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Hey howdy, hey. I'm posting this so I can talk about a song/album idea I have. I'm doing this more or less to get feedback and maybe some ideas on what to add to it. I'm a big talker so this will be very descriptive.
I'll give you some background on my experience first. I have been working with electronic music for almost 8 years now, I've been in a few alternative rock bands as the rhythm guitarist and singer on and off for about 4 years, so I have a decent amount of music experience. Although, with that being said, I haven't actually made a complete electronica song, only fragments, half songs, and presets. The reason for that though is for me to practice all of the little things that make up these types of songs.
The type of electronica I've experimented with is ambient, chillout, downtempo, electro, techno, glitch hop, industrial, dnb, and dubstep. My goal for the type of music I want to play is psybient. This is basically every genre the producer likes to make or listens to combined into one genre. I've been waiting for this day, and I believe I'm actually at the stage to start it.
I'm a shpongle/ott/shulman/entheogenic fan, so I all about making music that will send people straight down into their minds. I love shpongle for his intensely advance and guru technique of his music. Ott has the really awesome reagae/chillout feel, also he works with pretty much only analog and just pure hardware, which is pretty neat to think about. Shulman tells stories with his music, which is exactly what I want to do with my music, tell stories.
I want to make albums solely for the exploration of a given topic, almost like a movie. I'm going to be making a sound track to a story I wrote. Basically everything in the story will be explained with sampling, pure synthesis and drumming
Okay, finally here what I've been working on. I'm not putting up any samples or wips of this EP of mine; I just want to tell the story in a generalized way.
Planting a Seed
Walking through a field of tall grass you wonder around noticing all the things around you. The birds are singing their morning chirps, bugs are buzzing by dancing in the wind, and the wind is blowing and brushing the grass against your legs. You look up and watch the clouds wisp away, taking deep breaths enjoying every second of this day.
Looking back down, you see a magnificent tree on the top of a small hill. You start making your way over there, still listening to nature swirling along. You notice how the leaves are smacking against each other, the noise of it.
You take in another deep breath, closing your eyes. As you exhale and glide your eyes open, you notice a river. You take a liking to the steady current and splashing of the stream against the rocks and boulders, so you make your way over there. The sound of the water gets steadily louder. There's a huge flat boulder untouched on the top in the middle of the river, how exciting. You hop from stone to stone.
Shit, you almost slipped on that one. Being more cautious you make the last few leaps to the boulder. What a sigh of relief it is to be on this rock. You turn to watch the current drift downstream. The current is so noisy; everything nature-wise seemed to have disappeared.
"Why is the river moving by faster?" You ponder to yourself.
"Dear God!" :shock:
There is a 20 foot wave right above you. It crashes onto you sending you downstream. Your hearing is much muffled you are disoriented. You black out. (Pads come in/song switch)
You wake up, completely able to see underwater. Freaking out, you question how you aren't dead. You appear to be able to breathe underwater now. "Nifty!"
You start to go with it and swim around. Exploring the inner depths of this vast body of water. You end up find numerous things, animals playing instruments, mermaids singing, temptation, sea creatures, and all sorts of madness that leaves you wanting to find more.
(^that part last a long while, so there's at least two songs in there/Song switch)
You come across a cavern. The water gets cold. Chills are shot down your spine. Everything gets really quiet. Looking around it, you try to make something out. All of the sudden a current starts to draw me in. You swim away, fighting it with every ounce of your being. No matter how fast or how hard you swim you just can't fight the current. You come to a state of mind where you accept nothing can be done and decide to let go. Everything is moving so fast, you don't know what's going on. All of your memories from this past adventure are popping up. All of the music, sounds, voices you heard are freezing in time. Eventually the current slows down, but you're unable to move. The water around you is actually freezing. Ice completely forms around you.
(Pads lift listener up to the surface)
Very crisp, hard pads will be going on after that.
My footsteps on the ice are coming from a distance. Very faded and gradually getting clearer. You start hearing me squeeze a tin can, spraying liquid all over. The noise of the water pans from side to side, gets quieter and loud depending on the distance from you. I throw the can behind me, having the noise of it disappear into nothing. A box filled with matches is heard. The matches shuffle around. I pick out one, strike it against the box. Light my cigarette. I inhale and exhale. I toss the still lit match. The sound of it moves in slow motion. The swirling of it gets louder, and louder until...BOOSH it hits the lighter fluid. Everything is set to flames. (I use a dubstep feel for this part) Everything is going crazy, the noises of the past start to unfreeze and I break the noises down. As in, I'm using glitch and other various tools to break the sounds into little bits show the inner working of them. Messing with their frequencies, sub and reese bass ripping and scratching through everything.
Eventually after a bunch of chaos, it ascends from a peaceful campfire with bongos, acoustic guitars, and steel drums playing. Maybe some singing can be thrown in.

