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 Music Modules by todays standards, is a very outdated technique for making music.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...

Absurd Notions... Innocent Notions

Scene: A classroom of 1st Grade. Anuj, Kapil, Amit and Swati are sitting on their seats. It's lunch time and they are finishing their lunch like good 6 year olds.

Anuj :: Kapil?
Kapil :: What?
Anuj :: Have you ever wondered why Mom and Dad sleep together on one bed? How come I have a different room and not sleep with them on the same bed?
Kapil :: How do I know? They sleep like that maybe cause they want to...
Anuj :: So basically, they don't have a reason.

Swati who was munching away a sandwich uptill now intervenes.

Swati :: You know, your Mom and Dad are just sharing the bed cause they have only two. They give you one whole bed to sleep on cause they love you and want to give you their all...

Amit, who was also munching away a sandwich (and probably forever...) also intervenes

Amit :: And I thought that Mom slept with Dad cause she once told me she was afraid of Ghosts.
Swati, Anuj, Kapil :: Eh?!?!
Amit :: Ya, I mean, come on, if you are afraid of ghosts, you'd never want to be alone right? You won't be scared if you're with someone. So, Mom stays with Dad whole night long.
Anuj :: Yes, that makes sense. I think you may be right.
Kapil :: Yes, I agree too.
Swati :: I don't...
Kapil :: But you have to... don't you sometimes hear your Mom scream out at night??
Swati :: Eh?? No. That's what I'm trying to say, both Mom and Dad aren't afraid of Ghosts. Neither am I.
Kapil :: Ah! But I'm positive. I sometimes hear my mom scream out at night... so I'm positive she is afraid of Ghosts and Dad takes care of her when Ghosts come to scare her.

A boy screams out to the group. The group quickly packs the luchbox, and goes out to play not worrying about why their Mom and Dad sleep on the same bed...

Float away to nowhere... :|

This is something that is still incomplete. It still needs an intro. When that's done, the intro will be as cool as the ending...

Right now, that's all I've made cause I've run out of ideas -__-;;;



This song was made in a total time of 5 hours 33 mins. Not bad eh? :)
This will remain an instrumental and I will not put forth any efforts to pump in lyrics or vocals into this... esp when I don't have anyone who'll give me vocals anyways :|

Ah! This song is inspired by "Intro", which is the 22nd Track on Death Note - Original Soundtrack II. I recommend you listen to that song. It's really that good. ^__^
Once you listen to it, you'll also understand what kind of an intro I'm giving for this song.

The English of Our Times

One fine day...

Me -> Hey AD, Good Morning! ^__^
AD -> Goods the Mornings Seleniums :)
Me -> Eh? ?_?
AD -> Whats the Happens? Whys you makes the funny faces? :|
Me -> Errmmm... maybe because I didn't expect this kind of English out of you. -__-
AD -> Arey Nose Yaar. This is the Englishes of our times. :)
Me -> You're putting a Nostalgic tone to it. -__-
AD -> Buts its the yoos whoose talkings in the old Englishes. :S
Me -> Me? Old English? o_O
AD -> Yeses. Evens the DPs wills tells you. Oyes! DPs! :D
DP -> Oh! ADs! Goods the Mornings. :)
Me -> WTF??! x_X
AD -> Yeses. Goods the Mornings to yoos toos :)
DP -> Goods the Mornings Seleniums :)
Me -> Good Morning DP... But why are you... o_O
DP -> Yoos sounds likes a littles "Old Fashioned". Feelings the Sads abouts somethings?? <:| Me -> Okays... No... I mean OK. So what are you two getting at... //o\__/o\\
AD -> Nothings yaars... we just the wants the yoos to gets the outs of yours sadnesses and bes the Happies agains :)
DP -> Or doos yoos needs the times to the Thinks??? <:| 

Me -> OKays... No... I mean OK. So you think I'm sad and upset, while you the guys... No, I mean you guys are acting normal??? -__-
DP -> Noes yaars! Comes the ons yaars... <:|

MD -> Goods the Mornings Seleniums :)
Me -> Goods the .... No, I mean Good the... No... OK... Crap! Suprabhatam!! (Sanskrit for Good Morning) -__-
MD -> Whats the shits mans. Yoos talkings in the unknowns Language. Yoos the Upsets abouts the Somethings? <:|

Me -> Okays Okays Okays.... errr... no I mean OK OK OK... Why are the Three of you trying to drive the me mad!!! T__T
AD -> Areys... Seleniums is reallies the sads about the somethings... :O
Me -> Bye... Hope to wake up from this Bad Dream Soon enough... Mays the Gods Help me T__T

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One Week Later...

AD -> Goods the Mornings Seleniums :)
Me -> Goods the Mornings ADs ^___^


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One Month Later...

Me the writes this singular Blog hopings that the someones would comes and help me goes the back to the olds the Englishes...

Can you prove that Smoking causes Tsunami??? o_O

One fine sunny day... I'm going to my Network Systems Lecture Class. I come across Mr. Pp. Well, for a short introduction, Mr. Pp is in a different branch, has the ability to Pull Legs to a dangerous level (Enough to cause "Mental Trauma" ... ) and always has enough free time to go after me... (that f###### b####### (: ) But I admire this guy again due to his amazing level of useless creativity (for which I have some use :P ). I'm yet to come across anyone else with this ability... (putting aside IS... the one who did the Bike Mata Ritual )

Mr. Pp stops me and we have the following conversation...

