Official OT-Creativity Thread 1

[sharprm]

All this talk of comics books has gotten me thinking I should do one.

[Helm]

That's a great piece, Helm. Reminds me a lot of european comic albums, with that ink/gouache (?) mix.

Well I am from europe... And a comic artist. I don't have much tolerance for (though no outright hate or prejudice against) muscle comics so yes I guess my stuff leans more towards left-field. I don't usually color my artwork though, so this is me coloring with ecolines more. It would be good if I went out and bought more than just a red bottle and a yellow bottle of the stuff though. I need resupplying generally.

[Ryumaru]

helm you have no idea how much id like to see your art presented in some form over here in the u.s. beautiful stuff.

[Helm]

helm you have no idea how much id like to see your art presented in some form over here in the u.s. beautiful stuff.

Dude... I'm not very good. GRARGH I know how this sounds on the internet, like 'please tell me it ain't so, please tell me how good I am!' but seriously, I'm just a begginer and an amateur in most things. If you want to read good comics by european artists that are presented in the U.S. along with everybody else why don't you check out the following people:

Alberto Breccia, José Muñoz, Andrea Pazienza, Moebius.

All extremely notable artists in the field, and some of my biggest sources of inspiration. Studying these people will be infinitely more rewarding than looking at work by someone who is relatively your peer, and very early in his creative growth in comparison. Learn from the best, not by some guy on the internet.

[Ryumaru]

i never said you were very good at all, just that i enjoy your art :] never the less, i will be taking a look at those names.

[shaheen]

Helm and Fak: What would you guys say is the best way to get into learning music? At one point I started to create sounds and experimental things inspired by the typical list of genres (musique concrete, industrial, and whatnot) but nothing that was really conventional music. At least, anything that I attempted to create as such music never really turned out great.

How did you guys get into creating music?

[Helm]

Faktablad will give you his version and it'll probably be more interesting. I come from a Heavy Metal background, therefore I start with good melodic riffs that excite me for whatever reason. That means, given my knowledge in the field and extensive background in Metal, I only use a riff when it makes me feel about 13 years old again. Usually something that comes to me and I hum it, then figure it out on guitar and then play it all sorts of different ways to see how it can become more interesting (to me) rhythmically, melodically and harmonally. I am a firm believer that if you're using a melodic phrase just one way you're not using it as well as you could. I try to make every riff variate in such a way that it's a small song inside the song. I don't repeat a lot of phrases as a rule. Then on the mesostructural level, I look at the collection of riffs the song seems to lean towards, and try to modify the whole lot of them to have come holistic consistency, and to perhaps capture a specific sequence of emotional events linearly. That is to say, I just don't connect good riffs end-on-end and call it done, they have to be a composed song. But I HAVE to know that the actual riffs are good, as a heavy metal person, if you don't have killer riffs you don't have anything. I obviously avoid powerchord series like a stupif punk or metalcore band unless I'm doing some sort of connecting bridge or leaving space out for some solo or lead voice to take over.

The most conventional music I've gotten is playing Heavy Metal so this doesn't really answer your question I fear. If you want to make some sort of really acceptable pop music I think it's way more about streamlined presentation and catchyness (something which can't exactly be taught) than it is about the music being involved in itself.

Musique Concrete and Industrial are strange fields because one has to approach what the meaning of music is in a very awkward manner. The worthless gets inherent worth for being worthless, silence becomes sexy and the emergent meaning is a very ambiguous one. It would be best if you made such music only if you have a very strong aesthetic sense over what very little can mean given a very large space to operate, and such. If you haven't become that sort of person that enjoys strange things, I don't think you should try to go that way yet. If you just ment you made such music by accident due to inability to write proper music, then that's neither musique concrete or industrial music.

I suggest you start on a piano with a scale that sounds good to you.

[shaheen]

Oh no, I completely understand and enjoy more abstract forms of music. In fact, it's the only thing I really have experience in music-wise.

I was mainly curious about how you got into conventional music, by that I mean music that has an apparent organized pattern and that of which typically follows, or is at least inspired by music theory. I mainly asked because I've been working on a game project, and I'd hate to have to rely on others to create content so I'm trying to become a "jack of all trades," as they call 'em.

Anyways, back to music. What I meant was that I mostly only did things that didn't follow music theory, because.. well, I just don't think music theory is required to make music (in the sense that training in "art" isn't necessary to create art (if that makes sense?)). That and I just didn't know anything about music theory except for your basic music reading and whatnot. My problem is that when I tried to make "real" music, I never succeeded in making anything really good because I lacked that sort of training.

I guess it seems like you learned through an instrument, or rather, a style that you enjoyed playing. I'll try piano (I keep putting it off... :/) and see how far I can take it this time.

