ectogemia
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Posts posted by ectogemia
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I think it goes without saying that /b/ will be a shitstorm as soon as LulSec is properly exposed.
... not that I know what /b/ is. At least not openly.
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song is here: http://soundcloud.com/ectogemia/cloud-five-1
tl;dr is below
Today is my 5 year anniversary with my girlfriend! She's not much of a gamer at all, and she's not really into my kind of music, but she does think chiptunes are "cute", and she loves Kirby and a fair amount of NES music. So I thought I'd put together a chiptune that sounds as NES-y and Kirby-y as possible without using a tracker because fuck those things... seriously.
Well, I broke the NES "tetraphony" rule, and it only sounds like Kirby songs in a couple of passages. Oh well, I like what came out besides the intro section and the shoddy transitions. Too late to fix any of that, though
she gets her present in the morning.I hope you enjoy it despite its lack of polish.
How'd I do for my first full-length chiptune? Any feedback is appreciated!
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its hard though, if you don't have the right timbre its hard for me to determine what the notes are im trying to transpose
Timbre isn't the same as pitch. It shouldn't affect transcription that much unless you've got some omnitimbral (the fuck?) instrument like a noise oscillator or a crash cymbal that has a totally obscured fundamental.
It IS hard, but so are all unfamiliar things... until they aren't hard anymore. That comes with practice, and ignoring that part of your musicality will quickly become a handicap.
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How... how did THIS ever come to be?? I can't believe this dude made all of that.
And if you're like me, you'll watch all 11 minutes. I shat pinecones when MM2 Dr. Wily Level 1 came on. Easily in my top 5 vgm songs.
Never in my life have I come so close to enjoying j-pop while not firmly planted on a DDR mat.
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Might as well balance $80 off my checkbook in advance...
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I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I never really liked the 3D Zeldas. Majora's Mask was kinda cool, but I never played OoT again after I beat it when I was a kid. Does this make me worse than Hitler? Like.. robo-Hitler from Wolfenstein?
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Then make your own sounds. Open up 3x osc, fiddle with it, add effects, and you'd be amazed at what you can come up with. Watch tutorial videos on youtube for some guidance or read up on the science of synthesis.
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my problem is i have something in my head, but i have no idea what instrument i need or where i could get it, usually because its not in the preset library or is not free, or is just hard to find, or i dont know the name of it, or it is a layer and i dont know what combination of instruments i should use.
also my knowledge of theory is not to the point where i cant just translate immediately, usually when i write it down on PC the emotions change due to timber, incorrect key, incorrect notes, and temporal anomalies. most importantly i get bored of the song in my head and it transforms into something else on paper...
Welcome to being a newb
you're not alone.What's helped me the most is learning piano and improving as much as possible. I've gotten very good at translating what's in my head into sound, but piano improv won't help you create the right timbre for that sound. That and combining those timbres to get the sound I want is my major hangup at this point. And arranging... fuck arranging. That really just doesn't come naturally for me one bit.
Also, try playing by ear what you hear in some of your favorite video game themes. Figure out the melody, then figure out the chords, or at least the root note of each chord. Then, you can use the chords or roots to improvise your own melody or make variations of the original. Get good at this, and writing leads will become second nature.
And about the theory, you don't need to know everything, but knowing basics like rhythm, key signatures, time signatures, chords, harmony, and intervals is essential. Just bite the bullet and learn em
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I have to admit, I HATE general MIDI kind of synths, but I LOVE just about all other retro sounds. Something about the GM voices is just so damn corny... but I digress.
Drums need to be put through the processing ringer something fierce. The snare volume changes without warning or musical purpose. Your fills in part A are pretty weak, but are much better in part B.
The main synth does a weird detuning thing that I can't really explain or enjoy
.Your harmonies in the beginning on the bass synth are pretty ambiguous, all fourths and fifths. Try changing those a bit to some intervals that are a little more evocative.
