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The G.A.M.E. 5.0 Summer Edition launch thread of late album release! (free music!)

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M

monchi-kun

Member
I don’t know what’s more surprising; that we’re on our 5th compilation album for the G.A.M.E. project (Gaming Art Musica Electronia) or that we FINALLY released. Get it while summer’s still around!

UPDATE 8-14-2009

GAME 6 planning thread GO GO GO

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UPDATE 8-12-2009:
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ALTERNATE DOWNLOAD provided by No_Style (thanks!!!)


Click on Cammy's bewbz for some musical goodness!

Rapidshare Links via LiveFromKyoto

Part 1
Part 2

24 Gigs worth of downloads from m0dus' site so far, hopefully people are enjoying the release
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(click on the album cover to download the album directly - cover art by m0dus)


(click the logo above to go to the main G.A.M.E. site to download this and our other compilations)

What is Gaming Art Musica Electronia (G.A.M.E.)?

We're a bunch of NeoGAF posters who make electronic music. Some of us veterans, some of us amateurs, but we all share a passion for videogames and electronic music. We have completed a couple of compilations before, which can be found here:
The first project: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219443
The second project: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=326879
The third project: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=336451&highlight=Wipeout
The fourth project: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353979


What is G.A.M.E. 5.0?
This time around we wanted to tackle Summer Music but what is “Summer Music”? Everybody knows that every summer there are a couple of songs that define it. That's what we're trying for here - bumpin', fun, groovin' and seasonal. We’ll have each artist post some info on their tracks but the group wanted to produce tracks that range from dance to chill music, there should be something for you on this album!

Track and Artist:

Gestalt Theory - Ultim8p00
July Evening, Lake Biwa Shore - LiveFromKyoto
Lost in the Rain - LiveFromKyoto
Mood Swings - Ultim8p00
NDSTRL-156 - XenoGenome
Not Another Action Flick - m0dus
Rhodes - Ultim8p00
Space Diamonds - Ultim8p00
SMRHMR (v5) – monchi-kun
Speed Dreaming - XenoGenome
Solstice - Chasteleth
Interlude - Broseybrose
Strollin' - SupraDarky
Enter – Broseybrose
ASGSYS – monchi-kun
Electronic City - Supradarky
my deal remix - whiterabbit
BeeLine - pirahna1

Thanks once again to NeoGAF’s artistic god m0dus for the album cover!

Additional shouts to LiveFromKyoto for getting the planning thread rolling and lil smoke for helping me with gathering and leveling everyone’s tracks! Last but not least thanks to the NeoGAF's mods and community who have supported and given us a place to share our music.

Hope y’all like it! Feel free to ask any one of us how we produced our tracks, hopefully you’ll join us for the next release. Stay tuned for G.A.M.E. 6.0!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
blu

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
ok, pimps, let's see what you've cooked ; )

*gets to download*
 
K

Kevtones

Member
I'm sorry for never being able to add anything, is there another project coming down the line? I've actually got time now :(
 
S

SupraDarky

Member
Oh sweet it actually released. Time to download, I kept myself from listening to the other tracks in the progress thread. :p
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
Some explanation of how i made my track SMRHMR:

Rewire_logo.gif


I usually work in Logic as my main host with Reason ReWired into it. ReWire was developed by Propellerheads software to allow different music programs to communicate with each other in a Master/Slave system. This allows me to utilize the strengths of the software I use and overcome their individual weaknesses.

Reason is an amazing music production environment. Reason 4.0 introduced the THOR Polyphonic Synth and I almost always use it when I make tracks in Reason. Here's a shot of the rack I created in Reason 4.0 (all patches are from the Reason library):

3801450434_a0094bb552.jpg


Here's a shot of the back of the rack. Most Reason users will notice the lack of a Mixer in the rack. Since I have this rewired to Logic there's no need. I wanted each instrument to have its own track in Logic but it's possible to simply have all your reason tracks show up as a single track lane in Logic as well if you put a mixer in the rack.

3800631167_5aa4cd7af7.jpg


As for the Logic Studio environment it's pretty straightforward as well. I used the instruments that came with the program. Notice that some lanes have information on them while others don't. The ones w/o info on them are my Reason rack instruments and logic is simply playing back my sequenced set-up in Reason. Note that some of the empty logic lanes correspond to instruments in the reason sequencer.

