Chapter 12
Octavia and Vinyl lay comfortably side-by-side on their worn couch, Vinyl’s white foreleg contrasting with Octavia’s grey coat where it draped across her shoulders. Muted noise emanated from the television set, its program passing unwatched and serving only to cast light into the darkened living room.
“Vinyl, that is the worst idea I have ever heard,” Octavia said, flipping idly through the magazine Vinyl had given to her.
“What are you talking about? It’s for ten thousand bits; with that much money we could start rebuilding Club P0n-3,” Vinyl replied, reaching out with a hoof to jab at the pages for emphasis.
“We won’t win,” Octavia said simply.
“Not with that kind of attitude,” Vinyl replied playfully. “What do we have to lose? Worst case scenario is that we have some fun.”
“Your idea of fun and mine are vastly different,” Octavia said flatly.
“Are you kidding me? We both love music, and I’m talking about making music. Why are you not on board with me?” Vinyl asked.
“No, you’re talking about making an unholy amalgamation of two genres that were never meant to go together.”
“Don’t be such a traditionalist; experiment and improvise!” Vinyl implored.
“No,” the cellist answered in a tone that brooked no argument.
“But Taaavi,” the DJ begged, drawing Octavia’s name out into a pleading refrain.
Octavia turned her head, flatly refusing to lock her gaze with Vinyl’s wide and expressive ruby eyes. “I’m not changing my mind,” she said in a huff. She hardened her heart against Vinyl’s patented puppy dog eyes, solidifying her will and crystallizing her certainty that her cello was never meant to be heard in the same composition as Vinyl’s wild electronic creations.
With assurance of the sacrosanct and inviolable purity of her instrument resonating through her and her mind buttressed against any outside influence, Octavia was ready to stand her ground.
She allowed her eyes to meet Vinyl’s; garnet luminaries sparkled like fine jewels, crafted to allow its facets to reflect light in perfect clarity. Their depths were limitless, allowing a hypnotized viewer to be drawn deep into the complexities and mysteries of Life as revealed through the form of one being. Emotions and feelings roiled through them like a blood-red tide, enlivening them like a flame reflected through a flawless gem.
Octavia felt warmth blossom in her own heart of hearts in answer to that refracted flame, melting away her reluctance. “Oh, very well. I suppose I shall give it a try,” she admitted.
“Yay!” exclaimed Vinyl with foal-like happiness, clopping her hooves together in celebration.
"So what exactly do we have to do?" Octavia inquired.
"All we need to do is record one song and send it in to be judged. The winner gets 10,000 bits and gets signed by a record label to promote their music," Vinyl explained.
"Well, that sounds easy enough. Especially since we still aren't going to win."
"Hey, have a little faith. And anyways, we need to pick out some songs. I won't know what to mix with until you figure out what you're gonna play."
"Very well; I'll invest some thought into what composition I would like to submit to this butchery," Octavia said resignedly.
"That's the spirit," Vinyl said encouragingly. "Especially since I already rented the mixing console and speakers."
Octavia sighed into her hoof, lying across her face in exasperation.
“Vinyl, I . . . I’m sorry, but I’ve never done this before and I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Octavia admitted uncertainly.
“Where have I heard that before?” Vinyl asked with a predatory grin.
A deep blush spread across Octavia’s face. “Stop kidding around! I was referring to what we’re doing right now, not our other ‘activities’.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll learn quick,” Vinyl assured her. “After all, you picked up on our ‘other activities’ pretty fast, if I recall correctly.”
“I . . . you . . .” Octavia stammered, her blush growing more pronounced. “Just hurry up and finish already.”
“That sounds familiar too,” Vinyl snickered.
“Vinyl! Get your mind out of the gutter!” the thoroughly-embarrassed cellist remonstrated.
“Alright, alright. Don’t get your treble clefs in a knot, Treble Clef.” Vinyl heaved herself to all four hooves, having finished her delicate work on Octavia’s cello. A small metallic device now graced the wooden surface of the instrument, fitted over the four strings where they terminated at the end of their length. A thick-looking cord trailed from the mysterious box, snaking across the floor to disappear amongst the impenetrable tangle of other cables protruding and connecting seemingly at random between Vinyl’s electromagical mixing console.
“So, Miss DJ, could you kindly explain this nonsense to me again?” Octavia asked as she bent to eye the newest addition to her familiar instrument with unease.
“Well, it’s pretty simple. That baby there,” Vinyl gestured to the same device Octavia was examining to see if it might possibly be dangerous, “picks up the vibration of the strings and converts it to a digital signal. I pull that signal into my console, essentially recording you playing in perfect clarity. Then I can mix the recording, sample it and remix it just like I do anything else.”
