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XPRTNovice

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Posts posted by XPRTNovice

    Community Video Game Orchestra in Rockville, MD looking for musicians

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As a clarinet and sax player, I was really interested in this until I saw the bit about being charged $60/year to rehearse with no concert schedule to speak of yet (except the caveat of two per year). I love playing, and I love video game music, but getting charged to drive to Rockville once a week with nothing to show for it is a lot to ask musicians. All the community band/orchestras I've ever been in derive their funds from the community supporting them, not the artists who are already volunteering their time and talent to make the community better. I might consider submitting an arrangement, though.

    Gripes aside, best of luck with the group. I hope to catch a concert.

    I launched a website...Renaissance Man Studio

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by XPRTNovice

    You founded the USAFA jazz band on '04? Nice, that's when my brother graduated from there. He played trombone in high school, not sure if he ever played it there, I'll have to ask him if he knew about it.

    Small world! If he graduated in 04, then I probably never met him. I was a sophomore at the time and didn't take on any upper classmen because I wanted a group that would solidify for four years. The band is still there, too, though I'm not in contact with any of the members.

    Edit: I just realized that I started the band in the fall of 04, and if he's an 04 grad he graduated in May, so he never would have heard of it.

    I launched a website...Renaissance Man Studio

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have a few questions for curiosity's sake (if that's okay)

    1) Do you have a preference between doing voiceovers and voice acting?

    2) How did you start doing voice work?

    I'd prefer to do voice acting (I assume you're talking about video game, cartoons, and other entertainment rather than corporate/commercial), but voice acting, like regular acting, has different gateways. Most big voice ACTING jobs that are worth your time are going to require you to be represented by an agent or jump through some other hoops. I'm a freelancer. Voiceovers for commercials and the like are easier to break into. Currently, I exclusively use voices.com as a source of freelancing jobs (I have a blog post about it on my site you can read about) and there are a few other sites out there that act as conduits for small time voiceovers.

    I launched a website...Renaissance Man Studio

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well, I kind of did it like two months ago, but for some reason I never posted it here. I thought you guys might be interested, AND I wanted to clear up some confusion on some of the names I use.

    The name of the studio is Renaissance Man Studio (@RenManStudio for twitter, etc), because it's a combination of voiceover and music work with some editing/writing services offered on the side. I've been into voiceovers for about 8 moths now and it's bringing me great results and a lot of clients (about 85 to date). I had some trouble trying to figure out if I wanted to brand myself as XPRTNovice or go with something broader, and I went with the broad option (because I'm also getting much more business with voice than music).

    Anyway, that's my story and here is the site. If any of you work for production companies that could use a voiceover artist (I wouldn't dare ask you to refer me for music, as most of you deserve whatever that job is more than me) I would probably love you forever.

    How you got or could get "good" at composing, producing, or playing music?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    Erm, I wouldn't say I'm good at all, but I approach learning anything, especially art, in three basic ways:

    - Do it.

    - Do it mindfully.

    - Accept and acknowledge crap, and move on.

    Do it: You just have to sit on your ass and DO the thing you're trying to get better at. Reading 10,000 blog posts on composing isn't going to make you better; you have to compose. As a writer, I've written 5 novels in the last 2.5 years, and now I can say they're worth reading.

    Do it mindfully: I used to tell my students that "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes habits. PERFECT practice makes perfect." If you're "doing it" above but you're not being mindful about ways you can get better, you're going to stay stagnant or, worse, create bad habits. If I practice my piano scales at blinding speed with errors, I get really, really good at playing them really, really poorly. This is the part where I'm also reading, learning, asking questions of experts, and then trying to apply it to what I'm working on.

    Accept crap: I have lots of unfinished projects, both in writing and in music, that are crap. But each one of those turds came with a golden nugget of learning (or corn, I never could figure that out). Those hunks of steaming poop don't define you as an artist, and you have to let them go and acknowledge that they taught you something that you can then apply to #1 and #2 (no pun intended)

    The real lesson is you gotta put in the time. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, Malcom Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers where he explores "geniuses" and how in many cases it just becomes an opportunity for a person to put in monumental amounts of time into one activity.

    BadAss: Boss Themes: Volume III - History

    in Projects

    Posted

    damn, it's hard to keep track of who is trying to claim what and not stepping on anyone's toes. I thought about doing some Xenogears action, maybe Graf or something, but I see people mentioning XG already.

    I'll try to produce a WIP soon when I'm done with a couple other tracks, but for now I'm up for collab if anyone needs stuff.

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

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Forgot to mention, but this book arrived from Amazon a few days ago. I'm reading through it and so haven't actually started the Whole 30 yet. I can already tell it's going to be tough to handle, but I can definitely see the benefits from what I'm reading, so I'm looking forward to the challenge once I'm ready to start it.

    Oh, wow, great! I made a convert :) I'll have to tell my wife, she'll be so proud.

    Really though, it WILL be hard. For the first 5 days, you might experience what they call the "carb flu." It is literally your body going through withdrawal. Sugars are extremely addictive. Trust me - power through it and you'll feel fantastic afterwards. And unlike a "diet" this is a lifestyle - you can choose to eat that way for the rest of your life and it would not be nutritionally deficient. Most diets, on the other hand, rob your body of something necessary. Let me know how it goes!

    Laptop Discussion

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by XPRTNovice

    I ended up Newegging a Dell Ultrabook for $500. I guess I should have updated the thread :

    I'll change the title and we can maybe just bullshit about laptops.

    I don't use the laptop for too much except traveling; no real gaming. I do all my gaming via console and using rolled up pieces of napkin paper. It's a i5 3rd gen processor with 8GB ram and an integrated graphics card, windows 8 (which I've already modified) and a touch screen. I like the 32GB SSD in combo with the 500GB HDD. nice and quiet and fast. I like it so far and Dells have always been good to me.

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