So, there you have it, my first EP in a nut shell. What do you guys think? How do you feel about my approach to this? Any suggestions on things I should add, take away, or know about sound design? I also like to know if this story would be interesting enough to continue with, so just let me know.

dam dude very unique and creative shit there... now you just need the tools and knowledge to make it happen and sound good.

OfficialDAPT wrote:dam dude very unique and creative shit there... now you just need the tools and knowledge to make it happen and sound good.

Thanks, broski. Oh, I have everything I need, knowledge included. I just wanted to get critiqued on my story. And any ideas on what sounds or scales or types of instruments I should use for certain parts. I already have the first to part done, the field and walking to the water part are all recorded just need to master it. throughout the whole underwater part of this album, I'm going to have numerous different types of songs that are aquatic themed. Hell I might even throw in a remix of the little mermaid in there. haha

I've always advocated creating music that narrated some sort of event, I'm really excited to see how much effort you've put into this.

While the story itself is very simple (just my opinion), the imagery is very vivid and has a ton of potential for soundscapes and ambiances that can make a really beautiful EP. This is definitely going to be a very varying work that won't make the listener bored.

I'll be excited to hear how this progresses.

A couple of producers and I are working on a compilation based off the original 151 Pokemon, maybe you'd enjoy the tune in my signature, it's based off Articuno, a legendary bird that only showed itself to dying adventurers.

The story:
"A traveler is venturing to Seafoam Island to investigate the wildlife and other happenings of the island. Upon approaching, he is greeted with beautiful sights of natural ice landscaping and various Pokemon. However, losing track of time and reality, he ventures far too deep into the cavern to be able to escape. Without food, he slowly begins to die. Suddenly, right before his death, Articuno makes its majestic appearance, and after the sight the man happily dies."

Sounds like a bad trip to me... Or a good one, depending on your style lol.

Pretty sweet idea man. It'll be extremely hard to pull off I reckon, the only band I can think of who really nails this concept is Tool, progressive metal lol. So they had lyrics and poetic metaphors to help them.

I've kinda fantasized about doing this sort of thing myself, but never really had a clue how (i.e. composition training/skill, technical knowledge or ability). So I'll be real keen to see how this turns out!

Respect for fully going for it man! Good luck!

I like this, it's like thinking about what you say before you open your mouth.

I guess we can sometimes forget that music is about communication and provoking an emotional response and too many (myself included) tend to lunge straight in without thinking about the bigger picture. Good luck on your EP man!

outbound wrote:I like this, it's like thinking about what you say before you open your mouth.

I guess we can sometimes forget that music is about communication and provoking an emotional response and too many (myself included) tend to lunge straight in without thinking about the bigger picture. Good luck on your EP man!

Exactly this ^
Good luck man

InternetSlaveMaster wrote:I've always advocated creating music that narrated some sort of event, I'm really excited to see how much effort you've put into this.

While the story itself is very simple (just my opinion), the imagery is very vivid and has a ton of potential for soundscapes and ambiances that can make a really beautiful EP. This is definitely going to be a very varying work that won't make the listener bored.

I'll be excited to hear how this progresses.

