IsolinearMoogle
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Posts posted by IsolinearMoogle
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I can't say I don't like it. But I feel like there are two completely different pieces going on here — the melody from the game and the metal accompaniment.
At the beginning of the piece, the two start out in different keys... the segue from "a cappella" Zelda theme into metal feels very awkward primarily because of the key change, and it seems kind of wrong while they are both going on at the same time later in the piece. Although the simultaneous cross-key business lends it a cool dystopian mindfunk kind of vibe, which may be what you were going for.
The instrumentation throws me off, too. I just don't really feel like the synth sound of the Zelda melody works well with the metal guitar portion. Could just be a matter of personal taste, but I don't feel they mesh. When the metal guitar came in, I felt like I was listening to a completely different arrangement. I'd advise switching the voicing on the Zelda bit to something a little more metal-friendly... that's about as specific as I can be, not being a big metal aficionado.
My two cents. I dig the sounds you're working with.
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it'll be fine, we have so many ideas for additional coolness, we won't be able to do them all regardless of funding.
Pretty much what I would assume. I don't know if there are legal issues or a possible fan outcry to deal with, but for my own two cents, I have faith that the money will be spent in a way that will not make me feel exploited.
I will say (although it's perhaps obvious) that the sooner these ideas are public, the better for this particular concern.
Specifically the Teen Agent Special Edition Box Set and collectible card gameSpecial silver-bordered holographic autographed portrait-sized Teen Agent CCG cards will surely appease the public, no?
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Meh you can't please everyone all of the time. Some people will say "gross this sounds like nothing like the original" while others will say "gross this sounds too much like the original." Some people just like complaining.
Ditto.
Unfortunate that some folks seem to want to pick apart this Kickstart solicitation, and OCR in general. I couldn't be happier about all the professional-quality free music I have gotten from OCR over the last decade, and I think this pledge drive is being done just fine (clearly the naysayers are in the minority with the $35k+ that has already been pledged).
I have never contributed to OCR before, and would not buy a hard copy of this album (I'm all digital and vinyl at home), but something about the way this is being presented left no doubt in my mind that I would donate as soon as I saw it, and I will probably keep my disc for a good long time as a reminder of how proud I was to be able to contribute along with so many other good folks to make an awesome project like this a reality.
And I would imagine most of the 600 folks who have already contributed get that we are not buying a product, but donating and getting a thank-you gift for doing so. NPR and other nonprofits do this sort of thing all the time, and I think at a similar ratio of product value to donation amount.
So, in essence, kudos to the folks who put this together, and congratulations on the awesome response!! (...and please do let us know what is going to happen to all the extra moneys when you have figured that out)
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I figure you guys didn't plan to meet your goal so quickly, but since you have and the donations just keep on coming, maybe you could post here and on the Kickstart page some general plans as to how the additional money is going to be spent?
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Yes please sign me up for a chance!
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Outstanding! I was so thrilled to be able to play a small part in putting this together, and I have enjoyed listening to this track more and more every time I hear it. Kudos to OA and all others involved in assembling so many pieces into a beautiful and cohesive whole!
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Hey I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere else, so I figured I would give it a shout. This weekend on Saturday (the 18th) there is a video game music festival in Houston, Texas.
Jack Wall will be conducting a Video Games Live! concert, as well as a second concert earlier in the day of Blizzard music (not sure if that is just typical of what he does when he's on tour now). I consider myself very fortunate to be singing in both of these concerts as a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus.
It should be a really awesome event! I think I am one of the few people in the choir who is anticipating it so much... most of them are more of the "video-games-are-for-my-kids-and-go-beep-beep-boop" crowd. But it is a great choir, and we are getting an awesome sound out of rehearsals. I am looking forward to singing with the maestro himself later this week.
More info can be found here: http://www.artshound.com/event/detail/24199
The event is from 2:00 onward on Saturday; I probably won't have much time to check this thread, but if you are going or have any more questions, feel free to PM me, and I will try to get back to you. Would be great to see some fellow OCR fans there.
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Apologies if I ramble; this was a great topic and I had a lot to say.
I feel like "self-help" has lost a lot of the negative stigma that it used to carry around not too long ago. I think five, ten years ago, I would have thought of "self-help" books as the loser's last resort... but now I have probably read about a half-dozen books (and subscribed to several blogs) that would have been at one point classified as "self-help" — I think the label is disappearing as well.
From my perspective, the world (and I mean that in a very personal, not global, sense) seems very different than it did when I was born, or what I imagine it was before that. People in this country (USA) commonly struggle with obesity, depression, autism, procrastination, abandonment issues — all of these are very real problems for many people, and the impression I get is that they were barely acknowledged 100 years ago or even more recently.
So, as a result, people have these issues. And let's face it. Public schools aren't perfect, parents aren't perfect, psychiatrists aren't perfect. At the end of the day, it is always up to us to notice the shortcomings in our lives and our actions and improve them. And hey, if reading a book helps any of us do that, great. Education is all about bettering ourselves and the world, right?
