Milking Music... with Milkytracker

Today, this post is going to be about two things basically. Tools of Creativity and one of my Creations. Do go through the creation that's in the end. I couldn't help but pump in some detail about the Tool of Creativity, that may bore some people... ^^;;

Once upon a time, when computer's weren't very powerful, there were only three or four music formats. The popular ones were MIDI, WAV and Music Modules. While MIDI was the most popular because of small size, it wasn't really what we call "Digital Music". It was just a pattern of notes, played by the computer. Meaning that it was a format that could only play Unrealistic Sounding Instrumental Music. WAV was a format which took too much memory for even a 2 minute song. The final format was Music Module.

Music Module used a small sound recording of an instrument (called a sample) and automatically generated the other notes on the reference sample. It could also generate it's own instrument using inbuilt 1 Channel or 2 Channel Oscillators ( or Sound Generator). It gave the ability to make realistic sounding music without taking humungous amounts of memory. Because it could take in recordings, vocals could be added too. Remember, this was "Great" during the time period of 1988-1994, where 32 MB Ram was considered Luxury, and normal desktops had a Hard Drive capacity of 512 MB to 1 GB, which was "too much" for the common user. The most popular Music Module Softwares were from Amiga (MOD), Fast tracker (XM/IT) and Scream Tracker (SM/S2M/S3M).

All this going over your head?? Not Surprising...

To sum up... Music Modules by todays standards, is a very outdated technique for making music. But it still exists. There are people who still use it. And the first ones I came across was Milkytracker. It is a Fast tracker clone. and this is what it looks like... (All images ripped from Google Images and are not my own screenshots... simply call me lazy :P )






This next image shows what all is in Milky that lets us make music.




The final Pic shows us how music is arranged in Milky. All the notes and which instrument must play it are recorded along each column. The colored bar goes down as the music progresses. There can be many pages of these columns.




At first, very much like everyone else, I was thrown of by the seemingly complex looking interface, that had endless amount of options in it. But soon, I got a knack of the concept. How to put in samples, edit them and arrange notes in the column. Very soon, I ripped of some samples from other MOD/S3M files and some from the FL Studio 6 package ( ^^;; ) and made one Saw instrument in it. Then applying them on the keyboard, I made many tunes, and god knows if they even sounded like music or not...

Today, while browsing through my old computer, I found this one Milky file that was a Surviver of, I don't know how many Hard Disk crashes and consequent formats. Nonetheless it survived and amazingly, the title this file had was "Victory". It suited the occasion that time.

This song gave me an image of a torn and tired warrior walking on a battle field towards his team mates, dragging his sword soaked in blood along with him. His team mates are waiting eagerly to celebrate as dawn approaches the horizons...

Does this song give you a similar image?? Try to make a video in your mind that would suit this song... and do tell me what image you had when you first heard this song. Be sure to tell me... if you may -_-

In Love with Fate/Stay Night... and it's Songs

Saber - From a Scene in Fate/Stay Night

Cover of the Fate/Stay Night A.OST

In recent days, nothing has caught my imagination more than this Anime Series. Originally a RPG Game (also categorized in the H-Game Sections... O_o ), Fate/Stay Night is all about 7 Masters, who control a Servant each and their Battle to win the Holy Grail, which will grant the winner all their wishes and desires. The Story centers about Shiro Emiya, who Unwantingly and unknowingly becomes the Master of Saber, and how their relationship develops as the story progresses.

I was attracted to this Series by Saber... I'll Dedicate a full post to her later. But what really pulled me the most into watching the Anime was the Awesome, Inspiring and Heart Touching Background Music this Anime Series carried with it. The music charged the atmosphere of Action and Fight scenes, added a strain to the soul in Emotional scenes, and put a knot in your stomach in the more Romantic Scenes (which is rather difficult to observe in this... o.o )

Thus, this post is all about the songs that came with the Anime. Or to be exact, the ones that really threw me off my feet. I'll go in the same sequence as the OST listing...

03. Unmei no Yoru

I'm yet to come across someone who hasn't praised this song after hearing it. This is on Ultimate instrumental, where the fast Beats, combined with the Opera Vocals really charge up the atmosphere and the people listing to this song. Listen to it, and I'm sure you'll praise it too... :)

06. Kodoku na Junrei

The Music made me feel like I was actually looking a the most Beautiful Girl I've ever seen, amidst the soft breeze, a bright sunlight and Lush Green Garden laced with Beautiful Flowers; and I'm slowly falling in love with her. Yes, this music has a very serene, peaceful and slight romantic feel to it. This song can only make you think of Beautiful things. For me, it's some Girl sleeping in my Dreams (Not someone in real life... so Mom and Dad... Don't get worked up about this OK?? -__- )

16. Uketsugareshi Kokuin

This song, Unlike the previous one, has a more sad touch to it. Nonetheless, this song invokes Deep thought of all that is going on around you and is hurting you to some extent. However, there is some hope... a very slight touch of hope, that can save you. At least that's what I felt...

