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Whirlguy

Age 34, Male

Netherlands

Joined on 10/21/03

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Whirlguy's News

Posted by Whirlguy - June 11th, 2022


Happy Picoday! I'm really curious what you guys will be submitting today. If you read this, feel free to promote your Pico Day projects down below! This is not related by the way but a big tank you goes out to whoever frontpaged my new song!



I don't sing in my songs very often and I'm not very confident about my lyrics but I'm really glad I decided to upload this a few days ago. It definitely motivates me to keep it up in the future.


Have a great Pico Day everyone!


Tags:

4

Posted by Whirlguy - February 6th, 2022


Woah I'm user of the day! I'll be honest, after being here for over 18 years I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen. Truly a day to remember, thanks NG haha <3


Tags:

10

Posted by Whirlguy - September 10th, 2019


Holy shit there's some good music on Newgrounds. I'm sure you're already aware of this but I'm talking more than just sweet tunes. In this post I will go through some of my favorite songs and talk about some of the music theory. I will be observing time signatures and perhaps some scales. With a little luck I may discover something cool or learn something new. I will expanding on this list in the future.


This song has Nine Inch Nails written all over it, but it's so much more than an epic moody industrial metal song. The time signatures in this piece are amazing. Jumping from a 5/4 intro to a 2-step rest. Back to 5/4 for the chorus, pausing for 2 bars in a 7/4 signature ambience and moving into a 7/4 verse. After the verse there's a 6/4 switch to the bridge, a 4-step rest, a 5/4 chorus, another 2-step rest and that's where it gets even more interesting! The song continues in a steady 7/4, where it somehow re-introduces the intro (5/4) and chorus (5/4) without sounding weird at all. On top of that it's all written in the odd scale of D#-Phrygian and to top it all off the lyrics and mixing are great. Damn, this piece is nothing short of amazing.


In truth, this song is entirely in 4/4 but many of the instruments play in 3/4 compound times for almost the entire duration of the song. Especially once the breakdown hits after the first chorus (1:18) it severely confused me. One might argue the breakdown hits with a 3/4 intro, alternates between several odd time measures for 61 remaining counts from there and then gets back into the verse. It does sound that way at first, but that's not the case! What actually happens is the "3/4 intro" extends into a 4th count and delivers a kick drum which fools us into thinking we're at the start of a new bar. That being false, the song continues in 4/4 and this kick is simply premature; It hits a quarter note earlier than usual! Then at the next bar nothing happens during counts 1, 2 and at 3 there finally is the long awaited snare, exactly where it should be. This continues to repeat throughout the rest of the breakdown making for some very chill but bizarre rhythms.

9

Posted by Whirlguy - April 17th, 2019


I've been on Newgrounds for quite some years now (over 15!) and I've been in only a few contests. Sometimes I like to go back to these threads to look what things were like back then but I can't seem to find these threads. For that reason I have decided to make this list. I shall be adding to this in the future. Speaking of which, maybe I should enter more competitions. This list is pretty small!


  • [2010-04 AUDIO] 9th Place: Ringtone Theme

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2010-05 AUDIO] 4th Place: Fruity Loops Core

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2011-07 AUDIO] 4th Place: NAC - Zombie Apocalypse

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2016-05 AUDIO] No Landing: Art Inspired Music Contest 2016

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2019-02 AUDIO] Judge: Cheesy Love Song

(Discussion, Submission & Conclusion)


  • [2009-01 WRITING] 2nd Place: NG Fan Fiction

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2009-02 WRITING] No Landing: Worth 1000 Words

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)


  • [2009-09 ART] No Landing: NG Calendar Reborn

(Discussion, Submission & Conclusion)

  • [2012-09 ART] No Landing: NG Print Calendar 2013

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2016-01 ART] No Landing: Phyrnna's VDay Fanart Contest

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2019-03 ART] No Landing: Shelter In Place Art Jam

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)


  • [2014-04 ANIMATION] Approved: - N A T A 14 - Open Round!

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2014-04 ANIMATION] Defeated: - N A T A 14 - Novice Round!

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2016-06 ANIMATION] No Landing: Summer Jam Round 1 - LOOP

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2016-06 ANIMATION] 4th Place: Summer Jam Round 2 - ROBOT JOBS

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)

  • [2016-08 ANIMATION] 4th Place: Summer Jam Round 3 - SOUNDS

(Submission, Discussion & Conclusion)


3

Posted by Whirlguy - March 27th, 2018


The Newgrounds Audio Portal 15th Anniversary project is still in full swing! For those who haven't caught on, NGAPA15 is an audio drama. We've decided to chop the script into 4 different parts and we're aiming to finish part 1 on Pico Day. We already have lots of awesome people on board but we'd love for more people to join us, if only just for a contribution or two! 


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Those who join the musicians team find themselves dealing with all sorts of cool challenges, like creating cinematic stuff or theme songs for special characters but also silly stuff like elevator music or breaking news themes and full-blown songs that people will eventually sing to! Here's a preview:
648043_152217069593_CD.png

648043_152216928552_HEADER2.png
Those who join the voice acting team will find a chance at playing a main character like Pico, Nene or Darnell, but also Newgrounds Bots, other cameos and new original characters. And for those who miss their chance at playing one of the big roles, there's still a lot of wacky extras to play! Here's a preview:
648043_152217071741_CD.png

648043_152216937451_HEADER3.png
Those who join the sound effects team will bring the story alive with the sounds they produce. Sometimes audio will be simple to create, like a doorbell or something like that. Other times it can get quite epic, creating entire war zones with machine guns, planes and artillery. Here's a preview:
648043_152217074283_CD.png


648043_152217007051_NGCassette.png


4

Posted by Whirlguy - February 12th, 2018


Intended as a way to share music and sound effects for Flash games and movies, Newgrounds launched the Audio Portal back in 2003. As a platform for SFX it fdidn't work out too well but it was soon rampant with musicians from all over the world. Fast-forward 15 years and we see lots of voice demos and podcasts as well. We sure came a long way! Shouldn't we be celebrating this?!


