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SkyeWint
Electronic/ambient artist. I started making music more than random scribblings in the fall of 2010, around the end of November. I think I've come a long way since then!

Skye @SkyeWint

Age 28, Female

Mixing/Mastering Gal

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

Joined on 2/2/11

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SkyeWint's News

Posted by SkyeWint - September 18th, 2013


So I've been moderating a couple IRC channels recently, and I thought that I should write this because people REALLY don't understand how moderation actually works, or what it's like to be a moderator (one that actually does their job, that is).

First of all, it's important to understand that being a moderator is a job. It isn't a privilege. While there are privileges associated with it, such as the ability to kick, ban, and have greater influence in administration decisions, these privileges are not the job itself and are simply there to help with the job. This is an important distinction - in a job there are responsibilities that *must* be fulfilled. There is one specifically for moderation: Enforcing the rules.

When a person breaks the rules, the moderator is obligated to give warnings and then punishment - this is the entire point of being a moderator. It's not that they necessarily dislike you, it's not that they're racist, it's not that they're sexist, it's that what they can see indicates that you broke the rules. Moderators are human, and they are only capable of acting on what they SEE. If they don't see a problem, they can't fix it - and if they see a problem which needs more information to be complete, they might not take action you see as appropriate. The best way to fix this issue is by telling the moderator the truth, backing it up as much as possible (screenshots and log files help), and just being decent to them. They're human. They make mistakes.

Speaking of making mistakes, moderators have it good and bad - other moderators and staff typically understand their mistakes and are more forgiving if they accidentally step over the line. Other users, however, do not - I've seen this quite a bit. When a moderator makes a mistake, often a large amount of normal users will POUNCE on this and use it as 'evidence' that the moderator doesn't deserve to be a mod as they break rules. While the moderators do need to keep their actions as close within the rules as possible, they do still make mistakes, as has been stated before. It is not reason for calling them a poor moderator.

Finally, just respect the moderators. Love them, even. They keep the place clean of trolls and spammers, despite possibly annoying you when you get out of line. Remember that they have to deal with all the trolls, complaints, and administration duties. They do a lot of work to try to keep you happy, and complaining about everything isn't helping them any. Even if you're punished, be respectful - and you're more likely to get the punishment lifted.


Posted by SkyeWint - August 16th, 2013


Well, do you? If you do, and you have $10 to spare, you should check out this new VST by Versil Studios, made by samulis!

http://www.versilstudios.net/tubular-bells.html

As a tester, I can say that it's pretty darn good, especially considering the price.

And as a person reading back over this news post, I can say that it's a completely shameless advertisement.

Posted by SkyeWint - July 27th, 2013


Many people seem to have trouble with transitions, and I've noticed that it often seems to have the same cause - they don't understand how. I LOVE transitions, and would like to do my best to help. Hopefully if you're having trouble with transitions, this will help you.

Item 1: Musical flow.
(This applies to overall composition, and I'll gladly get into it in another post, but for this I'll just post a brief summary of the concept.) If you analyze music, it might eventually become clear that almost all good music has a direction - a purpose - somewhere it's trying to go. Musical flow is very general, and it depicts the overall feeling of the piece - the movement and changes that the piece goes through. If this flow is disrupted, it's often jarring and breaks the person out of their musical immersion. If the flow remains unbroken* throughout the piece, however, the piece simply brings the listener along for a ride, and they 'experience' the music rather than simply hear it.

Item 2: Flow in Transitions.
Transitions are an important part of the musical flow. Most pieces of music have multiple sections, which might end up being very different from each other depending on what the musician is trying to do. The most common place the flow is disrupted is during the transitions between these sections. If you notice, in a piece without good transitions you can tell precisely when one section ends and another begins - and it breaks you out of your immersion every single time until you're used to it. The flow should be retained between sections during the transitions - INCLUDING the intro and outro. The outro of a piece is more important, as it keeps people from having a rude awakening from the immersion. The intro is not as important, but is still relevant. Remember, the intro and outro are transitions too - from silence to music and from music to silence.

