VELAS

This is one of the oldest things I've done on FL Studio but I still think it's one of the most presentable. I came up with the first basic ideas of this song somewhere back in 2009 when I was 14-15, and this particular file dates from 2013 (since I downloaded from a SoundCloud account I used to have I don't have the exact date this was made). I don't even remember what version of FL I used for this since it was made with a laptop that broke ages ago.

Originally I wrote it with an acoustic guitar but since I didn't have a way to record it and already had ideas for the overall arrangement I programmed everything using FL. All of the plugins are native FL Studio plugins (I didn't even knew you could use third party VSTs on FL back then), so it's no wonder it sounds so "amateur" and inorganic (specially the acoustic guitar). It's still one of the longest things I've had because back then I actually had patience to try and set up a full song lol

I really like some of the ideas on this file and have plans to recycle some of them in a new arrangement. I have plans for a vaguely proggy folk album so I envision it with more organic-sounding instrumentation like a Rhodes piano instead of the music box thingy, I'm definitely changing the distorted guitars on the chorus for something that fit the style better (like a mellotron or a cello sound) and of course removing that ridiculous breakdown-ish part because it sounds awful lol. I kinda like the choral parts, I might turn them into something less ridiculous and over the top using my actual voice once I do it for real.

This song has lyrics. I wrote two pieces of lyrics back in 2009, first about a girl I liked and later about getting rejected by her. I intended the song to be like a 13-minute long epic with the two parts, with the first being this power ballad-ey part for the more straight-forward love song thing and then things getting really heavy for the second part about getting dumped, with the stupid breakdown acting as a bridge between both. It's a pretty ridiculous idea that I'd definitely wouldn't do for real nowadays, specially considering I didn't write anything else and intended the song to be the same Dm-Bb-C chord progression over and over!

Said girl died tragically in a nightclub fire that happened where I live in 2013. I actually really like the lyrics for the first part because of how innocent and honest they are and always intended to record the song as a tribute to her. 

That art was made using a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator with "three lit candles photograph" as input. This doesn't look like a photograph and there are more than three candles but the art looks nice so I kept it. It has candles because the song name "Velas" means "Candles" in portuguese.

Velas (2013)

DANCE

This file is from March 2018. The first part is actually a riff from a song I was writing back then. I dunno exactly what I did, but accidentally I pasted the midi score over itself on the piano roll, creating that trancey rolling thing, which  after a few tweaks I legit liked. Since I wasn't in the mood to keep writing I went full overboard with the joke and ran the same trance-ish midi score into some synth and added those tacky kicks under it lol.

The Am-C-Em-D riff is one of my favorite things I've ever composed as simple as it is. It's part of a song called "Pétalas" which is set to be part of the proggy folk album. I'm not using the trance part anywhere else though lol. "Pétalas" is portuguese for "Petals".

Músicas Para Ouvir Comendo Milho

Dance (March 2018)

[REDACTED] - WINDCHIMES HANGING FROM THE CEILING  This is from May 2018. I don't know exactly how this   came to be, but for some odd reason I made a   different instrument track for every piano pitch and   made the two patterns using the sequencer instead of   the piano roll.  I don't think this sound really bad, but I don't know   what to do with the ideas so I don't know if I'll   ever touch them again.  The name I actually took away from the file was   Andrew Huang. I don't know why I put that because it   doesn't sound absolutely like anything I ever heard   by him? I didn't want to disgrace his name   associating it with mine lol I guess you don't really   hang windchimes from your ceilling either? Unless   it's an outside space it doesn't make much sense  That art was made using a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI   generator with "windchimes hanging by the window"   (which is not the same exact title lol) as input.

[REDACTED] - Windchimes Hanging From The Ceiling (May 2018)

[REDACTED] IS RIPPING ME OFF

This is from June 2018. No one is ripping me off. It's an inside joke with a friend after he made a comment that his band Frecuencia Numeral (which is a indie rock band that doesn't sound absolutely nothing like this) was writing a song in 7/8 (and If I'm hearing correct this one is in 7/4) and they were ripping me off. If anything, I'm actually the one ripping someone off as that synth pattern is on Genesis' "Supper's Ready" during the organ solo.

