ShrackAttack
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Posts posted by ShrackAttack
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I hated sight singing/aural skills and liked theory. I took Orchestration for my Advanced Theory course that we had to take and that was super fun too. I can't say that I wish I could go back and do my college courses again because I enjoy trying to apply some of the stuff I learn a lot more. But I do miss a lot of my college buds. Everyone is just sort of doing their own thing now. Guess that is what happens when you start getting older
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Nearly every jazz tune is going to use a kick too. You generally are going (at least I was taught) to use a much softer approach (called feathering) when using the kick drum for jazz. It's something that is more "felt" and not really heard so much. It gives the foundation and the pulse. Even during solos when a jazz drummer uses the kick it will usually be far quieter than you'll ever hear in most other genres. It takes a hell of a lot of control to be able to do it properly and very few people ever master it.
It's sort of like, if you heard a sample track with a guy feathering the bass drum and then one without it, you might not necessarily be able to go "man that track was missing a kick drum!" but you will definitely be able to tell that something was off/different.
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The first song I ever did was a remix (and my only remix I'd ever done besides this year's WCRG stuff) of Shadow's theme from FF6. The arrangement ideas were pretty decent, but the production was pretty much terrible since I had no idea what I was doing. This was back in 2010...so around 3 years ago.
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I hope you get time to finish it later and please let me know when you do. Great stuff
Thanks man. Positive feedback makes doing it worthwhile and I really appreciate that.
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Sins of Our Fathers: I was hoping you'd repeat your round 3 style, now that I don't have to feel upstaged about it! Yeah, this screams Sons of Liberty. Maybe a little bit too much so--not just the style but in some places the exact same transitions are used as in the main themes of MGS2 and 4. Sounds just a tad less polished than your last entry--a little more mechanical, a little weaker sound quality, one or two off-key chords, ending cuts out slightly abruptly. But these are minor nitpicks on an overall amazing piece. I do have one major concern: I can't pick out Concrete Man. The three Zero themes are plain, but I've listened to this piece about 10 times now, and Concrete Man several times to refresh my memory as to how it goes, and I can't find it.
Yeah, it was a homage to the MGS 3 main theme (and not 2 and 4s
, though they're probably pretty similar but I've never listened to 4s), especially the first 2 minutes, basically using mega man notes/melodies/etc. The concrete man theme is literally only 5-15% of the source that I used, with Zero themes (X2, X3, and X4) taking about 50-60% of the source and then original stuff as the rest. It (concrete man) is improv'd as the opening sequence then used again from 1:06 - 1:16 in the horns. The chords from 1:06 - 1:16 give it a completely different feeling, but its more apparent here. I can understand not hearing it in the opening sequence since it is pretty loose, and much slower. Honestly, I had about a 6 minute piece in my head and only got 3:45 of it done in the 3-4 days I worked on it, so that's why Concrete man wasn't as apparent. Gotta make some sacrifices with limited time . I could've thrown it in last minute in some spots to make it a bit more obvious, but I'd rather not detract from making a good song. And I felt like the many Zero themes being most prominent throughout went along with Darkeswords story pretty well, like some sort of hopeless struggle against a much superior foe.Thanks for the review!
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Submitted my mix.
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This week as I mentioned before in IRC, my remix is going to heavily resemble the style and structure of the many Metal Gear Solid main themes
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My mix this week will likely take 20 to 30 hours as well. Right now I'm at about hour 4-5.
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I bought some Grado SR 225s (200$ range) brand new back in March and they are falling apart already which is quite disappointing, as opposed to the MDR 7506s that I bought on Ebay used for 50$ which still are in great shape over 3 years later.
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Any time you want some help MindWanderer, you can just send me a pm or ask me on Skype (pretty sure my nick is the same). Though my sequencing for this one was rather mechanical since I was limited on time due to having to go out of town for part of the compo (and had to have Jason/GLL finish out the rest of my track for me due to it), I can still prob give you a few pointers on sequencing techniques and such.
