MockingQuantum

Can someone give me some background on Shnabubula? It's a name I've seen thrown around some in chiptune circles, but I don't know who he was or anything. I get the sense he was an exceptional songwriter, and that he (maybe?) had a tendency to remove his online presence from time to time?

I actually haven't found this, no. There's certain select titles that I almost never see, like Wonderful 101, but most of the best selling games are pretty frequent around here.

Seconding Shovel Knight, it's one of the best platformers I've played in years.

I will do that. So far all of the exercises are ridiculously easy, but I'm pacing myself in the manner that the book recommends, so I think it will pick up in future weeks. That's pretty much my first impression on ConCon though; it's very progressive, and very rehabilitative, so sudden gains are not really a viable goal. It's fine for me though, since I have a bad shoulder and no real desire to be cut like diamond. I just want to be able to crawl under racks of gear again without feeling like I'll be stuck there forever.

Anybody have any experience with Convict Conditioning? I'm becoming a fatty fat fat and I hate gyms with a passion, so I'm looking for something bodyweight-based that I can kind of do anywhere.

Out of curiosity, how much can you wring out of one synth? I was considering trying to do a song using only Massive or only FM8, that sort of thing. Is it worthwhile to try this, or would it be an execise in frustration?

Aw man, I'm still annoyed that I can't make it to MAGfest ever. I always work that weekend, and it's always too good of work to pass up.

I do have a few musical bones in my body, I just don't quite know how to use them yet. ...Okay, that sounds weird, but point being, I'm really hoping to be a part of the community and develop my own skills while helping others sharpen theirs.

I'm also in the midst of my nearly-yearly "Oh god, nothing will ever be right and I'm never going to succeed at anything" depression. I think it has less to do with the winter than with post-holiday blues though. I deal with depression year round, but yes, it's definitely the worst in January. Time outside can help, if only to get more sun. That being said, this is usually when I shut myself up in my studio and listen to way too much Skinny Puppy, so YMMV.

Yeah, this is what I'll probably end up doing for a little while at least. When I was first trying to get into writing music and had a decent job, I made the mistake of buying a bunch of synths and softsynths that I only sort of know how to use. I'll spend some quality time with them, and I'll roll with the punches if anything strikes me.

Thank you for this, it clarified a question I didn't really know how to articulate.

Oh, I by no means expect to be good, I'm just trying to not set myself up for failure and utter heartbreak right out of the gate. But yes, everything everyone is saying makes sense, so I'll stop agonizing and get started.

I have read it! But it certain bears rereading. I feel like the key is to break routine, like he talks about, but I'm kind of terrified to. As frustrating as it is, I don't think I'd call what I experience "writer's block" in the traditional sense-- I just have figured out that I frequently need an hour or two of decompressing or focusing or whatever before I really get into a creative mindset. As annoying as it is at times, so far it works, so I'm not enthusiastic about throwing a wrench into the process.

For sure. The frustrating thing for me is that I never really start writing in earnest until I've been noodling for a couple of hours, sometimes. I hope at some point I figure out how to get in a creative mindset a little faster.

I'm starting to think about what my first attempt at a remix might be, and I was wondering if I could get some advice from experienced OCR people. Mainly, how ambitious is too ambitious for a first try at a remix? Is there any benefit or drawback to going with either a musically complex song or a musically simple song? Am I overthinking it, and should I just stick with whatever song inspires me?

I know none of this matters much to anybody, since I'm some sort of ultra-lurker on the forums here, but I figured it's good to put these sort of things down in writing for accountability blah blah: -Play guitar daily (I went almost a year without playing due to a shoulder injury, I just started playing again and didn't realize how not playing affected my mood) -Completely finish a song -Submit, at minimum, one Remix -Buy a piano and learn how to actually play it -Become an active member of the forums and actually respond to people's WIPs instead of listening and thinking "that's cool, I bet I could say something helpful about it" I seriously love watching the forums, and I figure it's time to dive in. I haven't felt like I "belonged" because I was out of commission, musically speaking, for months, but this seems like a really supportive community and I'd love to be part of it.

I wish my music writing were like this. So far it's like trying to watch X-Files on Netflix for the first time-- weird, confusing, and tends to feel a little lame and derivative now.

Assuming copyright law in Japan is anything like it is in the US, this is definitely correct.

I need a poster of this, in large block letters, in my studio.

thisthisthis. I ignored this exact piece of advice for too long. I always thought that if I wasn't making strides on a song every time I sat down with it, that the piece wasn't worth finishing. Now that I've moved out of that mindset, I have much less issue with spending 3+ hours on a track, only to have changed one cadence voicing and a couple of compression ratios. I think the point is, you occasionally need to spend as much time figuring out what a track isn't, as you do figuring out what it is. It's just hard to break the mindset that that kind of creative work is "wasting time".

For me, the biggest jump start for my process was being willing to move away from a "do it right" mindset. Everything I tried to do, from writing melody to programming a synth, I'd watch a billion videos or read a hundred articles to find the "right" way of doing that particular task. Going to the experts or learning from these resources is really valid, but it wasn't until I was willing to just give it a shot and do it myself (and make horrible mistakes) that I was able to really internalize a lot of what I was doing. Once I knew what I didn't understand, it became easier to focus my self-teaching/research on that one element of my process.

I love all the advice and points of view in this thread-- I just wanted to pop in and add something I think is relevant to the discussion so far. I've been taking composition lessons from a pretty impressively qualified composer for a while now, and he said something unexpected earlier this month. I said something to the effect that some day soon I might start to feel like a professional-level composer, to which he responded, "You never do. At no point have I ever woken up and said, 'hey! I'm a pro now! I've reached that magic level!'" The point I'm trying to make is, you can't judge your progress or ability based on how you feel about your music or how far you think you've come. There may never be a moment where you suddenly feel like you've 'made it.' But that doesn't mean you haven't reached, and surpassed, hundreds of personal goals and milestones on the way. I think that, above all, is a reason to keep improving, and to never be afraid to face the (constructive) criticism of other amazing music-makers.

So I figured out another good melody technique. It's not so much writing as development, and it's probably blisteringly obvious, but it wasn't for me: Accents and Dynamics. I've found that most of my dissatisfaction with my writing derived from the fact that even when I figured out a good melodic line, it felt lifeless. Well, playing around with where the accents fall in a phrase can really work with, or against, harmonic movement, and really creates interest either way. I know it's simple, and kind of a no-brainer, but it's easy as crap to forget when you're working with plugins and sampled instruments.

I'm with you on the jazz. Just grabbing one chord out of one well-constructed standard can really give you a different way at looking at a bit of harmony. I love the feedback-- it's all great, though it's taught me (unsurprisingly, I suppose) that I'm doing all the right things in learning better melody technique, I just need to do them more often, forever. Though I guess that's sort of the nature of music!

I play guitar and piano, neither particularly well though. I've been considering trying to improve my percussion skills, however I'm able, for a while now, just to see if I get a little less rigid rhythmically.