Hey Music Peoples!

[Kragt]

*gets pistol* Shooting self in foot in 3.. 2.. 1... *wo-manly shriek*

While I design a lot of things with pony in mind or to be pony. I am still learning basically everything.

Every song I write at the moment is a matter of "Can I do this?"

(I do have another song written but its on delay due to a sound issue.)

Every song is meant to improve me by expanding on what I know how to do and teach me some new stuff.

I just happen to love ponies enough to try and make them about ponies the same time I try to improve myself.

Actually every song idea I work on starts out with a short melody or a setup of some sort that I can build off of and learn from. Then as I am working on it I find a niche of pony for it. (As explained somewhat in my earlier post.)

Do other ponies starting out making music go through the same steps as me? If so would that kind of thought be countering newer artists who start out in pony themed music?

Just a thought and I am sure I got something out of whack but still I needed to ask. XD

[Versilaryan]

^ I see nothing wrong with that. Every song I write is basically me saying, "Can I do this?" People seem to like them, so I'm not complaining. =P

If you really want good quality control for music, you're going to need prelisteners. That's what I think. We can't really hand you a cheat sheet for what to look out for in music 'cause that's like the prereaders handing us a cheat sheet for what to look out for in fanfiction. There are just so many grey areas that we've brought up these past couple hours alone that I really don't think that getting a good quality filter is possible just on your own without spending a needlessly large amount of time actively listening to every song sent in.

[bartekko]

Music is the same, so is all art.
When you want to have a pinkie pie inspired song, you start with one thing... but then, a wild burst of inspration appears... and it's not pinkie pie anymore.

think of songs as chapters, and characters as single voices in the song, pr whatever, i'm not good at imaginating.

You start with a say, 4 bar loop, that sounds very pinkie pie. but a whole song can't be just a looped loop. so you take something new, and you easily end up sounding nowhere like the beginning

[Circuitfry]

Bar, this isn't about why songs become unrelated to ponies, this is a discussion about what kind of content should be posted to Equestria Daily. There's a general consensus that the kind of music that should go on there needs to be more related to ponies. What kinds of music should be counted as an exception? Where do we draw a line?

[Sethisto]

haha funny you should mention a cheat sheet for the pre-readers :p

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WMM ... AAAAETd6QQ

I might just add a few of you to gtalk as pre-listeners then for stuff new musicians are creating. Nothing too official though, the pre-reader process takes way too long to add another. I barely have time to read all of this stuff!

[Kragt]

g-talk? Depending on how it works I could volunteer *has absolutely no idea what he may be offering to get himself into* XD

Then again I am insanely picky. I may be to stringent/harsh to make a good pre-listener.

[MichaelA]

I would be cool with being a pre listener, I'm open to all forms of music.

[JackleApp]

I'd like to volunteer, if that's alright.
Maybe~ Maybe~

[X-Trav]

I make and study Classical if that's a criteria for Pre-listener.

[Versilaryan]

I'm gonna c-c-combo breaker and say that if anypony thinks I'd make a good prelistener, they are out of their mind. =D

[bartekko]

Basically, we'd need three pre-listeners for each of the major kinds of music (though, one pre-listener may be for more than one kind of music)

I said "kind" not "genre" for a reason

[Overkillius]

If you really want good quality control for music, you're going to need prelisteners. That's what I think. We can't really hand you a cheat sheet for what to look out for in music 'cause that's like the prereaders handing us a cheat sheet for what to look out for in fanfiction. There are just so many grey areas that we've brought up these past couple hours alone that I really don't think that getting a good quality filter is possible just on your own without spending a needlessly large amount of time actively listening to every song sent in.

This.

I feel that Music posts should simply get the same care as fanfic posts.

[Circuitfry]

Basically, we'd need three pre-listeners for each of the major kinds of music (though, one pre-listener may be for more than one kind of music)

I said "kind" not "genre" for a reason

And how would you define kinds? New kinds of music come up all the time, for me. We have had only four or five people chime in to look at new music, so far.

[Calamus_Dash]

text

WARNING: I am terrible at organizing my thoughts, so beware of an unorganized wall o' text:

I don't like the idea of pre-readers deciding whether or not a song is "pony-related"
Maybe it's just me, but I think that it would just pressure people to sample more. You could write a song inspired by one of the ponies or something else in the show, but if you know you'll have a much higher chance of it getting featured on EqD if you put pony samples throughout it, you're most likely gonna do that. This would, in my opinion, lead to otherwise great songs being ruined by samples from the show, which, awesome as they might be, don't sound good in every song. I just feel like it would pressure people too much to use pony stuff in their songs, instead of just writing songs that are INSPIRED by pony stuff.
So, basically, I think it would kind of lead to too many songs using the same tired samples over and over rather than original, awesome content being created (notably, New Lunar Republic and everything Dissonance makes, ever, are examples of great songs that were inspired by the show, but are otherwise original).

