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TIGSource ForumsCommunityTownhallForum IssuesArchived subforums (read only)TutorialsGame Music Tutorials
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hyperduck
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« Reply #80 on: December 29, 2009, 09:49:57 AM »

Same, and to be honest on my side of things I have yet to make a 100% chip, chiptune. The closest I've gotten to writing chiptunes was for Zero Gear, and even then it wasn't really that chippy, just had quirky elements in it.

Chiptunes are good, but predictable, that is where harmony and melody and rhythmic structure are more important than timbre and instrumentation, instrumentation is rarely even an issue with chiptunes because the expected sound demands many of the same over and over. It's not a bad thing, it's just a chiptune thing.
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Mir@k
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« Reply #81 on: December 29, 2009, 10:55:20 AM »

You really don't need to learn to play an instrument if you want to make music. You really don't. I didn't, and i make music.
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hyperduck
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« Reply #82 on: December 29, 2009, 11:23:16 AM »

Physically learn to play that instrument, of course not! But that's not really a Game Music tutoring issue Smiley It's just a nice thing to know. Playing an instrument helps a great deal, however.
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JMickle
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« Reply #83 on: December 29, 2009, 01:11:27 PM »

i've started writing a soundstrack using only my acoustic guitar, recorded badly through my laptop microphone. i haven't started making the game or have any idea what kind of game its going to be, but i'm excited to see how well it works in game.

lets hope it goes well. i think i'm going to make every sound effect with my guitar as well. could work, but less likely than the music.
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hyperduck
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« Reply #84 on: December 30, 2009, 04:36:44 AM »

www.freesound.org
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Draknek
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« Reply #85 on: December 30, 2009, 04:45:10 PM »

'He's fighting in a deep dark damp cave this level, it's pretty eerie and there's not an incredible rush of action happening all the time' ok what does that mean to you?
I think this is my biggest problem when I try to do music. I have a vague idea what I want it to sound like, but I don't have anywhere near enough experience to know how to translate a vague feeling into actual music.

The solution is almost undoubtably to just make more music, of course.
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TheDustin
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« Reply #86 on: December 30, 2009, 06:22:34 PM »

i've started writing a soundstrack using only my acoustic guitar, recorded badly through my laptop microphone. i haven't started making the game or have any idea what kind of game its going to be, but i'm excited to see how well it works in game.

lets hope it goes well. i think i'm going to make every sound effect with my guitar as well. could work, but less likely than the music.

Depending on how bad your microphone is, I might suggest recording to a cassette player and then playback that recording into your microphone. It's what I did for the last album I did, and it gave it a nice analog feel to it.

And you should totally go for that soundtrack idea; might I suggest making a bassline with the 5th and 6th strings and have the sound effects the upper four? Stick to a scale and you'll be alright.

Quote
Instrumentation and timbre are incredibly important.

As someone without any formal training or background, that's what I focus on when I create stuff. My music could affectionately be called 'outsider art' (or less affectionately 'noise') and my methods are pretty obtuse. I just like experimenting. I'm not sure if any advice I could give is applicable, but at the very least you should practice a whole lot and not be afraid to try quirky things.  Hand Metal Right
*SHAMELESS PLUG*   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kivetoruk-Smith/229790271930?ref=mf
(CASinsclair, I took your multi-tracking tip to heart and made a drone song with a distorted autoharp, harmonica, and GB synthesizer called "Dark."  Wink
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anosou
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« Reply #87 on: January 08, 2010, 05:11:33 AM »

Wrote an article on how use music and audio in shmups in a creative way: http://anosou.com/?p=322

It's a cross-post of something I wrote here on the forums but I thought it was worth linking in the tutorials thread.
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hyperduck
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« Reply #88 on: January 09, 2010, 02:49:21 PM »

Totally brilliant, I will check it out.. and also check out a few definitive words I've yet to read up on (wuts a shmups?) DONT ANSWER IT ILL DO THE RESEARCH! +
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anosou
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« Reply #89 on: January 10, 2010, 07:16:51 AM »

Totally brilliant, I will check it out.. and also check out a few definitive words I've yet to read up on (wuts a shmups?) DONT ANSWER IT ILL DO THE RESEARCH! +

Glad to see someone is interested Smiley and your vocabulary will grow big, oh so big!  Gentleman
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Aoiichi
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« Reply #90 on: January 23, 2010, 01:37:53 PM »

http://www.trainear.com/ is a handy tool for honing your hearing and perfecting your sense of pitch. I use it a lot, and although not essential, it'll help you get rid of the times when a brilliant idea whips through your head but you have no idea what it is...

It's got a lot of other handy features too, like note interval calculation and recognising notes from a certain scale.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2010, 01:41:11 PM by Blue123 » Logged
hyperduck
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« Reply #91 on: January 28, 2010, 11:49:38 PM »

http://www.trainear.com/ is a handy tool for honing your hearing and perfecting your sense of pitch. I use it a lot, and although not essential, it'll help you get rid of the times when a brilliant idea whips through your head but you have no idea what it is...

It's got a lot of other handy features too, like note interval calculation and recognising notes from a certain scale.

This is something I completely did not even think about, this should be considered a(not essential but as time goes on, quite essential and defining to your craft) part of your practice, in both composing and just musically thinking. The more this stuff is at the end of your ear, the more often you recognise stuff in songs you like, and you can take it from those songs, morph it, and then it's something else before you even get a chance to call it your own.

