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The Vodoú Queen

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    PRC419 - The 17th Anniversary Of PRC (Free Round)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    BTW,

    This is some additionals to my blurb for my Aquarius remix song, if anyone wants to know and is informative as food for thought. Not necessary to look at for voting, just thought it might be helpful and interesting to know :) :

    Spoiler
    1. 'Catamitus Exultant Lusibus' loosely translates from Latin to mean: "Ganymede Dance". Ganymede is a Trojan prince mythos from Greek mythology about the handsome boy Zeus took up to Olympus to become his personal cup-bearer for water and wine, because of how much Zeus was enthralled by his beauty. The story of Ganymede is also by which the astrologan star-sign 'Aquarius' came from.
    2. This was done as part of a self-imposed '24-hr or Less Production' challenge I did. Hence why I only spent up to < 20 hrs to complete the song fully, including mixing and mastering. It was to challenge myself to see if I could even do it, which (thankfully) I managed to.
    3. For those who might be able to hear the intent (or not know), the motif of influence for this song comes from the PS2-era Castlevania games that had a more techno-bend to their soundtrack rather than the usual heavy rock-bend, namely Lament of Innocence (2003) and Curse of Darkness (2005). Also, some of the artifacts present in some of the loops / samples I found are very similar in texture to the sound-feel from the 15-bit style of the Game Boy Advance when I played with them on the 7-band equalizer. I thought the resulting effect was a perfect combination with the PS2-genre style, and a cool way to express Aquarius with an interesting take that wasn't heavily sounding like the Circle of the Moon version of it, nor the revamped version of it made for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

    Examples that were derivative of how I thought to make the remix:

     

     

     

    PRC419 - The 17th Anniversary Of PRC (Free Round)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    @Bundeslang

    The blurb for my Halcyon Hare Stage seems to have disappeared from the PRC submission...? O.o;

    Guess it kind of went a bit funky cause they all seem to be under my name now, solely, without 1 or 2 behind them.

    In case it messed up somehow I'll just post it here rather than re-submit the song:

    This is a bit of a showcase piece to go along with 'The Rain Won't Stop the Beat'. Aesthetically, it is practically a sister-tune to it (insofar as a more Eastern / Japanese beat). But practically in every other way, it's far different, in tone and tempo. It's like...the Yin to Rainy Turtloid's groovy Yang.

    Since we could turn in up to 3 songs, I decided to post this one too, as a kind of hmm, "celebration" of sorts of me coming out of my proverbial shell again and striding out for new horizons with my artistic stuff. This is actually the 3rd song I've ever produced, after a remix of Metal Gear Solid 3's 'Snake Eater' and NieR's 'Song of the Ancients', and it is my first ever original song. I try to be real proud of it, considering I had 0 clue about anything to do with DAWs, loops, VSTs, LFOs, SFXs, samples, midis, etc, and literally jumped into the deep-end of the pool with no life preserver. I just went on the internet, spun a wheel with which MM series I should do and the 'type of stage' (is the Robot Master a fire-type, or water-type, etc), got pinned with MMX & Wood/Forest Maverick, and here we are.

    It's also the first of a series of things I was going to do in my spare time, sort of 'What Ifs...' scenarios where if I made a song for a game / franchise, how would it go? So to go along with the kinda weird Mega Man (X / Zero) theme, I present this. :)

    Welcome to the Stage of Halcyon Hare - Buried Angkor Wat.

    Hope you enjoy. ♥

    Fellow composers, do you ever find yourself locking into a style? If so, what is your reaction?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by The Vodoú Queen

    43 minutes ago, HarlemHeat360 said:

    Edit: I just want to add that in thinking on it more, there may be a big difference between our musical influences as opposed to what one of the guys from spitfire coined as our musical heritage. Maybe...think of it as what or whose music is transparent in and actively affects our pieces being our influences. This is opposed to our inspirations and surroundings that we consumed and used to direct our paths toward music being our heritage. It more passively affects what we make and why. Something to think about.

