[Music] Weekly Beats 2014! Get yo challenge on!

Decided to give this a shot. This track's pretty much me improvising around some key ideas then refining it a bit (still needs more tweaking), which I've never actually done before.

Be gentle, it's my first time :x

I like that progression in the beginning a lot. I have a lot of difficulty doing stuff like that for some reason, so I'm a touch envious. It sounds very like... you know how a movie plays happy / sort of "off" music over a sad ending? I got that vibe from it. Then the strings came in, and it became sort of stately and regal. The 8-bit part came in after that and it took a turn for like an indie game kind of a feeling.

I guess I should say, I really like how this moves. It feels very complete and solid all the way through. You switch through almost corny-positive moods to tension and very slight depression, back and forth, and you do it well.

Excellent work. I am STOKED to hear what you write next week.

Beautiful. You chose all the perfect chords. The only criticism is that from around 2:30 to the end it seems a bit like you got lost and were just kind of meandering. Still very nice though. I'm jealous.

Haha, the chord progression was just a chromatically descending bass note from E-G# with triads I thought just sounded cool over it, then I added extensions. I love working in minimalist core elements with some complexity sprinkled on top. I was kind of exactly going for the emotional path you described there, so it's cool that turned out well. I'm not entirely sure about the ending, but it is what it is, I guess. It works.

Thanks Arrow ol' buddy ol' pal

The only criticism is that from around 2:30 to the end it seems a bit like you got lost and were just kind of meandering.

That is exactly what happened, and I'm kind of okay with it.

Beautiful. You chose all the perfect chords [...] Still very nice though. I'm jealous.

This coming from you just feels... humbling? Yeah. Thank you.

I like it. It's got a kind of Little Miss Sunshine, stately, semi-depressing but somehow "everything's gonna be okay" kind of feel to it. While I definitely enjoyed how unexpected the chord progression was, one thing that did irk me a bit was that it felt confined to its rhythm. The melody was very nicely syncopated, and that helped compensate for that, but the rest hammer on over quarter notes in 4/4 the whole time.

Still, at least you got something down.




In other news ... I think I have a perforated ear drum. My left ear hurts when I swallow. No hearing loss, just ... fucking ouch. Dammit all.

How the hell did you accomplish that? Someone stick a pencil in there? I had a dickhead do that to me in class once...

I think it was my shitty headphones I use at work. They have those plastic cup thingies, and what that does is create a vacuum inside your ear, so if you're dumb enough to push on the outside of the ear bud it creates a rapid change in air pressure inside your ear. :\

Ow, damn.

My eardrums are damaged because of years of performing loud music in semi-confined spaces, so sometimes loud stuff can hurt my ears. That sounds much worse though.

Oh yeah, I forgot: I don't usually do this but if anyone cares, this is the score in PDF to go with that track. I just think this one's kind of neat to follow along.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/355574/untitled%2025.pdf

Alright, finished something, lol. With 1 hour to spare, just the way I like to work.

Can I mp3 link attachments?



I can!

This week was ridiculous. Lots of good and bad things happening, and not much room for writing. Hopefully next week will be better.
(My ear is getting better, by the way. Fewer "pops" every day, haha. I'm sure I'll be fine as long as I'm not stupid anymore.)

I'm also SUPER excited because I ordered my first microphones (an SM57 and SM58), and they should be here soon. Can't wait to actually give recording a try!


Also, I'll start organizing this thread, pulling submissions together so everything's easier to find once this really gets going.

Hey guys, put up links to your submission pages!

http://weeklybeats.com/#/ryan+leber

Writing as I listen.

Okay, that opening is SMOOTH. I was instantly reminded of FF13. Majorly jealous of your ability to make soundfonts sound NATURAL. I am probably going to pester you about that at some point.

I fucking love the way this swells. I can already tell I'm gonna feel like a total clown posting after you.

Okay admittedly I feel like that stringed instrument that came in was kinda harsh. Once it starts playing more quickly I feel like it fits better, but that's totally an OPINION thing. It still sounds GOOD. The notes are great. I just feel like it's hammering on my ear a bit hard.

Love the synth over the piano. Love it a lot. The chords in this whole thing are awesome.

You rule, as always, way to go. With a handicap no less. Song just ended.


And now at the kiddy table...

Tried using F-Zero samples for the first time. Let's see how you all think that turned out.

My soundfonts probably sound natural because I play just about everything in myself, on my MIDI keyboard. MIDI data plays a big part in how natural a soundfont can sound. Like, if every note is exactly the same velocity, and absolutely perfectly timed, it sounds like a robot's playing the music. But if you record the MIDI information yourself, there can be nuances, variations ... hell, mistakes. And that's what makes it sound more natural.

Like those piano chords. They're three note chords, but not all 3 notes sound off at EXACTLY the same time, they're just ever so slightly off, like just the tiniest fraction of a beat, just like it is when a human being plays them (because I am a human being, and I played them). But, uh, yeah that's something to consider when you want your music to sound natural. You don't really notice that it's just ever so slightly off, but it IS noticeable if it's perfect. And that's not always a good thing.

