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If you could create your own music?


Aepriz

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Time for another musical related game!

 

I guess most of us aren't that profound in making music and only listen to it, but, what if you could create music!? ANY kind of music you like, with no rules and boundaries!

 

I’m not sure if I’m the only one who ever thought about this wile listening to music, but if I’m not the only one please explain;

  • How would it sound?
  • How would you name your project/band, albums and songs?
  • What would your music be about?
  • How would you treat you live performances and imagery?
  • Any ideas for songs or album progression?

 

Go ahead and let your imagination go into overdrive! And if you do create your own music?

  • How does it sound?
  • Are you satisfied with how it sounds and what you accomplished?
  • What would you change if you could change anything you’d like?

 

I'll go ahead and start!

 

[spoiler=MM]

Being a Black Metal fan, its only natural I'd go this route. I'd opt for a mixture between ambient and atmospheric Black Metal. But since this incredibly vague, allow me to explain it in close detail.

 

I would try and mix

/
with atmospheric -nature influenced black metal- (think Cascadian Black Metal, with a ritual folk vibe), and at it's heaviest, Wall-of-Sound ambient Black Metal.

 

I would place a massive priority on atmosphere, usually a dark, ominous one. And would try and accomplish this with the use of voice sampling (about a certain subject) and massive stretches of ambient that would slowly build up in larger crescendo's. Instead of the usual, more direct song progression found in Atmospheric Black Metal I'd rather take my time and opt for a more Post-Rock approach, with slight variation to create a bigger sound as longer as the song continues. Eventually ending in a massive Wall-Of-Sound.

 

Since I have a pretty big interest in nature and occultism, and always had an interest in magic and witches I would have called my band "Malefica".

 

The general rule of thumb in Black Metal is that there is more to it than only the music. Details are important. Which means a lot of importance is placed on imagery (like the use of a v instead of an u), concept albums (revolving around witches and the Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer).

 

My first album would be called "Mallevs Maleficarvm", a concept album with a two-way concept.

 

On the one hand the music, atmosphere and voice sampling would tell the story of a Witch that's been caught and placed on the stake, with a constant insecurity about the fact if she actually is a witch or not. While on the other hand, the lyrics would be about some of my personal experiences regarding certain topics like my fear of aging.

 

In more details, it would be a 4 song album;

 

  1. Daemon – I Am Gateway
  2. Incendens – Tarot Of The Bvrning Jester
  3. Malefica – Vsvrper Of Men
  4. Cinere – Bvrden Of Conscience

 

Every title has 2 parts, the Latin word at the start would direct to the first part of the concept (The Witch Burning), while the English part is about my chosen topics.A quick translation for the Latin, to give an idea what kind of samples and feel I'm going for in the concept;

  • Daemon = Demon
  • Incendens = Burning
  • Malefica = Witch/Evil-doer
  • Cinere = Ashes

 

In the first song, the "so-called-witch" is placed on a stake and over the course of the song tries to convince you she's not a witch. Its not until the fire starts burning her voice changes to a more demonic tone.

 

The second and third song will be about the burning itself, with the devil actually leaving the witch at the end of the third song. Resulting in the death of the witch.

 

While the last song is about the after math, and the feeling you murdered an innocent (since the devil left the girl before she died, making the burning useless).

 

This story will be told in a few voice samples, NOT the lyrics, the lyrics themselves will be about;

 

  • I Am Gateway = My Ambitions in relation to the people around me;
  • Tarot Of The Bvrning Jester = Failures and success, and how this affected me;
  • Vsvrper Of Men = My dreams in relation to self-development;
  • Bvrden Of Conscience = My fear of aging

 

This will create a ominous, dark album about the dark history of mankind and a very personal album at the same time.

 

 

 

 

I have invested quite a bit of thought in this the past few days (I even thought about lyrics and such) and thought this to be a very fun idea. Hopefully we'll get a great thread, filled with interesting idea's out of this! I'm looking forward to reading them all! :applause:

Edited by Aepriz
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As much as I want this thread to be successful, I don't think many people will really get into it. I for one love seeing stuff like this, seeing other peoples' creativity and such.

 

I started rapping when I was a freshman in high school and have a decent collection of shit that I wrote, some with a friend who has since gone far beyond where I have musically. I even bought a legit Blue Yeti and all but never mustered the motivation to actually "officialize" my music. And I kind of fell off of rapping a few months ago anyway, and have almost entirely changed my taste of music to grunge and similar stuff. There are really only two rap artists that I still keep up with...

