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Sorry, I currently have none.  I was blogging somewhere else, but traffic fell off, and in the end I sort of regretted how my content was turning out.  Many weeks were about blogging regrets.  So I’m back here today to remove the link to that blog because it’s gone now.

The me of 13-years-ago wrote, “I’m painfully aware of how boring it is when all I do is discuss what I’ve been playing lately and why it bores me.”  For some reason, I forgot that in the intervening time.  It goes to show that past me was wiser than present me, and that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

Perhaps I’ll blog publicly again in the future.  Perhaps not.  The world has become polarized, everyone is too easy to offend, and I’m not as young and brash as I used to be.  I no longer have the confidence I can do anything on my own.  But the wounds of my recent failures are fresh, and time will tell if I recover.

Graphicjam

The fat of this Blog has been rather savagely trimmed. No longer will you see entries here that serve as a sort of journal of what I’ve been playing lately. Not unless it’s a game that I think deserves special attention, in which case it gets a single entry under the “Gaming Gems” label. My Blog is down to about 1/5th of the original posts now but, from this point onward, there should be more lasting posts now that I’ve found a better focus.

I’m aware of the irony of creating a post like this because it’s specifically the kind of post I don’t want to make. However, this post is pulling double duty, as I’m using it to introduce another piece of original music I sequenced.

Music: “GraphicJam”

When I’m composing music in Ableton Live, what I’ll usually do is browse the sample library until I find a good base in which I’d like to build a song about. In this case, it was the chimes you can hear throughout the piece. This was a relatively difficult choice because those chimes are very overt and consequently would not mesh with much. However, after I found a couple compatible bass sources and that rather wicked riff (at first rather jarring I’m sure) that starts up at the 25 second point, I found such a nice sound that it brought tears to the eyes. There was one sample I used that cut off prematurely, it’s relatively well masked but it made ending the song awkwardly abrupt.

More Original Hack Music

I’ve mostly been trying to figure out if there exists a character in which I can enjoy Neverwinter Nights 2 with lately. You won’t see many entries on that because I saved them off-Blog as drafts — it’s mostly me using my Blog as a scratch pad. However, that’s behind us now – today is Creative Content Friday!

Creative Content Fridays are something I have not observed as often as I’d have liked. The goal isn’t neccessarily to create something create so much as to give myself practice in doing so.

This week, I’ve a musical clip I put together in Ableton Live. It seems if I ever got around to writing computer games, I’ve the musical scores covered.

Music: “Razzorburn”

Like it or hate it, I still think buying a copy of Ableton LE 6.0.10 was the best $200 I ever spent. Maybe next semester I’ll see about shelling out for a copy of Adobe Flash.

Cosmiquik

Another little thing I threw together using Ableton Live and some sample loops.

Music: “Cosmiquik”

Hack Music

I decided to start a new segment of my Blog I call “hack music”. I have purchased a copy of Ableton Live LE because it makes music creation easy enough that even a relative hack like me can put together some pieces I’m overly proud of. Besides, they’re probably more entertaining for others than most of the stuff on this page.

Music: “Along Comes Life”

The plan is to throw in a clip with future Blog entries. It’s good incentive for others to read my silly thoughts, and it’s good incentive for me to practice using Ableton Live. Perhaps one day I can graduate from “Hack” to “Rank Novice,” and then I’ll be ready for a major recording contract.

Electronic music is easier than I thought

Busy times at school. (Granted, I’ve spent way too much time in City of Heroes lately leveling up a Robotics/Traps Mastermind.) Lately, I got to play with Ableton Live and put together a little clip for my project. This is entirely sequencing existing samples.

Bear in mind it gets kinda overwhelming deliberately because the theme is information overload. I since discovered it’s a bit too long (there’s a 3 minute limit) so I probably won’t be using this.

Music: “Overload”