AngelCityOutlaw   Members

2013 was easily the worst year of my entire life. 2012 was the second worst. I can't wait to see how bad 2014 will be. So I guess my resolution is for at least something to go good.

I'm looking to collaborate with other live musicians for some original music. Basically, one song to start and if it is received well, we could write more. The style that I want to do is like that 80s AOR and hard rock stuff with a modern edge. Here are some songs that inspire me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQj-CoGbMjs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7FqMgRvd6E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olDAzz0KDbk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-Plo9tagg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q4NSpb8pro So obviously, I play guitar, but we could use a second guitarist, synths, drums, bass and of course - vocals. I have some lyrics and some possible vocal melodies in mind, but I would like a skilled singer to help write the vocal melodies. If you think you'd be down for doin' some rock, reply and post some links to your stuff!

Happy Birthday!

Congrats! Also, this baby is heir to the OCR throne. One day, she shall rule over us all.

Aside from studying up using the resources others mentioned, another good way is... Play Jazz. Find some venues in your city that play jazz music and meet the musicians and try jamming with them if they have open jam night kinda deals. Get some sheet music of some Jazz compositions, play and analyze the hell out of them. I learned country music that way...and I don't even like country that much. Also learn about modal composition if you don't already know about it and want to do some Miles Davis kinda stuff. Though the definitions have kinda changed over the years, it's really not complicated - music that uses a mode for harmonic framework instead of chord progressions. So like, holding down a drone and playing the phrygian mode over it type of deal. Some players will tell you "play a different mode over each chord" which is generally a bad idea and isn't really modal.

Guitar Rig is a must if you're a guitarist imo. Also, ReFX Nexus 2 has some really great expansions.

EDIT: Never mind, I answered my own question. This was just a moment of me being retarded.

Holy crap, that's awesome. Congrats all of you!

Having the same problem, but with Guitar Rig.

I like the bass tone in this track! Has somewhat of a Ridge Racer feel

That is actually an interesting idea.

I agree with Snaps overall. If you get good at both audiation and music theory it will allow you to realize your musical ideas most effectively. When I think about it, any time I'm really into writing something and it turns out just the way I want it to be, it was usually because I was doing a good job at transcribing the music in my mind and using the theory knowledge to guide it further.

Phrygian Dominant mode ftw

Needs moar Jingle Bell!!!!

I freaking love this!

Somehow, I just knew that link was going to be Zircon.

Fair enough. I read that this genre uses a lot of chopped up drum loops, but I probably would have been better off to just go with individual samples in this case.

I think the best way is to just collaborate with people as usual. For example, I picked up a few neat tricks from working with Timaeus.

Kinda just curious. We've all heard the philosophy of "try to write something every day", but I find these days I write less music than ever. It's cool though, because the tracks I do write are better than before. What about you? Always working on new tracks or no?

Not anymore. Updated the track and put the link in the first post. Am I doing this genre right?

What's an IRC? I'll try that. Yoko Kanno's "Inner Universe" has the same kinda sound

Like the title says. Any feedback you have would be great! Thanks for listening to my noise. https://soundcloud.com/angelcityoutlaw/synthetic-wind

Fear not, you're still way better at this whole music thing than me (although I don't set the bar very high). So what you're doing - keep doin' it.

That sound at the beginning of "The End" by Zircon. It's that sort of percussive noise right in the intro that starts alongside the piano. I've heard that type of effect in a bunch of electronic tunes I like. http://zirconstudios.bandcamp.com/album/identity-sequence

1. Learn as much about theory and composition as you can and never stop learning it. A well composed piece is always well composed, but a piece with shitty composition and great production is still a shitty track. 2. Do every genre of music. By that I don't mean "I used to do trance, but now I do dubstep!" I mean music that uses completely different ensembles. 3. Learn how to write for specific ensembles/genres. Something that I struggled with and still do from time to time is that you can't treat an orchestra like a rock band and you can't treat synth dominated EDM like it's an orchestra. While the same theory applies, the genres all handle melody, harmony, and rhythm in their own way and that is what truly makes the genres different. 4. Learn to write modal and atonal music as well and learn what kind of style is useful to achieve the sound you want. If you have to make a really dark, evil-sounding piece, your I IV Vs and pentatonic melodies aren't going to get the job done. In that case, writing something based purely on the phrygian mode might work better Those are some thoughts that immediately come to mind.