LOGIC SEQUENCE

3801450694_13360fa308_o.jpg


Sequencer occupies the top part of the UI while the Mixer is on the bottom. The Blue tiles in the mixer section are the plugins I used for each track. In logic the sequence of the plugins (how they appear from top to bottom) will have an effect on the way your track sounds.

REASON SEQUENCE

3801485562_b37218d9c0_o.jpg


Reason can't use plug-ins, but through rewire I can put plugins in their sequencer track in logic. This is the roundabout way of getting plugins to work with reason instruments :D

As far as composing or coming up with ideas for my track I usually start off with a backbeat and begin to lay down a bassline. The bassline to SMRHMR is a simple 4 note sequence repeated through the song. In fact, everything i've made for the game projects have very simple basslines. Once the basslines and backbeat are set then i start mess around with the melody or lead track. I just try to find a sequence that goes well with the bassline I laid down. I have no idea if i'm following music theory or anything, i just go with what sounds good to me.

All the plugins I used in Logic are standard except for one: LIVECUT

3800631351_051d67dceb_o.jpg


This is responsible for all the stutters in the lead track. It's a free plugin and I love how random it can be. There are actually 7 versions of the SMRHMR track, each of them has a distinct lead track because of the settings I played with in LIVECUT. Version 5 is the one I liked out of all of them.

And there you have it, feel free to ask me or anyone of us how we made our music.
 
C

Chasteleth

Member
Good stuff guys, my favourite track is probably Speed Dreaming by XenoGenome or Enter by Broseybrose.
I'll probably post an explanation for my track soon, well if anyone is interested.

Also if anyone wants to check out any more of my stuff ***shameless plug*** I have a few things on soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/chasteleth
 
C

CommieCaptorS

Member
Oh yey looking forward to this, previous projects were a mainstay on my ipod for a good year or two. You guys have some damn fine talent.

*downloads*
 
C

CommieCaptorS

Member
and oh, what happened to that little notepad file that listed the inspirations behind the songs? I always found that quite interesting.
 
C

Carlisle

Member
Awesome! Glad to see it come to fruition. I'm eager to make some contributions of my own with the next project.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
CommieCaptorS said:
and oh, what happened to that little notepad file that listed the inspirations behind the songs? I always found that quite interesting.
Click to expand...

one of the things we're going to do in this thread is post info on how we made our tracks, makes the process more transparent than simply listing our software/platforms used.
 
M

methane47

Member
SMRHMR is the best track on there... i've had it on repeat the whole day..... it is a really moody song... I could play this song and it could fit every single mood i could have.

props man...
 
D

Doytch

Member
Cool. I really liked the first one but I thought the second wasn't as good...and I never even knew there were third and fourth ones...

Downloading this one though!
 
Broseybrose

Broseybrose

Member
monchi-kun said:
Some explanation of how i made my track SMRHMR
Click to expand...
my personal favorite of the comp... even moreso than my tracks :D

really, monchi, great job on that track. i cant get enough of it.



my process is very simple as im using only the KORG DS-10 to compose and i run that straight into Audacity to record.

i come from a musical background; first and foremost i am a drummer, and i also taught myself guitar, bass, theory, and production (to a degree). a few years back i was writing, recording, and producing entire albums (vocals, multiple guitar tracks, bass and drums) here in my little studio on my computer. so the DS-10 is half-toy half-instrument for me. i think thats why i enjoy it so much.

since im not in a band at the moment, the DS-10 is how i keep creative. either ill hear a song in my head and start building it on the DS-10, or other times ill just pick it up and see what comes out. when you really experiment with the DS-10 you can get some truly unique sounds out of it.

the G.A.M.E. projects are great because you get a theme to stick to, which keeps you disciplined... you get to meet and be a part of something great with the talented musicians on GAF. thats the best part for me.
 
Broseybrose

Broseybrose

Member
Doytch said:
Cool. I really liked the first one but I thought the second wasn't as good...and I never even knew there were third and fourth ones...

Downloading this one though!
Click to expand...
4 was a good one too.
 
B

bishoptl

Banstick Emeritus
Just like last years, these are going straight to my WipeoutHD gaming soundtrack.

I finally bought Audiosurf today so I could use it there as well...+1 sales to Steam thanks to you guys :D
 
U

ultim8p00

Banned
Heh, I'm very amateur, so I'm not sure if I should even be giving pointers here, but as for how I did my tracks, there's really not much to it. I used FL Studio 8 to make my tracks and I used Sytrus for most of the instruments, except for drums, which I used the built in samples from the FPC set and the RealDrumKits set.

