diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'album')
| -rw-r--r-- | album/cherubim.yaml | 68 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml | 79 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml | 109 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml | 18 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-3.yaml | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml | 16 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml | 24 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml | 84 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml | 40 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml | 188 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml | 10 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/prospit-and-derse.yaml | 26 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/squiddles.yaml | 8 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/strife.yaml | 18 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/the-felt.yaml | 13 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | album/the-wanderers.yaml | 54 |
18 files changed, 568 insertions, 195 deletions
diff --git a/album/cherubim.yaml b/album/cherubim.yaml index 3dd465c6..10c64818 100644 --- a/album/cherubim.yaml +++ b/album/cherubim.yaml @@ -157,27 +157,48 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Carne Vale - Unknown.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + <b>The Concept</b> + So with Cherubim, we tried something a little different to reflect the duality of the character/s in question. The album would be split into an even number of tracks grouped in pairs, and then finish off with Eternity Served Cold, to represent Caliborn's dominance and unchaining. The pairs would represent a similar track done in two distinct styles for Calliope and Caliborn - Calliopes tracks would be considerably mellow, light, friendly, while Caliborn's versions would be chaotic and angry. + Carne Vale mirrors RJ's "Stellarum Salve" though only vaguely - I probably could've done a better job, but hopefully there's enough recognizable lapses into SS that I treat as Calliope's personality sorta coming back into the fray. The noticable sections are 0:00 and 1:58. Outside of that, anything pretty much went - The original ideas thrown about were a kind of crazy, OTT DnB. I ended up combining that with quite a bit of angry metal guitar, and a few spoonfuls of English (And Eternity, just for a bit of foreshadowing). + Originally I was looking into the Saw theme for inspiration, since there's quite a lot of decent connections to be had there (Not least because of Caliborn's escape sequence and the whole Lil' Cal thing) - in the end I didn't really use much of this, which is a shame because it'd probably work quite well... + <b>The Name</b> + The name for this guy actually has more backstory than most. The working title was "Caliburninate". Afterwards I thought "uNCHAINED" might make a nice name, since the progression of the song made it seem an almost alternative version of Caliborn's freedom/leg-sawing. adventure. Trouble was, Eternity Served Cold already provided the background to that, and it'd make more sense to rename EsC to "uNCHAINED" than this one (as pointed out by Toby). So that idea was dropped and still no name. + (Also, while I considered renaming EsC to 'uNCHAINED', I figured that guy'd been renamed enough and people were already referring to it via the 'Eternity' name, so I figured just leave it). + Finally I looked to the whole ICP/Juggalo angle. Latched on to the name "Carnival", but that on its own was a bit flat, so went looking into the etymology of the word. Dug up "Carne Vale" (lit. 'Farewell Meat') and that was that. + It bizarrely managed to be a sort of weird mirror of "Stellarum Salve", and be almost appropriate to the whole leg-slicing shenanighens. + <b>The Track</b> + Now, there was quite a lot of DmC being played while I was making this, so a lot of of inspiration came from both the new Devil May Cry and the original ones. + We start off with a minor-ised version of a sequence from Stellarum Salve, before bursting into the rising power-chord section. This is you're typical "transformation" section where Caliborn's personality is beginning to take over. Of note for this song is the usage of Shreddage, which I've been fiddling about with after Toby posted about it a while back. My setup for using it isn't brilliant, but the Amp sim it comes with is decent enough and the recorded strings and general setup (i.e. easy support for double tracking and the like) are probably better than anything I could do with a real guitar. + At 0:45 we bring in a direct reference to Eternity/English. (The melody is English, the music box in the background is referencing the beginning of Eternity). Can't quiet remember what I was doing for the synthy-bass in the background, but I do remember it was fairly distorted. The laughing here I'll talk about a bit later... + 1:10, and Shreddage is paying for itself with a meaty bit of rhythm guitar. Probably could've done a bit more variation around these sections, but it was doing a good enough job. + 1:57 gives us the second Stellarum Salve reference, sort've mashed two bits together. Here we have a brief reprieve from the chaos as Calliope's personality resurfaces. Then however, we get to the noisiest bit of the whole song. + 2:27 and we get ready to go into full rave mode. Once the beat gets going, I decided to try a more complex riff for shreddage, a mix of power chords and lead. The synth bass also gets a bit more to do, adding a bit of panning and the then pitching it up to play a crazy arpeggiation. This bit was basically just "do something crazy". Originally I had some laughter here too, but took it out since it was being drowned out by everything else. + 3:02 and we return to a bit of sanity. The guitar solo here is again provided by shreddage and sequenced - It's actually fairly simplistic, but adding a few articulations helps fool it into sounding a bit more believable. + 3:26 and we bring our old friend Fruity Slicer back into the fray. He's simply slicing the beat that was used throughout the song previously, while the rest of the song calms back down to another reference to English. Once that's done, we bookend the whole thing with another reference to Stellarum Salve - Caliborn's off back to sleep and we're returning to Calliope again. + Now, a few other interesting things about this track (That a few people have already spotted) - firstly, it actually uses quite a few samples that come with FL Studio. Namely the percussion and the laughter. The percussion was pretty much the only example I had for the kind of drumline I was after, so it was fine. + The laughter was an interesting example - It's from one of those collections of samples of voice that are usually terrible and added to 90s dance tracks (Shouting something random if its a male voice, like "CHECK THIS BASS!!" or "YEAH!" and moaning something incoherent if it's female like "Oooahhhawoooahhayeah!". Pitched up it sounded creepy enough when layered. It's a bit cliched, but it works. + And that's Carne Vale. An angry little shout from a little green, malevolent angel-baby. Grr. Argh. --- Track: Green Lolly @@ -252,7 +273,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Constant Confinement - Doctor Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I floated the idea for a UU + uu album last year in about June as a concept record divided in half with equal and analogous parts Calliope and Caliborn. While we really wanted to jump in and get to making more Homestuck music following [[album:homestuck-vol-9|Volume 9]], we decided to wait and discover more of the two characters until December when [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] re-organized the effort. He proposed the Jekyll / Hyde alternating pace of the album culminating in "Eternity Served Cold" and had the group split into pairs, each musician working with a partner on a track with the same themes and motifs. @@ -353,28 +374,51 @@ Commentary: |- Another piece by [[artist:malcolm-brown|M. Brown]]. I told you we had entered [[track:unite-synchronization|the Brown Zone]], but you didn't listen. It's not in an album yet, and won't be for a little while. Not until some time after Solo Album Month, which according to my calendar is happening [[album:symphony-impossible-to-play|REALLY SOON]]. <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + First off, a thanks to the folk who enjoyed EsC. + Secondly, the above question's been asked by enough folk now that's worth commenting on. Specifically, a) Will I release the original and b) Why is it different. + So let's get a) out of the way: Most likely - I won't release it right now though, as that'd diminish the album release. Somewhere down the line I'll release the original version with the original mixing, and possibly the cut ending part (Which was cut because it sounded silly :p). + Now for b): + Getting the first bit out of the way, I've a long way to go with learning mastering properly. What sounds ok on Headphones A might sound too bass heavy on Headphones B, absolutely lightweight on Speakers C and generally terrible on earphones Q. With a bit of effort, understand and the right equipment or software the process can be considerably better (I'm using various Dynamic Range monitors to check loudness, for example). I'm still fairly naff at it. + Now, Eternity's one of the more complicated tracks I've done - It's got quite a few opposing voices: a synth orchestra, synth and heavy percussion, rhythm and lead guitar voices, pianos, wooden and metal toned percussion, timpanies, creepy sound effects, various choirs with various articulations and so on. Getting all these noises to sound halfway decent on top of each other might've been a bit beyond my current skill. + When I passed the first version to Rad, he noted it was a bit quiet compared to other tracks. A few variations later (Some bass reduction because a lot of my tracks are a bit bass heavy, I blame my default headphones which have very little bass), then it was a bit anemic. Brought the bass back, tried to bring in some of the voices that were being drowned out (This is the biggest problem people have with the newer version - Some of the strings have been reduced in favour of other voices, notably in the Revelawesome section). Long story short, I didn't have a decent setup that lets me make any mastering decisions with much confidence. + There's also a few notable mistakes in EsC in general - Firstly, there's simply too much strings. In some sections, there's a high string melody, with staccato strings, more strings below that, and a cello/double bass strings bit. And a solo violin on top of that. It's simply too much string section fighting over control of what's going on - This was the main reason for trying to bring the french horns and oboe back into the fold. Additionally, I'm not convinced I'm using panning to its best, resulting in a very squashed mix that's very central and doesn't sound "spacial", which a bit orchestral track really should. + Mastering EsC highlights that there's large gaps in my skill for music production that I need to brush up on. This is good - It's always good to have targets for self improvement. I'll say right now that both versions are still considerably better than Rex Duodecim Angelus :p And essentially it's the same deal - A synth-orchestral romp through a Homestuck medley meant to sound mean and imposing and threatening, so I won't say I'm not improving :D. + TL:DR: Yes the old version will be released at a later date. It sounds different because I'm wishy-washy at mastering. (I'm not actually sure if I'm using that term right, I'm basing it off Peanuts) + Hope that answers ya'lls questions :) - ([Tumblr](https://dragonxvi.tumblr.com/post/28573051810/eternitys-shylock-a-short-commentary)) + + ([Tumblr](https://dragonxvi.tumblr.com/post/28573051810/eternitys-shylock-a-short-commentary), 8/2/2012) + <img src="media/misc/04681.gif" width="300" warning="motion warning"> + I've been getting a lot of questions about this guy, so here goes: + It's commentry time!!! + <b>The track in general</b> + If you've been paying attention to this blog, I already hinted at the development of ES. It's kind of a "Sequel" to Rex Duodecim Angelus in that it's a gradual Medley of HS tracks arranged in some kind of sinister Boss Theme. + The track itself is split into 3 "Acts". Act I acts as a kind of intro and goes from 0:00 to around 2:30 (As the Revelawesome section begins). Act 2 is the conflict, and ends just after " the party is defeated" and the music turns a bit more sinister around 4:40. Act 3 is distinctly missing from the flash, but deals with the heroes comeback and eventual final conflict and resolution. The Flash ends just hope is beginning to peek through. + The obvious inspiration and basis for this track is <b>Toby Fox's "English"</b> and it's meant to be a track for LE 'imself. As the act structure implied, it was designed for a battle with LE vs The Good Guys, but ultimately works as a "LE is doing something incredibly nasty and you guys better stay away!" + <b>The track in more detail</b> + I tried to be a bit more cinematic in my orchestral arrangement here. It's far from perfect, but it's better than previous attempts. Gotta keep pushin' yourself I guess. + Stuff you should be able to hear: + - [[Sburban Countdown]] (At the start and occasionally in other places) - [[English]] (Should be obvious) - [[Revelawesome]] (ARound 2:40) @@ -385,24 +429,42 @@ Commentary: |- Stuff you didn't hear because the track ends before it gets going: - [[Doctor]] - Quite a bit of guitar + So why make another Medley fest? Quite a lot of the HS themes blend really nicely together, and we can associate a lot of events and memories with past flashes (Revelawesome was used as a kind of gag, but here's it more sinister). I do like a good Medley, and judging from the reaction of Descend, RDA and the latest Solo Album, you guys do too! + The track was made in FL Studio. It mostly uses SoundsOnline EWQL VST libraries, namely: + - Symphonic Orchestra - Symphonic Choirs (Shouty choir girls) - Goliath (For some of the larger percussion and sound effects) - Ministry of Rock (Guitar, some percussion and bass guitar) + And a few soundfonts. + <b>When is it available?</b> + Good question! I suspect you'll be waiting for Volume 10 to show up, which'll materialize after the solo albums and once we've got enough Cherubim goodness for you. + <b>The Name</b> + "Eternity's Shylock" is an odd one I'll grant you. It's alternative working title is "Eternity Served Cold". + "Eternity" should be obvious. He's a time travelling demon after all. "Shylock" is a bit more confusing and that leads us on to... + <b>A bit of controversy with the name</b> + "Shylock", as many of you know, is a character from "The Merchant of Venice". Specifically, a rather antagonistic Jewish Moneylender. You can [read all about the antisemitism debate on the WIKI page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice#Shylock_and_the_antisemitism_debate) but long story short, the character of Shylock has quite a bit of controversy surrounding the portrayal of the Jewish. + Now, from the name "Shylock" it's also a slang term for "Loan Shark" - One who loans money yet charges extraordinary amounts of interest and threatens those who cannot pay the return. It was used in 20th century gangster/Mafia slang, and that's where I pulled it from as a nice fit to Lord English. Therefore "Eternity's Shylock" - One who gives time, only to take it back with interest. It's a bit of a stretch, but in the end it sounded like a nice name - Mildly sinister, yet grand. + Now, my use of the term "Shylock" in this context is that of a Loan-shark. There's been plenty of portrayals of this profession, particularly in crime dramas where one character gets in deep with one and they send round "The boys" to break some fingers etc. The name "Shylock" in this manner refers to the profession and behavior rather than the character or his religious beliefs, but I can fully believe why some people would look at the name "Shylock" with disgust, given the controversy surrounding him. + This was my bad in lack of research, and I apologize. There was certainly no insult meant if it was received. + However, it should be clear to anyone that Lord English, a time travelling threat to all existence, is not in any way implicated to be Jewish. No more so than the implication that he's from England and has a seat in the House of Lords because of his name. He's a green, skeletal Mafia pimp demon who flies through time in a crazy sarcophagus and vomits rainbow laz0rs. + I may be [mis]understanding the original controversy surrounding the issue, but from what I read it implied that Shylock the character and Lord English were one and the same, and that Homestuck was presenting a parallel to tMoV. The link is... Well I may not be the finest literary analyst in the world, but I don't buy it in the slightest. And even if it was a genuinely well thought out analysis, I'd be delighted to be told exactly where in Homestuck it is implied that Lord English identifies himself as Jewish by his words or actions. Or at which point Shylock vomits lasers all over the dream ghost of Antonio. + See, it sounds absurd. Fan-speculation is a large part of the Homestuck community, but sometimes it can get a bit icky when it dives into issues of race and creed. You're thinking about it too much, it's a webcomic about some crazy stuff. Just chill. + honk HONK. diff --git a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml index dccd2ca0..0b6fa0bf 100644 --- a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml +++ b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml @@ -165,11 +165,16 @@ Cover Art File Extension: png Art Tags: - The Handmaid Commentary: |- - <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> + <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + If [[Violet Mariner]] was the elder child and [[Teal Hunter]] the middle child, then Rust Servant is the youngest child onto which I poured all my love and affection. This was one of my favorite pieces to work on and even today I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out, from the striking staccato and col legno strings opening the song to the frantic violins, melancholic chromatic percussion, deep brass, and fast-paced drum grooves. I wanted the song to be big, epic, a little scary. If I may be so immodest, I think I succeeded. + Rust Servant was the only one of my three contest submissions to remain allocated to the character I had in mind while writing it, Aradia's tragic ancestor and Lord English's dreadful Handmaid (although the name was changed from the terribly uncreative Handmaid of Death to something more apt for the naming scheme of the album). + When I wrote this song, I had just taken an Intro to Hinduism class the previous fall and had written a short research paper on Kali, the Hindu goddess of time and death (more remembered for being related to death—those of you who have seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom must be familiar with the Thuggees, a cult of Kali-worshipers infamous for conducting human sacrifices—and, apparently, ripping people's hearts out and setting them on fire as well). And, of course, because I am A SHAMELESS HOMESTUCK NERD, I immediately thought, "Time? Death? THAT REMINDS ME OF ONE OF THE TROLLS" (no I didn't write my paper on that, i'm not that terrible). It doesn't come through much in the song itself, but that's where I got the inspiration from. And the moral of this story is, take a theology class (or two, or three) on a religion you know nothing about. It'll give you all sorts of new ideas for Homestuck fanart. + Also when the album came out and this song was the first song on the album after Radiation's intro I was all "HOLY SHIT RADIATION LIKED THIS SONG SO MUCH HE MADE IT THE FIRST SONG" and started pelvic-thrusting across my dorm room. Then I realized that it was only first due to all the tracks being organized from lowest to highest by the blood color of the troll they represented. I continued pelvic-thrusting across my dorm room anyway. + And to wrap things up, milkmanner's art for the track is just perfect. --- Track: Bronze Rebel @@ -189,9 +194,12 @@ Art Tags: - The Summoner - Tavros Commentary: |- - <i>Yan Rodriguez:</i> + <i>Yan Rodriguez:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + This track is one I sure as hell put a ton of effort into, as it was my big chance to finally do something with my music. I was at a pretty good time of my life and I was able to work on this thing day in and day out, and so I did, but first I put a lot of though into what I wanted to actually do. I'm a bit of a contrarian when it comes to making music, always trying to figure out what everyone else does so that I could do something different, and so I wanted to make a theme for Tavros that looked at his character from a more serious perspective about what he was and what he wanted to do. It's original title, "If I were like Rufio," reflected the melancholy desire to be something or be in a world where he was great, where he was a hero but in reality he couldn't really amount to much, and it was his own fault. + For the style of the song I ended up falling back on one of my main styles, which I called "orchestral cinematic/game with a hint of latin rhythms and harmonies." I don't really know what it might actually be called. Unfortunately, while this made the song accomplish what I wanted it to, it can be a bit hard to listen to at times, for being too dependent on situation and scenery. + However I'm very proud of it! I got to practice a lot of new and old things and combine them into what's currently my longest song! Well, longest I'm not ashamed of. It ended up being allocated to the Summoner, and I had a feeling it would. I'd say close enough, but it feels a bit weird to say that! I wouldn't change much about it, but I think it's a bit bland, and I've learned a lot from that. --- Track: Gold Pilot @@ -233,13 +241,17 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Gold Pilot - Unknown C (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>First Turn Fold:</i> - ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZqYLuCH62Q&lc=Ugxs1lhU-OE0XQ9zHXB4AaABAg)) - Originally the piece was called "The Green Odyssey". A fairly self explanatory title in light of it being about Bec, methinks. - ([YouTube](https://youtu.be/QZqYLuCH62Q)) + <i>First Turn Fold:</i> ([YouTube description](https://youtu.be/QZqYLuCH62Q), 6/14/2013) + So this is Gold Pilot, the song I wrote for the Homestuck album Colours and Mayhem. This song has become the theme of the Psiioniic (and it works freakishly well as such) but I wrote it originally in honor of Bec (to the dismay of some). + The song recently made it into the actual comic as the music for the Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 1 animation. (totally took me by surprise!) + Enjoy, Homestuck fans, and others alike! + + <i>First Turn Fold:</i> ([YouTube comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZqYLuCH62Q&lc=Ugxs1lhU-OE0XQ9zHXB4AaABAg), 7/12/2013) + + Originally the piece was called "The Green Odyssey". A fairly self explanatory title in light of it being about Bec, methinks. --- Track: Iron Infidel Additional Names: @@ -328,12 +340,13 @@ Art Tags: - The Dolorosa - The Signless Commentary: |- - <i>Nathan H.:</i> + <i>Nathan H.:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Inspiration for this piece came after listening to a segment of Hans Zimmer's "Attack" from the Pearl Harbor Soundtrack. I intended for the song to have a 'majestic' tone, but initially couldn't think of a character to set this theme to, so I chose the four beta kids. However, after being reassigned characters I think the piece fits equally well if not better with the Dolorosa. --- Track: Teal Hunter Additional Names: -- Bete Blanche (contest-submitted name) +- Bête Blanche (contest-submitted name) Artists: - Willow Ascenzo Duration: '2:31' @@ -347,9 +360,12 @@ Art Tags: - Redglare - 'cw: hanging (abstract)' Commentary: |- - <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> + <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Teal Hunter was sort of the middle child of my three Homestuck music contest submissions. Even now it's still my least favorite of the three songs I submitted. Why Radiation picked it along with my other two, I'll never know. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be chosen. With over a thousand submissions I'm sure there was no shortage of Redglare songs for him to choose from. Maybe the $20 I slipped him when I submitted my songs had something to do with it But his ways are not our ways. + When Volume 9 came out, a lot of people looked at Radiation's arrangement of Stress by Buzinaki and started noting similarities between it and Teal Hunter. Radiation wrote about why the two songs sound similar in his commentary for Stress. If we're going to talk about "what sounds like what", then I'll lay my cards on the table and state that Teal Hunter was begun as pretty much a direct reference to [00 Gundam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_0Lg4-RkE) from the Gundam 00 soundtrack (if you can't tell by now, I really like Gundams). When I started the piece, the first draft was more or less a low-rent version of that song, in the same way a cartoon that wants to parody Indiana Jones would get a song that sounds close to John Williams' Raiders March without being close enough to qualify as plagiarism. So I just kept fiddling with it until the two melodies sounded different. By the time I got to the final product and had added the buildup in the beginning, the two had nothing but their rhythm and syncopation in common. + Teal Hunter's original title was Bête Blanche, a play on bête noire, a French phrase literally meaning "black beast" that the fan name "Bec Noir" is most likely a reference to. As evident, the song was originally allocated to PM, the one Exile powerful enough to battle Jack Noir to a stalemate. --- Track: Cobalt Corsair @@ -370,17 +386,28 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Hallowed Halls Commentary: |- - <i>Max Wright:</i> + <i>Max Wright:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + For those of you who didn't know, Cobalt Corsair was originally a theme for Hussie. The song being given to Mindfang, while some find it hilariously ironic, I find to be a lot more fitting. I do have a tendency to write piratey sounding orchestral songs; this time it just happened to be accidental! For this commentary, I'm going to be dividing the song up both by sections and instrument groups. + <b>SECTION I - REGAL</b> + I always wanted the piece to sound dominating and over-important, at least for this part. It begins with a solo flugelhorn playing its melody, providing an entrance for the rest of the orchestral. After not too long, the trumpets blasting out their fanfare in perfect 4th intervals, the lower brass backing them up with a strong chordal harmony - the brass works to create a very regal sound. Though Hussie as a character isn't anywhere near this serious, I felt that it wouldn't hurt to portray him in such a way - the way his character sees himself. The whole thing reeks of overlording and power, which, as it turns out, seems to fit the pirate idea nicely. + <b>SECTION II - BROODING</b> + This is where the piece changes from 12/8 to 4/4, and the solo flugelhorn returns to introduce the new section. I imagined this to be the other side of Hussie, calculating, always working, creating his world. The whole section is just a build up of instruments, as the lower string ostinato loops itself over. There isn't really much to say about this section, but it certainly works as a contrast for the rest of the piece. + <b>SECTION III - EXECUTION</b> + This is the final minute of the piece, just after the moment of silence. It explodes into a wall of sound, seeking to bring back the power of the first section in a more open way. I actually wrote part of this section before working on the rest of the piece, so naturally, it's what set the general tone. My favourite melody is introduced in this section (played most obviously by the flutes), and I regret not being able to flesh the idea out more. The piccolo part rising above the rest is interesting - it fits perfectly in with the whole pirate theme, despite me never considering this to be a pirate song. I suppose I consider this section the execution of various plans, to a successful conclusion. + <b>INSTRUMENT GROUPS</b> + Now, as you can probably tell from listening, Cobalt Corsair is very dense texturally. To give you a visual idea, here's a post from a little while ago showing the layout of the sequencer. [It's big.](https://imbrog.tumblr.com/post/23713453688/did-i-ever-mention-just-how-long-cobalt-corsair) + So, I've decided to chop the piece up in terms of the instrument groups, for anyone who wanted to understand what the hell is going on underneath all that sound. + BRASS | STRINGS | WOODWIND | PERCUSSION AND MISCELLANEOUS <i>(dead dropbox links)</i> --- Track: Indigo Archer @@ -517,9 +544,12 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Showtime (Piano Refrain) Commentary: |- - <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> + <i>Willow Ascenzo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Let's talk about Violet Mariner. + I tend to listen to the kind of music I like to compose and compose the kind of music I like to listen to. Before I started composing this song I listened to a shit-ton of battle music from Koh Otani's Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack, and it shows. Oh, boy, does it show, especially from 0:49 onward with the rhythm and percussion of the piece. + Violet Mariner was the first song I started working on for the Homestuck music contest that eventually became the coloUrs and mayhem dual album. It's a song about Dualscar—but it wasn't always a song about Dualscar. No, it started out as a song about John. This explains the harp/piano section, which plays with the opening melody to Showtime, vaguely darting near it without ever actually producing the exact notes from Malcolm Brown's original song. I intended it to be more of a hint of John's original strife theme than a direct reference. In hindsight, keeping the references to existing Homestuck leitmotifs subtle was a smart idea. If I'd been more overt in my references and just made it a straight-up Doctor remix or an explicit arrangement of Showtime, it would have been really hard to reallocate it to a different character. And I'm happy that Violet Mariner is a Dualscar song. Dualscar needs more songs. And also it gave Radiation an excuse to almost name it "Violet Seaman". And besides, it means I still technically haven't used the original title, Heirstrike, yet. --- Track: Fuchsia Ruler @@ -544,9 +574,12 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Liquid Negrocity - twoward2 the heaven2 Commentary: |- - <i>Kezinox:</i> + <i>Kezinox:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Obviously with a name like Witc)(ing )(our, this song is for the condesce/batterwitch/etc. I always figured a sexy psychotic space empress bent on universal domination needed an over-the-top evil, but also dance-able track. I'd actually been planning to do a song like this for her for quite a while since she's one of—if not my favorite—characters. Every 30 seconds or so represents a time in the Condesce's life as we know it up to now and, while the song is almost wholly original, I did pull a few minor, but very recognizable things from songs like [[track:liquid-negrocity|liquid negrocity]] and [[track:twoward2-the-heaven2|Twoard2 the Heaven2]] to help really nail the connection. - ([SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/kezinox/witching-hour)) + + <i>Kezinox:</i> ([SoundCloud description](https://soundcloud.com/kezinox/witching-hour), excerpt, 2/3/2012) + This is my song entry for the Homestuck Music Contest--essentially a dark electro house song for the Condesce. On a technical level this song more or less represents the culmination of all the practice and knowledge I've gained from working with music up until now. --- Section: Side 2 @@ -578,12 +611,18 @@ Cover Art File Extension: png Art Tags: - Aradia Commentary: |- - <i>Plumegeist:</i> + <i>Plumegeist:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Around mid-2011 I was at a Nippon Ichi binge. Disgaea 4 was my most anticipated title of yesteryear and I ended up clocking roughly 300 hours in it. Playing it was essentially what finally made me look at the bigger picture when it came to how Disgaea structured it's entire universe, and if you know me, I love fictional universes with established rules and boundaries that are cleverly told. + During the time I was playing the game I had roughly three or four pipe-projects when it came to comics or visual stories in general, some of which I will delve into soon enough, but generally I come up with ideas for storytelling around one basic principle and I keep them in an idea bucket for whenever I plan on working on them. The projects are things I hope to blend audio and visual presentations to, and as such I often tend to compose music with these projects in mind. Playing Disgaea as such gave me a new idea for a story I since abandoned, and was basically a story of a witch traveling worlds. I decided eventually to experiment a bit with creating some music for a scenario I had in mind, and the only thing I would eventually get out of it was a clarinet melody. The original inspiration was to be Tenpei Sato's compositions but I never really got to finish it since my laptop had a meltdown. + In 2012 I got my laptop back and had backups of all my music files at bay, and noticed that MSPA was having a music competition. The limit was three tracks, and as such I wanted to compose three original pieces just to have a shot at getting in. While I got to composing two however, I was stuck at figuring out where I was going to go with the third one, and I realized that I still had a completely unattributed, unfinished track at hand with this work in progress. After recovering the file, rearranging a bit and ultimately rendering it, I decided I'd send it to the contest since I wasn't going to really get anywhere with the track. I figured the character it fit the most was Aradia, so I put it under her name and finished it. + The idea was to have it be a bit of a grim little insidious melody for a title character, but somehow it ended up being slightly more Grant Kirkhope-ish during the N64 era in retrospect, which is something I have to say I'm kind of proud of since he's a massive inspiration. I eventually got the call back from Radiation during late February and was told that it won a spot. I was in shock and awe at that point, as it meant that I finally got somewhere substantial with my work. Immediately I re-rendered Rust Maid; then titled Apocalypse Maid, and Orange Hat, and sent it along What Pumpkin's way. + Here's a fun fact though. When Radiation contacted me, he told me that the song was to be retitled "Rust Servant", and was to be the Handmaid's theme. This was something I was okay with, but he immediately contacted me a while afterwards and reassigned the character to it's original intended character. Between a few e-mails exchanged by me and him, we still referred to the actual track as "Rust Servant", until I got my contract which had it titled "Rust Maid". I thought this was a contract mistake of some sort, but imagine my surprise when I saw the first track on the album thinking it was mine and not realizing it was adhering to a color scheme. Rust Servant was fucking awesome though. + Another fun fact - there's a cowbell right at the start that wasn't supposed to be there. I don't even know how it got there. The original sound file was a reverse cymbal. It happened sometime after I recovered the file and I didn't notice it until after I listened to the remastered version again. --- Track: Bronze Page @@ -637,11 +676,16 @@ Art Tags: - Sollux - 'cw: body horror' Commentary: |- - <i>Decon Theed, repeatedScales|[[artist:repeatedscales]]:</i> + <i>Decon Theed, repeatedScales|[[artist:repeatedscales]]:</i> ([SoundCloud description](https://soundcloud.com/103_records/repeatedscales-gold-mage-2011)) + Yes, I'm still amused by the fact that the comments on the most popular YouTube upload of this song essentially consist of nothing but "THIS REMINDS ME OF X GAME". + And not one of them has ever guessed Baten Kaitos, which provided the primary sources of inspiration for this track (the two Chaotic Dance songs: [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B64f48ewdo) - [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ftFQ_ToXvA)). Absolute madness. + So. Gold Mage. Originally known as "Playtime is Over" and written for Dirk Strider before being repurposed to Sollux. Probably my most successful song, before I wrote that remix of Amalgum from Undertale. The very first piece of music I ever made money on. + I shan't lie; I'm not as fond of this song as I used to be. Not because of the Homestuck connection or anything; simply because it's just too repettitive. Enough so that it lead to why the eventual remix of it turned out the way it did (too busy and cluttered in places - [[track:gold-mage-playtime-is-over-mix]]) It was so with purpose; I did intend for lyrics to go over this- I even wrote a few- but never recorded anything. But honestly, I can't quite bring myself to hate it. The chords are quite nice, what melodies there are + the basslines are pretty slick, and it was my first major musical success. Though the royalties have since slowed way, way down- it's like £10 every four months, if that- it was a major deal when it first dropped as a part of coloUrs & mayhem: Universe A. Even Toby Fox and (assuming I'm not misremembering entirely) Andrew Hussie had nice things to say about it- directly comarping it to EarthBound-type stuff and being astounded it was written, from the ground up, in a PS1 game. + I may not be much into Homestuck these days, and I definitely think the song is showing it's age... but, hell, it's special to me all the same. One of the most integral pieces of my early music career by a wide margin. --- Track: Iron Knight @@ -943,9 +987,12 @@ Cover Artists: Art Tags: - Vriska Commentary: |- - <i>Yan Rodriguez:</i> + <i>Yan Rodriguez:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Boy do I love this song. The situation I made was pretty much the opposite of the one for Bronze Rebel. I felt pretty good about Bronze Rebel, and I had a feeling I was only going to get one track on anyway I didn't have high hopes for this one. In fact this one was the "let's make something I don't think others will like as much" song. And it might be true, I can't really tell! + I had to fight myself to get this song done, since I wasn't feeling good and I still wanted to put out something quality. I had really wanted to make something for Vriska, but I didn't have great sounds to do it, but Solatrus convinced me to try a hand at it anyway, to see if I could do something different with Vriska. Unfortunately, what I had in mind still ended up being like what a lot of people already ended up having as "Vriska" ingrained in their mind from previous official homestuck music. I was a little disappointed about that, but after having spent days staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what I should do, I realized I just needed to make something. + The drums were the first thing I had in my mind that I knew I needed to make a certain way, and the way I made the guitar do 9th intervals was initially an accident that worked out for the best. I'm also pretty happy with this one, I only wish I had better samples or actual guitar instead of the weird twangy and low impact stuff I currently do. --- Track: Made of Time diff --git a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml index f674d7bf..b59511ed 100644 --- a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml +++ b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml @@ -136,9 +136,12 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Green Ghost - adamus (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Monobrow:</i> + <i>Monobrow:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + So my song, Cosmic Surgeon? People told me to enter a contest that came up right around the time I finished it. It was for the Homestuck Fan Album, which actually turned out to be 2 albums lol. So yup, I entered, and I was one of the winners, in fact it's actually the first track (track 1 is an opener)... I'm kinda astonished by that today, but I guess it fits! + About the song, I called it Cosmic Surgeon because of John and that big drill thing he did... And the whole cancer thing.. So I guess the song did kinda cater as a theme for him already. What a coincidence that as soon as I make a remix, I can enter it into a contest right away and it actually wins. When I wrote it, I just really wanted to capture how the entire comic made me feel at the time, especially after watching Cascade. It's a theme for John, but I also think of it as kind of a real "Homestuck" theme for the entire thing, I guess, as a lot of people kinda obsess over Doctor... + Anyway, I remastered this version of the song, and added a few other elements, and instrument balance, per a couple suggestions by Radiation Fox... So you can think of this as more of a Cosmic Surgen v. 0.1... --- Track: Orchid Horror @@ -160,13 +163,17 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Chorale for Jaspers - Black Rose / Green Sun Commentary: |- - <i>David DeCou:</i> - ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf5X2PbLNfQ&lc=UgwWhsMYgXXX5g_F4Yl4AaABAg)) - <blockquote>Probably one of my favorite songs on the album. - I'm curious, what songs are remixed in this?</blockquote> + <i>David DeCou:</i> ([YouTube comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf5X2PbLNfQ&lc=UgwWhsMYgXXX5g_F4Yl4AaABAg), 4/13/2012) + + > Probably one of my favorite songs on the album.<br> + > I'm curious, what songs are remixed in this? + Thanks! The first five notes are from Chorale for Jaspers, and I used that twice in the song. I also used the chord progression that's often used in Sburban Jungle in the middle section with the drums, organ, piano and strings. (actually, a lot of homestuck songs) but the rest of it is original I'm pretty sure. - ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf5X2PbLNfQ&lc=UgzZnx3ouFO3y5zD49B4AaABAg)) - <blockquote>I thought I heard Black Hole/Green Sun, and also, if you squint your ears just right, it sounds a bit like The Dangerous Symphony (not a Homestuck song)</blockquote> + + <i>David DeCou:</i> ([YouTube comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf5X2PbLNfQ&lc=UgzZnx3ouFO3y5zD49B4AaABAg), 4/15/2012) + + > I thought I heard Black Hole/Green Sun, and also, if you squint your ears just right, it sounds a bit like The Dangerous Symphony (not a Homestuck song) + Black Rose/Green Sun is a great song. I did use the same sort of chord progression that's in there. It shows up in a lot of Homestuck songs though I think. --- Track: Red Disc @@ -187,7 +194,8 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Atomyk Ebonpyre Commentary: |- - <i>Nathan H.:</i> + <i>Nathan H.:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + This was the first entry I made for the contest, and likely the one that took me the longest to complete; probably because I was running into walls during transitions while trying to keep whole song congruent. Nonetheless, I think it turned out great. I had a battle between Hephaestus and Dave in mind as I wrote the piece, and took inspiration for it from the first few boss fights in the game Dark Souls. --- Track: Blue Atom @@ -222,7 +230,17 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Blue Atom - Unknown (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21739915695/cyan-beastblue-atom-commentary), excerpt) + <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21030369047/heh-didnt-expect-radiation-to-actually-put-that), excerpt, 4/13/2012) + + <b>Heh. Didn’t expect Radiation to actually put that in.