The Legendary Zoltan

Hi, Jon. Nice to meet you. I'm sure you'll find someone here who knows about Eurobeat.

If you just flag and then select infringes on my rights, won't that take care of it? Or all of us could flood the comments saying things like "how shameful" and "it is regrettable."

Wait. I didn't think he was using pitch-correcting tools. That means that he's actually singing them kind of badly and fixing them with digital editing?

@Kuolema: Thanks, Kuolema. I'm glad you liked it. One day I'd actually like to redo it with my current MUCH BETTER sound. If you like that, you'll probably like the album. @Brandon: Thanks, man. You totally do have a following. You probably just don't know it. Help me promote the kickstarter, once I get that going. I've been researching a lot so that I can do it right. Then I can pay you the Benjamins! @nOkbient: You are on your way! It's rare to meet a junior high school student who thinks about all that stuff you just said. I would say that while your young is definitely the time to just suck up knowledge about HOW to do things and also practice them. That's called paying your dues. Then, when you get older you'll have skills and be ready to start doing things for money right off the bat. I unfortunately was not smart enough to realize that I need a teacher to teach me stuff no matter the cost, until I was over 30. Now I'm creeping up on 33 and I feel like only now am I finally going to start a real career. Anyway, the worst thing you can do is what I did which is having a plan B that has nothing to do with your plan A. If your plan A is to be a game composer, make sure your plan B isn't something like "work a part-time job at a restaurant until while I work on becoming a composer." That does not work very well. I am a teacher working toward becoming a musician and the day job sucks up a lot of my energy and of course free time. Make a plan B that actually is related to plan A or can be leveraged to get you closer to your plan A. @Salluz: You're right. Some of my goals will need me to accomplish other things before them. I'm sure you'll totally nail what it is you want to do, man. @Benjamin Briggs: I totally agree with you. Although, I do plan to join a record company someday, it is not a necessity to my making it as a musician. @All: My current plan is my kickstarter campaign to release the album. I thought about it and don't feel like it's such an evil thing to ask for money for the album as long as I prove that it can be finished and let them hear some of the music ahead of time. So that's what I'll do.

The amazing thing about Spark Mandrill is that even though it's a capella it still totally sounds like heavy metal!

Was I right or was I right?

SALLUZ YES SALLUZ! My list or pursuits in order of practicality: 01-Release my full length album 02-Get a mailing list subscription form on my website (REALLY HARD! HELP APPRECIATED!) 03-Make an instructional DVD 04-Make an entire album of Valkyrie Profile Death Metal songs (& pay royalties) 05-Make a Xenogears rap album (& pay royalties) 06-Save one year's worth of salary ($30,000) and QUIT MY DAYJOB TO DEVOTE ALL OF MY TIME TO MY OWN PERSONAL BUSINESS INSTEAD OF WORKING FOR THE MAN! 07-Sell 9,999 albums 08-Get 1,000 subscribers to my newsletter 09-Sell 99,999 albums 10-Go on a small tour around Niigata Prefecture 11-Play live at MAGfest and hang out with OCR peeps, meeting them face-to-face for the first time EVER! 12-Join a big record company 13-Go on an all Japan tour 14-Sell 999,999 albums 15-Go on a European or World tour 16-Live a life of just creating things I want to create and selling them to a loving and anticipating audience. Those are some of the things that I currently want to do. Some of them may change over time. The last one is basically the kind of life I want to live. To be able to live like that will require a lot of paying dues and building of a fan base and things like that. Thus is at the bottom of the list. Once I reach that one, I'll think of other fun goals to do. Number 01 should be totally doable right away except for the fact that I need to secure the funds needed to actually print the thing. It is in mastering right now. I am considering very carefully about doing a kickstarter so I can fund and release it quickly. The attainment of number 06 is actually my biggest priority right now. Everything I do right now is for the attainment of that goal. What do you think, Salluz? Are these goals crazy? I don't think they are. In other news: I have begun reading (actually listening to) the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I listen to one chapter twice before moving on to the next one to improve my retention of it all. I also ordered that book that Zircon recommended but it STILL hasn't arrived. And I am reading all about how to run a successful kickstarter campaign. My normal dayjob resumes this Monday. NOOOOO!

Man! I REALLY want to see the trailer but it has been taken down? It says it's private. Oh crap! Is it because I live in Japan? DAMN YOU OCR!

Updated the first post. The second remix of my new career at Lusipurr.com is from Secret of Mana and is VERY weird. Enjoy. http://lusipurr.com/2013/04/01/feature-tsm-episode-93-goblin/ The next remix is due for release May 6th.

I like young Ocelot and Liquid Snake. I do not care for Liquid Ocelot, though.

Thanks. I just listened to the introduction and first chapter of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. A LOT of people have raved about the book, claiming that this is the definitive book for succeeding. Right in the very first chapter I'm having STUPID epiphanies. Hahaha. The guy said, "decided what you want, make a plan, and do it right away." I'm over here doing all kinds of stuff half-cocked without having ever made a plan. And THAT'S why I'm having short-term money problems. I'm making all these expensive products that will become big money makers in the long term but haven't got anything going to supply the money needed to make those products. How stupid am I!? I'm working on my plan right now and I've gotten some good ideas.

The place I applied for the job turned down my application. I will not be teaching guitar at their establishment. I was quite sad at first but now I only feel like I want it more. I will go into business for myself and build my roster of students on my own and quit my job. That is the current plan. It's hard but I'd have to be a loser to give up now.

I made this thread in the recruitment forum. http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=911876#post911876 I'd like to direct the attention of anyone who likes making video to it since there are actually often people in the community forum that would like to collaborate with others on things but do not frequent the collaboration forum. Thanks a lot.

