Here’s an electronic music track I made for a possible animation sequence involving robots:
click here to go to MP3 link (link is at bottom of page).
File is small (950k) and MP3 is encoded at 96k.
I played this on a Korg Triton (Classic) using the built in multi-track recorder and then recorded the audio in Sound Forge, where it was normalized and saved as an MP3 file. No drum patterns used either, just me playing stuff 
I hope it sounds cool 
Thanks for listening!
RobertT
Well, to be honest, it was kind of absurd. I prefer silence.
Your “cascades of light” was infinitely better.
Haha, thanks Rocketman
There is definitely some quirky stuff going on in there since at least one of the robots I have in mind for the animation is a little quirky/absurd, especially after he encounters another robot.
This was fun to play too, especially that part where the notes ascend and get all wild
Just like my blends, I like to experiment with different ideas in music, so some songs will come across better than others 
RobertT
Oh, i completely understand where you’re coming from. I like to make electronica using SONAR 4, and I’ve been shut down more than once for it’s weirdness.
FANTASTIC!
if you are not using it, let me have it!
…oor… let’s join forces
.b
hmm,i like better your art expression in visual media.
as a huge electronic music addicted,i dont like it.
to me looks like a kids show single.
sorry for hard crit,im just beeing honest here.
Musique concrète meets beep-beep music…
I’ve been writing music for 25 years and I think this is one cool track. You’ve obviously put it together with visuals in mind already which explains why it may be lacking as a composition in some respect (soundtrack cues rarely work well as stand alone compositions, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing their job). Nevertheless it will make a very good canvas to build on visually.
This tune is hilarious! Obviously the people who shot it down don’t have a sense of humour…
–=leon=–: That’s cool, it’s definitely not for everyone. I’ve been making all kinds of music since I was a kid. Since then I’ve recorded what must be hundreds of musical pieces over the years, quirky stuff, symphonic works, a lot of guitar instrumentals and other stuff, so this piece is like .01 % of “what I do” just in terms of music. It’s no coincidence my blending follows a similar path, since my artistic tendencies in any media seem to stem from the same desire to explore new ideas and expressions while trying to improve along the way. It never ceases to amazes me how much there is to learned and how much new territory exists for exploration
Bussman: Very cool Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked it and knew where I was coming from with this piece. It’s one of those songs that was born out of some images and ideas I had in mind for an animation, so that helped me develop this accordingly. A lot of my songs depart from typical compositional structures. You can check out a random selection of tunes I recorded a few years ago at this site. Sometimes I’ll think up a title and before I know it I have some notes leading the way Sometimes it winds up in nonsense, but there are some moments you reach something and… it’s just the saddest thing if you forgot to press Record
basse: Thank you very very much basse It would be so cool to work with you on an animation project!! Here’s a situation I had in mind to try to animate for a while and then got inspired to start after seeing Robots in the movies not long ago Basically, the situation involves a robot factory (actually, robots in a factory making who knows what), one robot feeling down, and then this little hottie bot enters the mix and suddenly electricity’s in the air so to speak The plot of the short is essentially encapsulated in the music, which starts about a minute after from the opening scene, where we meet a lonely bot on a lunch break talking to another bot about how a good ladybot is hard to find. In all the short would be about 2 and a half minutes, about 3 with title/end credits. We’d be looking at three separate scenes (lunchroom, factory/hallway to factory, ladybot’s starting location), about ten characters (boss bot, lonely bot, friend bot, lady bot, and a small variety of worker bots in the lunch room and the factory). I started some basic work on the lady bot but didn’t get much further. Let me know what you think about any of this or if you might have something else in mind (in which case I can just get you a higher resolution music file). Also, if you ever need some music for any of your other projects let me know and I might be able to whip something up if I have the time
RobertT
[quote=“Robertt”]Basically, the situation involves a robot factory (actually, robots in a factory making who knows what), one robot feeling down, and then this little hottie bot enters the mix and suddenly electricity’s in the air so to speak /quote]
heh, yes. funny actually that the thing that popped into my mind, had a female bot too… it is was very synced ananyways, what you had in mind, looks like lot of stuff. d dictated by the music.
this is what I wrote down:
also, I think the whole bar idea came because of the blurry state of the whole music… it kind of sounds like what it feels like after 20 pints of beer, and you have to keep your other eye closed when you try to focus on anything… hehheh…the factory idea works too. where I saw glasses going up and down, I can easily see people working in factory… same repeatitive work.
so, what happens after the bot meets the fembot?
the assembly line goes bonkers?
bolts and screws fly around as they walk out of the factory?
what kind of a visual look you were thinking of this? and what kind of animatics… to comply the music, it could be exaggerated, a bit wacky… surreal kind of thing… I think.
to make it happen, we would need sketches for droids, scenes and short storyboard. after that, it wouldnt’ be impossible to do, or even take too long to do it.
.b
Excellent ideas basse I love how your mind works!
The wackyness IS definitely a big part of this! It would have to be considering the concepts… emotionally distraught droids, etc. The look, motions, all would be like that.
