It's been a long time, hasn't it? More than half a year... wow. In the meanwhile, I've made another Yume Nikki arrangement, and another completely unrelated thing, and... just never stopped failing at life forevermore miserably. Guess I'll just post something, along with a story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U_obIPfPIoSo... y'all know this person, Silent Sinner in Scarlet, right? He had introduced me to a certain Touhou music-related project last year, which, sadly, didn't go so well (speaking for myself), but at least I have this track - I am honestly hesitant to claim it as my own, since it
was indeed made with the aforementioned project in mind specifically, but y'know... might as well just pick it up and use it for the greater good, especially seeing as it fits so well with one of Gensokyo Festival's prompts.
I wanted to challenge myself to an ambient-type track this time, something in the style of Brian Eno's early works - I found that he even has a track with the same title! Maybe it didn't turn out quite like I expected - initially, I was going for a very transparent, almost ephemeral vibe, but then I added more layers (and then some) and it became closer to some of the ambient tutorials that I've watched while making this track, where the composition could easily have upwards 20 different layers of sound. Can't say I'm disappointed, though: I used several new instruments and techniques, learned a few tricks about mixing and mastering, I even got to try my hand at sound design a little bit, and I won't tell you which layer or type of sound it is =P all in all, this was difficult, but fun and rewarding. Arrangement-wise, it was far less challenging, the only thing of note is a really short fragment, which could probably qualify as original, that connects some sections.
This is the PCB stage 4 theme, which is also often associated with Lily White, so it's only fitting to post it on March 1st. Spring has come! However, what I had in mind while working on this track is even more summer- than spring-related, something like watching the sunrise by the lake or on a seashore. Fun fact: I did mostly work on this arrangement early in the morning, which is why (I think) I managed to really capture the emotion. Please listen to this track at dawn for the best ultimate experience possible! =D
Fails? Oh yes, of those I have plenty! Let's start with the elephant in the room: the flute, which is badly out of phase. Never using it again, it's so good in stereo though T_T what next... Can't tell if this whole thing is too compressed or not compressed enough. I'd love to have better dynamics, I had to cut the peaks off the "droplet" parts severely (intro, outro, and one more in the middle). Did I mention mixing and mastering, multiple layers? Implying
hours of rendering, as usual. I've had several issues with the secret project, which has nothing to do with the track itself, but it kinda affected my workflow in some ways and perhaps even my life, I probably shouldn't even be mentioning this right now (except it definitely belongs in the fails part of the whole story). Anyways, please enjoy First Light at first light, and try to find some stereo sound to mitigate out-of-phase flute. I'll try to return sooner this time, with something new.
