Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Thread'

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FinalBaton
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

Thanks for the info EmperorIng! you are very helpful as usual.

That's good timing : I've been meaning to ask about the Volume Slide effect. So would it work the same as the example you just made? I haven't fully figured that one out.
EmperorIng wrote:especially in tracker programs in which they are not as intuitive as a knob to fiddle for X effect and so on.
Tell me about it! I'm used to banging on a guitar and that's it, you got your final sound right there, and it's instant :mrgreen: Guitar-Bass-Drums always sounds great by themselves, no need to program/tweak anything. This world of electric music(especilly of tracker) is completely alien to me. It is so different than rock (this is also my first time ever doing electronic music, so I've never done any sound-shaping either). Finding sounds that work well with one another is another art that I don't know of : as I said above, guitar-bass-drum always sound great together, but not all elctronic sounds do, you need to really pay attention to whether the sounds play off of each other or not, and if they make a nice "whole"
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EmperorIng
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by EmperorIng »

No problem! Portamento stuff is a little tricky to understand, personally, but it would work in the same way. I bypass using the effect and just edit the volume levels directly, which at least gets the job done of raising or lowering the volume
E.G.

0E
0F
10
11
12
13

In the volume column - the above represents a raise in volume (remember that 09 doesn't go to 10; 09 is followed by 0A-0F, THEN 10-19). That might not be the same thing as specifically what the effect does, which goes to show that after all this time I still don't know every functionality on a tracker program! A good way to learn sometimes is by looking at different demos/modules (luckily deflemask comes with tons) and get a sense of how some of the effects are used.

With portamento effects, what I take away from it is to make sure the effect starts on the note you want to start the change, and ends directly on the note you want to stop the slide:

A - - 374
-- - - 300
B - - 300
-- - - 300
C# - 300
--- - - ---
--- - - ---
--- - - ---

This will cause a slide of that particular strength from A to C#. Like I said, I don't fully understand how it works, but I imagine the 5xy effect on Deflemask to operate in a similar way.

Also, reposting this in case people forget to look at the last page. :wink:

Rise of the Thrash Lord (YM2612/SN76489)
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FinalBaton
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

Thanks a ton! Yes I've thought about editing the volume directly. Only annoying thing with that is that if you decide to chance the overall volume of the instrument, then that means you gotta reprogram your volume fade out since the volume values of the fade won't really match anymore.

I will try the second one, now I feel I will have more success. I was entering the value of the effect in each row, lol. Like say

A - - A01
-- - - A01
B - - A01
-- - - A01
C# - A01
--- - - A01
--- - - A01
--- - - A01

Until the volume gets to where I want it. But I'll try your way instead. One thing I noticed is that when I made the volume slide down inactive, the volume wouldn't come back up... but maybe I wasn't doing that straight after a note. I'll try that now

ALso, it's a bit annoying that you can't start a volume slide after a note is hit with the second method, but oh well... at least the first method will work in this case!
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FinalBaton
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

A new little YM2612 loop :

Futuristic RPG Mid-Boss Theme Soundcloud | Youtube
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by auryn »

I hardly ever post here but this thread seems the place for this:

https://soundcloud.com/user-502627405/b ... ngs-latest

It's a track that's inspired by playing shmups (mainly battle bakraid) in MAME back in the day, although the style is more like the kind of electronic rock that you'd get in a Raiden or Dodonpachi soundtrack (or that's what I hope to have achieved). BTW the title (apart from being a play on a terrible 80's ballad) refers to the fact that in many shmups your plane usually flies so slow that wings seem to have little purpose ;-)
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by Heavy Viper »

A little FM+PSG jam I wrote to work out some new methods.

https://soundcloud.com/heavyviper/sunriserk9
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by EmperorIng »

Here's a track I'm particularly proud of:

The Exorcist Theme - YM2612/Sega Genesis Cover

This one was a hard one to cover, if only because listening to the original can be tough as the OG Tubular Bells is 50+ minutes long, and has several different versions. I settled on a mere slice of it and found some decent sheet music to give me an idea of how to transcribe to my tracker. The piece constantly switches between 7/8 and 9/8, along with sometimes going to 4/4 (and later on 5/8 etc.) which meant keeping a track of how the melody and rhythm developed was very tough. The results are pretty good, if you take a listen!
auryn wrote:I hardly ever post here but this thread seems the place for this:

https://soundcloud.com/user-502627405/b ... ngs-latest

It's a track that's inspired by playing shmups (mainly battle bakraid) in MAME back in the day, although the style is more like the kind of electronic rock that you'd get in a Raiden or Dodonpachi soundtrack (or that's what I hope to have achieved). BTW the title (apart from being a play on a terrible 80's ballad) refers to the fact that in many shmups your plane usually flies so slow that wings seem to have little purpose ;-)
This piece is pretty good. I like the instrument choice used; it gives it a sort of rock-anthem feel to it.
Heavy Viper wrote:A little FM+PSG jam I wrote to work out some new methods.

