Hey Newgrounds! Happy new year! Remember these?
NG's 20th Anniversary combined Art, Animation, Games, Music, Voice Acting and Literature collabs in order to celebrate 20 years of Newgrounds. Now, after 10 long years it's finally time to do another! Let's create some music!
=== WHAT TO EXPECT ===
Again, the song we're making is a chronological representation of Newgrounds history and this time it mainly focuses on the past 10 years. The death of Flash takes a big part in this of course, as well as the birth of Ruffle, the shift towards different software options for games and animation, and the eventual rise of popular content that found their origin right here on NG! After doing some research, we came up with an arrangement of genres that can be found below. Take a look and decide which one you want!
=== IT'S DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME! ===
The last collab played it safe by working with a linear approach and sticking to the same chord progressions at a steady BPM of 140 but this time we've chosen to control the composition a little by throwing in a few experimental twists. For example, the song will have sections that abide to a different tempo and some parts may even require the use of samples or leitmotifs taken from Newgrounds content. If all goes well, the song should be about 7:30 in length.
=== PLEASE READ THE RULES! ===
- You can pick any part you want that's not already taken and get started immediately! However, to prevent our symphony from turning into a cacaphony of noise, here's some guidelines!
- Compose your part in the key of G or make sure your scale at least includes G. I don't care if it's G-Locrian or D-Dorian. Major, minor whatever! Just make sure to fix transitions with your neighbors if these start to sound dysharmonic. If this sounds confusing or if you're not sure how to get started, use the provided resources as a guidline or consider downloading the parts that people have already submitted and compose your song from there!
- BPM may vary during the progression of this song. When selecting your part, please pay attention to the BPM you should be using!
- Assuming everyone uses a 4/4 time signature, every composition should play for no longer than 8 bars + 1 optional bar to be used as an intro and transition from the previous song. At 140 BPM that's approximately 15 seconds long.
- Depending on which part you pick, you may be required to use additional resources. Just download the zip and find whatever you need in there. For example, part 20 includes a couple of soundfonts and MIDIs for 2 different FnF songs, transposed to sound good in the key of G. As a side note, you're not obligated to use these resources at all! It's perfectly allowed to change out the chords while keeping the same melody, or use different samples that were originally not provided. Perhaps one of the leitmotifs sounds better on electric guitar? If so, just ditch the MIDI! So long as your reference is clear, you have freedom to do whatever you want!
- If you can, please test your transitions by downloading your neighbor's parts and listen how they transition with yours. I encourage people to test and update their songs as they go.
- Share songs in this thread as a 44.1 kHz, 16-bit .wav file.
- Please mix your song to the best of your ability and make extra sure that your song isn't clipping. Don't master your song though! All parts will be mastered in the compilation process.
=== SO FOR EXAMPLE... ===
- Whirlguy decides to join and claims part 20 by posting in this thread.
- Part 20 plays at 110 BPM, so he makes sure to set that tempo for his project.
- He downloads the additional resource files and decides not to use the provided melodies, but uses the included chords and some of the provided soundfonts.
- His song starts with a short intro of 1 bar and continues with 8 bars of music.
- He finishes his part and shares it in this thread as a 44.1 kHz, 16-bit .wav file.
- After a few days, he notices that Quarl has submitted part 19. He downloads Quarl's part and takes notice that the transition doesn't sound right. So then he fixes it!
- Quarl is pleased. Whirlguy is pleased. Everyone lives in harmony.
- Alternatively, Rig may come along and goes for a linear approach. Seeing as part 5 already exists, he picks part 6 so he can work on his transition more reliably! As it happens, no resource files were provided for part 6.
- This process continues with all the other participants.
- All parts are eventually collected, compiled and mixed in the correct order.
- The compiled song is uploaded to NG.
My next post will include said resources and a list of genres to choose from...