The part B about halfway through is actually very, very cool, but the transition into it is weak.
Why are you so committed to using these synth sounds? It's your choice, obviously, but you've got so many other options that are much more dynamic and would command more of your creativity to use well. Why not take advantage of those?
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Yep, I see what you mean. Maybe I wasn't clear about it because by the end of the song when I wrote my feedback, I didn't remember quite accurately what my issue was with the snare
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Badass, man. This is the kind of stuff I love to improv with... so fun to play. Very relaxed and enjoyable listen.
The drums get a bit loud around 2:00, snare seems a little TOO poppy. It's not bad by any means, but it's not as chill as the rest of the mix. It just seems a bit out of place. It seems like you were just trying to add some more presence to the drums. Maybe EQ boost them or layer on top another poppier snare rather than increase the volume.
Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.
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Same here. I never actually use edit events for everything because they're stupid. >[noparse]
[/noparse]
It's not such a bad way to automate. I kinda found it hard... no, impossible... to keep track of event edits at first, but I found that there's a list of event edits sorted by pattern in the "Current Project" tab in the browser, so that made them usable in my book. Plus, I find it easier to pencil in automation in the edit events piano roll than in the automation clip. Since you can export edit events automation to an automation clip, that's kinda become my mode of choice for automation. Basically, you get the flexibility of the event editor (LFOs, many drawing tools, etc.) with the visibility of an automation clip.
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File > Export > Wav is the same as Ctrl + R.
and
File > Export > mp3 is the same as Ctrl + Shift + R.
Ah. Well, I learned my requisite thing for the day. Time to go play video games and make sure I don't learn anything else.
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Could you maybe render a .wav in the File menu rather than bouncing from the mixer or playlist? I feel like that's too simple and that I'm missing something obvious here...
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For what it's worth, I had the same issue, but with FL9. I have an onboard, laptop soundcard from ASUS. I had to tweak the buffer size to its lowest (highest? can't remember, but whatever leads to the lowest latency) setting. Even moving it a tick in the direction that decreases latency will bluescreen me. I have no idea what the underlying techincal issue it, but eh, I was able to get 6ms latency without bluescreening, so I'm satisfied with that.
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Neblix is actually right... I think. I'm kinda sure (for what that's worth) that FL has a built-in limiter irrespective of the new project master track limiter that has a pretty serious and hard compression ratio at a threshold of -0.2 dB or something like that. If your mix is just entirely too loud, it'll beat the compression ratio and still clip.
erin's problem seems like it's just an EQ thing. You must understand, whether you like it or not, that a quality mix -- that is, a combination of several voices sounding at once -- need not be composed of quality-sounding individual voices. When you properly EQ a mix, often you end up with weirdo sounding individual instruments because of the frequency cutting or shelving you had to do to to each one to improve the sum mix, especially if you used a lot of synths. Combine said "crappy" instruments, and you have a complete soundscape with distinct parts that sound awesome together. ... or you could just skip that step, have awesome-sounding individual instruments and live with a crappy mix once combined.
tl;dr: boost your crash's high, cut the lows, turn it down entirely. Cut your fantastia's lows, boost its high-mid. Boost your bass's lows, cut its high and high-mid. Weeee, you now have a quality early 90s MIDI mix that sounds like it could have come with Windows 95. Canyon, anyone?
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This is precisely what I was thinking. Thank you for articulating this.
Sure thing
I would imagine we're not alone.No offense, neblix, just my opinion. Take it as you will, even not taking it at all is fine.
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If you pirate your software you're more likely to be someone who doesn't know how to use it. Therefore, you have no need for it and should stop pirating it.