That awful drum intro aside, I think some ideas here are somewhat decent. The basslines are pretty neat, and while I think the drum grooves need some working on to make them more human-like they're pretty catchy. I like the stolen synth lead too. That was the first time I tried a third-party plugin, that Ample Studio's Precision
Bass that used to have a lite version on their page. A shoutout to Kmac2021 for bringing it to my attention thanks to the GuitarSoles podcast he was in.

That art was made using a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image generator with "music | soundwaves" as the input. I really like that art, is the best I got so far.

[REDACTED] Is Ripping Me Off (June 2018)

PROGZÃO

This is from June 2018. I think it started developing from that acoustic guitar riff (which might be the first time I used Ample Sound's AGM2) and I gradually started to add more stuff on top. That drum sound sounds very 70's prog so I went for a very energetic but not quite metal style for the drum parts. That farty synth lead sounds pretty bad in hindsight lol. I really like the bass line and the drums. The loud electric guitar works within the composition but i'm not sure of what I'd do with it since it sounds too modern compared to the rest of the composition.

Those are some pretty decent ideas IMO. I'd like to keep working on this but never got the hang on what to do with it.

Progzão doesn't really mean anything, it's like saying "[a] big prog [song]".

The art was made using VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator. Originally I had "machinery | 1930s" as an input and the image that came out of it was of trains and hydraulic machines which I intended to use for "Untitled" but the train aesthetic made me think of Emerson Lake and Palmer and so I chose it for "Progzão" instead. I used this picture as the initial picture for another VQGAN+CLIP round, with "Machinery | 1930s | progressive rock | in the style of Roger Dean" as the input. It came out looking like a very abstract, vaguely Roger Dean-esque cityscape art which could pass as a album cover for some obscure 70s prog band lol.

Músicas Para Ouvir Comendo Milho Vol. 1

Progzão (June 2018)

VOCÊ ME ACERTOU COM UM VIOLÃO

This is from March 2019. Or might not be, I have a large number of files dating March 29th 2019, I think I rendered a bunch of FL projects to mp3 all on that date to show to a friend so they might have be from before that.

This is a transcription of an acoustic guitar riff I wrote sometime ago. My acoustic guitar had only the A, G and B strings back then lol. This riff later on became part of a song called "Pretéritos" (Pretérito means "Pasts" as in "Past Tense" in portuguese, and there are multiple past tense verb forms in portuguese) which I'm still working on at the time of posting this.

The art was generated with a VQGAN+CLIP AI text-to-image generator with "a man playing acoustic guitar under a tree | painting" as the input. The title of the song means 'You hit me with an (acoustic) guitar" in portuguese and it is a quote from the Puss in Boots movie lol

Você Me Acertou Com Um Violão (March 2019)

QRD

This is from March 2019. Or might not be, I have a large number of files dating March 29th 2019, I think I rendered a bunch of FL projects to mp3 all on that date to show to a friend so they might have be from before that.

I really like (most of) this. It alternates bet 5/8 and 6/8. The bass and drumlines are pretty catchy for something in an odd-time signature like that. It's definitely and idea that I'd like to expand further in a serious composition. The djent stuff in the end is awful and I'm definitely not keeping it.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator with "QRD giant stone letters" as the input. There's a stone that looks like a fish with a somewhat feminine face for some reason.

Qrd (March 2019)

CÓDIGO MORSA

This is from December 2019. The title is a deliberate mispelling of "Código Morse" (which means "Morse Code" in portuguese"). The rhythm is "XYZ" in morse code (do I need to state where the idea is from?). With a 16th note for the dots and 8th note for dashes, this ended up in 19/16 time signature, which is really weird and completely outside of the time signatures I previously used.

The riff is pretty neat, sounds a lot like something Rush would have made during the A Farewell to Kings-Moving Pictures era (or alternatively like a BTBAM riff). I used the bass register of MusicLab's RealEight for the bass guitar part, which i'm not really found of, and I got completely lazy at the end and just kept going higher and higher with it because I couldn't think of anything else for a bassline. I'm not a fan of that, but otherwise this is a great idea. I'd love to use that in a serious composition.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator with "Morse Code" as the input.