</b> + + “! - Blue Atom was, at one point, called ‘Jack and Jade’s fantastic corpseparty.’” + + Only for a little while. I was trying to think when it could possibly happen and I thought the most <s>amusing</s> inappropriate time for the Jam would be for Jade to be jamming with Jack Noir just after Dave got all shot up and before he was revived. + + *(Continued in [[track:cyan-beast]])* + + <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21739915695/cyan-beastblue-atom-commentary), excerpt, 4/24/2012) First off, people seem to have been saying a lot of nice stuff about the two tunes I wrote and I’d just like to say thanks! @@ -232,13 +250,7 @@ Commentary: |- Technical note: Sometimes when I think I've finished writing something I'll find that it's a bit too long and something needs to change, this was one of those times. The sound you hear at 3:53 is the sound of me finding a way to avoid playing an extra intro/verse and tightening up the song a bit. Using almost the same build up heard earlier in the piece and changing the resolution at the end has the added advantage of (hopefully) making you think it's heading back towards the intro riff until the key shifts in the last bar and the song jumps straight to the final chorus. - <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21030369047/heh-didnt-expect-radiation-to-actually-put-that), excerpt) - - <b>Heh. Didn’t expect Radiation to actually put that in.</b> - - “! - Blue Atom was, at one point, called ‘Jack and Jade’s fantastic corpseparty.’” - - Only for a little while. I was trying to think when it could possibly happen and I thought the most <s>amusing</s> inappropriate time for the Jam would be for Jade to be jamming with Jack Noir just after Dave got all shot up and before he was revived. + *(Continued in [[track:cyan-beast]])* <i>Petra K.:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://sigimigi.tumblr.com/post/18631349704/i-havent-done-a-decent-watercolor-painting-in)) @@ -284,11 +296,15 @@ Art Tags: - God Cat - Rabbit Commentary: |- - <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21739915695/cyan-beastblue-atom-commentary), excerpt) + <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/ducksual/21030369047/heh-didnt-expect-radiation-to-actually-put-that), excerpt, 4/13/2012) - First off, people seem to have been saying a lot of nice stuff about the two tunes I wrote and I’d just like to say thanks! + *(Continued from [[track:blue-atom]])* - I wrote some track commentary for my tunes, thought I’d post it here as I don’t know when/if all the submitted commentary will be posted. Feel free to ask me stuff if there are things about the songs I don’t cover that you want to know about or if you have any recording questions. + Side note, the working title for 'Cyan Beast' was 'Heir of the Dog'. Which is probably worse. + + <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/21739915695/cyan-beastblue-atom-commentary), excerpt, 4/24/2012) + + *(Continued from [[track:blue-atom]])* This piece started as an offshoot of a song that was very loosely based on John and Jade's three year voyage between the two windows. I felt that the theme that became the chorus to this piece needed to be at a higher tempo than the rest of that song so I took it out and based this tune around it instead. It was originally titled 'Heir of the Dog' as I was still thinking it could be either a Jade or a John piece at the time and wasn't certain who I'd end up submitting it for (also because terrible puns). @@ -324,7 +340,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Aggrieve - track:carefree-action Commentary: |- - <i>Ryan Ames:</i> + <i>Ryan Ames:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I don't want to clog up the audio post so I figured I'd make a separate post for my reasoning behind the different parts of the song! @@ -411,11 +427,16 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Emerald Terror - Phantasmicka.pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Elisa McCabe:</i> + <i>Elisa McCabe:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + First of all I have this unreasonably intense love of Jake that I can't really entirely explain. Uh. So I definitely wanted to do a song for him. The main idea I started out with was that I'd do a song with two parts, the first part representing Grandpa Harley, then I'd have it morph into the second part, which would be for post-scratch Jake. I first thought of having a literal record scratch but man that sounded dumb :] I referred to the first part, to myself, as Grandpa Harley, and the second part as Hellmurder Island. + For the Grandpa Harley part, I spent about half an hour listening to/watching ragtime piano and vaudeville acts on youtube, to refresh myself on the types of intervals and suchlike that they used. Then I just made it up. + I wanted to make Hellmurder Island really dramatic. I had some (not particularly complicated) scenes of Jake running around on his island that I was making it a soundtrack for. Like...the first section is just...running around in the jungle. Then there's him standing at the top of this huge waterfall, and some birds take off, and the last part is him fighting something or being about to enter the SBURB session. Whatever shit is about to get real for him. :3 + The song is mainly influenced by ELO's 'Jungle', haha. Mainly in the way it goes, "duh DUH, duh DUH!" I love how that sounds. I tried to do more jungley percussion but it didn't end up sounding that good. I made the drum track in this app, which I pretty much use for all my drum tracks cuz it's awesome. + I did everything except the guitar - which was my bandmate playing - in Garageband using my midi keyboard and various soundfonts. I'm so in love with the one that does the main melody. It's a flugelhorn. It just sounded so much like Jake to me! --- Section: Additional Mayhem @@ -442,6 +463,7 @@ Duration: '2:27' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/squiddle-song-2 - https://youtu.be/eWNMf4-ZMOQ +- https://soundcloud.com/isthatwhatyoumint/squiddle-song Cover Artists: - Maya Kern Art Tags: @@ -506,10 +528,26 @@ Lyrics: |- it's time to make new squiddle friends Commentary: |- - <i>Maya Kern:</i> + <i>Maya Kern:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + well i really love the squiddles? and the squiddles album is one of my favorite albums. + but i think a lot of it is because i'm not super great at writing music on demand? like, i write music all the time, but only when inspiration hits. and since there was a deadline, i didn't quite have that option. i had tried writing a very different song before that with... not great results. i mean, it's not a bad song, but it's very unspecific and was not a good homestuck song. + so then i just decided i would write something silly and the squiddle song came out! because silly, i can do + + <i>Maya Kern:</i> ([SoundCloud description](https://soundcloud.com/isthatwhatyoumint/squiddle-song) / [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/mayakern/15420603007/isthatwhatyoumint-squiddle-song-for-lack-of-a), 1/5/2012) + + my first (and maybe only?) entry for the homestuck music contest!<br> + i will be incredibly shocked if this makes it in hahaha + + <i>Maya Kern:</i> ([Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/mayakern/18598207373/isthatwhatyoumint-im-a-good-artist-okay-time), 3/2/2012) + + <img src="media/misc/squiddle-song-tumblr.png" width="250"> + + i’m a good artist + + okay time to pick the giveaway winner! --- Track: Pendulum Artists: @@ -817,7 +855,7 @@ Cover Artists: Art Tags: - Jake Commentary: |- - <i>Max Wright:</i> (composer) + <i>Max Wright:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Dapper Dueling was inspired originally by a Steampunk band named The Cog is Dead - after listening to the song I just linked, I tried to take down the general feel and basic instrumentation, and then work on my own from there. Instruments used in the piece are: @@ -835,7 +873,7 @@ Commentary: |- Let me also point out that it made me extremely happy to see in canon that Jake bounces from side to side before he is about to fight; it was the exact image of him I was hoping for. - Also, while composing, I imagined Dapper Dueling to fit a fight scene similar to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCMfprPJoA), from Sherlock Holmes (2009). + Also, while composing, I imagined Dapper Dueling to fit a fight scene similar to this ([dead link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCMfprPJoA)), from Sherlock Holmes (2009). <i>Max Wright:</i> (composer, [YouTube description](https://youtu.be/clnLNQkB5O4), excerpt) @@ -924,19 +962,32 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Dord Waltz - adamus.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Elaine Wang:</i> + <i>Elaine Wang:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Fun facts: + "Dord" is a rather amusing typographical error that occured back in 1934 when someone in the Merriam-Webster editing staff misread "D or d", intended as abbreviations for density, as "Dord" and... made up a pronunciation for it. (Whoops.) + Given Roxy Lalonde's penchant for drunk typing^W^W lexicographical creativity, I thought it was appropriate. The accidentals, at least as much so. As for the waltz part of it... well, I have no idea either. + It was written as a Roxy song. It will now be a Roxy song until the end of the Internet. + I came up with the title first and the music second. The accidentals were there the first time I put down the notes. (They are going to stay there.) + The above is not normal for me. I have more recently taken to using random word generators to title my music, because I often struggle with that. + I am told that the song has some similarities to Endless Climb. That part is most definitely not deliberate. Not going to rule out subconscious influences though. + The album art is by merrigo. She (?) does cool work. Go look at her tumblr too. + "Dord" is a real thing that happened in the Merriam-Webster in the 1934 edition. Read the article for more information. + A dord is also a kind of instrument. There's none of them in the song, just so's you know. + Although if you're willing to play Dord on a dord I can send you sheet music. + Full disclosure: I'm not actually finished with the Dord sheet music. Remind me in two weeks and I'll probably have something. + The above two points also apply even if you aren't going to play Dord on a dord. (I have no idea what the range of that instrument is, so whatever.) --- Track: Rustless Fall @@ -979,9 +1030,12 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Harlequin - Toccata and Fugue in D minor Commentary: |- - <i>James Roach:</i> - As a lot of you know, my track Pipeorgankind was featured in last night's Flash! I used melodies and themes from several talented musicians to create this track, and orchestrated/arranged them for fun! I never thought it would become anything! + <i>James Roach:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), around 11/29/2014) + + As a lot of you know, my track Pipeorgankind was featured in last nights Flash! I used melodies and themes from several talented musicians to create this track, and orchestrated/arranged them for fun! I never thought it would become anything! + I thought it might be fun to show you all the nods and themes I used in the track! (though unless otherwise stated its Showtime, throughout) + - 0:00 [[Showtime (Original Mix)]] - 0:35 [[Warhammer of Zillyhoo]] - 1:05 [[Explore]] @@ -994,4 +1048,5 @@ Commentary: |- - 3:32 [[Harlequin]] - 3:43 Zillyhoo/Toccata line - 3:56 I wrote in a Breath, (or whats called a Grand Pause!) since John was the Heir of Breath! + Thanks for all the overwhelming encouragement and support! I wouldn't be here without you guys! diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml index a5b2010b..f68d49f0 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml @@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Showtime (Piano Refrain) - lugiaa.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Kevin Regamey:</i> + <i>Kevin Regamey:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) To be honest, I've fallen off the MSPA train pretty hard. This has undoubtedly been the busiest year (or two) of my life, and I am only now returning to reacquaint myself with what the heck is up. @@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Harlequin - Maukustus.dnm' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) With the introduction of the harlequins around John's house in the comic, I was inspired to make a theme song for them. Since it was still early on in the comic, I decided to do it in an 8-bit style, and I figured that I could make remixes of it later if harlequins still turned out to be important in the comic. It turns out I didn't have to very much, since a lot of the other music team ended up remixing it! It still stands as my most favorite 8-bit melodies I've written. --- @@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/showtime-original-mix-3 - https://youtu.be/RKURlfskGsE Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Probably the first bit of music accepted for HS (The piano version came afterwards but was used in the comic earlier). Difficult to fully recall what was going on with this one, but from what we knew about John at this point (i.e. Bit of a prankster, likes his movies) there was something about the name and the melody that just fit. @@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Aggrieve (Violin Refrain) - Danny Wolf.pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Andrew Huo:</i> + <i>Andrew Huo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Ahh, the glory days, when we had no idea we were going on a universe-destroying/creating adventure, or even a world-destroying one. This was when the music team's main scoop on the kids was that they were going to have theme instruments that somehow function as their weapons or special abilities as well, although I guess this has only mostly come to fruition with Dave's turntables. Well, I'm primarily a violinist, and Rose's instrument was to be violin/strings, so this was right up my alley. I love just randomly improvising on the violin, exploring different poetic areas, if you will, and coming up with things that sounded beautiful to me. At this time in particular, I was doing that a lot. Hadley's [[Aggrieve]] was created first in this case, and I had roughly dictated it, so I knew the notes. I fooled around with it a couple of times, playing with a haunting/sad-but-hopeful tone, and the arrangement that you hear was recorded literally the first time it was played - the first time those notes were played in that rhythm, tone and order was the same time it was recorded. That version, cut, is what you hear in the comic. I reverse-engineered the sheet music from my own recording to do a recording for the album. Unfortunately, I was, and I suppose am still today, new to the recording game, and so there are mistakes I cringe at in both the comic and album versions. Gabe Nezovic's mastering helps to cover most of it, but I still feel kind of guilty about it. Oh well. --- @@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Sburban Countdown - Unknown.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I really liked [[Sburban Jungle]] and felt it was iconic enough to be considered a theme song for Sburb (not just [[flash:137|the loading screen]] as it was originally presented). Since the ending scene for Act 1 was an early pivotal moment in the game, I tried to make something that sounded like Sburban Jungle, but clearly felt like time was ticking away to something big. It's a lot to try and cram into a little over 30 seconds, but I did my best. --- @@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Aggrieve - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This was actually the first Homestuck-related thing I made, when [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] asked us all to come up with some battle themes. Originally I titled it "Aggress" as a Problem Sleuth homage, but changed the name to "Aggrieve" once the attack command in [[flash:90|John's first strife]] was revealed. Out of all my songs, this one holds a special place for me since it was the first one I did for Homestuck. --- @@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Showtime (Imp Strife Mix) - Resound (piano score).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Buzinkai:</i> + <i>Buzinkai:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I wrote this after listening to the original song for HOURS. I do believe this was what originally got me to send music to [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew Hussie]] in a fan-mail and got me writing music for the project. It came down to the thought, "I wonder what that would sound like if I re-wrote it in my software." However, as with most of my obsessions, I got well carried away with it. --- @@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Nannaquin - IronInvoker47.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) A [[track:harlequin|"Harlequin"]] remix obviously. In order to give it an old-timey feel, I used sounds of a saloon piano and a muted trumpet. Once it was done, I ran it through a filter to make it sound... less good (pitch warping and reducing the bass) and added a loop of some vinyl pops and cracks. For the soundtrack version, I added the needle coming down onto the record at the beginning, and then I thought it would be fun to end it by having the record skip before the needle is pulled off the record. Needless to say, this was fun to make. --- @@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Skies of Skaia - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] originally did the first update in the comic [[flash:422|about Skaia]] without music, but when I saw the first look we were given of Skaia, I knew something so central to the story needed a theme song. I envisioned something calm and peaceful, with a mixture of wonder and mystery. I quickly wrote Skies of Skaia and presented it to Andrew, who was able to go back and put the music in place. Writing this was a real highlight for me, and at the time it felt like my greatest accomplishment. --- diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml index ded8cfc8..05362a0c 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml @@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Explore - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Buzinkai:</i> + <i>Buzinkai:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I tried towill write something a little more thought provoking this time without too much drummage in the background. It came out smoothly, and I do think it's quite the haunting melody. I was unaware that [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] wanted me to finish the original loop, and someone else remixed a longer ending for it, doing quite a fantastic job. diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-3.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-3.yaml index 0de6dbfa..260fe002 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-3.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-3.yaml @@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Harlequin Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Harlequin was awesome, and was quite a popular source for remixing the theme (it still is) so this was my early attempt. @@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Ohgodwhat - IronInvoker47.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Nick Smalley:</i> + <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) WELL diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml index bfedb8c2..7904281b 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml @@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Revelawesome - MrCheeze.