WillRock

The ultimate melodic shred guitarist imo is Vito Bratta. Take the shredding of Eddie Van Halen, the melodies of Eric Johnson and the classical sensibilities of Randy Rhoads and you get this -

I do it all the time. Not ashamed to say so. I don't really consider myself a great guitarist, and my work requires... a strong emphasis on timings and clean playing. There isn't much room for being sloppy, which is something my early guitar mixes were continuously plagued by. My album Monarchy - https://willrock1.bandcamp.com/album/monarchy - Its edited so much (not just my own playing either, but others as well) that if I gave you all the original files without my edits... I reckon it would sound rather bad in comparison. Now... why do I do it? I believe that any means are justifiable to a good end. As for playing live gigs - different medium of entertainment. Therefore it requires a different approach. Now for my last point - we all sequence our music to an extent. Many of us have the tools to play everything live but we don't. I bet we could learn to play "keyboard drums" but I don't think many of us bother. How is this any different? Is it cheating to sequence what you could give an attempt at playing live? Is it cheating to sequence at all? What about using rhythmic patches? Or Arps? If we can do it manually, is it cheating to take the easier option? I don't believe so. We now have the tools available to create a product that WE enjoy. If you want to play your things live and you like a sloppier sound then more power to you. However if you're a perfectionist, and you need everything perfect... that is YOUR right. We all have the tools to create music how we want. We aren't breaking any rules imho because the end result is our vision and if we don't use everything at our disposable to put across our vision, that is false. We have the skills and tools to create music thats out of this world. Sometimes that requires more than a simple live performance and there is NOTHING wrong with that

Amazing! Now we just need a genre selection in the search bar!

One good technique I use is to get someone to record the same part more than once and then layer it. It helps mask the "pitchiness" (bad tuning) of the vocals (that is if there is a bit in there) and also enhances your lead line if you're adding vocal harmonies. A little bit of synced delay can sound cool if you automate it to be wet just at the end of your lead line too. As for tuning - DO IT MANUALLY. Autotuning is lazy and everyone can hear it because it changes pitch moments after the audio signal starts, so you can hear it "shift" - thats fine if you're going for an uncanny valley feel in your electronic music, but if you're going for something organic, its a big fat no no - however, if you automate your vocals pitch to change BEFORE the audio signal starts, or just as it does, no one will know the difference. It takes a lot longer, but if you want something done properly and done right, you need to put in that extra effort.

So, I've been wondering. Music is such a subjective thing, and everyone is going to have different opinions. So I have a question for you all. Remixes. What do you like to hear out of them? Some example questions... Do you prefer remixes that stylistically enhance the original or take it in a different direction? Do you enjoy remixes with fantastic production values or do you prefer the more "human" feel of less professional/polished production? Do you like remixes that stick to the original source arrangement or do you enjoy remixes that take liberties with the source material? Do you prefer long or short remixes? etc etc. Personally, I prefer remixes that enhance what the original was based on and aren't overly long. I don't particularly mind too much about production values but if its borderline unlistenable as a result I'll probably pass on it. So.... What do you guys like?

You can use any of my music you want.

Yeah you can ask about tracks here I think. Maybe. If you can remember the sources, you can look around. You might find something new you like!

I'm interested. I have sent you a PM!

Oh this is nice. I have to say, I love the concept. Really pays tribute to the original while expanding it in some great ways. Opens up with some really nice string work. Then, the "lossy" acoustic guitar enters. Its distracting against the hi-quality strings, but once they're more in the background you don't notice it as much. I like the concept of the vocals, but they have one issue - I can hear where its been edited. The synthetic feel brought on by the sudden shifting during the vocal performance and how perfect the pitches are is at odds with the rest of the track. It is not synthetic or electronic in any way other than this one aspect. Autotune imo has no place in a track like this. I probably sound pretty strong worded here, but thats just me emphasising how big the issue is. What I would have done is fixed it manually so it doesn't sound synthetic - Its something I do with vocals and while it takes longer, the end result is MUCH more rewarding - even if it the tuning isn't 100% bang on (which it shouldn't be, we're only human after all) That said... I am on the fence. The execution of everything else is pretty good, and I can see where the yes's are coming from, considering they didn't even MENTION the auto-tune... Sorry, I can't sign off on it. The vocals need fixing up to fit better with the rest of the track imo - could just need the auto-tune turning off! I can't condition it based on that tho since I don't know how good the original recording is (sorry!) I doubt I'll have too many agreeing with me tho - good luck with the rest of the vote! NO (resub)

I'd like to announce the release of my latest album, An EP called Monarchy! Monarchy is my 4th offically released album, It is available for FREE!!! (pay what you want) on bandcamp AND OverClocked Records! It features the talents of OC Remixers such as... Sixto Sounds Level 99 Viking Guitar and many more artists! If you enjoy Classic Rock/Metal along the lines of Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, Scorpions or Metallica, I think you'll enjoy this! It is vastly different from music I have produced before - anyone expecting "Welcome to the Real World mark 2" will have to wait, this is pure classic heavy metal. Despite only being 4 tracks, I spent 1 year on this EP, and put a LOT of work into this, something I hope you can appreciate by the scope of the collaborations on this project, of which the album wouldn't have been possible without. GET THE ALBUM HERE!!!

