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Marcato

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Blog Entries posted by Marcato

  1. Marcato
    NO I am not music-dead!
     
    I am still working on music, believe it or not! I have been silent for just about 2 months now due to a combination of Schoolwerk and my next big orchestral piece; The Symphony of Travesty.
     
    So you know, I decided to take a break from intense dramatic orchestra and since I'm on vacation in palm springs I went ahead and whipped something up... something that I'm very proud of considering I used lower quality instruments than usual. o_O
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/1557-flame-dance-starlights-theme
     
    There you have it. Celtic!
     

     
    But Marcato, what's with the poll?
     
    What? I thought that was obvious...
     
    So I have been jumping around between a couple different genre's of music lately, and this celtic piece was a little more out of the ordinary for me. (Despite my absolute love for the violin.) The genre's I usually compose in are as follows...
     
    Cinematic Orchestral:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKZh1pI4q0M
     
    Piano + Orchestra Accompaniment
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRCW27_2dNY
     
    Pure Piano
    https://pony.fm/tracks/628-history-of-the-crystal-kingdom
     
    Those are the main ones.
     
    The other one is Symphonic Metal:
    https://pony.fm/tracks/204-one-thousand-years-ago-pre-live
     
    Basically, the poll exists because I want to know what you all want to hear. What sort of genre's do you prefer? What kind of music that I make do you prefer?
     
    Also, the first question is asking about celtic music. Do you all think I should make more celtic-style music? Fiddle, flute, guitar, etc?
     
    Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments, and answer the polls! Thanks all!
  2. Marcato
    Pretty much all of us know about the Princess Molestia blog on tumblr, and the drama that has ensued as of late. But for those who don't here's a recap.
     
    The Princess Molestia blog is an ask blog with images revolving around Princess Molestia (And Gamer Luna) who is a suggestive version of Celestia, as one can guess. This blog is/was extremely popular, apparently to the point children were seeing it.
     
    A "campaign" recently opened up called "Down With Molestia" targeted at taking down this blog. I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure they succeeded. Naturally drama ensued on all of this. People agreeing, people disagreeing, etc.
     
    Here is my opinion on the matter... (WARNING: WALL OF TEXT AHEAD. PREPARE TO READ.)
     

     
    I’ve got very mixed opinions about the whole thing.
     
    The DWM topic is extremely controversial, and I normal try to avoid things like this, but I think this hold significance that I’d like to provide my personal thoughts on.
     
    The Molestia blog is/was an odd twist on a character intended to be a role model, a mother figure. Celestia was a character written to appear as someone a child could relate their own parents with. As a result the blog could be taken in two different ways.

    As a make-fun or insult towards the original character.
    As an ironic twist to the original character as a joke.

     
    Is it safe to assume the latter? I think that’s quite easy to say. Bronies, collectively are often very friendly, accepting and respectful. (Although let’s not assume this is the case for all.) Basically what I’m trying to say is that the Molestia blog was not intended to be directly offensive to the actual character and her fans, moreso a gag or joke and twist to her name. She could practically be considered her own character.
     
    I think now’s a good time to re-iterate the phrase “Love and Tolerate.” Many of you are likely sick of it, and I will say that there comes a time when tolerating isn’t an option, but this isn’t one of them.
     
    The person on the receiving end of this Molestia hate/attacking is in fact still a human being, I wish for nobody to forget that. (And frankly they shouldn’t.) I don’t know about you, but when people attack or hate on something that’s essentially my creation or my work, I am directly affected and feel like I’m being insulted myself.
     
    This has been brought up before, but here’s the term I feel may be going on here. Bullying. I despise it with every fiber of my being. It is something I wish for nobody to experience, ever. (Despite that being impossible.) It made my life a living hell in middleschool. That said I feel the over-drama of all this Molestia stuff is far, far too extreme.
     
    Now let me cover my other perspective… the single concept of Molestia is overall, disconcerting and a complete inappropriate contrast to Celestia. If children are indeed seeing the blog and growing familiar with it, that is a definite problem. A terrible problem.
     
    I’m personally a disliker of R34 as a whole. (There I said it, I ain’t gonna sugar coat it.) From what I have seen of the Molestia blog, there is quite rarely (Correct me if I’m wrong) any actual R34. There is some highly questionable content, most certainly. Regardless I don’t consider it R34 until there’s a display or use of sexual parts.
     
