Saturday Update! (Patreon)

Hello folks!

It's finally Saturday and I've finally had some time to sit down and work properly.

It still wasn't a fully productive week [ I'm still settling in, building ikea furniture, chores like that ] but it did feel more normal at least.

I started the week off by rewatching the first two thirds of the instructional video on Ableton [ the music program I bought ] and watching the last third for the first time. I remembered it being 6 hours long but it was actually 8.5 hours LMAO so I broke that up over 2 days.

It did really help to get me back into the mindset of making music though. The last part of the video was super helpful too! I mainly learned about using an LFO [ Low Frequency Oscillator ].

And this thing is complicated but VERY WORTH IT. In the picture, I have it set to 'random' which means that orange line is changing randomly [ see, it kind of looks like a city skyline there? ] but you can control how that line looks in lots of ways and how fast it changes. It always keeps moving so the output keeps changing.

It doesn't do anything by itself, but you can map it [ attach it ] to ANY part of an instrument track. You could map it to volume so the volume of the track keeps going up and down, or you could map it to frequency, so it changes from high to low sound. The reason this is so cool is that you can take something like a track that keeps playing the exact same notes with the exact same length and make it sound a lot less robotic. By changing the frequency a bit with each note, it'll sound more like a human is performing it. You could also just make insane sound wobbling and stuff too- very powerful tool LMAO

I feel like I'm becoming fairly comfortable with the program. I'm actually toggling and changing things with intent and knowledge, rather than just turning knobs and seeing what they do. I'm obviously no expert, but I think I've reached a solid novice level understanding of how the program works.

But that's only half the equation. The other half is understanding how MUSIC works, which feels harder to me. The video did help me learn beginner concepts, like what a chord progression is, and how to choose notes that compliment each other and stuff... but I feel like getting better at Music is just something I need to practice. I don't think it's the same as learning how a program works, I just need to find my artistic style.

The guy who made the video gave some advice at the end. He said that you should crank out music pieces quickly instead of trying to make the perfect track. As a visual artist, I strongly see the value of this. I know I improved the most in my art when I forced myself to draw a lot of pictures [ like working on a comic or game ], allowing some of them to be shitty and having to move on to the next one. So I think I should apply the same logic to music, at least for the first month of the 2 months I'll be allowing myself to work on the audio.

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So, I made a plan this week. I used the time I had to actually make things to create 3 lööps. I mean loops. I tried not to dwell too long on any of them, and just cranked something out.

Those 3 loops are attached to the bottom of this post.

Here's where you come in, if you like! I'd like some people to give them them a listen [ don't worry, they're just loops so they're quite short ]. Each recording goes through the loop twice so you can get a feel for how it loops.

I was hoping you guys could vote on which one you like best! Then, I can use that one to practice my songbuilding next week- I'll build a full song around that loop.

All of this is just for practice reasons for now, so I don't expect to use any of this in the game, but of course I'll be open to it if people really like something LMAO

So- if you're interested, please comment under this post with which .mp3 you liked the best! [ they're labelled 1, 2, and 3 ] And of course thank you in advance for your help!

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Sorry for the text wall LMAO This is what the kids are referring to as 'yapping' now isn't it? I've been yapping too much.

Anyway, I hope I can get more done next week. I'm still settling into a proper work routine again but I'm getting there! My windows are gonna be replaced on Tuesday so my office won't be so damn cold LMAO

And one last thing- I've been feeling scared a lot lately. I assume some of you have too. I just wanted to say that if you feel alone, you aren't. I can't say I won't be scared any more, but I can say I won't let it change me or rob me of compassion. That's all.

Let's take it one day at a time! See you next week!