The Progressive Curse:

Started by Not a Number, August 18, 2008, 09:27:04 PM

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Not a Number

Now I'm not being that pretentious when I say that my style of music made is a sort of "progressive-pop", as my music has a lot of prog-metal influences, but one of the main elements in my music making os the use of wierd time signatures, ie. not 4/4. I still 4/4 a lot, but I like to stray away and go all technical.

The problem is that whilst this is fun and all, the main barrier in Music 2000 is that I'm stuck with making 4/4 riffs; a time signature that obviously the vast -- if not all but a small few -- dance songs (as this was made for dance music; another barrier that I'm overcoming) are in. Is there any way I can utilize anything other than 4/4 in my music making? So far, all I've been doing is making everything adds to a multiple of 4  (example: one song starts with a bassline that goes 7/8, 9/8; or 2 bars of 8/8; another example, is , which uses 4 bars of 5/4, or 5 bars of 4/4). I think I've tried doubling the tempo in very select areas, but the BPM doesn't really kick in until after the first 1/16th note plays, making everything go off synce with itself. Should I stick with what I'm doing and make sure everything adds up, or is there an easier way (besides sticking with simple 4/4 :P)?

DJ_Omnimaga

Could you elaborate more about signatures? I have no idea what they mean and how to figure out what time signature is a song. For example, would gabba be 4/3 or would it be 3/4? Would jazz be 3/4 or 4/3? It confuse me so much cuz I can't even tell the time signature of 4 of my songs x.x (including one made with Magix Music Maker 14) :S I'm so confused about this x.x

But I really did songs that aren't 4/4 I think. Here they are:

http://omnimaga.org/Our%20Own%20Work/DJ%20Omnimaga%20-%20Scream.mp3
http://omnimaga.org/Our%20Own%20Work/DJ%20Omnimaga%20-%20Escape%20From%20Life.mp3
http://omnimaga.org/Our%20Own%20Work/DJ%20Omnimaga%20-%20Free%20As%20In%20Core.mp3
http://omnimaga.org/Our%20Own%20Work/DJ%20Omnimaga%20-%20Shut%20The%20Hell%20Up%20Motherfucking%20Son%20Of%20Bitch.mp3

The two firsts are from Music 2000, the 3rd MTVMG3 and the 4th Magix. I am really curious what time signatures these would be so I can understand the system more x.x

That said, the only Music Generator that support different time signatures are MTVMG2 and Music 3000 it seems. Music 2000 is 4/4, MTVMG3 has time signature specific to each artists and cannot be changed and the two PC versions of Music 2000 are only 4/4

I try to stick to 4/4 for M2000 since it's easier

Not a Number

#2
Scream: 4/4, possibly 12/8 (4/4 with a swing; so each beat has 3 quavers/eighth-notes instead of 2)
Escape From Life: 6/4 (6 beats, 2 eighth-notes each)
Free As In Core: 12/8 (4/4 with a swing; so each beat has 3 quavers/eighth-notes instead of 2)
STHUMfSOB: 12/8 again.

Thrown together just now, with the help of some vocal samples, is a basic tutorial on what 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and 7/8 sound like.

To hear a much better song that uses 4, 5 and 6/4 ( :P), here's of the video.
The start is in 5/4, but the guitar riff after that (when the drums kick in) goes 6/4, 5/4, 6/4, 5/4, 6/4, 5/4, 6/4, 5/4, 6/4, 6/4. (believe me when I say they've done much more complicated songs than this one; their latest single goes 5/4, 6/4, 5/4, 7½/4 (ie. 15/8) at the start)

DJ_Omnimaga

oh nice, I'Ll check this out, and thanks for the info.