    Fact is, I think the Molestia blog is being batted on way. Too. Much. The artist still has free will, despite whether or not you disagree with the concept. I even disagree with the concept myself, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to attack it and slaughter them. It’s their artwork, their content, they do as they will with it.
     
    Tell me, all those attacking Molestia. What about actual R34? You don’t want to attack that because it’s a bigger beast? Because it’s far less narrow and less likely for children to find? Thank God for that fact, but frankly if you’re going to attack Molestia (of all the NSFW blogs out there) then I find that extremely odd and self-righteous.
     
    My final opinion is this; Leave them alone, whether you dislike it or not. There’s obviously been action taken already. If you’re that uncomfortable with the blog and fear for children seeing it, express that concern respectfully, calmly and with care. Don’t assume the author is not caring towards who may see his blog. There’s only so much they can do themselves, especially using tumblr.
     
    Their best option would be to start it up on a site with much more control over it’s NSFW population and viewing.
     
    (The same post was made on my tumblr, in response to a question asked. Find it here: http://www.marcatosound.com/post/58517416091/you-support-down-with-molestia-care-to-discuss-or )
  3. Marcato
    Hello everypony!
     
    So lately I've been fairly productive (as some of you may know) and one of those things that recently popped up was an idea for an OC that came to mind. This OC is named Anaphora.
     

     
    Currently this character is Marcato's (My ponysona) older sister. While Marcato's skill lies in music and the like, Anaphora's skill lies in writing, vocabulary and creating stories. She's also a bit of a closet dweller, in that she rarely leaves her home. Only when she feels it necessary. She frequently begins writing novels and stories, but never gets them finished. In fact that's what she spends a large amount of her time doing.
     
    Oh right, and she comes a little short of "stereotypical nerd." She likes technology and modern advancement and industrialization a lot. Geez she's even got the glasses for it.
     
    Unfortunately sometimes she can get a bit down. She often has difficulty socially and hates herself for this, and frequently will be found contemplating what she's going to do the rest of her life. Her only remote job is working at a video store. She doesn't have a lot of drive, and that's partly her own fault because she's always so negative about herself, but Marcato frequently encourages her to take time to use her skill and develop it into something amazing.
     
    Nonetheless she still enjoys doing what she currently does, working at a video store and writing when she's got free time. Some day she hopes to become a true novelist.
     
     
    Thus, this adds another character to Marcato's family! (Or what I'd consider his family anyways.)

    Okay, so maybe the filly in there isn't actually a real 'family member.' But she might as well be considering how much she follows Marcato around, and how much she depends on him.
     

     
    So that's the main portion of this blog entry... the other thing I wanted to share with you all was this. A preview of an upcoming song, a sequel to the song "Harmonize" that I recently finished and uploaded!
     

     
    Part two of what I call Celestia's Struggles, Travesty. The heart wrenching battle between siblings...
     
    Having completed Harmonize, which detailed Celestia and Luna's battle with Discord, I decided to immediately move onto another song I've had in mind for some time now, this being Travesty. You all should be able to guess what this song is about.
     
    https://soundcloud.com/silverdest/travesty-preview
     
    There's your preview, have a listen to the main theme of the song. (Before the action kicks in! )
     
    I'm not going to share much about this song, It's only just been started!
     
    P.S. If you want to hear the first song, you can find it here: http://mlpforums.com/topic/67286-marcato-sound-harmonize-celestia-and-luna-vs-discord/
  4. Marcato
    https://pony.fm/tracks/1089-foalhood-finding
     
    So this happened.
     
    Inspiration has been high lately for me on soooo many fronts and on soooo many levels! A rediculous amount of thought and positive attitude for music, animation, art and coding has arisen for some odd reason! This is likely a direct result of my enthusiasm and excitement over purchasing this bloody amazing thing right here. (Which is arriving in the mail today.)
     
    Anyways,
     
    This is a song I wrote for a flash animation I'm currently working. It is inspired by the concept of young fillies exploring a library and having fun doing so. (Canterlot has quite a large library after all!)
    With the idea of 'childhood' innocence and an upbeat happy tune I think I managed to capture the element quite well. I can't wait to finish the flash animation. I was originally not going to post this until I was done the animation but I changed my mind... because I just can't keep my music to myself.
     
