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FamiTracker
Kick starting off this weeks trio of releases from our very own Andrew Kilpatrick is Square Waves Octave [Minor], 100% Famitracker.
This is Andrew's first full length album and it does not disappoint. This album as well as its counterpart, to be released later this week, has a theme of sorts, in which each of its expertly crafted tracks steps up a key from the last until eventually the first song is repeated in the opposite modality to lead onto the following album and vice versa. It is as if Andrew had danced along a piano tapping out songs as he moved along. The tracks are solid, with ambient tones, crackling drums and melodies which make you quiver at the knees. It is definitely an amazing release and a must have for all chip fans.
Track List:
1. Hello World (C Minor)
2. Slow And Methodical (C# Minor)
3. Unknown (D Minor)
4. Groundhog Day (D# Minor)
5. Rapture (E Minor)
6. Bleeding Hears (F Minor)
7. Inhaling Ash And Sentiments (F# Minor)
8. Lineage (G Minor)
9. Greek Tragedy (G# Minor)
10. Iron Oxide (A Minor)
11. Dead Skin (A# Minor)
12. Walking With A Pair Of Broken Ankles And Five Ounces Of Ketamine (B Minor)
13. Goodbye World (C Major)
Wow... 75 MB worth of novice WAV files... Wouldn't it have been easier to post a few NSFs of only several KB?
Naturally, AndrewK, many beginners would be proud of their first series of tracks that they create in FamiTracker (namely because they know they're creating NES music). Now, you can take what I'm going to say as either constructive or otherwise, but bare with me.
But, as far as I can tell, there's a difference between creating a track & creating actual music; you have potential with your musical knowledge, but you still haven't mastered your instrument yet, nor have you actually mastered syncopation in your composing.
Your tracks are actually sound patterns; as well-executed as they may be in terms of notation, it's still a basic pattern. You'll need to break the repetition in those patterns by having some kind of a change in your songs (like the equivalent of a rock star's solo in the middle of a song).
And most importantly, you need to understand the physics of sound & wave propagation, along with the hardware/software quirks behind the NES. It's exactly like playing any other instrument; if you can't pluck a string, how can you play a guitar?
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Technology: the one thing that's hated & cursed at by all engineers, technologists, scientists & technicians!
Thanks TechEmporium, I'll take it mostly as constructive
A few things in my defence however, firstly I don't know how it is a "professional" release, in fact it's a concept I did in between larger projects (for which I don't use Famitracker) and as a way of trying out an idea I found interesting, and anyhow, I don't understand how it could ever possibly be professional :P If I was asking for money for it or something similar I could understand your concern.
On a similar note, I know these are just patterns, but when you look at the underlying concept surely that makes more sense? To make a worthwhile song there needs to be difference, and whilst I understand the need for variety surely this explains the lack of "solos" and so on as each song (in the majority of the two releases) are in a single key so anything other than a simple pattern arrangement would sound boring and same-y.
Also, I rarely use Famitracker (as you can tell). I enjoy it, but in NO way is it my "weapon of choice".
http://andrewkilpatrick.bandcamp.com/track/delete-your-binary-tears
Whilst the above song is not on Famitracker and misplaced on this forum (though still a chip song), I'd hate people reading this to go away thinking a small concept project I did which involved 26 patterns being written in just over a month to be me at my best, or even a representation of me as a composer at all
I agree with points on percussion however, when it comes to Fami I'm weak as fuck with that :P
I hope from this you can understand both the purpose of my being here and the release itself more. Also note that I'm the co-owner of Pxl-Bot, and thought it'd be an easy way, even if you didn't like my music, to show a new area of the chip community our artists work and introduce you to our existence. Anyhow, thanks for the constructive advice!!
TechEmporium is always good with constructive criticism, it's one of his good traits.
Now the reason why I took it as professional is because of the way which you set up a paragraph to try to sell your music as "The most amazing thing ever" while in fact it is below par.
But, as stated by Tech, you have the basic concepts down and need to improve before you post a soundtrack such as this.
AndrewK: So you were only experimenting with regards to your greater works; my apologies for that. It could have been made more clear in the original post.
Anyways, I'm assuming that your weapon of choice is either ppMCK or a good-ol' cross-assembler. I honestly find FamiTracker much more intuitive to use, but that's only me (& I know for a fact that MML & even ASM can be easier at times, depending on the user). But like I said; the instrument still needs to be mastered.
FamiTracker's interface can, depending on the user, make the task at hand either too complicated or too heavily simplified (especially if you have a stronger background with ppMCK or ASM). Luckily, you have all sorts of tracks up here that you can use as examples for certain effects (almost like a cross reference between FamiTracker & your current weapon of choice).
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Technology: the one thing that's hated & cursed at by all engineers, technologists, scientists & technicians!
I found the music to be pretty decent (potentially better with additional listens) in a "minimalist" sort of style. But yeah the instruments need some work, which seems to be a somewhat common trait among non-NES composers dabbling in NES music. Duty cycle @0 should be used sparingly rather than constantly, and your volume envelopes are a bit on the nonexistent side. Not bad though!
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