If you're curious, here are some things I made when I was creating audio:
I Control This Machine! somewhat annoying noise. Pretty worthless with the 128 encoding. Took away a lot of the intensity it once had. Not recommended for anyone with a dislike for high-pitched sounds.

Horror in Madness Progressive Noise? Not sure how to describe this. I took two long clips that I created live and layered them. I was trying to create a sense of uneasiness and paranoia with the repeated rhythms/rumbles alongside high-pitched chirps leading up to complete, and what I thought at the time, frightening-sounding chaos and then to a sudden eerie, yet tranquil stop. Probably overdoing it with that description there, though...

Mourning For You Ambient Noise, I think. Out of these three, probably my favorite. Another piece that followed that same method I used for Horror in Madness. Took two live tracks and mixed them together. Eerie feedback whistles with a low rumbling noise lead to an oddly relaxing experience (I thought).

I had some more and better things, but unfortunately I can't find anything else of mine on the net and all the stuff on my harddrives have been deleted due to a crash.

[Helm]

I am sorry, I have a very strong distaste for Whitehouse-isms. If there's an industrial or power violence cliche, it's the low bass rumble plus high peached noise. Never saw what's so fun about a headache. I have no other critique for the first track.

Horror In Madness is better in terms that it doesn't rape my eardrums. Reminds me of 'Easy Listening for Iron Youth' era NON. Is that a good thing? Depends on what this music means. Doesn't outstay its welcome, also. It does make me feel a bit unsettled towards the end, so I guess that's a victory for you. But to be made to feel bad with abrasive music isn't the most difficult thing.

Last track, not enough going on texture-wise for me. Not any sort of resonance encaptured.

This sort of music is not easy to critique as there's no foundational requests to be made of it (besides 'please don't rape my ears') so there'll be a lot of people that will consider it great, and equally enough to consider it crap. Mostly in either case having an opinion just to have an opinion.

I love ambient music and make it (Heavy Metal and ambient, go figure, huh?) but the sort of stuff I go for is not set out to unsettle or dislocate ear drums as much.

http://www.locustleaves.com/music/Piece%20for%20Treated%20Guitar%20and%20Voice.ogg

http://www.locustleaves.com/music/Song%20for%20the%20Sea,%20wip3.mp3

Last piece a pretty good encapturing of ambient that is metal that is ambient that is metal, if I do say so myself. As you can see, more musical stuff, coming from a different angle.

Music theory is not required, nothing is required. Depends on what sort of thing you end up making. Requirements arise from hightened desire to do something better. If you're completely happy with high-piercing noises and low end rumbling, you don't need no musical theory to do that at all.

[shaheen]

Yeah. To be honest the first track was mostly a joke and didn't have any sort of thought put into it compared to the others. Sort of a mockery of everything power electronics. 'Course, minus the crazy guy screaming his head off. Ironically enough, I've never actually bothered with Whitehouse, but I am definitely familiar with the style. It's alright sometimes.

Thanks for listening and giving some comments. I'm hoping to get back into creating again. I did a whole bunch of different stuff when I was working with sound, and this all happens to be my live material. Maybe I'll go back to Mourning For You and make something out of it, as I've always thought it was good as a potential ambient piece's backbone. When I stopped, I was working on some soundscapes with minor instances of noise thrown in, along with more organized SPK-type stuff.

I love ambient music and make it (Heavy Metal and ambient, go figure, huh?) but the sort of stuff I go for is not set out to unsettle or dislocate ear drums as much.

Definitely not uncommon. For some reason Metal somehow had a baby with (Dark) Ambient and out came Drone/Drone Doom/etc. Interesting style of music but a bit too bleak sounding for me sometimes. I'm really not sure when or why Metal kind of mixed with Ambient to create that though. Wouldn't doubt you do, though.

Piece for Treated Guitar and Voice - pretty cool, though I'm not digging the overuse of reversed samples. This really reminds me of  a few tracks by a band called Explosions in the Sky (wonderful stuff, in my opinion).

Song For the Sea - Ha. I was just waiting for the part where the guitar and percussion really kick in on this one. Again, reminds me of Explosions in the Sky, though obviously more influenced by Metal. The introduction I think could use softening on the really rigid parts that fade in and out (forgot the word for that effect...). Other than that, I enjoyed it.

If you're completely happy with high-piercing noises and low end rumbling, you don't need no musical theory to do that at all.

Well, I am happy with that sort of stuff, however that sort of thing obviously wouldn't work out in a game with a fighting ninja robot hero. I was actually planning on doing some sort of recreation of Kraftwerk songs in the style of early 90s beat 'em up music, but I guess I'll see how that ends up going.

Oh yeah, I might as well ask this as well: what software (if any) do you use for arrangement? Sound modification?