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Another "Andrew asks for music for situation X" - In this, he wanted a dramatic reveal that was basically too epic and obviously a piss-take. The two main ones that were used for this and Hardlyquin (Both were used in the comic for more or less the same joke). The goal was to basically make something so dramatically epic and life-changing that it would just be incredibly silly. (I believe Hardlyquin ended audibly on a joke sound, while I wanted Revelawesome to be played as straight as possible). @@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Harlequin Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) When Andrew asked us to do something for a shock and surprise for the upcoming reveal of John's Dad's room, this is what I came up with. I slipped some Harlequin in there for good measure. The original version was exactly as it appears in the comic (complete with the record scratch at the end), and I lengthened it for the soundtrack since it was so very, very short. Somehow it came out creepier in that version. --- @@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Carefree Victory - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Andrew Huo:</i> + <i>Andrew Huo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Carefree Victory is really Hadley's baby, and I would feel like I'm plagiarizing to really call it my own. I really just dictated his piece, called Carefree Action, put it into PXTone, added some lines, changed the tempo, and added a coda (which wasn't even used in the comic, I think?). @@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Ballad of Awakening - EuniverseCat.pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Jade. I think, at least if not Jade then certainly something about Dreams (Which a lot of the story was turning into via the Prospit/Derse stuff). It was prevalent that a lot of Jade's character was coming from vague aloofness, yet a degree of precognition via dreaming that would prove central to the character and the concept of Sburb. @@ -365,14 +365,16 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Doctor - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Clark Powell:</i> + <i>Clark Powell:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Doctor was originally by Buzinkai and then a now non-active member Michael Vallejo added a few bits of percussion to it. I then put together a larger mix of the tune with shinier production and a glockenspiel tag, and this was the version Andrew used in the end. - <i>Buzinkai:</i> + <i>Buzinkai:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Doctor was written before Homestuck, actually. The only thing I can really remember was that Super Smash Bros Brawl came out right before I finished it. The original loop (which is not the one specifically heard in the comic, but was included in the album release) was directly inspired by music from Cave Story, and I was trying to at the time musically embody how I felt at the time, I think. Though it never seems to come out exactly as I plan it, I enjoyed the results. I will say that I cannot truly believe how many people have remixed it. + [(dead image embed)](https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://buzinkai.net/doctor.png) + The arpeggio part at the end goes between the left, both, and right speakers sequentially. I was too lazy to set the channel settings manually, so I did each note on a different instrument, which is set to each speaker channel. Not many people know that, and I think it actually made it a living hell for remixers who got a hold of the original file. <i>(On March 17, 2013, [Buzinkai ran an AMA - "Ask Me Anything" - on the r/Homestuck subreddit.](https://old.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/1afvkb/hi_im_george_buzinkai_writer_of_the_doctor_and/) Select responses are listed below; you can visit the full AMA on the [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/web/20230625011746/https://old.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/1afvkb/hi_im_george_buzinkai_writer_of_the_doctor_and/) as well. Banner art below is from a [fundraiser](https://www.gofundme.com/f/buzinkai) ran for their first album in 2016.)</i> @@ -527,7 +529,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Endless Climb - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Buzinkai:</i> + <i>Buzinkai:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) The inspiration for this was from a not-very-well-known indie game called Tower of Heaven, which has phenomenal music. Believe it or not, the arpeggios were written first, and the main melody was written last. I tend to write songs backwards sometimes. --- Track: Atomyk Ebonpyre diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml index c15566fa..638710a6 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml @@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Aggrieve Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Since Aggrieve was the first song I wrote for Homestuck, I also imagined it would be the first thing I would remix. That turned out not to be the case (I remixed Harlequin first), but I went ahead with it anyway. I also figured it might come in handy in case there was ever another strife scene with Rose post-entry, but those became rare after a while, except for special situations. @@ -661,7 +661,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Skaia (Incipisphere Mix) - Unknown (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) My Skaia remix was actually done before I joined the music team. I had first made [[track:doctor-deep-breeze-mix|a remix of Doctor]] (which you can hear [here](https://homestuckgaiden.bandcamp.com/track/doctor-deep-breeze-mix)), which apparently really caught the attention of the team, in part thanks to Blueberry. @@ -673,7 +673,7 @@ Commentary: |- Oh, and one more thing: AndrewNeo, the guy who runs skaia.net, named both my Doctor remix and my Skaia remix. - <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/26717876635/solatrus-song-commentary-friday-except-its)) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/26717876635/solatrus-song-commentary-friday-except-its), 7/7/2012) Let's have a bit of history before we jump into things with this song. @@ -730,7 +730,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: - 'Sarabande - MarimbaMaestoso (cello).pdf' - 'Sarabande - MarimbaMaestoso (bass).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I'll never really know what happened to produce this. Not really, never. I wish I could remember if there was some thought process behind it, some sort of inspiration, but I really can't remember any. Most likely, that was for the better. @@ -789,7 +789,7 @@ Commentary: |- This is exactly what it sounds like. I went for a whimsical, dreamy feel with this one, expressed through the ¾ meter, waltz patterns, Lydian mode, and ringing, bell-like timbres. There’s not a lot going on in this one, though I think it’s charming in a childlike way. It was the first piece I made upon my return to the music team (I was in it since the beginning, but never made anything worthwhile and left for a few months since I was starting my first year of college). - <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> (composer, extra comments in reply to a Tumblr question) + <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> (composer, "extra comments in reply to a Tumblr question", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) For some reason waltzes, Lydian mode, harps, and bell-like timbres seemed like the most appropriate ways to evoke dreams for me. I was inspired to make it ever since seeing Jade's dream self, and how appropriate that it was included in [[flash:1720|Dave's dream in Derse]]! @@ -1020,7 +1020,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Aggrieve Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) John had [[track:skaian-dreams-remix|a "sleep and recover hp/mp" type theme]], so I wrote one for Rose as well. Naturally it uses part of the theme from [[Aggrieve]]. When it came time to put it on the album, I didn't really want to leave it as short as it was, so I added the Dreams of Derse section to lengthen it, imagining what the cold, far orbit of Derse might be like. @@ -1281,7 +1281,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Ruins (With Strings) - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (co-composer) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (co-composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This one is really hardly me, honest, it's all [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|Bowman]]. [[track:ruins|Ruins]] was this piano recording I'd put up back when I still hardly knew how to record anything, and then Bowman just went and added magic to it. And the piano track, that's just another one of those "improvisations out of nowhere", no real purpose or theory-thinking beforehand to delegate anything to it. Especially the descending-thirds, no way I could have just thought about that and been like "Yes that is a good thing to be doing", it was just spur of the moment thinking. @@ -1293,7 +1293,7 @@ Commentary: |- I know I've got a better recording of Ruins kicking around here somewhere, I'll have to see if something can be done with it. - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Really it's the "(With Strings)" part that is my doing. When [[artist:erik-scheele|Jit]] was first inducted to the team, he did not have access at the time to a proper recording environment or midi controller that he could apply a high-quality piano sound to, so he had recorded his piano demo for [[track:ruins|"Ruins"]] on what I'm guessing is an on-board laptop microphone. I thought the composition was really great but knew that it would sound too unpolished to make the cut onto a Homestuck album, so I resolved to write a string accompaniment around his composition. @@ -1422,7 +1422,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Crystamanthequins - adamus (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Probably the thing I'm best-known for off of Volume 5, which is slightly ironic given how rushed it was. No kidding, I finished it up the night that [[artist:andrew-hussie|Hussie]] was rounding up tracks to go through, and threw it in as a last-minute thing, "hey I just finished this can it go in??" deal. I mean, I'd had inspiration for it earlier, but never got around to making it until it was almost too late! @@ -1684,7 +1684,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Skies of Skaia Commentary: |- - <i>Andrew Huo:</i> (composer) + <i>Andrew Huo:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Skaian Skuffle was made with the intent of turning [[Skies of Skaia]] into a battle theme. The bass progression matches Skies of Skaia's, with more bounce to it, and the melody of Skies of Skaia was quantified/simplified into a repeating motif. It was mostly composed by feel the rest of the way. I actually had writer's block for a while after I reached about 1:02, and it never really got resolved, which is why 1:21 onwards feels kinda awkward and not so great. I kinda wish I could go back and redo it so it sounds better. But what [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] did with it turning it into [[Skaian Skirmish]] worked really well. There was some vague artistic direction from [[artist:andrew-hussie|the Big Man]] that helped with this a little bit. If I remember correctly, it was something along the lines of "okay, maybe you can bring it down a bit in the middle, then ramp it up for the big finish." So I tried to do that using a new bassline, using wandering skips of third and fourth rather than downwise step in an attempt to mirror Skies of Skaia's original melody, as well as scrambling the repeating sixteenth note motif based on the original melody. Like I said, though, I would say it worked out awkwardly rather than well. It does create a certain mood, which, like I said, Radiation capitalized on. Whoops, I just repeated myself, but in more detail the second time. What's that called in literary device terms? Amplification? Yeah, let's go with that. @@ -1784,7 +1784,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Light - Dohmb.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This one, man. Not really as well-known as the other three, I don't think, but I'm still happy with various aspects of it. Not really any specific inspiration, I just started out with the thought of wanting to make a contrasting piece to [[Black]]. Especially with the opening piano line, but overall, something more pure and light. Of course, by the time I got around to finishing it, [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] had already stolen the title [[track:white|"White"]], so I called mine "Light" instead. @@ -2208,6 +2208,6 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Homestuck - Unknown B.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) [[artist:clark-powell|Plazmataz]] came up with [[track:homestuck-anthem|a melody]] to use as an anthem for Homestuck, which she then used in Homestuck Anthem. While that was a very driving melody, I opted to come up with something that might be more suitable for credits (opening or end) or a title screen. I really like how this came out; it sounds a bit moody, but still optimistic, which is what I was aiming for. diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml index 0c5e6708..4f55cbcb 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml @@ -94,29 +94,55 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Frost - almostsix (piano score).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> - <i>(original commentary)</i> - Anyway, man, where to begin on this one? My most famous song, one of the proudest moments of my musical career, etc. etc. I could go on. - But I'll start with the roots. - Frost didn't start off as the theme for the Land of Frost and Frogs. It started off as the theme for the Land of Thought and Flow. As I've mentioned in a previous post on this song, you really need to look at [this image](https://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/02522.gif) to understand what went through my head. - Remember that image? Yeah. Okay. Now then, go listen to the first 30 seconds of Frost while staring at that image. - Got it? - Good. - That's how it started. - And then Andrew asked me to use it in the animation and it got renamed. But, considering half of the song no longer fit the new theme, I rewrote the second half to include a lot more percussive instruments to give that icy feeling. - Frankly, I'm not sure what's more well known, the really ethereal arpeggio that opens the song, or the industrial drums that drive it. - <i>(commentary redux)</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("commentary redux", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + I can't really make a post about this song without mentioning the above flash animation and the following image: + <img src="media/misc/02522.gif" width="550"> + Because, really, if I didn't, I wouldn't be explaining a significant amount of the story behind this song. + This image of Terezi standing in the Land of Thought and Flow is what inspired the opening arpeggio for Frost. The whole Land's environment is fascinating to me, and I simply had to write a theme for that medium world. As I have probably mentioned, my preference in writing music is for settings, which gives me my really ambient sound, contrary to other musicians on the team who prefer to write melodical songs describing emotions and people. + I ended up realizing an industrial kit would work extremely well for an unusual drum beat, particularly to contrast the incredibly ethereal sound I had already established. Hell, this song is so ambient people have a hard time telling what the melody is... and no, it's not the french horn. :D + Eventually the arping bassline comes in and all is good. + Anyway, I was really hoping that Terezi's land would be explored more, but that never happened. I ended up getting contacted by Andrew to feature this in the comic, and I was really ecstatic. My music went from a few dozen people listening to it regularly, before I joined the team, to probably a few thousand after Volume 5. And then with this feature, I jumped to having hundreds of thousands of people listening to one of my songs. And it's grown since then. + That was a really mind blowing, and really awesome. I've had very few proud moments in my life more worthy than this one. + After the feature, though, I scrambled to improve the song's quality. I changed around a few things in the first half (most notably making the whole mix a bit quieter), and pushed the melody a bit more forward. The second half, I basically swapped out this very strange sounding piano improvisation I did with the percussion (vibes, glockenspiel) instruments and a saw pad for lead. The replacements work incredibly well for trying to give an icy sound, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. + I don't know if I'll ever go back to doing songs that are this ambient and minimalist, because my composing skills have progressed significantly since then, and I require much more complexity in my work. Also, now that this song is actually over two years old (for me), I've noticed how flawed it is. + But nonetheless, this is probably one of my best songs, and it's well loved by the Homestuck fandom. That's good enough for me. + + <i>Solatrus:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + + Anyway, man, where to begin on this one? My most famous song, one of the proudest moments of my musical career, etc. etc. I could go on. + + But I'll start with the roots. + + Frost didn't start off as the theme for the Land of Frost and Frogs. It started off as the theme for the Land of Thought and Flow. As I've mentioned in a previous post on this song, you really need to look at [this image](https://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/02522.gif) to understand what went through my head. + + Remember that image? Yeah. Okay. Now then, go listen to the first 30 seconds of Frost while staring at that image. + + Got it? + + Good. + + That's how it started. + + And then Andrew asked me to use it in the animation and it got renamed. But, considering half of the song no longer fit the new theme, I rewrote the second half to include a lot more percussive instruments to give that icy feeling. + + Frankly, I'm not sure what's more well known, the really ethereal arpeggio that opens the song, or the industrial drums that drive it. + + <i>Quasar Nebula:</i> (wiki editor, 12/4/2024) + + The [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), which was originally the only source for most commentary on the wiki, annotates the first commentary entry on this page as "commentary redux", and places it second. For the wiki we assume this is an error and place it first, because in the other (and ostensibly original) entry, Solatrus refers to "a previous post" where he shared [the panel](https://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/02522.gif) that's part of both posts. The commentary collection has no source links or dates, and we haven't found sources for either post on this track, so this is just our best read of the text itself. + + Note, though, that for [[track:crystalanthology]] (the other track by Solatrus on this album), the commentary collection *does* seem to order its two entries correctly. --- Track: Courser Artists: @@ -580,7 +606,8 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Dissension (Original) - Squiddles! Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Not a lot to say here aside from it being a combination of the Squiddles Theme and Dissension. I always enjoy finding ways to combine two themes together, and this worked better than I had hoped. I did have to move the Squiddles to a minor key for it to work though. --- Track: Blackest Heart @@ -599,7 +626,8 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Liquid Negrocity Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + It's extremely subtle, but the cello tremolos are playing a very slow version of the theme from the beginning of Liquid Negrocity (and Black). I wrote this just after Jack Noir retreated from John and the rabbit. I didn't know what he'd be doing at the time, nor what his motivation would be, so I imagined him retreating to some castle and brooding as he contemplated his next move. Later on, Blackest Heart would be applied (rather effectively) to Gamzee instead. --- Track: Nic Cage Song @@ -761,24 +789,46 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Crystalanthemums Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> - <i>(original commentary)</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + It's a chill drum and bass song, and one of my best productions for Homestuck. It was also my first remix since I made that Skaia remix. + Have I mentioned that Alex Rosetti's compositions are pretty incredible? They are. You should go give him some love. - <i>(commentary redux)</i> + + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("commentary redux", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Woo, my first official remix since my Skaia remix on Volume 5! + So as I've probably mentioned, I'm a huge fan of Alex Rosetti's work, and this song is absolutely no exception. I had been wanting to do something with Crystalanthemums since first listening to it. Coincidentally, it immediately proceeded my Skaia remix. + At the time, I really had no idea on who anyone was on the team, so it never really sunk in that I should do that remix until December of 2010. + Obviously at this point I had gained an interest in drum and bass music, which explains the sound, yet I still had a very soft and ethereal sound reminiscent of the original song. + Of course, I really pushed the energy up, which made it a lot of fun. I jokingly said to Alex after Volume 6 came out that while his song was at the top of the echeladder, my remix was god tier, in part due to Vriska in her God Tier outfit being there. :D + Anyway, on to the song. + So the song opens with a really interesting sounding ostinato, which is actually the same notes that open Crystalanthemums: E, D, B, A, E, D, B, D. + However, I really gated the length of the note to make it become such a short blip that the sound barely registers. On top of that I gave it a delay and combined with the gate it sounds nothing like the original motif. + And then when I open the gate on the note length you hear the ostinato faaaaar better. + A lot of people missed this, actually. :D + I have to say I really love the chord progression Alex went with in Crystalanthemums, and it was incredibly fun to make that bassline, which is actually a layered bass, but not a note-for-note bass. This is actually a pretty common thing to do, with the lower bass just playing simple sustained notes, and the higher bass is more animated. + Though I've definitely grown to prefer warm sawtooth basslines, this bass has a really nice quality that's almost a square. The filter based attack is pretty sweet sounding, too. + I really was happy with how the drum beats layered in at 2:16, though honestly, I was really out of practice