Anyway, nice catch.
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JMickle
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« Reply #92 on: February 01, 2010, 09:29:14 AM »

over at braingale i gave overboy some beginner tips for making music and i'll probably be posting more, check it out if you want: http://forums.braingaleteam.com/index.php?topic=160.0

If I write a lot I may turn it into some proper kind of tutorial.
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jjbennet
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« Reply #93 on: March 20, 2010, 05:09:22 AM »

Wow. I was just about to ask the same thing as well. But the answers are already here! Thanks a lot! This is really one great forum.
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« Reply #94 on: April 22, 2010, 12:31:15 AM »

If no-one has mentioned exclusively, OCREMIX.. then I'd like to do that now.

http://ocremix.org/

Not only is this a great place to see the potential found in many game tracks of the past, but it has tons of helpful stuff on how to make music, buyer guides on keyboards and other tools, and inspiration of all kinds. This might be the definitive resource..
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ink.inc
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« Reply #95 on: April 24, 2010, 10:26:41 PM »

Voices of the Lifestream, a cover album of FFVII done by the folks at OCRemix, is particularly kickass.
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bɑːldɛn
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« Reply #96 on: November 08, 2010, 07:54:01 AM »

I don't know if anyone's mentioned MuseScore yet.

http://musescore.org/
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SurplusGamer
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« Reply #97 on: April 05, 2011, 06:09:59 AM »

I went through a period of writers' block after university because the process had become very intellectualised. I was more interested in what was clever than what sounded good and achieved what I wanted. Coming out of that block has involved teaching myself to write the way I used to, and one tip has been very valuable: my writing is getting a lot better when I start to think in terms of musical lines that interact, rather than chords. If you think too strictly in terms of what harmony you know, that can really limit your thinking and I found I was writing the same chords over and over for a while. But when you treat each line as an entity contributing to the over all harmony some more interesting chord choices can often arise out of that. Just a little tip-let that might help someone, you never know  Smiley

As for software, it really depends on what you're going for, but I would tend to ignore anyone's advice on what you should be using and go with what you find most intuitive to use. Everyone writes in a slightly different way and you want software which is going to keep out of your writing process as much as possible. It sounds obvious, but you shouldn't be fighting with it to get results. Always try it first.

Personally for me that means Cockos Reaper with a smattering of VSTs at the moment, and FamiTracker for Chiptunes. Both those programmes require give me minimum lag between idea and results. Your mileage may vary.
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KasHKoW
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« Reply #98 on: July 11, 2011, 06:03:07 PM »

I haven't gotten to this step... But DAMN... I'm really excited to almost be there. I think everything that goes into a game is pretty cool... I mean I wouldn't mind doing any of those jobs in the industry now a days.

Some tools I'm going to try to be using
LMMS -- Linux Multimedia Studio
Fruity Loops

Guides on music theory that I've started
Music

No game music theory etc have been used or found. I haven't even though about looking at game music tutorials... Only just trying to mimic them once I got down the basics.

I'll add to this when I actually start working on it again. This is where I left off though.
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rodent
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« Reply #99 on: August 07, 2011, 07:01:11 AM »

As for software, it really depends on what you're going for, but I would tend to ignore anyone's advice on what you should be using and go with what you find most intuitive to use. Everyone writes in a slightly different way and you want software which is going to keep out of your writing process as much as possible. It sounds obvious, but you shouldn't be fighting with it to get results. Always try it first.

Personally for me that means Cockos Reaper with a smattering of VSTs at the moment, and FamiTracker for Chiptunes. Both those programmes require give me minimum lag between idea and results. Your mileage may vary.

this is really solid advice and it mirrors what i usually tell people getting into electronic music.  each piece of software or hardware workstation will have its own personality and your creativity will respond in kind to that.  but finding something user friendly when you're 1st starting out can be rather scary.

i recommend starting small, just like with game deving.  start small, focus on small details at each step and then move up from there and it won't seem so difficult.


I haven't gotten to this step... But DAMN... I'm really excited to almost be there. I think everything that goes into a game is pretty cool... I mean I wouldn't mind doing any of those jobs in the industry now a days.

Some tools I'm going to try to be using
LMMS -- Linux Multimedia Studio
Fruity Loops

Guides on music theory that I've started
Music

No game music theory etc have been used or found. I haven't even though about looking at game music tutorials... Only just trying to mimic them once I got down the basics.

i've worked extensively with FL Studio if you need some help or some tutorials or website recommendations.  i've been a music producer for longer than i care to remember, lol.

yeah, you won't find anything published about game music 'theory'.  the best you could study is film scoring.  my advice is to observe and really pay attention to the movies/games you really enjoy the soundtracks on and learn what sets a mood and how.  sometimes the simplest note or texture can be more productive than an entire symphony.

don't bog yourself down with too much theory.  basic key signatures and scales should be more than enough to accomplish what you want.  unless you want rather complex music, that is and in that case, you're better off actually learning a real instrument.

focus more on what evokes emotion, sound design/sculpting/manipulation and your sequencing skills.  spend more time learning synthesis types (which is better for what) and sample editing.  these will be considerably more beneficial to you than learning a lot of theory that you'll never use.
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rodent
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