may as well start with a recent OHC entry and one of my personal favs
VoidFormat: NSF+, a format that includes the base NES' sound chip (the 2A03) and various expansions in cartridges
Rules of compo: may only use one sound channel from the 2A03 and only one channel from any expansion (this piece opts for VRC6, which Akumajou Densetsu uses - hi Ace)This piece was something I made after a long time not having touched FamiTracker.
The intro's kick retriggering is something I'd heard in
Drillatron the Warper, an excellent break?core track by Strobe.
The main part (the fast one after the intro's slowdown) was written first, where I was mainly getting back on my feet by trying weird harmonization.
The part it moves into thereafter (four to the floor kicks, steady bass) is something I repeated twice because a good word of advice in entering one-hour compos is to simply just squeeze as much as you can out of what you write - bare repetition honestly doesn't help, but it padded it out to reach near a minute.
The ending was rushed under a five-minute deadline and I forgot to retune the end note (which is a slightly sharp F natural).
Sawblade PrecipiceFormat: wildchip, where any chip-sounding songs can be entered - I opted for a 400hz (standard clock rate is 60hz) NSF+, 2A03 (base NES sound chip) and N163 (eight channels of wavetable synthesis)If I wanted to describe any one song as "the greatest work I've done so far", Sawblade Precipice would probably fit the bill. It's certainly the most chutzpah I've ever put into a single song. If I'd been clever about conserving ideas, I probably could've made an entire EP out of the various sections in this one track, but ~ i ' m n o t s m a r t ~
The first section begins on this conversation since this first section began on G# major, and I'd already written the main motif which starts in C minor:
[01/06/2014 14:17:45] Jack Harrington: Hertzy, challenge
[01/06/2014 14:19:07] Jack Harrington: G# - A6 - G# - A - ________________________ - Cm
[01/06/2014 14:19:15] Jack Harrington: try and fill in the blanks
[01/06/2014 14:19:21] HertzDevil: what is this
[01/06/2014 14:19:34] Jack Harrington: I'm stuck on how to turn G# into Cm
[01/06/2014 14:19:45] HertzDevil: G# - A6 - G# - A - 8==================D - Cm
[01/06/2014 14:20:05] Jack Harrington: I didn't think you'd ever dare to stoop so low but there it goes
[01/06/2014 14:20:13] Jack Harrington: Your reputation is now ruined in my eyes
[01/06/2014 14:20:42] HertzDevil: (^)(handshake)(^)
[01/06/2014 14:21:01] Jack Harrington: seriously though I'm not sure what to do
[01/06/2014 14:21:24] Jack Harrington: I'd ♥♥♥♥ around in HookTheory but it's too obtuse for someone as unknowledgable as me to use freely
[01/06/2014 14:23:38] HertzDevil: okay
[01/06/2014 14:23:54 | Edited 14:25:05] HertzDevil: G# - A6 - G# - A - Dm7b5 - G+ - G - Cm(M7)/9 - Cm
and this section ends on the first static burst (which I honestly use too much to signify section transitions).
The following section, the main motif where the kicks and the weird sound effects come in, is the part I wrote first (the C minor part). Following both my completion of the intro and this section, I needed to continue on somehow, so I did what every lazy composer does and transposed it down while changing a few things.
I guess the next part is the one I'm least happy about, because it attempts to emulate EDM/trance/whatever genre does the generic sidechain pumping thing. Not much to say here. I think the last few seconds of this, where the bass goes up a few steps and settles at Bb, was taken from Do I Wanna Know (craaawliiing baaack tooo youuuuu).
The part after that is the recovery, where I start to put in a few original ideas for chord progression and calm down the track in general. You might notice that the final octave arpeggio (F5-F4) doesn't cleanly fade out, because the 2A03 only has fifteen levels of volume, and they're quite non-linear (I think compared to 0 being no volume and 15 being highest volume, 1 is about 20% volume?). The arp transitions from F major to D minor, major to relative minor.
Fun fact: I stole some of the clicky samples used in this minor segment from a compo I entered earlier, called NSFMANIA. I mess with the speed near the end, and reprise the glitchy sound I use at the start. I have no idea how I transitioned from D minor to G minor to C minor again. Variation on ii-V-I?
I always end my songs on as gradual a fadeout as I can because I'm too wimpy to end them any other way.
that block of text was not interesting
Posted: October 29th, 2014, 5:54 am