IsolinearMoogle

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.

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.

Thanks for your insight, analoq! 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. Any resources you'd suggest?

Wow. 30 albums in 4 years? You've been hard at work! 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. Absolutely. Music is a blast! Thanks for your inspirational psychobabble

Yay! I did good.

Thanks for that; that truly does make the whole thing seem much simpler. I run both GarageBand and Logic Express on my Mac, and so far have only been using them for recording. So, I will try experimenting with the sequencer aspect. Aha! A curriculum! Awesome. Breaking it down into steps is exactly what I need. So far it's just been me in front of the computer, saying to myself, "make music" which is frustratingly vague. Yes, I think even my feeble mind can grasp three paragraphs. I will try to call the process by one of those names, too. I think it will be easier now that I have an idea of where to start. Thanks very much for your advice, Rozovian!

I certainly believe that. Thanks for your reply, Halt. I plan to pick up a copy of EM and check out Zircon's site more thoroughly.

So, my situation is this — I'm a career musician (primarily a vocalist), so I've got a good foundation in the art itself. I've written a good amount of scored music, and I actively listen to a number of genres. I would love to work more with electronic music (maybe someday submit an OCR!) but I'm stumped. The tutorials and guides I've read here seem mostly focused on buying gear, or improving a project that you've already figured out how to start. But every time I open my DAW, I am overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of it, and my eyes go all googly. I'm amazed by the talent and hard work that is evident in so much of the music I've listened to on this site, so I'll throw this question out there — how did you get started with electronic music? Did you have a friend who showed you the ropes? Did you take a class? Did you read some books? A n00b-friendly website? Did you just sit down at the computer and exercise god-like patience until you got it right? Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for any feedback you can offer! ------- PS: I hope I haven't violated the "don't ask questions about getting started" policy that seems to be in effect... I have tried with the on-site tutorials. I don't expect anybody to hold my hand through the entire learning process, but I would dearly love to know what some of you did when you were close to where I'm at now.

That's pretty classic. I don't think I have any real-life examples like this.

I love it! More, please.

Wii Music is the only game I'm aware of that has a conducting aspect; it's a mini-game called "Music Maestro" I believe. As a professional conductor myself, I found Music Maestro to be quite frustrating, if only because it changes tempo without your direction or even your foreknowledge, and you have to keep up. Conducting recorded music is a huge pain in the you-know-what. I will add my $5 to the pot. Maybe some day we will be able to commission such a game. Until then, we can only dream.

I like it.

I had a feeling you meant that, I just wanted to clarify my own thoughts.

I like! A couple thoughts... I've heard a couple different Legend of Zelda overworld remixes with electric guitar before. So, this isn't incredibly ground-breaking. Which doesn't diminish the quality of your arrangement, but makes it a little more difficult to get people's attention, if that's what you're after. Also, I am curious what "part 2" is and why the beginning and ending of "part 1" were so abrupt. Especially the beginning, what with it being the first part and all. I am not loving the current fade in that you've got. For one, I find volume fade-ins kind of a cop-out, better in my mind to set up your instrumentation that not as many parts are playing at first — this will create a more natural fade. Also, your melody starts before the volume has come all the way up! Not good IMO. The transition between distorted and clean guitar is great; not just that it happens, but how you pull it off. I like it. The clean guitar section is a little boring. Particularly between 1:20 and 2:00, where we have almost a full minute of... background? I couldn't discern a viable melody in this section. The actual melodic part on the clean guitar is also lacking. It repeats a couple times, and every time sounds more or less the same. In fact, it only sounds truly different from the original LoZ melody in one spot — right around 0:40, I believe (and this part in each repetition). I get what you're going for here, making it more smooth and laid-back, but the lack of variety makes the 0:40 "new sound" just seem, well, wrong. Almost like that note got hit on accident. I encourage you to play around with this improv-wise... assuming you have an actual guitar, sit down with it, play through the main form a couple times, and then just experiment. I think a second theme is just what this piece needs to punch it up. Keep us posted on your progress with this! I like your concept, and I think it will be great when it has been tweaked a bit.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you didn't mention what your water intake has been lately. This is probably the most important thing to do for your voice — keep it hydrated. Especially if, as you are saying, it is feeling dry. You and others on this thread have already commented about using "vocal supplements", such as tea, honey, lemon, gargling, etc. These will be soothing for your throat, but do not actually do anything for your vocal cords. A nice way to soothe your vocal cords is to breathe steam — you can get a steamer (not a vaporizer) at a local pharmacy for fairly cheap. I also suspect that you are getting sick, or are already sick, and this is the only symptom. It would be very rare for a voice drop like this to happen completely disconnected to anything else. I would suggest using a nasal saline spray; saline is a great preventative tool, you do not have to be sick to use it. That's my two cents. I am a professional singer and voice teacher, but not a doctor.

