblr, watching someone transcribe the mario bros theme and scribble chord symbols and cadences over it. i would be more interested in something like ella guro's blog, highlighting obscure/strange/unique vgm, with perhaps an analysis focused on interesting harmonic/timbral effects, especially those linked to considerations of the hardware used, as well as the game itself.

i was going to say that i only use manuscript paper if i'm writing for "classical" instruments/ensembles, but the truth is i have sketched out ideas for remixes that way before. when it comes to composing, though, i am always loathe to use notation software. i usually leave that to the very end, when im putting together the finished score/parts. unlike word processors, for example, notation software is just a pain in the ass, wasting a ton of time on formatting and spacing, whereas if im sketching/composing by hand, the process becomes a lot more like drawing.