Kelpie

Suddenly out of no where, I have a computer that my boyfriend has offered to share with me. Which is a BIG sign of trust, because it has a lot of things on it I'm sure he wouldn't want me to see. It's a Q6600 with 4GB of DDR2 RAM, has the same Audigy 2 ZS soundcard I had in mine, 8800GTS, and a 4 year old XP 64bit install just waiting for the day to die. It's a little quirky cause of that 4 year install, being across 3 different setups, 2 AMD, 1 Intel, but it WORKS.

Suddenly, I'm doing so much better than before. Somehow, my ideas are put to work a lot better. But I really have thanks to give to some... eh... relaxing, natural supplements... to help me focus when I need it and help me grasp my creativity once again. And my music just keeps getting better.

I'm quite satisfied with all four songs I have created, but all need work.

In this time, I have realized that my limitations were not at all my hardware. An Audigy 2 ZS is not at all soundcard I should have with the new level of creativity and music making capabilities I have, and same with my Sony MDR-V700 headphones. However, Fruity Loops Stuido is my REAL limitation, as it creates the boxy, flat, and low frequency response songs that you have heard from here. There is a limit, and that is Fruity Loops Studio.

So I thought to myself, I really, really need new software to play with, what do I use? I've tried Cakewalk, and it was hard to use! I've tried looking up other stuff, but they just seem like a whole new thing I'd have to learn, but alas, some advice! Ableton? Hmm.... I wonder! So I go and look at screenshots, get to know it, and realize it's similar to FLS, but is way more capable and more worth the effort of making a song. So I download the demo... And my VSTi's sound lively! They're not flat! It's like I bought new headphones and a soundcard, I hear things I didn't hear in FLS. It's amazing, and now I'm learning the differences that it does have before I start makings songs and transferring my already made songs over!

I'm extremely happy with how things are going now!

After all this time, my motherboard finally just gave up. It started shortly after the last song I made, and I was actually working on another song. It's to the point that I can no longer keep it booted for longer than 5 minutes now.
Since I got a BSoD, I had a bunch of dump files. My boyfriend looked through the dump files and thought it was multiple problem, other than the motherboard. The last piece he looked at concluded it was the motherboard. However, my common sense kicked in that if it appears to be a problem from every other component, then it's the motherboard, because I consider the motherboard sort of just that - The mother of all components, the controller of all components. And as he looked at the last piece, our conversation boiled down to:

Him: BIOS_CHKSUM 000f0fb0′05a487c0 CORRECT_CHKSUM 00000000′0000000f
your motherboard is uh
Me: Is what?
Him: done.

So now he's looking at some old computers that have been replaced for companies his business does work for. Hopefully I don't end up with something worse than this, because we all know how much it hurts my now dead machine to just do a simple song with 10 patterns. It would certainly be nice if I had a job for the $250 it would take to get me a temporary upgrade that would actually be worlds better than the setup I have now.

I seriously can't believe how far I have gotten with my music. I just keep getting better and better. My limitations now are with my hardware. The need for a MIDI keyboard, the need for a better soundcard.

It all started with the Tetris and Zelda minimal remixes. I started from there. I was still learning how to use Fruity Loops Studio. They sound so poor in sound quality and not as great now. But they are still my favourite. They signify of how far along I have came.

Here I am with My Techance Boogies. They sound the best. They sound like I'm gong somewhere with my music now. I have been going through dead times (Times in which I attempt to make a song, but for some reason, I just can't do it) and spurts of good creativity.

Overall I look back and think just how far I've gotten in how good I am with my music. This is my music history. Pretty cool, eh?

Expect to see it soon! It will grab you by the feet and knock you down! I'm sure you'll LOVE every little part of it!

My boyfriend and I (Well... After he started messing with it, it became a file that is too CPU hungry for me to work with, so while I did some work, he worked a lot on it) have been working on it for quite awhile now. I really think you'll LOVE IT! I feel almost like I've gone through several stories by the time the song is over. :P It's so awesome now (Thanks to my boyfriend) and I fixed a bit on it. Especially after I figured out I could use XY Modulation Envelopes! And I got this cool VST plugin I'd like to share with you all (It's free!): http://illformed.org/glitch/?page=downloads It's so neat!