 

I've written a few not-rap songs too but it's really just conceptual (I guess you would call it that). I played guitar for a year or two when I was way younger, like in 4th grade. I never thought I'd regret quitting it, but now all these years later I am. I could definitely be doing something tangible if I had stuck with it all this time. I even tried to pick it back up again the other day, but I gave up after feeling unaccomplished after about an hour (which I know is not really a good effort). I might really try over the summer though when I have hardly anything to do.

 

And as far as ideas go, I have a shitload. For rapping, I have a huge word document filled with references, partial verses, wordplay, etc. For other music I mostly just have ideas for songs.

 

Unfortunately though this is pretty much all just in my head, but hopefully I will actually stop being a self-sequestering asshole and actually bring some of this to fruition before I die. I know I have it in me, but my motivation to do anything is just unfathomably poor.

 

And to be honest, I really don't want to share my ideas either. Not that anyone would want to steal them, but I'd rather keep it to myself.

 

And I know I went incredibly off-topic and I'm sorry if I just prematurely silenced this thread. So feel free to ignore this and post all of your musical inclinations :).

Edited by solstice
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I've never given this topic much thought - I can't play a single instrument - but, no limits, huh? Alright, I guess would create death metal, with some really deep growling similar to those from Spiros Antoniou of Septicflesh, but even better, because I can. Maybe not too brutal, maybe slightly melodic while still having the deep growls.

 

I don't want to go into names, because I have no idea. Not really sure about lyrical themes either. If I know me though, it would likely be of fantasy fiction. Like from The Stormlight Archives. Probably not a very good fit for death metal but whatever :p

 

I thought I could make this longer, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm not very creative :whistle:

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I love the amount of detail you've gone to Aepriz. :applause:

 

I've thought often about making my own music and have put some things together, but nothing that's anything special as this was a couple of years ago when I was still pretty new to playing guitar. I play bass more nowadays so haven't really done much with the writing side of things.

 

I would love to just jam with people but the only other person I know that can play an instrument is a keyboardist and she has very different tastes to me so not sure it would work. :p We do chat often about jamming together though but she's over 100 miles away. :/

 

I haven't thought at all about lyrics or themes, but I know for sure that I'd want my music to be mid-tempo thrash metal...so groove metal...so basically like Pantera and Sepultura. :whistle:

 

D standard tuning and hoarse/growling vocals as standard, but I wouldn't be adverse to tweaks here and there. I'd also take inspiration from some of Rage Against the Machine's music as well.

 

Maybe we can get a band formed right here! :headbang:

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TL;DR post incoming.

 

Well, I'm not even going to go into what I've actually accomplished, because I'd rather day dream about what I really want.

 

My roots come from thrash metal, doom, and all the things that fall into the progressive category. It has to be heavy, but it also has to be intricate, pompous, and excessive. And it has to have intelligent lyrics that have deep philosophical meanings, and metaphorical meanings. So basically, Pink Floyd meets Metallica, meets Black Sabbath, with some Rush and King Crimson thrown in at the same time. But of course, I'd end up making it more complicated than that.

 

It's hard to explain what I want sound-wise. I want that raw heaviness of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and King Crimson. But at the same time, I want the sound of Pink Floyd (Most important part). But then, I also want that ridiculous musicianship of Yes, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Rush.

 

I want a drummer that can play jazzy, but then explode like Dave Lombardo when needed, who can go from 4/4 time to 13/4 in the blink of a eye. A guitar player who isn't over the top, who can let the other instruments all lead at the same time, but who can be a total badass when he needs to be, so someone like Alex Lifeson really. A singer who has a golden voice, who can go from soft to heavy, and from quite to wailing, like Greg Lake or Robert Plant or even James Hetfield. And well, I'm the bassist, and all I do is rip Cliff Burton, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee and Steve Harris off, so I'm exactly what I need. And I'd love a Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman type keyboardist, but it'll never happen. So I'm stuck with myself, and all I can do is lay down chords in the background and create atmosphere. But doing that with a Mellotron is exactly what I need (Like King Crimson), and then some Moog and synth thrown in there too.

 

The last band I was in, I put up a few names that were declined. One was "Gates of Delirium", which is a Yes song and a really good Prog name for a band. The other which I like a little more, is "Morning Star". In Latin, Lucifer is translated to The Morning Star. So technically, the name just means Satan, but it's far more dynamic, sort like King Crimson (Which just means Satan too). I actually went to the length of drawing a logo, and even writing a song named Morning Star. I tend to use this one day, and Morning Star will be the name I choose.