    I can't begin to describe how happy I am with this piece! Recently I've been feeling down that I can't capture emotion, feeling and atmosphere in my pieces. Lots of doubts on my own music.
    I wrote three songs in the recent time (two of which are unreleased) that proved myself wrong, this being one of them.
     
    I hope you all enjoy this song as much as I do... It's likely the most 'fun' and 'upbeat' sounding piece I've ever written. (Perhaps only rivaled by Marcato.)
  5. Marcato
    So hi guys!......
     
    Yeah it has been a while hasn't it. I've been on quite a long silence compared to usual in terms of music. Why do you ask? Projects and projects and projects and projects. They have a habit of starting and never getting finished. However this one... this one managed to hold my attention long enough and I completed it.
     
    This song, is inspired by Celestia and Luna, and was written like their themes. The brighter (and arguably happier) first part, is Celestia's theme, while the darker (perhaps more determined) second part is Luna's theme.
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/879-coda-of-eternal-eventide
     
    I hope you all enjoy this song, I know I love it dearly... it's been lying around a while, and I only now gave it the glory it deserved.
  7. Marcato
    Hey everyone!
     
    As very few of you probably know, I am actually a big writer. I love doing a lot of writing about fantasy sorts of stories, and have had a lot of ideas inspired by my two favorite authors. (Tolkein who wrote Lord of the Rings, and C.S. Lewis who wrote Narnia.) One thing that always amazed me about their stories, is that they created entire worlds. They made up history, locations, history for said locations, and even more beyond that. Sometimes even entire languages. This has always been a mind-blowing concept for me, and as of last summer I began researching it.
     
    Since last summer I began work on a novel series labeled "The Ytrialum Records"
     
    This series was inspired by Tolkein and C.S. Lewis (and to some extent various anime/manga) and revolved around a world I created called "Ytrialum" (pronounced it-try-uh-lum) I slowly began work on this world's history and how it worked, including the creation of a system of magic, and a basic history and thesis on where the world came from and how it's creation went about. (And faintly delving into a much deeper concept I'll expand on in a moment.)
     
    This evolved into the first novel, called The Ytrialum Records: Keepers. (Classic fantasy novel name as I discovered after I finished it, noticing three other books in my school library with the name "keepers") I tried sending it to one publisher, who rejected it. Fair enough. I'm an amateur author and I doubted my book or books would ever reach bookshelves anyways.
     
    However my true talent I think lies in my creation of ideas, concepts, and yes, worlds.
     
    The Ytrialum world is very vast, and although the map admittedly isn't very big, the other features of the world that I have developed (and some not listed on the visible map.) make up it's complexity.
     
    Recently, I began to develop an idea for the creator of the world. (Think of him sort of like God, Aslan, something along those lines.) A concept came to mind when I made plans for the final book. This concept evolved into something larger when I wrote a short-story, involving a conversation between the main enemy of Keepers, and the creator of Ytrialum, titled "The Tyrant and the Angel."
     
    This concept, was as follows. The creator of Ytrialum is not God, however he could have gained his powers because of a previous life before he created Ytrialum. It's pretty far fetch'd, but I personally am finding it great fun to work on it. As this has developed I discovered something...
     
    In order for the creator of Ytrialum to have a prior back story, there must be another world that he lived on himself. This world, has earned itself the name of Bylitta. (by-lee-tuh)
     
    I only recently began work on this, and what I'm going to be doing over the next couple blog entries is post my progress as I create a new world (almost) from scratch. This world will be different than the first one. Big time.
     
    I know most of you people aren't that interested in reading a 16 year old highschool students ramblings of his concept and ideas, but I figure some people may be interested in it. If you guys like Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth I think you may find this interesting.
     
    I'll also be drawing some pictures and concept art for a few things as well, so I'll be posting those with it when they come available.
     
    So with that, I shall begin writing and story-boarding for this new world.
     
