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ChipMusic.org / Forums / General Discussion / Do you ever compose an entire track from scratch "in-medium?"
All of this makes working with other musicians close to impossible.
This is an interesting statement. I wonder if there's any correlation between choosing to work "in-medium" and opinion of jamming with other musicians?
Well I am no musician. Hell I am still learning basic theory (Got a decent book on it). So when I make it I do it entirely in medium. However since I do not have a solid understanding of the basics I tend to have a lot of trash or "almosts" or "could have been awesomes" that never get recorded. I have not touched anything musical in so long but I am getting back into it..... My usual process is basically put 4 or 5 notes evenly across a loop/pattern/phrase/whathaveyou. keep looping it and altering it until I feel like the note combo is giving me the right "feel" this takes me about 5 minutes. At that point I then just start trying to create a melody. This whole process ofc makes making music for me extremely time consuming. Which is why I am reading about theory whenever I get a free moment.
I never bothered reading about theory, 90% of my musical knowledge was picked up by ear. My dad taught me a small amount (some guitar chords, and the minor pentatonic scale) but besides that, I learned everything through trial and error over the course of about 10 years.. Hah, maybe reading about theory could have streamlined that process a little, though I like the path I've taken, it's resulted in a distinct melodic style (that I can't seem to avoid)..
Last edited by pselodux (Aug 24, 2011 6:53 am)
Rei Yano wrote:Well I am no musician. Hell I am still learning basic theory (Got a decent book on it). So when I make it I do it entirely in medium. However since I do not have a solid understanding of the basics I tend to have a lot of trash or "almosts" or "could have been awesomes" that never get recorded. I have not touched anything musical in so long but I am getting back into it..... My usual process is basically put 4 or 5 notes evenly across a loop/pattern/phrase/whathaveyou. keep looping it and altering it until I feel like the note combo is giving me the right "feel" this takes me about 5 minutes. At that point I then just start trying to create a melody. This whole process ofc makes making music for me extremely time consuming. Which is why I am reading about theory whenever I get a free moment.
I never bothered reading about theory, 90% of my musical knowledge was picked up by ear. My dad taught me a small amount (some guitar chords, and the minor pentatonic scale) but besides that, I learned everything through trial and error over the course of about 10 years.. Hah, maybe reading about theory could have streamlined that process a little, though I like the path I've taken, it's resulted in a distinct melodic style (that I can't seem to avoid)..
Thanks man. Makes me feel better haha.
bump. still in hearing about how you dudes like to work here. Lots of different responses all around here!
it depends on what im working on, im generally a recreational musician outside of a couple of gigs at bars every now and again. If im transposing something to paper it really helps me to sit in front of my organ and figure the notes out then apply to medium. This is usually circumstantial though, on the other hand i do write some great melodies or get good chord progression ideas from the organ and then again plug into medium. Its a major mood issue, if im just grooving with my gba or ds stand alone my tracks usually turn out much different then i originally intend them(not always a bad thing but sometimes annoying when you have an idea but cant express it) Sometimes i just want to jam out or do something random to surprise myself without the help of a keyboard. On the saxophone i only jam out, im not really that great so its a me zen time kind of thing. Occasionally i will make a random groove track to play to a beat and bass line though.
on the subject of jamming, I consider it to be completely different from writing a song. When I jam, i try to develop my live, improvisational element. Basically, just wank around on various midi instruments / build loops of scales in lsdj and play em back / play bass and just generally have a good time. When I compose music, It'll be me, and whatever tools i have with my at the moment, gameboy, laptop, bass, whatever. I would never compose music while my friends were trying to jam, they'd just be bored out of their fucking minds.
But, more on topic, when i was first starting out, aside from a few circuit bent keyboards that couldn't really do scales too well anyway, I had no "real" instrument, just trackers and noisemaking thangs. I'm kind of weird i guess, I never learned to properly write songs by playing an instrument, instead I'd just think up what i wanted to hear, and do my damnedest to recreate it.
i can piano and bass guitar a bit but i don't think my chip stuff has a place for those at the moment.
jamming in and of itself is okay i guess BUT when i write songs collaboratively with people it usually evolves from a process of "okay lets think of a chord progression KGO... *jamjamjamjam* HEY that was cool let's make that the chorus/verse, now think of another chord progression for the bridge KGO..." until we have a song :V
i find it fun to compose in lots of different ways. Somtimes it will start out with me making a simple beat and jamming on my bass, coming up with a slinky baseline then composing the rest in medium. Sometimes it will be a chord sequence that I came up with while on a synth jamming with a friend who I do lots of improv with. Somtimes I just like to just use the C note and fuck around with the sounds until something nice come up. Sometimes I will steal a chord sequence from another artist and write a whole new tune around it. There have been times I have used household objects and pets. Or used something that he wholey unsuitable for recording audio like a cheap digital camera.
Everytime. I tend to dive into LSDj and not re-emerge until something is finished.
all I do is write straight up chiptune. I never use another instrument and never felt the need to.
i love my wurlitzer multi-matic percussion organ i got it at the thrift store for about 80$ Its got some cool effects, gotta love the rotating speakers and the percussion feature gives you a knob to fluctuate the speed of drum articulation, which if you dont choose a drum it goes strait to your instruments that are switched on very very cool.
I always write in-medium nanoloop, intirely from scratch, usually starting off with a bassline in the S-channel. After using nanoloop for quite a few years now, I tend to know which direction to go when I'm listening for sounds to use, but I find new sounds every time I use it by just playing around. Theres always something new to be discovered. And starting from scratch on each new track, really enhance that experience. I've had little success when trying to convert pieces into nanoloop, so I've basically given up on that. If im tracking for other projects not chiprelated, I'm using a midiboard.
Actually, I *NEED* an instrument to write shit on LSDJ to guide me, wether is a bass, a guitar or a keyboard.
I also try to put there a lot of musical theory and whatever I learn at College. I'm actually using a lot of SUSV7, V7 and Symmetric Minor scales to resolve.
I always write in-medium nanoloop, intirely from scratch, usually starting off with a bassline in the S-channel. After using nanoloop for quite a few years now, I tend to know which direction to go when I'm listening for sounds to use, but I find new sounds every time I use it by just playing around. Theres always something new to be discovered. And starting from scratch on each new track, really enhance that experience. I've had little success when trying to convert pieces into nanoloop, so I've basically given up on that. If im tracking for other projects not chiprelated, I'm using a midiboard.
I tried covering pachabels cannon in d last year around xmas on my 2.3 cart and its pretty tough to take sheet music ideas and to stuff them into nanoloop.