When it comes to music, I tend to go into severe hibernation during the winter. I get absolutely nothing done. Well, maybe not nothing, but very little actual music.
I've spent a of of my time getting use to my Lenovo All-In-One computer with Windows 8, which was a very drastically different than my old Dell Laptop that is still running Vista. Some of my VST instruments either don't work like they used to, or they don't work at all. For instance, my Orchestral VST, EDIROL Orchestral HQ, does not retain my preset instruments in memory. In other words, if I choose a bunch of different instruments specific to my project in Reaper, when I close the project and re-open it, the instruments revert back to the Factory Presets. So I have to re-choose all my instruments again. Or I have to render them to audio before saving and closing the project.
And since I'm using 64 bit Reaper DAW now, the 32-bit VSTs and effects "float" on the screen when you don't want them to. And other weird stuff. So I've been re-learning how to do a lot of things.
I'm also still really learning how to properly use my Yamaha THR-10 amp for recording. It has a very cool option allowing you to simultaneously record your normal track, with a completely dry D.I. track that you can re-amp later with built in Amp Sims. This is very cool, since I've accumulated a bunch of very cool FREE Amp Sims (clones of Dual Rectofiers, Marshalls, 6505's, Tube Screamers, etc.).
So a lot of fiddling around and a lot of getting nothing done. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it together and start on some new stuff soon.
To be completely honest, I'm just not in the mood to do anything right now. During Spring, Summer and Fall, my wife has a part-time weekend job, so my weekends really open up during those seasons and I get A LOT of music done. During the Winter, she's home all weekend, and since I actually like hanging out with my wife (and my son when he gets to visit on Saturdays) I don't do much music stuff, and that's totally okay. I need a break from music sometimes, and the Winter is a good time to "recharge the batteries", and prepare for the next few seasons. As April 2015 approaches (and the snow is beginning to melt), the ideas will bloom.
Now, next topic - the IPMA, or the International Portuguese Music Awards. Why would I mention the IPMA? Well, as it turns out, one of the songs I worked on during the summer of 2014 with singer Jason Paulino is nominated in the Rock category. The song is called "Don't Give Up", and I played and recorded most of the instruments in my home studio. The vocals and bass were recorded at my neighbor Clint Mitchell's home studio (THE Deadside Manor Studio). Clint played and recorded the bass, and the song was written by Jason Paulino, who did all the vocals, and arranged the song, got it mastered, etc. Jason is the lead vocalist for The Great Escape, a fantastic Journey Tribute band.
Just click on the song name, and it will open up a new window and play the song. If you're a fan of some of the old 1980's style "hair-metal" ballads, I think you'll like it. Jason is a very talented singer, and a really nice guy, so let's all give him some support, by clicking HERE and voting for him!
That's all for now folks. Hope to be posting some new music soon. MELT SNOW, Dang it!
1/14/15
Uuhhhh, … Next Please?
Wow - it's 2015, and I still haven't completed any of my proposed projects I've been working on. I've got the new computer finally set up and ready to go, but still really haven't dug in and committed to any real new music projects.
I've begun a bunch of things:
- some spacey synth tracks
- some "doomy, riffy" sounding tracks
- some other stuff …
Yeah, not helpful, huh?
One of my project ideas is to do a concept album based on the ten curses of Egypt. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure musically how to proceed? Will it be "drone-doom" or "black metal"? Or Black-Drone?
I still have one album "in the can", but I'm still not sure about releasing it. It just doesn't quite sound right yet. Can't quite let it go. It's similar to my Darkthrone "tribute", but instead of doing symphonic or classical-sounding music, I want to make it sound like Tangerine Dream or Porcupine Tree jamming with Darkthrone. Yeah, that's pretty weird. Still working out the kinks.
I also did a conceptual album based on the various chapters of Dante's "Inferno". All synth, no guitars. Kinda the same deal. It just doesn't quite feel complete.
Been listening to a lot of Black Sabbath lately. All of the various phases - the Ozzy years, the Dio Years, Ian Gillan, and even the Tony Martin years. I like it all. Tony Iommi rocks all of it. Maybe I can throw in some kind of Sabbath medley somewhere?
