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every morning i wake up at 4:20 a.m. and eat one slice of uncooked white bread slathered with a full stick of butter. i then pace the living room counter-clockwise while chanting “here is my handle, here is my spout” 37 times. as i do this, i reflect upon each and every one of my filthy sins, begging forgiveness from the Great Trout™ above. finally, i proceed directly to the toilet, where the music comes right ou

*cough* excuse me! well, i could swear i’ve answered this question in some capacity before, but i can’t find the old ask. SO! consider this your official:

[depicted: red and yellow comic sans text over a gaudy pink and blue background, which reads: “how BEATRIX makes MUS-ATR-ICS post!!!(™)”]

1. THE PROGRAM

[depicted: one of my projects in REAPER]

for all my music, i use REAPER for production. it is absolutely an oddball choice, and when i tell other music producers that they sort of do a double-take. that said, of all the programs i’ve tried, i just happened to end up using this one so much that i got really proficient with it. it’s not shiny, it’s DEFINITELY not the most user-intuitive in many ways, and it honestly isn’t even really built for the kind of music i make—but it’s hella cheap, flexible, and gets the job done. so there we are!

if i had to make any recommendation for any other program, it’d easily be Ableton Live. it’s quite a bit more expensive than REAPER, but its workflow is heavenly and it has phenomenal built-in effects. plus, it is built with live performance in mind, through and through, so it’s great if you’re the type who wants to DJ or do anything similar.

about 95% of my music is made “in the box,” meaning i don’t record any physical sound, with the exception of vocals and the occasional guitar bit. the rest is all either A) synthesizers, B) samples, or C) virtual (sampled) instruments. let’s break that down!

2. THE SYNTHS

[depicted: a collage of my go-to synthesizers, listed below]

aka, them things what make the bleeps ‘n’ bloops. i have several go-tos, most of which are free, and one of which is very much not but is TOTALLY worth the money. they are:

MASSIVE. this is the big one that costs money ($150), but it is also my favorite synth, bar none. while it historically has a reputation of being “For Dubstep™” (remember that genre?), it is way more versatile than that; i’ve used it to make everything from your typical pads and chiptune bleeps to stuff like drum hits, sound effects like thunder and birds tweeting, and even realistic guitars (!!!). i can’t recommend it more.

Synth1. this is my favorite freebie! it’s a rather utilitarian looking thing, and it isn’t particularly flexible, but it has a wonderful analog sound. i find myself using it for pads and strings all the time because its detuning is delicious.

T-Force Alpha Plus. another great free one. this one is specifically designed with trance music in mind, but like Massive it’s more versatile than it lets on. i mostly use this one for pads and plucks.

FAMISYNTH-II. chip(tune)s ahoy! i love, love, LOVE this synth. it’s meant to mimic the synth sounds of the NES (aka FAMICOM, hence the name). it’s absolutely perfect for making classic early 90s style 8-bit (and 4-bit!) sounds. i would say at least 75% of the synths you hear in my tracks for SLARPG are made with this lil guy.

tweakbench peach. of course, when FAMISYNTH doesn’t cut it, peach saves the day. this teensy plugin goes even more retro with arcade sounds that could have come from the late 70s/early 80s. it’s not quite as flexible, but most of its sounds are perfect on their own. tweakbench also has quite a few other synths that do a great job filling weird niches, so be sure to check them out!

Drumatic 4. this is a super intuitive, relatively inexpensive drum synthesizer! you won’t get modern EDM sounds out of this, but it’s great for old Casio-like analog sounds. this is what i used for the “cymbal” sounds in my tracks for SLARPG.

honorable mentions: Bleep’, MiniMogueVA, Lokomotiv, and DSK ChoirZ. these are all free, and i have used all of them in my published songs—they simply either aren’t my crutches or have very specific uses for me. still, all great and worth checking out!

3. THE SAMPLES

[depicted: a closeup of drum tracks from SLARPG’s Main Battle Theme]

while i synthesize my own drums and fill effects once in a blue moon, these things are not my strong suit, and that is where pre-made samples come into play. the good news is that free sample packs are E V E R Y W H E R E. while i have a gazillion samples that come from all over the place, here are some resources to get you started:

bedroom producers blog

MusicRadar

freesound

http://www.drumsamples.org/

99Sounds

Attack Magazine (check their “Beat Dissected” section under Technique for tutorials with free samples!)

and if you’re interested, here are some packs that are staples of mine, in no particular order:

JM Epic Drum Sample Library

MusicRadar 1,000 Drum Samples

MusicRadar “Real World” Drum Samples —used HEAVILY in my cover of “Love Like You.”

blips glitch samples

Roland TR-606, TR-808 and TR-909 sample packs (classic!)