Two of my favourite bloggers that I would classify as "self-help" are Steve Pavlina and Scott Ginsberg. I have learned a lot from these two guys and the various books I've read, and have gone from nearly flunking out of high school to supporting myself and my wife in a 3-bedroom house from the income we make doing only things that we are truly passionate about.
Ginsberg is a huge proponent of having a "daily appointment with yourself"; time to reflect on your own personal goals and consider what you can do to make them happen. And this is really what self-help is, in a nutshell — whether it's self-directed or something you read in a book. And this is what so many people are lacking in their lives... I am disappointed by friends or acquaintances of mine who grumble their way through the workday, come home and watch TV for four or five hours, and do it all over again the next day, all the while looking forward to a retirement that is forty years in the future! That's no kind of life.
Thanks for bringing up this topic, Dyne. I am curious to see what others have to say.
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Wow. This sounds like a great deal to me, but I haven't shopped a whole lot for domains. Am curious what others think.
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Yes, I know Ebay would be the best, but are there any other reputable websites that I could order from, without getting screwed?
If you're smart about who you buy from on Ebay, you can avoid getting screwed. When you buy on Ebay with PayPal, you don't have to pay some random guy and hoping everything works out; find a reputable seller, and then if something does go wrong, PayPal will back you up. I would say you're much more likely to get screwed by trying to buy from a "reputable website" that you're not familiar with.
You may end up saving some money by just buying a whole console online, with the accessories you're looking for. Obviously, you don't need a console if your friend is giving you one, but the shipping you will end up paying if you have to get your accessories from different folks may end up costing you more than it is worth. And then you could have a "backup console", I guess — or try to sell it on Ebay yourself, sans parts.
Sorry if this is all redundant, since you obviously know about Ebay, but I've had nothing but great results working with sellers there.
FYI - ThinkGeek is out of stock from the link provided by Liontamer.
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I'd recommend NOT just picking up a book on music theory and reading it... when you sing or listen to music listen for what specifically sounded good (and what didn't) and make a mental note of it. Try to replicate it in your DAW, afterwards. You'll learn so much more if you do this first before picking up a theory book...
Listening is definitely imperative! But so is having a framework to understand how to replicate things. It's a lot easier to hear something and re-create it if you've got a basic understanding of how pitches, intervals, scales, and chords work. Most good books will come with a CD of examples, too — even better.
I'm also on Yoozer with the 'Getting away with it' bit. If people will pay you for your work, great! It's not an opportunity everyone can enjoy.I think my original point was not well-expressed. I actually do make about 75% of my income from music, and I encourage anybody who has a shot at making some money doing what they love. I was just defending the term "professional" by suggesting that, in most cases, it can be implied that a professional has a good amount of skill at what they do... otherwise, why are they getting paid?
Maybe Yoozer was originally advocating for those who are "non-professional", which I entirely support. Simply looking through the bios of contributors here makes it clear that there are definitely a lot of very talented musicians who rarely, if ever, see a dime for their art.
In any case — hooray for musicians, whether they make money or not!
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I think he can make it. I don't know if any of you knew this already, but he's a trombone prodigy, and a pretty good one too.
Even though he can't really improvise.
Yeah, really when you look at that, this guy's got it all figured out.
He's gonna go to a prestigious college, after all. When you graduate from one of those, I think they just give you a list of really great jobs and you pick the one you want and you're set for life.To be fair, I was probably this naïve once, and it probably wasn't even that many years ago. Growing up is awesome.
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My current goal at the moment is to get my apps to work.
Well, I wish you the best of luck. I know absolutely nothing about Linux.
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If you can get away with it, why not?
Business ethics. And karma. Plus, musicians are usually under pretty extreme scrutiny in their jobs (at least in my experience, which is not universal). If you take a teaching job or a gig, your skill level should become obvious quickly.
Excellent - but your posts only told me you had a Mac w/ GB and Logic, so... (also, several people spent clicking everything in FL Studio's piano roll for a long while until they got controllers. It's a way of doing things, just not a particularly good one if you want to avoid RSI
).Yeah. I don't know what RS is, but note-by-note entry sucks pretty hard. I had to pick up the controller for composing with Finale.
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Part of the problem is, my Internet access on my CCRMA-enabled OS is patchy at best, so it's hard for me to do work and have Internet open at the same time. So I have to fiddle around without help, and if I need to check something online I need to save my work and reboot in Ubuntu. Kinda lame.
That does sound frustrating, although I have no idea what CCRMA or Ubuntu are. What's your current goal? I set myself the task of sequencing the "Hammer" theme from Donkey Kong:
I couldn't think of anything simpler. Now I am just repeating it with other elements thrown in, some really basic drums, some chords on strings... I'm getting a pretty good feel for how the sequencing works on this application.
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Yoozer —
That is a lot of rules. So, clearly, rule 2 is correct. The one that says there are rules. Because there they are.I will take many of these to heart, and my own experience as a musician has already proven several of them, so I hope they are useful to others too. A couple in specific spoke to me at this point in time...
Rule 9: "Professional" means that you're making money with it, nothing less, nothing more.This is true. Although, as someone who uses that term about myself a lot, I like to cling to the "nothing less" part. I don't think I am anywhere near deceitful enough to make money at something that I wasn't skilled at. Plus, I feel like that term justifies my lack of a day job.
