add music commentary from pastebin + tumblrs

https://pastebin.com/gqpHsKkE

1 files changed, 80 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-1-4/album.txt b/album/homestuck-vol-1-4/album.txt
index 3c1e6b81..ff5dd1f4 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-1-4/album.txt
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-1-4/album.txt
@@ -10,16 +10,30 @@ Contributors: Kevin Regamey (arrangement)
 References: Showtime (Original Mix)
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/showtime-piano-refrain-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Kevin Regamey:</i>
+    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.
+    Malcolm wrote the chiptune version of Showtime first. I heard it, dug it, and created a piano arrangement just for the hell of it. Like Malcolm has said - earlier on, we didn't necessarily know what we were writing for, so we just wrote whatever spoke to us. I had posted a "Work in progress" version to the music boards, and I received some positive feedback. Positive enough for me to elaborate it into a full piece. As luck would have it, Andrew was finishing up the first playable page of Homestuck just as I posted the full version. As such, I was lucky enough to have the honour of first musical appearance in Homestuck, but most of the credit should certainly go to Malcolm - for defining John musically at such an early stage of the game, and for being the sole inspiration behind this track.
+    Oh, side note: My midi keyboard was misbehaving when I wrote this, so every note of the piece was clicked into a sequencer. D:
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Harlequin
 Artist: Mark Hadley
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/harlequin-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    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.
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 Track: Showtime (Original Mix)
 Artist: Malcolm Brown
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/showtime-original-mix-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Malcolm Brown:</i>
+    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.
+    Early on in HS Music dev, Andrew would basically announce "Need boss music for upcoming battle: go!" and we'd all whip up some music and present it. These days that doesn't happen any more (larger team, ludicrous amount of already made-but-not-used music) but back then it was a fresh slate. I personally whipped up 3 30-second 'Looping boss battle music in the style of NES chiptunes' as per the original request. (I think it was Andrew's idea to start things off chiptune style and we've been evolving since)
+    The other 2 unused tracks (Which I still have somewhere) were ok - One was very piratey but quite sinister, the other was incredibly evil sounding, but Showtime had that initial-boss 'fun-ness' to it and apparantly just hit all the right notes.
+    The melody itself is very simple: It's just a square wave doing some broken chords. For the album version we were told to add some bits to the loopable tracks to make 'em 2 minutes long and have a proper ending, so the album features an intro and second part with a little solo.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Aggrieve (Violin Refrain)
 Artist: Andrew Huo, Mark Hadley
@@ -27,6 +41,9 @@ Contributors: Andrew Huo (arrangement), Gabe Nezovic (mastering)
 References: Aggrieve
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/aggrieve-violin-refrain-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Andrew Huo:</i>
+    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.
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 Track: Sburban Countdown
 Artist: Mark Hadley, Michael Guy Bowman
@@ -34,11 +51,17 @@ Contributors: Mark Hadley (arrangement)
 References: Sburban Jungle
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/sburban-countdown-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    I really liked Sburban Jungle and felt it was iconic enough to be considered a theme song for Sburb (not just 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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Aggrieve
 Artist: Mark Hadley
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/aggrieve-3
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    This was actually the first Homestuck-related thing I made, when 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 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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Showtime (Imp Strife Mix)
 Artist: Buzinkai, Curt Blakeslee, Malcolm Brown
@@ -46,17 +69,26 @@ Contributors: Buzinkai (arrangement), Curt Blakeslee (fanfare)
 References: Showtime (Original Mix)
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/showtime-imp-strife-mix-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Buzinkai:</i>
+    I wrote this after listening to the original song for HOURS. I do believe this was what originally got me to send music to 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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Nannaquin
 Artist: Mark Hadley
 References: Harlequin
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/nannaquin-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    A "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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Skies of Skaia
 Artist: Mark Hadley
 Original Date: August 9, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/skies-of-skaia-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    Andrew originally did the first update in the comic 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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Harlequin (Rock Version)
 Artist: Michael Guy Bowman, Joseph Aylsworth
@@ -86,12 +118,20 @@ Artist: Buzinkai, Michael Guy Bowman
 Contributors: Michael Guy Bowman (arrangement)
 Original Date: December 14, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/explore-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Buzinkai:</i>
+    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 Andrew wanted me to finish the original loop, and someone else remixed a longer ending for it, doing quite a fantastic job.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Gardener
 Artist: Steve Everson
 References: The Beginning of Something Really Excellent
 Original Date: October 24, 2011
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/gardener-2
+Commentary:
+    <i>Steve Everson:</i>
+    This is part of the Bolin Incident. If you don’t know what happened, up until half-way through Act 4 a guy called Bill Bolin was on the time, one of the original members. He was a great musician, that much can’t be denied; he wrote a lot of tracks that appeared in early act 3; Jade’s bass solo, the remix of it, the last part of the Dave and Bro battle… some others I forget. During that flash with Dave and Rose on Derse the original music was five Bolin tracks, ones he wasn’t all that happy with. He flipped out and did a lot of things that ended up with him dropped from the team, and his music replaced.
