Starmen.Net

SonnyBone: Try using the ‘Accelerando’ track for an idea or two. I always thought it’d be fun to write for the increasing tempo, but then again, maybe you think differently.

To do something other than study for finals, I decided to put a little something together. It’s fairly short, but give it a listen if you’d like. I know there’s a little bit of a balance issue, but I intend to go back and fix that eventually, along with fixing a few other things. I’d like to hear some opinions before I go back and change it again though.

Sorry for no RC6 yet, crazy fangamer things going on. Reviews below! Keep trucking y’all!

• (Kumatora)
Paradise Line - Paradise line rock guitar sample is very harsh, it drowns out the rest of the song.
A letter for you my sweet - I like the piano but the music is all over the pace and confuses the listener.
Cinematography of the Past - I love the start! The samples that you are using especially for the harp are too strong and loud making the nature of the song more in your face than necessary. You really should keep working on this song, I think it could be really great!

• Autobzooty - Defeat - The song is true to the inspiration, but it doesn’t feel like it adding anything to the song. It is very monotone and doesn’t have too much change in mood.

Master chicken
Bound for Earth - Sounds great! I think I already expressed this to you in an email. Great work!
Fire… fire… FIRE! - Nice starting guitar, but the second sample that comes in 0:09 doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the instrumentals working in the song.

• Stevesesy - Starmen - Not EB related music.

• Aurilliux
Dry & Spicy - True to the song, original additions sounds great but feels held down with the instrumental samples.

Sonny, the tracks dont have to be exclusive entirely to Rock Candy. We try to keep it exclusive to Earthbound centric albums, but if its your own thing, then that’s great, all for it!

Thanks for the replies. That’s good to know, Jonk. I shall continue to work on my album and when the Mother tracks are complete… I’ll send them your way. The songs on my album may ‘bleed’ together or something… so I’ll be sure to make different versions for Rock Candy.

I hope I hope I hope I can get these done before RC6 is wrapped up.

Aurilliux, I enjoyed the song. It felt a little flat, though. Like it needed some DEPTH. Something THICK to carry it along. Does that make sense? My music lingo isn’t very professional, I know. But then again… maybe I’m totally wrong. I dig thick, dense music… so it could just be my personal taste affecting my judgement of your song. But like I said… I enjoyed it. Keep working on it and make is something extra special, I say.

You’re probably gonna have a tough time getting that track recorded with real instruments. Unless you do that sort of thing regularly, that is. If that’s the case… feel free to beat me about the head and neck with a deflated balloon.

There are ways to get great sounds out of synths and samples. Lots of great remixes don’t use real instruments. Of course… the tracks with REAL instruments always stand out and have that special ‘something’. But like I said… you can keep working on what you have and turn it into somethign special without going through the headache of finding sax players and dealing with expensive recording equipment.

As far as what I mean by THICK AND DENSE… I guess that’s just my counter for ‘flat’. Your song isn’t finished, and if you plan to add more to it… maybe think about adding something ‘underneath’ that will help ‘thicken’ it up like a nice bowl of MAMBO GRAVY made from a KICKIN RUE.

I have no idea what I’m saying right now.

Basically… it needs more LOW END, I think.
Anyone else agree?

tumbleweeds blow by

You can download each album here:
http://starmen.net/rockcandy/

Man, I would love to join Rock Candy.
But the only thing I can play is percussion.
Bummer.

MISPOST. delete please

Still interested in percussion collabs?

It’s a Mother 3 song, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. This was recorded using a 1/4’’ to 1/8’’ audio cable connected directly from my keyboard into my computer. There are a total of three separate tracks all merged together in order to allow the song to encompass the entire range of the keyboard throughout the entire thing. It would be quite a feat if I could manage to do this without layering tracks, but I suffer from the handicap of only possessing two hands.

I’m willing to do anything you got for me.

As for a collab, I’m down. I think it would be way fun.

So what kind of percussion are we talking about here? A full drum kit? Bongos? Synth?

