Trollheart

From what I remember, and this is only because Suzanne Vega wrote a song about it, it's about a boy who was imprisoned in a wooden box for most of his life, or most of his youth anyway. Could be a heavy one.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

A childhood without exercise will do that to ya.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Trollheart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

MicShazam

I've had that album for years and never realized.

I'm also not very consistent in liking Herzog movies, but I'm still hoping I just need to see the right ones. I've got two waiting on my "unwatched movies" shelf now, so... crossing fingers.

MicShazam

I've been feeling creatively stuck for a while now. It's been weeks without me really doing any work on my various hobby projects. It especially bothers me whenever I'm not creating new music. This evening, I maybe finally managed to get started on something that will go somewhere. At least I hope so. Here's what I've got so far. Totally comfort zone stuff, if you know the kind of thing I've written most of.

I've put an early "demo" on SoundCloud. It's all I have so far... Still, it feels good to finally actually do something again.
https://soundcloud.com/micshazam/katy6it

EDIT: Added hihats, cymbals and such, plus some more adjustments. I don't know if it would be interesting if I let this journal follow the creation of this track step by stem, but it's an idea. I don't know. In any case, here's v.7: https://soundcloud.com/micshazam/katy7it

MicShazam

I've posted version 6 and 7 of Katy.it (".it" is an Impulse Tracker music format (I don't write in Impulse Tracker, but in a compatible program)) already. After a few bouts of work on this track, I've reached version 11. So far, this is what I've got: https://soundcloud.com/micshazam/katy11it

If you have any suggestion for where I should go with this track, feel free to post them.

MicShazam

Did a lot of work on this thing today, so this track is now complete! (Unless I find something I want to change later. That's just how it goes sometimes).

"Katy", version 17 available and downloadable at SoundCloud

It's got cover artwork too, as I plan to put it on an album. As the descriptive text says on SoundCloud: "The final version of this track! (Uhh... probably...)
It's going to be the first track of an album named "Kiss The Horizon!".
That's the idea. Let's see how I do with actually pulling it off."

So, yeah. That's that.

MicShazam

I don't know how much experience anyone in here has with old school tracker style music programs, but those are what I'm used to making music in.


OpenMPT

The above is a screenshot of the program I'm currently using and have been using for years. It probably looks a bit confusing, but I find it much easier to write in than modern programs like Reason.

The screenshot is from the file I finished last (Katy17.it). The screenshot above shows 19 out of 22 tracks on screen, so it scrolls a bit more to the side. Each of these play along side each other, scrolling downwards and changing pages as the piece goes on. All the numbers and letters in these black columns indicate what instrument, note and octave the program should plan on that position. Tracks 11-22 are basically doublings of melody patterns. Tracks 1 to 10 are drums, bass and those crunchy synth "chugs" I like using so much. Each track also has its own volume, effect and panning settings and you can really define each of them however you want, plus add more if you want. I rarely go beyond 20-24 simultaneous tracks (or call them layers, if you will).

The long horizontal row of numbers above the pattern editor shows the individual pages that play and in what order.

Honestly, this kind of software is archaic as hell, but I use what software is the most fun for me, not what's the most state of the art.


Reality Adlib Tracker

Above is a screenshot of an even older program that I used to use to write my music many years back. My entire first album exclusively utilized this program. It runs 100% in DOS and is pretty primitive. It's not playing .WAV samples like the program I use now is, but instead sounds that are generated by the ADLIB soundcard format. A lot of early 90's DOS games used this technology for music. It's basically even more primitive than MIDI and predates it as a standard for DOS game sound, but I like how it sounds. I've never wanted to write music in a MIDI program.

I've given modern music creation programs a try here and there, but nothing ever caught on for me.
I'm sticking to the old school for now.

MicShazam

Time for a movie update!
I've watched the ones colored red or green. Didn't like the red ones, did like the green ones. I've tried adding a few to the original quoted list that I've gotten and watched since, but it's imperfect.

I traded for a bunch of movies today, so here's what I got:

La fille de d'Artagnan (aka "Revenge of the Musketeers", but my version is named "The Daughter of D'Artagnan" for some reason.)
Bin-Jip (aka "3-Iron")
We Steal Secrets - the Story of WikiLeaks (documentary)
A Royal Affair
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog)
What? (Roman Polanski)
Frantic (also Roman Polanski)
The Erotic Man (documentary)
Jamón Jamón (not sure what English title it might have)
Maria Full of Grace

I've watched many more recently, but I can't remember all of them. A lot of it was just re-watching old favorites.

MicShazam

Updated list of the movies I still need to watch:


The Descendants
Up In The Air
The Place Beyond The Pines
Irrational Man
The Sky Crawlers
Flanders
Sarajevo
Barfly
Women On The Verge Of Nervous Breakdown
Kika
Broken Embraces
Talk To Her
Rust And Bone
Cracks
Head-On
Three Colours: Red
Three Colours: White
Malena
Queen of the Desert
Tess
Night On Earth
Cairo Time
Actrises
Demolition
Golden Earrings
A Single Man
Two Days, One Night
Underground
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zjivago
Arn I
Arn II
25th Hour
Sherrybaby
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Match Point
Christiane F.
The Last Emperor
Revolutionary Road
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Cleopatra (the dubious looking 1999 version)
La fille de d'Artagnan
Bin-Jip
We Steal Secrets
A Royal Affair
What?
Frantic
Jamón Jamón
Maria Full of Grace