The Musician's Gig Room Chat V1 - Songwriting and Sound Design for all! - Creationism Corner

[QUOTE=Hobo4President;51043677] [media]http://soundcloud.com/philmaah/jessamyn-rains-land-of-the-living-phil-maah-remix[/media][/QUOTE] I haven't heard the original so I'm going at this as if it is an original song; I love the intro, the subtle guitar adds a LOT. A hidden art not a lot of people know about is the use of instruments in a way where it is barely audible yet brings almost more than the more prominent instruments. The buildup is quite excellent, probably a bit long but then again, it isn't really bad in any way and it really makes the vocals really kick you straight in the face. Is it doubletracked? It sounds beautiful, it has a very haunting sound to it. Are the track your own? The very dry and almost timbery sounds compliments the use of synths (and again, the subtle vocalizing) in a very nice way. It has a quite 80s sound to it which I really like! 6 minutes is a lot but it doesn't really feel as such, that's quite a feat! Great job! A friend of mine is a quite proficent poet, he sent me a recording of him reciting it and I fell in love with the lyrics that I decided to add instrumentation to it, and well... It turned into a song, he wanted the instrumentation to be in the background but I kinda fell in love with what I managed to to create so I went a bit against his wishes, and mixed it as if it was an actual song. The vocals are in swedish so I'm not sure if anybody understands it, it's a dark piece about how consuming shit has taken over human emotions kinda. [media]https://soundcloud.com/skriket/dittefnatt-ft-skriket[/media] I hope you'll like it, I'm thinking of making it an instrumental track too.

Even as a non-swedish speaker, your buddy has some superb intonation, his reading really drives the emotions of the tune. Whats your guitar setup like? Those muted bluesy type tones around 2:10 really tickled my fancy really amateurish, but me and a buddy are working on a little mixtape and this is the first real thing we've done together, cc? [media]https://soundcloud.com/user-55742151/benjamins-kill[/media]

[QUOTE=No Party Hats;51049782]Even as a non-swedish speaker, your buddy has some superb intonation, his reading really drives the emotions of the tune. Whats your guitar setup like? Those muted bluesy type tones around 2:10 really tickled my fancy really amateurish, but me and a buddy are working on a little mixtape and this is the first real thing we've done together, cc? [media]https://soundcloud.com/user-55742151/benjamins-kill[/media][/QUOTE] Well, excuse my English, i'm not good at doing criticism but ill try anyways, really loving that sub bass, and about the melody and the lyrics, they really complement each other making you feel really hooked listening the song, really digging the 808ish drum, but personally it becomes repetitive after a while, but great job man, i would listen again one of your mixtapes! --- I made this song like a month ago after i got an System-1, and was messing around with Reaktor stuff, a sort of acid house thing. [media]https://soundcloud.com/z0mb0t/lyra[/media]

I really appreciate it friend! I know the sub could be toned down a bit too, when we were editing our woofer was real shit so we couldn't really tell if it was too much till it was put up. That being said, it sounds really cool in a car! Thank you!

[QUOTE=killerzombie;51050813]Well, excuse my English, i'm not good at doing criticism but ill try anyways, really loving that sub bass, and about the melody and the lyrics, they really complement each other making you feel really hooked listening the song, really digging the 808ish drum, but personally it becomes repetitive after a while, but great job man, i would listen again one of your mixtapes! --- I made this song like a month ago after i got an System-1, and was messing around with Reaktor stuff, a sort of acid house thing. [media]https://soundcloud.com/z0mb0t/lyra[/media][/QUOTE] This is really good! Don't know if it is really acid house, a little too dubbed out for that, but the genre doesn't really matter. One thing that stood out to me was when you introduced the "303" there was a bit of mud and dissonance in the bottom end, like it's only temporary, but you might want to look into fixing that. Also at times the bottom end, especially at the fuller parts of the song, seemed like instruments were fighting for space, but then again I'm listening to this on cheap headphones going through my laptop's internal DAC so it might just be on my end. Also, more of a personal preference thing because some people like it, but I think you should turn down the panning of the ride a bit. It is a little all over the place for me. Then again, I'm acutely aware to directional sounds so harder panned stuff usually stands out to me more than other people. Also if you want it to be full acid you gotta make that bass squeal and have shorter sequences for it!! Helps to wear a visor and tie die clothing too while knob twiddling. [t]http://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/174113338/8_(Copy).jpg?auto=format&fit=max&w=560[/t] Something like this will really make your 303 emulation sound more like the real thing! [sp]And yes, it has to be a crop top to get the buttery-ness of the filter to come to life.[/sp]

