[Breakbeats'n'Stuff] Phase One (IT, OGG) 64k

Saga Musix · August 05, 2009, 07:47:05

This tune won the 2nd prize in the tiny music compo at Evoke 2009. The goal was to create a module that is 64k max after zipping. So I took a 1MiB module, applied some black tracker magic (this is why this module may only work in ModPlug- oder BASS-based players) and fit this into exactly 64KiB, or 65536 Bytes.

Download (Compressed IT)

HQ Download (IT, OGG)

g · August 05, 2009, 08:31:25

Nice one & congratulations.

apple-joe · August 05, 2009, 13:14:37

Great sound. I noticed a hint of Phrygian mood in the beginning, which I hoped would return, but as far as I gathered it didn't. I think it is particularly interesting to see how varying composers use e.g. the Phrygian tonality, as it is less common than the regular minor, and maybe a little more difficult to work with. The panning also seemed very nice.

The percussion sounds quite inspiring. I tried to mute a few channels, in order to understand how you created the rhythm section, and everything appears to be composed at the detail level, except the snare instrument, which is a loop.
(I just had another look at the loop instrument, and the way it's applied makes it all the more impressive than I initially thought due to my more or less irrational prejudices against samples/instruments which I presume may cause the composer to work less with details as opposed to combining rough, pre-created bricks. Again, the more I think about it, this idea appears less and less relevant, given that I've ignored several aspects of such instruments. On top of that, this loop was not extreme in the sense I had in mind (for instance, you've made it so different notes create different instrument sounds, which pertains to what I meant with details). Also, there's the panning, as well as the sound definition in the instr. tab.)

I'm trying to think of negative aspects of the song. It's not easy to find anything, but what about lead and dynamics related to tonal center? Maybe you think of instr. 08 as lead, but it could also be interpreted as background. Then the toncal center: The C minor atmosphere dominates throughout the song, if I got it correctly. There's the occasional, already mentioned, Phrygian note in the beginning, which contributes to slight variation, but it doesn't cause a fundamental change. The question is, however: Is it necessary? I quite enjoy the song structure as it is. Maybe a tonal/key change would disturb the track, rather than contribute to complementary section.

Listening to the track almost made me want to compose myself, but I guess I'm eventually too lazy, as usual these days.

Saga Musix · August 05, 2009, 15:19:54

Thanks for the comments. This is supposed to be rather minimal, so there is no lead at all and almost no key variation or whatever. It's supposed to be like that. The detail is in the drums and the different bass samples, not the melody.

apple-joe · August 05, 2009, 15:57:12

Jojo: I listened to a few tracks last night, and I came across one named "trip". I really liked the strings. Do you have more of that sort?

Saga Musix · August 05, 2009, 17:06:59

I suppose you mean trip.it (trip to nowhere) from some random OHC. I dunno, it's not my usual style, but I might have done other OHC tunes in that style. Among my official releases, there is a tune with similar strings, Safari Trip.

LB · August 05, 2009, 23:27:36

Just wondering, what are the things "+++" between some of the patterns?

psishock · August 05, 2009, 23:31:01

People use it to separate phases on the songs. (intro, +++, chorus, +++, main part, +++, chorus, +++, ending)

uncloned · August 06, 2009, 02:46:55

Quote from: "apple-joe"Great sound. I noticed a hint of Phrygian mood in the beginning, which I hoped would return, but as far as I gathered it didn't. I think it is particularly interesting to see how varying composers use e.g. the Phrygian tonality, as it is less common than the regular minor, and maybe a little more difficult to work with. The panning also seemed very nice.

Listening to the track almost made me want to compose myself, but I guess I'm eventually too lazy, as usual these days.

My analysis would say its a chromatic alternation of minor mode. For what its worth you'd need more to label this as phrygian mode. Its a matter of seeing more flexibility in common usage.

Impressive percussion Jojo.

Nahkranoth · August 06, 2009, 08:19:58

Jeez, it's the 3rd time for today I should use the word "unexpected"

Say, are you trying different styles, or I haven't heard your tunes in a long time? It's good, it's not tracne, it's something I want to do too

Noticed one thing: "mix levels" is set to Original and to hear things without earbleeding I set it to RC3, it was clipping/distortion all the way.

apple-joe · August 06, 2009, 09:49:58

uncloned: Given that I had in mind one note, and that the sound therefore was very brief, I guess you're right. I must say, however, that I did instinctively consider it Phrygian as I listened, so there were probably no other factors suggesting it was a different tonality. In the end, I suspect you're right anyway. It's a little too brief, at least to be viewed as an established Phrygian sound.

Saga Musix · August 06, 2009, 14:25:33

Quote
Say, are you trying different styles, or I haven't heard your tunes in a long time?

I wouldn't know of a "default style" that I do at least. I have never fixed myself to a certain style and every release is different - As long as it's not part of a "series" like those old suckers from my never finished Jump & Run game (2004) or my synthpop stuff (2008) - and even the tunes of the latter sounded very different.

Quote
Noticed one thing: "mix levels" is set to Original and to hear things without earbleeding I set it to RC3, it was clipping/distortion all the way.

Maybe you should set your preamp to a more adequate setting then:

The whole pre-amp thing sucks and it's ignored since Mixmode RC3, but this was designed to be played in XMPlay so I had to use original mixmode.

uncloned · August 07, 2009, 00:14:36

Quote from: "apple-joe"uncloned: Given that I had in mind one note, and that the sound therefore was very brief, I guess you're right. I must say, however, that I did instinctively consider it Phrygian as I listened, so there were probably no other factors suggesting it was a different tonality. In the end, I suspect you're right anyway. It's a little too brief, at least to be viewed as an established Phrygian sound.

Also, and I mean this with respect, may I suggest the following:

Mode != tonality

You have tonal centers - i.e. a home note of c or d or e - that is tonality

You have modes that can have the same tonal center like - c major, c minor, c lydian, or c phrygian

In the 12 TET system any note can serve as the tonic for all possible scale modes.

LB · August 07, 2009, 22:59:07

Quote from: "Jojo"...designed to be played in XMPlay so I had to...

Oh cool, so I guess I'm not the only one who uses XMPlay here. Jeez I thought it was a rare species of software!

psishock · August 08, 2009, 00:15:42

XMplay? nah, it's rather popular, im using it too, and many others.