648043_151847992853_CollabTitle.png

From the people who brought you NG's 20th Anniversary Collab, we proudly present another super-collab! This time we're working on an audio drama. Some of the most amazing writers from Newgrounds got together to write a script that is sure to blow your socks off. Now we ask for musicians, voice actors and sound designers to unite and join NG Audio Portal's 15th Anniversary project (NGAPA15 for short)!

648043_151847959953_icon-audio-smaller.png Music
Are you a musician? Great! We'll need you to write us some tunes! Some of it will be background music, others will be jingles or random songs playing on the radio or whatever. For those of you not scared of a challenge there'll be songs with lyrics. The composition of these songs are more complex and they require you to work with lyricists and singers. Sound exciting? Sign up to the musicians team! 

648043_151847970473_icon-audio-smaller.png Voice Acting
For those of you with a golden voice there's the voice acting department. The script contains many exciting characters such as Pico, Nene and Darnell but also A-Bot, a whole bunch of tankmen and many others! Right now we're casting roles. Sounds like something you could do? Drop a voice demo and join the voice actors team!

648043_151847972591_icon-audio-smaller.png SFX
Do you like recording random shit with a microphone? How about layering existing sounds and messing around with synthesizers or effect modules so you end up with something completely different? Since there's no images to tell our story with, we're in need of experimental audiophiles. Is your sound worth a thousand pictures? Then come join the sound effects team!

 

648043_151847871952_NGCassette.png


Posted by Whirlguy - May 30th, 2017


Here's a list of Newgrounds newsposts I came across and found particularly interesting and/or resourceful. What sets these journals apart from most other journals is they are very detailed and specific about their subjects. I also took the liberty to include some documenting of my own.
















I'll be adding more stuff here.


Posted by Whirlguy - December 1st, 2016


=== TRANSITION [2011-2016] ===

648043_149192871251_Files.pngA lot of the music I'd been working on in 2011 didn't make it to Newgrounds. Some of which were submitted later on, such as Between Nightmare And Dreams and Breaking Free. At the time, I felt like this was the pinacle of what I was capable of; A lot of it was made using fresh samples, personal presets and recordings (fieldrecordings, but also snippets and vocal pieces). Furthermore, most of it had hints of dubstep, ambient, electronic music and I guess jazz too. Maybe I should go and finish whatever pieces I'd been working on. "Imaginary Heroes" for example, or "If You Could See What I Can See", "Memories of Pokémon", "Sinister", "22:22" and "Eyecontact". With the year of 2011 coming to and end, I felt incredibly inspired by my delusions as a 16-year old and wanted to write an album, wanting to keep all of this stuff private until my release on Bandcamp. By 2012 I had moved out of my parents' home, and mainly worked on songs for this album, which explains why I barely spent any time uploading songs to Newgrounds. The saddest part of it all is this album is STILL in progress. I ascribe this to my complicated musical process where I try my best to set an atmosphere by looking at pictures and listening to songs, so as to "become" whoever I was in those days and work from there.

648043_148062120942_SurferRosaComeOnPilgrim.pngIrrelevant to the surface, I watched the movie Scott Pilgrim in 2012. I thought it was awesome and later learned it was based off a comic. I got online and started reading the thing. After finishing each volume, I found a list of songs Bryan Lee o'Malley had been listening to while working on the pages. Figuring the man had a fantastic taste in music, I started listening to (alternative) rock more than ever, eventually stumbling upon a band that changed my life in a way; The Pixies. I thought their album Surfer Rosa was weird on my first listen, but their songs slowly crept into my brain. I began to fall for the crude charm and hispanic influences. I believe it was David Bowie who once compared the Pixies to The Velvet Underground; "Not many people bought their music, but those who did started a band." I was very self-aware about my music when I first heard the Pixies for myself, so I didn't have the confidence to start a band. Instead, it opened my mind to unlimited possibilities I hadn't thought possible before. Their happy, straightforwards post-punk rhythms, alternating time signatures, fuzz-induced guitar wails with unconventional amelodic riffs, yowling vocals and attention-grabbing lyrics in one way or another all inspired me to do something similar. It definitely fueled my inspiration to write lyrics and - who knows? Maybe do more vocals. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could scream like Black Francis does haha.

648043_148062228033_Radio.png2013 was an interesting year. Being a computer repairsman at the time, by some stroke of luck I rolled into a smalltime radio business. Can't say I learned many new things about music there but it has taught me something else about education: Ideally, college grants knowledge, experience, skills and social connections. But all of these things are more important than papers of approval, and ironically they can all be attained without going to college (although the turnout of autodidacticism can be very lopsided). I don't think I would recommend the same mindset to anyone without a creative vision (Go to a university if you want to be a doctor or something). My path in life has been an unconventional one however, so this realisation was very reassuring.

648043_148267677323_8thNotes.pngA piece of outstanding criticism from 2013 came from my best friend. It wouldn't be the first time someone pointed out my biggest composition flaw is the bass, but through all this time it was somehow quite difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why it sucked. Nowadays I've realized there's a number of reasons for it (most of which have made it into my notebook of pointers): One such reason is the bass instrument I pick always sounds basic, harsh, electronic and oftentimes distorted. This gives your song an aggressive undertone, which isn't always suited for the type of song you're doing. Prodigy, Daft Punk and Dubstep in general definitely steered me in that direction. The next reason was all about melodical prowess. My basslines had the melodic implication of lead melodies - sometimes even utilizing over 2 octaves of melodic span - which made them too distracting. On top of that, many of the notes were sustained, barely leaving any space for rhythmical purposes. I'm pretty sure this happened partly because I enjoyed the smooth sound of sine basslines commonly found in drum&bass. I also really love Röyksopp's Vision One which uses sustained bass notes. The other reason would be my discomfort with staccato 8/8 basslines. Even though they befit a composition sometimes, I started avoiding them years ago as I found they were lazy (they're one of the key characteristics of my old work). At some point I started observing songs with excellent basslines and found out something really useful, (although this is genre-dependent); It may be no secret that basslines are accompanied by different instruments but if you listen closely, sometimes there's different instruments that help assist the bass by making it "groove". I like to call this a "supporting melody." A great example would be the funky guitar chucks on Daft Punk's Voyager, or the electric piano on School by Calvin Harris. It pretty much serves as backup; It doesn't really matter what the bass is doing as long as something's there to groove along with it. Then again I would not advice myself to use this method too often. Bass instruments excel at their monophonicity and I much prefer to have a polyphonic instrument leading the composition. Chords, you see?