Hey thanks man!! i really appreciate you feedback, and yeah, i really wasn't sure about the genre, some people just name it an acid song because it has a 303 and a 909 in it, the ride (was from a drum sample) was really panned so it really stood out more than the other percussion, well.. now i really want to do a real full acid song wearing 90's t-shirts to get the full experience lol.

Has anybody ever tried to write electronic music as sheet music? It's a requirement for an art portfolio for a college I'm applying to and it sounds like it'd be fun to invent notation so I can conform to their restrictions.

[QUOTE=Ott;51058622]Has anybody ever tried to write electronic music as sheet music? It's a requirement for an art portfolio for a college I'm applying to and it sounds like it'd be fun to invent notation so I can conform to their restrictions.[/QUOTE] Yes but not in the standard way. I am a big opponent of standard sheet music, so whenever I write scores I use alternative notation. Sometimes it is just simplifying the scores to make them easier to read/have more information about how to play instead of just general note and "velocity," but I am really interested in notation that corresponds to feelings rather than traditional note structure. Like if you watch someone play Bach's Prelude 4, it is going to be the same every time (if played well) since there is no room to express anything. If instead you gave the musician music looking like these: [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/71/e5/50/71e55096ae2160fd55068bd60b50edd1.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/32/9a/44/329a4428deb6da099f8de6e26a9b6c27.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8d/1b/ef/8d1bef7c28ba36fbdd0f4fac707a3b03.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/bf/80/60/bf8060d7db3d2014286f5e0d6ac45971.jpg[/t] every performance would be very different, since the performer needs to use more of their own sense in reading what is going on. (If you want to learn more about stuff like this just look up "graphic notation.") Now a days, I'll either draw a picture, or just take inspiration from something I see in the world and use that as the "sheet music" in a sense. Depending on what college you are trying to go to though, they might have mixed feelings if you just turn in a picture of a dog or squiggles all over a page as an original composition. Electronic music has never really translated well to traditional sheet music anyways. Just kind of seems boring to write in 100 kick beats on paper to give the notion that you are doing a four on the floor bass drum line. Also like a sequencer is not "played" in the same way a piano is "played" so trying to notate a sequenced line seems a bit weird, since there is a big difference between a computer playing a line than a human playing a line, so you cannot really give that role to a person. Also since synths have the ability to get into crazy directions in terms of sculpting, how are you supposed to denote filter sweeps or changing individual oscillator pitches? If you are composing for additive synths, how do you denote the inherent microtonality you will get in those just by nature of FM, AM, and overtone morphing? What does a white noise riser look like on sheet music? What if you sampled a different song? Do you notate the samples pitches too or do you just write in "sampler play c4" for two bars? Either way there are obvious problems. The list goes on and on too... Like my west coast modular system does not even have a way for a user to play in notes in a standard way. How do I notate that? Occasionally I even have literal random values trigger notes. Do I just put a "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " in every bar for 10 pages? Basically fuck western notation. [editline]15th September 2016[/editline] Like I have seen original copies of some free jazz era sheet music and literally there are two notes on them and then huge blank areas of "solo" and "improv." Like why even bother writing anything at that point. [editline]15th September 2016[/editline] If someone can find a way to notate big festival edm by having a symbol for the proper time to Jesus pose then maybe electronic music can have it's space in direct representation musical scoring again.

