My Attempts At Beepbox

This is where some of the little tunes I've made with Beepbox/Jummbox go. They're extremely simple 'cuz I don't know anything about music theory, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that you could add channels. Most of them are pretty experimental, hence the amount of stuff on here.

♥ marks the tracks I'm most proud of. Click on the pagedoll to go back.

2024

♥ Pumpkin Party (Cover) (Redux) 12/18

Somehow it's always my covers that end up being the longest.

After backscrolling and relistening to my older Pumpkin Party cover, I realized I could do better. So I did better. I'm especially proud of the banjo solo & the whistling outro.

Dream Cave 12/11

The electric piano bit here came to me in a vision. You'll notice that I heavily referenced my Dream Eaters track here, just 'cuz it's also on the Mixolydian scale. Also I've gotten addicted to having my songs reference each other.

Sidebar, but it's funny how Donkey Kong Country basically trained us to think of electric piano as "water level music".

♥ Sol 12/1

A chill jam that started from a simple chord progression. Kinda has a Red Hot Chili Peppers vibe. I think this is the catchiest song I've ever made.

Blackrose 11/20

Something of a sequel/companion to Blackthorn. I wanted to see if I could modify that same motif into a 4/4 reel style, but it ended up sounding more bluegrass-y. Still pretty decent.

Knightslayer 11/12

Another song in 3/4 on the Dorian scale... kind of. This borrows a few ideas from the Dergos bossfight track. Honestly I think this is more effective at setting the mood for the character...

♥ Blackthorn 11/6

My first attempt at using a tempo change! Also a sample I found online.

Woods Song 3.0 11/1

A third iteration on my old Woods Song. I think this one is much closer to the atmosphere I originally had in mind for it. The small sliver of major key adds some brightness as well, which is refreshing. It's been fun to revisit this occasionally & see what I've learned.

♥ Dream Eaters 10/16

Been a while since I made a really good battle theme. The chords have a very dreamy trance feel to me (hence the name), so I imagine this'd be the music you hear while fighting the Sandman or something. Note the references to my Nature song.

Pepper Steak (Cover) 10/3

This is one of those things that I mostly did just to see if I could. It was especially interesting to use MIDI-based software to cover something that was (as far as I know) mostly constructed from samples. Still, I think it turned out pretty decent. You'll note that I added a few extra flairs & harmonies, just to keep things interesting.

♥ Vibe of the spider (Remix) 9/23

This is a remix of Murumart's song from a couple years ago. I really like studying other people's Beepbox songs. It helps me get a better sense of mixing/composing styles and so on. Note the layering here.

jamboree in 5/4 9/20

My first proper attempt at 5/4! This was insanely hard, and honestly I'm not super happy with the result. But it was an interesting experiment.

♥ Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans (Cover/Remix) 9/4

The idea of a jazzy remix of this song came to me right before I went to sleep one night. It was extremely fun to do, as are a lot of jazz arrangements. Honestly I might even like it a little better than the original. Somehow, though, this feels like it ought to have vocals for the melody... But eh. I'm not a singer, nor do I own any Vocaloid software.

Egad! 8/31

Another try at spelling out words with notes! As the title says, the 4 opening chords of this song are EGAD. This also has a small reference to my Dead Face song from a while ago. I had a lot of fun here, but this still feels like it's missing something...

♥ Trollcops (Cover) 8/2

A new record holder for the most complicated song I've ever done. Turns out Beepbox's vibraphone preset is insanely good.

♥ Space Synths 7/23

Originally I wanted this to have a distinctly '80s feel. That initial hook popped into my head as part of some imaginary dancepop track, like Depeche Mode's more radio-friendly stuff. However, it ended up sounding much more like modern-day synthwave. I guess you can't rewind 40 years of progress. Not with my experience level, anyway.

Moonsetter (Cover) 7/16

Another crack at Homestuck music. This one was deceptively complicated. It got to the point I had to cheat & reference a MIDI file that I found here. Still, I did my best to put my own spin on it; you'll notice I even included the Sunslammer motif, since it just felt right.

♥ Gerudo Valley (Cover) (Redux) 7/12

After some thinking, I really wasn't happy with how different the old cover sounded. Yeah, it was structurally different from the original, but the original was composed like that for a reason. So I went back and gave it a major facelift.

silly noises 7/8

Mostly just fooling around with instrument settings & mixing here. The chord change at the end is pretty tasty, though.

♥ WHAT!!! 6/14

This one just kinda possessed me. I feel like it needs more, but it also makes a really good loop as-is? We'll see if I add any more to it later.