I've also still fiddling with various tunings. Or do I stick to E Standard? That's a challenge - making E Standard sound HEAVY. Then again, listen to Opeth, Marduk, Dillinger Escape Plan, the first two Sabbath albums, … all pretty heavy.
I do like my Yamaha THR-10 amp so far. Records very well, easy to use, sounds great for both guitar and bass. Highly recommended. So yeah, I'm using that a lot.
Well, I'm running out of breath here, so I'll stop talking, and get musical. Maybe.
I've begun a bunch of things:
- some spacey synth tracks
- some "doomy, riffy" sounding tracks
- some other stuff …
Yeah, not helpful, huh?
One of my project ideas is to do a concept album based on the ten curses of Egypt. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure musically how to proceed? Will it be "drone-doom" or "black metal"? Or Black-Drone?
I still have one album "in the can", but I'm still not sure about releasing it. It just doesn't quite sound right yet. Can't quite let it go. It's similar to my Darkthrone "tribute", but instead of doing symphonic or classical-sounding music, I want to make it sound like Tangerine Dream or Porcupine Tree jamming with Darkthrone. Yeah, that's pretty weird. Still working out the kinks.
I also did a conceptual album based on the various chapters of Dante's "Inferno". All synth, no guitars. Kinda the same deal. It just doesn't quite feel complete.
Been listening to a lot of Black Sabbath lately. All of the various phases - the Ozzy years, the Dio Years, Ian Gillan, and even the Tony Martin years. I like it all. Tony Iommi rocks all of it. Maybe I can throw in some kind of Sabbath medley somewhere?
I've also still fiddling with various tunings. Or do I stick to E Standard? That's a challenge - making E Standard sound HEAVY. Then again, listen to Opeth, Marduk, Dillinger Escape Plan, the first two Sabbath albums, … all pretty heavy.
I do like my Yamaha THR-10 amp so far. Records very well, easy to use, sounds great for both guitar and bass. Highly recommended. So yeah, I'm using that a lot.
Well, I'm running out of breath here, so I'll stop talking, and get musical. Maybe.
10/20/14
New Album on the Way - Maybe ...
Been working on and off on a new album since last year some time, and I'm almost at the point where it's ready to be released. Maybe.
It's sort of another "tribute" album to the most kvlt of all the kvltiest of trvv kvlt bands ever. Sort of. But different. Instead of going classical / symphonic, this time I'm going electronic space rock. Lot's of bubbly phase-y sustained synths with very simple rhythm guitar parts, and no guitar solos. It's mainly a synth oriented album, with guitars playing a minor accompanying role (i.e., just to "rock up" the synthy bits). And of course, all instrumental. It will probably sound more like Tangerine Dream and Hawkwind jamming with Zombi. Very repetitive and hypnotic.
You probably won't even recognize the songs at all. That's the point. Maybe there's one where the riffs are played almost exactly as on the original album, but in a whole different context.
I just have to give the album a few good listens, maybe do some re-mixing here and there, maybe add a few more guitar parts, and then I'll release it as usual.
9/16/14
New album - The GWEN Towers
Yep, I finished a new album, comprised mostly of improvised-on-the-spot tunage.
The title track is created using the same technique I did for my Improvisario album, along with a bunch of the unused notes that were leftover. I recorded about 7 short snippets of songs (about 20-30 seconds long), and spliced them together.
The rest are just a bunch of songs that were done as free-improvs that were then "sketched out" a bit, overdubs added, and that's it. I wanted a very free-form, experimental feel for the music here. Just sit down, and record whatever comes out, whether it's all just guitar, synths, drums, etc.
I also mostly used the Big Mono Analogue drumkit samples ( they're free! - http://www.analoguedrums.com/details-bm.php ). It's a pretty versatile drumkit sample set, especially when you put the multi-sampling to work. Reaper (my main Digital Audio Workstation) now has a clever method of loading multi-level samples to get much more realistic sounds.