    Here's a list of how I'll likely split the blog.
    Entry One: System of Nature & World Itself - What is the norm? (This'll be large)
    => How fantasy driven is it?
    => Does it involve magic?
    => Does it involve mythological/made up creatures?
    => How was the world created?
    Entry Two: Geography & Time Periods - Location, advancement, etc.
    => What sort of locations does the world involve?
    ===> Natural geography?
    ===> Settlements and cities?
    => Time Period?
    ===> Is the world locked in an eternal time period? (E.g. Like Middle Earth)
    ===> What Time Period?
    Entry Three: Races, Civilizations and Culture(s) - How do people live?
    => Are there different kinds of people?
    ===> What differences?
    => Civilizations?
    ===> Who gets along with who?
    ===> How are they different from each other?
    => Culture?
    ===> Clothing?
    ===> Buildings and architecture?
    ===> Preferences?
    ===> Religion?
    ===> Language?
    Entry Four: History
    => BUCKING HISTORY
    Entry Five: Wrap Up

    So there you have it. Big plans.
    I'll be going over this stuff for a little while before posting it online. Brainstorming and such will be frequent.
     
    I'd appreciate it if you guys could leave opinions to let me know if this even interests any of you.
     
    See you all soon! (Or not so soon!)
  8. Marcato
    Hello MLP Forums!
     
    So, in celebration of Feld0's birthday, I'm doing something very special this weekend. Some of you may remember way back in October when I composed Feld0's theme as part of a group of themes I composed for some of the MLP Forums staff.
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/124-feld0s-theme
     
    This was months ago, and I have significantly improved since then. During this time, Feld0's theme has still been one of the tunes I am most proud of. Why do you ask? The main theme is catchy, fun, and adventurous. I thought it turned out pretty good for its time. In fact, so much so, that I still find myself randomly playing it at other times on the piano.
     
    I've decided, that it's time this theme got a make-over. No, more than a make-over. A complete rewrite and remaster.
     
    By this, I mean I'm going to fully orchestrate this piece with drums, full brass sections and mastered strings sections. Think something a little more like this preview I posted recently...
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/690-the-world-of-equestria-prev
     
    And this, I'm doing all in the course of a single weekend. That's right, from start to finish. I'm going to rewrite this song from a blank file, using the same themes and get it all done within about 48 hours time.
     
    But that's not all. I'm going to be livestreaming the entire weekend of music. I'm going to spend all that time on the livestream working on the song, with only breaks for food and maybe to do something important. Otherwise, very long livestreaming and music hours!
     
    The livestream will start May 3rd at 7:00 PM (PST) and end May 5th at 9:00 PM (PST)
     
    The livestream can be found at this link here. It is open to all and I encourage everyone to come listen as I re-make Feld0's theme to match the quality of work I'm doing now a days.
     
    If I finish early I will continue the stream by working on other music, and possibly playing live music on piano and/or violin!
     
    So everyone make sure you tune in! It's going to be a very musical weekend!
  9. Marcato

    So... what next?

    By Marcato,

    Alright guys, so I really want to confirm something here. People seem to really like my piano pieces, and they're really easy to make, while I feel that my more orchestral-ish works don't carry as much interest.
     
    So I want to hear from you guys,
     
    What do you want to hear next? Would you like to hear another "History of X" piece, like this one?
    https://pony.fm/tracks/628-history-of-the-crystal-kingdom
     
    Or would you rather get another orchestral piece like this one here?
    https://pony.fm/tracks/339-marcato
     
     
    (Keep in mind though, there is a commission that needs doing before I finish a new song like this. )
  10. Marcato
    So guys! Wanna know what *I've* been working on these last couple days? Yes. Couple. As in I wrote this in just three days, something I'm still trying to recover from. @~@
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/628-history-of-the-crystal-kingdom
     
    This entire song was largely experimental, and originated from a commission I was working on. However both me and the commissioner felt it wasn't suiting the aim, so I scratched it and adjusted it a little and continued it on anyways. I was enjoying myself as I wrote it so much that I wrote all four minutes of it in three days. I was spending a *lot* of time on this thing.
    Anyways, yes, it's yet another piano piece! This one however was written with the history of the Crystal Empire in mind. I imagine this almost being a story. The first dramatic part, is the Crystal Empire's fall and the coming of Sombra. The second part represents the Crystal Kingdom being hidden. The third part represents the kingdom returning, and the Mane 6 (namely Twilight and Spike) saving the kingdom along with Shining Armor and Cadence.
    Either way I hope you all enjoy this unique little(ish) piece I whipped up, I know I'm pretty surprised with how it turned out. Better than I expected really. ^_^"
  11. Marcato
    So this morning I woke up thinking to myself. "I'm in the mood to do some singing..." Then I thought "What if I did some vocal covers of brony/pony songs for a change?" I quickly decided I wanted to do a vocal cover of my favorite brony song, Discord, by EuroBeat Brony. (No, not the living tombstone one, the original.)
     