(Okay, so maybe I should give myself more credit than I'm giving myself here, but my boyfriend did work a lot on it!)

Also, as a side note: I don't know how well a LOT of the panning and a LOT of lower XY modulated parts will sound with cheap headphones. So if you have DJ Style headphones, I'd suggest using them when listening to this song!

This is meant to be as long as 15 mins, so it's not finished, but I'd like to see what y'all think.

However, this does not mean that every time I go ahead and leave a part the way it is that later I will. This is probably considered 10-20% finished.

This song is going to be a big, long project for me, because 15 mins is hard to push, and that takes a lot of time and dedication. Luckily, this isn't a flop of a song like some of them I've had in the past, so it's easier for me to work with this song and make it 15 mins. Plus the theme is in the name, so this song will be going multiple directions, as one would experience.

Enjoy.

This piece is not finished at all. However, this is one of the first workings in Ableton. I really have enjoyed Ableton more so than Fruity Loops Studio. It's so much easier for me to organize my thoughts and ideas and implement them. Ableton is much more of a minimalistic organization-oriented design than Fruity Loops Studio.

I'm also working on remaking some of my favourite songs.

Enjoy.

This is an unmastered version. It's finished, but needs a heck of a lot of mastering on the volume side of things. It's still listenable, but needs to be mastered in order to hear it as it should be heard. (You can blame FLS for this, plus the fact that I'm using FL6, not FL8 or FL9.)

Even though this is unmastered, I worked 6 days off and on on this. I'd say that's an estimate of 12 hours put into it. I focused on complexities, even though things repeat. It's not always about making every note different, it's about making it all sound good together. However, after all that work, I finally have a peice I can share with you guys, even though I'll need to spend more time on mastering it (A good 3 hours was already put into attempting to make it sound balanced, you can tell that's not my thing. :P)

On top of the world, and ready to tackle anything that gets in my way. As we struggle, we learn from our mistakes and thus we must carry on to tell the story of our history to our children, our grand-children.

Enjoy.

This whopper is exactly 9 minutes and 36 seconds long, 13.5mb big.

It's pretty much final, except for some unsatisfactory volume blending that occurs when using Fruity Loops Studio. Gotta love it for that.

Blissful Sadness is something that occurs when an emotional distressing situation happens to you, however, on the same token, you know it was probably for the best and things will get better.

Some notes about this song:
Holy crap, I didn't get any help for the percussion. It's rather static, but when you zone in on the parts, it's more dynamic than I've ever made. A+ for Kelpie on that one.. First time of making my own percussion and it sounds good.

I also fixed the percussion. It was right, but there were two parts that was off. A simple move to the left fixed it. In the pattern that is. I found it really, really bothered me and listened to it while doing other things so I'd have a eureka moment and fix it. It was quite embarrassing.

This song was actually unfinished when I uploaded it as V1.0, I wanted to extended the synthy part out more.

I really like my idea in the end where the flute kind of just plays it's part off in the distance.

I have not only controller beats (synths or percussion used to control the beat of the song, even though it may be different. This helps to slow a beat down or speed up a beat.), but controller themes as well (Synths or percussion used to control what the theme or concept is within the song.) Though that's not to say they aren't a special part of this song, because they are!

I always neglect to apply a filter to cut down on the screeching on that synth from the sytrus plugin. It needs it every time I use it. I hope you read all this first, because this is a heads up on that. I will fix it later.


Enjoy - I did.

This song was something I've wanted to make for the longest time. A little slow, but very instrumental. Relaxing for your soul.

It speaks of a journey, in which we all take. The ups, downs, but also with a positive outlook on life. It's a very magical song.

My hardest part to deal with in this song is the ending. This is partially because the theme is based on a concept that is never ending.

I dedicate this song to Christmas, though early, and my mother. This is definitely a song I know she'll like.

Enjoy.