Gruber posts
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New Masterclass Schedule + Other Plans!
Hey everyone,With the Celeste Soundtrack complete, I am rebooting! Below are some of the things I’ll be working on until the end of the year:Music MasterclassesFirst thing’s first, I’ve set dates for the next music masterclasses. This is an opportunity to get live feedback on YOUR music (Patrons have top priority!). Tutorials and written articles are great, but getting live feedback will be ...
Celeste Soundtrack (Pico-8 Edition) Released!
Hello everyone!The Celeste Soundtrack (Pico-8 Edition) has been released! Compositions by Lena Raine (@kuraine) Artwork by Christina Antoinette Neofotistou (@castpixel) Pico-8 Arrangements by Gruber (@gruber_music)This was a big project, and I’ve made it available in various ways: The soundtrack is public on YouTube, for everyone to listen. All patrons can download the sheet music here and here...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #8 – Final WIPs!
Soundtrack is (mostly) complete - WHEW!Patrons can hear excerpts from the last five tracks in the video above (only 3.5 mins long). 17 Little Goth 18 Reach for the Summit 19 Exhale 20 Heart of the Mountain 21 My Dearest FriendsFinal tally: 21 tracks 60 Pico-8 carts 100 mins of musicNext steps include listening to each track again, making fine adjustments if needed, exporting all the music from the...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #7 – WIPs & Pico-8 Corruption!
Homestretch!Some more WIPs in the video above (only 4 minutes). You can hear excerpts from the following tracks, comparing the original with my arrangements: 13 Madeline and Theo 14 Starjump 15 Reflection 16 Confronting MyselfAlso included in this video (3:20) is an excerpt of my first ever use of corruption! The original version of Confronting Myself, features some glitchy effects at around 2:10....
Pico-8 Celeste Update #6 – Soundtrack is 50% complete!
Hey everyone,Some more WIPs in the video above, have a listen! (only 4 minutes) You can hear excerpts from the following tracks, comparing the original with my arrangements: 09 Golden 10 Anxiety 11 Quiet and Falling 12 In the MirrorI have to admit, these tracks were very difficult and time consuming. The originals use many open, evolving, ambient textures. Creating these kinds of ambient textures ...
Music Hotkeys! - Pico-8 Tutorial #50
May 25/20 Update - The release of Pico-8 Beta includes a new PAT/SFX music editor. This means new hotkeys!--Thanks to Discord’s 'wethesqueemish' for the suggestion!List is below, and PDF is attached! Not exactly a tutorial, more of a resource :) But this should help give a picture of Pico-8’s music hotkeys and workflows. As you can see, I tried to make it as comprehensive as possible a...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #5 – More WIPs!
Here are some more works in progress, have a listen! (only 3.5 minutes) You can hear excerpts from the following tracks, comparing the original with my arrangements: 05 Postcard from Celeste Mountain 06 Checking In 07 Spirit of Hospitality 08 Scattered and LostThere are a couple of tunes from the soundtrack that I’ve been dreading, mostly because they have so many layers and will be a huge chall...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #4 – WIPs, Have a Listen!
Celeste OST Pico-8 remake is underway!You can watch a video above where I compare the original tracks with my Pico-8 arrangements (will only take you three minutes!). Excerpts are from the first four tracks: 01 Prologue 02 First Steps 03 Resurrections 04 AwakeJust as there’s a certain unity of melody, harmony and sound design throughout the original soundtrack, I’m also trying to keep some sou...
New Masterclass Schedule! – August/September 2019
Hey everyone!I’m really enjoying the masterclasses. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to chat and share music. For the next round of masterclasses, I was going to send out a poll to ask everyone’s preferred times. But considering where you’re all from (Japan, Australia, Europe, West Coast) there’s NO way I’ll be able to make a schedule for everyone.So rather than clutter everyone’s...
Piano Transcription & Deep Analysis – Sugar Ray by Phineas Newborn Jr.
I thought I’d take a break from the grind of writing about hand independence and transcribe something instead.In my own practice, I revisited this tune by Phineas Newborn Jr. called Sugar Ray. I encourage students to learn it because the melody has a very specific piano/band arrangement, it covers a good spatial range at the piano, and it’s a ton of fun to play. I’ve been using it as a means...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #3 – Sheet Music Complete!
