This is my entry for the first round of NGADM, which is a sort of musical deathmatch. My goal was to write something that was both groovy and atmospheric, with a heavy focus on electronic sounds. I've never really done something that sounds like this before.

Notes

0. Thanks to all the judges of NGADM for putting on this awesome event, doing tons of work, and even giving reviews! 
1. My best song, and, at 30 hours, the longest I've ever spent on a song. You start going crazy after a certain point of work - doubting if any of your song is any good - so thanks to the guys at Toastbeard and especially Eery for reminding me it doesn't suck, and giving good tips to continue.
2. At one point this song was 7 minutes long, but I eventually cut it down to the most important parts. 
3. I started thinking about how you can imply some emotions without having particularly evocative melodies, and I tried to do that in the first part of the song. 
4. I was messing with the file and accidentally deleted part of it. At first I was really annoyed because there wasn't an easy way to get it back, but then I listened to it and realized it actually transitioned so much better. 

This uses two samples from ccmixter.org:
* http://ccmixter.org/files /KaeFurious/42967
* http://ccmixter.org/files /bfemedia/42857

substructure [final] [NGADM]

This is my entry for the second round of NGADM (an audio deathmatch competition over on Newgrounds), and I'm pitted against ZipZipper, which means I instantly lose. No but seriously that guy is a beast. Anyways, even if I do lose, it's been fun and I'm really proud of the stuff that I made. I've learned so much!

Notes:
0. Again, a big thanks to the judges of NGADM. I want to call out Step in particular for writing 64 (sixty four!!) detailed and insanely helpful reviews for all of the round one participants. Wow! 
1. The time I had to write this piece was decidedly suboptimal. The first week of NGADM, I was on vacation, and the second I was moving to California. This meant that I never had a single day where I got to bang out most of the ideas in the track. Instead, I wrote the ideas in probably 5 different sessions, each a couple of hours long. This was pretty difficult, and I owe a big thanks to my friend Eery who helped me out a lot with suggestions and ideas in the final day.
2. Step told me last time that I should louderize my track with a compressor and trim the boring intro. Done! I was also inspired by the vibrato on his track Sky's the Limit, which you can hear throughout the track. (Incidentally that track was itself inspired by one of my tracks, making a nice loop of inspiration ;-))
3. Perhaps it was the subconscious fact that I knew that skyewintrest was going to be judging my track, but I spent a lot of time working on transitions, and I'd say that this has some of the best transitions I've ever written. I'm particularly happy with 1:20 and 3:30.
4. Mixing this was REALLY hard. Normally people put plonks on the high registers and melody a little lower down, but I did this song in reverse. Pretty much every track has filters to trim off clashing frequencies. It's pretty crazy.
5. My total time in Ableton over the last 2 weeks was 35 hours...!!!!! However a lot of that time was spent in other failed ideas. (My NGADM folder has 8 failed attempts at a song before this one was born).
6. This track was born in a compo where I only had an hour to write a track. If you're curious how the track developed, here is the old version: http://compo.thasauce.net/files/johnfn_-_free_to_groove(OHC253).mp3
7. This and my last song were both pretty heavy electronica. If I can get into the next round (which I highly doubt), I'm going to do my best to totally switch it up.

Phew, that was a lot of stuff. Feeling talky for some reason. Props to you if you read all that :D

inside the machine [NGADM2]

NGADM Finals!

The title is referring to a metaphorical battle, not a literal one. The fight against insecurity and complacency.

4.5 days, 40 hours, 5 cups of coffee, 3 Ableton crashes, 900 patterns (but most of them are drum slices - probably something closer to 200 unique patterns), and an uncountable amount of automation.

Notes

0. Before even bothering to read this, go check out Steampianist's stuff. It will bowl you over.
1. Welp, it's the last round. I was listening to the final round pieces from last NGADM and I was like "dang, these are amazing," and I wanted to do something special because it's the final round. So I took my electronica ideas from before and added EVEN MORE NOTES. Then I made everything explode. Then I automated literally every parameter of everything. 
2. I am so pleased with this song. I would call it my favorite, and I'm so glad that I was able to enjoy this piece in particular (since it's a contest piece and all) so much. For a long time I thought it was only okay, but I kept pushing on it and pushing on it. 
3. 2:37 is probably my best melody. 
4. I came up with that melody at 2AM, like 4 hours before the deadline, and it made the whole song fall together. Why can't this sort of thing happen earlier?!?
5. All sounds synthesized by me in the second half. In the first half I'm just using some stock famitracker waveforms. :) 
6. If you're hearing random white noise, that's because I'm using the demo version of dblue glitch. LOL. I'm poor. ;.;
7. By day 4 this song was invading my dreams. 
8. I've noticed a really curious pattern in my NGADM songs: the longer I've spent working on them, the shorter they are. This pattern is 100% accurate. I spent the least time on the traveller and the most time on this song. 
9. I probably spent more time on 3:21 - 3:33 than any other part in the song. Getting those glitches to work correctly was really difficult. 
10. If someone woulda told me that I would make it all the way to the finals when I first started NGADM, I would have laughed at them. I wasn't even sure if I would make auditions.
11. WHEN ARE YOU MODS GONNA ADD THAT CHIPTUNE SECTION JESUS
12. One final thank you to the judges for making this awesome event happen. Judges, if you are ever in San Francisco, PM me and I'll buy you a beer. Or coffee or whatever. (I'm starting to realize that burying this in a tl;dr wall of text is probably not the best idea.)
I'm so happy to be done. Also so tired.

