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Post by brianLED on Dec 15, 2008 22:21:28 GMT -6
I've said it before, and I'll say it again; watching HCBailly's tutorials was instrumental in starting me out on Mario Paint Composer. However, times have changed since then. New advances have been made, such as soundfonts, dickspeed, four new notes, arranging, and the low A rest glitch. As far as they're concerned, new advances and tactics such as these are as of now esoteric; nobody outside of this community knows as much as we do to push Mario Paint to its limits and make the same songs possible. Anyone who does figure these tricks out does so via observation, or, in other words, imitating/copying us who have done it first, especially considering HCBailly is no longer a prominent Mario Paint Composer and his MPC videos are gradually drifting into obscurity.
My purpose in stating this? I want to make a new, updated tutorial -- something that can show new users these new tricks so we can have the most and the best Mario Paint Compositions possible. This would really help our community grow, and a comprehensive tutorial would be good for its current members as well.
However, I don't want to do any of this alone. I want as much input as possible to get only the best and most accurate information before putting it on Youtube for novices and fans to see. Furthermore, a lot of our users are particularly skilled in particular aspects concerning Mario Paint Composer, such as theEvilGrimace and kacelano with dickspeed, Lologuru (if he may be found) with dynamics, cat and cypher who make soundfonts and many other people. Sorry if I didn't mention your name; these were just examples, it's nothing against you personally, and please don't make a big deal about it.
My point is that a truly successful tutorial would have to be a group project, one in which many different people lend a helping hand. It may be a challenge to make, but it has potential for high rewards. Just look at how many of us are here today!
I have thoughts about how I would organize this, but I'm going to stow them away for now. Please comment on this thread, most importantly, to say if you're interested, to say if you think an updated tutorial should be made. I think this would be a great historical undertaking for all of us, but I need your support first.
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Post by lih on Dec 15, 2008 22:25:01 GMT -6
This needs to be made. I'd be happy to help with this too.
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Cat
Plane
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Post by Cat on Dec 15, 2008 22:48:18 GMT -6
I'll gladly provide some input. I've also got a tutorial (entirely text and pictures) on how to record videos. Unfortunately, many of the Microsoft sound cards made it so the tutorial doesn't work very well. (Note to self: UPDATE IT!)
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Post by Admin on Dec 15, 2008 23:05:15 GMT -6
I've got a mic, so I can record a narrated tutorial. I suppose I could do a section for people want to work by ear -- if no one here minds?
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Cat
Plane
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Post by Cat on Dec 15, 2008 23:06:51 GMT -6
What do you mean by "work by ear"? Do you mean composing by ear or listening to you? I'm not quite sure I understand.
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Post by Admin on Dec 15, 2008 23:09:09 GMT -6
As in, not copping out and using sheet music. How to mess with a song in WMP to get the bass to be really audible, and the countermelody(ies), etc; and then using that to manually figure out the song.
I'm looking at you, 90% of the people here who work by sheetmusic! /shame
Nah, no one would probably watch my section if another one details how to translate from a midi program to MPC.
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Post by cypher8301 on Dec 15, 2008 23:26:01 GMT -6
I'd help. All depends on timing for me though. I can get quite busy at work depending whats going on. Right now, not so much going on.
Cypher
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Post by lih on Dec 15, 2008 23:29:26 GMT -6
A section on doing it by ear would be great. It would be really useful to know how to do those things you mentioned
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Post by theEvilGrimace on Dec 15, 2008 23:34:39 GMT -6
I really think this is a wonderful idea, and I'd absolutely be willing to pitch in. I'd agree fully that HCBailly's tutorials do not cut it anymore, with all that's changed.
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Cat
Plane
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Post by Cat on Dec 15, 2008 23:38:22 GMT -6
Ah, now I get it.
(What if you use MIDIs as a guide, but do a bit of the work by ear?)
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Post by theEvilGrimace on Dec 16, 2008 0:08:09 GMT -6
Do we want to divide this up into several videos? It's aparent that we're going to have a few different sections in this tutorial, so maybe gathering a list of what we want to cover would be important.
Starting simple, we would have (quite similar to HCBailly's): -A brief tour of MPC, how to exchange soundfonts, arrangement features, etc. -Setting up sheet music with notation software, or as tiger said for the people who do things by ear. -Recording and uploading
Moving on: -More advanced knowledge (sliding notes, dealing with low Bb, high C#, and other glitches/techniques) -Dynamics -The Low A Rest Note -Using dickspeed -Editing text files (Actually, Domino covered this one very well!)