I like this very much. It's definitely got this ambient vibe to it... so much so that it was actually kind of hard to actively listen to it. I think Azure's comments are right on. I would like to add that I think a tiered introduction would be great... this may be what Azure was thinking of when they said "fade-in", but I think change in instrumentation rather than volume will win here. For example, start out with just some string chords, then throw in a harmony voice, then a melody, etc. I would love to see the ascending arpeggios highlighted more, as well. I seem to remember in SM64 there were parts of the level where the chords dropped away entirely and you were just left with these arpeggios. I wouldn't necessarily say do that exactly, but I would like to hear that particular voice a little better (i.e. louder) — at times it was very lost under everything else.

Although the "ee oo" in Latin does often get condensed into a "yoo" for singing, in the case of the word "iuvat," the "i" is actually consonantal. The word is sometimes also spelled "juvat." Good point about the "w" vs. "v" issue, too. This doesn't only crop up in singing, but it is, as you indicated, because there are different schools of thought on this particular consonant. All that being said, as OA originally pointed out, it doesn't matter so much that we're being purists as long as we're all using the same diction. So, what's the concensus? My vote's on "yoo vot". Good luck finding your peace and quiet, dPaladin!

Good question, although in OA's original recording, the "tu" receives the half note; "na" and "iu" both receive quarter notes. Can I get a clarification on the diction for "iuvat"? Both recordings I've heard now have different pronunciations, neither of which actually meshes with my understanding of correct Latin diction, which would make the word sound like either "yoo vot" or "yoo wot".

I would love to help out with this! I'm pretty sure my sound equipment is up to the task, and I know my voice is.

A couple final notes about writing effects in sheet music for singers... and I think most of this applies to writing for any instrument. There are many standard notation symbols, as you probably are aware. Although, again, I advise against "belting it out," giving a singer a fortissimo on a high note will probably give you the emphasis that you would get from belting. As far as whether or not to notate effects, it is all about what you think will be self-evident to the singer. The safest rule of thumb for what the singer will already know is to assume the singer knows nothing, and if you have an effect that is important to you to be done exactly, mark it. That goes for dynamics, phrasings, chest voice vs. head voice, etc. I can't say I've ever seen "belt it out" on a score, but if you really really want that, then write it. Depending on the circumstances of the performance, the singer is usually free to ignore your markings of this kind, but the more that is written out, the better the singer will know what you want out of the piece. And, as far as print music is concerned, "ooh" and "aah" are legitimate words...put them where you would put normal lyrics. If there are no lyrics for notes, the singer will either make them up (which could be cool) or, more likely, give you an awkward silence. Hope some of that helps! - Moog

Like I said in my previous post, these are not always "black-and-white" questions to answer. From the fact that you sing Charlie Brown's part, I'm assuming you're a guy. Chest voice and head voice have different applications for men and women. You are thinking correctly that chest voice sounds to most people more powerful than head voice. The explanation of how the different voices are generated can be quite technical, but I think odds are good that you're already accessing your chest voice. The head voice, which is frequently associated with the "falsetto," is a much lighter sound, usually more easily generated in higher pitches. Most male singers have a break roughly around "high E" (E4) where chest voice is no longer comfortable for them, at which point they are usually able to continue singing upward for a bit using their head voice. It is a good idea to use whichever voice is more comfortable for you at the note you are singing. While most styles will want you to try to use your normal chest voice to sing all the notes, it is not a great idea to sing in your chest voice in ranges where you are not prepared to go yet, either through lack of training or simple human anatomy. Using your chest voice where you shouldn't is probably what you are thinking of with "belting it out." This is the result when you try to sing loud in registers too high, like trying to hit the high note in an aria you are really not able to do properly, or trying to emulate the guy in the hard rock song screaming at the top of his lungs. Don't do it. It will not provide as clear a sound as what you'd get if you actually trained to sing that note correctly, and it will possibly destroy your vocal cords. You can usually tell when you are "belting it out" because it will actually hurt a little. Unlike other types of exercise, singing shouldn't hurt. If you are feeling the burn, you're probably doing something wrong.

As a private voice teacher, I'd like to claim some credibility on this subject, although I will be the first to admit that most of these questions will get you many completely different legitimate answers, some of which will be more helpful to you than others. I had a lot to say on this, so I am going to make a couple posts, hopefully this will be helpful for you. Teaching yourself any instrument can be very tricky, and vocal technique even moreso. I would strongly suggest you find someone to help despite the "time and money" situation. I think you will end up saving yourself a lot of time over trying to learn yourself, and it doesn't necessarily have to break the bank. Even a friend or colleague who has had some vocal training and can give you some of their time will be an indispensable point of view, and even legitimate teachers may be more affordable than you think. Often local schools (high schools, and especially colleges) with music programs will have leads on good, inexpensive voice training. (I'm not exactly unbiased on this subject, admittedly.) Regardless of whether or not you have a teacher, you should read up on singing. I don't know of any free or online knowledge sources for vocal technique, but I can recommend for starters a book called "The Complete Handbook of Voice Training" by Richard Alderson. It is a pretty good book that covers a wide range of vocal technique aspects. It's also nice in that, in my opinion, it contains information that you can apply to any singing style, whether it be classical, Broadway, jazz, metal, etc.