“I see. And then?”
“And then I combine your mastery of the classical forms of music with my own type of sound to create a synthesis of art that’s been hundreds of years in the making and will revolutionize Equestria,” Vinyl said nonchalantly as she struggled to locate a single cable amidst its peers.
“Wow. No high ambitions or anything?”
"Nah. There we go!" Vinyl exclaimed, finally having plugged the last cable in to her satisfaction. "Ok Tavi, are you ready to play?"
Octavia merely nodded. She reared, steadying herself against the cello and bringing her bow up to position and gently strummed a few tentative notes across the strings. Vinyl herself gently lowered a selected record onto her turntable.
For a brief moment Octavia played alone and unaccompanied as she had so many times before. Then, eyes opening wide in shock, she became aware of the haunting and ethereal tones of a piano joining her. She sought around the room, finally focusing on Vinyl. Her electric blue mane tumbled down over her face as she bent over her work area, doing Celestia knows what. The piano continued with its ghostly presence, its brooding tone slowly mellowed into an ominous refrain that slithered within and around the deep tones of her own cello, accenting and emphasizing it.
Octavia closed her eyes and continued playing, rather enjoying the effect. Slowly, though, she became aware of the heavy patterings of electronic bass overlaying the piano's notes. She had just enough time to notice her displeasure before her sacred cello and accompanying phantom pianist were drowned out in a sea of electronic beats and sounds no instrument could produce.
Indignation welled in her and she nearly stopped playing, but Vinyl gestured wildly at her not to so she bit her tongue and persisted. Slowly she began to hear her own instrument return to the composition, accompanying and underscoring the manic electronic music. Finally the song came to a conclusion, fading away on a series of soft notes from her own strings.
Octavia lowered her bow and dropped to all of her hooves, relieving the pain in her rear legs. She turned irritably to face the mastermind of this experiment.
"Vinyl, what the hay was that?" Octavia demanded.
"What do you mean? It was great!" Vinyl defended.
"My cello was drowned out for half the song by your 'noise'! What kind of synthesis was that?" the grey cellist asked.
"Oh come on! Your cello was the most important part of the whole thing; without it this would just be the same as a thousand other pieces of electronic music," Vinyl explained.
"Hmph. I don't feel very important."
"Well, you are," Vinyl persisted. "And we only need to send in one track for the contest. If you don't like that one we can always try another."
"Alright. What about the second one I selected? Do you have any ideas about what to do with it?" the grey earth pony asked.
Vinyl pensively tapped a hoof to her chin, lost in thought. "Yeah, I think I know just what it calls for. Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Octavia listened closely to the new track's overture, paying close attention to its plucky, almost-harp like melody. Shortly it was joined by the more obviously defined notes of a keyboard, undercut with a restrained bassy effect.
On cue she scissored her bow across the cello, lending the unfolding track its deep and somber tones. She kept playing in focused concentration as Vinyl added and removed obvious electronic sounds and more pronounced bass, trusting her partner to moderate the sound to highlight the best of both of them. She played on, eyes closed and mind lost in the unfolding melody.
It should be horrid; the electronic elements should completely drown out the classical, or they should clash violently. They shouldn't go this well together.
Even when Vinyl's electronica briefly flared and outshone Octavia's playing, she felt no jealousy. She accepted Vinyl's presence in the song, as graceful and familiar as the steps of a waltz.
Treble and bass; complete opposites and yet they create harmony. Just like us. How did I never see it before?
The melody shifted, but the harmony remained. Vinyl faded from the song, leaving Octavia to the next move in the dance. She continued to play, waiting for Vinyl to join with her again.
The music played on; two hearts entwined in its notes, melding together with the interplay of classical and modern, treble and bass, amethyst and ruby.
When the final notes faded away, echoing only in heart and mind, a sweat-coated Octavia locked eyes with Vinyl, a satisfied smile adorning both of their radiant faces.
"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" inquired a smirking Vinyl.
"Well, I suppose it wasn't terrible," Octavia demurred.
"Oh, whatever. You were totally into it. And totally hot, by the way." Vinyl paused thoughtfully for a moment. "Also, I think I may be developing a cello fetish."
"You keep your dirty hooves off my cello, you pervert. And the rest of you as well," Octavia hurriedly added as Vinyl opened her mouth, doubtless with a witty comeback. "Now what do we do, since we recorded all that?"