Uh huh. Using deductive absolutes like that kinda requires some substantive data to become anything worthy of anyone's consideration. And your conclusion doesn't follow in the least from your premise, were it even true. Not knowing how to use something well suddenly evaporates one's need to use it? I'm no good with cars, but I sure as shit need mine. I won't be returning it to the dealer anytime soon because I don't know what the hell's going on under the hood. Likewise, I could imagine pirates or purchasers alike who want to learn a DAW they know nothing about wouldn't cease working with it simply because they don't understand how every nuance functions, nor does their incomprehension necessarily portend their means of obtaining the DAW or their commitment to it.
I've read so many of your posts, and every time I do, the same aphorism beats in my mind: think before you speak.
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Give this man a Grammy or whatever.
Also, google is an awesome company, and I can't wait til they control the planet. They seem like they'd be "fun" overlords.
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lolol I think by now it is safe to assume the machine will be more than capable in the graphics/processing department
nintendo, throughout history, 100% of the time, has had the most efficient and durable hardware
period.
You don't have to look any further than my battle-scarred N64 to see that this is true. That shit's built out of gundanium.
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The only thing that would make that better is if it were cs 1.6...
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Overall, an enjoyable remix and definitely beyond what I can produce at the moment, but I don't know how it got past the judges with that same shrill reverse cymbal again and again and again... vary it up a bit and keep it just a little more muted next time. Gotta go with strader: a lot of the synths are pretty vanilla, and I wasn't a huge fan of the bass guitar in such a dancy mix, would have preferred to hear something more synthetic. You're what, 15? At 15, I still hadn't even beaten FFVI, and at 22 now, I haven't been posted on OCR. Killin' me...
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Daaaawwwww... I saw Tower of Heaven and immediately I thought of. *Sigh* Oh well, the track you're arranging is alright, too (even if it DOES sound like Zelda ALTTP light temples), so let's give it a whirl.
Oh my god, I had never heard of that... I'm so glad I ran into that link
that's easily some of the best music I've ever heard.... aaand since I posted in the thread, I'll give my thoughts on the mix, but it'll have to be tomorrow. I don't have proper listening gear set up since I'm halfway through a big move and everything is packed. Sorry!
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Interesting organization you've got there :/ Check out some of the included FL project files. They utilize the playlist and patterns very efficiently and effectively. Adopting their styles myself has DRAMATICALLY sped up my workflow and allowed me to customize my music FAR better than when I relied solely on the pattern block editor. A decent number of people work well with pattern blocks, but it seems like most ignore it or use it for drum loops only and instead use the clip editor for all their automation and arrangement.
First chiptune -- for 5 year anniversary with the girl
in Post Your Original Music!
Posted
First thing's first, you have to get the peach, triforce, toad, and magical8bit vsts. You can use 3xosc to make some chippy waves, but they don't sound quite like NES instruments. It's also a good idea to listen to a lot of NES songs and figure out which waves tend to fall where in the music. Low squares and triangles are usually basses, 25% pulse is usually a lead, squares are often arps or leads, etc.
I didn't use any effects except stereo separators/enhancers or EQers. Any "delays" are just repeated notes with lower velocities. The only automation I used was to change volumes between parts. This was kind of an artificial limitation because you can automate on trackers, but I wanted to focus on creating interesting music with the piano roll alone for this mix.
Then, the next step is to think like a NES
To make little flourishes, you have to make short notes (usually 1/4th step or smaller, usually) and pop 'em in between notes or wherever they would sound best. You can "glitch" the sounds by adding in unusual, short and stabby notes. It's essential to control the velocity on these stabby notes or you can get kind of a nasty drill sound. In fact, I did a ton of velocity tweaking all over the place. Delayed-onset pitch LFOs are good for leads, but I didn't use any.
Hah, that's not much of a guide to chiptunes, but as always, you have to experiment, analyze, and get inspired. Think like a NES, obey the limitations to some degree, and it'll come.
... it's also helped that I've chilled with chthonic and halc a few times. I've learned a lot from those fine young gentlemen. A++++++++++++++ dudes, too. Would recommend.
By the way, I just listened to your EP. Very nice! There's not nearly enough downtempo business in my library. Time to add 4 more