♥ I Must Go Fast 6/6

Really took my time with the mixing here. This ended up sounding like something from a Sonic fangame, hence the name. Chord progression courtesy of Kelprot's latest track.

♥ Dead Face 6/1

First time properly using samples! That weird ASMR whispering is me, actually, an idea shamelessly borrowed from this track. Also, the opening notes do indeed spell out DEAD FACE. I might try spelling words with notes again in the near future.

Dergos the Red 5/28

My longest & most complex song yet. A sort of final boss theme for GrimQuest.

Oz's Theme (Redux) 5/10

I really wasn't satisfied with the first theme I made for Oz, especially 'cuz he's the main character of that story. So I decided the best way to fix it would be to just... change it completely. Short but sweet.

hometown or something 5/5

An attempt at using the major scale again. Really I just wanted to use the call-and-response with the flute and harmonica. I might use this in one of my crappy RPGmaker tests.

♥ Hyde's Theme 4/25

Back at it with another character theme! Probably the best character theme I've done to date, actually. I incorporated a motif from Dakota's theme into this one, so it's kind of like Dakota's call and Hyde's response. Represents their relationship pretty well.

♥ Lancer (Cover) 4/20

I taught myself the barest basics of piano a couple days ago. Once I figured out how blues scales worked, the opening bar of Lancer's theme was the first thing I tried. Then I thought "this sounds like lounge jazz", and immediately ran to my laptop to make this. I want you to picture Lancer in a little trenchcoat & holding a magnifying glass. He's going to the crime scenes. He's eating the mysteries.

♥ The Funky Clav 4/8

After seeing this video by Louie Zong, I decided to give it a try for myself. For those who don't wanna watch the video, it's essentially Zong explaining something he calls "funky clav," which is just a blues scale with an added major 6. (I am very proud of myself for knowing what that means.) It was nice to make something simple and fun after the active struggle that was the previous song.

CJ's Theme 4/6

After finishing up the Gerudo Valley theme cover, I thought it'd be fun to play around a little more with a Spanish guitar type of sound. Which would be a perfect excuse to do another character theme, this time for my cowboy CJ. And then I was busy, and then I caught a nasty stomach flu. Even without the stomach flu, this song kinda fought me a little! But overall it was definitely worth it. I took a few cues from the Where the Water Tastes Like Wine soundtrack here (which you should definitely check out).

Riot's Theme (Redux) 3/14

Remember Riot's theme from September? I wasn't happy with the way the syncopation changed, so I wanted to see if I could improve on it. ...And then this happened. Yeah. Genuinely, I do not know if I like this or not, but it's much more experimental than what I usually do.

Joyous 2 3/2

A new and improved version of the Joyous song from a little while ago. Originally I put this together to use for a crappy little RPGmaker test game, but I may save it for a later, better project.

♥ the banjo is back 2/27

I said I'd make a more high-energy version of the previous song, and I did. You'll also note that I reused the melody of the time-traveling banjo song. This time, though, it's in 3/4 rather than the bastard's 4/3.

♥ yeesh 2/20

I've been kinda curious to try the bagpipe preset out for a while now. It's honestly just okay, but this song turned out very nicely. Might make a more high-energy version of it sometime. The motif at the end especially has potential...

♥ help me 2/12

I first heard this melody in a dream.

While this was extremely tricky to figure out, I think it ended up wildly successful. There was a lot of fiddling with instrument settings & mixing here.

Plague 2/8

Just like the Light theme was a "brighter" version of the Shadow theme, this is a slower, sludgier, and corrupted-sounding version of the Nature theme. Of course, a true Plague song would be borderline unlistenable, but I didn't want to subject anyone to that.

♥ footstare part 2 2/4

Recreated the triplets version of the Footstare song from August, with a few extra bits. Also in a lower key. Honestly I like this one much better. It's got that cartoon cowboy atmosphere to it.

♥ Nature 1/29

Another Flight Rising song, this time another reel sort of thing. I think I'm starting to develop a composing "style" of sorts, although I'm wary of settling into a pattern too soon. That said, this faux-acoustic sound is where I'm finding the most inspiration.

I've been making a lot of music this winter. This is the first song in a while I've been truly satisfied with, though.

Light 1/25

Yet another Flight Rising song! I tried to make this a deliberate mirror to the Shadow theme, but on the major scale & in a higher key. Not as close as it could be, but similar enough that it's thematically appropriate. The mixing on this one turned out really well, I think.

Shadow 1/16

Even more playing with 3/4. I really wanted to nail the atmosphere of the Shadow flight, though I don't think I was 100% successful here. But I'm playing with the pan feature for the first time. So hopefully that's effective.

