Maybe I should call this a "Weekly" discussion instead of a specific day of the week. It always felt odd to me to post in the "Friday hangout" after Friday, but I know some people did.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Synthesizers
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I would +1 this idea. It feels specific to a day when it's titled that way to me too.
I recently joined a game development team that is in need of tons of different types of music. Level tracks, OST, action tunes.
Any tips on managing such a big project would be greatly appreciated. I haven't done this before and am very much a hobbyist musician. I mainly use Ableton Live.
Make sure level tracks easily loop and provide the correct atmosphere to the game. They should be unobstrusive and leave the frequencies for SFX available.
Make sure SFX integrate in the bgm.
Looping isn't necessarily the only answer. I really liked Dune 2's approach - basically shuffling through a pool of chill music when nothing much is happening, and then interrupting with one of a few "attack" tracks when combat starts. I think it kinda depends on how long levels/missions are - one looped track will eventually get old no matter how careful you are to avoid distracting/annoying parts.
The way I am thinking I’m going to implement this is create a chill track and an active track that play in sync. Then switch to the active one if something happens.
I'm in a similar boat as a solo indie dev making my own soundtrack along with everything else. I've made one game soundtrack before, but that's not enough to really feel like I know what I'm doing.
I frequently make tables and checklists to keep track of progress on things, i.e. different stages of completion like:
- Sketch (a rough theme and maybe some accompanying parts)
- Mockup (arranging A/B sections and so forth but they're just copy/pasted with no variation)
- Draft (got the general idea of the variations and full arrangement, but not polished)
- Beta (mostly final probably, but need to check it on different speakers and probably tweak the mix/master)
- Release candidate (I think I'm done)
In the later stages I'll take notes as I listen through looking for the things that stand out most I want to change, then go back and work on those things one by one. I might also have a checklist of things I want to be sure to pay attention to on every track, i.e. making sure there's enough variation in percussion parts across the track, because I have a bad habit of making simple drum loops and forgetting to spice it up if I don't have that reminder.
Thanks, that’s helpful
I like the idea of this weekly thread for general discussion. Would we want to do a similar post each week (maybe month depending on interest) for users to post whatever they might be working on? Interesting sounds, cool beats, full songs, whatever. I think it would be cool to have a focus on what these various boxes and dials do and why we all like them so much.
Anyone got a sampletrek? Think this unit is a bit of underrated as a central recording and song composition device. I mean it looks a bit funny but the clips and global tracks and the slicing seems pretty good. Sure switching to an MPC one is not far off but it seems even the small monitor is something that I like.
I’ve been on the fence multiple times. It seams really appealing.
Especially used once at around 340 are really attractive right now to get the dawless setup going. Electribe 2 is a bit annoying to sample long phrases. I stopped myself by just saying BItwig is totally fine for this with the akai apc mini.
Yeah but while I like the idea of dawless, after all this time (and money) spent on it I still don’t have any decent music. That’s all from 99% daw 😕 so I guess it’s just not for me.
I do all of the song structure and stuff in DAW and made most tracks that ended up on a album in it. However I prefer jammng on hardware as I already stare at that screen all day :D Also the limitation lets me focus on one or two machines. DAW is distraction hell for me.
Quick one... Really itching to get a push 3 for couch jamming and taking to practices. I'm really getting tired of lugging multiple synthesizers or laptop accessories.
That price tag though, oof
I've found that standalone is hard to justify. Yeah the idea is fun but this has been my experience:
- The push 3 is heavy and warm. Playing it on my lap isn't comfortable. (Though we're going through a heat wave at the moment so that might contribute to that dislike)
- I've brought it to a friend a few times, but that bag I used would have easily fit a laptop.
MPE is a lot of fun though and actually unlocks so many new tricks. My slides have never sounded this "natural" compared to a programmed slide.
@ChappIO Yeah, I've heard that the push is heavy and gets hot. I think for #2, my use case is not having to bring all of the necessary accessories that I would with a laptop - Get to ditch the audio interface, keyboard if I want to really pair down etc. But then, the battery life isn't nearly as good. Lots of things to weigh....
I decided to keep the SH-4D, mostly for drum/percussion sounds.
I've ripped out all the percussion tracks from most of my music of the past few years after hearing that Splice allegedly doesn't vet their samples properly, and confirming that their terms of service include a "use at your own risk" clause to avoid any responsibility on their end.
I do have other trustworthy sources of samples, but redoing so much is a daunting task and I wanted something portable and fun to help me get through it. The SH-4D's interface isn't my favorite, but it's got a good amount of hands-on tweakability and I honestly can't find a better drum machine for the price, even if that's not its primary purpose. I'm sure I'll make use of the synth parts too eventually.
I found it a really interesting concept too and it looks nice.
Sounds great to me as well.
I like the idea!
Agreed, the weekly threads are definitely part of the community livelihood.
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