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crastopher

Guest

Some tips for new music artists!

I'm pretty sure this is the right forum, as it aids in level creation. Tell me if I'm wrong. Also, I don't remember if there was a topic on this already, but if you want me to delete it, I will.

Hello, EE musicians in the making! Crastopher here. I love music (although I don't create much in my levels) and I'd like to share some of what I know with you all. Why don't we begin with the tempos, as a starting point?

Tempos
The tempo is the interval of time in between each tick. In other words, it's how fast the beat is. Also note, I'm a real-life musician and I'm used to the fact that every 'measure' contains four beats. And on top of that, you can have notes in between beats if you want.

Now, if you'd like, you can use what I am using- an online metronome, which makes beats for you.

BPM is beats per minute, or how many beats there are in one minute when it's at this speed.

208 BPM

The span of length between each note is 11 blocks.
An example of a song at 208 BPM would be Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees.

138 BPM

The span of length between each note is 7 blocks, including arrows.
An example of a song at 138 BPM would be Paradise by Coldplay.

98 BPM

The span of length between each note is 5 blocks, including chains.
An example of a song close to 98 BPM (100 BPM) is Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.

184 BPM

The span of length between each note is 5 blocks.
An example of a song close to 184 BPM (182 BPM) is Friday by Rebecca Black.
Now, there's a few examples of common beats. Why don't we go into tips?

Tips and Tricks
There are a good number of tips and tricks for EE music, so I'll show some to you.

1. Different types of music organization
There are three types of music organization. Jump, fall and run are what I'm going to call them, since I don't think they have a name.
Jump- Fall- Run -
Jump takes up more space than run (There's about five blocks for every empty space, while in run there's only two), but is for much slower songs. Usually you can't put things to slow it down or speed it up.

Run takes up less space than run, and is for much faster songs. You can place arrows without messing anything up, and for very short, fast bursts in a song, you can use boost arrows. Also, run songs almost always go from left to right, and it's unusual to go the opposite way.

Fall takes up as much space as run, and plays fast or slow songs. Even if, it's not usually used for fast songs, due to it being hard to go down faster than left or right. It's not very preferred by most EE musicians.
2. Portals!
You want to have a lot of portals if you're creating a music world, especially if you want to make fall or run songs. It's very hard for someone to be going right in a run song, then having to switch, as the builder of the song ran out of room and had to go down a block. Also, remember this always: portals slow down the player by about half a second per block if you're using them. If the player gets too sow, use a small boost item.

3. Tool Blocks
Tool blocks can be very useful when making songs. Most tool blocks will slow down or speed up the player. If you're in a run song, water blocks, right, up and down arrows, up and down boost arrows and dots will speed up the player. Use right boost arrows ONLY when the song you're making has a very short burst of a lot of notes at once.
Left arrows, mud and chains, vines and ladders slow down the player. Try to use mud very little, as it makes the player almost stop. NEVER use left boost arrows, because they will stop the player completely and send them in the opposite direction, leaving them confused.
In fall songs, water slows you down, up arrows speed you up and mud still slows you down. Rarely ever use down boost arrows, and NEVER use up boost arrows.
Also, you can loop a song by using switch door and gates or coin door and gates, like this:

4. Coins
Coins are a fun addition and goal. Try to add coins at the end of each song, and give prizes behind coin doors, like cake, a trophy, a crown or (if you have it) a diamond. Try not to use coins randomly in songs, though, because it adds to the song with the coin sound.

5. Pixel Art
If you know how to do it well, use pixel art! Many solid blocks have minimap colors that are the same as backgrounds, and you could put JUST background blocks into your songs. If you make it relater to the song, then that's a double score!

6. Fast Songs and Popular songs
No one can resist a fast paced, upbeat song. So, try to use them as much as you possibly can! But remember: if it's a song that you've heard in a lot of levels, don't use it! Most people have probably already heard it and don't want to go through it again. But, if it's a popular song that ISN'T used much, people will mostly recognize the song and like it! Also, retro music seems to be popular among EE musicians, especially songs from the game Final Fantasy.

7. Your Own Song
If you create your own song, that's awesome! But remember this: don't use the same notes over and over again. I haven't seen a really nice original song yet, and would love to hear the first!

8. Drums
Drums are a more rarely used pack among musicians. They do tend to sound nice in the background of songs, but overusing them makes them bad. NEVER make a song with the same beat just repeated, and nothing else! Percussion instruments (AKA the stuff in the drum package) are meant to only be in the background and to keep a rythm going.

9. Citations
In case you didn't know, citing something is telling everybody where you got it. It's nice if, when people haven't heard the song you made, you put the name on your level or the forums or somewhere else they can find, so they can look that song up! Everybody Edits comes with only one octive (how high-pitched the notes from A-G are) of a piano package and a drum package, which can't make a full song usually. So, it might sometimes sound weirder than it normally would.

10. 'Bands' I've noticed just about every popular music level was made by a crew, or, we could call it a band. Group together with some musically-talented friends on EE and make a level together! It may just end up featured!
Well, there's most of the stuff that I know about being an EE musician. Hope it helps, and good luck! Crastopher out!

