[Lunatique]

Update:

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/music/Lunatique%20-%20End%20of%20the%20Story,%20and%20the%20Beginning%20of%20Another(%20(mixed).mp3

This is pretty much the finished version. I'm not 100% happy with the mix, and I haven't done any mastering yet--not even sure if it even needs mastering.

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Old post:

Been trying to learn Sonar 3, and it's a pretty steep learning curve, no matter what Cakewalk says about it being more user-friendly. A professional software for creative work is never easy I guess.

This track is definitely not finished--just a test clip to get the basic idea down. I'm trying to do orchestral strings and electronica with this one. Have a lot more to go. No panning or audio effects yet, only some volume automations. I haven't even programmed any drum breaks or variations yet. I still have to figure out how I'm going to arrange the more complex orchestral string harmonies and counter melodies later on in the track. I'm going to go for a full-blown lush feel, and the music theory required for that will make my head hurt. . ..

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/music/Lunatique%20-%20End%20of%20the%20Story,%20and%20the%20Beginning%20of%20Another(test).mp3

I used Sonar 3, Triton Le Workstation, and softsynths (Korg Legacy Cell, VSampler). Took me forever to figure out how export a mp3 that contains both the audio and the midi tracks. It is NOT intuitive at all. You have to export them seperately as wave files first, then import them into a seperate project file, THEN you can export them both to one mp3 file that contains both. What a pain in the royal ass.

[balistic]

Probably the best thing I've heard from you. Some of your earlier work sounded sort of "keyboard demo", but this doesn't. I can tell there's real emotion going on here.

Don't stress too much about theory . . . takes all the fun out of it. I've intentionally never read so much as a single paragraph on music theory, because I find that figuring things out on my own is half the fun of making music.

To each his own though . . . some people enjoy the academic aspects of music.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Lunatique]

Thanks!

Yeah, the earlier stuff used really crappy equipment so the sound was really cheap. I dunno if they'd sound better if I had superior equipment though.

I do think a lot about the academic side of music because in order to compose a certain style, you have to know music theory, or else you hit that glass ceiling and will never go any further. It's kinda like with Danny Elfman--his very early stuff was very unique, but it sounded very obvious that he didn't have classical training, and some of the more complex harmonic structures, counter melodies, tonal palette..etc were off limits to him. But after all these years of learning and studying and composing, he's broken through that glass ceiling and you can totally hear the difference.

[Impaler]

If you're serious about music composition, you really shouldn't skimp on the music theory. Otherwise, you'll spend half of your time retreading common concepts instead of writing music. Higher music theory is damned difficult to learn intuitively. Speaking from experience, my advice is to learn as much music theory as possible, then just stop thinking about it. Your focus should always be on harmony and melody, no matter how much theory you know.

Chances are pretty good that you'll only use a half-plagal cadence 5 times in your entire songwriting lifetime, but it's a hell of a lot easier to write a song knowing what one is than to spend two weeks grappling with it from the bottom up. Knowledge also gives you more musical flexibility as well. Learning a new chord progression scheme or a different type of harmonic arpeggio is like adding a brand new color to your palette.
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QED, sort of.

[Lunatique]

Absolutely. I agree with every single word.

Knowledge of music theory and creative talent are definitely seperate things though. I know people who are concert pianists but cannot compose even if you put a gun to their heads. While there are plenty of creative people out there who are making very interesting music, but can't even read sheet music.

But the ones with creative talent AND music theory knowledge are absolutely the most dangerous ones. I aspire to be dangeroud, but I'm not even threatening to a small child.

[Lunatique]

[Giant Hamster]

Cool stuff, Luna. :D

Really slick intro with the pad, synth and bell-thing!

the bass strings at 00:52 are kinda strange. After that though the strings are higher up and sound very nice.