Código Morsa (December 2019)

MÚSICA SOBRE ISOLAMENTO EM LÁ LÍDIO

This is from December 2019. It's a transcription of something I wrote with my guitar. When I started getting into music theory I started doing those challenges to write using certain scales or time signatures and this is an example of it, featuring a Lydian scale progression.

I don't know why I wasn't using Ample Sound's guitar VSTs because they sound much better than this Direct Wave library, which is like a default sample pack that comes with FL. I like the composition idea though. I don't even know how those chords are called, i think that's Amaj7 (with an Eb instead of the high C#) and C#7sus. I wasn't happy with most of my chord progressions at the time because they were pretty bland but this is pretty cool. I want to use that for a serious composition.

The image was made with an VQGAN+CLIP AI text-to-image generator with "an isolated island" as the input. The title means "Song about Isolation in A Lydian" because I was riffing some lyrical ideas about feeling isolated (I don't even remember those though) when I made that.

Música Sobre Isolamento Em Lá Lídio (December 2019)

SHITPOST

This is from December 2019. The title is self-explanatory.

This also is my clean voice reveal! Though my vocals are autotuned pretty heavily, but I din't set it quite right and i'm singing so damn out of tune the autotune is correcting to notes outside the scale. There's also some incoherent screaming and pretty obscene lyrics (which are a Filthy Frank reference). That is definitely not an idea that I'd work on more.

That art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator with "a sports car | neoclassical painting" as the input.

Shitposting (December 2019)

NÃO SEI O NOME AINDA

THis is from December 2019, but I found it in a deep dive through my FL projects folders. This is a very short idea, but I liked it way more above other shorter-lenght one-idea projects.

Pretty chill guitar riff. There is some odd timing issues on it which I'd have to adjust manually. The riff has a bit of a weird unevenness to it.

The art was made with a VQGAN+AI text-to-image AI generator with "the beach and the sea | painting | people:0". This riff kinda gives me a bluesy, chilling at the beach vibe, like Ben Harper or something. There some painting related imagery (papers, pencils, color palettes) that bled into the image. The title means "I don't know its name yet" in portuguese.

Não Sei O Nome Ainda (December 2019)

ÓDIO 

This is from December 2019, but I only found it after a deep dive through my FL projects folder in October 2021.

The guitar processing (Hardcore again lol) makes the guitars sound more like synths, and this sounds vaguely like a minor-key version of a 80s racing videogame soundtrack(which is why I chose that art) with the stop and start drums and stuff. Not a bad idea, I might use it in a serious composition one day.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI with "cars in a highway | unreal engine | retro racing videogame | people:0" as the input. I dunno why I named this "Ódio" (which means "Hate" in portuguese) tbh. Doesn't sound that hateful.

Ódio (December 2019)

EXATAMENTE IGUAL

This is from January 2020. It's a folksy acoustic guitar idea I come up with my guitar (which was missing most strings). 

The title means "exactly the same" in portuguese. Even though I don't think it's a bad idea, I felt like all of my compositions were starting to sound the same around this time. This isn't exactly how I composed the bit (I guess I didn't remember the idea well when I was transposing it to a piano midi). Those open strings sound really muddy. It's still an idea that I want to work on, but most likely will sound a bit different.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP AI text-to-image generator with "two identical spheres next to each other in a white background | unreal engine | unreal engine logo:0" as the input. They aren't exactly equal though.

Exatamente Igual (January 2020)

PROG FELIZ

This is from January 2020. As the name indicates (it means "happy prog" in portuguese) it's a happy prog-type song. There's a bit of a Rush influence on it.

I like most of this. That guitar/synth unison is pretty neat, and I dig the bass guitar work during the second part. The drums are definitely overplaying, and due to the bad mixing you can't hear them very well. The synth solo is pretty tacky, I was playing it with my (QWERTY) keyboard and there are lot of sour notes (specially the ending, that's a Kmac's "When you do a mistake with a delay pedal" type blunder), and i'm not a keyboardist either, I was just smashing keys randomly to come up with something that fit within the composition. The guitar during the second part is very lazy too. Most of it is pretty workable, with some adjustments this could actually become a serious composition.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI with "a landscape | in the style of Roger Dean" as the input (Roger Dean is the visual artist known for designing album covers for Yes and Asia, among others). I really like this image, the AI nailed his style (the pointy cliffs and all!), it's a very "prog rock album cover" type of image.