of doing any sort of breakbeat stuff. + Fun fact, this was the first song I used Gross Beat on. What's Gross Beat? It's something a Time Lord of Gallifrey would approve of in music. :D If you listen to the stutter effects heard in the song, mostly in the latter half, that's where I start using Gross Beat to do some crazy time shifting stuff. + Man, I really love what I did on this song. + ...I need to do another Homestuck remix, don't I? + + <i>Quasar Nebula:</i> (wiki editor, 12/4/2024) + + In contrast to [[track:frost-vol6]] (the other track by Solatrus on this album), the [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt) appears to order its first entry, not annotated, and its second entry, "commentary redux", correctly. Solatrus says in the second entry, "as I've probably mentioned, I'm a huge fan of Alex Rosetti's work" - and he did shout Alex Rosetti out in the first, probably earlier entry. diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml index efeaa1a3..484401bf 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml @@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ Lyrics: |- (War, hammer, of, Zillyhoo) (War, hammer, of, Zillyhoo) Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) "Calamity" was inspired by the very same update that inspired the Pantskat craze - [the image of Gamzee returning, Warhammer of Zillyhoo in hand](https://www.homestuck.com/story/3847) is translated into two sonic elements, ie honks and chanting. What I've enjoyed really intensely about [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew's]] sense of humor in Homestuck and his other adventures is his gradual elevation of silly details onto the pedestals of utter drama, and with this track I tried to recreate that. You laughed at the honks and the chanting before - now your heart races (at least I hope). @@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Do You Remem8er Me - Quaddy (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, original commentary) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, "original commentary", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Alas poor Vriska. This scene stood out quite a bit from the Scrapbook Near-end-of-act Scratch-a-thon as being yet more humility to Vriska as a character - first hinted at during John's talk with her around the whole 'lifdoff' time (which is also why most of the song is taken from [[track:lifdoff|lifdoff]].) @@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ Commentary: |- Also I was trying to channel some of the style from the music of the Little Big Adventure games. The soundtrack for thems' awesome and ya'll should go listen to it! - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, tumblr version) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, "tumblr version", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) "DYRM" was essentially cre8ed as a sort of 8acking track to the John and Vriska 'date' sequence (around about here). The idea was to do a sort of schlocky romantic 8allad that combined elements of Johns goofiness but with the tragedy that hey - Vriska's dead. Over the course of it, we travel through John and Vriska's memories, and she's trying to get him to remem8er something important, so there's that element too. It's kinda sad, 8ut in a way it's also a 8it of a cele8ration of Vriska - She's surprisingly polarizing with a lot of the fan8ase, as the 8est characters often are... :p @@ -375,9 +375,9 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Ocean Stars Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) - The [[album:squiddles|Squiddles!]] album gets no love. There, I said it. I've mentioned before how awesome it is and how dramatically it has undersold compared to the rest of our material, but apparently everyone is too terrified of its My Little Pony meets Cthulu approach to give it a shot. Trust me, you'll like it more than you think you will. + The [[album:squiddles|Squiddles]] album gets no love. There, I said it. I've mentioned before how awesome it is and how dramatically it has undersold compared to the rest of our material, but apparently everyone is too terrified of its My Little Pony meets Cthulu approach to give it a shot. Trust me, you'll like it more than you think you will. Anyway, one of the most surprising tracks on that particular album is [[track:ocean-stars|"Ocean Stars"]], a peaceful, mysterious little ditty imagined by [[artist:mark-j-hadley|Mark]] with a nautical theme in mind. I thought it had a beautiful little structure, and I guess the song must have stuck with me because at some point I found myself playing its chords over and over on my keyboard faster and faster until I was sure it would make for a great little indie rock inspired track. So I did just that. @@ -407,7 +407,7 @@ Art Tags: - CD - Rabbit Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Before going into a description of this track, I must make a long-overdue rebuttal to the factors that overshadowed its reception. Yes, I know this song and its track art pertain to the Wayward Vagabond. Yes, I know it's sad that Andrew [[flash:4109|"killed off"]] the Wayward Vagabond on the same day that this album was released. No, I had no idea that would happen nor do I care how incongruous the song's mood seems in relation to that particular plot point. @@ -500,7 +500,7 @@ Art Tags: - Frogs - LoFaF Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Uh oh, [[artist:erik-scheele|Jit]] and I showed up to the album with the same song idea. That's like two girls showing up the party in the same dress. Awkward! Good thing for Jit and I that, like the two girls in that famous scenario, we each have our own swagga and wear those dresses like the hot young messes we are. Wow, don't quote me on that. (Too late - DPF) @@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - track:terra-solatrus - track:frost-vol6 Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) That's a remix of Terra and (obviously) Frost. @@ -595,7 +595,7 @@ Commentary: |- I was counting [[flash:5238|"[S] Dirk: Synchronize."]] and [[flash:5252|"[S] Dirk: Unite."]] as one animation, that just happened to be chopped into two parts. Next one is [[flash:5261|EOA6.3]], at the end of Pause 2. Song: Unite Synchronization (Sometimes I name animations after songs. [[flash:1940|Descend]], [[flash:4109|Cascade]]...) By [[artist:malcolm-brown|Malcolm Brown]]. We have entered the Brown Zone. You have been warned. - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, original commentary) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, "original", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This was an idea borne of two things. Firstly the Dave & Jade vs Noir battle in the banner (Original title was 'Redshift'), and secondly a post-scratch Dave trying to regroup with all the kids (hence - 'Unite' - keeping to the kind of single-world direction thing HS has going for it i.e. Descend, Ascend, Cascade, etc). @@ -605,7 +605,7 @@ Commentary: |- The breakbeat drum thing was also fun to do. - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (commentary redux) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, "commentary redux", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) The idea behind this guy was something similar to the traditional idea of some HS songs being about movement ([[track:descend|"Descend"]], [[flash:1668|"Ascend"]], [[track:upward-movement-dave-owns|"Upward Movement"]]), so in this case it's 4 things moving, together as one. It was becoming reasonably clear that post-scratch, we'd be separating The beta kids up a bit, and ideally, once the dust settled, they would all meet up again - This track's effectively the kids overcoming whatever barriers in their way to unite. @@ -702,7 +702,7 @@ Cover Art File Extension: jpg Art Tags: - Terezi Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I made the theme for this a long time ago for an RPG a friend was making, but then cancelled. I still really liked the theme, so I modified it slightly and repurposed it for Homestuck. Out of everything I've done for Homestuck, it's still one of my favorites. --- @@ -803,7 +803,7 @@ Cover Artists: Art Tags: - John Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Two of the tracks I put on Volume 8 were collaborations with other Homestuck musicians, something I've been meaning to do more of because two heads are usually better than one. The first of the two was "Gust of Heir", a track that James Dever wrote and for which I did the production. @@ -811,7 +811,7 @@ Commentary: |- Anyway, I knew right away where James was coming from when he sent me a midi demo of "Gust of Heir" though originally it was arranged as a piano solo. Without access to a pro recording situation as on the [[album:sburb|Sburb]] piano suite, we knew there would have to be an alternate solution, hence the electronic approach. I played pretty heavily with a set of new sounds, specifically the soundfonts of Ethan Winer, an audio professional whose work was recommended by [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] a good while back. - As I have on many occasions I took cues from [Oblique Strategies](http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/) to get some ideas for the arrangement. Part of the intrigue in producing this piece was that it was fully written, meaning that in some ways I was boxed-in to a complete journey for the song to take musically yet in others free to really explore and discover a unique sound for the song. I really played toggling a slew of effects until this tune became rendering hell for my computer. I stepped a bit outside my own range of comfort and got some drum loops from [[artist:clark-powell|Clark Powell]] to really polish off the piece, adding a touch that otherwise would probably have eluded me. + As I have on many occasions I took cues from [Oblique Strategies](https://web.archive.org/web/20111015072347/http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/) to get some ideas for the arrangement. Part of the intrigue in producing this piece was that it was fully written, meaning that in some ways I was boxed-in to a complete journey for the song to take musically yet in others free to really explore and discover a unique sound for the song. I really played toggling a slew of effects until this tune became rendering hell for my computer. I stepped a bit outside my own range of comfort and got some drum loops from [[artist:clark-powell|Clark Powell]] to really polish off the piece, adding a touch that otherwise would probably have eluded me. <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1872), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) @@ -948,7 +948,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Explore Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Hah! If 'Sneaking music' was a genre, here's another one to the mix. @@ -976,7 +976,7 @@ Art Tags: - The Handmaid - Doc Scratch Commentary: |- - <i>Svix:</i> (composer) + <i>Svix:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Havoc began as an intro section for [[track:my-hibernation-original|another song]] I made a while back but I quite liked the melody and decided to make a separate track out of it. I submitted it to Homestuck as I felt the chiptune nature of the piece fit in with the comic's style and I'd been wanting to write a 'Strife' type tune for some time. @@ -1050,7 +1050,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Dirgeish - Sburban Jungle Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) "Revered Return" began as a track called [[track:dirgeish|"Dirgeish"]], a .pxtone composition that [[artist:nick-smalley|Nick]] had completed some time ago but never managed to squeeze into an album. Because as a chip tune it had been long overlooked, I decided to take a whack at producing it in a different style for inclusion on Volume 8. I had been looking for a piece that would work as a rock tune, and "Dirgeish" really struck me because of the heavy involvement of drums, its steady pace, and dynamic structure. @@ -1058,7 +1058,7 @@ Commentary: |- The structure I think might be the most unique part of "Revered Return" - it doesn't waste time by really repeating itself a lot. Nine out of ten times I work on a song I find myself writing or arranging something that moves in a very basic structure like ABAB or AABA or other variants, etc. "Dirgeish" gave me the challenge of establishing coherency in a piece that seemed to move almost completely linearly, and I made sure to preserve its sort of ABCDEFGBA-type structure in arranging "Revered Return" for Volume 8. - <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (co-composer) + <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (co-composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) [[track:ohgodwhat|Remember that thing about ORGMaker?]] Yeah, this song, too. Except add me asking [[artist:andrew-huo|Andrew Huo]] to help finish it and [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|Bowman]] to ramp it up, and you've got Revered Return. :3 @@ -1265,7 +1265,7 @@ Lyrics: |- If you ever go How will I ever, ever survive? Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) So, like it or not, [[track:how-do-i-live-bunny-back-in-the-box-version|my signature song]] seems to be the country ballad made famous by a movie about how Nicolas Cage and John Cusack screw up absolutely everything and destroy the Las Vegas strip. Hence, for Volume 8, I decided to do a more serious version of "How Do I Live" that doesn't mortify me entirely. @@ -1318,7 +1318,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Black Hole, Green Sun - lugiaa (guitar solo).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer) + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Not much to say on this really except the title is kind of an ode to Soundgarden. --- @@ -1337,7 +1337,7 @@ Art Tags: - Frogs - LoFaF Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Back when we knew Jade as just GG, I wrote the first part of Carefree Action as a possible upbeat strife theme for her. It never ended up getting used, but other people liked it, and eventually a remix of it ([[track:carefree-victory|Carefree Victory]]) made it into the comic. The original was pretty short, so I lengthened it so that I could eventually get it onto an album. Like [[track:sburban-reversal|Sburban Reversal]], I recommended it as a bonus track. diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml index 4cfa00e9..8d9cd2f5 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml @@ -116,11 +116,16 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Crystalmethequins - Do The Musicy Thing (piano score).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Clark Powell:</i> + <i>Clark Powell:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Let me tell you of this song's origins, for I saw it unfold with mine own eyes. + After our South by Southwest showcase concert, [[artist:riki-tsuji|Astro Kid]] and I both found ourselves back at his apartment. Still in our stage costumes we opened our cans of Dr. B and casually sat around his bedroom. Computers were turned on, subwoofers were turned up. And so it began that we started remixing. + Nearly two months later we sat in the back of a van amongst instruments and gear on our way to play another concert, this time at a Houston anime convention. Computers were turned on, headphones were turned up. It was here that Crystalmethequins, begun so many weeks earlier, was finally completed. + After deciding that the track art would not be a hastily photoshopped image of troll Bryan Cranston, I came to someone I trusted. Richard Gung is unarguably the master, and his track art was well worth the cost he took from me in that dark alley. + The song was chosen from among its peers to open Volume 9. There it stands proudly to this day. --- Track: Anbroids V2.0 @@ -150,33 +155,60 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Anbroids V2.0 - Unknown.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + <code style="color: #e00707">DAVE: we are in the shit now<br>DAVE: we are motherfuckin entrenched in this bitch</code> + That's right! It's time to talk about Anbroids 2.0! Hands up everyone who thought "Brobots" would've been a better name? Yeah that's what I thought... Still! Here we are so let's commence the proceedings: + <b>THE CONCEPT</b> + So much of the inspiration here comes directly from Davesprite, which I remember thinking "Oh god damn if that Yamaha YM2612 Genesis/Mega Driveness doesn't fit Dave quite well!". Enter Dirk Strider and his robotic creations! Suddenly a synthy, retro chiptune doesn't sound so out of place. + My idea was formed fairly early on after we'd learned a bit of his pastime. I came up with the idea of having a kind of "Workshop" theme where Dirk would put some music on and get to work constructing some brobot or other. From here there was a number of prerequisites: - <ol><li>Must be kinda funky. Dude's a Strider after all. So we're looking at a bit of a groove with the beat.</li> <li>Must have square waves, which is sort of the national instrument of Robonia.</li> <li>Solos!</li></ol> + + 1. Must be kinda funky. Dude's a Strider after all. So we're looking at a bit of a groove with the beat. + 2. Must have square waves, which is sort of the national instrument of Robonia. + 3. Solos! + All this in mind, I nabbed a general purpose Genesis soundfont (Which seems to be comprised of voices mainly nabbed from Sonic, certainly the percussion is - You should be able to recognize the snare from the opening riff of Sonic the Hedgehog). And got to work. + <b>NAME</b> + Yeah, so I thought "Brobots" would've been a better name, especially because that became their canon name in the comic, but by then Hussie had used it in the comic under the name Anbroids, so it stuck :p I apended a 2.0 on it because the versions became fairly different. I also figured some people might want the original version 1.0 used in the comic after the album came out. + Speaking of which... + <b>VERSION ONE</b> + [\[LISTEN TO] IT HERE!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ICTFBDONdI) + This was an in progress version that Hussie nabbed early on before I'd made changes to create the newer version. I'll go into why it changed in a bit, but here's a good place to discuss the track at large: + The main theme is there, but a bit... "Lazier" - It doesn't have a lot of the swing it'd later develop. It also opens with just a percussive riff, which is probably most influenced by the likes of Toejam 'n Earl. Overall I reckon this version lacked energy, so it needed a bit of a rework before I reckoned it was cool enough to be a Strider song... + <b>VERSION TWO</b> + The percussive intro was removed in favor of a "Booting up" thing (Just a pitch bended squave), followed by a not-so-subtle parody of the original Game Boy bootup noise. The main "guitar" riff came back with a bit of stereo (Which I tried to use a bit more of). + At 0:23 we jump into the first of various solos. One of the tricky parts of chiptune music is, yes you have limited channels, voices and often no polyphony (multiple notes on the same track at the same time) so if you want to make it sound realistically retro you need to abide by these laws, but that doesn't mean you can't play with pitch, modulation, stereo etc - The solos were effectively a lesson in mucking about with these to create something that sounded fairly dynamic for a sequenced solo. + At 0:40, just before the main melody kicks in, we have the first "boot error" sound - Just a flat bass note on the square. There's one at the end as well - The main concept was while he's building these brobots, occasionally something'll go wrong - It'll fail to start or it'll start going haywire - and so he has to unplug and start again trying something else. + 0:43 has the main melody. It's similar to the original Version 1 but it's been funked up a bit - Mainly to avoid it sounded like other stuff (I'm looking at you, Lady Gaga's Alejandro). Again, bit of pitch wobbliness to give an air of a kind of hectic, technological mess. + The second solo changes the key, and here the idea is Dirk's moved on to working on something else. As the solo continues, it gets more and more hectic until it's just splattering notes everywhere, like the brobot's gone completely off the rails and it's flailing around the room - At 1:35 it's promptly shutdown and we bridge back into the main melody again (This bridge was removed from V1, but brought back in by, well, Rad's request :p I liked it too though, has a Sonic-y feel to it). + Bit of harmonizing later (partially indicating that the Brobot Dirk's working on has started to play ball and is synchronizing with his personality). One last "Perfected" solo (1:58) which is actually a modified version of the original solo that's basically a lot "wilder", to show we've finally perfected the upgrade and ready to ship. + So with that, everything's shut down, and the song ends. + Granted, I probably didn't manage to get this little 'story' across with everybody, but this was the general thought process when I was making the thing. Hopefully if you listen to it now you'll get some of the ideas I was going for. If not? Well... enjoy it however you like :p Or even come up with your own interpretation that's better than mine :p + Johnathan Griffiths was the track art man of the hour - There's even a mega drive controller there! And how are those shades staying on? All round awesome :) <i>Jonathan Griffiths:</i> + My track art for Anbroids V2.0 by Malcolm Brown off Homestuck Volume 9! The track reminded me a lot of Toejam & Earl, so I wanted to have some kind of ridiculous 90s background, and you can’t get more 90s than complementary colors, triangles, and color halftones. ;) Then I gave Squarewave a Genesis controller necklace for good measure. THE SHUTTER SHADES WERE A SPECIAL BONUS FOR ALL OF YOU <3 @@ -218,7 +250,8 @@ Art Tags: - John - LoWaS Commentary: |- - <i>Buzinkai:</i> + <i>Buzinkai:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Firefly is a special song. I was walking through a small lot to my apartment in the summertime, and fireflies were all around me. And I just thought of the -perfect- theme for it, and I rushed in to my apartment as fast as I could to get it down. It's the only song that's come to me like that. --- Track: Whistling Jackhammer @@ -259,7 +292,8 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Aggrieve (Violin Refrain) Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) + RJ gave me the reins on this one. At first I was drawing it in the same style as a later track ([[Before the Beginning and After the End]]) I did art for, but then it quickly turned in to a painting. This palette in particular was fun and challenging to work with. I'm happy with the end result, since it looks like the Batterwitch is cackling as the world burns down around her. --- Track: Hate You @@ -320,21 +354,36 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - "Pumpkin Party in Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse - Caustic.mid" Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Aaah Pumpkin Party in Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse. Or Pumpkin Party in Colony 413 or whatever I was calling it before I decided to go nuts. The original working title was just "Pumpkin Party", so at the very least we started somewhere sensible. + So let's have a chat about where this one came from. + <b>THE CONCEPT</b> + So around about [THIS PANEL](https://www.homestuck.com/story/4852) during Dirk's history lesson of the future, we got a glimpse as to what Roxy was up to - Helping the locals out in the post apocalyptic hell-future. Some bizarre idea came about that herself and the Carapacians would get together and have a little underground party away from the watchful gaze of the Condensce and her drones and the like. Gotta find some way to keep your spirits up, right? So with that incredibly vague concept the idea was born to come up with some small light of goodness and happiness in, well, "Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse". + <b>THE NAME</b> + As mentioned this changed a few times, but this line sums up pretty much everything you need to know about the future: + <code style="color: #1f9400">GT: Like what is even your day to day business like in sea hitlers water apocalypse??