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Post by Ratqueen on Dec 20, 2021 21:12:57 GMT -5
I’m excited, but also feeling shy sharing this song. I wrote it a while back and it sat on my hard disk ever since, unheard by anybody but my partner for many years. I have others like that. Because I don’t play any physical instruments, I created it using a soundtracker -- a type of audio program born when dinosaurs roamed the Earth -- which allows you to manually enter every single note of every instrument, every tiny detail, one by one, to create a song. It's time-consuming, but that's all I have. It's a bit like hexing, but for music. I have recently remixed this one with a layer of real guitars (performed by my partner, John, who is an actual musician) on top of my original guitars/bass/drums tracks, to fatten it up a bit. So here I am sharing the result for the first time ever (I almost chickened out, to say the truth, lol.) This is no Christmas song, BTW... it's a 4-minute metal instrumental. Thank you for giving it a listen! trojanrat.bandcamp.com/track/alphanumeric-escapeIf you're interested in learning more about soundtrackers, let me know (the one I use is 100% freeware). I'll be more than happy to talk about it!
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Post by Thor on Dec 20, 2021 21:25:22 GMT -5
You're so talented this is so cool! It reminds me of something you could find in DOOM. I like this genre ;)
Also the band name-- Trojan Rat is so cool :D
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Post by Ratqueen on Dec 21, 2021 9:07:30 GMT -5
Thank you, Thor! At first I wondered if you meant the band or the game DOOM, haha! (I actually don't know that band.)
I can't believe the name Trojan Rat wasn't already taken. That's me sitting on that rat, BTW!
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Post by lobb on Dec 21, 2021 13:37:14 GMT -5
I like this a lot! I'm not usually a fan of metal vocals so this being instrumental is great. And Trojan Rat is such a cool name.
Using a soundtracker sounds really interesting and a good way to get around not knowing/owning a bunch of instruments. Sadly, I don't know anything about musical notes and the like so I'd still be unable to use it, but I like the idea of something like hexing but for music. I'm really impressed!
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Post by Ratqueen on Dec 21, 2021 16:16:55 GMT -5
Thank you for your comments, lobb! All of my songs are currenlty instrumentals. I could sing... I mean, I'm able to sing, but I don't have that nice gravely male voice I like with my metal, lol! I'm also SUPER picky with metal vocals -- I often find a good song is ruined by some vocals I don't care for (i.e. I don't like death/black metal vocal style. I'm more into Pantera's, Machine Head's, or Grip Inc's vocal style). ANYWAY! My partner John, who IS a vocalist/guitar player/bass player keeps telling me I should put vocals on this or that song, with him singing, but I'm not there yet -- I feel there is no space for vocals in my existing songs (well, maybe one of them, but it's a bluesy song, and probably too mundane to share). I started writing a new one not very long ago, and I do want to try and make room for vocals on that one, for the first time -- that should be interesting, as long as John sings exactly the way I want/like, haha (which I know he can do). To tell you the truth, I know absolutely nothing about musical notes, jargon, whatever -- I just do it by ear. John might tell me: "You know, the place where you do that time signature shift, blah blah" and I'm like "What?"
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Post by lobb on Dec 23, 2021 15:39:47 GMT -5
Ooh I'd love to hear more of your songs! And I agree, I'm really picky about metal vocals too -- death/black metal vocals aren't my cup of tea either. That bluesy song sounds interesting, I love bluesy stuff as well!
That's interesting, about making a new song with more room for vocals. Are you going to write the lyrics for that one yourself?
It's even more impressive to me that you don't know about musical notation or jargon! I DEFINITELY couldn't do it by ear -- I think it takes being really good at knowing how things sound and having a knack for that, if it makes sense, so it's really awesome that you can do it like that!