https://soundcloud.com/heavyviper/sunriserk9
The chords used on this are so good. The track is very atmospheric; it actually reminds me of some of the slower tracks in Namiki's Garegga OST. I've already listened to it a few times.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

Another Conan-esque riff. I'll revisit this one later by adding parts, but for now this short(finished) loop will have to do. Think of it as a title screen track ; -) I had to give sign of life, hadn't posted in AGES. and since it's gonna take a long ass time to finish this song.. and since I'm really happy with this opening (it's "in the can", really), I thought it'd be good to share it, as a teaser of sorts

Barbarian's Rage - Title Screen Soundcloud
Last edited by FinalBaton on Sun May 12, 2019 12:36 am, edited 2 times in total.
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FinalBaton
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

Great work on your respective latest track, Heavy Viper and EmperorIng!
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by beatsgo »

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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

Our very own Obscura has just released a teaser (1 full song) for his upcoming record with his project Condemner (Death Metal with Black Metal influences).

This is excellent stuff, I highly recommend people who like metal to go check it out! and be on the look out for the upcoming album

https://condemner.bandcamp.com/track/ph ... etribution
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by Obscura »

Do note that the "single" is not what it's going to sound like on the final record; what is posted is just the raw mixdown with a barely-used limiter on the master bus to give it a volume level that most listeners would deem acceptable (most people aren't going to want to listen to something that peaks at -3 db and generally sits at -8 to -9). Mastering is being handled by Dan Lowndes, so the final version should sound better than what's linked above.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by blackoak »

It's been pretty difficult balancing shmuplations, musical ambitions, and the rest of "life" for the last couple months. It feels like there's never quite enough time to do any of those things the true justice they each deserve individually. It's sort of slowed my musical output, but in the meantime I've been making some steady progress on the sequencer in max.

Here's a few new tracks, unmastered so they'll probably need a little volume bump on your end:

https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/reclusefunk
https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/omars-day-out
https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/belle

@EmperorIng, I enjoyed reading the write-up on your workflow posted awhile back, and I've still been meaning to respond that and share some thoughts/my own setup.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by beatsgo »

Held this song hostage for a month after completion
more than a dream
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by lilmanjs »

New drone ambient release out on a fellow artist's label. Inspired by a bunch of Shaolin Kung Fu movies I've seen over the years. https://droneworksinternational.bandcam ... -that-fell
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by EmperorIng »

Obscura wrote:Do note that the "single" is not what it's going to sound like on the final record; what is posted is just the raw mixdown with a barely-used limiter on the master bus to give it a volume level that most listeners would deem acceptable (most people aren't going to want to listen to something that peaks at -3 db and generally sits at -8 to -9). Mastering is being handled by Dan Lowndes, so the final version should sound better than what's linked above.
The mixing sounds pretty simple to me, so I am sure the different parts will become more distinct/clearer. What's there is fun to head-bang to, though. :wink:
beatsgo wrote:Held this song hostage for a month after completion
more than a dream
I like this. It feels fresh and modern. The electronic instruments were well chosen.
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I feel bad taking a while to comment on this one. I listened to it back when you released it, but a second listen some time later makes me like it much more. I think the lack of extra instruments (like you'd have on FM) lets its forward thrust work fairly effectively. It's straightforward and fun to listen to.
blackoak wrote:
https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/reclusefunk
https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/omars-day-out
https://soundcloud.com/highsmith/belle

@EmperorIng, I enjoyed reading the write-up on your workflow posted awhile back, and I've still been meaning to respond that and share some thoughts/my own setup.
Of the three, I think I like belle the most. Omars Day Out has a nice ramp-up of texture as the piece goes on. All three pieces have a nice minimalistic funk feel to them, which makes them very fun to listen to as they hop and bop around.

