Making music has been a hobby and a passion for me since about 1996 - so as of summer of 2017 it's celebrating its turning drinking age! I've also engaged in other artistic forms like drawing/painting and poetry, but they have not been as prevalent.
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Joined on 12/25/11
Posted by siteml - February 25th, 2018
It occurred to me that some of you may want lyrics to that piece (though I try to make the singing as clear as possible, you can't always make it out properly), so here it is:
We pray tonight that our hopes will not die
And we step into the light
Standing ground with all our might
Never mind the pain of our wounds as long as we're victorious!
And we struggle,
and we fight the demons that are in our hearts and we
hope to live another day.
And we fight on, we fight
And we fight and pray!
Enjoy :D
I guess so. The song is nice, but could use some work on its arrangement, quick observation of mine I guess.
Love the lyrics. Really wish they'd be sung.
Yeah, I do not have the luxury of a good voice to do this with, let alone a whole choir xD
While I'm sure I could hit pitches no problemo and whatnot, my signing technique is amateur at best and timbre .... well, it doesn't fit :P
On the arrangement, I would welcome pointers :) Keep in mind I basically have no formal musical training, and I've arrived where I am mostly by ear (read: trial and error xD) - listening to others' pieces. I'm sure you can hear game music influence :P The other bit is that this is still WIP, and I sometimes tend to go as bold as replacing instruments if I can't get the right 'polish' going by the time I'm done with a piece, so who knows how this will sound at the end xD
I know the feeling, I arrived at a lot of my own pieces by ear from others' influences and my voice is not quite stellar, so I understand you.
The strings sound muddy, which is where EQ comes in. What I've been taught is to mix from the ground up, i.e. bass (and drums if any, including timpani) first, and then work your way higher. When you've got a good solid grounding, everything else will follow suit. You understand how to EQ, no?
I'd imagined choral voice, but bear in mind that I take my inspiration from the likes of Enya and Akiko Shikata, who both do like 200 or so layers of their own voice so it sounds like a choir singing, with all the vocal differences that come with each take. Otherwise, you'd want a strong male lead.
There is one piece on NG that I would recommend listening, that has a similar feel to the lyrics as what you've written here, and it's 'Battle Born' by @bassfiddlejones.
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/757555
Not that my pieces sound anywhere same as his, but I would like you to listen to that, and tell me
1) what you hear in each instrument, i.e. what it makes you feel. Does the air in your chest vibrate? Does it feel sparkly? Does it feel abrasive? I want you to do that for *each* instrument, yes.
2) what you notice in the male leads. Often the way to improve singing is to try and understand what sort of feel you're going for, in your vocals for any particular track, and then try to just copy what you hear (even if you feel like you're falling flat at first).
Because as much as music is about learning by ear, so is texture and EQ. They are languages of their own, just as vital as the music itself.
Need to sleep xD and yeah, I know the EQ is screwy on the piece - I usually leave that for last so that I can focus on composing itself first. If I were to point to examples of where I did mastering related stuff well, I'd point to Winter Fun ( https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/782970 ) or Wistful Reminiscence (https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/776432). My mixing improved significantly after I learned from someone who does recording/mixing professionally to *start in mono*. It really brings out to the forefront any EQ problems.
I listened to the piece you linked and liked it - it's pristine on the mixing, too, but it would take too much time to write out the impressions right now - I ask for a bit of time :P
As far as improving my vocals goes, though... I'm perhaps a bit SOL as my environment is not conducive to vocal practice, if you get my drift xD
Either way, thanks for taking the time to help, it's much appreciated! :) (and I'll get back to you on #1 as soon as I can!)
Troisnyx
Is this for a work in progress?
siteml
yes, I'm referring to my previous post, here's the link for the piece: https://www.patreon.com/posts/in-hopes-and-17204608
I guess I should have included the link here too, doh :P