So, Tropers can do music too, right?

It's February, not this month - so starting now be not allowed, if it's the same as Na No Wri Mo, which I assume it is.

Arglf.

Quick little jazzy mix, drum arrangement by myself: http://www.audiotool.com/track/untitled_1-PzCZs/0

Quick little techno-sorta mix: http://www.audiotool.com/track/untitled_2-MMcmL/0

EDIT: greatly improved version of the second song: http://www.audiotool.com/track/untitled_2-pAHW8/0

edited 13th Jan '11 4:50:05 PM by ssfsx17

Our latest song which we just truly finished, in MP 3 form:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nuq6823wnrravq6

It's in Russian. The song itself (and the lyrics) is by my dad, he plays the rhythm guitar and sings. The girl singer is one of our friends and she's really good at singing. I figured out how to do bass without a real bass guitar and then did the bassline. The bass is all mine, including composing that bassline.

Also, here's a You Tube link to another our song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pelnyjo99I

(listen in HQ)

I'm one of the singers. My voice is the hilariously br00tal one during the choruses. It's also in Russian (as usual) and it's about the "Someone is wrong on the Internet" phrase. It's mostly lyrics-based for its appeal, which is unfortunate for those that don't speak Russian... but the three-voice combination is still awesome.

edited 14th Jan '11 3:36:56 PM by Muzozavr

I'm a classical composer.

The one thing I sort of want to learn is audio engineering because I am literally the most technologically illiterate person ever, and I don't have the patience to learn how to play an instrument. And in today's musical climate, you can't just write. Well, except for the five or so people who were fortunate enough to be "discovered" by someone with enough spare cash to market a record.

That said (largely since I never practice) I'm also an extremely mediocre pianist, and don't really have any ambitions on that front. Just fantasies.  ^*

edited 17th Jan '11 4:32:49 PM by aishkiz

I improvised this on the piano

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

I also wrote a song. If anyone cares, I might be able to email it.

I'm in a band that teeters on the edge of not actually existing. For your listening pleasure...

The Myspace Page The Bandcamp Page

Note: Yes, I am the vocalist on most of the tracks that, well, have vocals. The glaring exception is "The Bunny Song", which I think is still there. I also play keyboards (reasonably well), recorder (with reckless abandon), and a few other instruments (results may vary).

I'm also a kind of amateur composer, mostly of weird atonal and/or minimalist material. Lots of microtonality and nested polyrhythms. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I like what I do.

I also create complicated ambient-ish soundscapes. The long track on the Myspace is somewhat representative, although that one is entirely composed of older band material, so the feel is slightly different.

edited 18th Jan '11 3:03:42 PM by JHM

The mix for Mosquito wasn't so hot, but I actually quite liked Toy Cannons. Also your drummer is pretty good.

Mixing "Mosquito" was... interesting. Half of the band wanted the effects louder, the other wanted them quieter and then complained that they couldn't hear them. Head, meet wall.

Joe is a pretty exceptional drummer. (He's improved since we recorded those.) He refuses to believe it, though.

edited 18th Jan '11 3:47:18 PM by JHM

I think I might give that RPM challenge thing a shot....

edited 22nd Jan '11 11:55:20 PM by Solstace

WE COULD WORK TOGETHER, SOLSTACE

edited 23rd Jan '11 3:15:25 PM by SpainSun

Hey guys, technically this is music!

Also, what programs do people use for making music? I've been looking for maybe a good music sequencer or chiptune tracker.

edited 24th Jan '11 7:27:22 PM by Taco

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Spain: I can fully support that, since I have no way to do drums/rhythm.

^^^ The most comfortable software for making music on a standard computer setup (i.e. without MIDI keys) is tracker software, hands down.

For chiptunes, try FamiTracker, a tracker that emulates the sound capabilities of the NES. I guess there are others, but I've only had any semblance of experience with this one and it's really good.

If you want to make things more complex than chiptunes, try Schism Tracker (an emulation of the old-school Impulse Tracker) or ModPlug Tracker (a tracker much more comfortable for spoiled Windows types like me). If you want to use VST with the latter, along with lots of useless additions and less stability, use OpenMPT.

Now keep in mind that I've only mentioned free software...

Spain: I can fully support that, since I have no way to do drums/rhythm.

Cool. PM me and we'll work something out.

This started out with me trying to create something that would sound like a villain's theme song from a 16-bit game.

Adding the beat was an afterthought. This is also just a first draft - so I'll replace the beat, which came packaged with FL Studio, with something... better.

Announcement:

Solstace and I have started a pseudo-band called Portland Pattern.

Further updates as events merit.

I like it, Wheezy.

If anyone wants to collaborate with me (either for the rpm album or otherwise), let me know. If you can't really go the full on collaboration route, sending me recordings of short riffs or weird noises I could loop or generally fool around with would be cool too.

edited 29th Jan '11 5:58:12 PM by MikeK

I am a writer, not a musician, though that hasn't stopped me from trying. I can make lyrics easy but making songs is a creative roadblock for me. I thought my project Disillusioned Knights would go ignored and before anybody says "Why didn't you come to us?" the answer is I did.