    I think a lot of truth rings in that. Who we are, what we are, and how we grew up will affect us with everything we do, not just songwriting. I know it affects the way I write fiction and draw, for example. And Thunder's analogy is real good as well. I think, indeed, we just have to keep making cakes. To add to that metaphor, basically, when you start out producing music (especially I'd figure the first year or two), it's gonna be like baking a cake at 10 years old. It's gonna be messy. It's gonna look like absolute shit. Hell, it might not even be edible!--however, as you do it, you'll start to figure out things in your head. Being able to measure the condensed milk, butter and eggs without necessarily needing a measuring cup. Getting the timing right for it baking in the oven perhaps without a timer going. Instinct will take over. Innovation with throwing different chocolates or fruits or nuts into the mixture, or in making different kinds of cake, be it a gingerbread cake or a black forest gateau. You just get better as it goes along, and you find your 'niche' in the kind of cake you like. :)

    43 minutes ago, HarlemHeat360 said:

    Like you, I want to be able to challenge myself and write other things. Not just as a challenge, but because I like all sorts of music. Michael Jackson is my favorite artist and I have musical roots as a listener in hip hop, R&B, and gospel as well. I also really enjoy prog rock and electropop. I want to make music that sounds like all that too! And yet, I haven't been successful so far. Moreover, it's not the music that tends to pour out of me to the point where I hit the keys and fire up pro tools.

    Maybe some of the problems I and others have is we don't know how or are unsure of ourselves when trying to  Branch out. I don't know how to make beats...but I can make 30 bars of classical ish sounding music. I think it's why I get VSTs I rarely use. Hoping I'll one day just learn as I fiddle with them. I never made music with sound effects either but I learned/am learning. I guess the journey continues on!

    Ya know, it's actually nice to see someone else grow up with the same sort of influences around here as well, atop of classical-trained singing. I wish I took up chorus as well in school (as I can sing but am not professionally trained, in the same instance I can play keyboard but I taught myself for the most part.) But yeah, having that very Black American background of gospel, rap, hip-hop and R&B under ones belt is extremely distinctive. I'd guess that's why when people pick up on certain songs, it's just there, and you can't really hide that. But as a caveat to what you're saying, there's absolutely nothing wrong with meshing genres together. You mention Nobuo Uematsu. He does it all the time (FFVII & VIII are prime examples of the mesh of rock n' roll, heavy metal and orchestra). Groups like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with their Christmas / winter albums do it. The bands Apocalyptica, Florence & the Machine and 2Cellos do it. It can very well be a niche you can fill, and as far as I know, very few people have filled it. :D Like, I can imagine myself being so spontaneously crazy as to make a full album that's very Black gospel-choir orientated, but with heavy industrial techno / psytrance behind it. That's just how split my personality is.

    I guess it's something to think about, and maybe roll with the punches on. :3 Take your strengths (and what some may deem weaknesses), and show 'em who's boss. I said something similar to my friend @HoboKa in a PM, and it's an adage I try to now place on myself when faced with heavy scrutiny and criticism. And TBF, the biggest critic and scrutinizer is myself. :/ I think a lot of us are, by measure of this forum topic and replies alone.

    Fellow composers, do you ever find yourself locking into a style? If so, what is your reaction?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by The Vodoú Queen

    Also, here's the examples of how somehow, even with different genres, my drum & bass are pretty much stylistically similar:

    Hardcore / Techno:

    Orchestral / Electronic:

    ACTUAL Lo-Fi / Hip-Hop:

    New Age / Jazz (the one that seems to have been poorly executed):

    There's more in my SoundCloud of various stuff I've done so far, but yeah. . . It all seems to carry the same undertones, and everybody keeps describing every song as such. D:

    Fellow composers, do you ever find yourself locking into a style? If so, what is your reaction?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by The Vodoú Queen

    Hey, kinda wanted to jump into this conversation because it seems interesting and I think I can add my own '2 cents' to it.

    I just started 'producing' music around early Sept 2020, and I can agree and feel a lot of what all of you are saying, even if I am new to this. I've noticed, between what I've submitted to MnP Compos and a music mix songwriting challenge this past December that, although I do try to branch out and 'conquer' different genres of music, be it New Age (the theme of the songwriting challenge), Synthwave, Hardcore, Techno, Rock--what have you--I always get the same commentary across the board, no matter what other constructive critiques or positives / negatives people perceive of my work:

    "You have a good / wonderful / cool / etc concept / understanding of drumwork and percussion and beat, and it sounds LO-FI / HIP-HOP"--which may or may not work with the theme or overall piece of the compo (as it seemed to have not with the song I submitted for the songwriting challenge).

    And I have a weird...duality with that and a slight negative complex now, and unsure what to do with it or how to deal with it.

    Like, in all honesty, I am proud that at the very least, even if my melody or harmonics is a bit off or dissonant (which I guess comes with the terf of being a newbie, something is going to be off with what you produce until you get the professional ear for it. Maybe any Jo-Shmo wouldn't know, but your peers will know where and how you fucked up, plus or minus their own bias and nuance when it comes to music tastes.) At the very least, I seem to understand beat and rythym enough to not have a complete dumpster fire on my hands. But it's kind of giving me a stigma that everything I do, no matter the genre, is going to have the same lo-fi / hip-hop-style foundation to it.