Rule 12: A DAW consists of a computer, software, a controller and an audio interface. Picking all these depends on your budget, so if we know that, we can recommend something.I think I'm all set for gear.. I hope so, anyway, because my budget is next to nothing right now. I'm running a 2.8 GHz iMac with GarageBand and Logic, and I've got an M-Audio 88es keyboard controller and an M-Audio MobilePre USB preamp/audio interface.
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Sounds like you got the basics, just gotta learn to use them in GB and Logic.
Yeah, you know, the more I've been talking this over on this thread, the more I'm realizing I actually do sort of know where to start. I just successfully put together a 30-second clip with multiple instruments and everything. Hardcore.
Command-click or right-click. Everywhere.
Funnily enough, GarageBand won't let you right-click on anything.
...and make sure to have fun with it.
This is fun.
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...or is it more like 'I've-tinkered-with-some-programs-like-MIDI-sequencers-and-scoring-programs-but-the-DAW-has-a-bunch-of-new-stuff'?
That one... I think. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the exact definition of a sequencer. I've done a lot of work with notation software like Finale and Sibelius, and I've created and edited MIDI files using traditional and piano roll notation... working with things like dynamics, note duration, key velocities. That was a long time ago, though, and there is probably tons I still need to learn about sequencing, so I guess that's where to start.
...but if you don't know how to input the sounds then you'll be very much screwed.Case in point. This is exactly where I'm at now. I've come to understand some of what the DAW can do, but every time I open it, I think, "OK, great. How do I actually create the music to edit?"
...if your an absolute noob it may make it difficult to learn any aspect at all as you'll need to basically learn everything simultaniously in order to make sound... by the sound of it you might benefit from downgrading a little before getting into the more powerful equipment.Yeah, that's where the googly-eyed sensation in my OP comes from. I've got GarageBand and Logic, maybe I will put the latter on hold and try to make something decent with the first one first.
...otherwise just try making random stuff just to get a feel for sequencing (personally I like to remix crap in order to get a feel for a new program
).I agree. Some of my best learning experiences as a composer and arranger have been taking a piece that I hated and just playing around with it. It removes any pressure of wanting a perfect result, since it's guaranteed not to happen, and it lets you focus entirely on the process.
Thanks for your input, Gario!
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If you want to learn more about a specific DAW, do register and ask questions at the respective forums. You get lots of help. As a FL Studio user, I get help from Theflipsideforum.com, but remember to use the search function first before asking!
Good advice, Brian. Thanks.
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YOU'RE YOUNG AND YOU HAVE A FEW GOOD YEARS LEFT!!!
Sorry if this is off-topic, but I'm curious — is video game music a business which only the young can join? I know some folks worry about this, and it does seem (from my limited perspective) like a lot of big names in the industry started at a very young age.
Also, I think your response was spot-on. From the OP's comments on that thread, it seemed like he was sitting around the house with his tuba and trombone, waiting for a leading company in the industry to call and give him his dream career. Reality can be harsh.
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Nobody else seems down for this. I admit to being somewhat of a list junkie myself, although I don't generally find time to write them.
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Thanks for your insight, analoq!
The people who really know this stuff never have that attitude. When I see software I don't understand, I take that as a challenge. I work with it and use whatever learning resources are available until I can make something with it. I never stopped to ask how to get started - instead I just got started.Well, I certainly can't claim to know this stuff yet. I already think it will be a fun challenge, and I try to make sure I challenge myself on a regular basis. Asking how to get started is just the natural first step for me — I admire the self-directed learning process, but there's something to be said for saving time by getting pointers from folks who've already been there.
To answer your survey: All of the above.Any resources you'd suggest?
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over the course of about four years, i've recorded give or take 30 albums of music, with about a half of those solely dedicated to electronic music (the rest were on guitar and stuff) Wow. 30 albums in 4 years? You've been hard at work!now you hear a lot about how it's "quality over quantity", and i couldn't agree any less with that saying.
I get what you're saying here. I've found the same to be very true for my writing of more traditional music; if you worry too much about making it perfect, you spend way too much time on a single idea and not enough honing your craft in general.
...and most of all, make it fun. if i didn't have fun with writing and recording, i certainly wouldn't have poured a large portion of my life into ithope this helps... not sure if this was just inspirational ranting or psychobabble
Absolutely. Music is a blast! Thanks for your inspirational psychobabble
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I'll be following this thread carefully, I think. Thanks IsolinearMoogle for making it.
Yay! I did good.
Final Fantasy VII - Sandy Badlands (Ambient Mix)
in Post Your Game ReMixes!
Posted
I like the style here.
Does it just repeat halfway through? I could do without the second half. I know it is ambient, but I feel like I could just play the first two minutes of this twice and it would be about the same.
The first time I listened to this, I felt like the wide vibrato on the background guitar near the beginning was very distracting... second time it didn't really bother me, but it was still a little distracting for an instrument that seems like it's supposed to be in the back.
The flute sound on the final note before the "break" in the middle (and the same note repeated at the end of the piece) is very overpowering, the melody plays just fine, but that last note sticks out in a way it shouldn't.