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XPRTNovice

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Posts posted by XPRTNovice

    How do you build up your tracks?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I would say I work in a sort of painters way, but in sections. I get a basic concept down for an A section, then I brainstorm the B section. Then I lay down the basics for the B section and move on to thinking about the next. When I have an ending written, I will then go back and start putting in other ornamentation, counter melodies, harmonies.

    It sounds structured, but I kind of let the mood take me. If I am getting great ideas for how to thicken section A but I haven't even started brainstorming B yet, I will give A everything I have until the muse goes somewhere else. I always try to do EQing and sends on the fly, though, so that I don't finish a track and realize that I need to do the whole thing again.

    For my LIVE parts, I always throw down absolute shit first with lots of mistakes and timing issues. Then I copy and paste the tracks and it sounds terrible. When I have the whole piece figured out, then I go lay down clean live parts.

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

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Okay, so I put on the vibrams this mornign to give them a re-test run. I was able to get them on a little faster because my feet were dry (I hadn't been wearing shoes before I put them on), so that problem isn't as bad anymore. But I'm worries that they just don't fit my feet.

    Don't tell anyone this, but I have giant big toes. So when I fit my feet in the shoes, ther'es like a quarter inch of space between the end of every toe and the end of the shoe. Except of course the big toe, which fills out fine. There's a liiiitle bit of space in the back, but the shoes don't actually slip off my feet. I'm wearing a 43 (I wear a 10 and a half in US size) so that's actually already running small for me. Those of you with vibrams - is this fit OK or am I screwed because I have Mutant Feet?

    I lifted with them on, today, because I wanted something low impact where I could just get used to wearing the actual shoe. I did jog a bit in the parking lot to see how it felt, and it felt like someone was drivign sledgehammers into the bottom of my feet. Do I just need to get used to that impact? I don't need a compressed spine when I'm 50 because I wanted to wear cool feet-shoes...

    I'm going to continue experimenting with them.

    On another note, I joined a Parkour gym.

    What is the hardest part of the process for you?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    The whole "producing" part with mixing and stuff. No good at it and don't even like doing it.

    Other than that, sometimes actually finishing songs is the hardest part. I have so many unfinished songs it's insane.

    Ugh, this. I'm such a tard when it comes to the actual technical stuff behind plugins and mixing and mastering that when I get to this point my progress slows soooooo much. It's disheartening, and when you realize at the end of that you just spent 3 days figuring out something that the music community would laugh at you for not knowing, you just want to crawl into a hole.

    What is the most useful information you've ever been given?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    Finish a song before you start the next one. No matter how many great ideas for other tracks are bouncing around in your head. For years I created dozens of WIPs that never went anywhere. Because it's always more fun to start a new project with limitless potential, than apply some elbow grease to an existing one. Once a year I would clear out a huge mass of doomed projects and start fresh. Once I changed my attitude in this regard, I saw a massive improvement in my rate of finished songs.

    I guess this is sort of dependent on what your work mode is. I was just examining yesterday that I'm simultaneously working on 7 tracks and I've been able to work on them all at a good pace without leaving any behind. BUUUUTT 100% of them have been for projects, so I actually OWE someone something. That is a big motivator for me - I can't stand it when people say they'll do something and then don't come through, so I never want to do that to project directors.

    If you could change one thing in any game...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hmm...I think I would have changed the ending of FF7. It just didn't close enough loops for me. I always thought that game would have been absolute perfection if they had just spent more time on the ending. [spoilers - highlight to read]I just don't care enough that Red XIII had puppies...itself a scientific impossibility, considering he was the last of his species [/spoilers]

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

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by XPRTNovice

    think the biggest thing just comes down to exercise.

    I think this statement is a misconception that the general population has, and it stops them from getting where they want to go. Krug is right - calories in vs. calories out. 1 pound of weight equals about 3500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week, you actually physically must consume 500 less calories than your maintenance level for that week.

    Now, you can make that gap happen two ways: diet and exercise. To "work off" 500 calories, you can bet on doing probably about an hour of medium to high intensity cardio. Or you can NOT eat a few things. In my opinion, it's way less time consuming to NOT do something than to do an hour of something :P

    Zircon, I'm not sure what your workout regimen is, but you might want to take some focus off cardio. If you lift weights, try lifting BEFORE your cardio. Lifting is going to burn the carbs you have available, and then the cardio can start to work on the fat stores. If you just do cardio, all you're doing for the first 20-30 minutes is burning carbs that you just ate. If you're not lifting weights, I recommend starting. There's a misconception that cardio > weights when trying to lose weight, because people associate lifting with bulking up. Mix it up a bit and I bet that will do two things: get you the results you want and make working out less abysmally boring. Personally, an hour of straight cardio - ESPECIALLY if I'm doing it on some repetitive machine inside a gym - is worse than watching daytime television.

    Also - studies show that long-term low intensity cardio (walking for an hour) does better things for you than short term high-intensity cardio (running 3 miles).

    EDIT: Zircon, if you want to go extreme with your diet, try going paleo for a month. If you cut out cookies and cake but your meals mostly consist of bread, pasta, cereal, and rice, it's going to be REALLY tough for you to see results. I know they're cheaper and they generally taste good, but complex cabohydrates just aren't good for you, despite what the FDA's food pyramid tries to sell us. The mountain of evidence that shows how damaging to your intestinal track processed grains are is growing veeery fast. :)

    My wife is beyond knowledgeable about the nutrition side, so if you want some reading material, let me know. Everything I know I've learned by osmosis from her.

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