solatrus:

Crystalanthology

Woo, my first official remix since my Skaia remix on Volume 5!

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Frost

This is arguably my most famous song, and even now is still a big thing in my life. While I have done commentaries on this song before, none of them have been really in depth.

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Featured Homestuck Song Extravaganza! Sorta!

The internet: “Dang, Jeremy, what took you so long to continue doing this?”

Me: “I dunno! I got distracted by things like the number 42. And the Doctor.”

Yeah, so, I’m just gonna basically do this every other day for the next few.

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Swing of the Clock

Ah, this song. The memories.  Not really any pre-song history so I’ll just get right into how it was created and why I took this song in this direction.

Swing of the Clock, henceforth shortened to SotC (not to be confused with Shadow of the Colossus! It’s just a hilarious coincidence) was the first song I started writing after joining the team. Multiple fake band albums were in progress (The Felt and Squiddles), but at the time I had no idea how to even approach Squiddles (see last week’s post for details).

So, I decided I’d try to do something orchestral. I went with a few ideas, but for some reason I kept wanting to write a song with a swing feel in it, though that’s more Midnight Crew than Felt, yet at the same time I wanted to do something that was clearly Philip Glass influenced. The small scraps I started before finally settling on a starting point (none of them were saved, sorry!) all shared two major common pieces: a ticking clock, and an arpeggio piano inspired off of Clark Powell’s Three in the Morning.

Both are still in the song, though amusingly many people didn’t notice the piano. It’s there. In reverse. :D

While I was messing around with the early ideas for SotC, I managed to create a nice sounding bass synth, but I ended up replacing the sound with a couple of clarinets to keep the focus on orchestral instruments instead.

I knew early on I wanted to write a song with a very slow progression, very gradual and subtle shifts between sections. However, I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach it until Beatfox made a suggestion on the forums about mastering and production as a whole. Before this song I tended to have a bad habit of improperly using compressors and limiters, though I definitely knew better than to use FL Studio’s stock setting for the Fruity Limiter. (Not saying the Limiter is bad, it’s just really horrible in what the default project template gives you.)

While SotC isn’t the first song I put a significant amount of effort into controlling the mix, it was the first I really managed to succeed in understanding what I was doing in that area of production.

I ended up automating everything in the song, and I realized how much easier it was to fulfill my original idea plus improve on my overall production. Sadly, the song was still very much on the loud side compared to the rest of the album, so there were some problems with how it was mastered in the end.

Going back on track with the swing feel I originally intended… As you can tell, the song is in a 6/8 time signature. It’s one of my favorites. It’s not a true swing, but it was close enough to get where I wanted.

A true swing is lazy 6/8. Sort of.

Anyway, so while the first third of the song is pretty strictly 6/8, the drum beat comes in that’s definitely swing influenced. And during that section, there’s the tuba part. Well! That originally was actually a stand up bass part, but there’s really no way to mimic a stand up bass with sample libraries, so I experimented with a bunch of sounds until I settled on the tuba.

It was passable, but only after I shifted it to actually play slightly early. The attack was so slow.  It was a little frustrating.

After that, as you know, it goes into the heavier synth rock section. Oh, hey, remember that bassline I said I scrapped in favor of the clarinets? There it is. Back in its glory.

The fun big moment, and then the song fades away.

Still one of my best songs in the Homestuck canon. I felt like I had set a new standard far higher than I’d ever be able to reach, but being on the team has pushed me further than I ever expected.

Now For Some Trivia!

Swing of the Clock was the second to last of a very long stretch of original songs I did in the key of F minor. It’s my favorite key to write music in, but I’ve barely touched it since Chartreuse Rewind. (Which is next week..! Er.. I guess this week, since I was late on this. Oops.) Why? Well, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Secondly, Lexxy really dug this song and it made me flip the fuck out when I found out she liked it, because she’s an amazing person!

And that’s all! As you may have noticed, I’m doing this in chronological order of the albums, not the order the songs came out in the comic (or were retroactively placed in). Frost technically came out in the comic before this, but the version of Frost that you guys have on your computers was completed about half of a month after The Felt came out. Frost is in two weeks. :)

spellmynamewithabang:

(you can unpin this post by clicking the pin, BY THE WAY)

i made a soundtrack and now you can buy that soundtrack that i made. it is this.
the soundtrack to this game

 

it can be bought for five dollars and it has literally over twenty tracks on it. in fact, if my math is right, there is more music here than there is on the fez soundtrack.

for actually less money.

featuring remixes by clark, astro kid, screamcatcher and also more than that too. it’s a thing. you should buy it

please buy it

pl

please?

pleas 

edit: got rid of the video because i hate myself and the embed makes more sense anyway OK GOOD 

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Squiddles in Paradise

Well, what do you know, my vocal debut?