648043_148062319251_AkaiEIEPro.pngAnyway, ever since I had moved into my own place, I had trouble thinking of where to put either of my synthesizers. After my Juno-D and Microkorg had been collecting dust for two full years, in 2014 I finally decided to build a little cabinet for them to sit on. This allowed me to use them as midi-controllers again. Later that year, I bought an audio interface after much deliberation: The AKAI EIE Pro. I was now able to do what I've been wanting to do since I first got my Juno-D, which is to record myself playing the thing. It gave my songs an interesting turn! All these years I'd been using VST and soundfonts to simulate (electric) pianos. They were of shitty quality, had a stiff quantized feel about them and were very Fortisimo/staccato as well. Recording from a synthesizer felt way more dynamic! I especially enjoy the charm of their slightly flawed dynamics. They add character and organity which makes music pop!

648043_148104977662_Piano.pngAt this point it may seem that things were looking up for me, having come such a long way. Yet it took me very long to get here, and I nearly experienced a breakdown early in 2015 when I found out my guitarist friend (yes, the very same) had seemingly surpassed my skills at playing the piano. This in turn led me to reflect upon my musical road - eventually feeling conflicted about the keyboard lessons I took 17 years ago. I beat myself up about the fact that I should have learned the piano instead, but keyboard lessons were also the main reason I've gotten into actual music production at all. Discontinueing my lessons all those years ago, I've assimilated skills from experimentation, did very little research and barely practiced proper technique. I was good at chords for instance, but didn't realize the importance of scales. As such I didn't see myself improve at all and even felt like I deteriorated until I could not bear to call myself as a musician any longer. Despite the fact that this was an obvious lie, my attention shifted to other passions, such as animation. It was somewhere in October of that same year when I attended a small band-fest with one my colleagues from the radio. If anything, it made me very restless... I realized I wanted to be up on that stage! It took me a few days to realize what reason I had to squander my talents; I was bored - the instrument I played bored me. I kept dreaming of playing the guitar, ukelele, saxophone, violin, trumpet... anything to spice it up a bit! It also crossed my mind that bands often have no need for keys! After that I promised myself to do either of these things: A) Get piano lessons or B) Learn to play guitar.

648043_148062233671_EpiphoneLP-100.pngThe year ended. With the coming of 2016 I moved into a new place. One of the first things I did was backup my projects and work on a new way to organize my files. This included a new naming system for my samples and a quality evaluation on top of that, so this took a very long time for me to do. I also deleted/added new VST. More importantly though, I read up a lot on guitars. Wood types, body types, string types, bridge types, neck lengths, pickups, whammy bars... One website accurately described how each individual piece of the guitar influenced a guitar's destinctive sound, which helped me pinpoint what I wanted, eventually assembling the exact guitar that I wanted in my mind. Of course, hearing is believing. I went to a music store where a couple of guitars were demonstrated. After hearing the clean single coils of the strat and telecasters, the raging squeals of an SG, and the slightly warm reverb of an open body guitar (which I would really love to own), I went with a model that seemed like a winner from the very beginning: The affordable Epiphone Les Paul 100. I've made a habit of playing it everyday since I got it, which is approximately 8 months now.

648043_148062363741_CircleOfFifths.pngUpholding the format of these musings I was taken all across Newgrounds on the lookout for interesting new quotes to add. Through the myriad of musicians I found a few people discussing the practice of chord theory, which is something I'm only recently experimenting with. So far I have researched a couple of my favorite songs and I find it very useful for personal compositions that have run into a dead end. In a way it's like the lens of truth from Zelda, as it shows new possibilities when before there were none. Other benificial composition methods comprised of disecting songs and labeling their segments with according song structure terminologies. This was a bit of a throwback to my keyboard lesson days. It teaches a lot about how and when to use a verse or chorus, but I was hoping it would reveal more about bridges, intros and outros - save for all the segments I didn't have proper naming for - but alas. Even more recent is my research about instrument timbres. 99% of the instruments I use are synthesized and made to reach pitches otherwise thought to be impossible. Tubas don't play at C6 and violins don't go C2, neither is a piano going to sound great when you play the lower keys with a bass in the mix. Common sense! But admittedly it is easy to overlook when all you see is grids and bars. For future compositions I'll have to keep melodic span in mind and think over my timbres. Not in favor of the mix, but the composition.

648043_148337252351_SongStructure.pngOther than that there's many musical techniques I refrain from using nowadays because I have come to think of them as amateurish or clishé, which is a huge shame. Trying to avoid these patterns - I found over time - has not improved my songs, but has only limited my possibilities! I'll try to see if I can list them all: The effects it's had on my choice of instruments isn't all that bad (I find saw basslines and supersaws overdone, refrain from using factory presets and sparsely use portamento. Sidechain compression I only use in moderation and arpeggiators I barely find use for), it has however mildly affected the way I treat soundeffects (I barely use vocoders despite me owning a Microkorg and mostly treat flangers and phasers as deejay toys. Oscillators are only cool in moderation). More worrisome are melodic and rhythmical patterns (Rhythmic chords on the piano are the worst. Raggea skanks are also pretty terrible. Staccato basslines that are more rhythmic than melodic are also a big no) and the steering of my composition (The biggest musical clishé to avoid is the melodic reprise. I also never deliberately follow classic song structure rules which is why none of my recent songs have an actual chorus, and especially dislike to compose songs which use major and minor chords exclusively). Many of these techniques I've used in older songs and they're not necessarily fruitless but frankly I got sick and tired of how they sound and moved on. My bias is unfair though, especially when it comes to rhythmical patterns and composition methods. Subsequently, these are the reasons why so many of my unfinished projects have been reduced to short looping submissions in the past years. Many of my favorite musicians make use of the methods I mentioned before, so I think it's time to bring them back myself!