</code> + <b>THE TRACK</b> + As I recall, with this one it was mainly the instruments chosen that defined it. The Banjo just struck the right kind of sound, and from there an accordion to give it a bit of a polka feel. A lot of the crafting of this one was trying desperately not to have it ending up too much like the Ievan Polkka (Which thanks to a month of Project Diva on PSP is firmly embedded in my brain...). + The idea of mixing Chiptune samples and real instruments is something I was playing with a lot this album (Encore does it as well, as did the dropped 'Mother') - I felt this was a kind of neat "This is where we were, and this is where we are now" concept. HS is still about a game, and it's neat to embed some of the more obvious gamey elements now and then. Plus it might just be me, but accordions and square waves go really well together :D + The "Ooh!" "Ahh!" chants were added just to give it a bit more of a folk appeal, and the air-raid sirens were added last to build up the scene of this party going on while the world's gone to hell outside - perhaps some other colony's getting obliterated for whatever reason. Either way, it bookends the song quite nicely, coming back now and then and returning at the end to signify the dance is over. + My favorite bit of the whole thing is the solo at 1:56 - It's just so gosh darn happy! + Overall though? It's a bit of a zany, dance-party track. Completely juxtapositions the hell-nightmare outside, and in the end that's the point! Of course things get worse, but "Red Miles In Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse" will have to wait... + Damn, I just realized I should've added some meows. I've got like two cats sitting here ready for a vocal performance as well... Ah well, the road not taken. + Once again the art is very spiffy so many thanks to Marina! Look at that dude in the corner? That pumpkin is so nom'd! :D --- Track: Skaianet @@ -357,6 +406,10 @@ MIDI Project Files: - Title: MIDI by Twix Stix (from Sburbmon) Files: - 'Skaianet - Twix Stix.mid' +Commentary: |- + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + + I don't have a lot to say about this one, other than that it resembles my earlier pre-Homestuck work more than anything else (i.e., faced-paced and a little repetitive). I still kind of like it though --- Track: Another Jungle Artists: @@ -386,7 +439,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Another Jungle - Purple1222119 (flash version).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) Before this track was [[flash:4665|used]] in Homestuck along with Beatfox's [[track:a-taste-for-adventure|"A Taste for Adventure"]], it was actually made for a nearly 3-year-old defunct fan project. Housetrapped was a story about an alternate Sburb session and "Another Jungle" was a the-same-but-different theme for the loading screen of that universe's Sburb client. Sound familiar? @@ -499,7 +552,7 @@ Lyrics: |- (Awesome! That was totally rad to the max! I could just keep doing this all day... NOT! I've got games to play, and if you think I'm gonna slow down just to talk to a bunch of amateurs, then you need to seriously blow the dust out of your cartridges. But hey, girls, whenever you need to show those creepy boys who's boss, just remember that GameGrl's got your back. Look for me on specially-marked boxes of Betty Crocker brand snacks and have an adult call the toll-free number to subscribe to the exclusive girls-only GameGrl Magazine. Alright, check you later girlfriends!) Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/25256571587/iambowman-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know), around 6/16/2012) Originally we'd planned on doing a Homestuck album that was devoted entirely to the Sburb Alpha kids and their session, all of us doing tracks that would parallel earlier tracks in a same-but-different fashion. While this album became Homestuck Vol. 9, a lot of analogous tracks remained from the original concept, including this track as an alternative to [[track:gamebro-original-1990-mix|"GameBro (Original 1990 Mix)"]] from Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent. @@ -517,7 +570,7 @@ Commentary: |- We took our pictures at the Japanese-style game center Arcade UFO. Outtakes can be found [here](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/24983253249/some-of-the-other-photos-from-the-gamegrl). - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (vocalist, track artist) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (vocalist, track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) I don't even know where to start. @@ -608,7 +661,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Austin, Atlantis - silverseer (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Clark Powell:</i> + <i>Clark Powell:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Nothing inspires me more than spaces, regardless of whether they are real or virtual. Examples include cities, mountains, buildings, individual rooms, even entire planets (see [[album:medium|Medium]]). @@ -662,11 +715,11 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Despot - adamus (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://erikscheele.tumblr.com/post/24963696053/volume-9), excerpt) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://erikscheele.tumblr.com/post/24963696053/volume-9), excerpt, 6/12/2012) Started as a sequel to [[track:upward-movement-dave-owns|Upward Movement]], before [[artist:andrew-hussie|Hussie]] skipped over that entire sequence, which made me try to build it into a general Dirk theme. Sort of like a rise to power, from princehood to kinghood, or sommat. Maybe even a character theme, though I can't really make those calls. - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) This picture started with an innocent suggestion from [[artist:robert-j-lake|RJ]] who imagined Dirk riding a [super hang on motorcycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hang-On) to this song. I took the idea over to [[artist:erik-scheele|Jit]] who then helped me develop the picture to what it became, suggesting the [FF7 motorcycle chase](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUUbp-4kKMA) as inspiration and to turn the motorcycle in to Sawtooth. --- @@ -688,18 +741,29 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Five-Four Stress Commentary: |- <i>Toby Fox:</i> ([Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20130312050422/http://fwugradiation.tumblr.com/post/25866980984/stress-homestuck-vol-9-track-commentary)) + art by [[artist:p-ro]] at [nomorepros.tumblr.com](https://nomorepros.tumblr.com). P-RO always does a maximally amazing job so why I asked her to draw the art is a non-question. + Stress is actually a pretty faithful arrangement of an [[track:five-four-stress|original track]] by Buzinkai. Buzinkai has been responsible for several HS-important melodies like [[Doctor]], [[Endless Climb]], and [[Explore]] and [her] work, for me, has always established a certain "essence" of what Homestuck is. My goal for this piece was actually to create a classic strife theme for Dirk with the core feeling of earlier pieces like [[Showtime (Original Mix)|Showtime]] or [[Doctor]], so basing the piece off of something with that "essence" was important.* + I can't say why Buzinkai wrote this piece the way she did, so I'll instead highlight the differences between the original and my arrangement. + - <p>Updated the instrumentation. Buzinkai's usage of PXTONE is indeed charming and nostalgic-sounding, but I wanted to push things bit further. One major difference is the arrangement of the strings - Buzinkai's PXTONE strings have an sharp attack to them, while mine come on a bit softer but are thicker. My strings then sound more "lush" but less "urgent."</p> - <p>I added a section between the original A section and B section with lower intensity. This was because the song got a bit too repetitive and static simply repeating like Buzinkai's. Oddly, the repeats didn't bother me in her track. I think this is partially because MY loop point, unlike Buzinkai's, lowers the intensity a LOT more by removing a bunch of instruments where hers simply flows into a repeat. I need to think about that more.</p> - <p>Added an introduction and a true ending to make it more of a proper start-to-finish song.</p> + About the similarity to [[Teal Hunter]] and a fun syncopation lesson: + - <p>This was unintentional - I not only started my arrangement of this song before the contest was conceived, Buzinkai made the original song back in 2010. THOUGH as soon as I heard Teal Hunter I KNEW people would call out the similarities because, surprise, there are plenty of them! Here's the big one: + - <p>Both pieces are in 5/4 (5 beats per measure, try counting to 5 over and over on the beat) and use the SAME syncopation (syncopation = the division of notes into smaller off-beat rhythms within the measure) throughout the track. Actually, many many many pieces in 5/4 use this syncopation. See: [Hollow Bastion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nlCNVewMjA). Why do composers keep doing this? Two reasons: One, because it sounds awesome. Second, because the main way to compose in odd time signatures like 5/4 or 13/4** is actually to cut things into smaller units of 3, 2, or 4. Though each measure is comprised of 5 total beats, each measure in these songs is cut into 10 notes of half the length going 123-123-12-12. 3! 3! 2! 2!</p> <p>Wow, that was a very poor explanation. But please go to that Hollow Bastion video I linked and count "one-two-three-one-two-three-one-two-one-two" very quickly along with each note the harp plays. You'll get it. (And I'm just making things more confusing, but isn't it awesome how the syncopation switches at the end of the 4-measure phrase to "1234 12 12 12?" The little bit of contrast makes it feel complete.)</p> <p>So, why don't people just cut things up differently? like 3 2 2 3? it's definitely possible! Here's my theory about why people favor the syncopation they do: It seems like ending a measure with a shorter note ON the beat leads into the next measure more naturally. It even sounds like a leadin: dun-DUN! This is supported by the fact that one of the most popular syncopations in existence is the one in 4/4 that goes 3 3 2. This is probably the same principle.</p> <p>3 3 2: ON OFF ON<br>3 3 2 2: ON OFF ON ON</p> + - <p>Besides the fact that the syncopation is identical, the chords and melody are similar and the way the strings are used are basically the same. I have no explanation for this other than... great minds think alike???</p> <p>RANDOM FUN FACT: [[Awakening]] is also in 5/4, go to 1:40 and sing the melody to Stress. Hell, [[media:misc/stresscombo.mp3|I'll do it for you.]] It fits!!! The main melody of awakening also starts with a similar rhythm as Stress. it's the curse of the 123 123 12 12's.</p> + Wow, I really got off track here. But I hope you learned something today. - * Yes, [[artist:bill-bolin]] also started [[track:stress-speed-mix|an arrangement of this piece]] before he left the team. I think we were both attracted to the same "essence" present in Buzinkai's piece. + + \* Yes, [[artist:bill-bolin]] also started [[track:stress-speed-mix|an arrangement of this piece]] before he left the team. I think we were both attracted to the same "essence" present in Buzinkai's piece. + ** Bonus challenge: See if you can count out how I divided the measures in this song! If you can do this, you can easily understand how to compose in time signatures like this. It's actually VERY simple and derived directly from the other breakdowns I did. --- Track: Minihoof's Adventure @@ -717,7 +781,7 @@ Cover Art File Extension: jpg Art Tags: - Maplehoof Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) I get the feeling that down the line there will be an explanation for why exactly there's a tiny Maplehoof on Dirk Strider's desk and it will be one of the biggest plot revelations in all of Homestuck. For me it was a cue that there needed to be a Sburb Alpha universe parallel for the song [[track:maplehoofs-adventure]], which in itself was a spiritual sequel to [[Pony Chorale]]. It's sort of a reality check to realize that I have written not one, not two, but three songs for cartoon ponies now - I guess that's part of this disease we call the Internet. @@ -727,9 +791,7 @@ Commentary: |- Out of all the tracks for Volume 9 I worked on, this one was a real breeze. I was on such a roll that I considered making it ten minutes long just to piss off everyone, but I knew that I'd most likely be asked to cut it down if I'd gone to that kind of excess, and I had other tracks to work on. - The track art was done by Tavia Morra. - - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (vocalist, track artist) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (vocalist, track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) Bowman and I quickly settled on the idea of a picture emphasizing the size of Minihoof, but couldn't decide on a specific way to show it. Maybe put a magnifying glass over the little pony? Having her next to Dirk's hand while he typed on the computer? The energy of the track made us think of little Minihoof running through an obstacle course Dirk set up for her on his desk, thus the stapler, the tacks, the brads, the pencils, and the GameBro Magazines. This was a super fun one for me since I had such a personal investment in it. @@ -759,24 +821,39 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Lifdoff - Unite Synchronization Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Let's talk about Encore! Or "Showtime 2: Encore". + <b>THE CONCEPT.</b> + So back in the early days of Volume 9, the idea was "The New Session". The further idea was to take the tracks 'n themes of Volume 1/Act 1 and 're-scratch' em to come up with a parallel for the new session and the new kids. Where this idea started to fall to bits was expecting the act to play similarly to Act 1, which it quickly didn't :) + Still, by this point we had a decent collision of re imagined classic tracks and Strife/character themes for the new kids, so on with the show. + Encore was a straight-up "Let's bring Showtime kicking and screaming into the new session, but a little bit mixed, yet still recognizable". + <b>THE NAME.</b> + Should be obvious. "Showtime" -> "Encore". + <b>THE TRACK.</b> + Making Showtime orchestral wasn't too hard. The idea of a very pomp-y, brass, adventure-y/combat affair was formed fairly early on - I think the main channeling came from a Power Stone/Smash Brothers-esque "Zany combat" idea. + Most of the voices come from EWQL's Symphonic Orchestra, with a bit of soundfonts for the later Showtime segment. + The section at 0:22 has a bit of history - It was originally a straight up Lifdoff arrangement, but I pulled it back and made it considerably less obvious (I've became hesitant of Lifdoff since someone pointed out it sounds like the Bruce Lee story theme :p) - I *did* leave the little brass phrases that punctuated it, which unintentionally/subconsciously might be referencing Earthsea Borealis. This wasn't intended, but it's probably close enough for it not just to be a coincidence, and enough people seem to be picking up on this accidental reference so what the hell :p + Next it returns to the alternate Showtime and adds on Unite Synchronization. Does a floaty little bridge afterwards, and then we get into the original Showtime. + I pondered adding this for a while, since it felt a bit "Yes, we get it, this is a Showtime thing, y'don't need to actually add the thing in", but eventually I liked the idea of it smashing in, completely brazen with its NES-y soundfont and blaring the original track in the last section of the song. We then wind down with the fast-paced percussion and the starting brass arrangement, just enough time for a post-battle ass-kicking pose, and then "Boom". + I think writing tracks for characters like John/Jake's quite fun in that they've got this bottomless optimism and carefree attitude, plus they do silly things. Silly things are quite fun to score... + And that's Encore! Hope ya'll enjoyed that little trip back down memory lane! - <i>Bea:</i> ([Tumblr](https://beesmygod.tumblr.com/post/24962863472/oh-ok-i-can-post-this-now)) + <i>Bea:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://beesmygod.tumblr.com/post/24962863472/oh-ok-i-can-post-this-now), 6/12/2012) oh ok i can post this now @@ -800,11 +877,11 @@ Referenced Tracks: - English - Explore Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) As I've mentioned before, I really like finding ways to combine themes. In this case, I combined 'Explore' and 'English' in a style inspired by the sailing theme from 'Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'. (It's easy to miss the theme from 'English', since it's a lot more upbeat and in a major key.) I don't use brass a lot when I write, but I think it came out well here. - <i>EsfiArt:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20180407051347/http://kiddybro.tumblr.com/post/24963870530)) + <i>EsfiArt:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20180407051347/http://kiddybro.tumblr.com/post/24963870530), 6/12/2012) WELP GUESS IT’S TIME TO POST THIS NOW @@ -825,7 +902,7 @@ Art Tags: - Jake - Tavros' lusus Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/kitten-burrito/25391031646/iambowman-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know), around 6/18/2012) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/kitten-burrito/25391031646/iambowman-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know), excerpt, around 6/18/2012) This is pure Jake strife music - I started this project with the definite goal in mind to make something that sounded purely like video game music for a battle. Jake English is sort of the archetypal Roosevelt-type swashbuckler with all the bravado of a turn-of-the-century primitivist. For him, the palette of sounds is instantaneous: heavy percussion rumbling at a breakneck pace. I threw in chimes, timpani, xylophone, glockenspiel, cymbal crashes, and an uncompromising drum machine to get the atmosphere I wanted. @@ -870,7 +947,8 @@ Cover Artists: Art Tags: - Dirk Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) + You ever have one of those days where the pen and photoshop just seem to be behaving? I was having one of those days and as a result this picture of Dirk happened. He's holding a Derse flag with the pointy end coming at the viewer. This man means business. --- Track: Jane Dargason @@ -892,15 +970,14 @@ Referenced Tracks: Sampled Tracks: - Life in Technicolor Commentary: |- - <i>Clark Powell:</i> ([Tumblr](https://plazmataz.tumblr.com/post/25536699941/jane-dargason-it-may-be-a-little-late-by-now-but)) + <i>Clark Powell:</i> ([Tumblr](https://plazmataz.tumblr.com/post/25536699941/jane-dargason-it-may-be-a-little-late-by-now-but), 6/20/2012) It may be a little late by now, but I wanted to give one more of my songs from Volume 9 a post of its own. First let me say that [[artist:robert-j-lake|RJ Lake]] is a joy to work with. We sent Jane Dargason back and forth between us, remixing each other's remixes until the track was in its final state. For reference: - The original sketch put together by RJ [[track:jane-dragon|sounded like this]]. - - By the end of the process, things had evolved quite a bit. + - The original sketch put together by RJ [[track:jane-dragon|sounded like this]]. + - By the end of the process, things had [evolved quite a bit](https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/jane-dargason-2). I also want to take a moment to say that my good friend [[artist:dawn-davis|Dawn]] did a spectacular job on the track art! She has a wondrous way with colors, and her drawings of the Homestuck kids have a childlike optimism about them. Nothing could have been a more perfect match for a track like this one! --- @@ -922,7 +999,8 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Before Before the Beginning Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) + This was one of the last track art pieces I did that I had a lot of fun with. I didn't really know what I was doing when I went in, but as soon as I had laid out what Alpha Kid went where, the colors instantly stood out in my mind. I really like the way this one came out. --- Track: Bridge of Stars @@ -989,7 +1067,7 @@ Lyrics: |- FEEL FEEL FEEL FEEL GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD<br>FEEL FEEL FEEL FEEL GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD<br>(Bustin' makes me feel good!)