Tune Contest, May 3rd - June ?

Started by Sluggo, Sat 03/05/2003 05:02:40

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scotch

Hmm limits again, as you might have noticed some people don't use traditional instruments in their compositions.. a theme would be better imo ._.

Trapezoid

Furthermore, some people (not me, but...) don't have MIDI sequencers and prefer to compose with an acoustic guitar or whatnot.
In my case, I have midi versions of those instruments, but they'll probably sound like crap.

EldKatt

It's a bunch of quotes and comments. Enjoy.
Quote from: Trapezoid on Mon 30/06/2003 08:24:00
I can't believe this is still going on... It's almost July for crying out loud! Finish it up and start a new, interesting one!

Actually I really liked the rules of this one. Plus I already made something for it. :P

Quote from: Trapezoid on Mon 30/06/2003 21:26:46
So whoever chooses the next comp's rules, make 'em good!

These were, in my opinion, good.

Quote from: Geoffkhan on Tue 01/07/2003 18:53:10
BTW, what do you mean by modal? Technically all scales are modal.

In this case at least, modal means using church modes. Play your piano with only the white keys and you've got all the church modes.

Quote from: Trapezoid on Tue 01/07/2003 19:12:47
Furthermore, some people (not me, but...) don't have MIDI sequencers and prefer to compose with an acoustic guitar or whatnot.
In my case, I have midi versions of those instruments, but they'll probably sound like crap.

I compose using pencil and paper and Sibelius when I'm feeling lazy. And I don't care if midi sounds like crap because my music is made for performance... MIDI is just a system for hearing what you've done before you tell someone to play it. ;D

Gregjazz

Archangel: Yeah, that's probably true that the bassoon would muddy it up. Though, I once made a jazz song that used a bassoon (about an octave below mid C) as the lead.

How about these rules: Make a song in 7/8. Any style, and instruments.

It's a kind of interesting meter once you get into it, and it certainly is more regular than 4/4 (in my opinion) considering that most modes have 7 tones. That way you can play up and down a scale and by the time you end up at the root, you'll be on the first beat.

Another cool trick with 7/8 is to put the metronome on at about 100 bmp or so, and play through a couple bars. On the first measure the metronome will be on the downbeat, and on the second measure the metronome will be on the upbeat, and so forth. Pretty cool.

Archangel (aka SoupDragon)

Yeah but again with the technical rules. It would be like having a bg blitz with the rule "you may only use the photoshop spraypaint tool". Why not just think of a scene or a character, and let people make their own interpretations?

Gregjazz

Personally, I don't think 7/8 time is much of a limit.

Creativity varies inversely with limitations.

Trapezoid

Nah... 7/8 music just sounds like you're missing a note. Try something else...


Gregjazz

Here's a little sample of a song I made called Straitjacket that's in 7/4. It's based on 12-bar blues chord progression, and sounds great live.

Dig the electric sitar!

http://www.freewebs.com/thefind/74meter.mp3

Trapezoid

I have composed in 7/4 before for part of a song... I guess I could think of something.

EldKatt

Quote from: Archangel on Tue 01/07/2003 21:58:42
Yeah but again with the technical rules. It would be like having a bg blitz with the rule "you may only use the photoshop spraypaint tool". Why not just think of a scene or a character, and let people make their own interpretations?

You can't go that far in comparing composition to all other art forms. It just doesn't work. I have nothing against technical rules like this. Might just be because I actually understand them, though. ;)

Quote from: Geoffkhan on Tue 01/07/2003 22:28:55
Personally, I don't think 7/8 time is much of a limit.

Creativity varies inversely with limitations.

Damn right. That's said to be one of the reasons Schönberg developed twelve-tone technique... it causes you to create stuff you wouldn't even have thought about otherwise.

Trapezoid

All right then. Care to make a new thread?

scotch

You can go that far in comparing, its almost exactly the same.. similar technical rules could be applied to the blitz, I might understand them but I'd still have a problem since it only allows a few people to enter ._. not everyone is an art geek here so we have fun competitions allowing people to practice and learn at whatever level they are at.  And technical rules make little sense in the case of an adventure game music forum.. as Archangel said you compose music for a certain goal most of the time, in this forum that would usually be in making music for a scene in an adventure game.

'You can compose any style of music, but are limited to these instruments:
1. Electric Bass
2. Bassoon
3. Banjo
4. Qu Di (chinese flute)' is dissimilar to any situation you'd find when making an adventure game unless those were the only instruments you had access to and you were making any random bit of music first and then the backgrounds and story etc.

Better rules IMO would be something like:  

This is a scene from a fantasy style adventure game starring a magic moose: make some music to go along with it as he walks through the forest. (You could suggest, but not require some music theory or instruments that might suit the scene).

or if you want to get away from adventure games then the 'Compose some music inspired by a body part' one was good ._.

Just my opinion anyway, I know nothing of music theory..

Trapezoid

#53
The body part example was already done in a previous contest...

Edit: Oh. Well, you used it in the context of a suggestion.

scotch

I know, that's why I said ' the 'Compose some music inspired by a body part' one was good ._.' :)

Sluggo

Hey, you guys had the chance to complain about the rules sometime in March, and nobody said anything. It's not my fault NOBODY has entered. It can't move on until someone enters.

But sereously, what's so hard about these rules? I mean make something that sounds ethnic, that was my goal. The technical stuff (which I thought was pretty limited), just supported it, and if you didn't understand it then making anything that sounded even slightly ethnic would probably adhere to the rules without you even knowing it.

And Trapezoid, I'm really sick of hearing all kinds of crap against theory and technical music stuff. What do you think music is, some unstructured blob of sound? I personally believe that you can't break the rules without mastering them first, so you can go ahead and try, but chances are it will be worthless garbage.

But I also believe you can go overboard with theory (which I don't consider this contest to do).

But now that I think about it, I'd say half the stuff doesn't even apply to whatever kind of rock/metal music you might write. I'm speaking from a classical standpoint (which I feel is one of the few significant kinds of music), so yeah, you can complain about technical stuff in music like rock etc. but for classical or folk or something, it's almost a necessity.

scotch

Heh, I prefer Trap's music over most people's here..

it's not classical though so guess it isn't significant :|

Trapezoid

Right then... Does a Japanese synthesizer count as ethnic...?

Archangel (aka SoupDragon)

#58
Lol ok slug, I think you should listen to trap's music, and then take back your horribly snobbish statements. I may not agree totally with some of what trap says, but he IS a good composer. You instantly assume that he must be a heavy metal artist, because we all know that these damn kids don't put any effort into structuring their "songs".

Edit: listen to Across the Night or Emotion Sickness by Silverchair and tell me those songs don't have any classical value. Now I might love the technical achievement of playing, and even understanding, a piece of Bach or Mozart, but that doesn't stop me from realising that the intellectual side of music is only one part.

Sluggo

Well, I didn't mean to say that music has to be significant. I like listening to fun music that doesn't particularly have much value, but if that was all music was, it would kind of suck.

Archangel quote: "You instantly assume that he must be a heavy metal artist,"
I didn't really assume that. I used the phrase rock/metal because I didn't know what kind of ultraspecific label Trapezoid liked to categorize his music as.
And I have heard his music.
You seem to be the only one making assumptions.


Trapezoid: A synthesizer would be electronic, and not a native ethnic instrument (as in a traditional instrument). Plus synthesizers are used all over the world, so it doesn't even comply to the "ethnic" aspect.

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