Maybe we could combine the scenarios two and come up with something really funny! Maybe more like a robopub instead of a lunchroom for example.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the scenes I was considering:
“sadbot” and “friendbot” lamenting over fembots.
camera pans to some skankdroids 
who say “hiiiiii” to the two malebots, who aren’t too enthusiastic
behind them we see a couple of z-blurred bots, sitting at tables, eating their nuts and bolts like good little droids
bossbot comes around, blows the whistle and yells “get back to work you lazy droids!”
the droids roll out (having them be on rollers instead of legs would greatly simplify movement, not to mention totally obscure my current inability to create a truly effective walk cycle :P)
they resume their positions in the factory, which could look big but simple:
a couple of conveyor belts overhead transporting some random little parts while the droid “workstations” would be failrly simple setups: the droids push buttons and pull levers – this is their monotonous work
it’s at this point sadbot, who works next to his friendbot, mentions something about how it would be nice just for once to meet a hottiebot…
the factory comes back to life, at this point the music starts
scene switches to fembot’s chamber, where she’s prettifying herself for a little stroll past the factory, where she knows she’ll get some attention
camera follows her as she struts her botbooty down a hall past the workerbots
one workerbot’s jaw drops to the floor as she winks at him
another workerbot’s eye pops out
another’s arm gets sucked into a machine and he doesn’t notice
scene switches to sadbot/friendbot’s POV. Sadbot is “Ooooh, yeaaah, something like THAT!” and friendbot is like “Forget it! You’re dreaming! She’s totally out of your league!”
she passes sadbot and notices how sad he is. she backs up and decides to lift his spirits
At the point where the music gets all nutty she grabs sadbot and plants a botkiss right on him
Workerbots look on as sadbot becomes happybot and starts to overheat and spark wildly.
As she walks away camera pans to happybot who is so giddy he short-circuits and falls apart.
Friendbot shakes his head and makes some comment about love.
Cleanerbots scoop happybot away
Bossbot reappears to yell “get back to work!”
-the end-
I think it could come together pretty quickly. We could start by working on a couple of the main characters and go from there. Your sketches are wonderful, and I would love to see your design ideas about this! We could even set up a WIP thread if you like and eventually release all materials a la Project Orange
Cool possibilities with this. Let me know what you think.
RobertT
Edit: I had another possible idea about the voices, to make them really robotic sounding and then to have subtitles… maybe it could work
You obviously have strong guitar skills. Your tone is a little too compressed and contrived for my taste but I’m getting to be an old geezer and I’m known to ramble a bunch of vacuum tube nonsense when it comes to good guitar tone… ha ha ha.
Fun exciting stuff, keep it up!
Thanks for listening to those Bussman! Yes you’re are 100% right about the compression because at the time I had just gotten a BR-1180 recorder and was going wild with all the new buttons and dials (often in a vain attempt to get a Vai or Satriani sound in the beginning). Today I try to do with as little compression and effects as possible or at least use them more judiciously. Wah pedals are too much fun though to avoid completely These days I try to use sound like I use light, to paint images or emotions or whatever comes to mind. That’s much more satisfying then in the past where I was preoccupied with Locrian runs, and other technical possibilities. And now that I’m getting to combine music and image through animation, it all seems even more exciting and fulfilling.
RobertT
These guys are the main culprits in the spread of that sound…sigh. I like their playing well enough but as for the sound… boy, did I have a hard time surviving the 80’s. Most music these days lacks dynamics. Even though today we produce for digital medias which have more dynamic range than vinyl or cassettes, many people still insist on compressing the piss out of everything. It’s a sad trend.
Anyway, as you might have guessed, I’m old school… Gimme old Jeff Beck or Frank Zappa any day.
Wow, I wasn’t expecting that mate. That Korg’s certainly got some nice sounds in it.
I really like it, definitley down the audio landscape path as I like to create, with my own music. Although personally, I’d love to do a drum and bass remix of it.
I read your posts first so I knew that this is to be used for a robot anim, although had I not read them, I’d have though you’d missed off the drum track when you waved it out. As is, I don’t think it needs a drum track. There is some quantizing which melts away, but then returns after the breakdown section. Very interesting stuff.
I’m really looking forward to hearing this wrapped around an animation.
Top work my friend.
Tim.
Thank you Tim I’d love to hear some of your music sometime!
basse: I hope you noticed my followup message (several posts up)
RobertT
yes, I read it. hmm… these threads are so complicated… I think that has to be written out once or twice more, to a textfile, to make sense what happens … and if we are going forward with this, we need to get out of the traditional forum anyways
.b
not the caliber of work i would have expected from you at all. i tried to find some kind of rythm in it but i couldn’t. how long did this take to make?
This probably took around an hour and a half to create and record. Those are “hand played” custom percussive sounds on a music keyboard. It wasn’t a simple piece to play acrobatic in parts even quite a bit of stuff going on The fascination for me here was not tight rhythm as it was a convergence of curious sounds with a very specific animation sequence in mind. The disjointed rhythmic progression, the quirkiness/absurdity, the certain quality of sound (minus low-fi mp3 compression) were all deliberate.
I would probably consider this like some of my experimental blends, not intended to demonstrate anything in particular, just to see where certain concepts can go and if things can be learned and enjoyed along the way. I’ve been playing and recording music for many years but still feel I have much to learn and much new ground to explore.
This evening I was listening to the soundtrack for Appleseed. Track 6 on the first cd (“coro”) stood out because it’s a massively wild noisy rhythmic mess that’s been thoroughly decimated and panned. It was so cool though, almost devoid of any musical properties yet at the same time a statement for all music. Track 9 (“the dragonfly who thought he was a hummingbird”) is also very interesting in that sense, although more clipped and quantized (as loop based music can be sometimes).
Well the good news is that basse and I have already begun work on the animation sequence
RobertT
Well the good news is that basse and I have already begun work on the animation sequence icon_biggrin.gif
now THAT I’d like to see!
I don’t have the time to read the complete threat, but I downloaded the mp3 and I like the song. I love Aphex Twin, perhaps some of you know it, and it reminded me of that.
I think this “song” would be nicer if it had a main beat that continued the complete song. So that it seems less random and beatless.
But great work, it sounded great.