Commodore 64 samples —these are all over SLARPG!

Markus Hakala’s All-In-One Kicks —i literally use these in every kick drum i build. —i’m not kidding. every. single. one.

300 Drum Breaks

Mapex M Toms by PhilR

JayB’s Effects and Electro Toms

ATOM SPLITTER AUDIO Games and 8-bit Kit Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Henry Homesweet’s Essential Chip Sounds

of course, there’s samples, and then there’s sampled instruments—virtual instruments that work by playing from a huge selection of recorded samples. that brings us to:

4. THE INSTRUMENTS

here’s where, unfortunately, we get into stuff that costs money. of course, there are *ahem* other ways of obtaining these instruments, but i wouldn’t know anything about that… *eyes dart back and forth shiftily*

at any rate, there’s not much to say about these—they pretty much do what you would expect them to. here are my go-to virtual instruments!

Piano: Native Instruments’ The Giant, The Gentleman, The Grandeur

Keys: Scarbee Mark I

Bass: Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass, Scarbee Pre-Bass, Orangetree Cherry Electric Bass

Chimes: Orangetree Grand Kalimba, SonicCouture Array Mbira, 8dio Music Box, 8dio Seahorse

Guitar: Orangetree Evolution Strawberry (electric)

Drums: Superior Drummer 2.0, Addictive Drums

with all of these resources combined, all that’s left is putting everything together! which leaves us with…

5. DOING THE THING

…alright, so actually going into my process for arranging/mixing tracks could easily take not one, but DOZENS of separate posts if you really wanted me to break it down. instead, here are some general tips based on things that help me when taking on a project:

LISTEN AT MODERATE VOLUMES. seriously. this is like, Rule Number One. there are two big reasons for this: 1. the Fletcher-Munson effect. in short, the louder a sound source is, the more our ears perceive all the frequencies of that sound as equal. this is why music sounds better louder. but that’s just the problem! if you’re mixing your song at a loud volume, A) it’s going to sound better than it actually is and B) you’re not going to have the most accurate idea of how your mix is sounding. 2. your poor ears! ears fatigue really easily, and listening at high volumes for extended periods of time contributes to hearing loss. our ears naturally lose hearing with age, and hearing loss of any kind is generally permanent, so protect your ears and turn! that! shit! down!

listen to music like what you want to make. a LOT. i can’t stress this enough. you won’t get far with music operating in a bubble! whatever your style, listen to artists who are making the kind of music you want to make, as much as possible. have a song idea that’s reminiscent of someone else’s song that you like? use that as a reference as you work on your mix! stuck on what to do with an arrangement? listen to other artists and figure out what worked for them! the key here is listening critically: don’t just listen for enjoyment, really pay attention to what went into the production of that song. what makes that bass line so funky? how are the drums defining the song’s groove? how is the arrangement supporting the lead vocal/instrument? by listening critically to other peoples’ work, you will be able in turn to apply those critical skills to your own work, which is CRUCIAL to improving yourself.

split your project into organized sections. for me, i almost always group my arrangements the same way: drums/percussion, vocals, lead instruments, rhythm section, sound effects, send effects (e.g. reverb, delay, etc) — in that order. sometimes that varies depending on the style or arrangement of the song, and you may find that a different scheme works better for you. what’s important is that you find a setup that allows you to easily manage and navigate your projects so that you don’t get lost when you rack up dozens of tracks (or, in my case, up to 100).

keep each instrument in its own distinct range of notes. one of my biggest mistakes when i first started arranging music was having too many parts playing in the same range of notes. this makes it really difficult to distinguish one instrument from another and leads to a lot of headaches when the time comes to mix the track. you can avoid this by keeping your bass line well below the rhythm instruments, having each rhythm instrument playing a different and relatively narrow range of notes, and arranging your rhythm tracks around the lead vocal/instrument so that the melody isn’t overpowered by other elements of the song. there are exceptions to this rule, of course, like when you’re layering or blending different sounds together—but until you’re proficient enough with arranging and mixing to be really conscientious about it, it’s best to stray away from this.

