Compression is one of the harder concepts to grasp when it comes to music production. When I was first learning, I found it an overwhelming to go through so many tutorials that either didn’t show practical use of compression or didn’t explain why you’d do it. So we’re going to start from the very begining and keep moving onward from there.
All posts by Beatscribe
Life as a Freelance Musician Part 12: Backup Plans and Perseverance
Making it as a freelancer means you’re going to need to strike a balance between doing what you’re passionate about and still having food to eat and a place to live. It can be hard to keep this balance, but since few of us have the option of throwing caution to the wind, here’s a few tips on staying afloat.
Still In School? Still at Home?
If you’re young and still living at home, now is the time to hone your musical skills. I mean, how much time does high school or college really require from you? The fact that you don’t have to pay rent and don’t have multiple things competing for your attention means that a summer locked in your room with your instruments can put you far ahead of your peers or those who are getting a late start. You just have to have the discipline to treat it like it’s the first steps of your future career and not just a hobby.
Backup Plans and Non Artistic Work
It’s definitely worth having something to fall back on if things don’t go so great as a musician or freelance artist. I’m a firm believer that having several plans will help lower your stress and help you enjoy your creative outlets more than hoping every day that things will go perfectly.
Here’s a few sites you can find additional work on:
eLance – You can find part time/full time work that requires nothing but an internet connection and a decent computer in almost any field on eLance. Don’t limit yourself to just audio work, you can find easy article writing, data entry, QA jobs with little or no experience, you can also make good money translating (if you know more than one language) and even doing boring stuff like sending emails.
Textbroker – As I mentioned in the “first year as a freelancer” article, my original backup plan was writing for Textbroker and other sites like Content Authority and iWriter. There’s a huge need for writers and although the topics aren’t always super exciting, you might find that its another sort of creative outlet you can get paid for. You can work as much or as little as you want with no penalties, so it’s a perfect “fill in the blanks” style of work.
SoloGig.com – Another great place to find stuff to fill your pockets while still leaving you time to pursue your passions.
Those with a background in programming, web design, graphic design and other computer-related fields will have few problems finding freelancing work.
Sticking To It
Not every freelance job is going to be your dream project working for your dream company’s greatest game of all time. You can find tons of work doing boring stuff like editing podcasts, cleaning up audio files and recordings. Don’t be afraid of this work, since many of those skills come in handy later on. For example, learning how to do noise cancellation and removing hiss from recordings its not very exciting, but you might need that skill one day when you are using a dirty sample or trying to clean up a certain irritating frequency from a synthesizer.
A famous American writer William James said, “If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.” Take that attitude toward your music, don’t be afraid to put in the annoying legwork and you will be able to get your sounds out there.
Next Up:
-Some FAQs Answered
-Boring Accounting and Stuff
Tutorial: The Sunsoft DPCM Bass Trick in Famitracker
You probably heard me mention before how much I love the Sunsoft DPCM bass trick on the NES. Of all the chiptune composers, Sunfsoft’s people really set the bar high with this trick. Although it does muddy things up a little bit, the crunchy bass lines on a handful of these old NES games really stood out. Today we’ll take a look at how to build some slick DPCM bass lines in Famitracker with minimal fuss and hopefully minimal static in the final product.
Read on to find out how we get this sound out of 8-bit samples..
Continue reading Tutorial: The Sunsoft DPCM Bass Trick in Famitracker
Life As A Freelance Musician Part 11: The Secret Art Of Composing Melodies
Melodies are what drive a song, especially in the case of classic video game songs. When you only have 3-4 channels, each note has to count. However, coming up with melodies that are unique and interesting is probably one of the hardest parts of composing. This article talks about some tricks for finding melody that don’t involve classical training or worrying too much about scales and things like that. These methods work great (especially for orchestral music) but since not everyone has that training and we’re focusing on video game music here, these are a few methods I’ve found handy for squeezing the best melody out of an idea.
Repeating Theme With Changing Bass Line
This is pretty much what most pop songs are and it works great for getting started in a video game song too. Come up with a simple melody that’s only a measure or two long. Set your DAWs to just loop it over and over. Then with a keyboard, try different bass notes along with the sample. You’ll quickly notice how the combination of bass note and melody change the feeling of the same notes playing repeatedly. Once you settle on a pattern you like, record (or put down MIDI notes) the bass part and then start modifying your lead to highlight the differences in the bass.
Here’s an example that started with just 13 little notes played over the course of 2 bars. The last two bars feature changes to break up the repetition and highlight the difference in the bass but at the beginning the highlighted notes played over and over with the entire bass line.
What Comes Next In Your Brain?
This is probably my favorite little technique. We listen to so much music that sometimes we sort of subconsciously know what “should” come next. It’s not always the most original thing, but if you are stuck, this trick can help you get back on track. If you have a song done up to a point but can’t seem to decide what should come next, set your DAWs to play it and then go into some empty space. At that moment, think what you expect to hear next. Don’t try to play it on a keyboard or a guitar, just let your brain tell you what comes next.
Arpeggios Lead To Ideas
Remember those 80s keyboards Radio Shack always had(has?) on display that has all those cheesy bosa nova presets where you press one key and it starts making a whole song? Well, this isn’t a bad way to stumble onto interesting chord progressions. I like to use arpeggio setups for this technique. Set up a arpeggio with lots of notes and just move around your keyboard and see where it takes you. Here’s a scratch track from an upcoming game where I built an arpeggio and started moving around the keyboard before settling on this progression that had chord changes I’d never have come up with just playing my keyboard.
Instant Inspiration
The most elusive of them all; sometimes you just get hit with a whole song all at once. This happens to me only about once every 3 projects, but its usually the best song in the whole project. Be ready to record ideas at any time. Most modern smart phones have voice memos. My wife gets a kick out of going through mine and hearing me going ‘duh duh da –daaaaaah’ when you can hear cars or a restaurant in the background, but you have to record when inspiration strikes. Often times, its when you aren’t doing anything that ideas appear. I was going to post one of my ‘da da daa’ tracks and a final version of it to show the difference but its just too embarrassing. I have heard more than one professional, respected songwriter/musician say that they have lost great song ideas because they didn’t have a pen or thought they could remember it later.
Subconscious Composition
I am not one of these people, but I know at least three who say they’re subconscious writes better songs than they do. They literally DREAM songs or have ideas in the moments before they drift off to sleep. Again, being ready to record and forcing yourself awake in these moments is the key. I can’t say this has ever happened to me and it seems like it’d require the most self control not to just fall back to sleep, but whatever works!
Work With Others
Nothing helps you get inspired more than working with other musicians. Have a friend write the melody or a rhythm track. Know someone who plays a rare instrument? Have them record a part. When I used to play in a band when I was younger, a combination of my friend’s ideas plus the “What Comes Next In Your Brain?” method applied by someone else to the same song lead to our group’s most dynamic and interesting songs. Two heads are better than one.
Got any techniques of your own? Any questions? Please share them.
Beatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks and sfx for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea. Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.