Day Six - Music

A long time ago, on an old computer far, far away, I tried to make my own music in a program called OctaMED. This was a 'tracker' program, not a tradition musical notation system, and more suitable to a person who had very little 'real' musical knowledge (I'd had piano lessons as a kid, but it didn't 'stick'). The Commodore Amiga had many of these tracker programs, and the results were quite impressive.

My results were tragic, however. I played one piece on my stereo system, and my mother heard it in an adjoining room, commenting "What was that terrible sound?" I didn't try again.

Wind the clock forward about 20+ years, and I got the urge to try again. This time I bought Sony's ACID Music Studio software: much like the old tracker programs of old, but a lot more friendly to use and a lot more powerful as well.

The results this time were very good. In fact, I was stunned at just how good my first attempts came out. Inside a few hours I had a nice Spanish Guitar piece, a hip Drum one, a light, fluffy Classical piece and several others.

So I then aimed my sites on my machinima movies (the real reason for making music, in this instance). And now I find myself doing the scores for all my flicks. I like the results, and it avoids all those nasty copyright problems many of us suffered (or avoided) back on TMO (where the laws were strict, and the communication nil).

I've also done some other people's films (at least in part). My first was JudyAnn88's latest Hercules film. I got to do the entire score for that. I've also done tracks for Cecil_Evan's Mortal Coil film (and his up coming flick as well, which I won't disclose just yet). I even inadvertently worked with GoofParade on a song for tehpoptartkid's SirFartsALot film. I made up some music, and TPK send it to GP who amazed me by making it into a song. (The man is brilliant, I tells ya!)

What gets me is how quickly the music comes about. I think I did Judy's film in just a few hours (OK, the film was relatively short, but it was my very first musical 'score'). And it's remarkably satisfying to make it. I think if I ever give up movie making, I'll probably still make music. It's just so much fun!

While I don't go out of my way to make music for others, I usually try and help those that ask. So if any of my machinima friends (or future friends) are in need of some music, just ask me. The worst I can say is 'no'...