648043_148337321992_Albums.pngSpeaking of favorite songs, these past 5 years I've made it a mission to broaden my musical horizons and familiarized myself with maybe 50 different albums per year? However, I'm not sure I've found many musicians that I deem influential enough to help evolve my musical style. I mentioned Danger Mouse in my last entry. Other musicians I started listening to around that time were Boards Of Canada and Zoot Woman. Beck may have had a lyrical effect on me. I love how his words can drone and carry a song, allowing for repetitive musical patterns to carry on and on. Even when his songs feel strangely quantized sometimes, they're never stiff and maintain a rugged, band-like appeal. During 2012 I finally started checking out a bunch of Beatles albums. I also found out about Manabu Namiki, who wrote soundtracks for many CAVE bullethell games. Among the speed and urgency, his songs follow great chords and have an overall floaty appeal with soothing pads and synths that seem to wash away your worries. 2013 was by far the best year. I started listening to Frank Zappa, whose music borders on free jazz and is oddly genius. I also took more interest in Ween, a band which is very worthy of praise. They're a strange band, frivolous of nature and dabbling in many different genres which I found off-putting at first. While it's hard to define Ween songs, a playful nature shimmers through each one of their songs and functions as a reminder that music should always be fun. There's also the Pixies (as discussed earlier) of course, and that's about it for this year. I don't think I came across any noteable bands in 2014, except for maybe the J-Pop group Perfume. Their melodic hooks are fantastic! As a final mention I'll give you Mac deMarco whom I gave a proper listen to in 2015. His jangle tunes have a very distinctive omtimistic sound which I like to compare to the mental effects of sunlight (Could very well be because his songs are reminiscent of Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles). Of course I came across many more musicians, but these were the ones I felt most influenced by.

648043_149192831991_Instruments.pngNext I'd like to take a little time to ponder about my future in music. I find this hard to discuss, since I'm a broken musician. Honestly it feels as if I fell all the way to the bottom of the pit. I've neglected my Juno-D (which still works but some keys are unresponsive) ever since I got my guitar, but I'd really like to go back to practicing a daily minimum of 20 minutes, as I have on my strings. It would be nice to get more comfortable with scales, but I'd also like to practice existing songs more seriously. In prior years I've only been interested in playing my own tunes, hence why I barely learned anything new. After all, the thought of it reminded me of music lessons as a kid and it bored me to death. Maybe when I get a little better on the guitar I'll think of entering a band, but we'll see. For now I want to practice while I work on my composition skills and knowledge. If things don't work out I'll think of picking up piano lessons. As for long-term goals, I'm still thinking of releasing an album and to invest in equipment/instruments. I posed myself the question: "If I had the skills to make any type of music in the world, what would I do?" I had a hard time answering that question but I'm fairly certain I would go and do paid commissions, especially for game developers. I would also consider making soundtracks for ambitious indie animations. As a kid I loved to sing and I even performed but I forgot about that passion somehow. The Pixies rekindled that flame, and now I'd love a chance to sing in a band. Furthermore I love improv and developed a taste for jazz and alternating time signatures, so that's something I'd definitely experiment with.

  • Reasons To Create: I met a female electronic musician in 2011 who had me listen to some top quality tracks she made. Her songs were instrumental and represented emotions which she wished to convey. There's a handful of other musicians who have the same musical process and I'd love to do this myself. Most albums I know have random tracks on them but I find it way cooler when a compelling story is told.
  • Creative Developments: Making music became harder to do. Not only did I strain the composition process by avoiding what I deemed musical clishés, but the outcome needed to contain an overall je-nais-se-quoi. Part of me was pushing to finish my songs, while other parts realized I couldn't rush it. Sometimes I didn't know what to do anymore.
  • Outcome: Autodidacticism took its toll on me. I knew my musical methods were wrong in many ways but I was simply blind to the cure. This caused my learning curve to stagnate. The insecurity that followed may be ascribed to the lyrical and personal nature of some songs, but the lack of my expertise seemed much more likely. Either way, I was no longer proud of my musicianship and hoping to revive that spark.

"Also, it's not necessarily just using a ii-V-I prog in music, but building and molding it into something complex and unique, which is also extremely difficult to do. People take pop way too much for granted."

- KgZ

"Mechanical learning, i.e. learning by sight and by ear, can be a faster way of picking up an instrument. A lot of my piano and percussion is done by ear (as is a lot of my instrumentation in general). Picking up something by ear is also advantageous in the sense that you get to hear the expression with which something is played, instead of relying solely on the guidance of the sheet. You can hear the loud and soft, the slow and fast. A lot of contemporary pieces are best picked up by this method, and it is also likely the method by which music is passed on from generation to generation. It’s just… natural, I suppose?"

- Troisnyx

 


[INDEX]

  1. AN EMPTY STAVE
  2. THE BRIDGE
  3. IMPROV
  4. A RIG RUNDOWN
  5. TRANSITION

Posted by Whirlguy - May 26th, 2016


=== A RIG RUNDOWN [2007 - 2011] ===

648043_146430944432_FW_C330.pngEver since my little accident with FL Studio 6 in 2006, I went back to using the Fruity 7-Band Equalizer in FL Studio 4. Though I had used the Fruity Parametric EQ 2 before, I had no idea how graphic equalizers worked. In the late summer of 2007 I decided to mess around with the original Fruity Parametric EQ. This equalizer is a lot less intuitive for beginning tweakers but I managed to somewhat figure it out during my work on the song Impress. Along with my limited knowledge on compressors, the mix made a huge jump compared to any of my older songs. I was in college at the time, and kind of lost on where to go with my music. On top of that my Alesis speakers gave out on me. I ran a mini-jack to RCA cable from my computer to a Philips FW-C330 stereo at the other end of the room. For the next couple of years, I mixed my songs on earphones and a set of Philips FW-C330 speakers (i found that having the sound control options of the interface set to "jazz" and dynamic bass set to option "2" were the best settings for mixing, as it brought out high frequencies as well as the low without being muddy). I enjoyed working from this angle from what I remember. It trained my ears to listen for flaws on different mediums.