Last edited by crastopher (May 4 2013 8:07:38 am)

AzurePudding

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

I've heard one original song on EE, it's called Chihua dong or something, and it's one of the best songs I've heard on EE.

I am terrible with music, but I knew most of this stuff already.   Do you musicians just pick a note and test and test and test a lot?   Because that just sounds tedious.   Though I have heard the same songs in levels which sound identical with notes and spacing, so I'm not sure if there's some site you all go to and just copy or just strangely and coincidentally make the same song sound just the same as everyone else.

crastopher

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

Eh. I don't do that, I'm naturally talented at music, and at playing by ear at that. And those are n00bs, who go through, tediously copying someone else's music, like Megalamb's, to try and gain popularity.

Koto

Member

Joined: 2015-02-18

Posts: 3,269

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

I've heard one original song on EE, it's called Chihua dong or something, and it's one of the best songs I've heard on EE.

I am terrible with music, but I knew most of this stuff already.   Do you musicians just pick a note and test and test and test a lot?

I don't feel like explaining, the complexities of how Music Theory works, because it would take a long time.   I've learned through piano lessons as a little kid, and more than one Music Theory classes in high school, and I don't understand everything.   Anyways, it would essentially be the same as anybody writes any song.   Different intervals between notes, and chords go sound better than others.   I'd have to go fishing for my old Music-theory books, to explain any better, but if you want to learn about it in-depth, try going here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory.

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Everglade

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

Do you musicians just pick a note and test and test and test a lot?

You could do, but as you said, that would be tedious.

As others have said, you can approach things much more efficiently with knowledge of Music Theory.

Whether you are copying a real song into your EE level, or making your own song, it will sound nice if you construct something with a continuous Tempo and Notes which follow a specific scale.

The original poster has helped by showing you how to construct paths that make your smiley go at a certain speed which correlates with a certain tempo (Beats Per Minute).

From there, you just have to work out what the songs scale is and what it's melody is that you are recreating. And then place down the notes appropriately in the right place. (This may take a little bit of trial and error to find the right places, but you should get a rough idea of the intervals).

If you are making your own song, what i tend to do is make the beats first. And then i get an idea for a melody and find the scale of what is in my head and place the notes down, in the right intervals. (Again, a bit of trial and error, but you should have a rough idea).

Last edited by Everglade (Apr 28 2013 7:51:12 pm)

Koto

Member

Joined: 2015-02-18

Posts: 3,269

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

This should help anybody wanting to take a real song, and put it into ee: http://www.jellynote.com/

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Atikyne

Formerly Kentiya

From: United States

Joined: 2015-02-16

Posts: 1,113

Website

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

7. Your Own Song
If you create your own song, that's awesome! But remember this: don't use the same notes over and over again. I haven't seen a really nice original song yet, and would love to hear the first!

http://everybodyedits.com/games/PW-RPUMiYKbEI

The first song in that world I made using random notes. It does have some repetitiveness but I made it a few months ago when I wasn't as good at music as I am now.

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Kentiya / Atikyne — EE & EEU lead artist 2018-2020

Supershadow30

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

Hi, crastopher. When I got piano and drums packages, I wanted to do music... I try, try, try and retry... But I never find how to do it with the good beat nor the good melody... Here's the music I want to do (126 B.P.M.(Beat Per Minute)): http://laurashigihara.bandcamp.com/albu … le-in-game.

Last edited by Supershadow30 (Apr 30 2013 6:42:30 am)

crastopher

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

Uh, that link seems to be broken...

Koto

Member

Joined: 2015-02-18

Posts: 3,269

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

6. Fast Songs and Popular songs
No one can resist a fast paced, upbeat song. So, try to use them as much as you possibly can! But remember: if it's a song that you've heard in a lot of levels, don't use it! Most people have probably already heard it and don't want to go through it again. But, if it's a popular song that ISN'T used much, people will mostly recognize the song and like it! Also, retro music seems to be popular among EE musicians, especially songs from the game Final Fantasy.

Not fast, but a popular song: http://everybodyedits.com/games/PWiFavWvTVa0I

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Supershadow30

Guest

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

Uh, that link seems to be broken...

Here's the link (it was because I replaced "track" by "album" ): http://laurashigihara.bandcamp.com/trac … le-in-game

Not fast, but a popular song: http://everybodyedits.com/games/PWiFavWvTVa0I

Good song!!! I wooted... 2 times...

Last edited by Supershadow30 (May 3 2013 4:04:11 pm)

XxAtillaxX

Member

Joined: 2015-11-28

Posts: 4,202

Re: Some tips for new music artists!

I've fooled around with music quite a bit, I found that falling at maximum speed is actually better for music. It allows you to have more notes being played, even if having to be separated longer distances; it increases the quality of the music, overall.

Going in a straight line isn't too bad, boosting blocks helps quite a bit, but at a cost of room space for the pace.

I would post a link of my room for the music stuff, but sadly people like reporting hacked sized worlds, and MrShoe deletes them even if they are only being used for testing.

Last edited by ?tilla (May 3 2013 5:20:03 pm)

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*u stinky*