+    I called replacing Jade’s bass solo (I was enthusiastic about getting something of mine into the comic). We figured there’d probably be an existing piece of music used for the remix on Prospit so there were a couple of different versions remixing different tracks until Something Really Excellent was locked in.
+    We were on a strict timetable at the time, so I didn’t get the chance to find a really good bass voice or find a good rhythm. That was much improved for the actual release in Volumes 1-4.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Showtime Remix
 Artist: Gabe Nezovic
@@ -126,6 +166,11 @@ Artist: Malcolm Brown
 References: Harlequin
 Original Date: December 15, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/harleboss-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Malcolm Brown:</i>
+    Harlequin was awesome, and was quite a popular source for remixing the theme (it still is) so this was my early attempt.
+    The soundfont is actually a FF6 SNES font I found somewhere (At lot of people got it from the choir). The SNES soundfont choice was taken from a kind of natural evolution the music was taking from the earlier Vol 1 8-bi to 16-bit style music.
+    Not much to say on this one except it was quite a stereotypical 'Epic' boss battle theme - Choirs, church organs, bells, guitar and fast drums.
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 Track: Beatdown Round 2
 Artist: Curt Blakeslee
@@ -148,6 +193,14 @@ Track: Ohgodwhat
 Artist: Nick Smalley
 Original Date: December 15, 2009
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ohgodwhat-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Nick Smalley:</i>
+    WELL
+    It was 2008 and I was a silly little boy and thought ORGMaker was good-ass music program, so I decided to make a song in it. Half an hour later forged this booger of a song. Seriously. It took half an hour to make this. Then I saw that THE HUSS posted something about a Problem Sleuth opening? So I was like damn that’s bananas I’ll show him up! (wow look at this nerd thinking he can actually make music)
+    I sent it to his email and like a day later he sent one back asking about the music team. FLATTERING, IT WAS. So I was like sure sign me up g homey dog slice foo
+    And that’s the story of how I got on the music team.
+    Oh wait. You just wanted Ohgodwhat.
+    (ps that’s what it was called when i made it too)
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Ohgodwhat Remix
 Artist: Michael Guy Bowman
@@ -181,23 +234,41 @@ Track: Revelawesome
 Artist: Malcolm Brown
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/revelawesome-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Malcolm Brown:</i>
+    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).
+    And it was.
+    The music was based on some earlier work I did on an old Sonic Fangame (Completely forget which one - Think it was a boss theme) that I re-tuned for orchestra and gave it more of a buildup. The name was a play on Andrew's penchant for Portmentaeeu that-word-meaning-combining-two-words-together.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Hardlyquin
 Artist: Mark Hadley
 References: Harlequin
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hardlyquin-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Mark Hadley:</i>
+    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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Carefree Victory
 Artist: Andrew Huo, Toby Fox
 References: Carefree Action
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/carefree-victory-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Andrew Huo:</i>
+    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?).
+    One of the lines I added, for the intro, was roughly inspired by Cave Story music. I'm pretty Cave Story-influenced, especially with Homestuck stuff.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Ballad of Awakening
 Artist: Malcolm Brown
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ballad-of-awakening-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Malcolm Brown:</i>
+    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.
+    Thus, it's a playful kind of dream-like melody. A little scatterbrained a quite unusual (Namely due to the time signature which is something like 6/4). I came up with the melody years ago, and it's mostly just playing about on the sharp/flat keys on a keyboard. I generally don't like incorporating it too much because the chord progression sounds a <i>bit</i> too close to Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" (Which was released way after I originally came up with the melody for BoA, but is infinitely more popular)
+    Despite being used in 'The Flash Where Nothing Happens' and also being quite long, it's still one of my closet favourite tracks. So much so I did a remake that never made it to any album because it wasn't really anything new. In any case, it's <a href="https://unofficialmspafans.bandcamp.com/track/joy-and-dreams-eternal">here</a>.
+    I then took an enormous break from HS (shortly after doing a Squiddles track that I don't particularly like) and wouldn't be back 'till around about the time of AlternaBound had started being a discussed thing.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Sburban Jungle
 Artist: Michael Guy Bowman
@@ -217,11 +288,20 @@ Contributors: Clark Powell (production), Michael Vallejo (production)
 References: Doctor (Original Loop)
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/doctor-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Clark Powell:</i>
+    Doctor was originally by Buzinkai and then a now non-active member Michael Vellejo 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>
+    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.
+    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.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Track: Endless Climb
 Artist: Buzinkai
 Original Date: April 13, 2010
 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/endless-climb-3
+Commentary:
+    <i>Buzinkai:</i>
+    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.
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 Track: Atomyk Ebonpyre
 Artist: Toby Fox