Tensei

Hey, that's what it's acid jazz for, as long as it resolves nicely, you can pretty much put the craziest dissonances you can think of into it =P

Having seen the amazing movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest yesterday once again, I can only come to the conclusion that part of Schnab's inspiration for this mix, or at least the slower/softer parts, (and the name seems to confirm that) comes from the muzak that was played by Nurse Ratched for the patients. Eitherway, everything I could say about this mix has already been said, so I'll just say it's an amazing piece.

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with DarkeSword on this. When the introductory speech has about 20 instances of the word 'I' it can't bode very well for the rest of it, especially if you add to that the number of animu cliches that were present in the first 5 pages. I really can't see any composer wanting to read through 30 episodes of this before he even has a chance of getting on the project, professional opinions by renown critics like "stink_beetle" and "rgn7028" aside. My suggestion is you write up a summary of the 30 episodes, with relatively brief character descriptions added (if you haven't already), and have anyone interested take a look at that, I think that's a much more reasonable proposition.

No offense dude, but before you start dishing out cash for sample CD's, I'd first make sure your production skills are up to a satisfying level, otherwise the samples you've paid hard cash for will still sound like shit, just saying. =P

Heh, sorry about all the stuff that was going on with this song. The Xenogears WIP forums are kind of dead so I've decided to post a small portion of the song here anyway (don't worry, it's legal this time =P). The feedback I need is mainly on the production, this being my first semi-electronic mix and everything. I'd like to hear some suggestions on adding some more airy atmosphere, etc., I think you get the gist. It's a remix of the vocal song Stars of Tears, the vocal melody being played by the piano (which in the future will be sang by the charming miss DragonAvenger =P). I've aimed for a down-tempo, mellow arrangement, sort of a combination between acid jazz and trip-hop. I hope you like it. ReMix: http://www.tindeck.com/audio/files/qccd-Stars%20of%20Tears.mp3 Original:

Aww, C'mon man, the strings are f*cking awesome, you don't need to have it sound like a carbon copy of Amon Amarth. If it works you should keep it in IMO =P

probably something like this

There ya go, happy to help out

All questions about the viability of this project aside, wouldn't it be easier to have only a few composers working on this so you get something like stylistic consistency in the soundtrack, rather than a somewhat random collection of mp3s? I mean, even a little indication of the style you want the CD to be in would help a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBu5X3TvNw That's definitely staccato bass if I've ever heard one. I'd say it's more about the placement of the bass (off-beat eighth notes) that makes it sound distinct than it's timbre.

By the way, is it me, or are the lead guitars out of tune at some points? I think a slight touch of pitch shifting could fix that.

Stars of Tears is about 90% done now, it just needs some minor tweaks, vocals and a little guitar solo at the end (sorry, I couldn't resist, I promise it won't be metal, it will fit the mood perfectly, I swear! =P)

Hehe, this just makes me want to do it so much more. Nothing's better than pissing on childhood nostalgia. =P

Eyes on Me should totally be made into a Ska mix, with live trumpet, trombone, guitar, drums, bass and organ.

Edit: Sorry guys, apparently I'm not allowed to post project mixes, especially if they're quite close to being done, guess you'll have to wait until the Xenogears Project is done =)

Amplitube 2 + M-audio Fasttrack + Ibanez RG 2570 is what gets me going. =P

It's not bad considering you're still a beginner, and arrangementwise there's definitely a spark, productionwise it still has a long way to go. The comping by the piano is IMO decidedly un-jazzy( you could say the chords are too 'simple'=P), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Bass is way too soft and too bassy (might seem like a contradiction, but on a double bass you usually want to hear the attack clearly so you actually know it's a double bass, and not a bass guitar). Sax..hmm what can I say..it's okay for a sequenced soundfont sax, but it doesn't sound anywhere near convincing. If you get this thing up and running I suggest you look up a live sax player on the site to play the part for you, it will make an amazing difference. Piano is okay, it doesn't stand out, but it doesn't hurt my ears with its fakiness either. I reaaaaaallly suggest you add some nice downbeat jazz percussion to this, it will definitely help keep the song a steady pace. Again, this definitely good for a first-time mix, and has some potential too.

Female vocalists are very welcome too though!! hehe =P I got an update in the topic with vocal melody and lyrics for the first verse so anyone who wants to try is welcome to check it out and send an audition.

Whoa, CHIPP is gonna to flip when he gets online in a few moments and he sees all these replies. =P

No, you got to know chords. Nearly any type of complex lead playing where you don't want to be stuck in the pentatonic scale requires a decent knowledge of chords. Geez, even using double stops would mean you know at least something about chords, let alone sweep-picking or tapping arpeggio's. That you're not going to be playing them if you're shredding through some metal song doesn't mean you shouldn't know them!