This song has a remarkably old history to it, elements of it dating back to 2005, not too long after I started using FL Studio. Originally this was a sort of uplifting hip-hop song that I did in collaboration with AndrewNeo, but the song was never finished. I’d share the song with you, but unfortunately I don’t have the plugins I used because back then I didn’t care as much about pirating VSTs and the like.

Anyway, while this song is chronologically my second official Homestuck song, it’s also the second song I wrote after joining the team. The first song I wrote after joining will be discussed next time. Hehe.

Nonetheless, do have a little snippet of what I did with that hip-hop song when the Squiddles album was starting up, which is not too different from the original, aside from a more interesting beat and bassline.

I sent it over to Alex Rosetti, but we ended up agreeing that going with the hip-hop style. Even though it was a pretty relaxing song, it wasn’t going to be a good fit for what Alex had in mind for the album.

Thus, I scrapped it and started to work on other songs before coming back to it almost a month later.

It hit me one day that I should try rewriting the song in a really ridiculous, cheesy, and cliche reggae style, and completely not care. So I did.

I again sent this to Alex and he really liked it, and he quickly recorded some Squiddles very horribly singing what eventually became the chorus. I thought it was brilliant and was immediately inspired to write lyrics for the entire song, which really helped flesh out everything. It also let me use Radiation’s hilarious Skipper Plumbthroat voice briefly, though that went uncredited in the song, hah!

And after some work, I arrived to the final song that’s on the Squiddles album.

Other Thoughts

Michael Bowman once mentioned that Squiddles in Paradise is one of the few songs on the album that really balances the act between a legitimate song and a downright silly song. I was pretty flattered when both said this and when he recommended this song, among others from the album, to a fan.

I actually have to agree with Bowman after looking back at it almost two years later. Despite how little effort I feel that I put into this song, it was a really fun and silly song to write… about kid-friendly horrorterrors… in paradise.

funkeecephalopod:

I am really behind and never ended up doing this commentary so now I am! My first track on Volume 9 is the completely new Red Miles! Quick thing to take note: this is not the full version (so long as I can help it haha). Again, I like Malcolm’s method of commentary so I’m gonna model this off of his.

History
Igor Stravinsky has been a gigantic inspiration for me for a long time. My favorite piece of all time is his Firebird Suite, and not far behind is his other ballet the Rite of Spring. The latter is the main inspiration behind this track!

I listened to the Rite of Spring quite a bit throughout last year and I really was compelled to write something inspired by it. When the End of Act 5 flash came out, Andrew also revealed the now memetic Red Miles attack. I thought of no better way to elude to two of my favorite things than combining them this way! I set out on the concept of making a Rite of Spring-esque movement to fit the devastating attack.

The Music
The direct segment I was trying to parallel is thesecond section. Staccato unbowed strings playing eighth notes on a single chord with an accent pattern. The difference here is that as crazy as that segment may get, Stravinsky wrote the whole thing in 2/4. Red Miles I just had fun and it alternates between 2/4, 7/8, 5/8 and whatever the hell I felt like/8. I had a whole lot of fun with time signatures is what I mean.

The accent pattern I use has a bit of history behind it as well. I’m a band geek if no one had noticed yet, and was heavily into marching band during high school. Being a percussionist, I kind of had a love/hate relationship with drumline warmups. One in particular we played waaaaay too much was the accent to tap exercise. For people who don’t know too much about drumline, it’s just an exercise that warms up the extremes of playing. Most notes are steady pulse beats but then an accent pattern is introduced to differentiate height, sound and velocity between taps (normal strokes) and accents. Ours was called “Cinco de Mayo” because it was mostly in 5/8. I took the same pulse (12 123 12 123 123 12 123 12 12 - accents on 1) and applied it to the strings.

I tried to fully orchestrate it, so the next section introduces an English Horn (oh man english horn I could go on for days about) and a bassoon (also could go on forever fuck yeah double reeds) trading off a little melody between accent patterns akin to Rite of Spring. Then I gave the accent to two timpani (yeah the piece would require two timpanist or an inhuman player) because it’s my favorite instrument and I don’t incorporate enough percussion into my pieces for a percussionist. The next section introduces the first real theme. I originally wrote these melodies messing around with four mallets on a marimba. I was intending on making something primitive like RoS (hence unmoving bassline) and then translated it to piano then full score. It alternates between d minor and D Major just by tweaking around with the F sharp. Fun stuff.

Samm Neiland influenced me in two ways in this piece. The first being the continuation of the accent pattern through the middle sections. I personally really enjoy the piece more because of it. It makes it really interesting because it brings so many different time signatures against each other. The melody is sporadically flipping between 7/8 and 2/4 while the accent pattern is mostly in 5/8. They don’t quite match up either but I fix the problem with a few filler measures with the pulse.

After the middle themes are presented it returns back to the beginning with just the solid accent pattern and the return of the simple trading melody (this time with oboe and bass clarinet). The timpani returns triumphantly afterwards. This time, however, I change it up by immediately jumping back into the strings having the pattern. At this point, the brass and woodwinds are given simple versions of the accent pattern. They all come in at different times creating a really uneven spread. Eventually the upper lines start to contort the line and break into competing dotted rhythms to give a feel of chase. It builds more and more through the ending section up until a sudden cut off.

