I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a large collaborative musical project as a collective? I think it would be a really cool concept to get a bunch of AGSers together (myself included) to put together a series of musical compositions.
Not sure if this would work best creating a composition and having each person add a new musical phrase onto the end of an existing melody, or to have each collaborator write a separate part, functioning as a band of sorts.
Perhaps I didn't explain it too well, but I think you get the idea. Well, anyone interested?
I think Trap's email is a good idea, meaning a bunch of agser's music on a cd?
I'm not sure what your reply meant exactly, but, no I don't mean putting a bunch of AGSers music on a CD. I mean a bunch of AGSers working together on single compositions as a collaborative effort.
I'm not sure how it would turn out... Would we do it like the writing projects, where we pass an MP3 along to eachother?
That's what I was trying to figure out...either one person can start a composition, passing it along to someone else who adds a few more bars, etc., or one person can program drums, another a bassline, etc. etc. passing it back and forth refining parts until a song is built.
Online collaborations between composers have happened, and they're becoming a lot more common these days. It's not too hard to send some mp3s, wavs, or midis back and forth. I think it's doable if we work on it.
I've been working together with DarkStalkey for a while, but we have it a lot easier because we use the same software (Buzz) and can just pass the .bmx files back and forth.
This might be a good idea, but unless it's done in General MIDI or with (basically) electronic music methods that might not be to everybody's liking (a remix chain, so to speak) I'm not sure how we'd do it.
Maybe we could put down a simple drum loop, and each person gets 16 measures to do whatever they want with. It'll probably turn out bizarre, but that's a good thing.
I'm saying lets make an agser cd...
And I'm saying that has nothing to do with this topic really :P
Steady on.
I like this idea anyway, but it would have to be in MIDI for me at least. I'm not half bad at improvisation (although not on-the-spot, live stuff), so yeah why not.
I really like that 16 bar idea!
We could pass around a MIDI file, each of us composing an additional 16 bars to the song. No rules, but just be serious about it. (i.e. keep the drumtrack the same)
This could sound really great.
good idea.... although... I don't have enough time these days
I don't really have any good suggestions, but I know one thing:
Quotepass an MP3 along to eachother
This is a no-no. :) The quality would... well... suck ass when we're finally finished with it. It'd have to be saved in a lossless format.
Well, WAV would be too large. And not enough people can convert OGG. I guess MIDI would have to do, although it'd sacrificing some sonic freedom...
Well, I'm out if you're going to use General MIDI. :)
Not that that would be such a great loss.
Oh, and high-bitrate lossy formats are an option, although obviously lossless compression (Monkey, say) would be better. Definitely nothing below 256 kbps if we were using constant bitrate MP3s, though.
I'm deffinatley up for this passing along the MIDI and adding 16 bars. Sounds like great fun.
But, I would suggest we kept it consistant? as aposed to going from Rock to orchestral - cos then it'd sound like some dumbass medley that comes with Windows. :P
Are you talking about canyon.mid? I kinda like that one.
I like using General Midi these days, just for fun. It really tests your skills trying to make a good-sounding song with terrible-sounding instruments. :)
Constistant or not, just make sure it sounds good.
I could start the song if you want...
Ok. I recommend putting the tempo at 120 bpm, which I consider the most generic tempo.
Okay, who's starting off the ch00n?
m0ds
Here's the first 14 bars of the song. (not counting the empty bar at the beginning) We'll pass it along, each making an additional 14 bars.
It's sort of a funky reggae kinda style. I recommend using a soprano sax for the melody, but then again, that's just my opinion. The whole idea of this project is that we each have are own different inputs in the song, so do whatever you like. Make a polka bridge. Put in a really sick electric guitar solo. Speed up the tempo until it changes from reggae to ska. Whatever.
Good luck!
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/thefind/midicycle.mid (http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/thefind/midicycle.mid)
Ok, but who goes next?
You, if you want to, Trapezoid.
1. Geoffkhan
2. Trapezoid.
I'll be 3.
I'll take the fourth place. M0ds can be fifth.