I can totally relate to being sidetracked (after all it's taken me how long to respond to some new posts here?). It has been several months since I did any type of 'serious' music work and I need to sit down and focus. Trying to juggle that, finding a job, and IRL volunteer stuff doesn't make it easy - especially when all I want to do when I get home is veg out, ha.
lilmanjs wrote:New drone ambient release out on a fellow artist's label. Inspired by a bunch of Shaolin Kung Fu movies I've seen over the years. https://droneworksinternational.bandcam ... -that-fell
I've listened to chunks of several tracks, and the flow is nice and relaxed. The harmonies call to mind a certain orientalism.

=====

Speaking of ambience, I've been really obsessed with the Thief games these last few months (and have been moving on to Dishonored), so in order to get "back in to shape" making music again, I wrote a soundscape piece based off of the moody brooding ambience found in the Thief games - with a dash of edgy industrial techno in there as well. :mrgreen: It's not Thief if the music doesn't have 90s edginess in it, right?

This time I tried to seriously create a soundscape or create a place through instruments and synths. I have only done that a few times before, but this is a more mature application of that. I also ripped some sound/voice clips from the Thief game, which added to the character.

Take it All/Taff it All ~ Thief Tribute
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

EmperorIng wrote:especially when all I want to do when I get home is veg out, ha.
Huh, tell me about it -_- if I worked on something creative for every hour that I veg out, I'd have a massive portfolio by now. truly the bane of my existence. Oh well, at least I'm recording with my heavy metal band this week-end. so that's motivating and a step in the right direction at least

Thanks for the kind word on my last track. yeah I too feel like working with fewer tracks really worked in this songs favor! It pushes that one track(not bass, nor the high pitched lead/thrills one, but the other one) to the forefront and highlights it's creeping feel, which I thought was interesting

Hey listened to your last track, this is excellent ambient work! it all flows extremely well. I love the use of a choir-like synth patch here. That's a very cool mood the track has got going on. great one
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by Obscura »

https://condemner.bandcamp.com/album/bu ... e-decadent

The full-length is here! I strongly recommend downloading it instead of streaming, Bandcamp is stuck in 2002 and automatically downsamples everything to 128kbps for streaming.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

My latest YM2612 track

BIG FUNK for a beat 'em up level that's HIP. No doubt, we're downtown in Big City tonight! Beating up punks under tousands of flashing neon signs, in the city's most in vogue area.

This is :

Glamorous Downtown Beat 'Em Up Stage Soundcloud | Youtube


EDIT : reuploaded it cause some levels needed a serious decrease. That's what happens when I only mix using my headphones and don't listen to it through my speakers
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

A new small FM funk loop :)

Infiltrate Enemy Hideout - Big Funk Soundcloud | Youtube
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by beatsgo »

FinalBaton wrote:A new small FM funk loop :)

Infiltrate Enemy Hideout - Big Funk Soundcloud | Youtube
Not bad, the ideas are well developed. The panning transitions needs to be even out. What you can do is dedicate 2 channels for the left and right speaker. You play the same instrument with the same notes but you control the volume for each channel, thus getting that cool swinging effect.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

beatsgo wrote:
FinalBaton wrote:A new small FM funk loop :)

Infiltrate Enemy Hideout - Big Funk Soundcloud | Youtube
Not bad, the ideas are well developed. The panning transitions needs to be even out. What you can do is dedicate 2 channels for the left and right speaker. You play the same instrument with the same notes but you control the volume for each channel, thus getting that cool swinging effect.
I hadn't thought about doing that with the panning. Thanks for the tip!
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by null1024 »

EmperorIng wrote: With portamento effects, what I take away from it is to make sure the effect starts on the note you want to start the change, and ends directly on the note you want to stop the slide:

A - - 374
-- - - 300
B - - 300
-- - - 300
C# - 300
--- - - ---
--- - - ---
--- - - ---

This will cause a slide of that particular strength from A to C#.
There's a mild error here -- 3xx on the starting note in a lot of trackers won't trigger it at all if a note hasn't been played yet/note-off happened, or will swing wildly from the previous note
and not having 3xx continue past the last note can end up with it not quite hitting the note yet, especially if you've got a slow slide

A-- - - ---
--- - - ---
B-- - - 374
--- - - 300
C-# - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300

will start A, smoothly slide to B and then through C#

if you want to go straight from A to C#, try something like
A-- - - 110 (slight upwards pitch since you don't have a previous note to glide from)
C-# - - 320 (adjust to suit how fast you want)
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
--- - - 300
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