I start my tracks by thinking up a nice melody, and a good beat to go with it. Then I go into the piano roll and mess around until I get the melody and the beat just right. I might also mess with the tempo a bit. Then when I have the melody right, I create what I call a main pattern, which is a pattern with all the instruments I need playing. Then from this pattern I make derivatives and modify them here and there until they sound different. I do this until I have the rough complete song. Now I start putting in effects such as echoes, reverbs, filters, automation clips and whatever else I need (I use automation clips mainly to fade in and out certain instruments, to fade in and out an effect such as distortion etc).

After I get all my effects done, now I start trying to get levels correct. I usually pass soundgoodizer on the master track just because it gives the sound a "shiny" finish if that makes sense. I also pass a limiter on the master track, and I generally try to avoid yellow levels of loudness and I always avoid red levels of loudness. Finally, I pass an equalizer (EQUO) as the last plugin and I usually just average everything out.

Yeah so that's basically how I do it. Hope someone finds that helpful.
 
P

permutated

Banned
Wow, I was banned and when I came back I forgot all about this. Had my track finished and everything. That's what I get for opening my mouth.

Great work guys, hopefully I can participate again next time :)
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
It's my first time taking the time out to download any of the projects. I can't believe I've missed out on listening to any of these the past two years!

It's a fantastic collection, well done! My personal favorites so far are "Space Diamonds" and "Strollin'."

Now, to spread the words to others...

Also, I just noticed that one of the only three things to ever make it to the long forgotten front page was the original GAME release. Ha.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
...now if we can just get the rest of the contributors to post in the launch thread....:D

for anyone interested in participating in GAME 6 we'll try and organize it better so that we can keep all potential participants in the loop (as well as having stricter deadlines :lol )
 
C

Chasteleth

Member
Ok so I'll explain a bit about my track which is called Solstice.

I use Cubase 5 as my DAW on an i7 PC running Vista 64-bit. My soundcard is an E-MU 1616 and my
midi controller is an Edirol PCR-800. For this track I also used an Ibanez RG 2550E guitar
running through guitar rig software.

Musically my track is very simple, it is all based around a chord progression using 4 chords:
Dmaj7, C#min7, Cmaj7 and Bmin7. It is in 4/4 time and follows a very simple structure of
intro, section A, section B, Bridge, Guitar Solo, Section B.

I use two seperate cubase sessions, one for all the midi recording and one for mixing. When
all the parts are recorded I export the stems from the midi session and bring them into the
mixing session. This is a screenshot of the midi session running on my main monitor:

3811407366_d9528d3847.jpg


On my other monitor I have the mixer, vst rack, notepad, transport control and video window (for
when I'm scoring to video, I didn't use it for this track). I also open and use the vst instruments
on this monitor.

3810588375_3cb58bdbe4.jpg


All synth parts were done on Omnisphere which is an amazing instrument, I recommend everyone to
check it out if they haven't already. The percussion was done in Stylus RMX, I did not use any
loops from RMX I made the drum patterns myself using one of the dry rock kits from RMX.

3811407448_7396548009.jpg



3810592767_d76880a1c3.jpg


I mix using the EQ, compressors etc which come with Cubase. For mastering I use Ozone 4. That is
pretty much it.
 
C

Chasteleth

Member
Yeah I think its actually a bit more than 40gb. It has sampled waveforms from a load of different synths, a variety of choirs, sitars, guitars, sound effects (I like making synth patches using rain sounds), some percussion etc. The preset patches are really nice but there is some incredible depth you can go into to create your own.
 
P

pirahna1

Member
I'll try and do a write up soon on my song. Might help a few people get around in FL Studio :lol

Can we get a link to the GAME 6 project thread posted in the OP when it goes up? Should help a lot of people find it to contribute rather than it fall deep into the depths of GAF.
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
Both of my tracks were done entirely in Logic Studio. The guitars were made in Sculpture:

sculptureoverview.jpg


You can get some really cool sounds out of that thing if you mess around with it long enough, and you can change the pitch of each note in the main editor window to make it sound varied enough to be a real guitar.

Lake Biwa is the beach spot in central Japan where everybody goes in the summer. They have raves there near the mountains.