KoboldCore(TM) 1/4

Was going through some old posts, saw this video, and thought I'd borrow that same bassline. Featuring the same motif as the GnomeCore song.

♥ Dakota's Theme 1/1

Since I have a noir detective character, I knew sooner or later I'd have to try my hands at jazz. The chord progression here is the same as that one Nina Simone song, I believe. Everything else was a matter of figuring out time signature. This is some sort of bastardous 6/8, because I refuse to work any more in actual eighths than I need to. Otherwise nothing groundbreaking, but for how tricky this was, I think I did pretty well. (Might reuse this motif.)

2023

♥ Water 12/30

Last song of the year! I felt like doing something in 3/4 again, as well as another Flight Rising inspired song, so a Water song felt like a natural fit. Once again trying to incorporate Themes into a song (the sonar pings in particular represent the search for the Tidelord). Also it turns out when you crank the "voice ooh" preset to a high enough pitch, it sounds like someone whistling, which is cool.

Time-Traveling Banjo 12/19

More of an experiment than anything else. Like the theme song of an Irish folk musician who becomes the companion in a newer Doctor Who arc.

♥ some kinda reel thing 12/9

If you saw the earlier version of this: no you didn't.

I love the fiddle preset. Here I really wanted to push it to its full potential.

♥ Icirrus City (Cover) (Redux) 12/8

Because the mistakes in the old one were starting to bother me. This isn't actually long; it's just a little looping trick so the violin from the outro overlaps the intro properly.

Evil Waltz 12/5

So it turns out I had 3/4 confused with triplets this whole time. To amend this, I tried making an actual original song in 3/4. As it says on the tin, it's an evil waltzy tune of some sort. Not exactly groundbreaking.

♥ Lightning 12/1

I originally made this song to sound like a sort of theme for the Lightning element from Flight Rising. In particular, the way the "retro" drums sound always makes me think of clanking machinery, so they felt appropriate. Once again messing with the blues scale.

♥ Megalovania (Cover/Remix) 11/18

Holy shit.

The King Really Likes Jazz 11/10

Another attempt at bossfight-like music. Originally I wanted this to sound kind of medieval in a very cheesy way (hence the choice of instruments), but was really struggling to make it sound coherent. Then I tried putting it on the "blues" scale and... well, just listen to it. (This is yet another deceptively simple song. I think this has the most instuments of all my tracks so far?)

♥ Purgatory FIGHT! 11/02

I wanted to make something like a bossfight version of the Purgatory song I did earlier. While this isn't quite intense enough to qualify as boss music, I still like it a lot.

♥ play de geetar 10/27

Recreation of a song I made in 1BitDragon a while back, plus some extra instruments. I think I've gotten much better at making music over the past year.

Less Follish 10/22

Reusing some ideas from the Follish song via... whatever this is. The intro is absurdly long, especially for my particular tastes. But it works, so.

Purgatory 10/17

A little concept music for that game I might never make. This'd be for the "afterlife" area you wander around in when your character dies.

ANNOYING 10/15

Decided to try a scale besides the usual major/minor scale and ended up with this monstrosity. This could be the theme of an anthropomorphic mosquito shopkeeper, or maybe my character Hyde. I don't recommend playing this on loop.

♥ The Livin' Is Easy 10/08

Normally I struggle a lot with the major scale, but this song just sort of came naturally to me. Maybe it's because I started with the bassline and just noodled around from there? Helps that Ultrabox has a few pretty excellent bass presets.

♥ Funky Magic 09/27

This started out as me trying to make the type of song you might hear in a mysterious magical cave area while playing an RPG. Then I messed around with scales, and suddenly I had something much more high-energy on my hands. Honestly I think this is the most legit-sounding song I've made to date.

Woods Song 2.0 09/19

This is an improved version of the Woods Song. I still think there could be more to it, but I also like it how it is.

♥ just chill 08/31

Despite the number of channels in here, this one's honestly relatively simple. The koto towards the end of the loop kinda imitates the pattern of the Woods Song I did a while back.

♥ uh um 08/12

Normally customizing instruments is scary, but this just felt right. Fun fact: the bass here follows a similar pattern to the bass in Beatdown.

GnomeCore(TM) 08/09

I don't remember making this one. I think I was experimenting with time signatures?

eighths 08/07

Like the title suggests, this is my first-- and only-- successful song in eighths. It was a complete pain to make and I never wanna do that again.

Credits

Mushroom background by Fool Lovers. Pagedoll from Emojikitchen.