Item 3: How to transition within music.
Now that the more artsy-fartsy thoughts about transitions out of the way, here are more mechanics. When transitioning to and from a section, there needs to be some kind of buildup or preparation for the transition. This is not just a reversed cymbal, but more buildup in the composition, often a rise in tension and possibly volume. Some ways to do this are using pitch slides, arpeggios, introducing some dissonance, and/or changing the chord progression slightly. More advanced transitions have foreshadowing, where there is a mock transition earlier in the piece. Now the actual transition comes. The actual transition is commonly some kind of momentary climax in the piece (unless it is a transition to a piece's climactic section, in which case it's simply beginning the climax), though it could be something more unorthodox. Reversed cymbals, cymbal rolls, and white noise sweeps are commonly used. Drum fills and arpeggios are another good way to do so. There are other ways to transition, but those are some of the simplest and clearest. Finally, the end of the transition. There should be a release to the tension as well. Some ways to do this are by having the drums use crash cymbals, deep thuds (kick with low end reverb), or other sound effects. For instruments only, you can complete the arpeggio or use fortissimo octaves for emphasis of the first note. Note that all examples used in this are not the only ways of achieving the effect specified - there are more ways than those stated.

Item 4: How to do the outro.
This is something that many people forget about, possibly because it's a bit more difficult than transitioning between sections. There is no way to ride out the end of the transition, so what is needed here is some kind of conclusion. The piece almost always needs to feel like it is over, so people will feel the winding down**. A fadeout is often used, but it is a lazy way of completing a piece of music. Some ways of concluding are using a large chord, having an effect to 'wind down' the piece (such as pitch-sliding everything down or up), using filters to take out instruments by high or lowpassing them while fading them out, or simply fading out a single instrument after 'concluding' the piece.

Item 5: How to introduce the piece.
Most people have reasonable introductions, and this is not as important as the transitions within the music or the outro, but it is still good to be able to do. The intro should introduce the piece, coming in from silence. Suddenly introducing instruments might or might not work depending on the instruments. Typically if this is done, there should be a filter of some kind introducing the instruments from a quieter volume. Drum fills make good introductions, as do pads or legato strings.

Item 6: Club Mixes.
While I don't normally make Club Mixes, they typically have a specific kind of intro and outro - a four-on-the-floor bass drum. This is meant to allow DJs to transition easily between different songs. It's not overly difficult to pull off, as you are no longer transitioning from silence. Remember, the four-on-the-floor bass drum is just how they typically begin and end - it is NOT what they ALWAYS do. That said, I would recommend having the intro and outro be able to transition with a four-on-the-floor beat.

Hopefully this was of some help to you, even if just in general. If anyone wants specific examples of transitions in the context of musical pieces, I'll edit some into the post!

If this was helpful and you think someone else could benefit from it, please show it to them. :) If this gets a good response, I'll likely post it on the Music In Simple website when that is created.

Any questions or edits you think could be made? Please PM me.

*Pauses in the flow of the piece and breaks in the music CAN be used within the flow to good effect. However, it is difficult to do this and many people won't be able to at first. If it fits in the flow, go for it!

**Some conclusions can feel unfinished depending on the intentions of the piece. In club mixes this applies, so see Item 6. It can also apply in jazz, but that is in more advanced compositional theory and will not be covered here.


Posted by SkyeWint - July 20th, 2013


So, I'm in the NGADMand up against a good friend of mine - SoundChris. BALLS. Fortunately, I have a good idea or two in my head, and I plan on getting them done right.

Now, as for these projects and stuff that I mentioned...

1. I made a soundtrack for a game which should be coming out soon. I've helped with a few other things as well, and hopefully it'll get sponsership and I'll get some cash from it. :D When it's out, I will post a link so everybody better check it out.

2. As you probably noticed, my icon changed. Reason being, I am now part of Versil Studios, a group founded by Samulis. You can check us out here: http://versilstudios.net/

3. Here's the big one. I have something planned to start next year. It's called "Music In Simple", it'll be a website, and it'll be all about how to make music... with music tutorials written cleanly and simply. I've noticed that music tutorials are almost always (a) hard to find, (b) hard to understand, or (c) not very useful. I want to rectify that, by creating an organized group of simple tutorials that are easily accessible by anybody. I will likely end up needing an artist (or two), and some people to write tutorials for various different DAWs, for various topics (music theory and sound synthesis), and *maybe* some programming help. This one will be a biggie, and I hope to get it to grow so that more people will be able to learn how to music REALLY good.

So. There's all my big news. c: Hopefully people are excited about one, two, or all three of them! (also hopefully I'll do well in the NGADM)

Now to get to work! >:D


Posted by SkyeWint - July 5th, 2013


Alright so this isn't all the cool news I was talking about in the last post - but that's coming, no worries! :D I'm trying to get all of that planned out right now.

What this WILL be is a rant. Kinda. If you're going to post rage without reason... please don't.

