Grey, this is a mecchina magnifica. Sticky it. Anyway, this is the composer's lounge- where post any kind of small trick, hint, tutorial or anything that we find on the internet or make ourselves. Discussion on a song's lifetime, from early idea drawn on graph paper, to its creation as a MIDI. Soon enough, I'll post a very large part of the source code of my DerpBit song, which is the free VST, the soundfont, and the base that I had, with the soundfont being the only thing I never used. Write the history of a few songs in pretty interesting detail and post it here. No limits. Honestly, this can be a good idea. Time to write a theme, even though I have something that'll fit in perfectly, but never made.
My model is Beethoven - I try to behave like him while I think about a melody. I imagine it, rather than play it, and then compose it as nearly as possible to that. While I haven't yet exposed any of my work, I plan to. I mostly do Guitar riffs, piano medleys and some violin here and there, though they suck in sounds.
Things I've learned: -Once you get a good beat pretty much anything can sound good with it. -The song can sound crap but as long as it's EQ'd right it'll sound quality. -Midis are evil. Convenient, but pure evil. -Never get caught in that sea of reverb [unless it's what you're aiming for]. -Mixing and Equalizing, learn it and use it well. -Once you work your way into knowing your software well enough to the point where you can emulate any sort of sound, composing can be a helluva lot more fun. -Breaking away from making midi loops to composing a set piece that's dynamic, living and breathing is hard but feels better in the long run. [ctrl+c, ctrl+v, etc] -Sine waves are overrated. So is sidechaining. They're both used to excess nowadays it seems. If you can make good music without being dependent on those, you're awesome. -Sometimes a little vinyl hiss or tape noise sounds good in the mix. Or anything that keeps the song from sounding like a hifi laptop midi. -A lot of subtle ambience or noise that listeners either can't hear or aren't concerned about can actually add a lot of depth and personality to a track. -Gain and volume are a lot different... think of the gain level as someone's voice, the higher it is, the more they're shouting, and the lower it is the more they're whipsering. The volume is simply how loud it is. [I try to keep away from using loud whispers or quiet screams, ifyuknowwhatimsayin.] -EQing is a lot like a puzzle, no two tracks really have the same frequencies boosted/bypassed and whatnot. Each track is like a puzzle piece and they each have their own place. [My theory, of course.] -Never compare yourself to others, and never set expectations for yourself, as it will only lead to loss of motivation and failure. -The music you make can have a lot to do with your approach to music, whether it be some kid who got inspired by Soulja Boy to drag and drop loops in GarageBand or a man who's always been fascinated by sound theory and implements his studies into music using reel-to-reel tape or something. -It can also have to do with your influence. The wider range of music you're influenced by the better, I think. Something about it seems legit. -Sometimes when you feel truly drained of any motivation, a break from technology can help. Wow, that dragged on longer than I though...
