Geoffrey Taucer   Members

I have a cousin by the name of Josh Rebick who designs guitars and effects pedals. His Christmas present to me was a custom-built fuzz pedal, which is hands down the best fuzz I've ever played through. He says he's happy to make more of them if other people are interested, so I thought I'd pimp it out here. Here's a mix of Mystic Caves that I threw together yesterday to demo the pedal: http://www.geoffreytaucer.com/remixes/mysticcaves.mp3 I think this pedal's biggest strength is how it responds to playing dynamics. Note the intro; there is zero volume automation, and I didn't touch any of the controls on either the pedal or the guitar while recording that part. In other words, all variation you hear in volume/distortion is due to dynamics in my playing. If anybody's interested in getting one of these for themselves, you can e-mail Josh at rebickguitars at earthlink dot net.

For my mixes, I generally use guitar rig. For gigs, I use a Kendrick 2010 combo (a clone of the '59 fender bassman). Not all that great for metal, but good for just about anything else. As far as pedals go, I have two favorites that I use at every possible opportunity. The first is a modded TS-9. The second is the Fuzzy Waters, a fuzz pedal designed by my cousin, Josh Rebick (for any of you who've seen me playing at MAGfest, odds are I was plying through this). Hands down the best fuzz I've ever played through; great tone, responds to spectacularly to playing dynamics. You can e-mail Josh to order one at rebickguitars at earthlink dot com. (edit: more details and a demo here)

Very newmanesque. I love it.

Off crutches, back to training. No tumbling yet, but working on rebuilding all the upper-body strength I lost while I was out (fortunately, I didn't lose as much as I thought I would)

Awesome. By the way, is your Ender's Game suite still available somewhere? EDIT: also, your zelda door open jingle wip?

Dude, why bother posting reviews like this?

The argument against headphones is usually that they don't allow the sort of stereo crossbleed you get listening to a mix in real space and change how you hear a mix. HOWEVER, you get a LOT more for your money with headphones than with speakers, and you don't have to worry about acoustic treatment for your listening space. In short: High-end studio monitors in an acoustically treated room > good headphones > cheap/consumer-grade monitors in an untreated room And since a good pair of speakers costs around ten times as much as a good pair of headphones (no exaggeration), headphones are in my opinion the better choice for anybody who does not have $1K+ to throw around.

So glad you finished this one, Ross. Stellar mix.

Fast forward to 0:35. Ok, I know, it doesn't seem like the most spectacular skill in the routine, but bear with me: you'll understand in a minute. That move is called a Tippelt. The way that skill works, you basically want to swing your feet as close to the floor as possible without actually hitting in order to get the maximum amount of power. BUT, if you actually do hit the floor on that move, you're very likely looking at two broken feet. With that in mind, watch 0:35 again. Specifically, watch how the chalkdust flies off the floor as he swings through the bottom. I would guess he's gotta be within about a centimeter of the floor to kick up the chalk like that.

What in the fuck? Also, still lol @ invisible cock flute in your sig

Trapped in the Mines Lover Reef (mostly singing, but has a brief rap section)

Luke, the idea of you DJing in a mexican lounge/bar makes me endlessly happy.

So I've been set back pretty far in my goals by having surgery on my left ankle. However, I should be able to get off crutches and start PT monday, and hopefully return to full-blown training by the end of the summer.

Thanks for your opinion.

Honestly, I have no clue what you're talking about. The melody from the original is very clearly audible throughout the entire mix. It's as much an arrangement as.... well, as anything else on this site.

Absolutely stunning. Crisp production, great writing, I'd say this is one of my favorites on the site right now.

I'm gonna put in my 2 cents on the monitors vs. headphones discussion: Given a infinite budget, monitors are definitely the way to go. HOWEVER, if you don't have the option of spending lots of money ($500 at BARE MINIMUM -- $1000+ would be better. Plus acoustic treatment for the room, which generally costs even more), go with headphones.

Do you have any experience with music in general? I mean, do you play any instruments and/or have a decent knowledge of chord structure and music theory? It depends on how proficient you need to be with the program in question. You can learn many of these programs will enough to do a simple, basic arrangement in a week or two. Learning all the ins and outs of the program, learning to get the best possible sound from the synths/samples you're using, learning how to get the highest-quality recordings for any live instruments you may be using, this is an ongoing process which you never really "finish." I've been doing this for years and I still feel like I've barely scraped the surface. But I know enough to make music that I'm happy with. Again, there isn't really a straightforward answer to this. You can do some pretty spectacular stuff using only free software/samples/synths/effects. However, if you have some money to throw around, you can get higher quality sound much easier in many cases. As far as how much you'd be spending, the sky's the limit. If you can give us an idea of your budget, we can probably steer you in the right direction, but there isn't really any way for us to say "you need to spend exactly $XXX to be a good remixer." DarkeSword, Protricity, and Unknown use free sample almost exclusively. On the flipside, I've spent upwards of $20,000 on hardware and software specifically for making music -- I know some of the pros around here (like zircon) have probably spent a LOT more than that. I think they sort of come together. You can't really separate the two, in my opinion. Just practice, practice, practice. Not that important, in my opinion. I'm sure some people will disagree with me on this point, though. I generally go by ear and stick with whatever sounds good. I often don't bother figuring out the exact chords of the original. Having a general understanding of the structure of the original is important, but knowing every note played by every instrument in the original track isn't. Yes. Like anything, formal education is probably helpful, but most of the remixers here (including myself) are self-taught. I'd guess quite often. But I can't be sure; we generally don't keep track of people who try once and then quit unless they make a complete ass of themselves afterward. I'll tell you right now: your first shot at remixing will probably suck. You'll think it's awesome, you'll sub it, the judges will tear it apart. Don't get discouraged and don't take it personally; it's like that for everybody. I know all these vague "it depends" responses probably weren't what you were hoping for -- fortunately/unfortunately, making music is a very individual process, and everybody does it differently. Best of luck!

Concurred.

OH SHIT Can I cosplay Link and do something for this? I've already got most of the costume.

'sall good, long as we can has some hot make up sex

OH MY PASTA THIS IS PURE FUCKING GENIUS! I am in tears right now.

What the fuck do you know? I pour my fucking heart out into my music. Let's see a goddamn remixinator do that.