First of all, I like to read. I think that reading is awesome, and I love books. Don't get me wrong there, language and language classes are important. However, there is a point where they get ridiculous for being mandatory - that point is when a person is meant to analyze "important literature" for literary devices and themes and similar. There are some good reasons - such as giving people material for learning to write essays, or to force people to read more and be exposed to other kinds of literature. But there are some flaws with this.

I would like to put forward this statement: Literature is an art form, similar to music or visual art. If someone disagrees with me, I would love to hear their reasoning.

Now, in light of this - literature being an art form - are there any reasons why learning and analyzing literature is a mandatory part of classes while learning and analyzing music or visual art is not?

I personally cannot see any. All three enrich a person's life. Reading is important, but so is listening to music and so is seeing art. All three broaden a person's mind, and all three increase the person's capability to communicate. Some people like to analyze music, some people like to analyze books, some people like to analyze visual art. There is nothing wrong with any of these, but why is one mandatory in education and the other two not?

There's my question for the day. To date, every time I've asked this I haven't gotten a single answer which (A) isn't also reasoning for having mandatory visual art and music analysis classes and/or (B) is a reason that actually applies.

Any thoughts?


Posted by SkyeWint - June 23rd, 2013


Well, I promised myself that I wouldn't do this until I got to 95 fans and I have.

I am SO close to reaching triple digits it's crazy. You guys are all awesome. :D If you know anyone else, it'd be great if you could get them to convert. If I manage to get to 100 fans, then I *might* release a few details on a couple awesome projects I'm working on, one with other people and another which is huge... and on a more immediate note (heh heh, I did a funny) I'll definitely be inspired to win the NGADM! (well, hopefully)

Thanks to everyone, here's hoping I'll be saying hello again in triple digits!


Posted by SkyeWint - May 16th, 2013


The NewGrounds Music Triathalon (NGMT) has started!

This is the first contest I've organized - it has cash prizes, awesome artwork, and three rounds which anyone can participate in.

It features a community-based judging system, unique themes, and limitations to push anyone's creativity to the limit.

If you'd like to join (and please do), the thread is right here: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1340128 Please do tell me any thoughts you happen to have on it.


Posted by SkyeWint - April 20th, 2013


Okay, so this time I thought that I should say... I've achieved second place in ANOTHER contest, this one with a prize of $125! I plan on using this money to get EWQL Ra (not Symphonic Orchestra, because I decided that I want ethnic instruments more). So with a little luck, discounts, and possibly asking for a bit of extra money, I should be getting Ra soon (EXPECT RANDOM ETHNIC FUNK FOR A BIT)! After that, I'm planning on going for Addictive Drums and then Symphonic Orchestra.

In any case, aside from my purchasing plans...

The contest submission I used was an arrangement of my piece Moon Lake in the Sun. You can find the arranged version here, and the original here. There is also some sheet music which people can download for the low low price of 5 seconds viewing an ad. Every little bit counts, so even if you don't download the sheet music, it'd be awesome if you could click it anyway and close it after 5 seconds just 'cause. :3 (I understand if you don't though) Unfortunately, I completely forgot to add any slurs throughout, so if you're playing flute, don't be afraid to make things legato. You don't need to tongue everything!

That's all for now. Toodles!

(Oh wait. I suppose I should say that I might be uploading some piano improv soon, if you like that kind of thing)


Posted by SkyeWint - April 17th, 2013


I know the last update was only 4 days ago, but I actually finished the piece of music I was working on. It is probably going to be different from most of the music you've heard with a basic 1-2-3-4 kick AKA four-on-the-floor beat.

Here it is!

Also, news flash: Omnisphere is amazingly sexy and sexily amazing. If you can get it I highly recommend it for making pretty much any genre of music ever.


Posted by SkyeWint - April 12th, 2013


I know that everyone loves a nice status update where they can see what the heck another person is doing. After all, isn't privacy a thing of the past?

...well, it seems that way to me.

Regardless, here's a status update! I submitted two pieces of music to the NATA contest. One depicts fear and is the normal expected ambient tritone stuff with creepy FX in it. The other one is my normal... something different. It's a piece depicting contentment which involves jazz scat voices, guitars, synths, and steel drums. Whooooooo.

If you haven't heard my pieces DMT or BoaAN, you should do so right now because they're awesome and so far really really popular.

I'm currently working on a piece of music which has the normal four-on-the-floor beat and is... unique. I like taking on challenges. ^_^