I think my music is continually flowing in this direction - I like free-form improvisation, and then trying to make it into an actual composition. It doesn't always work, but it seems to be how I play. I'm still listening to the usual rock and metal, but I also appreciate free improvisers who incorporate more traditional compositional methods into their music, a la Mary Halvorsen, Nels Cline, Joe Morris & Marc Ribot.
https://archive.org/details/DX-theGWENTowers
Here's the song titles:
1. The GWEN Towers
1. The GWEN Towers
2. Synthro
3. Don’t You Hear the Drums?
4. Tower of Blue
5. TGT-13
6. Shortly, Simply
7. A Sense of When, Pt 1
8. A Sense of When, Pt 2
9. A Sense of When, Pt 3
10. A Sense of When, Pt 4
11. A Sense of When, Pt 5I'll be adding it to my Discography page soon. That's all for now.
6/29/14
Voila! Two albums for your listening displeasure!
Ta daa!
Excited? Yeah, not so much, but just in case you actually are, here are the two new Dimaension X albums! Go to the Discography page! Right now! Nah, wait a minnit. Why dontcha read about 'em first.
The first is Improvisario. This one is really unusual, but then again, if you've listened to either of the Burn Without Me albums, or my Bryson's Universe album, it has similar origins.This is the first original project by Dimaension X in quite a long time. This one is a bit interesting - I took a 12-tone Row Matrix, further scrambled those notes (by starting in the middle and going out in a spiral pattern), then limited myself to improvising a short piece of music (between 20-30 seconds) in the key of that note (major or minor), and then would splice them together into longer songs afterwards. And nearly every note was played on my new Agile AL-3010.
I really just wanted to let go and play whatever came to mind when I was creating these short snippets. Not a lot of thought went into it - just, "okay, key of Ab. Here's the scale. Ahhh, Marshall-y tone? OK, go!" That's it. Plus I really wanted to get some cool clean tones with the Vintage-wound Alnico V-style pickups in the Agile Les Paul-copy. And I did some tapping. Yup, tapping is not something I tend to do a lot of, but I wanted to just do some really "out-there" sounding riffs.
The second is Industrialisimo - what happens when you dose yourself with just a bit too much Godflesh? And you manage to find some nice Alesis HR-16 Drum Samples (which is what Justin K. Broadrick used on most of the early Godflesh albums). Yep - this is what happens. I wanted to create some "industrial-metal", but within the context of Dimaension X. I don't think it actually turned out to be a stereo-typical "industrial" music album, but rather a Dimaension X interpretation of what I think industrial music is. Sort of.
There's some ambient synth atmospheres, odd effects, ... AND a big element you will immediately hear are some very creepy samples repeating odd numbers over and over for no reason whatsoever. I thought these samples just fit the atmosphere, so I used them in everything. They really contribute to giving an "off-kilter" feel to the album.
So there you go. Each is about an hour long. Go on over the the Discography page links and either go the the Internet Archive page to stream/listen to them, or download directly. I hope you enjoy,
Now onto other news. I've recently gone from doing very little musically to diving into a whole bunch of projects simultaneously. As noted below, I'm working with my old bandmate Clint from Deadside Manor and the singer from The Great Escape ( a fantastic Journey Tribute band). We've thrown some ideas around for some original tunes that Jason has begun writing, so Clint and I will do the recording and adding our instruments. Should be interesting.
AND ... here's some other neat related news ... another former Deadside Manor member, singer Dan Flynn has been visiting Clint and also wants to do some new songs. Back when the band was first breaking up, I had given Danny some new material I was working on, and he wanted to add some vocals, but we just never got around to it. Which is what we're going to do now. The songs are in the heavy-rock-almost-but-not-quite-metal genre, nice big heavy drums, crunchy guitars, etc,. that should go with his voice quite well.
So, yeah, I've been busy all of a sudden. Looks like it's going to be a fun summer.
Excited? Yeah, not so much, but just in case you actually are, here are the two new Dimaension X albums! Go to the Discography page! Right now! Nah, wait a minnit. Why dontcha read about 'em first.
The first is Improvisario. This one is really unusual, but then again, if you've listened to either of the Burn Without Me albums, or my Bryson's Universe album, it has similar origins.This is the first original project by Dimaension X in quite a long time. This one is a bit interesting - I took a 12-tone Row Matrix, further scrambled those notes (by starting in the middle and going out in a spiral pattern), then limited myself to improvising a short piece of music (between 20-30 seconds) in the key of that note (major or minor), and then would splice them together into longer songs afterwards. And nearly every note was played on my new Agile AL-3010.
