june contest - GOSSIP

[Armadillo]

Then there's another couple of tunes, which sound great

Thank you very much, Armadillo, for loving my tune.

I can imagine you at work, boss says: "ok, AndreasE, can you pick of some files in department C, copy the report, go to Jim with the copies and then attend the meeting at 13.00. Afterwards you can take your lunchbreak".

AndreasE:"ah, something about taking my lunchbreak now".

[AndreasE]

[AndreasE]

25


already

Oh yes, please lock the rules&submissions thread, rob

[vurt]

25


already

Oh yes, please lock the rules&submissions thread, rob

yeah come on man its summer i dont wanna be stuck in front of a pc listenin to a hundred tunes way better than me

[UniCon]

well thats alright then Vurt you can listen to mine instead

Am having a system f*ckdown

[Glooper]

Hmmm... There seem to be several tracks that are over 2 minutes long?... Has this rule been dropped?

Ben

[You™]

Well - thanks very much for this SF theme... I love SF movie music in general and I'm grabbing this chance to try and make something 'orchestral/Hollywood' which I've been meaning to do for a while now... Very difficult if you've got no training in how to orchestrate the parts and which instruments to choose, but fun all the same. There wouldn't be anyone here who can point me to a tutorial 'how to arrange Hollywood style in one easy lesson', would there?

Hi Mark,

I don't really know anything about arranging myself and I'm not a properly trained musician, but I listen to a lot of music and I try to listen carefully. I'm one of those people that when I hear an interesting song while sitting at a table having a conversation, I just rudely tune everyone out until the song is over then pretend I was paying attention to them. No wonder I never know what's going on. Anyway I just found something which I skimmed. It's mostly about pop and it mentions a book I saw online too which has a great quote, "Arranging is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle with more than one solution and too many pieces."

I'm dealing with some arranging issues right now too. Here's what I'm attempting:

I'm doing a cover of an old TV show theme. I found an mp3 copy of it on the internet (I also found a few cheeseball MIDI versions which I ignored! Who makes those things anyway?). I listened to the song a bazillion times until I learned to play about 87% of it by ear, but I was sure I had the feel of it. I imported the song into Live so I could get it all synced. In my case, I'm blending the shows opening and closing themes into the same piece. Then I imported a copy of "corrected" version of the song into my Audio/MIDI sequencer (Which I may abandon after I get Live 4!) and set up tracks for each instrument. I concentrated on one instrument at a time and played along until I had a reasonable stab at each part. Now that I have a decently MIDIfied version of the original song, I'm deconstructing the whole thing and putting it back together the way I want. Here's a couple things I'll offer about arranging with synths and PCs:

Just because something is orchestrated doesn't mean it doesn't follow the same principles as most other western music. You can think of parts as intro, chorus, verse, bridge, coda, etc... Obviously there are distinct differences between a classical composition and a Top 40 song. But having a central theme or figure that repeats over time will help the listener identify the song. Using ascending patterns of notes or volume will build the tension. Dissonance and deep sounds will be more ominous. Major key patterns will be brighter and cheerier.

Avoid sounding GMish. If you don't have great sounding patches, tweak them until they sound at least interesting. Layer different patches to achieve fuller more complex sounds. Chances are, no matter what, some patches are just not going to be convincing... So don't try to sound exactly like a real cello or trombone. Let it sound like something else. Try going drastically as far in the other direction.

You can never have too much horns or strings. Duplicate a horn track and modify it so its close to the original but doesn't match it exactly - either by shifting the timing of the notes slightly or by splitting chords amongst the different instrument tracks. Be careful not to make it sound sloppy or blur the pattern. Never simply duplicate a track and just assign it to another instrument! Use interesting intervals to fatten melodies and pads.

If you want an instrument to sound natural - play it that way. Horns are generally monophonic and can only play in certain registers. There's a lot of slurring and breath modulation that are appropriate for that kind of sound but not for a piano or guitar. Each instrument has a certain kind of phrasing. So be sensitive to what each sound is doing.

Don't over do it. There's a tendency (I have it too) to layer too many MIDI instruments into a mix. It's totally unnecessary. I think each track should sound good by itself if possible. If you want to emphasize certain parts do it by articulating the velocity or during mixing with volume and compression. You could also add a tympani to certain beats/notes but not too much!

Once you have the feel for your song, try playing the melody on different instruments at different speeds, with different harmonies. Break it up so that each part is played on different patches. Try to change the mood of it - just to see what it feels like in a different key or register.

Pay attention to accidents and serendipitous chances while composing that while not what you originally intended sound cool and might be worth investigating. So many of my songs are third or fourth iterations of second thought I had while working on something else. And many of them are better than my original plans.

That's about all I can add right now. As I said, I'm not trained in music so I hope I'm not giving you bad advice. There are plenty of good reasons to ignore everything I've said but I've tried to be as general as possible and I hope these tips make sense.

Good luck!

[UniCon]

Hmmm... There seem to be several tracks that are over 2 minutes long?... Has this rule been dropped?

Ben

damn that 5 seconds - where did that come from? It wasnt there 2 minutes ago!

Consider it corrected.

MattC

[smoktindadome]

Is the june contest the sci-fi remix. If so how do where do i post my track. Can I upload it on kvr??

I hope so I've got a dope outer limits big beat remix.

thanks, joe

[pHz]

Is the june contest the sci-fi remix. If so how do where do i post my track. Can I upload it on kvr??
I hope so I've got a dope outer limits big beat remix.
thanks, joe

ideally you need your own hosting and just post a link here ...

... if you REALLY struggle with that then i can arrange temp hosting on the K-v-R server for the duration of the contest ...

(PM me)

slainte rob

[dor-x]

Hello everyone!

Great topic this month, so count me in. I'v already written th damn thing, but can anyone help me host it somewhere?

thanks and good luck to all
dor-x

[hao nao]

some non-comprehensive comments:

one thing to consider is that "movie theme" is part of a whole just as lyrics need to go with music, but then there's the example of most of the James Bond films ... on the other hand, probably not many could hum the theme from Forbidden Planet or Alien

so far there are many that I could imagine as the opening music or soundscape while the title played

at first, warbug's piece seemed too talky to me, but then I thought this is the kind of touristy intro that you would have in a movie like Westworld

sepheritoh should just work in movies ... this isn't the first time that a spacious, moody, cinematic atmosphere has emanated from his studio

donkey T should warm his hands over a flaming trash barrel while discussing metel soundtracks and maybe even storylines with John Carpenter

nuisances sonores would have the audience squirming in terror before the movie even got going

armadillo did a great job on the T4 theme

choochcat's track stands out as being pleasant, cool and "futuristic"

ianweb123's entry was an early favorite and still is ... it's easy to imagine the credits placidly showing as the nodes merrily or mindlessly go about their business, then the first moment of tension plays as the camera pulls back, and then there's the second tense moment: "man, it's even worse than you thought"

[pHz]

jtxx000 ...

... please try to find somewhere to host your track that you can directly link to - many people here will not hear your entry since they will not signup to acidplanet just to download your tune ...

... if its a real problem then PM me and im sure i can sort out some hosting for you for the lenght of the contest

slainte rob

[Bl1tz]

Hahah I'm going to lose again. Sweet.

[jtxx000]

You have to sign up to listen to it ... I'll see what I can do.