<br>FEEL FEEL FEEL FEEL GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD<br>FEEL FEEL FEEL FEEL GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD<br>(Bustin' makes me feel good!) Bu-bu-bu-bustin' makes me feel good!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bustin'!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bu-bustin'!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bustin' makes me feel good! Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) This track was an attempt to try something in the same vain as the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future which was recommended to me by friends [[artist:erik-scheele|Erik Scheele]] and [[artist:richard-gung|Richard Gung]]. Composer Hideki Naganuma has created some of the most intricate and engaging pieces of dance music I've ever heard - his signature approach is his construction of entire songs around only a handful of samples (check out ["Funky Dealer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpAF8bGm-MM) for a good example). @@ -1027,7 +1105,8 @@ Art Tags: - Carapacians - Earth Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) + This is another one that RJ let me do whatever I wanted on. After thinking about the title of the track, I remembered the moment in Homestuck when we all finally found out the answer to the infamous question ["What Pumpkin?"](https://www.homestuck.com/story/4853) And what a heartwarming answer it was! To me, this was one of the most gentle tear-jerking moments in the comic to date. It just made sense to draw. --- Track: iRRRRRRRRECONCILA8LE @@ -1048,7 +1127,7 @@ Art Tags: - Tavros - Vriska Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) Before there was 20+ hours of music in the Homestuck catalog, the music team's task was to create new themes at a moment's notice for new elements of the story. When Tavrisprite appeared in the comic, I challenged myself to make a suitable theme at the same pace I might once have cobbled something together back in 2009. I posted the resulting demo track on my Soundcloud the same day as the character made its debut. @@ -1126,7 +1205,7 @@ Lyrics: |- Early to bed, and you'll miss all the fun Bring your wife and trouble, it can never trouble you<br>Make her a member of the Midnight Crew! Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) One of the things I'd always felt was curious about our re-appropriation of the [[track:im-a-member-of-the-midnight-crew|hundred-year-old vaudeville track]] by Eddie Morton was the complete contrast between its cheerful mood and the sinister nature of the characters it represents. The Midnight Crew, while fashion-savvy, are cold-blooded murderers, and I'd been curious as to what a darker version of their signature song might sound like. @@ -1168,7 +1247,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Three in the Morning (Aftermath) - Unknown.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://erikscheele.tumblr.com/post/24963696053/volume-9), excerpt) + <i>Erik Scheele:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://erikscheele.tumblr.com/post/24963696053/volume-9), excerpt, 6/12/2012) I don't remember how long ago it was that [[artist:clark-powell|Plaz]] asked me to do an improvisation around her [[track:three-in-the-morning|Three In The Morning]], but I did it, and here it is! --- @@ -1269,14 +1348,25 @@ Cover Art File Extension: jpg Art Tags: - Roxy Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Honestly, on all three, it was a lot of going with my gut because I hadn't quite gained the understanding of writing percussion that I now have. Though, having a good instinct for interesting rhythms definitely is why I seem to be so notorious for percussion/drum beats. + That said, Portrait is a funny case in particular, and its weirdness is quite a bit more deliberate than the other two, simply because I was more experienced by the time of its release. + The song is in mixed meter. Now, you certainly can hash it out to 14/4 and be happy with it, because it works out that way, but the song is actually written in alternating measures of 15/8 and 13/8. Or was it 13/8 and 15/8? It's been awhile. Either way, the song itself never sits still and shifts its pulse back and forth the entire way, and ends up making the later breakbeat/drum and bass part all the more crazy. + And yet it still seemed to work! + As for everything since Portrait, any weird percussion I do has been completely deliberate and thought out, because, as I said before, I understand my instincts on it. More importantly, I understand why those instincts work. + TL;DR; In a past life, I was probably a drummer. + :D + + <i>Quasar Nebula:</i> (wiki editor) + + In the [commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), this entry is annotated "semi commentary, ask for more". --- Track: Negative Aperture Artists: @@ -1329,7 +1419,7 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Red Miles - Purple1222119 (piano score).pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>James Dever:</i> ([Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20120726133000/http://funkeecephalopod.tumblr.com/tagged/music), excerpt) + <i>James Dever:</i> ([Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20120726133000/http://funkeecephalopod.tumblr.com/tagged/music), excerpt, 7/11/2012) <b>History</b><br> Igor Stravinsky has been a gigantic inspiration for me for a long time. My favorite piece of all time is his Firebird Suite, and not far behind is his other ballet the Rite of Spring. The latter is the main inspiration behind this track! @@ -1391,10 +1481,14 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Requited - IronInvoker47.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Clark Powell:</i> + <i>Clark Powell:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Back on Volume 8 I wrote a song called Serenade; the track art for it explains well what the song is about. In a great many ways it was an important song for me. For one, it was the first song I've ever written, by which I mean a short, lyrical work written in a structure including verses and choruses. On top of that the music and the melodies came unusually naturally to me, and it all felt organic and expressive of my situation in life at the time of writing. Serenade is by far the closest emotional connection I have to Homestuck. + Naturally I wanted to do things properly if I was going to revisit a tune so personally significant. As part of a larger project I was tentatively calling "cellostuck" I decided to tackle Serenade and record a version with live cello parts, hopefully bringing rich textures and lyricism to the song to reflect the musical and personal progress I had made since writing the original. It came out beautifully, much more so than the other experiments I had tried with other songs. I called the final mix Requited, implying that the song can be seen from the opposite side. + Consider Requited the pre-Scratch counterpart to Serenade. + For the artwork on this track I asked my chum [[artist:dodostad|Dodostad]] to draw something up. Her style of whimsical, faded character art seemed the perfect match for the song, and she did a magnificent job. --- Track: Princess of Helium @@ -1418,7 +1512,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Princess of Helium - Zadira.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) This was the first track art I had done for Volume 9, but at the time I drew it I didn't know it was going to be on the upcoming album. [[artist:clark-powell|Plazmataz]] played [[track:jane-dargason|a track]] she'd been working on outloud for me and asked if I wanted to do art. I jumped on the opportunity and got a lot of painting practice in with this one. I'm super proud of this one, since it was the first picture in a while that had a strong palette. @@ -1494,7 +1588,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Candles and Clockwork (Alpha Version) - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>James Dever:</i> (composer) + <i>James Dever:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) <b>History</b> @@ -1520,7 +1614,7 @@ Commentary: |- The art was done by the fantastic Worthikids who I only just recently discovered! They actually made it a while ago for the original Volume 5 version. I messaged them about using it for this version. Go check them out! - <i>Worthikids:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://worthikids.tumblr.com/post/22111816772/i-wanted-to-make-something-for-candles-and)) + <i>Worthikids:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://worthikids.tumblr.com/post/22111816772/i-wanted-to-make-something-for-candles-and), 4/30/2012) I wanted to make something for [[Candles and Clockwork]], @@ -1538,7 +1632,7 @@ Commentary: |- <small>#HEAVY BURN FILTER</small> - <i>Worthikids:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://worthikids.tumblr.com/post/22141399172/messy-gif-version-the-texture-doesnt-loop), alternate artwork) + <i>Worthikids:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://worthikids.tumblr.com/post/22141399172/messy-gif-version-the-texture-doesnt-loop), alternate artwork, 4/30/2012) <img src="media/misc/candles-and-clockwork-alpha-version-bonus.gif" width="300"> @@ -1577,7 +1671,8 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Courser Commentary: |- - <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> + <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + I wrote it to be the "alpha" version of Courser, another piece by myself and Beatfox. Where Courser is a theme for Bec, Coursing can be thought of as a theme for GCat, though in my mind it encompasses the idea of any First Guardian. It is not a "remix" or even an arrangement of Courser, but it is based off Courser's material and of course heavily references it and quotes it. I hope you enjoy! The track art is by the amazing Zilleniose. Thanks Zoey! --- Track: Cairo Overcoat @@ -1601,7 +1696,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Cairo Overcoat - asmolfirefly.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Lauren Ross:</i> ([Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/luzerna/24965609113/track-art-for-cairo-overcoat-by-eidolon-orpheus-on)) + <i>Lauren Ross:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/luzerna/24965609113/track-art-for-cairo-overcoat-by-eidolon-orpheus-on), 6/12/2012) Track art for Cairo Overcoat by [[artist:thomas-ferkol|Eidolon Orpheus]] on the new album!! @@ -1654,7 +1749,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Noirscape - asmolfirefly.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/25874791771/noirscape-homestuck-vol-9-track-commentary)) + <i>David Ellis:</i> (composer, [Tumblr](https://ducksual.tumblr.com/post/25874791771/noirscape-homestuck-vol-9-track-commentary), 6/25/2012) This tune got some pretty cool art from [[artist:kendle-iulus]]. I don't really know anything other than 'wow, that's really cool'. @@ -1680,7 +1775,7 @@ Commentary: |- <img src="media/misc/noirscape.png" width="300" warning="blood"> - <i>Kendle Iulus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://tzepesh.tumblr.com/post/24963148538/album-art-for-noirscape-which-you-can-listen-to)) + <i>Kendle Iulus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://tzepesh.tumblr.com/post/24963148538/album-art-for-noirscape-which-you-can-listen-to), 6/12/2012) album art for noirscape, which you can listen to [here](https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/noirscape-2) @@ -1769,7 +1864,8 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Stargaze - asmolfirefly.pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/seeyoutmorra/24975873399/my-homestuck-volume-9-contributions), excerpt, 6/12/2012) + Nick Smalley approached me about this one with a very specific image for this one. He wanted a night time version of Lexxy's wonderful [[media:misc/together.jpg|Beta Kids image]]. I had a lot of fun sprinkling details in to this image. I think the part that makes me smile most is little Minihoof curled up on Dirk's chest. --- Section: Bonus tracks @@ -1790,7 +1886,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Another Jungle Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt), excerpt) I've mentioned a few times that Homestuck Vol. 9, in its early planning stages, was conceived as an album that would be dedicated to the new session of Homestuck, and most of the tracks would mimic older songs re-imagined in the new universe presented in Act 6. "Another Countdown" was thus the sister song of [[track:sburban-countdown|"Sburban Countdown"]] - both are brief arrangements of their parent songs ([[track:another-jungle|"Another Jungle"]] and [[track:sburban-jungle|"Sburban Jungle"]] respectively) meant to crescendo towards a major climax. diff --git a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml index 9c61078e..731b4204 100644 --- a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml +++ b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml @@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/dead-shuffle-2 - https://youtu.be/jTIQhTdy4ZU Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) The first MC-related thing I wrote, and retroactively became the MC theme song. This was actually a remake of a midi I made years ago intended for part of an RPG a friend was making, until the RPG was cancelled. It's mostly the same, except that I went back and made it more jazzy (added saxophone and a swing rhythm). The original title of it was "Seriousness". --- @@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hearts-flush-2 - https://youtu.be/nb7PoT9w6Tc Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) My favorite of the MC ones I wrote. I've always wanted to write a bass solo, and this gave me the opportunity. There's not much else to add, other than I had a blast writing it. --- @@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ante-matter-2 - https://youtu.be/2uYFtCSxoPk Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) It's hard to find things to say about this one. I wanted to make a slower song, compared to the other ones I did for Drawing Dead. I'm still technically new at writing jazz, so it was nice getting to practice it a bit more. Overall though, I think I liked the title best on this one; I enjoy a good pun. --- @@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - track:haunt-andrew-hussie Commentary: |- - <i>Andrew Huo:</i> + <i>Andrew Huo:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Hauntjam and Hauntjelly are interesting things. They were actually made based on [[track:haunt-andrew-hussie|a short fruity loop]] that The Big Man Andrew did, called haunt.wav or haunt.mp3 or something like that. A jam on his theme, logically, would therefore be called "hauntjam," with the opportunity for naming puns including [[track:hauntjelly|"hauntjelly."]] His theme appears mostly unchanged as the bassline for the first part of the pieces. At this point in terms of instrumentation, we were still mostly striving for faithfulness to the canon Midnight Crew "band," as can be seen in [the Extras page](http://www.mspaintadventures.com/extras/ps000018.html) wherein the MC fill 'em with midnight (bottom), so Hauntjam employs trombone, string bass, piano, clarinet, and sax (I forget which because I've lost the file and am not a band person, but I think it was alto). From there on, it was fairly straightforward to write a haunting refrain and then solos for each instrument. I will admit I got a little writerblock'd for the second part, which was sort of a brief modulation to the dominant, so it sounds a little strange. But it still has its own little charm, with the almost annoying trill put in for a spooky ghost-like effect. In Hauntjam, Bowman did some good stuff with bringing out moving parts in the first refrain. In Hauntjelly, [[artist:ian-taylor|Xerxes]] emphasizes the spookiness by changing instruments for more electric organ. @@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Harlequin Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) When we were writing music for Drawing Dead, I just HAD to make a jazz remix of Harlequin. The song pretty much wrote itself after that. I think if I was going to change anything about it though, I'd have tried to get a live saxophone; the synth sounds a bit off. But then, any of the songs off of Drawing Dead would probably sound amazing by a live band. --- diff --git a/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml b/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml index d4375c8e..bd77a955 100644 --- a/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml +++ b/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml @@ -418,7 +418,7 @@ Lyrics: |- ... Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) "Lies With the Sea" is one of two songs based on sketches from dreams that I put on Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido - the other, aptly enough, is "Dawn of Man". diff --git a/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml b/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml index 0f4af506..5e0f3192 100644 --- a/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml +++ b/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml @@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Commentary: |- [[artist:nick-smalley]]<br> [[artist:marcy-nabors]] (Steamlord313) - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) <b>Propsit & Derse 1 Year Anniversary Commentary</b> @@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ Cover Art File Extension: jpg Art Tags: - Prospit Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("original", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Hm, I haven't thought much about Prospit & Derse since its release, actually, but, here goes. @@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ Commentary: |- Not really much else other than this song and Core of Darkness are without a doubt the best two on the album. - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) The opener for Prospit & Derse, at least, in the album's final lineup. This was actually track #5 for the longest period of time, but I realized just before release that Prospit had a stronger opening track and Derse had a stronger closing track. @@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - The Obsidian Towers Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Oh boy. ...What to say on this one... @@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - track:frost-vol6 - Doctor Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("original commentary", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Oh boy. @@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ Commentary: |- Sorry if you were expecting something more positive! - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This song is freaking weird. @@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Center of Brilliance - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Expecting a different song, were you? B) @@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ Art Tags: - Carapacians - Derse Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) This was definitely the song that started everything off. It's dark, dreary, but still majestic like the very moon it describes. The music takes on you a flight. You're one of the Derse Dreamers, the wind rushing across your face as you approach the moon's surface. Carapaces scurrying about, too afraid to be caught after curfew, wary of Jack Noir and his gang. @@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ Art Tags: - Dave - Derse Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) I started to shift styles for this one a bit. I wanted something that was more majestic sounding, but still as dark as Darkened Streets. Ultimately, I decided to feature the choir section more in the intro. It actually was probably the first synth I put in this song. Everything basically followed. @@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Derse Dreamers - adamus (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("original commentary", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Well, this is the most popular song from Prospit & Derse. Not surprised it eventually would show up. :> @@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ Commentary: |- Retroactively gaining an additional featured song... from a page that existed before my first real feature. How's that for weird time shit? - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) The fan favorite. Without a freaking doubt. This one compares to [[track:frost-vol6]] in popularity, and I'm willing to bet is probably even more popular thanks to horizon's [vocal cover](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9SQjvPLAWs). @@ -458,7 +458,7 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Core of Darkness - Twix Stix.