I really just wanted to let go and play whatever came to mind when I was creating these short snippets. Not a lot of thought went into it - just, "okay, key of Ab. Here's the scale. Ahhh, Marshall-y tone? OK, go!" That's it. Plus I really wanted to get some cool clean tones with the Vintage-wound Alnico V-style pickups in the Agile Les Paul-copy. And I did some tapping. Yup, tapping is not something I tend to do a lot of, but I wanted to just do some really "out-there" sounding riffs.
The second is Industrialisimo - what happens when you dose yourself with just a bit too much Godflesh? And you manage to find some nice Alesis HR-16 Drum Samples (which is what Justin K. Broadrick used on most of the early Godflesh albums). Yep - this is what happens. I wanted to create some "industrial-metal", but within the context of Dimaension X. I don't think it actually turned out to be a stereo-typical "industrial" music album, but rather a Dimaension X interpretation of what I think industrial music is. Sort of.
There's some ambient synth atmospheres, odd effects, ... AND a big element you will immediately hear are some very creepy samples repeating odd numbers over and over for no reason whatsoever. I thought these samples just fit the atmosphere, so I used them in everything. They really contribute to giving an "off-kilter" feel to the album.
So there you go. Each is about an hour long. Go on over the the Discography page links and either go the the Internet Archive page to stream/listen to them, or download directly. I hope you enjoy,
Now onto other news. I've recently gone from doing very little musically to diving into a whole bunch of projects simultaneously. As noted below, I'm working with my old bandmate Clint from Deadside Manor and the singer from The Great Escape ( a fantastic Journey Tribute band). We've thrown some ideas around for some original tunes that Jason has begun writing, so Clint and I will do the recording and adding our instruments. Should be interesting.
AND ... here's some other neat related news ... another former Deadside Manor member, singer Dan Flynn has been visiting Clint and also wants to do some new songs. Back when the band was first breaking up, I had given Danny some new material I was working on, and he wanted to add some vocals, but we just never got around to it. Which is what we're going to do now. The songs are in the heavy-rock-almost-but-not-quite-metal genre, nice big heavy drums, crunchy guitars, etc,. that should go with his voice quite well.
So, yeah, I've been busy all of a sudden. Looks like it's going to be a fun summer.
6/24/14
TWO new Dimaension X albums almost ready
Yep, I've been a busy little bee lately, and have almost completed the two new Dimaension X albums I mentioned in my posts below. I'll let y'all know when they're posted and ready for download. These are the first releases of all new music for a very long time, so I'm a bit psyched to get them out there.
In other news, ... I've been making new music again with my neighbor and former bandmate Clint (now-the bassist-with-Blue Steel) Mitchell. He works his day-job with Jason Paulino, the singer from The Great Escape (a very good Journey Tribute band - www.thegreatescapemusic.com), and brought him down to the Deadside Manor Studio to write some original tunes. Which means I have to "up my game" if I want to work with this guy. He is an extremely good singer. Watch the videos of The Great Escape on YouTube from one of their gigs at Mohegan Sun (yeah, Mohegan Sun!). Now close your eyes, and you'd swear you were at a Journey concert.
We helped him add some additional vocals and a guitar solo to an existing song, and then started work on another song which only had chord changes and lyrics. So Clint and I added some drums and some basic guitar strumming. Then I went at it on Saturday morning fixing the guitar strums, added bass, more guitars, a solo, and edited the drums a bit.
Clint just has to replace my scratch bass tracks with his own fretless bass, and Jason has to do the final vocals. I think it's going to turn out pretty good.
Jason's style is VERY DIFFERENT from my usual heavy rock and metal. Much lighter and melodic, and downright catchy. I could really imagine some of his songs showing up on some of the more pop-oriented radio stations. So this has been a real challenge for me. I don't consider myself just a rock and metal-head. I'd really like to consider myself a well-rounded musician and producer, which means being able to tackle any style.
It's going to be interesting to see where this goes.
In other news, ... I've been making new music again with my neighbor and former bandmate Clint (now-the bassist-with-Blue Steel) Mitchell. He works his day-job with Jason Paulino, the singer from The Great Escape (a very good Journey Tribute band - www.thegreatescapemusic.com), and brought him down to the Deadside Manor Studio to write some original tunes. Which means I have to "up my game" if I want to work with this guy. He is an extremely good singer. Watch the videos of The Great Escape on YouTube from one of their gigs at Mohegan Sun (yeah, Mohegan Sun!). Now close your eyes, and you'd swear you were at a Journey concert.