Prog Feliz (January 2020)

TUBAROMBA

This is from January 2020. It's one of my most rhythmically compled pieces to date, and also one of my favorites. I changed the time division of the projects to have 5 steps for beat instead of 4, so in practice this whole song is build from quintuplets in 4/4 (more on that later!).

This organ plugin I was using here is called Adam Monroe Music Rotary Organ 2.0. I never could do much with this VST because it was insanely heavy, took forever to load and it took a lot of resources when it came to RAM and processing, but it's the main player of the composition. The first part is just this big build up with quintuplet organ lead playing over a staccato drum and bass, with a dramatic mellotron over it. That breakdown in the middle is extremely random, I don't know what I was trying to do with it, but it's most likely an idea that I'd ditch if I tried using this in a serious composition.

The second part features this rhythmic idea of alternating 4 rows of 5 notes and then 5 rows of 4 notes on the organ, which also has a steady 4/4 pulse played on the lower register (although it plays 5 during one measure). The guitars and bass are following that same staccato pattern of the first part.The drums have some interesting stuff on it, including bits of 5 over 4 polyrhythm (the crashes are playing in 5 over kicks and snares in 4), and one part where the snare changes from 4 to 5 which I'm not really sure on how to explain. These are great ideas that I really want to use in a serious composition and I'm pretty happy with, with certain tweaks it could definitely sound way better.

The art was made with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image with "sharks swimming in the water | painting" as the input. The title came from how Flintheart GlomGold's (or Pão Duro McMoney, how we call him here) fake son (Sharkbomb in the original) in the brazilian dub of Ducktales 2017. It's a pretty ridiculous sounding name.

Tubaromba (January 2020)

MÚSICA BONITA EM 5/4

This is from December 2019, but I found this project after taking a deep dive into my FL projects folder, in October 2021. This started from a challenge to write something in an irregular, odd-time signature and still sound very beautiful and evocative ("música bonita" means "pretty song" in portuguese). 

I think it makes more sense seeing this as 5/8. I wasn't really sure of what I wanted to do with the arrangement but I was just adding more and more instruments over the top in a "Bolero Effect" while there isn't much movement going on compositionally. I really like some of the melodic ideas on this one, but I felt like this sounds fairly lazy. There's potential for doing a more creative build-up using some of these melodic ideas without things just sounding wooden. The fact that the strings are all playing roughly the same lick over and over in different octaves isn't doing favors to the composition;

The art was generated with a VQGAN+CLIP text-to-image AI generator with "countryside landscape | painting | people:0" (or -1, I dunno, I wanted the image to not have any human because human figures generated with the AI creep the hell out of me and I effectively avoid entries that might cause them). Nice loooking art, but again there's this collage look to the art, as if it's made out of different paintings or something.

Música Bonita Em 5 Por 4 (December 2019)

FOLLOW ME ON YT, I GAVE UP ON SC

https://youtube.com/channel/UCCyJg9U4av_o8pxVsiojaoA

I'm not using Soundcloud anymore because it's stupid and they keep giving me an "our bots think you're a robot" message without giving me any opportunity to verify my account. I can't log in on my computer anymore and that's where all my stuff is. There's not much reason for me to keep using the mobile app so I'm quitting it. Thanks for everyone who took their times to listen to my shitty music and give me positive feedback. If you still want to laugh at my bad stuff check out my YouTube account I have linked on my profile.

This song was an attempt at doing a lofi remix of a song I made once.

I'm quitting SoundCloud

FOLLOW ME ON YT, I GAVE UP ON SC

I'm not using Soundcloud anymore because it's stupid and they keep giving me an "our bots think you're a robot" message without giving me any opportunity to verify my account. I can't log in on my computer anymore and that's where all my stuff is. There's not much reason for me to keep using the mobile app so I'm quitting it. Thanks for everyone who took their times to listen to my shitty music and give me positive feedback. If you still want to laugh at my bad stuff check out my YouTube account I have linked on my profile.

A talentless idiot who will never amount to anything in life. I like to mess around with FL and share my embarassment with the world. 99% of what I post isn't serious though. Unless indicated, everything is programmed with VSTs.

Zezinho Cambalhota

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