"I'll need a day or two to master it and make sure it sounds right, then I get it on some vinyl and in the mail. After that, we wait and let our inevitable victory come rolling in."
"Well, at least somepony's sure of herself," Octavia laughed, walking forward to nuzzle Vinyl affectionately. "It's getting late; how about some takeout from that little place down the street?"
"Sounds good to me," Vinyl said, walking beside Octavia as they left their apartment and headed out into the twilight.
Shadows crawled across the bedroom, encroaching on the tangled forms of a white unicorn and grey earth pony. No nocturnal activities were happening (yet), just two mares enjoying each other's soft embrace.
"Hey Tavi, about that cello fetish I mentioned earlier . . ." Vinyl began.
"Forget it. You might get a splinter," Octavia mumbled sleepily.
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Lol, look at me using images and music in my story. What a noob I must be
.
Seriously, I wanted to experiment a little with the use of some more audiovisual type elements in my narrative.
If you think it worked well and enhanced the story, please leave some feedback.
.
Likewise if you thought it was a pointless distraction.
.
Also, no cliffhanger. How'd that happen? Have I been replaced by a changeling?
Finally, regards the music: I don't know how well it will line up with the relevant sections of the story. Hopefully its not too derped up
.
I think it turned out quite well.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/discord.png <(Well, ANother Good Chapter!)
LUV THE MUSIC
And A happy Couple dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Vinyl_Scratch_lolface.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia.png
No worries about the pics... I liked how they added to the story. Good job with the obligatory "let's make music together" scene.
Keep up the good work!
I seriously enjoyed the use of images and music, it added a...spark, I suppose for lack of a better word. Keep up the good work.
"Hey Tavi, about that cello fetish I mentioned earlier . . ." Vinyl began.
"Forget it. You might get a splinter," Octavia mumbled sleepily.
Cello fetish..... That image isn't gonna go a way for a while. Sure hope they win.
Well I thought the music was fine
I have a bad time imagining music when someone describes it
So the link helps
An interesting experiment indeed! I hadn't heard the first song before but the second one is on my ipod and I love it.
I like having musical accompaniment in stories (if it fits and here it did).
However, I have to say that even though I love the images (the last one made me d'aww quite a bit) I think you should try to resize them so they're not so disruptive in the text.
But this is just my opinion, it's your story after all
1093801
I enjoyed it on the whole, but for me, adding in other sensory elements like music and pictures really does nothing, but I know that a lot of other authors do it, and it is generally well received, but I loved the story, as usual.
Images were
Music was
Story is... forget it, I'd run out of hearts.
That was totally awesome!!!!! the story IS about 2 musicians so what's more perfect than actually having music in the story!!! and since its a link it makes it optional for those who only wish to read and at the same time we can see more awesome brony stuff!
Now have some Yays:
This (not the full song, misses the intro) and this are what I imagine an Octavinyl piece sounding like. It's funny, I had both songs before I got into ponies.
The music worked well for me. And pictures have never been a problem. I can see how if it was done all of the time, it could get a bit exasperating. Anyways, well done. A great chapter as always.
Very nice!
pictures don't hurt anything, and the music helped set the scene amazingly
That last part
Couldn't have been any better
Excellent EXCELLENT writing and great chapter!
However, I have one question. How does one go about adding youtube links within a chapter? I know how to put a video link into the chapter, but how do you make the link part of the chapter's writing itself? Example being: "Are you ready?" That was part of the chapter itself, and yet it was still a link... do you have to type the words into the URL or something? I dont know!
Anyone willin to lend me an answer on that? Please and thanks?
1094247
if you highlight the text you want to serve as a hyperlink and then click on the 'add link' button (NOT the youtube button) you can put in the desired address and after you click enter that text will serve as a link.
1094067
Agreed. The Pics are okay, if a little annoying, but the background music ruled.
1094264 Really? No kiddin. I'll have to try that out next time I submit a chapter. I was more curious about now than ever before because of what you did with the music in your recent chapter. I like the effect it adds (music makes everything better). Thanks for the help, mate!
Y U NO dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia_cake.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Vinyl_Scratch.png ?
i love you, everything i've done today turned to shit.
SO when i found this in my update list thingy, it made my night.
Thank you.
ALso, great chapter, i liked the use of images and music, even if it's "noobish", i liked the flare.
so i vote for MOAR like it.
<3
1093801
There is totally a cliffhanger! We don't know whether or not Octavia and Vinyl will win yet!
As for the images, they're pretty nice, just be careful as always about the amount and quality of them that you use. Put as many links to music as you can fit because I had not heard either one of these before and now they will both be downloaded on to my laptop.