Hopefully I get to finish my track the next time it is my turn
.The whole reason I do that is to keep it in a similar timeframe: One week to make a mix, then a second week to get and apply the advice of your mentor. At least, that's the way I'd approach it, because I feel like my arranging is OK but my production needs a ton of work. If you need arrangement advice, you'd probably work more closely with the mentor earlier on.Not that I am any expert, but usually when people who are doing orchestral music think they have a problem with production it isn't the production. It's almost always a problem with the writing/arranging. Most of what it takes to get a solid song for orchestra stuff is simply writing properly and keeping instruments in their appropriate ranges, even with soundfonts.
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I'm dedicating my Tuesday night to getting most of the song written. By night I mean 11pm to 5am. Am I going to trash talk? No. Do I intend to win? No. I am not taking this competition TOO seriously, and it's not because I'm some arrogant ass, and I don't think any differently of anyone here who takes it super seriously. We're all adults and we can do what we want, it would be silly to judge. My goal is to make a nice little follow-up to The Wettening, which I've probably made a smooth $20 in donations for over the last year+. Thank you.
As for whether my team agrees with me, I don't know. My goal is still consistent with theirs; to produce the best possible songs I can, maybe for a different reason than you guys are, but the end result is the same.
Don't worry, I'm doing Concrete Man + The Moon in the style of a Deus Ex: HR track. So basically the happiest Deus Ex song ever. I'm pretty set on this since I am playing Deus Ex: HR right now
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Emailed my quick entry in yesterday
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I'll be the dissenter and say the degree probably matters more, because right now the game composing "industry" is filled to the brim with spirited amateurs who didn't do much else than buy Fl Studio and EWQLSO and study MIDIs and forums to get their business started.
Anyone can make a portfolio, just put together 20 ultra-generic, Final Fantasy type tracks on a soundcloud and call yourself Uematsu. A guy who posts saying he wants to hire a game composer will get 150 portfolios to sift through in a day's worth of time, and any serious game maker knows what kinds of applicants he's getting. Most of these people are kids under 25 with real jobs and real lives, this game thing is basically just a hobby to them, and the guy knows it.
But a degree shows that you put some serious time and effort into doing it for real. You can't just get a degree, you have to earn one, and it shows you want to do music full time. Full time musicians have actual time to do music the way they want it, and since they make the prices*, they want someone who will do more for the same price. On paper, and logically, getting a degree is better, since you will likely already have a portfolio to start with.
The honest answer is that neither is actually that useful. What actually determines if you get any kind of job doing music is luck and the complete willingness to be a puppet for your employer. The supply of music people today is 100x the demand, and most of those jobs get taken and kept. Game employers know this, and they use this to justify getting more servitude from their composers for less, if any, money. "You want your creative freedom? You don't want to start tracks over from scratch 5 times because it didn't fit my vision? Well, fuck you, I can find someone who will in 10 minutes." You're going to be better off getting your degree in IT or something.
Sorry to be a downer on the subject again, but someone has to remind people the reality of being an up-and-comer in a highly sensationalized and extremely tight market. The best tools available are the same tools everyone else get nowadays and the same generic philosophical advice that sounds sagely, but is just fluff from lucky, successful musicians who couldn't give two shits if you actually succeed or not (and you can bet they wouldn't give up their seat for you).
* - And yes, ask any actual working composer here and they will tell you YOU set the prices, but that's just not how it works in the real world. Unless you're a celebrity, you don't call those shots. Don't believe me? Go ahead and tell an employer you want $500 a minute and see how well that works for you.
Either I've been incredibly lucky in the past 2 years just starting out or you just deal with incredibly shitty people and have done zero networking or something. I don't even know what to tell you. I've always negotiated my own prices for every commercial thing I ever have done. I've only had to do an annoying amount of re-writes one single time and I've done 5+ upfront payment projects in the past year(not that this is a lot, but its enough for me to live on) and multiple royalty/profit share games with high potential. Especially now with the huge amount of indie games, you should be able to get on a pretty decent looking indie and get a good 5-15% cut while you work a day job if you're just starting out.