    So, I spent all morning (and a portion of the afternoon) recording, practicing and mastering (sort of) this little thing I whipped up as my first vocal cover in history.
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/414-eurobeat-brony-discord-vocal-cover
     
    Yes, it's bad in comparison to the original. Yes, I am an ambitious tenor singer, and this was difficult. Yes, there's some parts that don't sound that great... But I'm dead tired. And this is a live and learn experience really. If I do another vocal cover I'll probably take a little more time.
     
    Either way I had fun making it and I like the results. I hope you'll like it too, even though it's not very good. x)
  12. Marcato
    So I was drawing a Touhou character I made up recently in class today since I had no work to do, and I realized "hey, this is the most detailed picture you've drawn in both shading and clothing. You should totally digitize this." So I was all "M'kay sure why not."
     
    Then I got scared and almost tried to make someone else do it.
     
    Then I decided to be brave and do it myself, and to my shock, the results were not as bad as I initially expected. They're still pretty bad, but not awful awful.
     
    So as I was working I thought, "hey, people are always doing streams for art, so why not see if I can stream art since my music streams never work." Thus, stream happened. And these are the results.
     
     
     
     
    YES THE FEET ARE AWFUL. YES THE HANDS ARE AWFUL. No I cannot draw hands or feet. Add those to the list of things I can't draw.
  13. Marcato
    So recently I've been a massive Touhou nut. Playing touhou, listening to touhou, watching crazy lifeless people like myself master Touhou beyond belief... etc!
     
    I became such a huge touhou fan I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could make a touhou style song..." and naturally, from the title alone "Fate of Life ~ A Heart of Blazing Fire" I created an entire fan game! Okay not really, it's a fictional fan game that I will detail on in another blog post.
     
    https://soundcloud.com/silverdest/fate-of-life-a-heart-of
     
    A basic backstory to this would be I made a fan character named Rottenae Kyurenji (Pronounced Row-ten-A Cure-en-jee) This character is the final boss of my fictional game, and that's all you need to know for now. The song is written as such to suit a final battle, at least in a touhou sense. Most touhou music is just epic and heroic in the final boss battles with the exception of
    of Touhou 11. 
    Anyways, this is quote a twist for my usual orchestral style music! I decided to try out video game style music, and I think it turned out pretty good. Better than I expected. It took more time exporting the song and it's previews than actually writing the piece come to think about it... either way it was fun making it, and fun trying it out in one of the Touhou games by replacing the BGM!
  14. Marcato
    So I did some testing today for cinematic quality of music. Basically making things sound more like a recorded orchestra, instead of a virtual set of instruments. Not quite perfect, but significantly better than the quality of Sombra's Stand way back when.
     

     
    Just thought I would share it with you guys.
  15. Marcato
    Hey all! I just completed a new (and rather unique) commission today! This commission is @@Electrobolt's theme!
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/344-electrobolts-theme
     
    This one is a little bit of a sidetrack compared to my usual orchestral and symphonic works, none the less it turned out pretty great, and although not perfectly accurate to old NES music standards it's still a good result in my opinion. This commission was paid for by Key Gear as he appears to be requesting themes of some RP characters...
     
    Next up is Vim's theme, a character owned by @@Key Gear and paid for by Key Gear as well! (Gee he sure does order a lot of music!)
  16. Marcato
    One thing I've always been dissapointed about in the MLP universe, is the lack of a Celtic parallel. I love the celtic nation, especially the music. (Oh course maybe I'm just a huge fan of violin) So I decided "hey, why not make a celtic-like piece?" I was in the mood, and began whipping something up.
     

    Played by the Ponyville Symphony Orchestra
     
    Lots of fun making this one. I called it marcato, because almost all the instruments are in the marcato playing style, meaning it's playing quick and accented. I like to consider myself accented and someone who tries to stand out, which is why I have the username Silver Marcato.
     
    Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed making it!
     
    Cheers~!
  18. Marcato
    Nightmares. They're awful things. They strike you in the night without a single bit of consideration for your mental state, and leave you terrified for what seems like an eternity after you wake up. You dare not to move. Not to breath. They make you fear your own room. That coat hanging from your closet becomes a monster, or some other being waiting to lash out at you. The first words that escape you are it was only a dream... it was only a dream... and it makes you wonder, how did I not realize it was a dream?
    The mind perceives everything in your dream as normal. No matter how out of the ordinary it may appear, you continue to think it's your reality.
     