And if you're looking to work with soundfonts yourself: -Soundfont editing software -Process of editing
A few other questions we might ask ourselves: -How many videos would we split this up into? -Should we have specialists (Say Satoshi and Cat, for soundfonts, etc.) create their own section of the tutorial? -Voice narration? Annotation narration? -If individuals take on the task of creating sections, who takes what when it comes to simpler sections?
Surely there is more to be considered, I'm just outlining a few major things.
Edit: Synching up multiple screens to play at one time, anyone?
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Post by eataninja on Dec 16, 2008 5:37:27 GMT -6
Unfotunately I can't help too much, since I can't record sound, but I can offer some input.
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Cat
Plane
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Post by Cat on Dec 16, 2008 9:11:52 GMT -6
Because I've got hosting space and already have a partial Mario Paint section, I'll gladly make a text-and-pictures version of the whole thing.
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Post by brianLED on Dec 16, 2008 15:21:39 GMT -6
That's precisely the sort of format which I was thinking. Start with the basics first, get people on their feet, and move on to all the advanced stuff later. Doing this would allow people to compose at their own rates, in a way.
My idea was to make several lessons, each focused around a particular trick or idea, which would allow everything to be developed with as much quality content as possible. It could be anywhere from 10-20 videos, really, but each would be very good and not overly long. HCBailly's were three (two and a half, really) long videos.
As do I. I also would like to use annotations, which would essentially be the transcript of the narration. Annotations could also be used to point out certain items, topics, or features.
Precisely. In fact, we could allow pretty much everyone to do their own portion, if it pleases. Then each person (especially those who contributed) would be able to make a playlist of all the videos so far, and that would allow for a lot more publicity (more users = more widespread publicity). This is of course open to anyone who is willing, that is (especially really experienced composers)
My brief outline (It starts out somewhat similar to HCBailly's and it looks like what theEvilGrimace also had in mind; let me know what you think -- things to be added, reordered, merged, etc.)
Basics
1. Downloading MPC and just going around the window, briefly identifying each button, tool, etc. 2. Things that can be done without ANY music (i.e. what you have when you make an original composition); this would include placing/erasing notes, playing, looping, rewind, scrolling, adjusting tempo, SHARPS/FLATS, five note limit, and other basic techniques. We could place each note and talk about it a little bit here. 3. Composing with sheet music; downloading and using Notation player, what to do when things are too high/low for the Composer staff, etc. Tempo -- how to make it suit the composition (doubling, tripling, etc.), getting around 5 note limit, etc. 4. Recording; using the arranger, downloading and using recording software (what different options there are; this is a place where a lot of people could use help, so this section needs to be particularly informative), uploading videos to Youtube
Then a bunch of detailed sections; I'll just list for now 5. Dynamics 6. Echoes 7. Using Soundfonts 8. Dickspeed I like theEvilGrimace's idea with Tips and Glitches so we'll include that somewhere too. And I also like angryiger's Composing By Ear as its separate section, though I'm not quite sure where it could fit in as of yet. Just keep in mind we can't be condescending to those who don't compose by ear in the tutorial.
Then a bunch of advanced techniques 10. Text editing 11. Making soundfonts (this could be several videos in itself) 12. Working with multiple MPC windows Any other advanced techniques that you can think of.
Other things that I'm thinking about (not overly important, and may develop into side-sections) * Learning How to Read Music -- since all this assumes that a person already knows how to do that * Techniques behind Original Compositions * How to make Real-World Compositions successful in Mario Paint And anything else along those lines. * How to use the original Mario Paint and contend with its limitations
I'm glad so many people are interested in making a tutorial! It will require a solid amount of hard work, but everyone will win, both inside and outside the Mario Paint Hangout/Community
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Post by Guru on Dec 16, 2008 15:30:49 GMT -6
I would gladly contribute, if I could find the time. Hehehehehehehe, I was thinking: "How to get addicted to a soundfont". ;D
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Post by winterbourne2k on Dec 18, 2008 19:59:16 GMT -6
Since I use a Midi notation player to read notes, I have no trouble reading sheet music. I can help distinguish between Bass and Treble clef and how to work the bass notes in the singular treble clef MPC, work out a standard piano sheet music (works along with volume control for softer to harder hit notes, crescendo, decrescendo). Proper tempo calculation for 16th notes (our default MPC recording tempo based on a majority of compositions, otherwise, it'd be 8th notes). I have a mic too so I can record (it's not as bad as when I record my MPC compositions).
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