sgx

The drums in Rock Band and the vocals in Rock Band + Karaoke Revolution probably actually help people with those respective instruments much more than Guitar/Bass in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. When I was in a sight singing course in school a few years ago, playing Karaoke Revolution was a fun way for me to practice getting control of my voice. I wasn't really getting practice associating pitches with the do, re, me, etc notes I needed to know, but it really got me used to controlling my voice, making small adjustments, and generally getting to know how to work my vocal chords as someone who never really sang before - not even in the shower. I still did pretty poorly in the class, but better than I would have without it. Playing drums in Rock Band really is an easy way to learn a lot of basic rock drum rhythms and it pounds it into you with a lot of repetition. You get very used to the base rhythm of hats on the eighth notes, snares on 2 and 4, and kicks on the 1 and elsewhere. Then you get to know all kinds of variations. It also gets your brain totally adjusted to using three limbs at once for musical input. I'm very used to using both my hands for music instruments and also music games, but never my foot in addition to that (Though I've used both feet in DDR!). Integrating the kick in there was mind-bending when I was just starting Rock Band, but now it feels natural. I have this midi keyboard with finger drum pads for tapping beats on. I never really used it because I was no good at it. I wasn't good at thinking about more than two fingers for rhythm at once when I needed at least three (kick, snare, hats) But now I'm finding that with my multiple input skills and familiarization with basic beats, I can tap drums for my music better. I'd probably have a head start if I ever wanted to get real and play some real drums too. However, I would imagine that most Rock Band only drummers have an underdeveloped internal metronome and will have trouble keeping a steady beat tempo. Bands often rely on the drums to keep them steady tempo-wise, and Rock Band drummers don't have much pressure in that area because the game keeps the tempo for them. I think Rock Band is good singing and drumming practice and introduction for fun, but definitely will not prepare the player in all aspects for a direct jump to real performance. It is much more useful than the Guitars at least.

Eh...I'll probably grab a PS3 in a year or two when the prices go down and I want a bluray player. I mostly want Uncharted and the Insomniac games, maybe Killzone 2. Japanese RPGs haven't changed in about 7 years so I'm basically done with them. I'm pretty excited about Too Human. The style and story looks cool, and the gameplay, while it probably won't be as finely tuned as God of War or anything like that, it seems very versatile with the different types of weapons and options available. I like me some action rpgs.

My Release series Scion tC wheels were stolen last summer . However, Toyota charges out the ass for tC wheels and tires (something like $440 per rim and $220 per tire). Insurance paid for me to replace what was stolen. So I took the money and bought nice aftermarket rims and tires that are way cooler and saved $1000. Yaya.

Thanks for listening. I actually ran this with the footage of the part the director wants me to be writing this for and I went way overboard...it's too busy for film music in this scene. I cut like all the melodic parts out and changed a few things and it fits better now. I've sent it off for him to listen. I really like my first cut though and I want to complete the idea at some point. I'm thinking about maybe releasing an EP of the soundtrack with some music inspired by the stuff that does make it into the film. In film, you really need to stay with the basics and not get in the way, so if I can have the film edits of songs, then go on and develop them into a second cut that develops into a full piece of music for listening, I'll have a bunch of interesting material I think.

If you caught the thread a while back where I was bitchin and moanin about a dumbass director who wanted a score done in like 3 days with no footage given to me, yes, this is for that project. Long story short, I've resumed work on it after clearing some things up and getting a solid schedule outline from the director that I think is doable. I'm done with my album and finally nicely ahead in terms of printing and shipping orders, so I've got time to do this. Onward! Spent a couple hours tonight and threw this together for the opening and title credits part where the main theme will bust in overtop a montage of I believe two characters driving in a car through parts on N.Y. The movie is a 25 minute Korean Mafia crime romance tragedy thing that's pretty moody and dark. This is rough - I want to smooth out that glitchy pattern, add details to some stuff, probably take OUT a few elements because I think the director is interested in a more minimal soundtrack. Perhaps ideas I cut for the opening will come back when I have more room to expand on this during the end credit roll. www.sgxmusic.com/music/cormain1.mp3 I'm thinking about taking the work I do on this soundtrack and expanding upon it to put together an EP of music from and inspired by this film. I'm only asked to write 10 ish minutes of music and you don't get a whole lot of time to rawk all your ideas until you have to get out of the way in a film score, so it could be cool.

That's interesting about the Drakenguard music. I just remember the same 20 second loop playing over and over again. It was a good 20 seconds of tunage, but then got REALLY ANNOYING. Sort of analagous to the gameplay.... You can use any of my stuff. I also have a bunch of originals already sliced into seperate tracks/pieces and in zips already on my webspace if you are interested in something broken apart that much. Let me know.