I do edit and tweak the MIDI data after I record, though, but only if my timing was way off, or that one note was way too loud/soft. But never aim for perfection with MIDI data. You can tweak it yourself to allow for slight changes in how heavy each note it hit, or making each note just so slightly off beat (without REALLY being noticeable, it's all about subtlety), but if you use Logic there is an algorithm you can just "apply" to the data. It's called "humanize." It's a bit much by default, and you need to tweak the settings and dial it back a bit for it to be effective, but ... yeah, that's pretty much it, I think.


I do hear what you're saying about the harshness of that instrument (it's a koto). I wanted something weird and enthnic-y, but the acoustic Koto was weak, and I couldn't find a good instrument to layer it with, so I thought "shit, put a guitar amp on it." And yeah, haha, I kept it that way.






I'll check out your track when I get home from work.

AND DONT FORGET TO POST YOUR WEEKLY BEETS PROFILE PAGE!

Nice moss. Good stuff.

Arrow, I like it! Very snes but with the extra background I don't think was possible in that medium.

The piano piece is good as well Pac!

Sorry to all, I'm at a loss for cool musical terms.

"I like music. This is music. I like this."

Edit- FYI. Clicking submit on quick reply WILL take you to another page and away from the beats.

Sigh.

Edit 2- Play all the songs on this thread at once and try not to get a headache. I dare you.

http://weeklybeats.com/#/haloofthesun

If I didn't already have an account is it too late to make one now? Like, will my first week be empty?

It's not too late, you can sign up any time! (I think!)

But yeah, your first week will be empty. But whatever, it's not like this is some super strict contest or anything, it's very self-governed.



Sorry, I thought I mentioned in the opening post about uploading the tracks to the WeeklyBeats website. :\

There's some really, really fantastic music on this thing. You guys should check some of the tracks out.


http://weeklybeats.com/#/nonnon/music/k9d
http://weeklybeats.com/#/ilkke/music/wavefoam
http://weeklybeats.com/#/karwa/music/chord-simple
http://weeklybeats.com/#/an0va/music/slopelujah

Sorry for the lack of comments on the last few tracks, been very busy. I like them a lot though! Very nice, very video gamey in entirely different ways.

I haven't started on this week's track yet. I'm going to try and whip up something real quick tomorrow since I don't really have much time for it this week, so it'll probably be something very simple.

Almost forgot to do this. Here's a very short piece which is really nothing more than just a sketch of some ideas, mostly simple chord progressions. Nothing special, but there are some nice ideas here that I'll probably use in something at some point.



Oh yeah, I decided that next week I'm going to try writing something with the volume muted. If anyone else thinks writing music without being able to hear it is a good idea (because you're Beethoven or stupid), then join me!

EDIT: Turns out the harp was turned almost all the way down for some reason. Fixed and reuploaded. Oops. :x

Halo, if I had a lot of money I'd pay you to let me watch you write music just so I could be the first to enjoy it.

lol

I'm afraid that would get rather boring for you quickly, unfortunately. The process is about 20% writing and 80% listening to what I wrote over and over until I get ideas on how to improve what's written or how to continue the piece. Starts out exciting but hearing the same thing so many times in a row gets old real fast. Except for little bits like this one, which was done in 3 passes.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it! <3

Okay, so here's the deal with my second week piece - I have written a ~4 minute piece for a cappella SSAA choir, which will be performed and recorded on Monday night. First rehearsal is tonight, and I'm super duper excited to hear it. I wrote it all on Wednesday.
I'm really anxious about printing scores, though, because just one error could mean having to reprint over 200 pages .___.

Arrow, that's a badass tune. I love the time signature changes! Ooh, and nice panning when it gets back to 4/4. My only gripe is that the chord progression doesn't go very far, even though you've done an incredible job keeping it interesting all the way through. And the instruments sound amazing. That bass is so rich. Well done, sir!

Halo, your file wouldn't play so I download it instead. Nice, evocative track. I wish there was more nuance in volume levels, though. Like, I'm sure in a final project you wouldn't have the strings IN and the same volume and then OUT, there would be fades/cresc/decresc, and I'd love to hear this track with that kind of attention put in. But that aside, I still love it. I'll just have to imagine what it would sound like with real instruments. :3

Pac, dude, that would be so epic, especially if you uploaded it to the weekly beats website. Having recorded music on there would blow peoples minds, since it's primarily electronic music, and I'm positive they would welcome the change. Can't wait to hear it!




Here's what I have on the burner on my end. Yeah, chiptune, lol. I wanted to write something absolutely manic, and ... okay, yeah, I really, really wanted to show off how crazy I could get with chord progressions, and leave the time signature stuff for another week. This still needs a lot of work (because I love working straight up to a deadline, seems to help me come up with better ideas ... sometimes). Like, I want to have the B section work back in to the A section again, and THEN play the B section that's there, which spirals down in to the vastly different section. So it'll be, like, Intro A B1(needs to be written) A B2(what's already there) C and so on...

But I did just get in my new microphones today, and they're pretty awesome, so I might save this for next week and just do something live, I dunno.

Oh, I forgot to update the mp3 tags after I reuploaded.

Yeah, there's no dynamics at all in it. I really really hate the way Sibelius handles dynamics so I didn't want to invest the time into making it work right. I'm glad you like it though. I don't have headphones in here right now so I'll give your track a listen later. I really like your track a lot! I'm very excited to hear what else you'll do with it.

Pacman, that's awesome. Good luck with that!