    Dreams can last for as long as they like, no matter how long the night truly is, a dream can extend that time and leave you wishing everything would end.
     
    Nightmares captivate us. They refuse to let us go, and finally release us at the best or worst possible part. The nightmare never ends when you want it to. It ends when youve all but given up hope on ever escaping the living hell within your own mind. It ends right before death, right before you hit the ground after a long fall.
     
    Your heart beats like mad, and every bit of pain, emotional or physical is as strong as you expect it to be. This is why nightmares keep people, both young and old, awake at night, fearing what may happen should they dare to shut their eyes and return to sleep.
    Even after the night is over, the nightmare continues. It lives on in memory, and it scars you. It returns in moment of fear, it returns in moments of similar nature. However it most often returns to puzzle us. It leaves us trying to determine what it means, trying to unravel the riddle of our own human mind.
     
    The mind is a terrifying thing, and this is why its one of the most powerful things in the world. Fear, sadness, anger, all sorts of things. They are all processed by the mind, and whatever your mind thinks is real, is ultimately what you know is real.
  19. Marcato

    MiniRPG - The Music

    By Marcato,

    So, as some of you may know (and by some I mean probably 1 or 2 people) I am making a game/mod. This is basically a heavily modded version of a game that Notch (creator of Minecraft) made for the 22nd Ludum Dare competition, titled "Minicraft."
     
    As the name suggests, it's similar to Minecraft, however this game is a top-down RPG-Style game, that's comparable to the Zelda games, only featuring survival and crafting implementations.
     
    Play it here!
     
    As I mentioned earlier, I am making a heavily modded version of Minicraft, titled MiniRPG. As the name suggests, I am intending on expanding on the RPG elements that Minicraft already has, and making it a little more comparable to the Elder Scroll's series or the old Final Fantasy games.
    I'll write more details on this project later... but for now, I must tell you about the music!
     
    Yes, MiniRPG will add music to the game Minicraft, and this music is NES-style, also known as 8-bit. This music has just been completed (at least for the four main purposes) today. A song for the title menu, a song for the overworld, a song for the underground and a song for the sky level where you fight the final boss.
     
    And here, is the music, neatly compiled into a ZIP since I probably can't have 4 soundcloud embeds in one post.
     
    MiniRPG Music.zip
     
    Hopefully the attachment worked...
     
    Anyways, hope you guys find the music entertaining. Once I can fix a VERY serious bug I might get ready to release my first Alpha version.
     
    Otherwise, stay tuned for a full blog post about MiniRPG.
  20. Marcato
    Well everyone, it's been a while hasn't it? Well guess what, after a bit of a pause I finally finished something. And that something, is the first song of my upcoming album titled "One Thousand Years Ago"
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/204-one-thousand-years-ago-pre-live
     
    This is, however, not the final product! When I say finished, I mean finished writing the song. Four different things actually need to be recorded, and that's vocals, violin, lead guitar, and bass guitar. Currently the violin acts as both the vocals and the violin in this version, but soon in a long time there will be a live version.
     
    As a symphonic metal style song, it might not appeal to everyone, but I at least recommend listening to the last 1 minute of the song, because that's the best part! ;P
     
    Anyways, thank you all for your interest (if you're reading this) and I hope you'll support my future compositions with encouragement!
  21. Marcato
    Alright, so currently I'm stacked with 4 commissions, with many more to come as I have been warned. (Keeeey Geeeeaaaaaar! *Shakes fist at sky*)
     
    Now this is normally a sign of good business and respect for my work, however each commission takes a significant amount of time out of my daily life and schedule. Not to mention I'm not exactly earning that much. (Albeit more than I would otherwise.) My average take away from these commissions is $25, as 20% goes to the forums, which I have no intention of changing.
     
    Now the onslaught of commissions I have received ever since I completed the first one has made me realize that maybe I should be charging a little more for the amount of time and result of my work. For only $25 you can easily get a very professional sounding song from me. This is with 5 instruments and 2 minutes in length.
     
    However what many of you don't know is that I'm almost cheating myself behind the scenes.
     