648043_146430976173_MiniMogue.pngI wasn't very active on the Newgrounds forums prior to 2008. Sometimes I would visit the audio forums to cast a look on what's going on. One time I was lurking and found the Castle Crashers music contest. I was far too late to enter and really bummed out about that. The winners had already been announced and I had no chance of getting my own music up in that game. I learned my lesson. Curious about the next big thing, I stuck around. When I found the Continue The Song Game I didn't hesitate to enter. I'm happy I was around for that! During my work on the CTSG Flash Collab, I worked alongside of Rig and got familiar with his music. In particular his song Stardust Crazy caught my attention. I left him a review and really got the fever for virtual instruments the moment I read his response. VoltKitchen's minimogue was one of the earliest plugins I installed and it's hands down my favorite virtual synthesizer to this day. I've been using it for 8 years I think! FL Studio 4 needed all the help it could get, so I also download a few effect plugins. They weren't nearly as good. The thing with VST plugins is you've got to filter out the good from the bad. A lot of them look or sound like shit, are annoying to work with, are limited demos versions, and worst of all - some appear great until you realize they contain bugs. Worst case scenario, they crash. Just recently I decided to keep track of all VST's I've ever used, along with a rating system to see which ones I value the most.

648043_146431024062_SP-404.pngI spent the year 2008 making loops, as I didn't know how to finish any of my songs for some reason. Instead I used my new knowledge of VST's to keep experimenting. I took this knowledge into the next year, where a big portion of my songs were either requested by - or inspired by people I knew. I am not sure how significant this detail is in the big picture, but I thought it to be interesting. One of the more interesting projects was a game I was doing sound effects for. There were still a lot of loops this year but I managed to finish 3 songs as well. In terms of uploaded songs this has to be one of my favorite years, but it's not that interesting otherwise. Oh, except for the fact that I bought a Roland SP-404 (which I came to regret buying as it only has midi-in but no midi-out) and a Korg Microkorg. At the time I really wanted to get back in a band again, so I decided to get more live instruments. I also kept a notebook with tips and observations about other music that would help me produce better songs (maybe I should digitalize it?). These tips mainly help to further a composition or figure out how to mix something. I still have the thing and sometimes add new things to it. That's about it for 2009. There's a lot more to be said about 2010.

648043_146431049423_RemixersBible.pngOver the years I got fed up with losing my samples and became a lot more conscious about my data. I started burning dvd's, my earliest backup dating to the year 2008. So my methods as an electronic musician were improving then, but I still had ways to go. This I learned when I started reading the Remixer's Bible in 2010. I found the book by chance at a record store in Amsterdam and bought it right away. One of the first chapters urges the reader to get their shit together. Having a structured (portable) library is 101 to being a successful electronic musician. This involves setting up folders and incorporating a proper naming system. It was from this moment forward I learned the importance of crediting source material within my library. Later that year I came up with the idea to divide my hard disk into several different partitions. All my projects were then moved to the "Projects" partition. Around this time I got into the habit of saving personal presets for effects and synths, as well as entire mixer track settings. I threw out a lot of old samples and replaced them with new ones. At this point Fruityloops proved so versatile, I lost all interest in working with Reason 4.0. When I finally decided to give it a try I found it very limiting to work with.

648043_146431221513_KRK.pngI wasn't that much into remixing music when I first bought the Remixer's Bible, although I really looked up to some remixers I had discovered on youtube. Dj Steve Porter was a great inspiration to me. I still remember how amazed I was by the wideness of Steve Porter's Scrubs remix when I finally decided to get myself 2 brand new Rokit KRK RP5 monitors. It's an experience best described as 3d glasses for your ears. Later on I became a big fan of Schmoyoho too. Remixing had one big limitation for me though: Samples were copyrighted and uploading to newgrounds was therefore not an option. Uploading to youtube was the only other option I had, since I didn't know about Soundcloud at the time. I did this once or twice but it just so happened this wasn't my thing. It was around this time my lookout on music changed, as musical freedom - more and more - started to look like a big illusion to me: One may be able to break the rules of modern music in the privates of their studio, but trouble may brew if one were to share a copyrighted sample with with the rest of the world... It's a rather disheartening awareness, restricting even. It definitely took away some of the fun for me. I think it's the main reason I started uploading less and less to Newgrounds.

648043_146431073443_MicroKorg.pngThough loyal to Newgrounds, I barely made an effort to upload any songs in 2010. Six songs made it to the audio portal, two of which were contest entries. I did fairly well on those! The first contest I joined was a ringtone contest. I ended up in the top 10 at a draw for the 9th place, nobody got to be 10th. The other contest was FL Core 2010. This was the first song I made using my microkorg as a midi controller. It landed me 3rd place in the competition and rewarded me a spot on frontpage. Somewhere along the same year I found a video on youtube which explained how to make beats sound more real and organic, possibly explaining why I did so well. My songs made a big leap in their quality, but the mixing process was a lot longer as well. I've always found it particularly difficult to progress on a song when I've been listening to it over and over. The longer mixing process is quite possibly the biggest culprit when it comes to unfinished songs. Anyway, I entered another contest in 2011 which required a zombie apocalype soundtrack. I placed that one 4th in the competition. All these prizes got me pretty confident about my production skills. My sense of direction started to dwindle though, and slowly but surely I started making less tunes...

648043_146445848543_Granulizer.pngSure enough I came to realize I've squandered my talents over the past couple of years. The guitarist from the band I was in kept on praising my piano skills. I knew better than to embarrass myself though. In 2010 my finger technique was still terrible and I knew it! I guess my inferiority complex took over when I felt a need to best him. I heard his band was doing really good, so for his birthday I remixed a song by his band - putting in joke samples from a youtube video he appeared in - and gave it to him on a cd. I never uploaded it anywhere for copyright reasons. It's one of the first songs I ever tried to master so the mix isn't all that great, and since timestretching was not an available option in FL Studio 4, all my remixes made use of granular synthesis. It's definitely noticable sometimes. Granular stuff is fun though, especially when working with vocals or guitar samples.