Ok, I finished my part. Er, should I email it to undergrounling? His email's not listed...
Link it here, as long as we're clear that only undergroundling is working on the next part, I don't see the problem.
Ok. What if someone doesn't have webspace though?
Here: http://www.eviltrailmix.com/midicycle2.mid
Nice bridge, Trapezoid. I like that funky trumpet sound.
This project is turning out rather well!
OK, I'll start working on my part as soon as possible, was away yesterday. Should be done by Monday evening at the latest when I find time to sit down with a MIDI sequencer :P
This song makes me want to learn how to make music... Er, not really, but it sounds really good so far
As my soundcard doesn't have any midi sounds at all I unfortunately can't join this (which btw should be in that other forum, I think).
But I do have an idea for another form of music collaboration, using audio (as opposed to midi, but actually midi could be used as well).
Basically, what we could do is upload loops or melodies in a certain tempo to an ftp or http or something (if someone has the possibility to set one up - I'm afraid I don't). Then we all could use our favorite music program to put those together into complete songs. It would be really really cool to see how the same loops would be part of totally different songs.
What do you think?
If anyone's interested in hosting some webspace (quite a lot would unfortunately be needed), I can organize it all.
Hmmm... I like to stay away from audio, because of the D/L time. I like MIDI because you can learn stuff from other musicians.
Geoffkhan/Trapezoid: What MIDI sequencer(s) do you use? Just out of curiosity.
I've got Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.
Can I do a part too??
I had the wrong idea of this :)
But the downloading times wouldn't have to be too long. In this case mp3 is actually not a problem to use as the compression is only performed once. At a rate of 160kpbs or higher you wouldn't hear the difference (if you say you do I say you lie). A loop would only be a few hundred kb at most. If you're on a slow connection, just use fewer loops.
And you can definately learn things from other musicians with this method as well, only you cannot see exactly what they've done but rather have to use those ears of yours ;)
I'm totally confident about this idea as long as someone can offer some webspace. A good idea would also be some kind of login-system for members as good samples are quite valuable out there...
I got Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 too, and it definitely rocks!
Do they still make Cakewalk Pro Audio 9? I can't seem to find it on the cakewalk website :-[
No idea. There's probably newer versions. In any case, if you just want to do midi Cakewalk Pro Audio is more than you need, there are more stripped down versions that can do midi just as easily...
Hm, I feel slightly ignored in this thread... Well, well I'll probably have to suit myself for not starting a new thread on the subject, which I might just do.
But doesn't anybody have any positive feedback on my idea?
Vartgass: I think your idea could be very interesting, if we could get the webspace, I would be interested in doing that.
Oh, and I'll have my contribution to the midi bit shortly, I've been so busy with work I've hardly had a chance to sit down and write anything, although its all in my head :P
Maybe we could just continue passing the song down the list until you're not so busy, undergroundling?
Yeah, I was going to suggest that. Whoever is next can take over, I'll get back to it when I get the chance. Hopefully the weekend will bring some time for me to compose something.
That means it's Flippy's turn. If he doesn't respond to this soon, I'll PM him and let him know.
Quote from: Vargtass on Tue 15/07/2003 14:09:09
Hm, I feel slightly ignored in this thread... Well, well I'll probably have to suit myself for not starting a new thread on the subject, which I might just do.
But doesn't anybody have any positive feedback on my idea?
I LOVE this idea of uploading a bunch of loops and letting everyone re-sequence to their hearts content. What Tempo should we use? I can bang out dozens of loops.
C.
The best tempo to use would probably just be 120. It's the "standard" tempo, and because its right in the middle of most tempos people would want to record at, it would be easier to timestretch the loop to fit your songs tempos.
We just need some webspace and we can start making loops.
In other news, I may actually be able to complete my part of the midi cycle today, so Flippy, hold off on your part.
Alright.
Ton Undergroundlin and Vargtass:
Lets do this, we'll need to see if we can find some donated web space.
C.
I have some webspace. I even have an upload page thingy... I could try and get it set up.