Download courtesy of loopproject.com
For SounDevotion Competition Round 58
Tied for first, with the great keith303, it is probably the last time I will do that well against someone who is that good.
The name comes from a mishap around a guitar I accidentally bought which makes its debut in this track.
How did I accidentally buy it? It was in an eBay auction, and I bid low, expecting to be outbid quickly, except I wasn’t, and then two days went by and the auction ended…
Download courtesy of loopproject.com
For SounDevotion Competition Round 57, placed second.
Featuring the AquesTone singers http://www.a-quest.com
I saw a lady in the supermarket that seemed way too happy to hear some Motown; that’s the energy I wanted for this.
Aquestone speech synthesizer only has phonemes for Japanese, giving the vocals their strange character and making them admittedly difficult to understand. I am considering practicing with UTAU for future projects.
Time brings out the sunshine
You’re still soaked from the rain
It won’t wait until you’re ready
Flowers bloom make it uneasy
It will have to do
Moment yours alone
Springtime comes, it makes you nervous
Not the same to anyone else
Greeting with a smile, she calls your name, you can’t resist
Her smile and her sweet stare
In the springtime air
The nights are still cool
Before summer invades
Springtime beckons you
Anticipation makes you nervous
For JHCompo Round 45
Download courtesy of solidcomposer.com
This was my first try at this competition. Its format is two hours to compose any audio as long as it matches the theme, and the theme of this round was “The Split.”
Image by Nemo's great uncle via Flickr
Download courtesy of loopproject.org
For SounDevotion Competition Round 56
The Seven Lucky Gods (Shichi Fukujin) are (mostly) imported deities of Japan, based very clearly on spirits of Indian and Chinese lore; they travel on a ship symbolizing the import of written language and Buddhism. As this song’s title, it symbolizes the compassion and aid of foreigners.
Everything Must Change at archive.org
Download entire album as a ZIP file
Sample audio:
Download Looking Forward
Download To the Last Penny
Download Funhousedub
Download Vicariously Hidden Potential
Download Underproduced and Undermarketed
Download Everything Must Change (For You), So That Everything Stays the Same (For Us)
Download Salud Presents
Download Ice Cream House
Download The Sky Is Falling
Download Looking Forward (Reprise)
Everything Must Change (For You), So That Everything Stays the Same (For Us) is a return to the RPM Challenge in 2011 (The RPM Challenge is a public dare to create a recorded album using the time only in the month of February to conceive, compose, record, produce, and master) and is named after a paraphrase used in the blog Spike Japan (http://spikejapan.wordpress.com) to describe the country’s economic structure.
As with Release Zero, the RPM Challenge was in the same month as Battle of the Bits’ Winter Chip VI and contains mastered versions of some entries there. The blend of chiptunes and samples of varying rates with RPM’s time limit causes a rough blend of sounds and styles, beginning with the eerie and soft and gradually moving towards the tongue-in-cheek only to return again.
I had originally started this project with the intent of using only the classic ST-XX sample disks (such as the overused ST-01) for Amiga Protracker for sources of sound as a tribute to the tracker and demoscene that inspires me to create; however, after four or five different attempts to go through the samples and create a piece good enough for release, I found that I was editing the samples until it didn’t matter what they were or where I was getting them from, they all started to sound too similar. Winter Chip began, so I did the same thing I did for Release Zero- I used my Winter Chip entries as tracks. It took quite a bit of polish and even some rearranging (and retracking) to get it all to blend. Perhaps it is the nature of the RPM Challenge to make records that are rough and don’t flow well, but by taking the challenge twice I’ve learned that there is a feel in working quickly that does not come out when I work slowly. I hope that this work is enjoyed all the same.