This commenced a time of shame. Although I try not to nowadays, I've always compared myself to the people around me. Failing to comply to their level has always given me something of a breakdown. At this point I had been a musician for 12 years or so, and I was still pretty much a beginner when it came to the keys (possibly because I composed most of my stuff digitally). I became terribly self-aware about this and slowly but surely avoided the topic of music altogether. Since I could barely play with two hands, I decided to look up some youtube videos. I learned how to play the harp arpeggio from Daft Punk's Voyager and kind of started to understand how to use both hands to their full potential. I was still ways off from being an awesome pianist, but learning this little melody already really helped in terms of composing.

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Back to my guitarist friend, who shall have a few more mentions from this moment onward - he and I knew eachother since middle school. I played keyboard for about 7 years before he first picked up a guitar in Highschool. From early visits I could tell he grew up with a refined taste in music. I don't mean jazz or classical music but other types of classics: David Bowie, The Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, Peter Gabriel and so forth. He once bought me a Brian Eno album, possibly hinting that I should try dabbling in the ambient genre (and I did). I had never heard of him before at that point. My parents didn't have great taste in music at all. My father used to own a bunch of old records but I never once heard them in all my years. According to him he had everything by the Police and Abbey Road by the Beatles is the only other album he remembered, albeit vaguely. My mother was really into Italian pop music. In particular I remember Riccardo Cocciante, Eros Ramazzotti, Zucchero and Ricchi e Poveri being her favorites. The radio was blaring from the moment I was conceived in the early 90's. Most notably I grew up with Dutch songs, new wave, an assortment of rock genres, (synth-) pop, (power-) ballads and a bunch of reggae (influenced) songs. I can't help but wonder whether any of this affects me as a musician today.

I'm not sure if it was genuine interest or deliberate self-education, but I started acquiring an actual "good" taste in music since 2010. I went out of my way to listen to a variety of different jazz musicians and expanded my knowledge on bands. I've actually kept record of every album I ever intentfully listened to over the years (hurray for OCD!), which is nearing the 500 mark now. Toward the beginning of 2011, dubstep started to intrigue me as well. Experimenting with the genre, I finally made myself a soundcloud. You could say I used it as a garbage disposal. I didn't hate soundcloud but it just wasn't my thing.

648043_146433521891_Nanopad.pngI think 2011 was an interesting year for me. Among some of the dubstep and drum&bass albums was a lot of jazz, classic rock and ambient, pulling me from all directions. I started off the year by buying a Zoom H2 field-recorder, although I don't remember wanting to have one specifically. I might have been urged into buying this thing subliminally, by listening to Kingbastard's "Beautiful Isolation", Brian Eno's "Land", Radiohead's "How Am I driving?" and Tycho's "Past Is Prologue". I also got addicted to the concept of midi controllers and bought myself a Korg Nanopad after watching some great videos on Youtube. I was pretty interested in the Kaossilator-esque X&Y Controller and seeing as my Roland SP-404 sampler didn't provide Midi-Out, nothing could beat a €40 Nanopad! Not surprisingly, it was of terrible quality. One of the internal chips stopped working after 2 months or so... I missed it dearly but knew better than to buy another one.

I started buying a lot of albums since 2007 and in early 2008 I finally delved into Pink Floyd's music. I also discovered Hideki Naganuma and the French electrical duo Air. Other influential musicians from around this time were Calvin Harris, whose tunes had a playful familiarity about them and reminded me of stuff I myself composed. It had a reassuring effect on me. In 2009 I discovered one of my guilty pleasures, Owl City. The arrangements of his songs were inexplicably inspiring to me. Later that year I found myself obsessing over Röyksopp and Tycho. I also started listening to Fatboy Slim, Susumu Hirasawa and Electric Light Orchestra a lot more. During the next year I discovered royalty free music by mAf464 through a game here on Newgrounds. I went to check him out and ended up downloading all of his songs from his website. He supposedly had a demoscene history and that inspired me even more. Finally there's Danger Mouse, a producer whose solo carreer consists of collaborations with great musicians like Jack White, Iggy Pop and Norah Jones to name a few. I also looked up to youtube remixers like Schmoyoho and Dj Steve Porter. And then watching Jack Conte's videos subconsciously made me aware that I wanted to play more than just keys. It's worth noting this period of time also started my synthesizer obsession.

  • Reasons To Create: Starting 2007 I became more and more private about my thoughts. At some point I felt like I had nothing more to say and my music reflected this more than anything. For the longest of times I've pondered whether the more I learn about making music, the less fun it becomes for me. This assumption I'm sure is incorrect.
  • Creative Developments: I upgraded my work environment by rearranging my folder structures and downloaded a bunch of VST's. I also got rid of old samples and brought in some new ones. On top of that I bought a bunch of new hardware without actually focusing on improving technique, which is kind of stupid but whatever.
  • Outcome: There's a couple of contests I joined and did fairly well on. I visited the forums and came across the Continue The Song Game. Also, I had the opportunity to make some custom songs for flash games. Besides automation, midi-controllers became my best friends and I got much better at mixing songs - I even started mastering my songs at some point. While I learned a lot of useful things, I neglected my technique and got scared of ever doing another live performance.

"you may not shine in one area, but you'll shine in another when it comes to music production. Never take yourself for granted, and don't let others do the same to you."

- Troisnyx

"Music without a doubt plays a role as an important voice for people to express, communicate, and convey their ideas and emotions. In order to maintain success though, an artist must not alienate his audience with songs that only satisfy himself. Finding the moderation to please as many people as possible serves as the key to success in the music industry. Whether a composer writes music for a videogame, film, television or any media outlet, they will always find themselves at a crossroad when to sell their artistic integrity for a check to keep their lives stable."

- KgZ

"This site is shit for music, the sooner people realise that the better. It isnt about music at all, it's about flash movies and animations"

- monkeybullman

"Those who think that the Audio Portal will ever have as much success as the Flash Portal are going to be bitterly disappointed with this next sentence. That is never going to happen! That isn't why people visit the site and isn't what keeps the majority coming here. It doesn't matter how much publicity we throw at it, it's still not going to happen. The sooner that is realised, the better. That's not to say that it can't be an integral part of the site, because I think that it already is. We just need to find more ways of hooking up Audio Artists with Flash Artists."