 

I always do the lyrics, that was technically my first instrument, I guess you can say that. It was actually Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell that made me start. I always loved their depressing and drug fueled lyrics because it related to me more than anything. But then, there's James Hetfield, he was the other influence. His lyrics in Metallica ranged from everything, and I found that really cool in a metal band. But then there is Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. Nowadays, Waters is my main influence. I haven't wrote in awhile, but before I took a break I was trying to get his style down perfectly.

 

And I almost hate to say this, cause some ass might steal it. But I work from concept albums, I really like themes and returning stories, cause that's how you do it in Prog. A few years back I went through a horrible break up, and while listening to Floyds "The Wall", I related to it. And while in the process of all of that, I was playing Metal Gear Solid 3. Now in MGS3, the bosses of the game are named from emotions. The Joy, The Fear, The Pain, The Fury, The Sorrow, and The End. So what I realized is, those emotions from those characters, I was feeling them at the time. So I wrote a concept album on it. The concept is having a really good relationship, and it falls to shit, and those characters names all represent a emotion you will feel in a failing relationship, just like I was at the time. You go from happiness with "The Joy, all the way to "The End" when you realize it's over and you'll never have it back.

 

But that's not the only one, and I'd never put that concept up with a band in the beginning. It would take years before I pulled it out and actually let myself/my band do it, because I'd hate to fuck it up. I have another about the Chtulu Mythos being set in ancient Egypt and all that mystical fantasy shit that Proggers usually do, but idk how much I actually like it as a concept. Then I have countless ones about drugs, love/hate, and minor philosophical stuff, these are always my starting points with people when I first tell them I wanna be in a band. Then, I even have Lord Of The Rings stuff.

 

Yeah, I dream about this often and make scenarios out in my mind. I don't have a life outside of music, as you can tell because I just wrote a essay on my day dreaming. And sorry if there's any typos.

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  • 1 month later...

:::: Part 1 ::::

 

This thread is awesome. I'm both a DJ and a producer of electronic music. This will be my 10th year producing (17th DJing), and in the 10 years (on and off), I've come up with a handful of good sounding (quality wise) tracks, some of which have been already released. I'll start answering those bullets as best as I can.

 

How would it sound?

 

Disregarding the fact that I DJ, because I play more styles than I care to produce, I like for my tracks to sound heavy, upbeat, and aggressive in many cases.

 

I started producing US hard house, which almost sounds like a bastard spawn of Chicago house and gabber. The style came about after the death of American hard house (both LA & Chicago hard house) in the late 90s. Many of us who were making the style eventually turned to jumpstyle and tekstyle over the years. I mix all three styles together when I'm booked to DJ a hard dance set, since they all have similar qualities and speeds (140-155 BPM).

 

I currently am making the transition from only making hard dance, to making frenchcore. Frenchcore is an aggressive, but not overly-distorted subgenre of hardcore (electronica, not metal) which sits between 185 and 250 BPM. It samples anything and everything, and can be very cheesy, tongue & cheek, and goofy sounding, to dark and evil sounding. I've been a huge backer of the style in America for the last 9 years (almost no exclusive only frenchcore DJs in the hardcore community in America). The style is becoming more and more popular, and I've seen new stages at big hardcore events in Holland that cater to frenchcore (as well as terror and speedcore). It's an awesome style and I want to make it my own around here.

 

All that I've said is not to say I'm limiting myself to just what I want to make. I actually want to learn how to make styles that I don't actually play, or don't even like, for that matter, just to have the know how and the additional experience.

 

How would you name your project/band, albums and songs?

 

I DJ & produce as "Elekid". If anyone from Nintendo asks, it stands for "Electric Kid". :whistle:

 

The first album I had was called "the New Kid On the Block," to signify the "kid" part of my name, and the fact that I was finally adding my own original tracks to the discography of American hard house.

 

Because this is a gaming site, the song link I will include with this reply is called Leeroy Jenkins. You should all know why. If not, shame on you.

 

As far as the rest of my tracks, I've always been a fan of giving my tracks and track names a theme. I think it's because of my hard house upbringing. I've listened to electronic music that would be best be considered as fun music. You can call it cheesy in a lot of cases, but it's still fun nonetheless.

 

What would your music be about?

