rounding out this string of Cool MIDI Music it is time for today's daily song post...!

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today's song is: Spirits of the Mountain, for the Roland MT-32 (proto-MIDI device)

this tune was written for a mountain-climbing-themed compo in the fall; as one does when faced with such a theme, i thought about Celeste and how the moving parts of that game's music slowly build and evolve and change fluidly. i was just talking about this with a friend yesterday--making music like that is a certain weakness of mine, because i'm always compelled to alter things immediately upon repeat and wind up with music that changes pace significantly faster instead. even when i try to get myself to write something with that kind of pacing and economical use/reuse of material, i end up foregoing that strategy in favor of my instinctual change-ups instead, as though i just can't help myself. in this particular song, i think i landed somewhere in the middle of it all; i didn't 100% nail what i was going for, and the track isn't as long as i'd hoped, but i still did incorporate elements of the slow-build too. it could probably be stretched out a lot further comfortably. i just... repeating drum/chord/bass patterns, man, i'm so allergic to it. but i'm going to pin this down eventually!!! i swear it!

the first daily song post of 2023! snap diggity dang

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today's song is: Forest Frozen in Time, for the Roland MT-32 (proto-MIDI device)

i'm really happy with the textures in this one; i used several of my favorite MT-32 patches like "JungleTune" and "Wind Bell" which have just a delightful amount going on with them. i also made use of my common technique of drastically repitching the percussion channel, which feels especially useful with MT-32 since it only has the one drumkit... and it's nowhere near the size of what would become the General MIDI one.

the thing i was unexpectedly very ultra-pleased with in this song was the string chord section towards the end, which i felt like ultimately landed in some kind of Sugiyama-like territory. i was proud of how that flowed and all the little edits i made to the inner and lower parts to make the movement smooth. i wanna do more of that! and i think it sounds especially nice on the MT-32 synthy sounds. this one's definitely my favorite of my MT-32 tracks so far!

comin' back at ya with another Song Post... for those just joining us, i'm uploading one (1) DAW/tracker video of one of my songs each day to you tube, then posting about the song here on co host with some exclusive commentary. i like reflecting upon/talking about my work and i'm enjoying putting together this stable of video uploads, an area i've neglected since forever. i have a whole lot of music so it's been fun to fire these off...

<-- the previous day's song | the next day's song -->

today's song is: Fireside Recollections, for the Roland MT-32 (iconic proto-MIDI device)

one of the coolest formats i've been introduced to via BotB is the MT-32, an old ROMpler machine from before General MIDI had formed. it's similar in concept but there are fewer channels, the instruments are in a weird order, and the patches are built out of 1-4 "partials" each that comprise the total polyphony limit of 32. it has a really characteristic old synthy sound and was used for a lot of old computer music.

thanks to the power of modern emulation via Munt and MuntVsti, this is one of several songs i have made for the device! i was gunning for something both melancholy/reflective and fusion-y... i don't make a whole lot of fusion-y tunes but i'm often thinking about them, lol. in that respect it turned out pretty well, i was pleased with the progressions and melodies and i still managed to stick in some of my trademark Weird Sounds alongside. the turnaround section at 1:21 through til the ending is something i feel especially proud of, as well as the out-of-time sectional lead-in between 0:27-0:35 which took ages to sequence exactly how i wanted but was SO worth it.

i have a vivid memory of someone commenting on this on soundcloud in the middle of the song with like "lol wtf is this?" and then 30 seconds later "not bad dude" and following me. so, maybe there's something to it. :p maybe that is the vibe of my music? hahaha