Thanks guys! It seems like a lot of work, but everything is in chunks. You just do a track at a time, and build up in an iterative process. No different than sanding then priming, then several coats, then clearcoat, then more sanding between each layer...everything worth doing is really complicated until you break it down into simpler chunks.

Plus, you keep doing this kind of stuff and you get a process. You have your favorite tools and your presets all figured out, and what seems like a laundry list of process items is also a saved template. Your drums are already miked and tweaked, you know just where to set that mic for the guitar amp, you have a goto string patch and your guitar tone is already dialed in. All the work you spent getting your piano to sound just perfect is now a preset and a patch away: "Rocking Steve Piano #2," and away we go.

On the composition side, you get a riff, and you have a process. Repeat it a couple of times, shift it up an octave and then down; there's a verse, there's a chorus, where's the bridge, repeat the chorus, and there's an outro. It's all just chunks and you know what to do when you hear that verse, chorus, verse and then the song stops. Sometimes you just string riffs together--I need an A Riff and a B Riff. Sometimes you just say "Fuck It" and put in a long drum solo, or the flugal horn riff. "Okay, verse 2 one more time, but this time whispering!"

I have a process with the fractal videos, and half of the process is now making original music to go along with the fractal videos. What used to be a long chain of processes strung together just to make the music is now just half the equation. Then I started making the fractal pictures, because that's what most people are doing with fractals. Not too many people are making the animations, because it takes too much work, too many computers, and too much hassle.

The constant need to supply myself with around 4 minutes of original music about 2 times a week or so gives me a reason to come up with new music, and gives an obsessive compulsive the wonderful gift of "good enough for a fractal video," which is a much lower bar than whatever pie-in-the-sky Art I could shoot for. You can tweak stuff forever, or you can try and get some really good shit to (digital) tape. And I can always use an instrumental version of a song, a version with the MIDI instruments arranged differently, a version with vocals, one with no drums, whatever, and know that my audience of 100 people who will watch my videos will be happy with whatever version of the music I choose to use.

And it's also cool knowing I can pretty much just give Scott a chord change and he'll go to town with 6-part guitar harmony!

They say "you can't polish a turd," but give it to Scott and he can roll it in glitter!

Thanks, guys!

***BUMP

Your 3D Fractal Animation Music Video (3DFAMV):

A formula from mclarekin, slightly altered, through Mandelbulber v 1.2 ("aBox Kali Eiffie "). A song by Stephen Sink and Scott Kerr (SINKERR) featuring Chapman Stick, piano, guitars, and drums ("Spirit Chewality.")

YouTube:



Vimeo, better quality and downloads at original quality:


SoundCloud:



Cheers!

I've gotten some more listens and feedback on Spirit Chew and I decided to end the song right where it naturally ends, a 3:23 or so, and kill the wanking outro. It really sounds like we're getting ready to go to another song or another section, and then I abruptly faded it out. If I'm not going to turn this into a 6-minute prog rock wankfest, then I need to keep with my 3-minute pop song intent. So all that section went.

Then I listened to the latest mix in the car: not enough Railboard! So that got turned up a couple of decibels.

Here's the latest version and mix:

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1/spirit-chewality