[QUOTE=killerzombie;51050813] [media]https://soundcloud.com/z0mb0t/lyra[/media][/QUOTE]This has a really nice Detroit vibe to it and I love it. I don't really see anything wrong, so overall it's a solid track. I made this ambient track with my ju-06 boutique, it's a sort of indirect sequel to a song I made at a similar time two years ago. [media]https://soundcloud.com/ghille556/death-stepped-outside[/media]

[QUOTE=Ghille;51059972]This has a really nice Detroit vibe to it and I love it. I don't really see anything wrong, so overall it's a solid track. I made this ambient track with my ju-06 boutique, it's a sort of indirect sequel to a song I made at a similar time two years ago. [URL="https://facepunch.com/"]Listen to Soundcloud recording[/URL] [URL]https://soundcloud.com/ghille556/death-stepped-outside[/URL] [/QUOTE] Lovely atmosphere, makes me think I am outside looking at the forests. Have that Carbon Based Lifeform vibe in there also which is great ♥ Here's a track i made a while back, maybe some years ago. [media]https://soundcloud.com/frequency-waves/plate-tectonics[/media] [editline]16th September 2016[/editline] all drums and percussion were made from the kick sample thats is the main kick in the track.

[QUOTE=splenda;51058932]Yes but not in the standard way. I am a big opponent of standard sheet music, so whenever I write scores I use alternative notation. Sometimes it is just simplifying the scores to make them easier to read/have more information about how to play instead of just general note and "velocity," but I am really interested in notation that corresponds to feelings rather than traditional note structure. Like if you watch someone play Bach's Prelude 4, it is going to be the same every time (if played well) since there is no room to express anything. If instead you gave the musician music looking like these: [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/71/e5/50/71e55096ae2160fd55068bd60b50edd1.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/32/9a/44/329a4428deb6da099f8de6e26a9b6c27.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8d/1b/ef/8d1bef7c28ba36fbdd0f4fac707a3b03.jpg[/t] [t]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/bf/80/60/bf8060d7db3d2014286f5e0d6ac45971.jpg[/t] every performance would be very different, since the performer needs to use more of their own sense in reading what is going on. (If you want to learn more about stuff like this just look up "graphic notation.") Now a days, I'll either draw a picture, or just take inspiration from something I see in the world and use that as the "sheet music" in a sense. Depending on what college you are trying to go to though, they might have mixed feelings if you just turn in a picture of a dog or squiggles all over a page as an original composition. Electronic music has never really translated well to traditional sheet music anyways. Just kind of seems boring to write in 100 kick beats on paper to give the notion that you are doing a four on the floor bass drum line. Also like a sequencer is not "played" in the same way a piano is "played" so trying to notate a sequenced line seems a bit weird, since there is a big difference between a computer playing a line than a human playing a line, so you cannot really give that role to a person. Also since synths have the ability to get into crazy directions in terms of sculpting, how are you supposed to denote filter sweeps or changing individual oscillator pitches? If you are composing for additive synths, how do you denote the inherent microtonality you will get in those just by nature of FM, AM, and overtone morphing? What does a white noise riser look like on sheet music? What if you sampled a different song? Do you notate the samples pitches too or do you just write in "sampler play c4" for two bars? Either way there are obvious problems. The list goes on and on too... Like my west coast modular system does not even have a way for a user to play in notes in a standard way. How do I notate that? Occasionally I even have literal random values trigger notes. Do I just put a "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " in every bar for 10 pages? Basically fuck western notation. [editline]15th September 2016[/editline] Like I have seen original copies of some free jazz era sheet music and literally there are two notes on them and then huge blank areas of "solo" and "improv." Like why even bother writing anything at that point. [editline]15th September 2016[/editline] If someone can find a way to notate big festival edm by having a symbol for the proper time to Jesus pose then maybe electronic music can have it's space in direct representation musical scoring again.[/QUOTE] I wonder if I could submit a spectrogram :v:

RIP Don Buchla. Got to meet him a few months ago. Such an inspiration to me and my creative process. Even though his synthesizers were not as mainstream as Bob Moog's stuff, they have still left a permanent mark on music history, arguably to the same extent as the creation of the guitar or piano. Such a sad day. [t]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GB86m7JvlMk/UugwQL0SGaI/AAAAAAAIBio/NNp_6Fd2-zo/s1600/2.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Ott;51058622]Has anybody ever tried to write electronic music as sheet music? It's a requirement for an art portfolio for a college I'm applying to and it sounds like it'd be fun to invent notation so I can conform to their restrictions.[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;71hNl_skTZQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71hNl_skTZQ[/video] [video=youtube;c9Lq50bf6wc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Lq50bf6wc[/video] [video=youtube;9sv3Iy9hSWo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sv3Iy9hSWo[/video] May also be worth looking into "Music Notation in the Twentieth Century" by Kurt Stone. Graphic notation is probably your best bet anyway as splenda said. As pretentious as it sounds I thought Meyer Kupferman's [url=http://www.soundspells.com/Kupferman-MusicWithoutSound.pdf]Music without sound[/url] is quite neat. Not so much meant to be played but jsut heard in your head.

It might actually be interesting to find a way to invent a competent traditional sheet music update for the 21st (even the 20th) century. Like if you draw out synth patches on the first few pages to get the musician to have the right timbre and take queues from DAW automation lines to show filter changes, etc. then you will definitely be accepted to the college. You can even use the [url=http://dhouse.co.uk/sound-art/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/euclidean-rhythms_dhouse-400x565.jpg]euclidean rhythm syntax[/url] for your drums to make it easier to notate. Would be a really cool project and a jump start on a thesis paper too!

this is how i read music [img]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13422439_10156915712940212_6467498137251230115_o.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=tomatmann;51064430]this is how i read music [img]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13422439_10156915712940212_6467498137251230115_o.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] ring mod (XOR), nice

[QUOTE=Ott;51065341]ring mod (XOR), nice[/QUOTE] [img]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/901965_10152636463030212_742558710_o.jpg[/img] [img]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13235328_10156821920835212_4774240360407500785_o.jpg[/img] [editline]17th September 2016[/editline] To infinity!

Finally got all my music gear set up in my new apartment, woooo

[QUOTE=chaz13;51075159]Finally got all my music gear set up in my new apartment, woooo[/QUOTE] Pics?

For some reason I chose to have a really sweaty bass tone for this one song so everytime I track bass lines for it I'm wearing like 5 layers of clothes. Almost fainted at the end of my final track yesterday because I took like 2 hours and it was already 100 degrees outside. No one should ever watch me record music because it is honestly scary what I do sometimes.

[QUOTE=Warship;51038167]Here's a track I'm pretty proud of, I think I'm getting better at making melodies with feelings in them. If that makes any sense. [media]https://soundcloud.com/thedanielholt/july-is-over[/media][/QUOTE] Sounds pretty sick, the only complaint I have is that I don't like the kick, too much mid/mid-high end, I think just putting a low pass filter on it would make it fit in much better [editline]22nd September 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Ghille;51059972]I made this ambient track with my ju-06 boutique, it's a sort of indirect sequel to a song I made at a similar time two years ago. [media]https://soundcloud.com/ghille556/death-stepped-outside[/media][/QUOTE] I love it [editline]22nd September 2016[/editline] [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/888-2a/s-JAxsJ[/url] Tried going for a sorta early 90's sitcom sound

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;51087927] [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/888-2a/s-JAxsJ[/url] Tried going for a sorta early 90's sitcom sound[/QUOTE] Jolly good stuff. That melody makes me really happy. I think the arrangement could benefit with some typical early 90's workstation ROMpler sounds, and not all just synths. Some really shitty piano sound or brass or something could work for background substance. My university required a sample-based song for a production assignement. I decided to finally try and put some effort into vaporwave, and combine it with old-school hip-hop beats. [media]https://soundcloud.com/brotherworks/blue-hue[/media]

