Album: Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent Cover Art: Homestuck Track Art: Homestuck Directory: homestuck-vol-6 Date: January 5 2011 FG: #6699ff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Frost Artist: Solatrus Directory: frost-vol6 URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/frost-3 Commentary: Solatrus: (original commentary) 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 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. (commentary redux) I can’t really make a post about this song without mentioning the above flash animation and the following image: 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Courser Artist: Seth Peelle, Alexander Rosetti References: Sburban Jungle, Lotus URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/courser-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Umbral Ultimatum Artist: Toby Fox References: Savior of the Waking World, An Unbreakable Union, Courser, Carefree Action, Homestuck Anthem URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/umbral-ultimatum-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: GameBro (Original 1990 Mix) Artist: Erik Scheele URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/gamebro-original-1990-mix-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Tribal Ebonpyre Artist: Erik Scheele References: Atomyk Ebonpyre, Sburban Jungle URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/tribal-ebonpyre-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: I Don't Want to Miss a Thing Artist: Michael Guy Bowman Contributors: Aerosmith (original), Dianne Warren (lyrics) References: Sburban Jungle, Showtime, Explore, Squiddles! URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/i-dont-want-to-miss-a-thing-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: MeGaLoVania Artist: Toby Fox Contributors: Tensei (guitar) References: Spider's Claw, Sunsetter, The La2t Frontiier Directory: MeGaLoVania URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/megalovania-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Walk-Stab-Walk (R&E) Artist: Erik Scheele URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/walk-stab-walk-r-e-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Gaia Queen Artist: Toby Fox References: Showdown URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/gaia-queen-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Elevatorstuck Artist: Tensei References: Homestuck Anthem URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/elevatorstuck-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Wacky Antics Artist: David Ko, Toby Fox References: Vagabounce URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/wacky-antics-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Horschestra Artist: Alexander Rosetti URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/horschestra-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Heir Transparent Artist: Robert J! Lake References: Doctor URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/heir-transparent-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Boy Skylark (Brief) Artist: Robert J! Lake URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/boy-skylark-brief-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Squidissension Artist: Mark Hadley References: Dissension, Squiddles! URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/squidissension-2 Commentary: Mark Hadley: 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 Artist: Mark Hadley References: Black URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/blackest-heart-2 Commentary: Mark Hadley: 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 Artist: Toby Fox URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/nic-cage-song-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Phrenic Phever Artist: Clark Powell References: Doctor URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/phrenic-phever-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: 3 In The Morning (Pianokind) Artist: Erik Scheele References: Three in the Morning, Doctor, Showtime (Piano Refrain), Aggrieve URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/3-in-the-morning-pianokind-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: A Tender Moment Artist: Toby Fox References: Atomyk Ebonpyre URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/a-tender-moment-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track: Crystalanthology Artist: Solatrus References: Crystalanthemums URLs: https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/crystalanthology-2 Commentary: Solatrus: (original commentary) 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. (commentary redux) 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?