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ectogemia

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    Approaching Infinity OST -- 18 FREE VGM tracks

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    BANDCAMP: 18 free tracks!

    I've just released the OST for Approaching Infinity, a sci-fi space roguelike. Get it while it's hot (now) and free (forever)! Hope you enjoy the music :D

    Writing a game OST has been a childhood dream since... since childhood. I couldn't have done it without the help and support of people in this community who have been instrumental in my progression as an artist since I started writing music a few years ago. Thank you. All of you :)

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I don't need 'em. I can hit 140-150g of protein per day without shakes. Plus based on a few studies and summaries I've read, 1g/pound is actually way more than is actually needed. Something like Even .7g/lb is on the high end.

    ^ Truth. Sounds like we've read the same studies for once, haha ;P It isn't necessary by any means, but it does help in almost all cases unless there's a major, major excess of protein. Basic chemical equilibrium suggests that the more a reagent is pumped into a reaction, the higher the tendency for the formation of product is, and that's definitely the case with muscle synthesis. It's not totally clear where the point of diminishing returns is, though. I was eating around 180-200 g of protein per day when I was lifting, and I had really good results.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I can't stomach protein shakes. I've tried different flavors, milk vs. water, etc. It's just gross. Then again I don't drink anything except pure water normally.

    Try hemp protein. It just sorta tastes nutty. It's *almost* kind of good, actually :P Plus, it's a whole food, just ground up hemp seeds. It's one of the few seeds with a beneficial omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid ratio, too. And it has a ton of fiber.

    Beware the Bully OST -- FREE chiptune-inspired rock jams 4 u

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Why not just combine this soundtrack with that one or wait to announce them both at the same time if they're that close to each other? In some of my observances and experiences, releases tend to inspire more excitement and feedback with bigger packages of less frequency, then smaller releases with more quantity. The latter, I've read at least, sometimes inspires burn-out to listeners.

    The above paragraph probably comes off arrogant or negative, but I mean it to be positive constructive feedback.

    One is chippy. The other is fully modern electronic music. They wouldn't package together well.

    What'd you think of the soundtrack?

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    I have all the strength I need for the life I lead.

    But do you have enough muscle mass to help you get and stay lean?

    Every new bit of muscle mass added is that much more added to the basal metabolic rate and insulin sensitivity, both of which add up to a key factor in accelerated and sustained fat loss.

    That's awesome that you're getting results, but if you've increased the weight (not sure if you mean your body weight or if you mean your lifting weight) only twice in 29 days, you're getting very slow results which suggests to me that your workout routine isn't what it should be. You should increase almost daily if you're still in the beginning stages of training.

    I don't think for a second that you ignore anything we say, but you do seem reluctant to follow some of the advice we've been offering for a while now. If you try out some of the things we've suggested, I can guarantee without a doubt that your results will be better.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think that the most exciting thing about my workout results right now is that I'm seeing a slow but steady gain in endurance and/or my mind is believing that my limits are getting higher. This is pretty awesome for me because endurance was always something that I lacked.

    That's awesome, man. Working out sucks until you can really feel/see the improvements. After that, it's like heroin :P Glad you're making progress!

    Jazz appreciation thread anyone?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    Jazz is the best, dude. I suppose I understand what he means by restaurant music, though? Maybe?? Like old jazz standards? I'm really not into the recording quality on those, nor am I all that into weirder, freer jazz like a lot of Coltrane's stuff, etc. Anyway, here's some more modern tunes which are a little easier to listen to than ancient jazz.

    Casiopea -- chill Japanese fusion

    T-SQUARE -- a little more upbeat than Casiopea

    Mezzoforte -- nice, accessible contemporary jazz

    -- nicer, even more accessible contemporary jazz

    -- yummy fusion with lots of electric piano

    Jean-Luc Ponty -- electric violinist, very fun to listen to, lots of synth work

    -- very 70s brass-based jazz with a little synth work; very easy to listen to, has a really great vibe to it that I love

    -- greatest pop band ever? most androgynous bassist ever?

    -- highly creative,highly prolific, sort of uplifting clean-guitar fusion

    -- fun, funky jams, lots of synth work and electric piano biz

    -- needs no explanation, it's Chick fuckin' Corea

    Return to Forever -- see above, except that it's a little less accessible and more "progressive" in its harmonies and rhythm

    Herbie Hancock -- the man himself; here's some funky Rhodes jams

    And if it's chiptune jazz ye seek, I can get you a list three times as long...

    Same thing if you consider prog rock to be "jazz"

    Metal Man: Al di Meola is straight-up jazz. He'd tell you so himself. Granted, he had some more rock-based stuff in the early 70s (Race with the Devil on a Spanish Highway), but old dude is a jazz guitarist. By the way, Elegant Gypsy is one of my favorite albums :D

    The Newbie Introduction Thread: Come on in and say hello!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Buongiorno, everyone!