1: Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic) 2: Eevee (Pokémon) 3: Raiden (Mortal Kombat)

I like a wide stereo image, so I tend to do the following... Compression, Stereo Imager, all that jazz... plus limiter. If its not loud enough at that point, put on this stuff after the limiter in your chain... another stereo Imager, MOAR compressor, AND ANUFER LIMITAR and BOOM instant LOUD. MAAASTURING IZ FUUUUUN.

I've already figured out the track order. Its simply a mixing/mastering question As the album goes on, it actually gets more bass heavy, so the album does have a sense of gradual change in the production with its current order. I'm in a situation where I'm over thinking it honestly, and if I start changing tracklisting now, everything is going to go to pot XD

So I've got an EP in the works. Its 99% done. I'm in the mastering process and individually, the songs sound great. However, as a collective, there are some noticeable differences in each tracks mixing and mastering. However, if I change one track to fix with the others I'll lose something in the process that I like about that tracks mixing. My question to you guys is this - how do you go about mixing/mastering albums? As a collective? Or do you focus on the individual tracks and not worry about a consistant production sound?

Welcome to the Real World is up on Itunes if you haven't brought it already

What larry said basically. I'd say the panning is one of the most notably problematic aspects... gotta be careful, particularly in this "ipod" age where everyone listens to stuff on headphones NO

Hmm, I'm having a slightly harder time than the others on this one. I do agree with everyones production crits (mostly the compression issue) but I think the arrangement deserves some props here. I'm going to go borderline YES

hahaha ok I'm going to blow this open a bit further for the lulz. Black Sabbath also had Ian Gillian as a vocalist at one point, who was the vocalist for Deep Purple, for which Richie Blackmore was also lead guitarist. Another vocalist for Deep Purple was David Coverdale, who formed Whitesnake after he left along with Jon Lord (deep purple) The band also had the guitarists John Sykes (also in thin lizzy) and Steve Vai (David Lee Roth, Alcatrazz) in it at different points. Alcatrazz also had Yngwie Malmsteen in the band, who worked with Joe Lynn Turner as part of his Rising Force band. Joe was in Rainbow with Richie Blackmore after Dio left. The vocalist for Alcatrazz was also in Rainbow at one point doing vocals AS WELL. Back to Malmsteen, The original vocalist for Yngwie Malmsteen was Jeff Scott Soto, who was also in Journey after Steve Perry left. The Guitarist for Journey, Neil Schon, worked with Johnny Gioeli in the band hardline, who is better known as the vocalist for Crush 40, who worked on Sonic music, including Sonic 3, which Michael Jackson is known to have worked on. Michael Jackson worked with Eddie Van Halen on Beat it. Eddie Van Halen worked with David Lee Roth and Sammy Hager in Van Halen, Sammy worked in Chickenfoot with Joe Satriani, who was also Deep Purples Lead guitarist for a short period of time. One of joe's pupils was Steve Vai (along with kirk hammett of metallica). Vai was with David Lee Roth as mentioned earlier. Vai also toured with Frank Zappa (as a music transcriber extraordinaire) who's son, Dweezil Zappa had a mixpost on OverClocked Remix. BOOM.

So, most bands/groups/artists, it is fair to say have a general style of music you can categorise their entire library under. Some bands are more versatile than others, I don't think anyone is going to argue that Queen and The Beatles have more variety than say... AC/DC. However, that doesn't stop even the most boring bands from experimenting every now and then. Sadly, these occurances are usually rare and borderline unique with their musical output. Thats what i'm wanting here. For example... Who knew Van Halen did a Jazz Cover Song? Queen did this - Kiss... Quite often these tracks aren't ones done with serious intent, and some of them aren't as good as others but when they work they are amazing. I'm sure you guys can come up with some much much better examples than this. Extra points for posting songs by OCR artists!

I won't be going I'll just have to hate you all from home instead, rather than in person

Congratulations sir!

When you say british accent do you mean an english, welsh, irish or scottish accent? Or are you not picky? Also, second person - is that being provided by someone else or are you expecting to find 2 different people to do the separate lines from here?

Belated Birfday!

Could I suggest some sort of livestream? Pick an artist/game/series/OCR Album at random and play songs from it for an hour or so. Put a little thing on the front page saying what will be showcased that week along with the time and place and you'll probably get quite a few people just putting it on in the background while they work, and they'll find some cool new music that way. I mean... you guys are doing talkback, and thats really cool and i'm happy for you but OCR makes the best MUSIC of all time, and I suggest that you utilise your livestreams to promote that, rather than just talking for 2-3 hours. Also, Rainwave: http://ocr.rainwave.cc/