    Let me take a look at my latest commission for Alex_Night.
    5 instruments,
    4 different kinds of drums - 1 symbals, 1 bass drum, 1 snare drum, 1 timpani
    2 different brass - French Horns, trumpets
    2 different kinds of violins - soft and hard
    4 different kinds of strings - soft, hard, quick and cellos(bass)
    1 Piano
    As you can see there is a lot there for just 5 instruments. Now the strings, violin and piano are no big deal. I'll happily count strings as all four of those different kinds as it's just for articulations. Even violin is just two different articulations.
     
    However percussion is huge. No song is complete without it, and they are each their own instrument. Until now I have counted all percussion as 1 single massive instrument.
     
    Brass is also two instruments in itself. (Usually more for a full brass section.) So really that should be two instruments instead of one.
     
    Ultimately, that should equal 9 instruments in total. However instead it is equal to 5. This is a problem that I'm fixing now, probably to a lot of dismay. Drums I'm not going to be so merciful about price wise. From here on out every 2 different drum types will count as one instrument, with the exception of the timpani being one on its own. Every kind of brass instrument will also be counted as a single instrument, instead of all brass being counted as one.
     
    This would ultimately raise the price of the commission used as an example, from $25 hiked up to $31.
     
    There will be one final change however. I am also raising the per-minute price. Currently, every minute of the song is worth $5. From here on that will become $7.
     
    Ultimately this would make the total price from $25 hiked up to $35!
     
    Now I hate to come across as arrogant, but the original price was placed because I am an amateur, and thus I shouldn't ask for as much. However the quality of my more recent works sounds far too professional to fit such a small price. So thus, from here on all commissions will cost more.
     
    I hope you'll all understand and I will be adding the changes to the commission thread.
     
    ~Silver Arrow
  22. Marcato
    So, I worked my butt off the last week and finished commission number two from and I am very satisfied with the results.Having discovered the bass drum which I had apparently never noticed before, I can now make songs sound much more full and professional.
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/144-onwards-and-beyond
     
     
     
    I hope you all enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed making it.
     
    Currently I'm very swamped with music. With 5 commissions still to do after this and many more to follow from what I've been told, things are getting intense. I think I might raise the price of my commissions at this rate considering the amount of effort and time put into each one... @~@
     
    I'll make a whole other blog update if that should happen though. Until then, happy listening!
  23. Marcato
    Well now I've done it.
     
    Having acquired a high quality microphone, I realized an amazing opportunity had arisen. So, I made this.
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/123-feld0s-theme-live-piano
     
     
    To quote what I initially wrote about the track on Pony.fm
     
    There you have it, the whole story. I apologize to all of you that the quality is still not AMAZING. I do plan to find a way to improve my recording in the future, and I hope that you'll all support me with cheers as I attempt to get things working.
  24. Marcato
    And so my true commission progress begins!
     
    My first commission, a request from the forums friendly neighborhood alien chicken, is a song based on a mystery theme. It took a long time (longer than it should have) but it's finally completed!
     
    https://pony.fm/tracks/99-pony-mystery-theater
     
    This is now my second (completed) pony related track and has proved much better than I originally expected. Thanks Scoots!
     
    Now I have two slots open in commissions, and with this one completed my inspiration for commissions has skyrocketed. Now is the best time to order a commission because I am on a roll right now!
     
    Next on the list; Tich's adventure-y folk/celtic-ish song!
     
    EDIT: Pardon the terrifying error it will be fixed soon. Feld0's on it.
  25. Marcato
    December 27th, 2012
    Night of the First Day
     
    This is a continuation of the same day.
    I arrived at the forest and ran into it. Following the dirt trail that had been walked upon many times, I eventually reached the heart of the forest. It wasn't very large, but it was secluded enough. To be safe, I walked off and away from the trail and into the thicker forest. I had to be careful to not get hurt or scratched by thorns and branches. But I knew it'd be worth it once I got through. Zombies would first follow the path, and then go hunting for light or sound. So I figured it'd be safer in a darker part of the forest.
     
    Still though, the concept of zombies in broad daylight confused me. Being such a clear day it seemed a little odd. I always thought zombies hated light and for that reason went after the source. Looking to the sky through the trees the sun was getting closer to the horizon, meaning it would set soon. I wanted to get back to my house, but at the moment that seemed a bit of a challenge. I decided I would do that tomorrow.
     