    I'll try to introduce myself with my usual "borrowed" tagline:

    my name is Roberto but everybody calls me RoBKTA.

    I was considering to join OCR in 2006 but I was too unsure about my skills and that. It took something like 8 years to overcome my fears, not bad huh? ^_^

    Other than that, I've been making music since 2005 remixing VGM and especially Ridge Racer and Sonic The Hedgehog stuff. Lately I approached the chaps at the GameChops label that gave me the chance to release a Sonic remix album called "Club Needlemouse" and currently I'm working on an OutRun remix album we should release on June and a ton of other stuff :3

    Anyway, it's a honor for me to be here and I'm looking forward to sharing some of my stuff with you and maybe making more friends! :grin:

    Yours truly,

    RoB, the man in blue

    OMG ROB, YOU'RE SUCH A NEWB.

    Welcome to OCR, man :D

    Albums - Are they worth it?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I released an album with Ben Briggs that only took a couple of weeks to write, and we made really solid cash out of it. It was a blast to write, people enjoyed it, and it netted me the $$$$$, so yes, it's worth it. There's no downside to it if you enjoy writing music.

    But are you going to make a career out of selling your music on bandcamp? Almost without a doubt, no. More creativity and diversity with your revenue model is required to make music work as a career for the vast majority of people.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    They're what my trainer recommends. He uses them for his (very large) squats as well. His perspective is that using them allows you to not worry about balance, and instead just focus on the lift itself with 100% of your concentration, rather than using part of your focus on balance etc. He also believes they minimize the risk of injury - he prioritizes not getting injured above most everything else, because an injury that prevents you from lifting for weeks or months is the most detrimental to progress (as opposed to doing a slightly sub-optimal exercise).

    Far be it from me to argue with the guy - he's probably the strongest, most fit person I've ever met, and he's 55 to boot. It's hard to argue with his insane results and lack of any injuries ever.

    That being said I'd be interested to ask him if we can try a bar squat on Friday (leg day) just as a point of comparison, to see if it affects my hip pain during the lift.

    He's right about prioritizing not getting injured. I stress fractured my left ulna by ignoring pain during barbell biceps curls, which are sorta superfluous anyway if you do weighted chin-ups, but I digress... That put me out of commission for months, and I lost a couple dozen pounds of muscle.

    He may just have the magical anatomy to do a safe Smith squat. I bet if you start doing free-weight squats, your problem will disappear. But if you transition to free-weight squats, you should definitely reduce your weight to allow your stabilizers and core to catch up after having been neglected during Smith squats.

    I won't argue with your trainer's results, and yours have been really solid, too, but I will argue with his focus on moving more weight by not focusing on balance. One of the most important benefits of squatting is the massive gain in core strength (dem abs...) which can be attributed to keeping a few hundred pounds of moving weight directly over your center of gravity. You may be squatting somewhat less weight when compared to your Smith squats, but the machine is doing some of the work for you. My own philosophy is that you should always move as naturally as possible and let your body carry the burden because it maximizes your control over the movement which takes the machine variable out of the injury equation, a variable which you can't control. When my physical health is at risk, I want to make sure I'm in charge of what's going on.

    Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by ectogemia

    More warm-up sets are really good for priming the joints and small muscles for hard work as well as letting your gamma motor neurons know what they're about to get into (it's the neural network which determines how many muscle fibers will be recruited for work; it's anticipatory in nature, so enough warm-up lifts give it the proper feedback to let you lift the heaviest weight possible). For squats and deads, I do 4-5 warmup sets. So if I were doing 3 work sets of 5 reps at 280 on squats, I'd do a warm-up series like:

    95x5

    135x4

    165x3

    195x2

    225x1

    Or something like that. Just stay below warming up at 80% of your work weight or you'll hurt your sets. Interestingly, I read a study a while ago that showed ~10% increase in work weight when warming up with a protocol like that. Wish I could link you, but I have nooooooo idea where to find it anymore.

    And I don't want to cramp your style, but Smith machines are dangerous. They've been pegged as the most injurious piece of gym equipment. I don't know if that's true, but I think I buy it.

    A huge compound lift like a squat is really risky to do under a constricted bar path like the one a Smith machine permits. A squat is a very biomechanically complicated movement since you're moving a lot of weight balanced over your center of gravity with essentially your whole body (quads are the biggest part of the equation, but it's really just about a full-body lift). I wouldn't be at all surprised if the posture the machine forces you into is unduly stressing some part of your squat's kinetic chain. If your hip flexors are hurting, I'm going to guess that the machine is forcing you to hold your pelvis more upright than your body would prefer, so the hip flexors may be stretched and strained.

    Is there a reason you're doing them in a Smith machine as opposed to a power rack with free weights?

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