You can't just do one style of music and nothing else and call it a day (in most cases) if you want to be able to eat and pay bills. Personally I do multiple styles of music (at least decently), SFX design, audio implementation in FMOD, Wwise, etc. If I don't know how to do a style of music (which is often the case) then I spend a day and learn it and bullshit it the best way I can until I can genuinely do that style. I have spent time even learning other areas of game design so I know how everything works together. I know the ins and outs of Unity, Cryengine 3, Unreal, etc and it is these little things that can make you look way better than someone else. These little things do not take that long to learn to a very basic level.
As far as your question goes: I have a Music Technology BA degree but I would say your portfolio (you need an actual reel you can send someone on the fly), ability to communicate well, and a good attitude are easily the most important things to getting a gig or an inhouse job. And honestly, networking and being amicable to people you meet and GENUINELY becoming friends with them will be a catalyst for you getting a job in the future. People want to work with people who are friendly and someone they could potentially have a beer with.
And I'm not completely disagreeing with you Meteo. Any creative field is potentially going to be very competitive. That's just how it is. Fun jobs aren't easy to get.
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I'll give this an hour or two tomorrow if I have time
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My Picks:
1) Concrete Man (MM9)
2) Plug Man (MM9)
3) Skull Man (MM4)
4) Snake Man (MM3)
5) Spark Man (MM3)
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Still considering buying this. Did you get it Flex? What are your thoughts?
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Congrats guys
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It is just free knowledge and a lot of free advertising for the universities participating. So everyone wins. The first course I've worked through so far has been VERY WELL set up and is actually the best online class I've ever had, so I definitely can't complain.
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Very impressive and one of my favorite arrangements on the site.
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This is actually really, really cool. Signed up for songwriting (just to see what its about), sound design, music production, and Gary Burton's Improv class. Gary Burton is a freaking pro
Nothing wrong with free lessons.
edit: nevermind
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I was going to post a similar patch in Omnisphere today, but zircon beat me too it
. His is a bit closer anyways. -
Completely unrelated to your question: But it's good to see some people recognize Snarky Puppy.
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Meteo, I tend to think/hope stuff like this is (for the most part) only in your head. I believe most people can be over critical of their own music to a point. I know I still do this and I also have complained in the past about tracks I wrote that just felt too stiff, as if every instrument just stuck out too much. There's certain songs that just don't seem to "have" it and they don't really feel like music, at least not to the person who wrote it. It's like there is some secret knowledge you somehow haven't figured out, but most everyone else already seems to know. So I feel your pain
. However, I still haven't come to a definite conclusion if it is at least partially real or just 100% in my head either. This will be a pain in the ass, but you may want to try finding a good example of what you want to imitate as far as the transients go and literally try to remake that piece 100%. Spend an entire week on it if you have too adjusting every little thing until it is exact and figure out what you did.
Also for certain samples that actually have dynamics, try keeping the velocity super low, but raise the volume so it balances out. It will usually keep the soft transient you're going for but still have it stand out in the mix.
On a similar note, I'm still trying to find a piano sound/setup that I just really like. Literally everything I use almost always sounds too harsh to my ears and I can't seem to get the full piano sound I want either. I've been mainly using EWQL pianos
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I've been playing Thief pretty much every BWE. This weekend I mostly just did WvWvW and ending up getting to around level 20. I was using dagger/dagger or dagger/pistol for damage and then short bow for mobility. I had power to around 2100 and precision to around 2450. (2500 is capped for a stat as far as I know) I had quite a few backstab crits for 7-12k on players and a lot of 4-10k heartseekers. I pretty much blew through anyone 1v1 and did a lot of 1v3, 1v4, and 1v5s. This was mostly due to a majority of players not knowing how to play, how to spec, or buying proper gear though
.We were running a 5 man group with some people I used to do WoW arena with and some other friends and were having a blast.
Post your SoundCloud
in General Discussion
Posted
http://www.soundcloud.com/shrackattack
It's mostly random sketches and stuff that I've done and never finished. Not much finished original game music that I have done is on there (since the games aren't released yet)