    Suddenly my phone buzzed. I had received a text message. It was from Caleb. "I didn't need those images at all. I saw it with my own eyes. Where are you now?" It said. I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm in the forest to the side of 160 St. Where are you?" I replied. There was a pause, then another message. "I'm at Mac's, I thought I'd get a slurpy after I saw my first zombie." He said.
     
    I couldn't help but laugh lightly to myself. Only Caleb would grab a slurpy during a zombie apocalypse. I sighed and looked around. The forest was thick, but I was hiding under some bushes and roots. The sky was growing dark already, meaning danger was coming. It reminded me of Minecraft actually... at night the zombies would be more common because of their dislike of light.
     
    "Try to survive as long as you can. Meet me on the trail in the park." I messaged Caleb. He responded with "Alright" I put my phone in my pocket after checking the time. 4:00 according to my phone. I stood up, stretched and walked out towards the path, making sure to remember how to get back.
     
    I only waited about 10 minutes before Caleb joined me.
     
    "Good evening sir, i was wondering if you would like a drink!" He said, handing me a small slurpy. I gave him a funny look. He returned an equally puzzled look. "What, if we're going to survive an apocalypse we need some sort of refreshment!" He said in a humorous tone. I smiled and shook my head. "It takes a lot to make you nervous doesn't it." I said.
     
    "I wouldn't say that..." He said, his expression changing. "I just do a good job of hiding it." He pointed out. I nodded and looked over my shoulder. "I found a sheltered area deeper into the forest. We can hide there for the time being." I said. "What, not going to hide in a well lit store?" He said sarcastically. "I may be a daredevil but I'm not stupid." I replied jokingly. "What's the difference?" He laughed to himself.
     
    Zombie Survival Tip #1: Always have someone to help lighten the mood.
     
    With that we turned around and made our way into the forest. "We're going to need to come up with a plan to get out of this alive." I said. "I never thought I'd here you of all people talking about long-term plans." Caleb responded. "Well considering the circumstances... I can safely say that we're going to need it.
     

     
    That was all five days ago.
     
    Me and Caleb made a plan, and began working things out. We managed to get into our homes which are three houses apart later, as by a lucky break there were no zombies in the area. Well that's actually not true. There were a couple, but our families were already gone. We each grabbed a backpack, some food, and got out of there. Caleb also grabbed a warmer coat since he would likely need it for the night, no matter how much he refuses to admit it.
     
    After that we spent time using our phones to get on the internet and read up on everything happening. It apparently had already begun earlier in the USA. We read that the entire thing was caused by some scientists experimenting with a way to make people live longer and be less susceptible to disease and injury. Well it clearly had some side effects, as this is where the zombies came from.
     
    The zombies, predictably, spread by bites. The reason they have to bite you; The 'infection' is in their bodily fluids, meaning things like saliva and blood. Unless you drank zombie blood you don't have to worry about getting covered in it.
     
    The plan was made, and we went to bed.
     
    The next day, we got straight to work. Based on our plan, we left the area and made our way out into the city, which we assumed would have more zombies in it than our little town or district if you want to call it that. Once we got into Vancouver, things began to get dangerous. With zombies found scattered around all over the place, although fortunately not in large numbers at a time, we had to be careful.
     
    We went to an arms store with weapons and such, and stole some things to use. There was no shopkeeper as he probably had higher priorities than selling his guns and getting money during a zombie apocalypse. I grabbed a sniper rifle and a hand gun. Caleb took a bow, some arrows and a hand gun as well. I didn't bother questioning his choice of weapon, if it screws him over later it's his own fault.
     
    We figured we had to be conservative of our resources after raiding a couple stores. Now that we were in the city we found refuge with some other people. There were still many people surviving out there, which is good to know. Considering the situation I'm sure people are willing to work together.
     
    The next day we did some more research, discovering the same scientists that caused the problem had hunkered down in their laboratories and locked themselves away from the outside world. However they were looking for a cure.
     
    We decided that was our destination. Where the scientists were hiding. If they're safe there, surely others can be safe there too.
     
    We spent the next couple days preparing for a long journey, with many dangerous stops, and began making our way out of the city. Unfortunately as days went by, more and more zombies were walking around, and less and less survivors were existent. By January 1st survivors were a fairly rare occurrence, and we were making our way out of Vancouver and down south towards California. It's going to be a long journey, but now we may escape and survive.
     
    I'm going to write again later. We're about to move on to a new hiding spot, so I better pack up.
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