I Do Stuff

[Mori]

I write music. Basically any genre, but piano is fun to mess with. I don't upload much, most of my metal and jazz and stuff are in my portfolio, but I occasionally upload smaller songs.

Most recent upload:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXMSoqmzR6o
http://soundcloud.com/crazymori/danmaku-touhou-tribute

Blast the crap out of that song if you have good speakers or a headset. 2:12-ish on is a good example.

I also do game design. Recently came up with a card-based strategy game for a Game Design final, turned out pretty damn good. Revolves around fast deployment of units, intelligence denial, and smart unit placement. For two players. In tests, there wasn't a bad enough positive or negative feedback loop for it to be notable. Small preview of a previous build of it here (The image silhouettes are stock images, still need to make those or hire an artist, but the primary testing/balancing is going well).

http://i.imgur.com/RgBRQ.png

I'll edit this post when I get around to taking pictures of some paintings and stuff I've done, as well as map design I've done for other games, just thought you guys might want to know a little about me and stuff.

[[JAM]]

Oh you're a Touhou fan? Do you by any chance play IaMP?

[Mori]

I own every Touhou game, I just don't play them that much, but I'm a huge fan in general, yes. Perfect Cherry Blossom is still a fascinating story to me, and the use of that story in Touhou Gensou Mangekyou Vol. 1 (The Memories of Phantasm) in particular is one of my favorite short animated films. And yes, I'm a big fan of the fighters, including IaMP, although specifically BlazBlue CS2 has been taking up a tremendous amount of my fighting game time, along with developing a separate PC fighting game.

[Mr--Clean]

Damn looks like you do everything.
How on earth do you put unit placement in a card game?

[[JAM]]

Come by the IRC. I want to play more people. There's only three of us who play it

[Mori]

Old picture before the cards had images. Black cards = Face down cards.

http://i.imgur.com/WjDMd.png

At game start, you have 6 units, they have 6 units. Max of 3 units per line, all units in a given line belong to one player. It's a pretty complicated game to explain, but very easy to play, but that's an easy picture to explain unit placement. Although technically, you'd face your units towards the enemy and vice versa for ease of seeing the battle lines. Units are revealed very quickly through Attack, Defense, and various methods therein, but there are tricks to maintaining intelligence denial long term. It's inspired by several card based games, I just wanted a fairly deterministic strategy one to play with people, so I made one.

Also, which IRC? I'm really here / on AWBW only in sporadic bursts, I'm usually regularly on a computer though.

[hetchel]

Nice music. Why only use piano if you can compose that many notes? At 1:40 for example, it sounds like that part would sound better with another instrument.

[Mori]

You said 1:40 so I'm going to go with the Youtube version, as the Soundcloud one is a few seconds off of what I think you might be talking about.

That song in particular has a number of inspirations. Like many things, djent appeals to me when used correctly. Djent in a specific mathematical rhythm in 19/8 is very appealing to me. It is just as complex to cram a series of close frequency notes into a single lower register [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkLZVs6D5os ] as it is to bring several common chord progressions together with multiple instruments [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWTu0fBIZqk ], as they have very similar structures in the grand scheme of things. They are simply separate kinds of complexity, entirely dependent on how you individually contextualize complexity.

So in short, I did it because it sounds good to me, but the long answer is up there (And down below). That whole lower stretch is quite complex, despite its repetitive appearance, and to me, sounds fantastic as a single instrument. An electric bass would have also been nice there I guess, but the piano is much more suited for my purposes. The song tells a story through a method of going through several ideas behind Touhou soundtracks, but not necessarily their direct chord progressions or melodies. That particular part was supposed to represent a bit of the darker side of Touhou, mainly Flandre, but not directly her theme but rather the general feeling around her character, her attitudes, and her location below the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

-

I leave it unresolved before 1:40, and when other chords come in right before 1:40 they are purposefully dissonant. This is the build to the semi-finale, you could say.

Melody again at 1:45, still not quite resolved, the complexity adding to the tension. While the lower register at this section is still a harmony in the traditional sense, it's complex enough to be its own melody in context, so the two melodies hammer out and compete with one another, each individual note from both forming an interesting and purposeful pair.

1:59 ish chord is the full resolution in terms of tonality, and the added third track allows me to build what most people would call full chords in every beat. However, it starts to move into other areas, transitioning into the big booming chords of the upcoming phrases, then referencing some Flying Bucket Adventure, then UN Owen Was Her, etc. But all of that build would have not had as strong an impact on separate instruments because it would not have been nearly as obvious. Plus, as a general rule of thumb, Touhou-related songs should sound good in almost any timbre, but sound great on the piano.

-

That's the general reasoning, anyways, I mean I only spent like 5 hours writing it over 2 days. Give me a week and some inspiration and I'll give you a 16 minute orchestral piece. This one was mostly mentally written out before I started.

[[JAM]]

Here's the link to the IRC channel topic. I actually dunno how you missed it since it's at the top >_>. Come by sometime, especially since it's around the holidays and people should have some more free time.

[IndirectDragon]

I used to do everything, but now I'm too lazy and just play video games :3 oh wait, that's kinda bad, and kinda sad ;~;

Nice stuff and stuff.

[Mr--Clean]

I used to do everything, but now I'm too lazy and just play video games :3 oh wait, that's kinda bad, and kinda sad ;~;

Nice stuff and stuff.

Naw thats not sad. Whats sad is not playing video games but hanging around the games forum

[IndirectDragon]

I don't play this game ._________________.

[Mr--Clean]

I don't play this game ._________________.

Exactly

[funwes]

Ouch, Mr. Clean is playing dirty

[hetchel]

You said 1:40 so I'm going to go with the Youtube version, as the Soundcloud one is a few seconds off of what I think you might be talking about.

Yes, I went with the youtube version.

So in short, I did it because it sounds good to me, but the long answer is up there (And down below).

A very interesting post. As always when someone talks about something he's passionate about.

I think I'd love to compose music. Your post leaves me wanting to understand it more clearly, but it's not possible because of my lack of knowledge, even up to the vocabulary, matching the words with what I hear. To some extent I could learn, but it would take years, and I wouldn't know where to start.

It's strange how music is perceived differently by different people. The subtleties in the construction of music typically require experience to be fully appreciated. I'm often amazed at how one can describe, say a piece of Bach, and they can see so many things which I don't seem to have access to, even after being told what I should hear. I wonder how large is the part about music that can be acquired with experience, compared to what is innate or determined in early childhood.

Also, that song you linked to, An Infinite Regression, sounds very good to me.