All done!Attached is the rest of the sheet music for the Celeste OST: 11 Quiet and Falling 12 In the Mirror 13 Madeline and Theo 14 Starjump 15 Reflection 16 Confronting Myself 17 Little Goth 18 Reach for the Summit 19 Exhale 20 Heart of the Mountain 21 My Dearest FriendsYou can find the rest of the sheet music, as well as notes on my transcription strategies here.Again, because these sheets are s...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #2 – Sheet Music!
Attached is sheet music for the first 10 tracks of the Celeste OST: 01 Prologue 02 First Steps 03 Resurrections 04 Awake 05 Postcard from Celeste Mountain 06 Checking In 07 Spirit of Hospitality 08 Scattered and Lost 09 Golden 10 AnxietyThese sheets are very fresh, so there may be a few typos and mistakes. When I start the Pico-8 projects, I’ll probably catch some, but in the meantime, if you fi...
Pico-8 Celeste Update #1 – The Game Plan
Hi everyone!Work on my Celeste-OST-Pico-8-remake has begun. If you don’t know Lena Raine, she didn’t an amazing job producing the soundtrack. You can listen to it here. The game Celeste, was released January 2018 and was incredibly successful. It ALSO originally started as a Pico-8 game. This is one of the reasons for choosing to remake Celeste’s soundtrack – to see (and hear) it come full...
June Update - Pico-8 Celeste, Masterclass and more!
Hello Patrons, hope you’re well!Pico-8 Celeste Remake!?Horaayy we’ve hit $200/month! Thank you, thank you! To celebrate, I’m considering remaking the Celeste OST in Pico-8. This will include all the sheet music, so it’s a big project, and will likely take a couple of months. But I think it’s doable : )Next Masterclass…is THIS Sunday, June 9th @ 10am-2pm EST.Patrons get priority feedbac...
Volume Effects (Part 3/3) - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #06
The last MilkyTracker on volume controls and effects! I introduce Lxx, Gxx & Hxx and show a bunch of creative uses. The first two minutes is also dedicated to going through a few hotkeys for quickly opening up menus.By the END of this tutorial, you should know how to: Open up different menus using hotkeys Control volume envelopes with Lxx Use effect Lxx creatively Control global volume with Gxx & ...
Volume Effects (Part 2/3) - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #05
This is the 2nd tutorial of three, exploring volume effects and commands in MilkyTracker. In the previous tutorial, I talked about manually adjusting the volume. In THIS tutorial, I talk all about volume slides.By the END of this tutorial, you should know how to: Tell the difference between manual volume adjustments and volume slides Input volume slides with -x and +x Input volume slides with Axy ...
Volume Effects (Part 1/3) - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #04
There are a handful of volume effects at your disposal in MilkyTracker. To be thorough, I’ve divided these effects into three tutorials.By the END of this tutorial, you should know how to: Set default volume in the instrument editor Override the default volume Manually input volume with xx and Cxx Adjust the volume finely with Dx & Ux Adjust the volume finely with EAx & EBx Use volume commands w...
Music Masterclass - May 12, 2019
Thanks to everyone who checked out the first masterclass stream. Lots of conversations about transcribing & arranging music in Pico-8, making melodies sound better, and more! In case you missed it, I've made this first masterclass video available for ALL Patrons (future masterclasses will be available for $5+). It's time stamped based on the music I was working on, and then based on some o...
SPD and BPM - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #03
What is SPD? What is BPM? How are they different, and how are they related?Understanding SPD and BPM is really important for understanding how volume envelopes and effects work. When I was first learning MilkyTracker, I could never figure them out, and there weren’t any tutorials that explained them thoroughly. This is my attempt at fixing that!Below is a list of the main sections in the full 17...
Announcing Gruber’s Music Masterclasses!!
