Mod Archive Forums

Music Production => Tracking => Topic started by: Cyborg Corgi on December 19, 2014, 03:11:29

Title: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: Cyborg Corgi on December 19, 2014, 03:11:29
So I ran into OpenMPT a few days ago thinking about learning about making video game music. I was heavily inspired by the games I play, by a friend I have, and got even more motivated when I logged on to ModArchive.

How disappointed I was to find out how little I know about music. I made a loop that I feel really shows it. This is also a time when I realized how little it seems that other people have this problem, or at least not as bad. Said friend has made some decent stuff in my opinion, I mean he doesn't mess around with a tracker anymore, but next to him I feel like I was destined to be awful.

Everyone seems so confident.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is:

When you started off, did you ever have a time that made you question if you should even be making music?

Keep any bits of music you were ashamed of to look back to and laugh?
Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: Saga Musix on December 19, 2014, 11:32:13
Everyone starts out as a beginner and makes some crap at first. Some people are aware of it, some are not. The latter sometimes are so proud of their first creations that they even want to upload them at ModArchive, but in that case we sometimes have to reject such modules because they are of really low quality. I still have each and every module I've made, but most of the whole beginner crap never made it on the internet, luckily.
The best advice to get better is to simply keep trying. Listen to other people's modules, watch their patterns, their tracking techniques, their samples, and learn from it.
Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: ncovert on December 21, 2014, 02:54:21
Yep. Go into my profile and look at my songs. The list is empty. I have tried to upload a few modules here, and they all have been rejected. When a song of mine is rejected by TMA, I feel ashamed and insulted. Now TMA is home to lots of bad songs, so mine not getting in is really saying something about my lack of musical ability. So I don't even try uploading songs here anymore. I know they'll get rejected.
Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: Saga Musix on December 22, 2014, 03:19:50
My logs should be fairly complete and they say that you tried to upload exactly one tune ("choppy"). What makes you think that any subsequent tunes would be rejected as well?

Quote
so mine not getting in is really saying something about my lack of musical ability
Or it may tell something about the lack of quality control that surely has happened in the past. Sure there is some really bad stuff on TMA but we won't delete it for history's sake.
Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: theorize on April 18, 2015, 14:51:56
You're not the only one my friend... I hate everything I make. Not to say that it's bad, but I'm never satisfied. But the funny thing is every now and then I'll hear a tune that sounds VERY close to something I have made in the past. Makes me wish I would have held on to some of those "awful" songs.

If you want to get better, get a keyboard, that is if you're having problems with the musical aspect. Make sure it's a MIDI keyboard so you can connect it to your computer and play Synthesia. With a keyboard it is much faster, easier and more natural to explore different melodies, chords, progressions. Plus a lot of trackers accept midi, so you could even use it to make your songs.

I haven't actually made a song in a long time because I wanted to learn sound design better and then I wanted to up my theory, that's what I'm doing right now along with building a library of samples to make songwriting faster.

Hang in there and keep tracking, you'll get it. Also, maybe don't try to fit your music into one genre. When I learned to do this it got much more fun because I stopped trying to sound like X or Y. I'm not saying you're doing this I would have no way of knowing. I'm just trying to tell you things that have helped me. Like for myself, I love breakbeats. But whenever I try to make breaks that sounds like whoever I always fail. BUT when I try to just make music (and actually sit down and make some music) I am very pleased with the results.

Lastly, I have no idea if you've done this or not, but learn the basics on theory. I know it can be dull and you may just want to get on with being a superstar, but very rarely do people make good music without knowing anything in music. Not very long ago people didn't try to compose music without first playing in a band and getting to know music, but now we have computers and anyone can just sit down and bang out some sounds... whether or not those sound are music depends on how much you're willing to learn. Often I hear people say "study modules you like", well, that's great advice if you understand what's going on musically but if you don't you may just end up more confused. One tip I can give you for studying modules is use the mute function very often. Solo parts or groups of parts to see how those specific two or three or four instruments work together. It may not be so obvious when the whole thing is playing but when you hear just the string section or just the drums along with the bass you may have one of those "eureka" moments.

And most important, have fun with it. Make a completely silly song, make yourself laugh. Those will be the things that keep you tracking so that you can blow our minds sometime soon ;)
Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: theorize on April 18, 2015, 14:57:54
sorry, here's the link for synthesia... really cool piece of software, it's like guitar hero for keyboard and accepts any midi file... the internet is littered with them ;)

Anyway sorry if my advice is way off, just trying to help any way I can because I know how you feel. I was frustrated once but realized I'm doing this for fun and not having any... so I started having fun again. And it's been really good for me.

Title: Re: Ever feel ashamed?
Post by: theorize on April 18, 2015, 14:59:51
OK  sorry for the triple post... but really dude just because some people are confident in their music, doesn't mean it's any good. Yours might be better than you think.

Ever considered the possibility you could be using the wrong tracker? I couldn't make anything that I was happy with to save my soul using modern software. Started using trackers and it helped, but not all trackers I can use.