Hey, long-time lurker here, posting for the first time. I've been keeping up with things on and off since the first Mardek game hit Kongregate, which was....2007, ~13 years ago. Wow.
It's been an adventure reading about all that's happened over the years (with chunks missing here and there where life got too busy for me to check up on Fig Hunter/Alora Fane). It's been pretty fascinating as I've grown up and always come back to see what you were up to, and it's not an overstatement when I say that the Fig Hunter/ Alora Fane blog posts have at least in part shaped who I am and given me things to reflect on as I've matured from a 9-year-old to now 22. Hopefully not sounding too weird here, but really, there are very, very few things that I've kept up with for this long.
It's late where I am and I have work tomorrow morning, so I don't really have much time to write more, but I do have one question about music.
What program do you use to make your music? I'm not sure if I've seen you mention it before, and I'd like to try it, if I can. I've been making music on Ableton Live since I was ~17 ish, though for the past half a year or so I've really not done much. That one personal blog post where you mentioned how having a high creative ambition leads to a feeling of having wasted one's potential if one doesn't use that creativity (I believe that was what it said, I'm pretty tired right now and could've forgotten) is ringing pretty true for me right now. I'm planning on getting back into music-making soon in Ableton, since my workload this semester is pretty manageable, but I'd also like to try whatever program you use, if possible, just for something new.
Good luck with everything! I'm going to sleep.
1
Tobias 1104~4Y
Hearing things like this really helps me to feel what I'm doing is worth something, so thank you! I hope that what I continue to make and write will continue to add something to your life!
There's enormous satisfaction in looking back over something we made ourselves, so I hope you're able to find the time to make music! I've never heard of Ableton Live, but I just looked it up and I see it's midi-track-based, which I think most music-making programs are? I started with one of those, but switched to something called Sibelius a year or two before I made the first MARDEK, because it uses a sheet music layout, and I was just starting to learn the piano back then so I felt it'd help me with reading music. I don't know how it compares to other music composing programs since I've never really used any, but I like it! It requires a strong familiarity with sheet music notation though, and there's no real control of the timbre/sound of the notes like you'd get with the track-based programs. It's the kind of thing a Classical composer might use.
1
yikole4~4Y
I'll check it out. I'm pretty weak at reading sheet music; I've played piano for a few years, stopped, then played it for a few years again, and I've always been unable to sight-read even the simplest songs, so maybe Sibelius will give me some good practice. In any case, I need to get back to making music, lol.
0
yikole4~4Y
I looked into Sibelius, curious to try it out. How would you say the free version and the two paid versions compare to each other? Which version have you used?
0
Tobias 1104~4Y
I'm currently using a version which I pay a relatively small subscription fee for, so whichever one that is! There's only one really minor feature that I don't have access to (it's something most people wouldn't even notice or need), but I don't know how much is disabled in the free version, so I can't say how it compares to that!
0
yikole4~4Y
Cool, thanks. I'll try out the free version and see how it goes.
It's been an adventure reading about all that's happened over the years (with chunks missing here and there where life got too busy for me to check up on Fig Hunter/Alora Fane). It's been pretty fascinating as I've grown up and always come back to see what you were up to, and it's not an overstatement when I say that the Fig Hunter/ Alora Fane blog posts have at least in part shaped who I am and given me things to reflect on as I've matured from a 9-year-old to now 22. Hopefully not sounding too weird here, but really, there are very, very few things that I've kept up with for this long.
It's late where I am and I have work tomorrow morning, so I don't really have much time to write more, but I do have one question about music.
What program do you use to make your music? I'm not sure if I've seen you mention it before, and I'd like to try it, if I can. I've been making music on Ableton Live since I was ~17 ish, though for the past half a year or so I've really not done much. That one personal blog post where you mentioned how having a high creative ambition leads to a feeling of having wasted one's potential if one doesn't use that creativity (I believe that was what it said, I'm pretty tired right now and could've forgotten) is ringing pretty true for me right now. I'm planning on getting back into music-making soon in Ableton, since my workload this semester is pretty manageable, but I'd also like to try whatever program you use, if possible, just for something new.
Good luck with everything! I'm going to sleep.
There's enormous satisfaction in looking back over something we made ourselves, so I hope you're able to find the time to make music! I've never heard of Ableton Live, but I just looked it up and I see it's midi-track-based, which I think most music-making programs are? I started with one of those, but switched to something called Sibelius a year or two before I made the first MARDEK, because it uses a sheet music layout, and I was just starting to learn the piano back then so I felt it'd help me with reading music. I don't know how it compares to other music composing programs since I've never really used any, but I like it! It requires a strong familiarity with sheet music notation though, and there's no real control of the timbre/sound of the notes like you'd get with the track-based programs. It's the kind of thing a Classical composer might use.