---

P.S. One last story, and then I'll stop talking. Promise.

When I was working on my NGADM2 piece "inside the machine" my 10 year old cousin was in the same house and wanted to know what I was working on. I told here I was writing a song, so she naturally wanted to listen to it. But I was like "pff she won't like this crazy electronic thing", so I played her another song I wrote called Market Town which is nice happy orchestral.
But she wasn't having any of it because she knew that wasn't the song I was working on. So I played her the actual song, still not expecting her to like it at all. She was quiet when she listened to it, and when it was over she was like "wow, this is like crazy alien music!" She spent the rest of the night making weird alien noises.


the fight [ngadm6]

you win! 

well done.

----------------------

NOTES

0. I don't know why I'm stuck on chiptune. I think it's because it's pretty straightforward in terms of sound design, so it lets me focus on the stuff I care more about (arrangement, melody, production to a lesser degree). It's also because I've been focusing on FM synthesis recently, which tends to go very easily with chippy sounds. 
1. I was always impressed by how energetic Waterflame's songs were, so I wanted to write a song with an equal amount of energy. (himhim2340, this is for you ;-)) 
2. I think I really managed to push my production forward in terms of energy levels and good stuff like that. I've never written something so upbeat before. I never really cared to ace production, I always viewed it as a means to an end (so that people could understand the melodies etc.) This is because I believe that no one cares to listen to a song just because it's well produced. 
3. I'm still using 99.9% FM synthesis.
4. Gonna just keep pushing at 9bit until it becomes 10bit.
5. Some of the better buildups I've done. Like that one at 3:10, I like it a lot. I'm actually using a reversed guitar sample in there, it makes it sound much more rich and interesting. (tricks of the trade ;o) 

you win!

My entry for the artwork inspired music contest (AIM)!

Artwork: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/antiskill/cyberpunk-city

I was imagining flying through the city on a hoverboard or something, with all the vibrant colors passing you by. Exploring, with so many possibilities ahead of you.

-----------------

Notes

1. I consider this my best song in every aspect. (I finally outdid my NGADM pieces! yay)
2. Including live acoustic guitar. (Hey, it's acoustic guitar month, I'm not gonna let some contest stop me from doing acoustic guitar in all my songs)
3. It's also drum month and I worked extra hard on those. There's even a drum breakdown :D
4. It was late one night and I usually never start songs at night because I'm too tired to come up with anything good... but then I was playing the piano and came up with the (first) main theme and loved it. (I NEVER write the main theme first, so this happening was a huge surprise.) Then I took the progression, soloed over it in like 5 different instruments, and then went to sleep. Over the next couple of days I continued to add small ideas and stitch the whole thing together with transitions, etc.
5. I really like how the themes evolve throughout the song. There's the really obvious main theme, but then the secondary theme (outro) sort of spontaneously arose when I was writing a countermelody at 3:30. I ended up liking the idea so much that i scrapped my old ideas for an ending that would have recapped the main theme and instead left on the new theme, which gives the piece a really nice expansive ending (imo) 
6. 90% of my time was spent doing melodies, and I think they're really good! if I do another AIM piece, I might do a more sound design focused piece.

Enjoy!

Soar

A little thing I doodled today. That melody is so good I'm pretty sure I must have stolen it from somewhere. I hope not!

groove machine

hmm so I've always wanted to write a post rock song with electro influence and I guess I did it! (or is it an electro song with post rock influence???)

anyway i ended up liking this one quite a bit. it took me a freaking long time to mix the song properly and particularly to get the climax bit right, i just kinda wanted to fill it with noise but also keep it mixed reasonably, which ended up being really hard. i'm not even totally sure how successful the climax is but meh i like it so oh well.

the seas will forget your name [2 hour compo postcompo version]

what? NGADM is coming up? well i guess i should start writing good music then...

denial [postohc version]

If you're finding this through Geometry Dash and like it, follow me! I have a bunch of good music coming out soon. :) 

----

this is a pretty happy song i think. i mean, it's sad, but it's also happy. :P 

also, it has better drums than my last tracks... and i got a pickup for my acoustic so i used that too... yeah!

lots of hiatus influence, check out hiatusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/

i can see you now

* Bring all your friends to the chiptune dance club! :D 
* Meet cute girlchips! :) 
* Get high on saw waves! :| 
* Be on the lookout for dangerous solos! :/

Light Up

Up In Flames

I'm doing a new style of melody writing where I simply sit and stare at the computer until a good melody occurs to me. This is the first song that I've written in that style. I would occasionally do this in the past and some of my favorite melodies came out of doing that (love theme for robots in space comes to mind).

