Hey, here's a progress report on the latest Dimaesnion X news, ... (like anyone actually cares...)
I decided to work on the last of the series of the four all-MIDI albums first (originally titled "MIDI Metal, The Final Chapter")- since it is actually very similar to "I Am Become Daevel" - much use of symphonics and classical themes. Though not many guitar solo spots within these particular songs, so we may have to rectify that. I have pretty much finished re-working the basic MIDI tracks and arrangements, subject to my whim and actual playing ability. And some parts I may just remove entirely.
Once I'm done with this particular album, I really don't know how I'm going to handle the other three. They have a lot more very fast fusiony keyboard work that I'll NEVER be able to actually play on guitar. I just have to figure out the best synth sounds that won't sound cheesy, and just avoid playing guitar parts that I can't play.
Actually, a good reference might be an album by Anders and Jens Johansson with Allan Holdworth called "Heavy Machinery". It's mainly lots of fast synths and drumwork, a sort or metallic jazz-fusion, where the only actual guitar playing is during Holdsworth's guitar solos. Otherwise, it's just synths and drums, but still some great music. I'll have to listen to that one again before working on my stuff, just to "borrow" some ideas and try to re-create some fo the synth sounds.
Oh, I revised some of my Myspace page. I am now streaming my "Bryson's Universe" album for your listening displeasure. If you like it, please feel free to download and distribute at will.
Any ideas, comments, questions, etc., are welcome. Use the comments section, or go to my Myspace page and leave a message. I'll try to work on my tunes this weekend in between all the other usual stuff.
... and another thing... supposedly, a music-blog page called The Ripple Effect is going to review one of my albums, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. They seem to have very similar tastes in music to yours truly, so it might be interesting.
ThanX.
6/28/08
6/11/08
New WorX - Old Becomes New...
New Project - actually equals old songs given new life, ... again, ...
Since I was very pleased with my "I Am Become Daevel" album, which was actually a bunch of old songs that I never recorded properly until recently, I decided to attempt the same thing with more unpublished material from my "archives".
Way back in 2000, I ended up recording FOUR Albums as pure MIDI/Synth - i.e., no real guitars. Yup. FOUR of these buggers exist. All played or programmed solely with synthesized instruments on an old Casio keyboard, which sounded surprisingly "okay" for Casio equipment. And some of the songs were actually pretty cool. I did a lot of really really fast "virtuoso"-type songs, very progressive, almost neo-classical, ... very influenced by Dream Theater, Symphony X, and a lot of other bands that play waayyy too many notes.
So now I've been listening back to some of these and wondering, "What if I actually tried re-recording these with my new drum samples (Toontrack rules!!), newer SONAR software, better symphonic samples, and REAL guitar?"
Not that I can actually play a lot of these songs note-for-note, ... (far from it), but I can play most of the rhythms and some of the "note-riff" sections. And a lot of the really really fast sections can just be played by the computer as synths anyway. Kind of like having Rick Wakeman or Jordan Rudess help me out with the keyboard parts. Plus, I can finally add some guitar solos (these albums have PLENTY of open spaces for actual improvisation).
I am going to try to go right thru each album, and maybe get rid of parts that didn't work, add some new stuff - in general, breathe new life into these old songs.
I'm actually kind of psyched up and can't wait to dig out the old files. these won't be done in a week or so, though. This might take a while, but I now have a goal. With the bar set very high.
Since I was very pleased with my "I Am Become Daevel" album, which was actually a bunch of old songs that I never recorded properly until recently, I decided to attempt the same thing with more unpublished material from my "archives".
Way back in 2000, I ended up recording FOUR Albums as pure MIDI/Synth - i.e., no real guitars. Yup. FOUR of these buggers exist. All played or programmed solely with synthesized instruments on an old Casio keyboard, which sounded surprisingly "okay" for Casio equipment. And some of the songs were actually pretty cool. I did a lot of really really fast "virtuoso"-type songs, very progressive, almost neo-classical, ... very influenced by Dream Theater, Symphony X, and a lot of other bands that play waayyy too many notes.
So now I've been listening back to some of these and wondering, "What if I actually tried re-recording these with my new drum samples (Toontrack rules!!), newer SONAR software, better symphonic samples, and REAL guitar?"
Not that I can actually play a lot of these songs note-for-note, ... (far from it), but I can play most of the rhythms and some of the "note-riff" sections. And a lot of the really really fast sections can just be played by the computer as synths anyway. Kind of like having Rick Wakeman or Jordan Rudess help me out with the keyboard parts. Plus, I can finally add some guitar solos (these albums have PLENTY of open spaces for actual improvisation).
I am going to try to go right thru each album, and maybe get rid of parts that didn't work, add some new stuff - in general, breathe new life into these old songs.
I'm actually kind of psyched up and can't wait to dig out the old files. these won't be done in a week or so, though. This might take a while, but I now have a goal. With the bar set very high.
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