 

As I've stated, I like to give my tracks themes. For example, after having an epiphany after playing at a psytrance event here in the Midwest (they were trying to integrate harder styles with psytrance at their event), I wanted to come up with a hard house track that sounded trippy, and had psytrance elements. Needless to say, I didn't quite hit the mark I was aiming for, but the track turned out to be release-worthy (and is on my first album). The track is called "Lake Shore Drive," named after the street of the same name in Chicago. I grew up listening to people on the news call it LSD. Soooo... I was at a psytrance event and wanted to make a hard house track called "Lake Shore Drive." Funny how ideas are sometimes thought upANYWAY...

 

I've got samples from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas in the track, such as when Raoul Duke has that flashback of being in a nightclub in San Francisco, and the chemist walks up and asks if anyone wants some LSD and that he'll make it. His voice is stretched to all hell in the movie, so I was happy that they already did some of the work for me. I also sampled Christina Ricci saying "L S D" and "They put me in the hotel, and gave me the LSD." I also sampled a bunch of sounds from a few different Super Mario Bros. games and structured it to sound like Mario is running from the left speaker to the right collecting coins and 1up mushrooms. He runs into a tube on one speaker and comes out the other.

 

If I've piqued your curiosity about this track and want to hear it, click here. It's not the best track I've made, because I was still learning at the time, but I'm proud of it. :)

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:::: Part 2 ::::

 

How would you treat you live performances and imagery?

 

I don't like standing on stage performing like a statue. Many DJs do this, and they're not much fun to visually watch rather than just listening to their performance. I've always been a big fan of DJs having some kind of on stage shtick. Mark EG from England is my favorite example of this. Dude is a wild man. I've seen him 3 times now, most recently in Minneapolis back in February. The first two times I've seen him, he's destroyed half the stage during his performance. The first time, he took a chainsaw to one of the monitors, a piano they rolled in for him, and a rocking chair. The second time I saw him in Los Angeles, in 2003, he took a baseball bat to a tube TV. My friend who I was there with tried taking the huge shard of glass that was once the bulb in the TV home with us on the plane. Not happening.

 

So after seeing Mark EG perform twice by this point when I made this decision, I decided to start eating records during my sets. I had (still have) a bunch of old 78s that I was given over the course of several Christmases from my Stepma's side of the family. Some of them I will not touch, and would like to find a case for them, because they are rare, but the rest were eaten. Not actually swallowed, but from the crowds point of view, it looked like I was chowing down, as seen below...

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/Elekidcore/eatingrecords_zpscxmpibei.jpg

 

Go ahead and let your imagination go into overdrive! And if you do create your own music?

 

So here's my track I'd like to share for this thread:

 

Elekid - Leeroy Jenkins

 

How does it sound?

 

Quality wise, it's not bad. It got mastered professionally before being released. It's not the best track in the world by far, but for it being my first acid techno track, and having no experience producing acid techno prior to this project, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

 

Are you satisfied with how it sounds and what you accomplished?

 

Absolutely. There were a few minor changes I would have made if I thought about them at the time, but oh well. My wife, who is an avid gamer and former WoW nerd, loved what I did with Leeroy's voice at the end of that huge sample in the middle of the track. She was the one that turned me on to the Leeroy Jenkins video, so I heard her positive reaction to the track from two rooms away as I was working on the project. The track, along with 3 remixes from other producers, was released on Noise Complaint Records, a small now defunct Midwest digital record label, in 2012.

 

What would you change if you could change anything you’d like?

 

A few things, actually. First, the low end would be changed. Needs moar bass! A friend of mine who did the mastering for the track, and every other track on that label, added more on his end during the post-production, but I should have covered that myself.

 

Also less sidechaining. Just to explain what sidechaining is real quick, in laymen's terms, which is all I know - is when you've got two sounds, right? And you want one of those sounds to control the volume of the other. So like in my track, I had my kick drum, and a loop sample (which are made up of several other pieces of a drum kit). When each kick hit, so with each beat, the volume of the loop quickly lowered. As soon as the kick let up, the loop quickly faded in. It helps keep the track from sounding muddy and from having too much going on at once. I just went a little heavy on it.

 

I would have lowered the bass in the middle, allowing the clip from the Leeroy Jenkins video to come through more. You can hear what they're saying, but it could've definitely been done cleaner.

 

Lastly I would have brought in the vocal from the beginning towards the end. Maybe go back and forth with the Leeroy Jenkins edit.

 

-----------

 

This was an awesome idea for a thread. I'm glad I found it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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