Ah, music music music. Now more than ever, it's be the ultimate definition of who we are. I'm open to many things, I love darkness in particular, and am just genuinely interested in the world as a whole. So is it any wonder my library ranges from avant-garde to jazz to black metal to symphonic power metal to electronica? And as much as ghetto people (chavs in the UK) are driven on sex, drugs, and violence, they enjoy the music that is less intelligent and talks about what they want.

So the latest reality check is a half a message to my potential fans, and half a "regular" RC. I'm hoping to, in justification of my beliefs and opinions, explain how and why I make music and how I view it. Let's begin!

When I was in third grade, I played the recorder for a year. When I was in 10th grade, I wanted to make a symphonic power metal band and I decided instead of standing around like a schmuck while there's a solo, or a long piece of music happening, I'd pick up the harmonica. And in 12th grade I played the keyboard for three days. Now as of November 2008, I've picked up the harmonica again for fun. That is my instrumental experience so far.

I eventually went to shows and found out you can stand around like a total schmuck and still look cool. I also decided that living the show life was simply not for me... at least, not in America.

So one day I was at my friend's house, who is a great musician, and he showed me a VST - that is, a "virtual instrument" - named "Symphonic Orchestra". He hooked everything up, and with the push of a keyboard note, he made a violin. Not just one violin, but 18 of them. And then he selected the cello, and then the harp, and the percussion, and I was hooked. I saw what you can do with just the VST in some demo's, and I said, "That's for me. That's what I want to do."

A reason I've hated formal education my whole life is that it never goes at my own pace. When I had interest in learning music, I read every wikipedia article on it and downloaded tons of artists. And when I was interested in seeing how VSTs and such work, I went on a digital hunt for probably three hours, absorbing information as Vael absorbs stars, reading interviews, everything. I gathered up $200 and bought a new soundcard, and a wonderful keyboard with touch sensitivity. I later found out I also wanted a modulation wheel and a vibrato wheel, and that I'd be using touch sensitivity scarcely. But I was all set, you know? Get some nice VSTs, and I had written lyrics for 2 years just for fun, and then just focus on what I needed.

I spent probably 2 weeks learning all the instruments in that VST. I'd sometimes open it up and just hear what this amazing setup could produce - virtually any instrument at my finger tips, and I didn't need to learn how to play it. All I had to know was to make it sound like music.

And this is the point I turn it from a reality check to a more... fan-ey thing. Things I've encountered through the 'nets, and IRL, and I'm sure I will be encountering much more through my career as music.

~*~*~*~*~*~vvvvvvvvvvvv*~*~*~~*~~*~~*~*~*VBBBVV*~*~*~~*

I was never good at ASCII art.

I get this SO much. "How can you POSSIBLY make music without knowing how to?" (they mean formally)

I relate, in every aspect, music to art. There is nothing different in their principles. I'll always try to say "artists" instead of "band", because that's what we are. Music is an art form. A way to express something.

Many people play instruments, and many study music, so I understand that they can be offended when I make music and all I do is hum along what I want, and make it. In that case, how angry should you allow yourself to get over singers that are naturally born with a beautiful voice, rather than going through training to perfect it? Being given a brain that just understands music is nothing to be proud of, I mean, it's not like I could help it, but it's not like I joined the poker game with a royal flush. I still don't have a royal flush and I will never pretend that I've hit my peak in music-making. But much like anyone can learn to draw, anyone can learn to make music. I'm terrible with art, but I had to draw monsters for MonBre, otherwise they simply wouldn't be drawn. I forced myself to learn to draw, not because I wanted to, but because I needed to. A lot of people want to, and a lot of people just draw. But then you see people who can just look at something, and draw it onto a paper. My brain wasn't made like that, or I didn't nurture it that way; regardless, I'm not like that. But I am with music. I know the sound I want, and I make it. It must be because people feel such a connection to their music, that they are offended. I can't learn every instrument in the orchestra, nor do I want to. I want to make soundtracks for movies and games, and I don't give 1/10 of a damn what people think of how I manage to do it, because in the end, what's composed is composed.

I might not follow everything down to the quarter note of what I "should" be doing with music, but I really see those teachings as utter bullshit. You can turn on the metronome, smash on your drums for 15 minutes and come up with a beat, and then put a guitar to it, write some pussy-pants lyrics and become a rockstar. And you can trace a picture. In the end, you have a product, but whether or not you should be proud depends on your personality.

There's a beautiful harmonica piece from the anime "Cowboy Bebop" called "Spokey Dokey". It inspired me to pick up the harmonica again. I looked at how to do it, and this MASTER HARMONICA PLAYER is like, "Now people have asked me for the tabs... but I can't tab this. This is all freehand. It doesn't follow the rules of music." So it's like, here's this beautiful piece of harmonica music that has inspired people, literally inspired people to pick up the harmonica, and it wasn't written like a classical music song. That's why I feel the rules are bullshit.

One reason I like avant-garde so much is that it really enforces that you can make good music while not following the guidelines to a tee on how to make music. I mean I'm all for structure, but man, the first thing I do in Cubase is set the time to be FPS 60 and remove the bars and linear option. I'll play a note as long as it needs to to sound good, and before releasing my song to the 'net, I'll always give my music out to see what people think of it, and my musician friend will suggest things to me if they so need to be suggested.

One thing that bothers me about music is that it's become so commercial. I mean yeah okay there's 20,000 "DJ [insert crazy kewl and original name here]" mix artists, but for people that make stuff like, oh I dunno, The Plain White Tee's, always have their big ALBUM release. Oh boy, we've got 12 new songs, so excited, now buy our CD! Well shit, I go on DeviantART, and I can view most art there with no watermark, and they work hours on a single damn drawing. What a lot of people will do is make their music non-downloadable. What a great way to destroy your own career! Some even go to the lengths of putting little beeps in their music to stop you from enjoying it, and I'm thinking, well what the hell! Have you made your music to be sold? Are the only important fans the ones who buy your music? If that's what it's like for you, then please, stop now! You know who has it right? Trent Reznor. That guy is amazing. For 25 years he's been doing music, just doesn't stop. And he's not DJ Rezno', he's actually producing quality stuff. He released a part of Ghosts for free, and if you liked it, you simply bought the whole album. And if you paid for it, you got a page with the .zip file on it. You could send it to anyone you wanted. Obviously Trent knows more about coding (or whoever made it for him) to stop that, but he wanted to release it for free. You could even pay more for like a whole awesome box of Ghost-related stuff like art, and it was just a great way to release. Read my words here: I'd rather someone pirated my music instead of not listening to it at all. I give all my songs away at 160k/s bitrate. Why? Because you will hear the difference if your software is meant to play it at 192k/s (though I obviously export at 320k/s for maximum quality) and I feel that 128k/s is really not that great of quality, especially when I'll be making my more complicated songs.

As of this writing, I'm not a super composer, and I've not done any music (besides lyrics) for The Vex Effect. Maybe one day I'll do a follow-up to this article, or add on to it, with new things I've learned or challenges that I've faced. But as for now, I'm done. Music is an artform and unfortunately people need to live off their art and end up being paid tons of money to perform their music, and end up losing the reason they got into music in the first place.

Warm regards,
Vael Victus