IT'S DONE.
I started on Tuesday the 5th and ended today, the 16th -- with a few breaks in between, due to tiredness, tight chests, and Windows 8 being a general pain in the rear. On the Audio Forums I mentioned that Windows 8 gave me THREE BLOOMING BSODS IN ONE HOUR when I was running FL Studio. In addition, there are MIDI controller problems when I run FL on Windows 8 -- so I did this piece in a rather flustered manner, with two operating system changes in between: Windows 7 to Windows 8, and back to Windows 7.
But all of that would probably go over your head by now, so I leave you with this.
My Round 1 submission is called Oceans Wide. I hope you all enjoy it.
All the best to everyone taking part. Now I know the deadline is tomorrow, so between this evening and tomorrow I expect a lot of people will be posting submissions. In fact, at the time of writing, only two of us in Group O (myself included) have posted submissions. I look forward to hearing whatever comes up. Now with regards to my own song..... I did my best with the composition and mixing. Seán was not only patient in having me use his computer, but also told me that once a piece is done, it's best to leave it as done. I could go tweaking it for eternity and never be satisfied, and since for all intents and purposes the deadline is tomorrow, I'd best not do it.
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NGADM aside, with Seán's help, I've started a bit of a gamer's collection. Not much, but it's a start, I suppose.
There are games in all these platforms that I enjoy, and it took Seán and me a few months, but it's coming along quite nicely. At the time these photos were taken I was playing Kingdom Hearts II, in anticipation for Kingdom Hearts II.5, which is coming out in Europe this December. These photos, that you see above, are top-middle-bottom shots of a storage solution... in my bedroom. I'm slowly turning into a geek. (In Seán's room you would instead find loads and loads of books, and tall bookcases to go with them.)
The PlayStation 3 came bundled together with my phone, and over time, Seán bought the Super Nintendo, PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 for the nostalgia. The PlayStation Portable was gifted to me by a friend from my university chaplaincy, and the Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance were passed on to me by a friend of a friend, cleaned and put back to good use.
To read about how this collection came together, here's the Tumblr post on it.
Seán isn't much of a console gamer; his preferred platform is the PC, so while I content myself with the titles I have in the photos, he plays vintage games, or remakes thereof. Oh, and the occasional Star Trek game. On occasion Seán and I try to compete with each other playing Super Mario Bros., but that's about the only multiplayer title you'll find in my room. If there's anything we want to play together otherwise, we take turns. Or if it involves Kingdom Hearts or anything similar, Seán just... watches me play and asks me many questions (as any observer to a game would). I do enjoy it. ^_^
Now, I am going to take my week-long break from making music, because like others, I am going to need it.
Phonometrologist
I don’t necessarily agree that once a piece is done, it’s better to leave it just as is. I guess it’s very circumstantial to what he means. If you’re the perfectionist type where you’re always tweaking it and never sharing it, then he is right. You don’t want to have too many unfinished projects because you’re not satisfied. But as long as you have a time that you know you will be submitting something, then why cut yourself off? Sometimes a composition can reveal something new to you over time. I cannot hear everything from the beginning of a piece, and my own initial vision could limit me. But that’s just the composition side of it. For mixing and mastering, one must have patience and breaks in between so a piece isn’t over done with too much make-up per say. The whole process takes a lot of time to be done well. As a general rule, I tend to listen subjectively, tweak in moderation, and shape over an extended period of time. Having multiple ears always help.
So you can understand what I mean when I say, how does one really know when a piece is done? If you’re unsatisfied, usually that could be a hint that it isn’t. Mind you, you’re not going to feel like it’s perfect at the end (unless you’re oblivious and that has its place), but I think one should and can tell when you reached the max within a piece.
Troisnyx
I will admit to being a bit of a perfectionist. While I don't doubt Oceans Wide has its mixing issues (as do a lot of my pieces at this point in time), people seem to be divided on what could actually remedy the mixing issues. Seán stayed with me towards the end to listen and search out any parts where the vocals were being drowned out by the instrumental, which had a good mix in and of itself, but balancing the instrumental with the vocals was tricky. And the way I saw it, it never seemed to be a task that would end. All day, pretty much, he saw me twiddling with volume envelopes, and knowing my disposition, he told me that I'd do this to eternity if I had the chance. XD Uh, yeah, we both agree that when that's happening, especially to a perfectionist, it's time to actually stop.
I wholeheartedly understand you, because each piece is going to have its own mix -- frankly, at this point in time, I'd love to understand how to balance a female voice with an instrumental. My voice is strong at the mids, and too much in the way of mids is going to give people listener's fatigue...