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ectogemia

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    Mixing for TV/Consoles

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I had the same thought a while ago. I even made a thread about it here, but it didn't really go anywhere.

    I think Nase is right, that the idea is to create an interesting piece of music which is not so interesting that it becomes distracting or tiresome. You can do that through subduing the writing, the mixing, or both -- whatever sounds best. That being said, I experimented with toning down the mixing and bit in the soundtracks I'm working on, and I didn't like the results, so I decided to mix as though I'm writing a studio album and see what the players' feedback is like. If it's positive, I'll keep mixing like that in the future; if negative, I'll flatten my mixes a little.

    ... not that that helps you since the Project M dude specifically asked for changes in mixing, but iono, try listening critically to SSB tunes and comparing the frequencies, transients, and balance to your own and talk to the dev about the comparisons you've drawn. If your tunes already sound SSB'y, maybe you can convince him that he's asking for something you shouldn't be doing anyway.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    Andrew's post was legit. It's also extremely important to remember that although "calories count," they aren't everything. Hormones dictate the distribution of energy/nutrient harvesting and storage, and your food intake, exercise frequency, exercise intensity, stress level, sleep, etc. dictate your hormone profile. Low carb, enough sleep, low stress, intermittent fasting (google this term), high protein, and heavy lifting is the recipe for body recomposition. If enough hormonal factors are out of whack, your body will, say, preferentially harvest muscle rather than fat to meet an energy deficit. Stack the odds in your favor for muscle gain and fat loss by sticking to those conditions as best you can.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    I've been talking to OA and Ecto about this, but about 5 weeks ago I decided to get my act together and make some real changes to my body. I'm doing personal training at the local gym two days a week (1 hour per session, one upper and one lowerbody workout) plus an extra day of upperbody, calves, and abs. No bodyweight stuff or cardio, just pure weight lifting. After every session I'm completely exhausted, and the next few days sore all over, but that's exactly how I want to feel. Working with a trainer has been a tremendous help.

    It's very satisfying to increase my numbers continuously. The hardest thing for me though is still the bench press. Right now my numbers are basically:

    * 10 reps at 95 pounds

    * 10 reps at 130 pounds

    * 8 reps at 180 pounds

    * 4-5 very shaky, partially-assisted reps at about 230 pounds

    With basically every other exercise, I can hit 8 reps at my max weight, but benching is just really hard for me (for some reason) even though I have a big chest. Maybe I shouldn't be hard on myself since I basically just started lifting not even 2 months ago, and was untrained before that, but I still feel like it's my weakest area.

    On the other hand, I love seeing my improvements in other areas. For example when I started out, my bicep curls were 10x 30 lbs, 10x 40, 10x 50lbs, and I couldn't handle 60. Now, I do 10x 40, 10x 60, and about 8x 80. Big jumps.. feels good :)

    Kickin' dat ass, man. Glad to see the numbers are still going up. That should keep on going pretty much without any hangups for another few months. Bench is by far my weakest lift, too, but I'm a lanky shit with a small frame. I've also kinda seen anecdotally while working out with lots of friends over the years that bench seems to have more variability than any other lift among different people. Sometimes it's due to obvious reasons (wide frame/short arms = easy benching; narrow frame/long arms = hard benching), but other times, it sorta defies explanation. A dude in my class has a really stocky frame with fairly short arms. He's super strong everywhere else, but he has a 5RM on bench of like 190, and that's pretty low for a guy who's been training for the better part of a decade, or even for a year or so.

    If it's any consolation, bench is basically the least important major compound lift, at least in a functional sense. Not a whole lot of instances in which you're gonna need to push a heavy weight off your chest, haha.

    I've also found that after a couple or three months of building up stabilizers and my upper back and abs, benching becomes much easier and has a "second wind" sort of effect with respect to gains. Whenever I start lifting again, I always go through a period of being really shaky with it, then once I regain stability with the bar after a while, I can focus on my pecs alone enough to build them up more quickly, and then the weight goes up.

    Support the Steam Greenlight campaign for Approaching Infinity (OST by me!)

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    Greenlight link

    Hey, everyone! I've been working on two (or three, depending upon how you look at it) game soundtracks recently. One of those games, a highly accessible and unique sci-fi rogulike called Approaching Infinity, just began its Steam Greenlight campaign fresh on the tail of Dungeonmans, the excellent roguelike zircon is most excellently scoring, succeeding in its own campaign. So congrats to zircon for that!

    Check out the third video on the Greenlight page for an extensive walkthrough of the gameplay and features PLUS a nearly 15 minute preview of some of the music I've written for it so far.

