Pace ~ Walk On

Hope is the fear that keeps us moving.
Just walk on.

Piano Sheets~

I’d upload a ton of shit but then I realized all you really need are the sheets, if you’re stupid enough to play this.

Oh wait, I did upload a ton of shit. Whatever.

Here’s the original .mus; THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD IT. After getting the sheets done, I started with a .mov recording using my new camera, but I had to convert that to a .mp3, so here that is. The image can be found here (it’s 1920 x 1080, the quality was ruined when I saved it as a .jpg, but please clicky), and was originally this, from Customity. You can download (not watch, that’s broken) the video itself here.

The Composition

I think Pace’s Latin/Roman/whatever, for peace (Pax Romana and all that). And that’s what this is supposed to be – a peaceful scene. No fancy notes, a simple peace that ONLY A CHILLLLLLLLD CAN PLAY IT!

A simple piece.

I’m not sure how I got the motivation for this – perhaps it was from listening to the King’s Speech soundtrack (which sounds nothing like this), but I realized that a simple piece could sound beautiful, too.

So, the main chords are inspired from (sorry, flare) the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (I mean, it’s in the same key, even). Everything else is mine, though.

The Recording

Honestly, this was a pretty horrible recording, and you have to turn your volume up quite a bit, but it passes for its job. I’d like to see what happens when other people (cough, nobody will do this) play this piece – this is definitely not the only interpretation, as the tone would change completely if you played it faster. You’ll notice there’s basically no articulation – because this isn’t the sound I’m looking for. It’s peaceful, yes, but this isn’t the only sound I want from this.

If you do play it, play it any way you want. (BONUS CHALLENGE: All staccatos, but lightly. It actually sounds decent, and with a completely different mood)

As for those really loud bangs – I’m actually playing this really, really quietly. When you turn up the volume, it just sounds like I’m banging. Seriously. And, er, that was some bad word choice.

Though all in all, I do like my new camera.

The Microsoft (perhaps too long; don’t read)

And now I go off-track.

The composition and recording was a breeze (were?), and I sorta put off playing until I got access to the new camera, but everything after that was…

>:|

First of all, the camera made me feel really stupid for a while, and then some.

Anyways, the camera records files in huge-ass .mov movies, even though I only needed to record the audio. This wasn’t much of a problem, because I could always just put an image on top of the video using Windows Movie Maker, right?

…Wrong.

Not only did Microsoft ‘upgrade’ (hah, hah) Windows Movie Maker to Windows Live Movie Maker (which automatically makes you save in the ‘my movies’ folder, automatically sign in using your Windows Live ID(tm), and also lets you publish your video to YouTube without any editing! It’s so professional!), but I couldn’t downgrade it. Even after downloading and installing Windows Movie Maker 2.6, it still opened the file in Windows Live Movie Maker (and don’t even ask how frustrating it was getting administrator access every time I had to install something – seeing as I don’t have access to an administrator account @: ).

This was resolved much later, when I realized the Windows Live Movie Maker, even though it automatically uninstalled Windows Movie Maker for you in your sleep, is a separate program from Windows Movie Maker. Eh, I didn’t get to use Windows Movie Maker, though; but since the timeline has three separate rows, I’m pretty sure I could have finished this entire 5/6ish hour process in, oh, I don’t know, TEN MINUTES.

OK, so I was trying to put an image on top of a video using Windows Live Movie Maker. How hard could that be?

Well, Microsoft upgraded Movie Maker so that now transitions can only be ten seconds long, you aren’t able to edit the timeline, you can only adjust master brightness, and you aren’t able to put images on top of videos.

Oh man, I love this upgrade! It’s so useful! Now when I want to make my SUPER COOL videos consisting of FIFTY pictures of myself at camp, I can add TONS of transitions, a title screen saying ‘my video’, and publish it onto FACEBOOK in under FIVE MINUTES! THIS WOULD BE SO USEFUL TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T WHORE OUT THEIR SOCIAL LIVES EVERY DAY DOING USELESS CRAP!

(Oh shit, I am doing useless crap. Don’t you just love waste-related euphemisms?)

Anyways, try searching ‘overlay image on video windows live movie maker’. Apparently, you have to go in and EDIT THE GODDAMNED CODE, INSIDE WINDOWS LIVE MOVIE MAKER, before you can EVEN PUT AN IMAGE ON TOP OF A FUCKING VIDEO.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, MICROSOFT. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? NOBODY EVEN LIKES YOUR PRODUCTS ANYMORE. THERE IS NO FUCKING LEARNING CURVE WITH THE ORIGINAL WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER, ALL YOU DO IS DRAG BLOODY IMAGES AND VIDEOS ONTO A TIMELINE AND CLICK SAVE. Though I must admit my pinky hurts that there is less learning curve with Windows Live Movie Maker, because now THE ONLY THING YOU’RE BLOODY ALLOWED TO DO IS DRAG A PICTURE ONTO THE PROGRAM, CLICK SAVE, AND THERE YOU GO, IT’S YOUR PICTURE, BUT FIFTEEN TIMES LARGER IN FILE SIZE. I HOPE YOU’RE PRETTY BLOODY WELL HAPPY BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT WE’RE GIVING YOU, NOW DEAL WITH IT.

(Oh man, I just realized how little derogatory adjectives my vocabulary has, but that’s a good thing right)

But there was a way to put an image and video together! I just needed to convert the .mov file into an audio file!

…for free?

Fat chance.

You go try it, go on google and search ‘mov to mp3 converter’. Virtually every program cost something. What’s the point of that? Sure, you can earn money, but wouldn’t you expect a program that offers everything you do, EXCEPT FOR FREE, to steal all of your ‘sales’? Please, we’ve even got CCCP (for free), someone should seriously make a free xxx to xxx converter. Of course, I’m speaking so selfishly it’s not even funny – if I were really smart, I would try to make one myself. But I’m not smart, so I won’t (and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t).

Anyways, after 1/2ish hours and uninstalling like 10 different programs, I found my ray of hope.

AoA Audio Extractor.

I love whoever created that so much it’s not even funny, anymore.

Not only is this completely for free, converts 100% of your file into three different formats and has virtually every input format there is, but it also offers a paid version that offers even /more/ stuff. Instead of having a paid version, and downgrading the features to make a free version, I think AoA had a free version, and then upgraded the features to make a paid version.

When the time comes and I have money, I am totally supporting AoA.

OK, so I have my audio file, I go into Windows Live Movie Maker, I find out transitions can only be ten seconds long, blah blah blah, another hour later I’m done! I save my video and upload it to YouTube and zShare, all of which take another hour.

…And then Windows Live Movie Maker seems to have CUT OFF half a minute at the end (you try cutting off half a minute at the end, the last half a minute is actually nothing :P).

So I redo the whole process, two hours pass, and, well, look at…

The Time

Heh, I finished the initial composition on February 17th (you can see it when you download the .pdf, iirc? Last modified on ‘February 17th’ EDIT: Never mind, doesn’t work), waited a month, and now this post was written on March 23rd (despite the misleading URL above). It couldn’t have been written earlier, because that’s when the YouTube video was uploaded, heh. This probably won’t get much attention, so I’ll link it to a front-page post tomorrow – another composition, that was finished even before this one! Isn’t that amazing. Eh, things are falling apart, I haven’t written a proper post in a few days.

Don’t worry, I’ll still walk on.