- liljim

"My suggestion- limit yourself. This will bring out your creative side."

- KgZ

 


[INDEX]

  1. AN EMPTY STAVE
  2. THE BRIDGE
  3. IMPROV
  4. A RIG RUNDOWN
  5. TRANSITION

Posted by Whirlguy - May 3rd, 2016


=== IMPROV [2005 - 2007] ===

648043_146231510222_lfo.pngSomething about having a Juno-D synthesizer made the principles of ASDR a lot more intuitive. Not to mention cut, resonance and lfo possibilities. During some experimenting with the live recording button I tweaked some knobs and taught myself automation by the making of this song. Thus far I experimented a lot with Fruity Loops 4 and continued to do so, but there were a few distinct things I grew increasingly tired of, even in times of using FL Studio 3: The standard samples and VST presets. The phase of individuality commences!

Though I was taught all synths start with basic wave forms, I had very little knowledge of oscilators and how synths were shaped. No matter what I did, I felt like there wasn't a lot I could do to get rid of that "FL Studio" feel it had (especially the TS-404, Slayer and Simsynth). Instead I decided to create my own custom waveforms in Soundforge 6 which I would loop through the Fruity Sampler (because: individuality, lol). They were crappy, out of tune but still useable. It certainly gave my music a distinctive sound: most of my songs were like a badly strung guitar.

648043_146230290522_KB.pngOne fateful day in December 2004 I received a review from @Kingbastard. When I went to return the favor, I stumbled upon a goldmine of tunes which changed my thoughts on music forever. It was hard to keep a grasp on the sheer definition of his music, as his songs had such experimental splendor that I could hardly conceive it as music to begin with. That is, in the confines of my shallow perception, anyway. Never before had I listened to a mix of Lo-fi, IDM, Ambient, Field Recordings and Indie Rock. It opened my eyes and blew my mind. He's been a great inspiration to me for the years to come. Even on the forums he seemed like a breeze of fresh air. Many of his old songs have since been taken down, sadly. He was the first reason I ever wanted to pick up a guitar. My attempts have been futile, however.

I also went on the lookout for new drum samples. I didn't care much for the quality or where these files might have come from. None of that seemed important to me at the time. As a result my sample library was a disaster. The soundfonts I started using were okay, but I also sampled instruments and they weren't much better. Oftentimes they were too short to be properly looped for sustenance, horribly recorded and sometimes out of tune. Songs made as a results of my field-recording adventures include What's In My Glass?, Experiment 005 and Experiment 006. Some of these samples - believe it or not - proved really versatile throughout all these years, as I still use them from time to time!

648043_146231369862_SF.pngI'll discuss some of these samples since they're so much fun. One of them was a recording of me going "ohh" for a while in C-pitch. I layered that with a (slightly out of tune) sinewave and looped it. It became a pretty interesting chorus sample that I've first used on In Outer Space (1:48) and later on A Place Where We Will Go (3:35) where I used it in the outro with a decay applied to it. Attitude (1:20) used it for a subtle reverbing stereo echo and it even appeared in the original CTSG (2:42) where I used it for a bell-like transition. I think it was also layered with the bass in B-Day Beat (0:00) and for background melodies in Active Days (2:01). The melodic hooks on Bangs (1:00) used this sample in combination with bells.

Another sample I really love was created during the same days I think. Probably made using the same crappy microphone, I held it close to a lenticular pokemon collectable. Next I used my nail to scratch across the ribs, sampled the high-pitched noise, and the rest is history. It has a nice raw industrial sound that I like to use every now and then. The sample made its first appearance in Experiment 001 (0:00). It was later used as a transitional effect in Attitude (2:08) and the outro of D-Tastic (1:38). Industrial Detour (0:28) uses it for rhythmic/melodic purposes.

648043_146230293793_EQ2.pngLike I said earlier, file management wasn't my strongest asset back in the day. In 2006 a buddy of mine hooked me up with a cracked version of FL Studio 6. This piece of software helped me create some of my proudest compositions to date. Titles include There's A Place Where We Will Go and Do You Say? I especially liked the Fruity Parametric EQ 2 as it was easy to use and made my songs sound great. I might have started using compressors around this time as well. Although I had little knowledge of how they worked. Eventually the software crack expired, leaving me with a mere demo version of FL Studio. I had no choice but to go back to version 4. Since this version couldn't open my FL6 files, I rendered these save files completely useless and threw them off my computer. Needless to say I really regret doing this, now that I'm working with version 9... Especially since I love these songs.

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Writing thorough reviews is one of the best things you can do as a starting musician: It develops listening skills, teaches you new musical terms, allows you to question about tricks the composer used and possibly creates new friendships. Still in 2006, I found Kingbastard's Mixposure page and decided to create a profile of my own. For a while this was one of my favorite places on the web. They had a system that allowed you to upload one new song for every 5 constructive reviews you left on people's songs. On top of that there were many assortments of genres and people creating music for it. Hell, I even found an assortment of cherokee music on there! The site was very aestethically pleasing too, but alas, it disappeared from the internet at some point. I found a couple of great artists on there, most of which I've forgotten by now. The same can be said for a couple of Myspace musicians I enjoyed.

648043_146231147783_DJTRX.png

Probably a way more interesting story from 2006 was when a buddy of mine told me of a site called djbroadcast. This was an online deejay magazine with its own internet radio station. What's so interesting about this website is they had their own record lable. By submitting music to their website, home producers got a good chance to get signed with the company. Promotion would be a nobrainer. Winners got to sell their songs on beatport with a 50% profit. I joined the race just to show off to my friend, who tricked their system by letting all of his friends vote for him. I beat the system too but not through voting; Apparently the men upstairs took notice of me and thought I was pretty good. I got a mail with the opportunity to sign with them around the same time as him.