Hey everyone!Starting in May, I’ll be hosting regular “masterclasses” on Twitch. Send me your Pico-8 carts, MilkyTracker projects, and piano music, and I’ll review them live on stream. If you don’t have anything to show, I’ll be streaming anyways, so come say hello - lets talk about composing, music theory, melody writing, workflow, jazz piano and ALL THE THINGS!Getting live feedback i...
Directional Relationships - Hand Independence and Counterpoint (3/5)
Sept 21/19 Edit – 2600-word update: the las
Important UI Controls & Buttons - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #02
A tutorial dedicated to all the important controls and buttons in MilkyTracker's main view.BPM and SPD are the most complex of all the buttons, so I've reserved NEXT tutorial to talk specifically about those. The first couple of tutorials are pretty technical, but sometimes this information is hard to find, or not explained thoroughly. I'll start writing some music in the next tutorial...
HotKeys you MUST Know - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #01
New MilkyTracker / Chiptune tutorial!Questions and feedback are always welcome and appreciated. Need clarification? Did I forget something? How can I make these better? Is there a topic you’d like to see covered?--Hotkeys are really important when you’re tracking - It’s part of the tracking experience!In this tutorial, I go through the ABSOLUTELY MUST KNOW RIGHT NOW hotkeys. These are the on...
Introduction - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #00
This is an introduction to my tutorial series on making music and chiptunes with MilkyTracker.Questions and feedback are always welcome and appreciated. Need clarification? Did I forget something? How can I make these better? Is there a topic you’d like to see covered?If you’re BRAND NEW to MilkyTracker, I’d recommend first checking out my tutorial series for beginners. Here’s the playlist...
UPDATE – Feedback Series, MilkyTracker Tutorials, and Jazz Piano!
Hello Patrons!Hope you’re well. An update on future content:Feedback SeriesI’ve been thinking about starting a “Feedback Series.” Patrons can send me their music (Pico-8, chiptune, piano music etc.). I can make a kind of tutorial video, suggesting areas of improvement, compositional directions, ideas for practice etc.Being a patron gives you access to lots of tutorials, but sometimes tutor...
Pico-8 Miscellaneous SFX Pack!
Moving, texting, attacking, hitting, opening, dying!!All kinds of different SFX in this pack. I tried to keep them as organized as possible. Let me know if you think I missed any ;)Overall, there are 42 different sound effects. Attached is the Pico-8 cart and a .zip file with 42 .wav files. Below is the list. I think this will be the LAST SFX pack. At least until I think there's another catego...
Pico-8 Tunes Vol. 2!!
Jakub and I released Vol. 1 EXACTLY TWO years ago! Vol. 2 has been in the works for a while, so we're excited to finally have this finished.If you're not familiar with Pico-8 Tunes, the idea was to fill a Pico-8 cart with music that devs can use in their games. Jakub coded some amazing doodles and animations to accompany the music and create a demoscene-like experience. We're also very...
Speedwalker by Vulfpeck (Pico-8 Cover)
Taking a break from the SFX packs. This is a cover of a fun, funky tune by Vulfpeck called Speedwalker. Hope you enjoy!Attached is the Pico-8 cart, an Mp3 for your music library, and an Mp4 for your video library (okay, attaching the video is a bit weird, but why not!?)I think I'll post one more SFX pack next Monday, then start making some MilkyTracker tutorials.
Pico-8 Projectiles and Lasers SFX Pack, Now Available!
🛸🔫 !PEW PEW PEW! 🔫 🛸+5$ Patrons now have access to 25+ .wav files and a Pico-8 cart with SFX for guns, lasers, fireballs and other projectiles! (Link). Watch the YouTube video above to hear them all.Also attached is a .zip file with all those sounds as .wav files. Use them in your games!--ALSO - In case you missed it:Creating SFX (Explosions) - Pico-8 Music Tutorial #49 Watch the full ...
Pico-8 Projectiles and Lasers SFX Pack!
🛸🔫 !PEW PEW PEW! 🔫 🛸Attached is a Pico-8 cart with a 25+ sounds for guns, lasers, fireballs and other projectiles! Also attached is a .zip file with all those sounds as .wav files. Use them, change them!I've attached my live stream session in the video above. You can watch me try to re-create many of these sounds which should give you some ideas of the different workflows for creat...
