Re: Soundtrack rough draft

[Jens Granseuer <jensgr@gmx.net>]

On 28.02.2004 05:36, Dave Fancella wrote:
> How long should it be?  I finally got to a point where I thought "Ok, now it's 
> time to master and post to the list".  Then I discovered the thing is seven 
> minutes long!  Ouch.  Once upon a time I'd spend 3 hours writing a song only 
> to find it was a minute and a half long.

Not sure. I'm inclined to say it doesn't really matter, but we need to keep
a reasonable package size. On the other hand the (optional) music tracks
could be distributed separately, so you don't need to download them with
each release. So, if the track can keep interest and tension up for seven
minutes, why not?

> I assume it has to loop.

It doesn't have to, IMO. We could have it end and restart just as well,
especially if it's not only a one minute jingle.

> Does the soundtrack player allow mixing tracks?  I 
> assume no.  :)

Right now it only supports playing one track ad nauseam ;-)
I'll have to work on that if you need more.

> Does it allow for multiple movements in different files?  If 
> so, does it randomly pick the movements or use some crazy algorithm to do so?  
> (Some would say that random is a crazy algorithm)

I don't understand what this would be trying to accomplish. Having
several tracks randomly overlaid?

> So, I apologize for the length and the poor mastering, but it is a rough 
> draft, after all.  :)  I'll withhold my own editorial, except to say that I 
> don't like it as is and I'm going to tear it down and start over.  Before I 
> do that, I want to know how close I am to the mark.  Should I throw this away 
> completely and start with new ideas, or am I pretty close already and I 
> should re-use a lot of these ideas?

I think you don't have to scrap everything. I'll try to explain what I
like and not, but keep in mind that I'm no musician. I hope I can make
myself understood.

First off, I'm not such a big fan of "howling guitars". They can be nice for
a short solo or something but can get pretty tedious if they drag on for
too long. That said, I found them too high-pitched to be pleasant for
the full score.
It's also a bit repetitive. This may have to do with the length, but the real
reason appears to be that there is not enough variation. The drum pattern
never changes at all, and it's always the lead guitar in the foreground and
drums and bass guitar (is it?) in the background. The most notable exceptions
to me were the first one minute and a half where another guitar (more
acoustic-like) is in a rather prominent position, and the section from about
4:30 to 5:00 where the lead guitar is missing.

This being a one-man show the range of options is of course limited.
As a first draft I think it's quite nice, maybe I'm just saying a
keyboarder would be nice to add a little spice...

Is this kind of feedback helpful? It feels a bit awkward...

Jens