Pico-8 Music Tutorial #55 – Feedback Series #4

Hey everyone!

This tutorial/feedback video features a hilarious cart on the forms called “Can’t Win With Cats.”  It also reflects some fresh ideas I’ve been having about composition (which may eventually form a new tutorial series).  

I still need to iron out the language, but I believe every action while composing, in Pico-8 or otherwise, is a process involving these five areas:

• Playing with sound/parts (melody, bass line, percussion, sound design)
• Playing with relations between parts (foreground, background, rhythmic relations, harmony, mixing)
• Playing with relations between larger sections (form, pacing, ratios, unity)
• Preparing and managing project assets & interfaces
• Taking breaks

All five of these actions are guided by some kind of “playback-reaction” feedback loop.  These loops are dependent on both the composer’s disposition, and the way they interact with their tools.  This is why with many software instruments and DAWs (including Pico-8), it’s important to learn hotkeys - to maintain fluid feedback loops.

In this tutorial, I talk specifically about the first three: Playing with individual parts, playing with their relations to other parts, and creating form by playing with relations between larger sections.  Because framing composition in this way is a work-in-progress for me, feedback is welcome!

Time stamps:

• 0:00 Choosing & playing a random cart
• 1:48 Taking a survey of all the SFX and patterns 
• 2:55 Introducing a general composition process
• 4:40 Polishing an individual part
• 6:40 Listening & polishing in relationship to other parts
• 7:50 Adding another part
• 9:50 Polishing parts, considering relationships to other parts
• 14:05 Polishing an individual part
• 16:30 Recapping process
• 17:35 Next steps: form & development
• 18:25 Changing keys as a means of development
• 18:55 Listening to relationships between larger sections, polishing
• 21:10 Using different rates of change and pacing to create form
• 25:30 Listening to entire song
• 26:05 Considering more areas for polishing