However, to my shock and horror Cakman actually produced a beautifully done version of my idea, and it's actually pretty good. Disillusioned Knights ladies and gents.

I am primarily an artist and a writer, not a musician, but you can listen to the few recordings of my my clumsy piano-playing that exist.

Original composition in C major

Original composition, Semetic March

Cover of the intro to Rush- Closer to the Heart

I've got other music, but since I no longer have a laptop I no longer have a way of recording my music.

edited 30th Jan '11 5:27:28 PM by annebeeche

Well, actually, I'm trying to get a music career started. I'm not that great now, but yeah. My music is spread out all over the internet, but mainly, you want to look at my Tindeck account(for remixes) and my Soundcloud account(original stuff). http://tindeck.com/users/eilios

http://soundcloud.com/eilios

I always forget that when it comes to productivity in making music, I seem to be better off doing things pretty spontaneously because when I have more of a plan I start overthinking things and therefor not actually doing much: Case in point, all last week I was struggling over lyrics for a song, and yet today I just intended to record myself clapping out this rhythm that popped into my head, and now I have this whole trippy Singing Simlish chant going. The latter is not "done", in the sense that I wanna go back and structure it a bit, but I'll probably post it here.

edited 7th Feb '11 4:12:54 PM by MikeK

I compose quite a lot and sing. I'm less satisfied with my voice than I used to be; I think it's gotten worse with lack of practice over the last couple of years, and I really need training. The music I listen to is a really eclectic mix, which results in my own style being kinda schizophrenic.

Oh, and please keep in mind that these are all recorded in my livingroom on my PC with a Guitar Hero microphone and an inexpensive guitar, and I'm more or less learning to use my software as I go. I don't have a MIDI keyboard and my piano skills are rusty anyway, so most things are sequenced with the mouse and piano roll. I'm pretty self-conscious about this stuff, so go easy, haha.

Red Light Lullabies: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/red-light-lullabies-featuring-bryce-lowry My friend and I have been trying to start a band for years. One night a couple of years ago, we decided we needed to write a song, so I wrote some lyrics, composed a melody and a rhythm guitar part, we recorded the rhythm guitar, I recorded the vocals, and he improvised some lead. From writing to completion, this took us like 45 minutes. My vocals were pretty good here, much better than any of these other recordings, I'm afraid.

Idle Hands: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/idle-hands A very lo-fi, quick recording. Just me, an acoustic guitar, and a very old microphone.

Mad World: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/david-aarons-mad-world A forum I frequent was putting together an album of 80's covers by forum members. I picked Mad World and spent a couple of days putting together the track. All synths. I avoided listening to the original or Gary Jules' cover while working because I wanted to try my own take on it.

Elegy for Alessandro: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/elegy-for-alessandro This song was my last exorcism of leftover pain from a really harsh breakup, so it's pretty emotional for me. My vocals aren't terribly strong (in no small part because I was a wreck while recording, haha), but of all the songs I've written over the years, this is probably my favorite set of lyrics. The guitar solo is not very good, because my friend wasn't on hand to play for me, so I had to do something myself. I'm not very good at the guitar, haha.

Homecoming: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/homecoming These are my worst lyrics ever. The song is written from the perspective of a high school guy, though, so I will call the cliches Stylistic Suck rather than accept responsibility for them, haha (truth is I had put together the track and needed lyrics for it. I was very tired and sick and so I just sort of half-assedly threw something down. Obviously it didn't work as well as it did when I threw stuff down for Red Light Lullabies). My vocals are pretty terrible, because I had a bad cold while recording. I actually played all the guitar parts and they didn't sound half bad. One of these days I'll redo the vocals, but in any case, this is a sort of odd 80's-influenced thing.

What Could It Hurt: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/what-could-it-hurt This was a one-take recording, so there are several problems with my vocals, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. This is another one with just me and an acoustic.

New Prime Theme: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/david-aarons-new-prime-choir This was my first attempt at orchestral composition. It's all samplers, of course, and technically speaking it could be terrible. I don't read music or know music theory, haha. Anyway, I composed it for Olan Rogers' new webseries New Prime. He really liked it and talked to me about it by Skype for a few minutes, so it may appear in the series at some point.

A Dance in November Snow: http://soundcloud.com/accendilux/a-dance-in-november-snow A very brief instrumental piano piece. I probably spent about twenty minutes on it, and I guarantee I couldn't actually play it if I had a piano, haha.

edited 10th Feb '11 5:58:44 PM by Wulvaine

Going solo... Sort of. Enjoy.

Note: This actually began as a kind of tongue-in-cheek experiment in slowing down and pitch-shifting Apple loops. It got much, much weirder and more complicated from there, as evidenced by, well... If you've heard it, you know what I'd mean by "too many layers on the cake." I was kind of aiming for a dreamlike, processional feel, although I'm not quite sure if I've achieved such a thing.

edited 10th Feb '11 8:33:46 PM by JHM