I believe you should try your luck on google. No instrument is easier to learn through the internet than the guitar due to the sheer amount of websites dedicated to it so you shouldn't have any trouble finding material at all, and with a vague description like that I really can't help you much further. Just work your way through the about.com pages, they're pretty good IMO, after that you can start looking up specific techniques you're interested in (string bending, legato, sweeping, etc.)

If you want riffs that sound like metal, pay careful attention to the metal song you're actually playing and how the riff is built-up. Take a look at the intro riff to Master of Puppets, you'll notice it alternates between full power chords and a fast downpicked phrase. It's all based on a relatively simple chord progression, but it sounds so cool because of the numerous ways the chords are 'processed'; you got the chromatic descending phrase to give a sense of speed, and the staccato power chords as a means of power. What I mean by this example is that you have to find out what exactly makes the riffs sound so cool to your ears, and try to emulate this form of 'processing' your chord progressions. As a general rule of thumb, there's usually a fast-picked, palm-muted open string involved (The E generally, because it's the lowest, and sounds the heaviest), alternated by different chords or double-stops, to give the riffs some harmonic content. Don't feel down though, the riff-based approach to writing songs is really hard IMO, and it will take some time until you're able to come up with something that doesn't sound cheesy to your ears. Practice makes perfect!

God, you've come to the right site then, because everyone here is like totally cooped up in the niche of their favored musical genre and refuses to listen to anything else, so you should fit right in. Since you don't want to argue with me anymore I'm not going to respond to any of your other points, tempted as I might be. Good job missing most of my important points in that post though.

So, why Malmsteen? Why not Paul Gilbert (who has a similar style, except he's technically way better IMO), Michael Angelo Batio (same as Paul here), Joe Satriani (Who can write fucking catchy songs without resorting to simple progressions and without vocals)?. Heck, why not Buckethead( Who is just..wow awesome)?. I mean, there are lots of interesting guitar players out there, even with your notions on "The current state of the world of Shred Guitar". It just seems really narrow-minded to act like Yngwie is the only guitar-driven artist with natural and not 'forced' originality (which is a distinction I completely disagree with, but I'll go over that later). I'm not saying you said that, but it is implied by your "I don't listen to any other guitar players than Yngwie, because nowadays forced originality is prevalent among guitar-driven artists."-statement. Now, about the crack at Tom Morello, I think it's impossible to make a distinction between what you call forced and innate originality. Sure, Tom Morello probably thought something along the lines of " I'm going to use all the different pedals to get an original sound", but isn't that exactly the same as Igor Stravinsky thinking " I'm going to use old Russian folk themes in my music to achieve get an original composition"? Or Bach thinking " I'm going to incorporate elements of cantata's in my stylistically different pieces to get an original composition?" Is there actually any artist out there that comes close to fitting your definition of being naturally original? You can call Jimi Hendrix innovative, but you can also accuse him of 'forced originality' for fucking around with his whammy bar and using a lot of different pedals and sound-effects. About your comparison with Picasso: Half of appreciating art, is actually understanding art. Yes, Picasso was a genius IMO, and not because he is THE Picasso, but because of the whole idea behind cubism and the way he incorporated it in his oeuvre. Obviously you seem to miss the point if you think it's about replacing ears with eyes, or even about his 'technical skill'. Why something as 'visually abrasive as cubism caught on' is easy to answer: The philosophy behind cubism was attractive to spectators and other artists in that period. In fact, nearly every modern(and most older) form of art has some sort of philosophy or explanation behind it. You can draw parallels between Schoenberg's music and Kandinsky's visual arts, simply because they're based on the same (expressionistic) idea, conveyed through different means, so if you always thought of art as something purely visual (which is implied by your stance on cubism), I'm happy to have opened your eyes. Also, don't give Green Day that hard of a time, Dookie was pretty good and I still enjoy listening to it from time to time, you should use someone in your comparisons who never actually was good (Avril Lavigne comes to mind). P.S. Did you know that Picasso wasn't the first one to come up with Cubism by the way? So much for your 'product of a disturbed mind'-theory. =P

How can you improvise over chord progressions if you know no licks? =P Anyway, there are a number of different approaches to writing music, especially with the aid of an instrument as versatile as a guitar; you can either just play around a bit with chords and come up with a progression that you like and that isn't . Now you have a lot of different options already, are you going to arpeggiate the chords, or play them in eighth note power chords? I'm sure you can think of something. Really, once you have a progression you can just build the rest of your song around it; come up with a cool melody that fits the mood of the progression, underline everything with a nice little bass-line, and add some drums (I wrote a little tutorial that might help you with this). Another approach would be to build around a melody you've come up with (or that's from a song you're remixing), figure out which bass/chord root notes would fit under it, and 'flesh out' the song by building chords over your root notes. Bottom line: there's a lot of different approaches to writing songs, and songwriting definitely isn't impossible for you, especially if you are able to improvise over chord progressions. Figure out which approach works best for you and get mixing =P