"Otherworlder"
Minnesota, USA
Original Concept:
This year, I'd like to make an album centered around another journey — this time, journeying to an alien world. The goal is to aim for a more cinematic vibe, telling a story while sticking to my electronic roots. I also like albums which smoothly transition between tracks, so I'm going to try and have no pauses for the duration of the album. We'll see how it goes!
Artist Post-Game:
Phew, time really got the best of me this year! I had such grand ambitions for InCoAlMo this time around, and I feel like I could probably have achieved my goals, but life happened --- my college coursework was particularly challenging, so I had to dedicate myself to that more than I planned to, and some other random stuff happened that distracted me from the challenge... yikes, I missed the mark!
So, my biggest lesson learned --- making an entire album in one project file is great in theory, but pretty hard in practice! The nice thing about a single file is that all of your sounds and instruments and effects are at your fingertips, ready for later reuse, which is great if you want a sonically cohesive album. The problem with that, as I discovered, is that mixing is a nightmare --- as different instruments come in and out, the relative audio levels are constantly in flux, so a ton of parameter automation is required, which siphons time and energy away from the actual creative/musical process... I didn't even make it through two tracks and I was like "this is not gonna work", so I started over with the intent to make tracks individually and stitch them together to make a continuous album, and then... well, time got away from me.
Hopefully I'll be better prepped for next year!
Max Q
Minnesota, United States
Check Out the Album
Original Concept:
I'm not sure yet, but my starting idea that I plan to build off of is space-technology-based (I work in the space industry, so I thought it'd be fun to incorporate that somehow). Maybe I'll frame the album like a story, from launch to reentry?
Artist Post-Game:
This was a great experience! I stuck to my initial space-based album concept, and I'm very happy with the outcome. I've historically struggled with bringing musical projects from concept to completion, but I think that the time restrictions and rules imposed by the challenge helped me to remain focused. I've never made something that sounded this decent in such a short span of time. I learned a lot of neat tricks and really refined my production workflow over the past month. I'm very much looking forward to next year!
Discussing the album further, I'm torn between Hohmann, Reentry, and Touchdown for my favorite track. Hohmann has a neat "drop" that is really clean/crisp sounding. Reentry has an interesting feel with the triplets, and the tension/aggression that persists throughout is pretty cool. Touchdown was a bit of a happy accident, as it was the shortest, most-rushed (due to the deadline), and yet turned out remarkably well in my opinion. CR3BP was probably my least favorite, as I wasn't a huge fan of the bassline and the midsection, but it offered something different relative to the rest of the album. All of the tracks were pretty much exclusively created with one synth, and the percussion mostly came from a single sample pack (with some EQ and layered effects). Next year, I'd like to try exploring different synths, and I'd like to try using different samples (or create my own).