We helped him add some additional vocals and a guitar solo to an existing song, and then started work on another song which only had chord changes and lyrics. So Clint and I added some drums and some basic guitar strumming. Then I went at it on Saturday morning fixing the guitar strums, added bass, more guitars, a solo, and edited the drums a bit.
Clint just has to replace my scratch bass tracks with his own fretless bass, and Jason has to do the final vocals. I think it's going to turn out pretty good.
Jason's style is VERY DIFFERENT from my usual heavy rock and metal. Much lighter and melodic, and downright catchy. I could really imagine some of his songs showing up on some of the more pop-oriented radio stations. So this has been a real challenge for me. I don't consider myself just a rock and metal-head. I'd really like to consider myself a well-rounded musician and producer, which means being able to tackle any style.
It's going to be interesting to see where this goes.
5/27/14
New music, and an album for sale!
I've really got a jump an a few new music projects (finally!). The first is my "12-tone"-based project: I have about 30 or so minutes of music so far. I plan on adding a few more tracks, then it's time to mix it all together and release. Tentatively titled, "Improvisario."
I also got a start on another project that started out inspired by the heavy doses of Godflesh that I've been listening to. I managed to find some samples of the classis Alesis HR-16 drum machine (which is what Justin Broadrick used on the early Godflesh albums), so I programmed some very "mechanical" and heavy industrial-sounding beats and came up with some harsh, repetitive guitar riffs (and some other odd synth sections, solos, etc.), and voila, new music. I also used some sound samples from "number station" broadcasts (look it up on the Internets), which add a really creepy and robotic atmosphere to the whole project. I've got about 50 minutes completed, so I think that's an albums's worth. I just need to start some art for the two new albums, and I'll post them at the Internet Archive.
I also got some news that a "secret" project that has been in development since 2007 is finally going to see light! In collaboration with comic illustrator and innovator Matt Howarth, there is a Dimaension X album for sale! I did the music and Matt wrote and illustrated a comic to go with it. Here is the writeup at his website:
FIRE & ICE & THE PANTOMIME HORSE
A fierce music/comics collaboration by DIMAENSION X and MATT HOWARTH.
Howarth offers a twisted tale of a time traveler who visits the future to find the Earth has become a desolate wasteland, but the survivors confuse him with conflicting tales of what kind of holocaust destroyed human civilization. Dimaension X offers an hour-long intense soundtrack of industrial heavy metal music full of searing guitars and haunting electronics.
Click HERE to get there!
(PSSSSST! The link is: http://www.bugtownmall.com/New_Matt_Howarth_Stuff.htm )
I also got a start on another project that started out inspired by the heavy doses of Godflesh that I've been listening to. I managed to find some samples of the classis Alesis HR-16 drum machine (which is what Justin Broadrick used on the early Godflesh albums), so I programmed some very "mechanical" and heavy industrial-sounding beats and came up with some harsh, repetitive guitar riffs (and some other odd synth sections, solos, etc.), and voila, new music. I also used some sound samples from "number station" broadcasts (look it up on the Internets), which add a really creepy and robotic atmosphere to the whole project. I've got about 50 minutes completed, so I think that's an albums's worth. I just need to start some art for the two new albums, and I'll post them at the Internet Archive.
I also got some news that a "secret" project that has been in development since 2007 is finally going to see light! In collaboration with comic illustrator and innovator Matt Howarth, there is a Dimaension X album for sale! I did the music and Matt wrote and illustrated a comic to go with it. Here is the writeup at his website:
FIRE & ICE & THE PANTOMIME HORSE
A fierce music/comics collaboration by DIMAENSION X and MATT HOWARTH.
Howarth offers a twisted tale of a time traveler who visits the future to find the Earth has become a desolate wasteland, but the survivors confuse him with conflicting tales of what kind of holocaust destroyed human civilization. Dimaension X offers an hour-long intense soundtrack of industrial heavy metal music full of searing guitars and haunting electronics.
Click HERE to get there!
(PSSSSST! The link is: http://www.bugtownmall.com/New_Matt_Howarth_Stuff.htm )
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