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("original commentary", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Best song on Prospit & Derse. Period. @@ -480,7 +480,7 @@ Commentary: |- mwah - <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (one year anniversary, via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) My favorite. While you all have a soft spot for [[Derse Dreamers]], I have one for Core of Darkness. This is the song that made me actually say out loud, "Whoa, when did my music start sounding professional?" diff --git a/album/squiddles.yaml b/album/squiddles.yaml index 18ac2d63..6d56a68c 100644 --- a/album/squiddles.yaml +++ b/album/squiddles.yaml @@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ Lyrics: |- Squiddles, Squiddles, Squiddles in paradise Squiddles, Squiddles, let's get tangled up! Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> (original commentary) + <i>Solatrus:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Haha, oh man. @@ -437,7 +437,7 @@ Commentary: |- TLDR, the chorus to Squiddles in Paradise was actually made up by Alex Rosetti basically on accident, and the song was originally some hip hop song I did over half a decade ago. - <i>Solatrus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/27234067507/solatrus-squiddles-in-paradise-well-what-do)) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/27234067507/solatrus-squiddles-in-paradise-well-what-do), around 7/15/2012) Well, what do you know, my vocal debut? @@ -694,11 +694,11 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Ocean Stars - IronInvoker47 (piano).mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) Everyone writing songs for the Squiddles album opted for happy-go-lucky and crazy-sounding things, but in an effort to make a variety, I aimed instead for something more calm and serene, picturing a calm ocean at night lit only by the full moon and stars. Admittedly, it's just 12 bars that repeat over and over, each time adding in an additional instrument track. Still, it's one of the most relaxing things I've ever written. - <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFWWC9vmSzQ&lc=Ugy-xyqLnKP3Dh7NgfR4AaABAg)) + <i>Mark J. Hadley:</i> ([YouTube comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFWWC9vmSzQ&lc=Ugy-xyqLnKP3Dh7NgfR4AaABAg), 4/19/2021) I don't think I ever mentioned this to anyone before, but this song is based after, of all things, a tune I wrote in the background of one of my custom WarioWare D.I.Y. minigames. The two bars from 1:21 to 1:25 is almost exactly how it sounded in that game, except more MIDI-like. diff --git a/album/strife.yaml b/album/strife.yaml index 7a09a8da..4ea44153 100644 --- a/album/strife.yaml +++ b/album/strife.yaml @@ -130,20 +130,34 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Time on My Side - Purple1222119.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Tensei:</i> + <i>Tensei:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + With the Strife album, I deliberately left a lot of the background to the songs very ambiguous. There are no direct, obvious references as to what song corresponds to which character, though there are quite a few indications: each song uses an instrument that is typically associated with one of the kids in a pretty prominent way: whether it's the piano lead in Heir Conditioning, the solo violin in Dance of Thorns, the bass and flute (shakuhachi, actually) in Atomic Bonsai, and of course the sampled beats and scratches in Time on my Side. I suppose the titles count as somewhat vague references to the characters as well. + With that said, I'm still not going to explicitly say "This song is actually a strife theme for Dave" or something like that. If Andrew chooses to interpret it as a good backdrop for a fight between Dirk and Jake, I am totally fine with that. Hell, I can totally see it working (And in fact it DID work, since the flash turned out pretty damn awesome) + I always felt like this song was a bit of the odd man out on the album. While I definitely think Dance of Thorns and Atomic Bonsai were awesome in their own right, they also feel a lot more 'conventional' compared to this song. + In a lot of ways, this song is actually very minimalistic. The droning bassline and guitar chugs stay on the same chord for almost a full minute while the buildup is mostly done through sound effects and overlayed orchestral sounds. + IMO, this results in giving the :53 point, where the chords finally start switching up, a much bigger impact (though the full Beatdown motif coming in probably helps too). + Something similar happens at 2:04 where after 30 seconds of the Black motif remaining on the same chord again, you get another switch, and everything just sounds huuuuuuge. + Appropriately to the title, this song has a lot of weird time-shit going on. Disc scratching in and of itself can actually be treated as a nice metaphor for time manipulation (the comic itself definitely makes grateful use of it), so it's no wonder that it's almost omnipresent here. + By far the neatest thing, in my opinion, is 2:35 though. The effect you hear there is actually the ENTIRE SONG up until that point, played in reverse, and sped up so it fits in a couple of seconds. The idea is literally that it 'scratches' and resets the song, much in the same way as happens to the entire universe in the comic, so it can lay down a wicked wah-guitar solo over the 'scratched' version of the song. + So yes, this song travels back in time in order to make itself awesomer. + Joking aside, this song, like most other ones I make, does also have some sneaky hidden references. + The guitar riff at 3:18, for example, is cribbed pretty much note for note from the Metallica song Master of Puppets (maybe this is a Dirk song after all?). The background strings at :37 have a very similar ascending chromatic pattern the intro to the James Bond theme. The high staccato strings at 1:50 are supposed to be reminiscent of the theme from Psycho, or really every slasher flick ever. (Black is associated with Jack Noir, Jack Noir likes to show people his stabs, etc.) + The original inspiration for this song probably comes from the least likely source imaginable. It's not The Prodigy or Goldeneye 64 music, but actually the original score to the movie Space Jam. You probably don't even know or remember it, but a lot of the songs have a very distinct looped hiphop beat, guitars, and orchestral stabs all over the place, much like a large portion of this song. - Seriously, listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBenCP-51Qw) from about 0:50 onward and you should hear the resemblance. + + Seriously, listen to this ([dead link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBenCP-51Qw)) from about 0:50 onward and you should hear the resemblance. + That aside, obviously stuff from The Prodigy's Fat of the Land album bears some resemblance as well, especially with the cheesy bassline. I know that a few Prodigy songs have been used in the otherwise kinda shitty Charlie's Angels movies whenever shit was about to go down, and that's really the kind of vibe I was going for as well. --- Track: Atomic Bonsai diff --git a/album/the-felt.yaml b/album/the-felt.yaml index 1d08f32a..769c47be 100644 --- a/album/the-felt.yaml +++ b/album/the-felt.yaml @@ -93,14 +93,17 @@ Sheet Music Files: Files: - 'Swing of the Clock - almostsix.pdf' Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> - <i>(original commentary)</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> ("original commentary", via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Ah, yes, Swing of the Clock. One of my better songs. Also the first song I wrote after joining the team! + If you didn't know, Swing of the Clock was heavily inspired off of both Clark Powell's Three in the Morning and various Philip Glass musical compositions. It was my first attempt at doing something with a lot of orchestral instruments, though definitely far from my best orchestral composition. + In retrospect, it's a bit of a boring song with its chord progression, but I'd be damned if I didn't say something about the shift from Philip Glass style clarinets to swung synth rock. I was very proud of that contrast. + Also a lesser known fact: It was actually considered for a flash animation, in a similar vein to Alex Rosetti's Squiddles song. But, due to the difficulties in organizing a full song animation, especially one that was twice as long as Squiddles, it was just impossible to do realistically. - <i>Solatrus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/27770990513/solatrus-swing-of-the-clock-ah-this-song-the), excerpt) + <i>Solatrus:</i> ([Tumblr](https://thisisthehomestuckmusicteam.tumblr.com/post/27770990513/solatrus-swing-of-the-clock-ah-this-song-the), excerpt, around 7/22/2012) Ah, this song. The memories. Not really any pre-song history so I'll just get right into how it was created and why I took this song in this direction. @@ -137,6 +140,10 @@ Commentary: |- <i>Swing of the Clock</i> was the second to last of a very long stretch of original songs I did in the key of F minor. It's my favorite key to write music in, but I've barely touched it since [[track:chartreuse-rewind|Chartreuse Rewind]]. (Which is next week..! Er.. I guess this week, since I was late on this. Oops.) Why? Well, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Secondly, [[artist:lexxy|Lexxy]] [really dug this song](https://lexxercise.tumblr.com/post/2084075267/john-do-the-windy-thing-inspired-by-track-2) and it made me flip the fuck out when I found out she liked it, because she's an amazing person! + + <i>James Dever:</i> (music team member, [Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20120726133000/http://funkeecephalopod.tumblr.com/tagged/music), 7/22/2024) + + What he neglected to say was that this is the song that made me start loving everything he did. We then started talking a whole lot and he’s helped me out with almost every single musical endeavor I’ve done since! I love this song so much. The first time I heard the shift into the “synth rock” section my mind was blown and every table was flipped. --- Track: Rhapsody in Green Artists: diff --git a/album/the-wanderers.yaml b/album/the-wanderers.yaml index fef83c58..b9758f05 100644 --- a/album/the-wanderers.yaml +++ b/album/the-wanderers.yaml @@ -146,14 +146,22 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Stone Tower Temple Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + That was an episode of shenanigans with me and Mr. Nick Smalley. + We're both huge Majora's Mask fans (obviously we were inspired from Stone Tower Temple), and we think Wayward Vagabond is rad, so we wanted to make a walkabout inspired theme for him. + That's really about it. + Lots of time shifting shenanigans, too, especially on the drums and the digeridoo. + And Nick's chiptunes went through some crazy filtering after I got my Oxygen 88 MIDI controller. - <i>Nick Smalley:</i> + + <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Take one night goofing off with Jeremy; add FamiTracker, Jeremy's newfound love for Grossbeat, and Majora's Mask, and you pretty much have Gilded Sands. + Seriously. --- Track: Years in the Future @@ -263,8 +271,10 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - track:requiem Commentary: |- - <i>Solatrus:</i> + <i>Solatrus:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + I made James's great composition sound, well, better. Imagine it without the panning, without the reverb, etc. + I'd be a bit flat sounding! --- Track: Raggy Looking Dance @@ -308,15 +318,24 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Explore Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Aaah this one. This caused me a bit of unexpected grief, but we'll get to that. + Basically, I wanted to do some kind of Parcel Mistress/PM theme. Representing her transition from postal worker, to warrior, to queen. We start off quite desolate, and we gradually build up to a kind of royal, celtic march. + The instrumentation is a bit all over the place (bagpipes, panpipes, probably an Oud somewhere as well). Most of it was attempting to channel various stereotypical "World Music" concepts into one track (We're dealing with the remnants of Earth as a setting, so one idea is a kind of combination of different cultural styles - It doesn't fully work, since it's mostly just the instrumentation applied to a fairly simple layout and melody). + As for the melody itself, I quite like it - It's very playful and jumpy, yet brings a sense of duty, which fits quite well. Explore also makes an appearance during the kind of transitional "Wandering" segment. Also because I really like Explore. + The name, and it's worth mentioning I've done incorrect translations before (see Rex Duodecim Latinus), is supposed to be "Royal Mail" in Scots Gaelic. It's a bit of a strange pun on PM as a character... + Now onto controversy! + As a few people pointed out when they first heard it, that the notes starting from 0:20 onwards by the sitar are viciously close if not identical to the start of Schala's theme from Chrono Trigger. And yes, yes they are. There is a subtle difference but the majority of the phrase matches. Depending on who you ask this ranges from either an atrocity or an inevitability given the limited nature of conventions and structure of music. + Personally, the reference was unintentional. Let's get this straight also, I'm a ludicrously huge Yasunori Mitsuda fanboy. I'm not fully ruling out that at some level I was remembering ST when making LR, but I honestly could not recall the song until someone linked a video, and even afterwards I don't recall the song from the game. There are tonnes of tracks from CT that I recall fondly but ST just isn't one of them. This all said, there was no malevolence nor deceit intended when writing LR and I apologise to anyone offended by it. + That's really all I have to say on the matter. --- Track: Ruins Rising @@ -364,12 +383,18 @@ Lyrics: |- What a daring dream... (Just what do you think you're planning on doing with that ring?)<br>(Whatever it is forget it)<br>(The Slayer is miiiiiiiine)<br>(Now w8ke up)<br>(I said W88888888KE!) Commentary: |- - <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> + <i>Alex Rosetti:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + The Wanderers is my favorite Homestuck album. Its focused premise, interesting takes on a theme, and general aesthetic all appeal to me. Not to mention the fact that it contains some of the best songs in the Homestuck discography. This song is not one of those. + I don't mean to sell myself short, but What a Daring Dream is hard to appreciate on its own as music, and this was intentional. As a matter of fact, I wrote it to underscore WV's dream sequence, which is one of my favorite parts of Homestuck. And even then, my approach wasn't as programmatic as Malcolm's, as he had the same idea with his track, Nightmare. Funny enough, we even ended up giving our pieces the same title, but he was generous enough to change his so that I could keep mine. Of course, because of this the two songs compliment each other very well, and make for a great double-closer to the album. + I composed What a Daring Dream long before we officially started production on The Wanderers. I actually made the first version of it very shortly after that update came out, it being one of those quick flashes of inspiration. In terms of musical influence, there are a few musical cues from Neon Genesis Evangelion that sounded like the direction I wanted to take. All the ones I listened to had this sort of "stuck in your own head" sort of approach to them, which of course is very suited to their subject matter, and that was the reason I thought this sort of music would be perfect for my piece. + I wanted the music to be very hazy and meditative, very much like a dream (naturally). Unclear sounds fading in and out, soft messages you're not quite sure you're hearing. The use of Morse code was an obvious choice, though I did not have the patience to translate every single line of code in that sequence. I just used the same sample repeatedly, altered it a bit, and panned the two versions of it to each side of the mix. I did, however, think it would be worth my time to whisper the English translation of the Morse code, so throughout the piece you hear my voice narrating ever so slightly in the background, even up to Vriska's dialogue. + The instrumentation was a lucky coincidence since I modeled parts of it off the Evangelion score, and those happened to fit the very broad "Eastern music" theme we were going for for the most part. So the piece turned out to be a great candidate for the album and I worked on it a lot more before submitting it to be on there. Overall it was one of the most fun songs I've had the pleasure of making for Homestuck, and the fact that it spooked some people is an added bonus. + Speaking of bonuses, Noot did the art we used for this track. It was one of a few pieces of track art that weren't commissioned. I happened to be looking around for artists and saw this, and I already knew it was perfect. --- Track: Nightmare @@ -391,13 +416,20 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Rex Duodecim Angelus - Carapacian Dominion Commentary: |- - <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> + <i>Malcolm Brown:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + This one was a bit weird, and went through several revisions trying to figure out what to do. It's loosely designed to be a bit of music for WV's dream in which he effectively turns into Bec Noir and starts killing everything before Vriska turns up disguised as Serenity and makes the whole sequence even weirder. + Firstly, the concept - It starts of quite dreamlike, then as we get to 1:40 the transformation starts, then there's some more preamble up to around 2:45 onewards, which is the "Red Miles" section where everything starts to go haywire. In betwixt there's lots of creepy choirs, weird noises and distorted barking all set to a kind of pseudo Egyptian theme (One working title was 'Anubis') + Hidden around 0:25 onwards is a kind of very subtle reference to Black and an even subtler reference to RDA. After that it's mostly original. + There are various samples hidden around the place, like wolf barks and jackal howling. Also all sorts of bizarre human laughter/screaming/conversation that's been reversed and distorted. Then we get to 2:45 and I attempt to kick it into a kind of bizarre Trailer-music affair with a ridiculous amount of percussion and a lot of staccato strings. Oh and those big brass drones everyone loves these days. + The ending (3:50 odd) attempts to mimic the beginning of Carapacian Dominion, to act as a kind of bookend for the album. It doesn't do it perfectly, but that's my fault :P + I quite like this one. I'm not fully sold on the odd sound effects since they're always a bit gimmicky, but the overall theme kinda works. The name was fairly obvious - I did attempt to call it "What a daring Nightmare" but Alex Rosetti beat me to it. + Also hey, 4:13. Love it when that happens. --- Section: Bonus tracks @@ -435,12 +467,20 @@ MIDI Project Files: Files: - 'Tomahawk Head - Unknown.mid' Commentary: |- - <i>Tensei:</i> + <i>Tensei:</i> (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + I always felt like this song was in a bit of an unfortunate position, being a bonus song on the Wanderers album, which basically meant that only people who bought the album or those who specifically scoured youtube for it would get to hear it. + So I'm gonna bring it to your attention and hopefully someone will be hearing it for the first time! + Tomahawk Head was pretty much a full-on collaborative effort between me and Radiation. We had already done some stuff together with the full version of MeGaLoVaNia, but this song was a much more even split IMO. Radiation basically wrote most of the composition in midi form, and I had the task of unleashing my samples and live guitar on it. I also did some minor rewrites, like fleshing out the acoustic middle-section as well as adding the guitar solo section. + This song was intended as ARs theme, and uses a lot of (stereotypically) Native American instrumentation. In that sense, it kinda reminds me of a lot of Jade/Bec themes, where there's an obvious eastern Asian vibe, even though thematically there's no real canonical connection between Jade and eastern Asian culture. + I actually consider this a really cool use of ethnic instrumentation. It's not even the fact that it deliberately tries to go against a stereotype to make a point, but rather that it treats the ethnic instruments as any other: it makes use of the characteristics of the sounds to underline a particular situation or character, and ignores any cultural connotations of the instrument. + When you think about it, it's pretty silly to assume that Jade has to be Asian because some songs associated with her use ethnic instrumentation. In that sense, I might as well claim that Rose has to be Italian, because hey, that's where violins originally came from! + At the end of the movie Kill Bill, there's a final showdown between The Bride and O-ren Ishii. They're both wielding katanas and the setting is a very stereotypical, snow-covered japanese garden. You would THINK that you'd at least get some taiko drums as a backing, but nope. The song that plays is "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda, which can best be described as a flamenco/disco hybrid. And it fits PERFECTLY. + In that sense, I think that this song too fits AR very well, even though his character has fuck-all to do with Native American culture. |