23. Emiya -Kawaii Kenji Ver.

This song has amazing Beats, that start off suddenly after a vocal chorus. It was made to suit the Archer/Emiya fight sequences. And this song fits perfectly into it. I somehow always fail to see any other image/emotion while listening to this song. Another instrumental that pumps me up... :)

27. Kishi ou no Hokori

People may think this to be Violin version of the Song, "06 - Kodoku na Junrei". But if you ask me, this is a song that concludes "06 - Kodoku na Junrei". Meaning this... I saw the most Beautiful Girl in the World, fell in love with her and am now she is sleeping on my lap, amidst the soft breeze, a bright sunlight and Lush Green Garden laced with Beautiful Flowers.

31. Keiyaku

This song is a softer version of "03 - Unmei no Yoru". This is cool and gives a feeling that something big/troublesome is about to start.

37. Tenchi hou Take

This is one song that pumps my blood upto my head the instant it Begins. This song potrays an ongoing struggle/battle/tragedy. Right upto the end, the "On the Edge" feeling remains. And in the end, things end suddenly, in a way that is not expected or wanted.

39. Gunyuu Shissou

(Ignore the Electric Guitar in the Beginning. The song starts when the OST cover appears)
A faster violin only version of "03 - Unmei no Yoru". This song unlike "Unmei no Yoru" which has this "On the Edge" feel as well, this has a feel that "I'm gonna win, and nothing can Defeat me". The tempo is faster.

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To Conclude this post, All I can say is that these are the few songs that have inspired me to no limits... Especially "06 - Kodoku na Junrei" and "27 - Kishi Ou no Hokori". I've fallen in Love with these two (In real life this time), so much so that I've been practicing these two on the Keyboard for about a week now... I still have a long way to go to be able to play perfectly, but once I'm done perfecting it on my Keyboard, I'll try to record and post a video of me playing it. :)
Hope that day comes soon. :)

About a documentary...

One of my friends tried making a documentary. He planned to make a documentary that would depict the fact that there is a time wrap in a country named India. He wanted to show that there are both old, ancient, simple and slow lifestyle in this country and Also, a new, changing, fast, urban and complicated lifestyle. In layman terms, the life in a village, and a life in new modern cities and industries.

So, he made plans, arranged a video camera and went to his grandpa's place which is a supposed to be a backward village. A couple of villages away is an industrial city with all the modern amenities, and some big industries, one of which belonged to one of his relatives or so. He planned his trips by going to the village first and then the city.

It was while he was making his plans that I offered him that, I could make some background music for him and edit his videos, so that it would be a 100% original Documentary, with no parts copied from anywhere, in it.

We had a huge plan, great expectations and high hopes. But the Idea never materialized completely. He did get the camera, but it didn't work when he had the time. And when it was fixed, he came to knew, he couldn't go to the city cause he had to attend some more important family functions. However, I did make one song/background music for this guy's documentary.

This song I imagined would play in the background of the documentary, when he's traveling from one place to another, walking or sitting on a train/bus/car/whatever. I imagined various people moving around, scenery that keep changing every half kilometers, the subtle sunset scene of the lake by the village in a bright moonlight.

However, by the time I could complete this... I got a call from him saying he wouldn't be able to make it. I lost interest in completing this song. But whatever was done, stayed and sounds pretty decent even incomplete... :)

Below is the song that was made by me... Song made for a something that died even before it could be attempted. But I do hope one day, that friend of mine is able to complete that Documentary. I still like his concept. ^^

Dialouges : Part I

This is another interesting thing...
Dialogs in a Movie... A good Movie.

I rarely come across dialogs that impress me and catch my attention the moment they are spoken out. I rarely come across dialogs that have enough power to render the audience speechless (or at least render "me" speechless). Good or Great Dialogs require a great deal of Imaginative thinking... so much that the average brain might short circuit and explode to become a useless piece of data churning Machine (later simply put by Mr. V as "PULP". I ought to envy him -_- ). I hence have great respect for these dialogs and the people who write them down. My brain has become PULP in many occasions

I have a friend, Mr V, who is a huge movie buff (watches one movie a day... without fail... in any form, genre or language...) has this Diary, where he writes down the best Dialogs he can find in a Movie. I've posted some here, and will post more later. For now, this ought to be enough to convice people to pay attention to the dialogs while watching a Movie, and not their Girlfriends (or simply Girls if they don't have one... ).

From Lucky You:
'You want sympathy? You'll find it somewhere in the dictionary between shit and syphilis'

In Troy, When a kid goes to wake up and bring Achilles (Brad Pitt) to the war to fight a huge man....the kid says "He is the biggest man i have ever seen.I wouldn't want to fight that man"
And Achilles replies "That's why no one will remember your name."

From v for Vendetta:
V: [Evey pulls out her mace] I can assure you I mean you no harm.
Evey Hammond: Who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is....... Whats the difference?"

From Scarface:
"I speak truth even when i lie."

From The Pursuit of Happiness:
Will Smith comes to the interview with bad cloths on
Interviewer : What would you say if man walked in here with no shirt, and I hired him? What would you say?
Will Smith : He must have had on some really nice pants.

A few moments of Nostalgia

Everyday, I live for a few moments alone, in total nostalgia. Of friends I had but are now living far far away... or of things I liked but don't exist in my life now.

Everyday, these few moments of nostalgia give me a mixture of Happiness, Sadness, Loneliness and Hope.

As an aspiring Artist... I thought maybe I'll put it in some form of Music...

Here is something short and seemingly incomplete tune I made... this was the best I could do, but I feel I've done well... It only remains to be see if the same is felt by others...