Do you play with a metronome / click track?

hey, biehlza (or any percussionist), would you be up for a collaboration on the Mother 3 ‘Beachcombing’ theme? If you could lay down a drum track for that, that would be awesome, because sampled or synth brushes don’t sound nearly as good as the real thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA1fZXbXT38

So… anyone know how close we are to getting a new Rock Candy?

We need some new tunes, right?

I have a Mother 3 track that I could submit… but that would create TWO SonnyBone tracks on the same album.

IT MAY BE TOO AWESOME TO HANDLE

I need some feedback, I think the tempo might be a bit stressy.

I’ve been trying to upload this for about a day, it makes the last part of the song more enjoyable. I really really do appreciate your opinions though, I NEED them.

Triverske, I listened to your latest upload and thought it was a pretty good tune; the drums were very powerful and the synths and effects you used packed a lot of oomph that brought the mix to life.

With that said, it seems as though your remix sticks very close to the original song. That’s perfectly fine, but I think it would be tons better if you threw in a bit of your own variation into the tune to set it apart from the other mixes already out there.

There is some serious dissonance going on from about the 1:56 mark and onwards. I don’t know if just be me, but I feel the two (or three?) melodies that you overlaid on top of each other at that part don’t mesh very well together… Also, it may be intentional but the drums and melody are 2 beats off starting around 1:30. Not to worry though, I’m just being nitpicky now.

As it stands, your mix is still very solid. Just add your own flare to it and I think you should be on your way!

LitoNico, it’s really nice to hear live renditions of videogame music! Almost makes me wish I was still in band… Anyway, I think the mellow and laid-back drums fit well with the style you guys are going for. If anything, maybe you can try adding some short fills or even some cymbal at some points to break it up a bit and complement the guitar playing.

My biggest gripes would have to be the slight tuning issues and maybe some odd chord progressions on the improv toward the end. I know it is really hard to make everything perfect, especially when we’re so used to hearing MIDI instruments that play every note in perfect tune. Still, there’s something about live instruments that MIDI can’t capture. I really hope you guys make more music soon!

Yeah, I still wince when I hear that A chord near the beginning. You both are quite right, I’ll give this some more attention when I have a few days and am less rushed.
I don’t hear the strange changes at the end you’re talking about, though, Lumpia. Admittedly, I’m not a particularly good jazz guitarist, but I think I stayed well within the song’s changes…

Yeah, I’ve been wondering if anyone is still working on stuff for RC6, too. I would love to contribute, if I wasn’t as clumsy with music as a cow eating grass while wearing roller skates with wheels made of ice.

Question: Are we allowed to submit pieces that we’ve submitted to Funfests in the past? I was thinking it would be fine at first, but the OP says that submitted songs must be “unique to this album” so I wanted to be sure.

LitoNico, I’ll take you up on that offer for the guitar end. I’m decent enough to hold my own, but can’t crank out like 180bpm 32nd note nonsese. I’ll have ProTools Essentials and FLstudios to use as well. I can also rock the clarinet and do some picked violin.

If you decide you’d still like some help, drop me a PM to let me know that you would need.

biehlza, I’ll PM you with some information. Thanks for helping out!

Here are the guitar tab and chord changes for Beachcombing. I hope some of you will do cool stuff with it! I think I’ll make a separate thread for my communal jazz project…

I never even noticed this thread. Maybe I could be persuaded to submit something from Sexy Grandpa Porky…

It’s been a while since I’ve recorded anything, but I’ve got a decent home setup and, listening to all these great Rock Candy albums, I’m thinking about contributing. Now to just decide on a song….

I think I’m almost ready to submit this, I’d like a little critique if you got some.
(It’s the fridge ride theme from Mother 3)

I’ve already submitted 2 songs to RC6, but I’d REALLY love for this thing to be completed. I could submit more, but it doesn’t need 3 SonnyBone songs. I even think 2 is one and a half too many.

Maybe once the holiday HOOPLAH is over we can pester the heads of state into giving us a number. As in: WE NEED ____ SONGS TO COMPLETE RC6