1093801 The music and pictures definitely worked well with this chapter. In another they might have been distracting, but here they helped define the duo's creation.
1094508
Oh, I will. The last thing I want to do is annoy people with tons of poorly-chosen graphics. I shall scour the interwebs for only the cutest and most excellent Octy/Scratch art; it is a terrible burden. Oh wait, I'd be doing it anyway
And I'll try to start incorporating some more music for everybody's enjoyment.
Octavia needs to rock out on that cello of hers!
1094524
But what about the contest? What if Lyra sends in a composition? What if Pinkie Pie sends in Smilex3, Pinkie's Brew, or Gypsy Bard?
1094532
I think you meant this: (aww, the one with his face was taken down for Copyright issues)
Not gonna lie errant. The chapter was great and funny but the music stole the spotlight. Great choices, but fret not; it did, in fact, enhance the chapter. Plus linking music and adding pictures, you are clearly a hotshot now.
Pure gold...
I think the music was good, but I think the pictures were a little over the top
Sorry, with them it seems more like the Colbert Report then a Fic.
My suggestion, tone it down to a credit image or maybe like two with the same setting
You've clearly earned the right to have this music play no matter what street you walk down!
*note* Me at the end cause I'm too lazy to write my own story.
Looking forward to the next one!
Wow. I really liked this chapter. I never click links within the story because it might distract me. But wow, those music links really gave the image I needed and pulled together the story to make me love it even more than ever.
Cant wait for the next chapter
I generally prefer any images in a chapter to stay at the beginning or at the end if there are any at all. Links throughout are fine since I can easily click them or avoid them as I choose.
I love this chapter
.
MOAR
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Vinyl_Scratch.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia.png
If you need more songs, feel free to use my playlist. I named it Electronic Harmonics.
I usually enjoy musical links in a narrative where appropriate, and images can help set a scene, but overuse tends to portray a weakness in descriptive narrative if it's relied too heavily upon to set the scene. However if you can do it correctly it can almost be a visual novel with musical accompaniment.
1093801 I'd keep the links when using a songs. Thanfully you explained it partly even with the links. That was good.
Images, however, are a distraction. Links can blend in with the text, and therefore be easily looked over and it works just as well. Images seem to take me out of the moment, as I'm forced to see them. Because, honestly? I didn't see the link the first time till I looked closer. Nice choice on the song, by the way. YourEnigma has been a favorite of mine for a while. :)
The music was perfect with the story I believe if you plan to put pictures with the story one picture at the end to sum up the whole chapter work better.
Loved it
My, I've been favoriting a lot of stories lately. I am looking forward to the continuation of this, it's a very good read.
This is like the sickest song ever.
reactionface.info/sites/default/files/images/YvEN9.png
The narrative kind of jumped the shark when Octavia and Vinyl started dating without actually showing the date, but I'm still sticking with it for those little lovey-dovey scenes. Man, Vinyl's a bit of a perv.
Plus, I'm curious where Octavia will end up. The stage or the club? I don't mind either way.
I personally really enjoyed the embedded images and music links, they added to the story in my opinion, and I'm a sucker for good music, so additional plus there.
I've heard this some where before.
This made my day even more than it was earlier.
Also, I just realized there are absolutely no mentions of Yo-Yo Ma in any OctaScratch fic. At all. Hmm... I am going to have to remember to use that later on.
I mean... she plays the cello... and everyone forgets about one of the greatest modern cellists?
The hell?
Yay an update
now to read it, excited as pinkie meeting someone new
Now that I've read it: absolutely fantastic, i really liked the making music scene, very well written and descriptive. Liked the music but I kinda just preferred to let my imagination turn your description into the sounds in my head. Keep it up I can't wait for more.
Why do I get the feeling you've read Mixing Relations? And does the author know you're "using" his idea?
While everybody else seems to feel that the images were good, I very much disagree. They were of varying quality which, along with them reducing the need for the reader's imagination, took away from the experience of the story. As an author, it is your job to paint a picture with words to so that we can imagine what it's like. It's rather cheap, kind of like a copout, to do so. Now, with the way you write, the pictures are definitely not needed. You create beautiful imagery.
With the music, I say the same thing, but it's quite a bit more difficult for us that aren't musically minded to envision what you are describing, so, while I don't click on the music myself, it's not nearly as bad as the images.
Long story short, as an author, dont use pictures and avoid music links if you can describe the music yourself. Allow us to create our own interpretations based on your words.