The final addition by Samm was the diminuendo final chord to ease the listener out of the piece!

Concept
As stated earlier, the whole concept is suppose to be giving the terrible fear inducing attack “Red Miles” a soundtrack. The attack is devastating and annihilates all in its way. As we all have heard countless times: you can’t escape the miles. Originally, there was to be a whole lot more to the piece (multiple movements!). I didn’t have anything else in other movements concrete at the time for finalization of Volume 9 so I released the abridged version you have now! Therefore, I like to think of this version as the Diamonds Droog version of the attack. Smaller scale but not any less deudley.

I originally wanted to name it Red Miles (Abridged) but that ended up falling through. It sounds perfectly fine as is anyways. Eventually though, I would love to completely finish the whole work (I’m talking 5-6 movements, all inspired by RoS).

The last section that I described as sounding almost like a chase is purposeful. The concept is that Diamond Droog is releasing the miles upon the universe and the different musical sections are the different scenes of destruction. The final scene where everything becomes hectic is suppose to be Dirk flying through crumbling towers and crazy red death tentacles trying to escape a painful death. The sudden cut off was suppose to be kind of a cliffhanger like “where did he go???” but then the final resolution was supposed to sound similar to a big sigh of relief as he narrowly avoids doom.

Art!
Originally, the art was to be done by everyone’s favorite person. Because of silly reasons (really silly, the silliest) it didn’t end up happening though. I freaking loved the art too. Instead though, we have a panel from the comic. It just so happens to be the panel where the miles are about to wreck shit at the abode of my favorite Alpha character. I didn’t know this at the time otherwise I’d never make a reference to such a horrible event :P

Okay that took me forever and I promise I won’t be so slow to do the next ones. Thanks for taking the time to read and oh god I can’t read more this is going to dash hog so badly.

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Song Commentary Friday! Except it’s Saturday!

Sorry about not getting around to this yesterday. I did, after all, move from Michigan to Maryland (DC Metro) on Thursday and got everything unpacked yesterday.

Let’s have a bit of history before we jump into things with this song.

A Bit of History

I’ve been writing music among the longest out of all of the team members (9 and a half years now), but definitely not the longest. However, I definitely have to say I’ve improved more over the past two years than the seven years before that just from working with so many talented people.

But the difference in improvement between then and now is a story for another day. Let’s zip right just before I joined the team. While Skaia (Incipisphere Mix) is my first official Homestuck song, Doctor (Deep Breeze Mix) is my first Homestuck-related song, which you can download here.

The reason I’m mentioning my Doctor remix is because it very much helped put Incipisphere Mix on Volume 5. From what I was told, it turned a few heads on the team. Kind of hilarious to go back and look at the thread, because multiple of my chums posted just after I did and I wasn’t even aware of who they were at the time. Then again, I was still VERY new to the community at the time. My very first post on the MSPA Forums was of a WIP of my Doctor remix.

Blueberry eventually put me in contact with Radiation, and I was told not to release my Skaia remix anywhere. That made me very curious! And then not too long after that (a few days, I think), I received a message from Andrew Hussie himself on the forums saying he wanted the lossless master of Incipisphere.

“Oh snap! I’m a guest artist on Volume 5!” … And the following day I see a new subforum sitting there and I found out I was invited to join the team. Exciting times, indeed.

The Song Itself

Now, I’m sure people are wondering why I went with doing a remix of Skies of Skaia. Well, simply put, I really liked the chord progression, and I really enjoyed one of the remixes that was formerly in the discography. Because of both, I decided I wanted to do something with a bit of a heavier sound to it, but keeping consistent with the light and vibrant tone qualities.

The bassline and drums definitely helped give the song a much heavier feel than the original, showing an earlier example of what I feel has become my typical contrast in music. I very much enjoy contrasts in all art forms. Unexpected contrasts that are executed well just really made me happy. I can’t say I’m particularly happy with the bassline now, but back then that was pretty appropriate for my skill level, plus having an arpeggiating sound that I really used to do too much.

There’s also this really amusing sound effect which is actually this sample played backward and faded in.

Of course, the comments I see the most on this song are on the improvised piano part. Before I was on the team I started doing a regular broadcast on the skaia.net internet radio, and I’d improvise over this song pretty often back then. I eventually figured out a few parts that I wanted to keep consistent, and I did a bunch of takes to finally get to what you hear in the final song. Of course, MIDI never seems to record very accurately, and I’m not actually the greatest at piano (!!!), so I had to do some fine-tuning on the note timings to make them actually sound precise. But those really fast runs were definitely real, and, no, don’t ask me to play it again. I won’t be able to. It was a really good day for me.

Until next time!

- Jeremy