don’t get too wrapped up in mixing before the arrangement is done. of all the traps i’ve fallen into, this is one i still need to work on. if you can, try to arrange your songs completely—start to finish—BEFORE you touch effects like EQ, compression, reverb, etc. once everything is laid out, then move on to mixing. for one thing, this helps motivate you to finish writing the whole track, instead of procrastinating by working on the mix when you get stuck (guilty, constantly). for another, this prevents the massive headache that is “mixing yourself into a corner.” in short, mixing as you go, you can easily make choices that don’t end up working for the full arrangement, because—well, you weren’t done arranging the song yet! this leads to a lot of backtracking and undoing things and just makes everything take longer. believe me, i’ve done this more times than i can count. just… don’t.

when it comes to effects, less is more. always ask yourself: why am i adding this effect? does this track need it? will it work with the rest of the mix? not every single thing needs EQ and compression, and when they do, they don’t always need to be slammed with it. likewise, effects like chorus and reverb can really drown out a mix if they’re used overzealously. always A/B (toggle on and off) the effects you add to a track in context with the rest of the tracks, so you have a sense of the difference it’s making on your mix. if you turn the effect off and find out that the mix sounds better without it, then it’s time to ditch that effect or tweak it so that it fits better!

TRUST YOUR EARS. above everything else. don’t trust advice articles telling you to use These Exact Settings on your compressors, or Boost These Frequencies And Cut Those Frequencies on your piano/guitar/vocals/cowbell, because shut up Becky, this stuff all depends on the song and how the tracks were recorded and how they’re going to fit in the mix and what you want the song to sound like and and and and! it’s great to look toward tutorials and the like for tips on EQ/compression/reverb/etc, but always take them with a grain of salt, and use them as guidelines to be altered in whatever way suits your needs. rather than taking the word of someone who hasn’t even heard YOUR song, trust your own ears. if you do something to your mix and a little voice tells you that it makes the song sound worse, listen to that voice!

TAKE BREAKS. like i mentioned earlier: ears fatigue fast. just an hour or two of listening, even at a low volume, is enough to tire out your poor lil’ hearing holes. tired ears are much worse at hearing things accurately, meaning that the mix decisions you make in this state will be based off a faulty idea of how your track is sounding. plus, over-listening is another contributing factor to hearing loss. give yourself some time to sit in silence periodically! your ears and your music will thank you for it. and lastly, in the words of one of my former professors:

“these are tools, not rules… fools!” in other words, just as there are no “rules” to making art, there are no “rules” in making audio either! sure, there are definitely standard techniques and conventions that are ubiquitous in music production (having the kick, bass, and vocals all centered, for example). but ultimately, how do YOU want your music to sound? when you have the answer to that question, don’t feel wrong for breaking the conventions to make your vision a reality. does making this instrument clip until it distorts give it a wicked sound? go for it! does this drum kit sound killer when you absolutely squash its dynamic range? why not! as long as it benefits your overall sound, anything goes. just, you know, don’t go breaking anything expensive. ;^)

idk how tf to answer this and i didn’t wanna google it so here you go i asked actual musicians. who are people that aren’t me.

1) use highpass filters. everywhere. what i like to do is use a spectrum analyzer (most EQ plugins have this built in), find the lowest note that each track is playing, and do a sharp cut just below that. this is a little more straightforward with melodic instruments than it is with drums; with those, i typically play it by ear.

i also do this on the bass track and kick drum. often that just means cutting everything below 20-30hz, because a vast majority of sound systems can’t audibly produce those frequencies, and it frees up headroom in the mix (the exception being when your bass/kick are REALLY deep). sometimes, though, i’ll cut things higher—for example, if the bulk of the kick is around 100hz and the bass is lower, i’ll cut the kick drum around that frequency so it doesn’t mask the bass.

(it’s good to use a linear phase EQ to do this, as that produces much fewer artifacts on your tracks.)

2) pay attention to the lower parts of your arrangement. what i mean is instruments that play the lowest notes and frequencies: kick, bass, rock guitars, dubstep wobbles—whatever tracks whose strongest frequencies are around 400 Hz and below. in addition to highpassing, you’ll want to EQ these tracks in such a way that there isn’t too much buildup in these lower frequencies.

for example, say you’ve got a bass track, and an instrument that’s playing notes in the 100-250 Hz range. in this situation, it might be good to “scoop” out the 100-250 Hz range of the bass track, so that A) you have less buildup in that range of frequencies and B) those notes of the higher instrument can ring out more clearly.

it’s also good to be critical of your musical arrangement in general. if you’ve got several different instruments playing low notes, things are going to sound muddy because—well, you’ve got too much going on down there from the start! keep your bass a bass, and give a decent amount of musical “space” between different parts (i.e., not having the notes of one instrument overlapping too much with another, unless you’re layering those instruments to combine their sounds).

