KVR Audio

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 2:48 am

An exercise in futility: trying to pin down the exact tonality and scale (or scales) for this track. Inevitably, it is what it is, and I guess I will just have to leave it at that.

https://soundcloud.com/tonedef71/exercise-in-futility

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:14 am

My Feedback

Music - 9.5
Instruments - 9
Performance - 9.5
Mix - 9

Overall - 9.25

Comments: Sounds like something Danny Elfman would do. Did you like run this through some random generator of notes? As a big Danny Elfman fan, I love it. But it needs to be a bit shorter. I think it would be perfect for a Desperate Housewives spinoff. If you've never heard the theme...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR0jKlwE0zI

One of my all time favorites. If you managed to remind me of this, bravo. Well done.

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:03 am

wagtunes wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:14 am My Feedback

Music - 9.5
Instruments - 9
Performance - 9.5
Mix - 9

Overall - 9.25

Comments: Sounds like something Danny Elfman would do. Did you like run this through some random generator of notes? As a big Danny Elfman fan, I love it. But it needs to be a bit shorter. I think it would be perfect for a Desperate Housewives spinoff. If you've never heard the theme...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR0jKlwE0zI

One of my all time favorites. If you managed to remind me of this, bravo. Well done.

As always, Wags, thank you for the honest feedback! Also, thank you for sharing your impressions and the link to a similar piece of music (I am also a fan of Danny Elfman). After listening to my track so many times while composing and mixing it, I have become too acclimated to it, and so I am less able to recognize its shortcomings.

I guess it could be said that this tune has been in the works for quite some time. Several years ago, it began with a melody that I had hummed and recorded with a mobile phone. I ran the recorded waveform data through the WidiSoft WIDI Recognition System (this was before I ever owned Celemony Melodyne) to get a MIDI transcription of the melody. The melody that was transcribed did not fit into any common Western scale; and this would be the source of my struggle over the next several years to develop the melody into a full blown song. Also, the original rhythm had a 7/8 time signature. In time, I tweaked the melody to fit a 4/4 time signature, and I harmonized it. The chord progression was also quite uncommon. For years, I would work with various music composition software tools (Chordbot Pro; FL Studio Mobile; Songtrix Gold; Sundog Song Studio; Rapid Composer; Pizzicato; Hook Theory; Sibelius; Odesi; Riffer; Scaler; EZ Keys; Chordpulse) to develop the musical idea further. I think that Chordbot Pro, EZ Keys, Songtrix Gold, and FL Studio Mobile were the tools that contributed the most lasting additional ideas for this tune. Eventually I found a web site that defined/catalogued the scale I was using: it is simply Scale 3959.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:14 am

Well, that explains why it sounds like it does. Like I said, loved it. Oh, and if you listen to Elfman's "Dilbert Theme" it's very similar to Desperate Housewives.

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:41 pm

wagtunes wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:14 am Well, that explains why it sounds like it does. Like I said, loved it. Oh, and if you listen to Elfman's "Dilbert Theme" it's very similar to Desperate Housewives.

Thank you. Two notes shy of being a piece built on the chromatic scale, it was a challenging piece to complete. I am glad this one is behind me so that I can focus my attention to one of my other dormant musical ideas.

The Dilbert theme is an interesting tune. Apparently, it is a rework of the theme music Danny wrote for his brother's movie, "Forbidden Zone": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxOnbpWVELU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UvQLo58gY4

Exercise In Futility