I deliberately didn't mention anything about vocals up there, because I think that while vocals are nice, and a GREAT way to link your piece to the show, they aren't necessary to make an awesome song ( again, see the examples above). Some people (read: me) aren't good at singing and don't want to soil a song with poor vocals.
I'm kind of going off on tangents here, but what I'm trying to say is that while I think there should be a minimum quality requirement, I don't think you should have to have samples, vocals, or copy something from the show to get it posted on EqD.

[Overkillius]

We have had only four or five people chime in to look at new music, so far.

I'd definitely be willing to pre-listen for EqD music posts, but I feel like everyone is volunteering when I'm not sure we have a reasonable solution yet...

Should we appoint a committee to talk about this stuff? or am I just over complicating it? xD

[Interrobang Pie]

I can criticise. I have a song called Criticise. This is why you should pick m-

OKAY SO EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A PRE-LISTENER FOR EQD THIS CAN'T HAPPEN

Let Sethy decide on his own. It's his thing after all.

[PinkieGuy]

Basically, we'd need three pre-listeners for each of the major kinds of music (though, one pre-listener may be for more than one kind of music)

I said "kind" not "genre" for a reason

And how would you define kinds? New kinds of music come up all the time, for me. We have had only four or five people chime in to look at new music, so far.

Well, wasn't there three 'kinds' described earlier: Remix, Original and Pony Song.

No, I'm useless for original, because I couldn't tell you the difference between a classical rip off and the next famous brony song. But remixes I could generally syphon through.

Mabye that's the way to do it?

Also...

I might just add a few of you to gtalk as pre-listeners.
a few of you to gtalk
gtalk
g

It's like this was destined.

[Overkillius]

text

more text

I fully agree with this.

[Versilaryan]

Me too. Maybe one of the submission guidelines can be to explain how your music is pony-related?

[bartekko]

And how would you define kinds?

Ahem: Pop, Rock, Orchestral, Techno, Dubstep, while crossing over pop+rock=pop, orchestral + rock=rock, orchestral+techno= techno, dubstep+anything=dubstep

<trollface for separating dubstep and techno>

[JackleApp]

Me too. Maybe one of the submission guidelines can be to explain how your music is pony-related?

THIS

[Circuitfry]

I'd definitely be willing to pre-listen for EqD music posts, but I feel like everyone is volunteering when I'm not sure we have a reasonable solution yet...

Should we appoint a committee to talk about this stuff? or am I just over complicating it? xD

I strongly believe that music community members should discuss what helps to define merit-deserving music for our brony community. Yes.

We need people who are very involved in the community. Not just music, but having a holistic view of the community in general. We need people who are influential and we need people who are insightful. The people volunteering are essentially telling Sethisto that they feel that they are up to the task of observing music and determining if it is of merit to be posted on the site for the community.

We need people who understand what a merit-deserving song should sound like. People who have listened to many tracks, enough to fairly decide for themselves if the song should be on the blog.

We need people who can effectively create criteria and spend time deciding and thinking about what good music is to the community. Some of our members are very qualified for such a job.

[Calamus_Dash]

Me too. Maybe one of the submission guidelines can be to explain how your music is pony-related?

THIS

the only problem I can see with this would be if people just wrote un-pony related songs and then bullshitted an essay about how it's pony related.
Although, now that I've said that, if you can write an essay about how your song is pony-related, it basically IS

[PinkieGuy]

And how would you define kinds?

Ahem: Pop, Rock, Orchestral, Techno, Dubstep, while crossing over pop+rock=pop, orchestral + rock=rock, orchestral+techno= techno, dubstep+anything=dubstep

<trollface for separating dubstep and techno>

And where do you put ambient stuff like Myth's last toastbeard creation (amazing btw myth).

stuff

the only problem I can see with this would be if people just wrote un-pony related songs and then bullshitted an essay about how it's pony related.
Although, now that I've said that, if you can write an essay about how your song is pony-related, it basically IS

It would be the submission in conjunction with the song that would decided, not the conjecture alone.

[Circuitfry]

And how would you define kinds?

Ahem: Pop, Rock, Orchestral, Techno, Dubstep, while crossing over pop+rock=pop, orchestral + rock=rock, orchestral+techno= techno, dubstep+anything=dubstep

<trollface for separating dubstep and techno>

Those are genres, I thought you meant kinds, dude. And there are more genres than that. House, indie rock, heck, let's go crazy. Reggae, speedcore, tribal, hymns, there are many many more forms to consider, here.