Yeah, I understand it's very simple. I named it Planting a Seed for that fact. But, simplicity is also what I'm going for in the story, so people listening can imagine other things happening. I felt having a story that's too detail will eventually get boring to the listeners. I would love if people just listen to my stuff whenever they're in the mood. Plus, it's an EP so there is going to be a shit ton of songs. Here's something cool, I work at a hookah lounge and a lot of musicians and artists come in here, so I whenever I took someone's order I would ask if they or anyone they know are avid musicians that can get lost in a instrument. SO, I got 3 acoustic and electric guitar players, a guy who plays the cello, clarinet, and violin and he also is going to this really fancy music school in New York, I have 4 vocalists(all of which sing in different style and have beautiful voices, one girl, a gay guy, and 2 other guys), and 2 drummers(they'll be playing normal drums, bongos, steel drums, and a bunch of random toys that make cool noises) Also I have some people who are helping me with field recording. I found two animators who'll help me with an animation of this story. Everything is going so well. I feel almost professional.

InternetSlaveMaster wrote:A couple of producers and I are working on a compilation based off the original 151 Pokemon, maybe you'd enjoy the tune in my signature, it's based off Articuno, a legendary bird that only showed itself to dying adventurers.

The story:
"A traveler is venturing to Seafoam Island to investigate the wildlife and other happenings of the island. Upon approaching, he is greeted with beautiful sights of natural ice landscaping and various Pokemon. However, losing track of time and reality, he ventures far too deep into the cavern to be able to escape. Without food, he slowly begins to die. Suddenly, right before his death, Articuno makes its majestic appearance, and after the sight the man happily dies."

I Love this! I actually listened to this a little while back. Are you guys going to actually make songs for each pokemon?

Flippity wrote:

InternetSlaveMaster wrote:I've always advocated creating music that narrated some sort of event, I'm really excited to see how much effort you've put into this.

While the story itself is very simple (just my opinion), the imagery is very vivid and has a ton of potential for soundscapes and ambiances that can make a really beautiful EP. This is definitely going to be a very varying work that won't make the listener bored.

I'll be excited to hear how this progresses.

Yeah, I understand it's very simple. I named it Planting a Seed for that fact. But, simplicity is also what I'm going for in the story, so people listening can imagine other things happening. I felt having a story that's too detail will eventually get boring to the listeners. I would love if people just listen to my stuff whenever they're in the mood. Plus, it's an EP so there is going to be a shit ton of songs. Here's something cool, I work at a hookah lounge and a lot of musicians and artists come in here, so I whenever I took someone's order I would ask if they or anyone they know are avid musicians that can get lost in a instrument. SO, I got 3 acoustic and electric guitar players, a guy who plays the cello, clarinet, and violin and he also is going to this really fancy music school in New York, I have 4 vocalists(all of which sing in different style and have beautiful voices, one girl, a gay guy, and 2 other guys), and 2 drummers(they'll be playing normal drums, bongos, steel drums, and a bunch of random toys that make cool noises) Also I have some people who are helping me with field recording. I found two animators who'll help me with an animation of this story. Everything is going so well. I feel almost professional.

InternetSlaveMaster wrote:A couple of producers and I are working on a compilation based off the original 151 Pokemon, maybe you'd enjoy the tune in my signature, it's based off Articuno, a legendary bird that only showed itself to dying adventurers.

The story:
"A traveler is venturing to Seafoam Island to investigate the wildlife and other happenings of the island. Upon approaching, he is greeted with beautiful sights of natural ice landscaping and various Pokemon. However, losing track of time and reality, he ventures far too deep into the cavern to be able to escape. Without food, he slowly begins to die. Suddenly, right before his death, Articuno makes its majestic appearance, and after the sight the man happily dies."

I Love this! I actually listened to this a little while back. Are you guys going to actually make songs for each pokemon?

Wow dude, glad to hear you've got a ton of people involved in this with you! Makes me even more excited to experience the final outcome, best of luck!

Glad you like the track! Yeah, we're writing for all original 151, then the goal is to write for all the other ones.. in time, lol. Realistically we'll probably only finish the Hoenn Pokemon because that's when a lot of the original gamers grew up and stopped caring, but yeah!