Mr. Pp -> Yo! Selenium... You going to do classes I see.
Me -> No, I'm going because you are free...
Mr. Pp -> OK then, I won't take too much of your time... you're a busy man and you intend to remain one the rest of your life... so Please just help me answer one question.
Me -> Go on... Shoot.
Mr. Pp -> Can you Prove that Cigarette smoking causes Tsunami??
Me -> (X_x) WTF?????
Mr. Pp -> Come on yaar... you have such storng Technical and Knowledgable mind. You can prove it.

Mr. Dg enters the Scene. He is one ultimate guy with one ultimate venoumous imagination and thoughts... as demonstrated below...

Mr. Dg -> Ah! Selenium. Nice to see that clumsy face of yours... makes me feel that there are at least some people left in this world who concentrate more on their jobs and works and not the girls who'd be impressed by them... {insert some more crap to save your own time}
Mr. Pp -> You know Dg, the sun has started rising from the west, the river ganga is flowing towards it's glacier and not towards the Bay of Bengal (Some language man... o_O ).
Mr. Dg -> Really!! What is happening here???
Mr. Pp -> See, Selenium can't prove one Statement!
Mr. Dg -> What is going here? What is it Selenium? Are you not feeling well?? Didn't you go to the toilet today??
Me -> The Statement is - "Can you prove that Cigarette smoking causes Tsunami??"
Mr. Dg -> And you can't prove this?? Come on man. You have such strong technical and knowlegeble mind. You can prove it.
Me -> I don't have time for this crap. Let me see you do it (I'm about to walk away... see, I'm more concerned about the Teacher throwing me out for coming late, over their interesting crap)
Mr. Dg -> Wait... It's not that difficult.
Me -> How?
Mr. Dg -> Well... you see... Cigarette smoking cause smoke...
Me -> Naturally it does...
Mr. Dg -> Being warm, it rises up in the atmosphere and goes near, under the ozone layer...
Me -> ...
Mr. Dg -> Having Greenhouse gases, it lets the heat pass into the atmosphere but not out. This heat touches the surface of ocean and causes the water to evaporate and form clouds and storms...
Me -> O_o
Mr. Dg -> Now, going back to the smoker and his fellow smokers on Land, their smoking generates heat apart from smoke. So that means this heat + the heat coming from the sun (that can't escape out) causes lower pressure on land than on sea where the strom clouds have formed on sea. The heat on the sea is completely wasted on evaporation process, so due to lack of heat on sea, there is higher atmospheric pressure on sea.... Now, Wind and Storm clouds move from high pressure to low pressure area. The difference in Land's Atmospheric Pressure and Sea's Atmospheric Pressure is very vast causing high velocity winds... The higher the wind velocity the greater the height of wave formed. It can be prove mathematically that this relation is exponential, so for a hurricane like wind velocity, the wave will have a height that is of a Tsunami's. Hence, we can conclude indirectly that Cigarette Smoking causes Tsunami...
Me -> (X_x) WTF was that???

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This did sound logical at first... but then...

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P.S. ::> Just a note... Mr. Pp and Mr. Dg are best of friends and they have near similar thinking... but really, Mr. Dg is more dangerous a guy... :)

My times with my synth ~

I have been amazed many times in my life. I've been irritated many times in my life. But nothing has ever amazed me more than the music that comes out from a piano... and at the same time nothing as irritated me as much either.

When I got into the 2nd sem of my 11th class, my brother got himself a Guitar. He was in college that time and nothing is more popular than a Guitar among college boys (Yes, I know girls are there too... but we are for once talking pure and simple music :P ). My Dad finally decided to buy me a Keyboard for me that time, naturally after I had raised enough tantrums (enough to make me a Britney Spears Clone... -__-). I got a CASIO CTK-481 back then, which I still play now. It's not the best Keyboard out there (It's probably the worst -__- )... it's just a basic model with 61 keys, 100 tunes and 100 demo songs with an added feature of 100 accompaniment rhythms. At that time, I was totally clueless as to what music really was. At that time I was just amazed and dazed in my own world where I could play any music.


Two days later, I snap back to reality like a really tight elastic rubber hitting my face after being pulled out tightly (And that hurts...). I didn't even know where to start. Now, I was thoroughly irritated by this one Keyboard. I was never as irritated in my life as I was back then. I didn't have time to join any Keyboard classes either... so, it was just me alone.

2 Years later, I realize that I still don't know anything about music and playing the Piano. I realize that all the time, it was me who demanded a piano back then, and now I wasn't playing it, left me with a bad feeling. I was irritated again. So I finally sat down on the Internet and started digging out tutorials and related stuff about piano. I put some effort, repeat, only some effort into learning how to play. While reading the tutorials, I was once again amazed at the simplicity of things in music. Then I had some help from my brother as well. Add to that some of the "Demo songs" in my synth taught me how to play some songs.

4 years Later and in the present time, I'm once again amazed. From the frustration that ate me 2 years ago, to sheer happiness I feel while playing some of my favourite tunes on the synth... It was a slow journey. But when I think about it, it was just as amazing too. I still sometimes think how happy I was when I was finally able to play "Canon in D" by Paschelbel with both my hands. That time I was happy and amazed... over myself. (I know how to play good piano without ever taking any classes or coaching from anyone in real life ^__^ )

Today I'm still not that good at piano cause I don't practice everyday. I just touch my synth one or two times a week to play some songs that I want to play, and that's what I've been doing for the past two years too. For now, things seem to go fine with me and my synth.

Here in I post a pic of what my synth is really like :