I'm not sure what happened all of a sudden, but I got really self-aware. First and foremost, I was not really a Deejay (neither am I now), so why was I here? Neither was I very knowledgeable or skilled. My methods of making music were all wrong! Even though I was oblivious to all of this up to now, reality must have kicked in or whatever. I didn't know much about contracts at the time, but somehow convinced myself it would be full of downsides and obligations that would make my hobby a hell. And what if I were to be interviewed or something? I wasn't ready for that sort of stuff! The whole ordeal made me nervous, especially since it was my mother's hobby to visit fortune tellers, and one them had the audacity to predict someone would screw me over in the music business. In the end I never even read the contract or visited their office. I politely returned their mail by saying I wasn't ready for it. In a way I felt like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. It was nothing like that though; I never got off the ground to begin with!

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This moment definitely marked a decline in motivation for me as a musician, although I may have been too stubborn to realize it at the time. I had grown content with certain aspects of my life and while I was still very passionate music, it wasn't my salvation any longer. At the time I was pretty interested by spiritual stuff, and I made a friend who told me she found her "Soul Song". It supposedly refers to music that resonates with the very core of your being. I'm pretty sure I haven't found mine to this day, and I wonder if I will ever find it. The concept is still pretty amazing to me. Especially the thought that I might someday create someone's soul song, which would be a great honor. Towards the end of 2006 I moved to a new place with my parents. Somewhere along the way I lost a lot of samples on my computer. Early in 2007 I took something of a break, only to get active again in Spring. As I was recovering from a scarring event (I won't go into details), I had picked up a book which motivated me to take life into my own hands. Around this time I got into a band, fully convinced I was an amazing musician (spoiler: I wasn't).

I'll have you know, band practice was a disaster for me. My Juno-D was too big to lug around with a bicycle and I didn't have a driver's licence. I had no one else to rely on but my father, who did not have all the time in the world. I thought it would be easier and somewhat cool to use a keytar, so I bought a Yamaha SHS-10. Little did I know that thing is laughably bad (it's still pretty cool to own though). Even so, it was a lot easier to carry around. This is what I usually practiced on.

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Most of my time as a bandmember was spent jamming without making any actual results. I developed a strong affinity for organs and electric pianos around this time, which became another aspect of my sound. Especially EP's with a long release time were my type of thing. Another thing I started to like were improvs, solos and compact monologue synthesizers. Anyway, I went to a lot of the band's gigs without even playing along. The band already had like 3 or 4 songs they could play. So I tried my best to come up with fitting background melodies but they were all declined. I played only one gig together with the band (with the Juno-D, mind you). Little did I know, the band decided on some last-minute enhancements to the song. I screwed up my part because there was some confusion about how it needed to be played. I played it off as if nothing happened though.

A few sessions later I brought my Juno-D to band practice and we were jamming. I tried hard but nothing I played seemed to match with what the rest of the band was playing. Maybe their gear was improperly tuned. I can't remember, I only remember the song was rather fast-paced. On top of that the rest of the band wanted to do a Killing In The Name Of cover by Rage Against The Machine. I was fairly certain I didn't fit in with them at all at this point, being the third wheel and all. That's when I had something of a break down and went ouside for a breather. When the band eventually stepped outside we had a short conversation. Since this wasn't working out, I left the band. It had already come to their attention that I took music far too serious. Their advice for me was to start a solo carreer of sorts. Gee, thanks.

It's quite tricky to pinpoint which musicians managed to influence me during this time. When it came to being in a band, Keane, Coldplay, Radiohead and Muse were quite important to me. System Of A Down was a great inspiration when it came to lyrics. In the studio however, I was heavily inspired by The Prodigy, Daft Punk and Pendulum. Also DE/VISION now that I think about it. These years were also quite interesting in terms of club music. From my trips to Myspace I learned of Kingbastard's friend Yogi. He goes by the name of @Matchstickman on Newgrounds but sadly didn't upload much. I loved his songs to death, it's unfortunate barely any of his work survived the harsh conditions of the internet.

  • Reasons To Create: Underneath my humble exterior was an eager desire to overcome my peers. More than once I told people "I use jealousy as a means to motivate myself to surpass the person I envy". It took quite a while for me to realize I was making a contest out of everything. This continued to burn me up even further.
  • Creative Developments: Besides upgrading to better software, the pointers I received were of great help leveling up. One could argue whether I experimented too much or too little. Personally I think I explored too much and learned too little. This is why I didn't understand virtual instruments and barely even touched them. I also improved very little on the keys. The mix of my songs became somewhat better, though oftentimes muddy. The samples I used during these days certainly gave my songs an individual style.
  • Outcome: I tried out as many samples, effects and genres I could possibly think of but never quite got into synth design for some reason. Even effect presets were oftentimes left untweaked. I seeked exposure outside of Newgrounds and almost got signed to a record label in the process. I had developed a sound of my own and my compositions were definitely improving.

"Brand yourself, be yourself. Don't imitate or emulate your favorite composers, other else people would rather just hire the original. I found the most work in my career because I made a sound that was unique to myself, and people approached me because of what I can produce."

- KgZ

"Human brain is hardwired to pick up patterns, that's why pop music has "chorus" sections. Finding the right balance between repetition and new material makes the difference between 'boring' and 'that feels familiar'."

- Sorohanro

"'Simple' and 'complex' music is subjective. To that point, they are not better than one another. Something that is deemed, 'good' is based off the unanimous majority. Everything in music is based off the opinion of what is right or wrong. To that point as well, there is no right or wrong."

- KgZ

"The way I understand it, when musicians release teasers, they are either looking for feedback, stuck, or unwilling to share the full version of a track that is going to bring them earnings as the result of its use in a game. Or, shall we say, unwilling to spoil the fun. It keeps listeners anticipating more."

- Troisnyx

"On a more serious note, it doesn't matter how long something takes, or how much effort you put in. If people like it, I deem it a success. Of course I still want to put in as much effort as I can, to increase my chances of people liking something. While people don't like to hear me say this, 'music is a business'."

- KgZ


[INDEX]

  1. AN EMPTY STAVE
  2. THE BRIDGE
  3. IMPROV
  4. A RIG RUNDOWN
  5. TRANSITION