3) use sidechain compression. this is a little more complicated if you aren’t familiar with the technique, but basically it involves having one sound trigger compression on another track. by far the most common application of this is having the kick drum trigger compression on the bass, so that the bass volume is lowered each time the kick hits.

this allows the kick to punch through more and prevents the two from interfering with one another. and, once more, this has the added benefit of preventing too much buildup in the range of frequencies that those two instruments share.

of course, you can also use this effect more broadly; i usually have the kick and snare compress the rhythm section of my tracks in general, just enough that it lets the drums punch through, but not so much that it’s too noticeable (unless that’s what i’m going for).

(this effect is used frickin everywhere in electronic music btw—it’s where that cool ‘pumping’ effect comes from.)

4) mastering EQ. chances are, even when you’ve done your best in the mix to keep things from getting muddy, you might still need to add a little polish so that it really sounds clean. if you’re mastering your own music, export your mix, open the rendered audio as a separate project, and use some gentle EQ to tidy things up. linear phase EQ is a must here, because it does less to “color” your track’s sound (unless that’s what you’re going for).

every mix is a little different, so take any suggestion about what frequencies to cut with a grain of salt or three. with a the help of a spectrum analyzer (if you need it), use your ears to pinpoint where the muddiness is coming from, and cut those frequencies.

the key here is to be gentle—use a decently wide bandwidth, and try not to cut more than 1-3dB. if you find yourself cutting more than that, or you find a problem area in a more narrow range of frequencies, it might be time to go back to your mix and examine what’s causing the issue. music production is often a “garbage in, garbage out” art, so the better you can make things earlier on, the better the end result will be.

Inspired by my time two years ago at Fresh Inc, I wanted to talk a little bit about introducing pieces in concerts.  There is some actual skill to doing it and it takes some practice!

Fresh Inc Festival http://freshincfestival.com/

Fifth House Ensemble http://fifth-house.com/

Support me on Patreon! https://goo.gl/nRFDqD

THX Just Shared the Original Sheet Music for its ‘Deep Note’ for the First Time

Sorry for the break guys! I was off at Game Developers Conference for a week or so. Definitely was the time of my life! Shout out to my Conference Associate family! 

Here we go back on track!

TWO tracks in one day? Oh man, it’s time for a double dose of Minimalist Impressions of Zelda Music!

Tracks 6 & 7: Riding (Day and Night)

Genre: Impressionism, Minimalism

Featured Instruments: Piano, Strings

Compositional Techniques: Pointillism, Thematic Usage

Takeaways for Composers: Hiding famous melodies in the middle of new content is a great way to get listeners to associate with and accept new genres.

Takeaways for Developers: Blending new and old within the context of music allows for easy, natural progression in game music.

I have to say, riding a horse is incredibly satisfying in Breath of the Wild. There’s something really awesome about finding a horse in the wild, taming it and finally riding off into the distance. You also get to name it.

What did I name mine?

Chad.

His name is Chad.

how to practice: a short guide

what you’ll need:

-your instrument

-a pencil, because you better mark things in your music

-a metronome. always work SLOWLY with the metronome. subdivide and make sure that you’re playing with it and not getting off the beat.

-a tuner, unless you play piano you lucky duck

-a scale book, etude book, and some repertoire

-nice to have: something to record yourself. whether you’re working on posture or listening to your tone quality. a mirror is especially good for checking posture.

1. do your fucking scales. I don’t care what instrument you play, how often you think you do your scales, how well you think you do your scales. there is always more. you don’t already play scales? add ten minutes of one octaves scales into your routine. sort of already do scales? do two octaves. three. this includes g flat major. do scales in thirds. do scales in tenths. harmonics, if that applies to you. you already do scales a lot? try left hand pizzicato. start the scale quietly and crescendo. make your scales musical.focus on tone quality or speed. there is always, always room for improvement.

2. do your etudes. maybe start with an easy one to warm your fingers up, and then do the one you hate. actually practice it. mark in the accidentals. write in fingerings. work with a metronome.

3. do your ensemble music. work specifically on the difficult parts. time is limited, so it’s best to skip the really easy melodic part you can play in your sleep and go straight for the sixteenth notes. 