    There's also a FREE BETA. I hope you enjoy the game and the tunes! Please vote YES! :D

    =================

    Features taken from the dev's blog:

    - Select a ship and venture into unknown space

    - Visit planets, shipwrecks, star temples, ruined cities, space stations, mercenary hideouts, and alien embassies

    - Find, buy, and sell new ship parts, devices, and powerful rare artifacts

    - Battle 12 Alien Races, or make friends with them and complete their missions of self-preservation, exploration, and galactic domination!

    - Complete both randomly generated and hand crafted quests

    - Explore procedurally generated environments, with over 20 different algorithms

    - Hire officers and choose their skills when they level up

    - 50 devices and 53 skills, with more of both to come

    - Encounter over 65 monster types

    - 5 victory conditions now active!

    - Find, buy, and sell “commodities” in the old “space trader” vein

    - Escape dire situations by the skin of your teeth

    - Infinite Play! No sector or item level cap.

    - In-game tutorial and help

    - Use your Keyboard, Mouse, or XBOX 360 controller!

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    harmonic labels are only useful insofar as they correctly identify function, not simply the literal pitch content of a given sonority.

    That's definitely true in classical theory, but in jazz theory, that's not the case at all. A lot of those add notes aren't resolved until the next chord or even at all, but in classical theory, at least as I understand it, a non-chord tone is usually resolved during the chord it is sounded with.

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I'm studying my younger brother's jazz theory books from college right now, and his school uses this technique for coming up with jazz chord progressions. Here it is in C.


    Box 1:                Box 2:
    Emi7   Bbmi7          Ami7  Ebmi7
    A7     Eb7            D7    Ab7


                 Box 3:
                 Dm7  Abmi7
                 G7   Db7


                    C

    That's pretty cool. Nice, easy way to come up with a solid jazz cadence. I understand how tritone substitutions work, but I haven't really experimented with them much. Dumb as it sounds, I learned them in the context of dominant chords, so I figured they only worked with them for some reason and never bothered to try them out with other types of 7th chords :P Gonna try that now.

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    Oh, man, I was totally just being a goof! There's lots of great stuff here, but you can't deny it's a music nerdfest. It's awesome. Sorry if it came off like I was being negative; I was more cheering on the geekiness in my own way.
    What he said, me too. Sorry! Recommence circlegeeking. :-P

    No prob, guys, still <3 you both :P Tone of voice doesn't exist on the internet, so I'm not always gonna receive your message the way you meant it to come across.

    And yes, this is the pinnacle of music geekdom. And geeks are usually pretty successful people... so let's keep the knowledge flowing :D

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    Then why not just simplify it?

    There's a saying in science: "You don't know what you don't know." I only know how to communicate it the way I did. I'm not a formally educated musician. I don't know every bit of terminology and music theory and history. I communicated it the best way I could, and the means of communication is way, way less important than the successful transmission of the message intended.

    Did you learn something from my post? If yes, awesome, that was the point. If no, sorry, I don't really know how to describe it any other way. I'm not trying to be complicated or "smart", I'm trying to be thorough so whoever's reading has the highest chance possible of picking up on what it is I'm trying to get across.

    I'm seriously baffled that people think this thread is a circlejerk. Their loss, I guess. If you've been contributing, keep up the tips. I've definitely learned some cool stuff from this thread so far, so thanks! :D

    Gonna pull a Shariq and say "stay on topic." Dunno why people are bringing their negativity into here.

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    C Eb Bb C G C --> B Eb Bb Db Gb B --> Bb F Ab Bb Db F Bb --> C F Gb Bb C Eb Gb --> Bb Eb F Ab Bb Db F --> A C F A Eb A

    http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/72f311e2cd57ac4a8594f3cccfe8d20fc8c3019b

    Cmin7 - Bmaj9 - Bbmin7 - Ebmin6add9 - Bbmin7add11 - F7

    Seems to be in the key of C minor or Bb minor. That second chord isn't in the parent scale, though. The F7 suggests it should cadence back to Bb as the tonic rather than C, so that's how you ended up in Bb on the last chord. Secondary dominance weeeeeeeeeeeeee

    Cool/interesting chord progs, scales, cadences, etc.

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    no I mean the whole thread. :oops:

    D: Music theory definitely isn't essential to writing music, but man, it makes it way, way quicker and easier to write and gives you a framework for understanding and explaining conceptually what you'd otherwise just be hearing abstractly.

    musictheory.net is a really good intro, and coursera.org has REALLY nice free theory courses as well, plus it has courses on production, recording, jazz, and so on. I've learned a ton from coursera.

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