[QUOTE=UnknownDude;51099017]My university required a sample-based song for a production assignement. I decided to finally try and put some effort into vaporwave, and combine it with old-school hip-hop beats. [media]https://soundcloud.com/brotherworks/blue-hue[/media][/QUOTE] That sounds sweet as heck, it'd be cool to hear a distorted lead of some kind on top of that! Here's something that I've been working on since yesterday, it's starting to get kinda hard to work on it in my DAW cause of CPU limits, but I am fairly close to being done with it. I wanna add toms in the background, and put vocals on top of it - also some of the percussion is way out of level, volume wise - but apart from that would love some feedback! [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/nightsing-3/s-l5Ud7[/url]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;51115669] [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/nightsing-3/s-l5Ud7[/url][/QUOTE] Loving the feel of this. It's got a nice funky sound with the bass and drums. Great synths and chords. I can tell you've been doing this for longer than I have. I don't even know what I would change if I had to change anything, maybe add some subtle sound effects here and there. - This is a track that turned out to be pretty relaxed and happy. It's pretty simple but I think it has a decent sound. [media]https://soundcloud.com/thedanielholt/cycles[/media]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;51115669]That sounds sweet as heck, it'd be cool to hear a distorted lead of some kind on top of that! Here's something that I've been working on since yesterday, it's starting to get kinda hard to work on it in my DAW cause of CPU limits, but I am fairly close to being done with it. I wanna add toms in the background, and put vocals on top of it...[/QUOTE] If you want to regain dsp power you should start freezing tracks you are not going to mess with anymore (can still do stuff like volume changes to them however.) It basically turns the track into a pure audio track, I discovered the other day this is not exactly what happens when trying to manage someones 400+ channel track but for normal projects it should be fine, with the ability to unfreeze at any time if you want to tweak something. Its really helpful for not cutting edge computers or crazy processing intensive plugins.

[QUOTE=splenda;51116662]If you want to regain dsp power you should start freezing tracks you are not going to mess with anymore (can still do stuff like volume changes to them however.) It basically turns the track into a pure audio track, I discovered the other day this is not exactly what happens when trying to manage someones 400+ channel track but for normal projects it should be fine, with the ability to unfreeze at any time if you want to tweak something. Its really helpful for not cutting edge computers or crazy processing intensive plugins.[/QUOTE] That's awesome, I'll look that up, thank you!

I want a melodica.

[QUOTE=Ott;51119923]I want a melodica.[/QUOTE] Used to have jam sessions with this one girl who would exclusively play a melodica during them. She got crazy sounds out of it when she would play it not as intended. Speaking of random instruments, ever since I got to play a ubass for a few weeks a couple years ago I have always missed the thing. It's so cute I can't stand it. Also since my main "normal" instrument is bass, it fits perfectly. Also once a stranger asked me what instrument I wanted more than anything and I said a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling"]Kangling.[/URL] Even after explaining what it is somehow she wanted to be my friend. [video=youtube;SMHmTNgUyQc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMHmTNgUyQc[/video] But like for real listen to this thing it is so cool. Pair it with a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaru#Skull_Damaru"]Skull Damaru[/URL] and you will both be super Buddhist and metal as fuck.

Wow, that ukulele bass is the greatest oxymoron ever.

[QUOTE=Ott;51120149]Wow, that ukulele bass is the greatest oxymoron ever.[/QUOTE] It has a super thick sound too. Got to play a gig with it and the thing was really controlling the low end. At times I thought I was just playing my fender jbass with tape-wound strings. Also it is always great when you get on stage with such a little thing and tell everyone you are the bassist in the band. Everyone looks at you like you are mad until you play a low E and shake the room.