New FM synth track :) an Heroic shmup theme

Deep Space Discovery Soundcloud | Youtube
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by lilmanjs »

New House track under a new alias. Just a joke picture for the upload though. https://soundcloud.com/deepwarmth/orion ... ay-visions
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by emphatic »

My acid cover version of Laurent Garnier's "Astral Dreams": https://soundcloud.com/dj_emphatic/dj-e ... nier-cover
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by EmperorIng »

I'll need to take some time to listen to these new tracks you guys pumped out. My boss is out tomorrow which gives me a chance =)

I've been busy writing new tracks for a pinball game that's going into early access soon. I started writing tracks two years ago, and it looks like it's finally in the home stretch! It's Devil's Crush-inspired, as is the music... at least the original tracks. The dev wants "omake" tracks, so in this case, here's a dance/rave track sample:
Club DeVille -Pinball Never Dies-

As a shmups-farm exclusive, a glimpse into my hard-rock alt. track:
Ballzy Bub

Watch out; that one's rad. It needs to be tweaked/changed however, so that particular ver. won't be in the game.
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by synthetic_nrg »

some good tracks in here!!

https://soundcloud.com/novarg/model2
not a new one but pretty recent & im proud of it!
wanted to make something plodding but slightly melodic.
complete with a 909 kick that is way harder than it has any right to be

& the technical bits for those interested
thrown together on an atari 1040stf (using cubase here, i prefer notator and use that nowadays) with an akai s3000xl, blofeld(gone), jv 1080, jp 8080, bass bot tt-303(gone too, 303 is not for me)
& efx from the trusty old quadraverb and mpx-1
played back from the atari into a mixer and recorded on what i had available to record stereo on at the time of production

i can do things itb as well, but if im going to be making something itb it has to be entirely itb and would probably be done in renoise or another tracker... i don't know why but thats how my brain works

it's currently patch making season for me & ive got plenty of sine waves to try and wrap my head around & eventually share with the world!
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by FinalBaton »

synthetic_nrg wrote:some good tracks in here!!

https://soundcloud.com/novarg/model2
not a new one but pretty recent & im proud of it!
wanted to make something plodding but slightly melodic.
complete with a 909 kick that is way harder than it has any right to be

& the technical bits for those interested
thrown together on an atari 1040stf (using cubase here, i prefer notator and use that nowadays) with an akai s3000xl, blofeld(gone), jv 1080, jp 8080, bass bot tt-303(gone too, 303 is not for me)
& efx from the trusty old quadraverb and mpx-1
played back from the atari into a mixer and recorded on what i had available to record stereo on at the time of production

i can do things itb as well, but if im going to be making something itb it has to be entirely itb and would probably be done in renoise or another tracker... i don't know why but thats how my brain works

it's currently patch making season for me & ive got plenty of sine waves to try and wrap my head around & eventually share with the world!
That's very good stuff bud! Nice mood that pairs well with that rythm. song slowly(but constantly) evolves too. Nice jam!

Atari ST and cubase huh? wow that's an oldschool setup! love it! which piece of gear captures the sound from your keyboards, for sampling use? (love that you're using some real synths/drum machines)

One lady on Youtube whom's music I love, composes only with an Amiga and Soundtracker Pro and a card with which she digitizes synth sounds to sample and create MOD files with. Always though that was cool
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Re: Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Threa

Post by synthetic_nrg »

FinalBaton wrote: That's very good stuff bud! Nice mood that pairs well with that rythm. song slowly(but constantly) evolves too. Nice jam!

Atari ST and cubase huh? wow that's an oldschool setup! love it! which piece of gear captures the sound from your keyboards, for sampling use? (love that you're using some real synths/drum machines)

One lady on Youtube whom's music I love, composes only with an Amiga and Soundtracker Pro and a card with which she digitizes synth sounds to sample and create MOD files with. Always though that was cool
thank you!

i typically record either to cassette tape w tascam 122 mk I or a tascam dr 44wl, just depends on my mood. i use the dr 44wl to get tapes to digital as well, works for archiving anything interesting i might find at secondhand shops

when sampling i have a lead going straight into the sampler's input, anything that i can get audio from can plug into that and be recorded by the sampler. i can also put some wavs on the handy recorder or ipad and run them in to the akai from there. cases its either straight to the sampler or from some recording into a sampler. i've always wanted to mess about with octamed but i've only come across just one a500 in my life, trackers just can't be beat for drum programming imo.
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