I am looking for a partner who specializes in making video. I make comedic game review videos and music and would like to join up with someone who is actually good at making video. Here is an example of the kind of videos I have made. http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=8ZbYMCFQQpc Now, I personally think that is a pretty good video but I know that it could be much better with the right talent. It takes a LOT of time to think of jokes, write out the script, and record the audio. It also takes a lot of time to make video. I would like to delegate the video work to a talented person and we could split the money as our popularity grows. SO WHAT EXACTLY WILL MY JOB BE? -to make videos for my game reviews and music. -to help promote the videos. -to participate in the brainstorming of ways to use the videos for our financial gain. WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO BE PAID? -half of all the money our videos make. Sounds good right? WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS WILL I BE MAKING? -The style will be up to you. It just needs to match the audio content. -Game reviews can have game footage, screenshots and other resources in them but it is up to you to use them in an intelligent and fun way. Just putting up any old gameplay footage up for the duration of my talking is unacceptable. -my music is often inspired by anime and games so using some footage from those inspirations is fine. -if you have a way to create something that is completely original, that would be great, also. -In conclusion, your job would be to make a video that will get the viewers excited to show it to others. I will be trying my best to make quality music and comedy. I'll expect my partner to be trying their best to make excellent video. HOW IMPORTANT IS MY PERSONALITY? -VERY! Anyone who isn't optimistic enough to assume that if we make a consistent and focused effort, we can become very well known and create a stable stream of income from this partnership need not apply. This could be as big or as small as you want it to be and if your thinking too small, you'll be dragging me down and I'll have no choice but to fire you. If you are ready to get to work with me and do something fun and profitable, reply or private message me with your intentions and an example of what you can do. Thanks.

Even though I, too, am a huge Metal Gear fan, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Hahaha!

My band mates are totally holding me back. They don't have the drive to be a professional that I have. The guitarist is quite good but he doesn't seem to have time to practice these days and now some riffs are getting sloppy. The vocalist and bassist seem to be putting their other bands first. The drummer on the other hand is on the path and makes me quite happy. I was SO happy today when he told me that he is in a rock band that is going to play a show I America soon. I hope he gets paid. My hope is that he can find great drumming jobs while I get into the position to finally pay him for all the good work he does for me. We have a concert on April 13th. After that, I fire them all except the drummer and start anew.

I am REALLY interested in the expert sphere grid. Anybody else?

Yes. Marty Friedman and I have all of the following points in common. - We're both from Hawai'i - we both play metal guitar - we both moved to Japan - we both married Japanese women - we both have long curly hair That was a hilarious article, Chris. Tank you.

That is totally true, Gar. I am currently being mentored by a guitarist named Tom Hess and he likes to disprove famous sayings. One of them stuck with me the first time I heard it. He said that people who believe in luck and knowing the right people often say, "if there really was a way for everyone to succeed in music, then everyone would do it." He then said that even if you gave an easy to follow checklist of exactly how to make it big with 100% success rate, most people who say they want to be musicians wouldn't do it. I felt that I understood him then and I understand it even more now that I am applying for a job as a guitar teacher and working on other things.

I know you aren't a jackass. I'm just debating stuff. I actually think that people tend to be way too pessimistic about music careers. Hahaha.

"and isn't 100% in your control." That's the only part I don't agree with. It's OK something happened to Tommy Tallarico to get him in the business but that doesn't mean that he wouldn't have been able to do it without that accident. Bad stuff is going to happen no matter what we do but we can always find a way to overcome it or turn it around into something advantageous. That's what I believe anyway.

Thanks, Argle. It is a thread for support and all support, no matter how simple, is appreciated. Most people on OCR are very positive and I like that. Sole Signal said you make your own luck and I agree 100%. I believe it was Gene Simmons of KISS who said "The harder I worked, the luckier I got." Another testament that nobody's success just happened because they knew somebody.

This is the only thing we need to think about. If living a life of trying to do what you want, having multiple failures along the way, and barely surviving until you make it or die is what makes you tired, then yes, you shouldn't be a musician. However, living a life where I just accept that stuff sucks instead of THINKING hard about how to make stuff not suck is MUCH more tiring and unsatisfying to me. Luckily, everyone has the choice to live how they want, which means that we can also choose to find a way to make it work. By the way, I just ordered "Welcome to the Jungle" that Zircon suggested. Anyone want to join me in making their dreams come true!?

@AngelCityOutlaw: You are wrong about that. In my case, I want to be a metal guitarist that tours and releases albums. Being a private teacher that is unaffiliated with any school is the BEST possible job one can have. Aside from being able to make LOTS of money if I run my business correctly, you also have total freedom of schedule. So if I want to go on tour for a month, or go record an album for a few weeks in Sweden, I can just tell my student that I'll see them in a month. There aren't many jobs that let you do that. This is the life I am striving to reach. @XPRT & Platonist: Let's support each other throughout the journey. I've been taking lessons from Tom Hess about becoming a professional musician and it has taught me a lot about needing to always find the good in everything and staying positive about every experience you have. Stepping out of your comfort zone to just try some things is important too. I recommend taking his Music Careers Mentoring Program to anyone who wants to be a musician. LET'S DO THIS, GUYS!

I am in the process of doing this. I am currently an English teacher at Japanese elementary schools and I am lately becoming obsessed with find a way to quit that job (even though it is a good job). In the end, I'll probably end up having multiple sources of income but for now, one of the best things I can do is become a guitar teacher. I just recently started telling people about it so I can start getting students. Along the way, I got motivated and decided to apply for a job as a guitar teacher at a music store/school. I am so scared now that I almost hope I don't get the job. It will be my first time teaching guitar so the first lessons are quite scary to me! Whether they hire me or not, it was all a good experience. Anyone else here trying to become a full-time musician? We can information and help each other.