I also spent a long time getting dat beat to be just right. I think I did a pretty good job on it. I started thinking of people like Skullbeatz where 90% of the interest of the song would just be the DANK BEAT. I hate to admit it but for the longest time I would just chop up premade drum loop samples and that would be my beat.

I wrote this one on headphones with no keyboard (both different than normal) so it might be a lil different. I kinda forgot how the bass response on these things is supposed to be so I'm not sure if I got that right in the song...

Inspired by https://soundcloud.com/malmen-1/, particularly https://soundcloud.com/malmen-1/malmen-heartbleed. I admit, the first 30 min or so of making this song I would just listen to Heartbleed every time I didn't know what to do for inspiration. As ridiculous as this sounds - like I just copied him or something - I would actually highly recommend it! First, my song doesn't really sound the same as his at all. It took on a life of its own. But second, having a reference of what someone way better than me would do was really helpful for pushing my own track a little further.

Malmen is phenomenal btw. And his mixing is out of this world!!! How does he do it?!?

P.S. Also the irony is that I set the BPM to this song to be the highest BPM I've ever done a song at (180) in order to make myself do some sort of dnb thing, but then I subconsciously made it go in halftime, so it's actually one of the slowest songs I've ever done... :D

P.P.S Wow thanks to all you Soundcloud spambots for taking such an interest to my song! I'm kidding, of course. Soundcloud really sucks. -_- 


Time Slows Down

Here's one of the big awesome projects I was working on - at last!
It's a remix of the song Infinity (which is an AWESOME song, by the way, check it out) written for the album "The Ecstasy of Life" by DDRKirby(ISQ) which just came out today!

The album (along with the download for this song) can be found here:
http://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/the-ecstasy-of-life

This is actually the first remix I've ever done, so that was interesting. Most of the melodic content is mine, and even some of the progressions are my own. I use some of the original track as a baseline to work on top of, but at points I diverge wildly, so hopefully it comes off as somewhat cohesive. There's actually only one point where I call out the main melody of the original. See if you can guess where...

Anyway, I kinda pulled out all the "johnfn"y stops for this one, since they were kinda in line with the style of his music. I don't really plan on writing such a big explosive chiptune song like this again (though I have been known to be wrong before). Where to go from here, I wonder...


Infinity (johnfn's +1 remix)

some chill song about drinking soda pop at the beach

also this is an updated version of the track i previously uploaded, so if you heard that one, you should maybe listen to this one, it's better. 

(editor's note: i actually hate soda pop i dont know why that was the inspiration for this song)

Beach Soda Pop

eating ice cream with a cute girl

i was working on this for so freaking long but i promised i would finish it by christmas so here you go!

charge

this is like if you could zoom in on the last 30 seconds of your life before you fade away into the darkness and slow that down and expand it into 4 minutes. where would your thoughts turn to..?

...

...

...

-------------------

done for Newgrounds' Art Inspired Music contest. Art is http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/joaovaz/sinking-deep

drowning

// G L I T C H // G L 1 T C H // 6 L I T C H // G L I T < H // G L I T C H // G L 1 T C H // 6 L I T C H // G L I T < H // G 1 T T C H // G L I T C H // G L I T C H // G L I T < H // G L I T C H // GGL 1 T C H // 6 L I T C H // G L I T < H // G L I T C H // G L 1 T C H // G̴ L̶ I̷ T̸ C̶ H̷ H̷ H̷

REALITY GLITCH AUTOMATON

ＡＦＴＥＲ ＴＨＥ ＲＡＩＮ

@ethansight & @johnfn
NGADM 2017 ROUND 1
vs Kor-Rune

------------------------------

"It was quite the pleasure finally working with jonfn! We definitly have different ways of approaching workflow but I am really happy with how it turned out. We finished this piece about a week or so early and spent the next few days finalizing the mix!"

~ethansight

"ethansight is almost right, but we actually finished the piece before we even started working on it"

~johnfn

After The Rain

ＡＤＶＥＮＴＵＲＥ
@johnfn & @ethansight
NGADM 2017 ROUND 1
vs xtrullor & helixix

----------------------------------

"we both definitely played to our strengths - i added all the reverb, and ethansight spent 2 weeks painting the album art" - johnfn

-------------------

EVERYONE LIKING THIS SONG SHOULD GO FOLLOW @ethansight HE DID MOST OF THIS, NOT ME =P

Sunrise Adventure

ＭＹ ＦＩＲＥＦＬＹ
johnfn & ethansight ft. McGorilla42
NGADM ROUND 3
vs etherealwinds

------

"we took it easy this time, i think we only worked on the track combined for a total of around 5 seconds" - johnfn

My Firefly

❤

co-author @ethansight
vocals @etherealwinds

C'mon Girl

Beachside WIth You

Spiritual successor to an older song I wrote called "Sad Person Anthem." I just started singing the ba ba melody and then I ended up making a song around it.

Happy Person Anthem

Written for a contest, which really pushed me to work hard!

This is getting a lot of visitors. Where are you guys coming from? :) 

johnfn

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