    I mean, is that a thing of growing into one's own style and I guess...trademark stamp of what makes their work, THEIR WORK, or...is that a detrimental fault to the learning process?

    It's a real bi-fold quandry.

    For example, I've listened to everybody's posted work on here (great stuff BTW), and even if they're described under different genre headings, I CAN hear a fundamental line of style that makes its impression on all your work, be it a string instrument you use a lot, or an orchestral undertone, or even the beat-work.

    And then I thought about it further, and juxtaposed that stance with multiple songs I hear across multiple singers / bands. . .

    I think we all have our own stamp to our music, that is fomulated over the course of us playing around and learning and even from our individual backgrounds. Like...I think WHY my music keeps coming out with heavy, snazzy beats as such is because I heavily grew up listening to African-American music, because I am Black. Literally since a baby I grew up listening to stuff like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, every Motown-song under the sun, and in later years, stuff like Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Black Eyed Peas, etc. That's not to say I didn't listen to other genres. My Dad and Mom would play stuff like the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Dr Dre, Black Sabbath, and in my teens - early 20s I listened to a lot of different heavy metal and rock n' roll and electronica music, from Disturbed to Staind to The Prodigy to H.I.M. ...It's a conglomerate of all kinds of stuff, inclusive of VGMs and RMs.

    But almost a good chunk of all of that has the one foundational aspect: they all do heavy bassline and drumkit. Now pair that with the fact my father used to play and practice drumming in the house on a professional level. He never got into a band or anything, but the man knew his shit and even had different sticks and percussion kits, even if it was a hobby. So it's ingrained into my skull so much that even if I can shift in producing different genres of music, it's all gonna come out with similar bass & drum works.

    Now, is that going to be a detriment or problem in the long run? I don't really know. Is it the growth of my own style? Maybe? Hell, I am just as bamboozled as the rest of you on that stance.

    But I agree with Thunder and Bloo: I think in the long run, it's about building experience and making the WHOLE of a song as awesome as possible, not necessarily it's individual parts. If you're good at something already and that's your artistic stamp, let it be your artistic stamp. No one can take that away from you. It can only grow and blossom as you conquer different genres and make it your own. I've noticed every professional artist has this bent, whether it's a sample they use over and over across their songs (e.g. Snoop Dogg), or the beat (e.g. Savant), or even how they sing (e.g. Mariah Carey).

    P.S.: Sorry if this is a huge post, was in the middle of a thought-flow when I typed this up ROFL.

    MnP 121: Chrono Cross - Magical Dreamers

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I'll hit ya up then on that offer. ;)

    I'm mixed between putting any in this time around, but I'm happy to grab some free mp3 or wav vox if you got em, for future use. Bandlab's are fun and all but admittedly some are just plain bad and most are only good for rave or techno or nightcore type stuff cause it's kind of high pitched, chipmunk squeak.

    Works sometimes, but agreeably, need to broaden my palette.

    MnP 121: Chrono Cross - Magical Dreamers

    in Competitions

    Posted · Edited by The Vodoú Queen
    Would be interesting to see if anybody doesn't just fall into string-searing guitar solos for this one, as excellent as the song is for 'em. ^^;

    @Dextastic

    Would be an interesting challenge to see if you don't fall into doing electric guitars for the main parts like the song leads / encourages to use. ;)

    Just like apparently I shouldn't fall to using vocals / vox every time / every song. ;)

    MnP 121: Chrono Cross - Magical Dreamers

    in Competitions

    Posted · Edited by The Vodoú Queen

    Ah, found the midi on the site...

     

    Sad thing is, as much as I love this song and every other song from the Chrono series, I'm unsure if I'll be able to pull anything off with this on Bandlab Online. It's probably the most complex midi I've worked with...

    Possibly too complex for my novice self.

    Not quite sure what to do with it. :/ Outside of limited instrumentals from the midi side I'm almost always working with loops, and outside of extremely simplistic samples, I'm stuck.

    MnP 120: Secret of Mana - Make A Wish

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I mean, I love the entire SoulBlazer trilogy and played all the games (even though my first and favourite by rose-tinted shades is Illusion of Gaia.)

    I like the Tears of Lance (Sad Theme) from Gaia, and always thought the Terra theme from Terranigma was jazzy. ^_^ As well as Angkor Wat being oddly one of my favourite place themes out of the trilogy. So I wouldn't mind a round dedicated to the three games.

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