4. work on your repertoire. again, do the difficult parts first, and if it’s a solo, you want to be confident with all of it, so practice thoroughly (which means painfully slow but beneficial metronome practice and writing a lot in your music)

5. look at some fun music/improvise. playing an instrument is difficult but it should still be something you enjoy and have fun with.

general practice tips:

-use your frifkvrn metronome please

-always, ALWAYS mark things in your music. if you make a mistake on a passage more than three times, write something. if you consistently make mistakes or feel uncomfortable playing one of the measures, circle it, and every time you play that piece, look at that measure first and really spend time on it.

-listen to the pieces you’re playing before you start practicing them so you have an idea of what they’re supposed to sound like. in your free time, listen to the pieces you’re working on and internalize it so you can easily tell if you’re playing something out of rhythm or out of tune

-record yourself. you might think you’re playing very well, but the recording usually begs to differ. likewise, you might actually be playing great, but once you listen to yourself from an outside perspective, you might want to change some of your phrasing or the dynamics

-don’t always start practicing at the beginning of your pieces. sometimes it’s good to start from the end and work backwards, or specifically target the passages that are difficult if you don’t have a lot of time

-take breaks, and be very aware of if you’re playing with too much tension or feel pain after practicing. do NOT power through pain. 

-try to aim for around an hour a day. I think it’s a good goal for most instruments. I also think that an hour of consistent, focused practice would be enough for high school-aged musicians or anyone who wants to be a competent player in an ensemble

-make practice a habit. it’s like exercise. you might not look it at first, but eventually it becomes kind of addicting and you’ll actually find yourself wanting to do it.

■ Maria Szymanowska (born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, December 14, 1789 – July 25, 1831, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in St. Petersburg. In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon.

Clarinet in E-flat by Theodore Berteling, Musical Instruments

Medium: Ivory, nickel-silver, rosewood

Rogers Fund, 1982 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Because of how well the Chopin Squad post did, I humbly present,

The Shostakovich Protection Squad.

Most composers spend just 10-12ish weeks working on a film’s music. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, 40ish weeks total for the whole OT……but composing the LOTR trilogy’s soundtrack took four years

The vocals you hear in the soundtrack are usually in one of Tolkien’s languages (esp. Elvish). The English translations of the lyrics are all poems, or quotes from the book, or occasionally even quotes from other parts of the films that are relevant to the scene

When there were no finished scenes for him to score, Howard Shore would develop musical themes inspired by the scripts or passages from the book. That’s how he got all Middle-Earth locations have their own unique sound: he was able to compose drafts of “what Gondor would sound like” and “what Lorien would sound like” long before any scenes in those places were filmed

Shore has said his favorite parts to score were always the little heartfelt moments between Frodo and Sam

Shore wrote over 100 unique leitmotifs/musical themes to represent specific people, places, and things in Middle Earth (over 160 if you count The Hobbit)

The ones we all talk about are the Fellowship theme, the main Shire Theme, and the themes for places like Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, and Rivendell…but a lot of the more subtle ones get overlooked and underappreciated

Like Aragorn’s theme. It’s a lot less “obvious” than the others because, like Aragorn himself, it adapts to take on the color of whatever place Aragorn is in: it’s played on dramatic broody stringed instruments in Bree, on horns in  battle scenes, softly on the flute with Arwen in Rivendell….

Eowyn has not just one but three different leitmotifs to represent her

Gollum and Smeagol both have their own leitmotifs! Whose theme music is playing in the scene can often tell you whether the Gollum or Smeagol side is “winning” at the moment

The melody for Gollum’s Song in the end credits of the The Two Towers is the Smeagol and Gollum themes smushed together (it’s Symbolic)

And then there’s the really obscure ones. Like there’s a melody that plays at Boromir’s death that shows up again in ROTK in scenes that foreshadow a major death or loss

Wikipedia actually has a list of these leitmotifs, click this link and scroll down to check it out if you’re bored

Shore wanted the theme music to grow alongside the characters– so that as the characters changed, their theme music would change with them.  

You can hear that most clearly in the Shire theme. Like the hobbits, it goes through A Lot 

Like compare the childish lil penny whistle theme you hear in Concerning Hobbits/the beginning of FOTR with (throws a dart at random Beautiful Tragic Hobbit Character Development scene because there WAY TOO MANY to choose from) the scene when Pippin finds Merry on the battlefield, where you hear a kind of shattered and broken but more mature version of that same theme in the background 

I could write you a book on how much I love the way the Shire theme grows across the course of these films 

Unlike the hero’s themes, which constantly change and grow, the villain’s themes (The One Ring theme, the Isengard theme, etc) remain basically the same from the very beginning of FOTR to the end of ROTK. Shore said this was an intentional choice: to emphasize that evil is static, while good is capable of change