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Post by Ratqueen on Dec 26, 2021 10:42:42 GMT -5
lobb ^ Maybe I'll upload more then. Thank you for your interest I have to fix up some of the drums on the bluesy song before it's ready for upload -- I just listened to it for the first time in a long time, and the hihat section made me cringe. They could all use a little work, actually. I'd love to be able to add a layer of real guitar played by John on top of all of them -- but it takes forever -- so maybe I'll fix them up a bit and upload soundtracker-only versions first. I wish I could play the guitar myself, as that would make the entire process so much easier! About writing lyrics, yes I think I would do it, even though I've never tried. But I do like to write, so maybe I can. What's difficult for me, cause I usually write instrumentals, is to make room for and think up a melody for the vocals.
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Post by lobb on Dec 26, 2021 12:56:06 GMT -5
Ha, I know that feeling of revisiting someone and suddenly seeing all the changes you'd like to make. I'm excited to see how that turns out, and I hope you're able to achieve the results you want! Writing lyrics sounds really fun, I'm sure you could do it if you like both music and writing. I can see why it'd be hard to fit the vocals into it. There's nothing wrong with instrumnentals, though, some songs really sound better without vocals
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Post by Arie on Jan 16, 2022 13:51:59 GMT -5
Oh wow! I really like this, and it sounds surprisingly polished for being made with such old-fashioned software. It's really impressive that you could think all this up without knowing much about music theory!!
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Post by Ratqueen on Jan 16, 2022 18:12:48 GMT -5
^ Thanks for taking the time to listen to it and for the positive feedback, Arie! I'm glad you like it! I literally have music playing in my head, and this is unfortunately the only way to get it out.
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silverfish
Petz Groomer
Posts: 169
Petz Versions: 4
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Post by silverfish on Jan 17, 2022 18:38:22 GMT -5
I'm really glad you didn't chicken out of sharing! I enjoyed this - you should definitely share more of the music you create!
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Post by Ratqueen on Jan 18, 2022 1:56:12 GMT -5
Thank you, Silverfish! I'm glad you enjoyed it! The metal fans are coming out of the woodwork! 🤘
I might upload my only song that actually has vocals on it (cause that’s one of the few my partner played real guitars/bass on top of my original tracks, which of course makes it sound better). I’m hesitant though because something unfortunate happened with it. I'll explain if I post it.
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Post by Kalium on Apr 12, 2022 11:47:42 GMT -5
This is incredible! I didn't know you could make things like this with software. What's the program?
I love music but I know nothing about it, just what I like the sound of (and I like the sound of this a lot!). Seeing that someone else who doesn't know either could make something this great makes me want to give it a try.
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Post by Ratqueen on Apr 12, 2022 15:22:02 GMT -5
Thank you Kalium ! I'm so glad you liked it! The free soundtracker I use is called OpenMPT (stands for Open ModPlug Tracker). It's available for download here: openmpt.org/It requires instruments samples... which can be obtained (extracted) from existing songs/tracks, then imported into a new file to work with. I've put together a template with all the instruments I needed for metal, so I don't have to re-import them all every time I want to start a new song (just make a copy and rename it to start a new song -- all instruments ready to go). I also have a template with added keyboard instruments -- I rarely use keyboards in my metal, but I find they can be useful for background sound effects or such. Anyway! I can email you this template if you like, to simplify the starting process quite a bit. It's not the easiest way to create music from scratch, but it makes it possible for someone who doesn't play any instruments. You literally have to input (with your computer keyboard) every single note/drum beat/effect, and leave empty spaces for silences, along several tracks (one or more for each instrument), laid down on as many patterns as your song needs (each pattern contains 64 lines, but can be cut short, as well as repeated and/or duplicated and edited as needed). Let me know if you have questions -- hopefully, I'll have the answers, lol!
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Post by Kalium on Apr 15, 2022 3:25:00 GMT -5
You weren't wrong, I had a quick look at it and it really is like hexing for music. But how cool that you can just play with making music like that. I think I'll have to mess about with this some more, once I figure out its issues with Wine. Probably just a version thing but it's annoying having to reboot into another system when you want to muck about. But that's my problem!
If you could email me your template that would be so helpful! leopardcorgi@gmail.com is my main email.
hah knowing me I will prooobably play with it a bit and then forget it but it's just so cool having the option! There are so many ways to make art and not enough time in one life to play with them all...
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