Lost in the Rain is a reference to the rainy season from June to July in East Asia where it literally rains every single day. It goes on and on, kind of like this song ;) Eventually you've spent so much time inside or unable to walk around freely outside that you start to feel kind of divorced from the real world.

The drum sequence for lost in the rain was put together in iDrum, a plug-in that takes an unfair amount of criticism imo; it's easy to use and reasonably versatile, and makes a good companion module to Ultrabeat:

TaskLoadLogic2.png


I spaced it around the main tracks using a spreader plug-in. It's the first time I've done that and I find it opens up a lot of room for other stuff in the song, while giving a really expansive sound for the drums. I'll probably continue to experiment with that.
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
Speaking of space, I've been learning this new technique called LCR mixing. It involves every song element being panned either straight down center, or panned 100% left or right. Anything in between would have to be created with stereo spreaders, or other stereo effects. This is supposedly "old school" and I'm learning that there may be a fundamental wrong with the way modern DAWs pan laws actually handle panning. Interesting stuff, but hard to wrap my head around at the moment. For example, if you wanted something mid left center, instead of panning left 50% over (which only turns the volume down in the right speaker), you would double track that element. Set one center, set one 100% left, and use fader volume to set balance. This is how a lot of pros get all that width that seems so hard to get ITB.
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
lil smoke said:
Speaking of space, I've been learning this new technique called LCR mixing. It involves every song element being panned either straight down center, or panned 100% left or right. Anything in between would have to be created with stereo spreaders, or other stereo effects. This is supposedly "old school" and I'm learning that there may be a fundamental wrong with the way modern DAWs pan laws actually handle panning. Interesting stuff, but hard to wrap my head around at the moment. For example, if you wanted something mid left center, instead of panning left 50% over (which only turns the volume down in the right speaker), you would double track that element. Set one center, set one 100% left, and use fader volume to set balance. This is how a lot of pros get all that width that seems so hard to get ITB.
Click to expand...

That's actually kind of cool, but how do you stop everything in those three tracks from tripping over each other?
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
LiveFromKyoto said:
That's actually kind of cool, but how do you stop everything in those three tracks from tripping over each other?
Click to expand...
Elements panned hard left or right (you wouldn't do three tracks, only 2.. LC, RC or LR... not LCR all on one element.) have to have their own approx. space in the frequency spectrum, so they don't build up. Main rhythm elements: kick, snare, bass, vocal are center since they drive the beat and have prioritized frequency space. Textural musical elements are panned and aren't supposed to overshadow main elements.

I'm still trying to understand it myself, but it makes some sense. Just would be a very cluttered project with all those channels.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
i'd like to dive into Sculpture a bit more in Logic but I find the UI so daunting. Most of the patches I try to create become a complete sonic mess (i've saved some for experimental use).

same goes for Ultrabeat, i think i'll try out iDrum
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
monchi-kun said:
i'd like to dive into Sculpture a bit more in Logic but I find the UI so daunting. Most of the patches I try to create become a complete sonic mess (i've saved some for experimental use).
Click to expand...

It took me a long time and a lot of googling to figure out how to use it. I'm still not the master of it or anything but you can definitely make it do some neat stuff.

SFLogicninja is the guru of this stuff (at least as far as guys with free videos on the internet go), this video is a good introduction of what it does and how to use it:

http://musformation.com/2009/05/logic-lessons-using-sculpture.html

same goes for Ultrabeat, i think i'll try out iDrum
Click to expand...

Ultrabeat's not actually as complicated as it looks - the thing is that it actually doesn't do as much as you might think it does, it's still largely constrained by the initial sample you feed it. The envelopes in the lower right hand corner are a good place to start with to mess around with the waveform of the hit. I find I can get most of what I need to just from that alone.

iDrum costs about $60 and I got it when I was using Garageband, which lacks a proper percussion sequencer. I still keep it around because it has a couple of tricks that Ultrabeat doesn't and a different sample library, but I'd recommend learning Ultrabeat first and then seeing what you really need from there, iDrum might not be it.


BTW - I love the buzz you've got going on the bassline in SMRHMR - is that coming out of Reason?
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
yup, that bassline is run through reason but it's being processed by some plugins on the channel as well as the master for that really "deep" buzzing bass. if you've got some nice headphones you'll be able to hear the second oscillator slightly tuned up on the bassline
 
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