Lego Technics were the shit. I made all kinds of stuff like cars with four wheel steering and suspensions. K'nex were ok, just seemed pretty flimsy often. Did anyone play with Construx? Those were pretty badass - often had glowing parts. My bro and I would make weapons out of Construx, put the glowy parts on them, turn out the lights and beat eachother until the weapons fell apart. There were many cuts and scrapes, yes, but it hurt so good.

I was playing Rez HD last night and realized I played that game like 5 years ago on PS2. 5 YEARS? What the shit?

you gonna talk about the Trent Reznor/Saul Williams/Radiohead shit? Seems like a very obvious topic Also, I have a suggestion: I think it might be smart and more helpful to focus a bit on what these things mean for the small, independent artist. Maybe lay out what you've been doing yourself and what works and what hasn't. I think there are plenty of blogs out there (ars technica etc) that blog about this high-up business stuff and no offense, a lot may have even more business experience than you despite your schooling and experiences thus far. I'm sure you would do fine, but that subject matter is generally covered already. Focusing on an audience at the stage you are at yourself currently musically and business-wise is something I haven't seen, something I would find useful, and something I think a lot of the people in the circles you are in right now (and no doubt telling to check out your blog) will find useful. There's very few (or none, even) resources for little guys trying to figure out the best ways to market their music online without a label behind them. Stuff I'd like to read about: -Music profile/social networking sites (soundclick, myspace, verb, lastfm, jamendo, newgrounds, etc). Which are the best? What is the best way to take advantage of them? Are they a waste of time? Spread your shit out on all of them, or just focus on one? -Services that get your music on iTunes and other download services. CDbaby, and others. What are the deals in a nutshell? -What do listeners want? How do you entice them to buy your stuff? Strategies for releasing free samples...etc. There is a HUGE audience of bedroom producers who I think have 0 clue how to get any sales, let alone decent listenership, and there are no resources giving them tips. All the articles on the music business that you find now are higher up - a level above where these people are at right now. Sadly, having awesome tracks alone is like 10% of making money with your music. Just an idea. Also, this is stuff I think about and have been experimenting with for years with my own junk and would probably be up for contributing on these topics.

. Birth!

Hero of the Grey Area just went up on iTunes. Check it out I would appreciate reviews!

Haha. Glad you like it. I like making the physical copies something special. Regular cases and printing are kinda mehhh. The Chroma's I sell are somewhat un-impressive in my opinion (though the 50 first editions in these cool cases were great!). Physical stuff is a lot of effort and also monetary investment unfortunately. With HotGA, I sorta jacked the price on the physical a bit and lowered the digital to encourage more digital sales and less work for me printing and mailing CDs, but it's not working!! You guys are still buying more physicals than digitals! Haha. Oh well, people want what they want I guess. $5 for the digital is less than a McDonalds meal!

Apparently I've sent at least two i.transmit.this EP discs out with no audio on them... I'm replacing those as quickly as possible. IF anyone else gets a blank one, please let me know. It's tough when you are printing and burning three different discs....I guess I got some of my stacks of burned and non-burned discs mixed up. I hope I didn't send any more out like that.

Yeah, it's kind of funny to think about the sound compared to the video....the visuals is very cinema verite/lofi/messy, but the audio in the action sequences is amazing quality, great design, and in surround. I don't think onboard sound on a handicam would pick up all that . But also, audio is something I think most audiences don't pay much close attention to and it would have been more noticeable if they had shitty sound along with the lofi visuals.

If I don't keep talking, I'm gonna SHIT my PANTS right here in the stairwell! That line made me laugh.

Sorry to hear that. I sent it out almost two weeks ago. If it doesn't get there in a few days, let me know and I'll send another one.

My kick pedal broke, as I think I mentioned earlier in this thread. I had that replaced. Then my mic and my guitar broke. So I had them replaced. Now my new kick pedal is getting a huge crack in the same spot. I've found that you can tape two pencils to the top of the kick pedal and keep on rockin' pretty well. I'm going to try to wait maybe another month before sending this one back - maybe they will have updated their design by then? The only thing that hasn't broken so far is the usb hub and the actual drum heads. The software is awesome though! Hah.

I'd probably be up for that. A lot of my listeners are from here, but a lot don't frequent my own page. Users are lazy. It would be a good promotional tool that I can post news on in a place where a lot of my listeners already go. I'm planning on doing a some game remixes (which I haven't done in a long while), so I won't just be spamming my originals It would be awesome if there was some sort of little widget that would aggregate like the last 3 blog headlines from my ocremix blog into some small text in my forum sig or something.

HotGA went up on CDbaby today while I was at work. http://cdbaby.com/cd/sgx4 Disc is $14.50 and the download through cdbaby is $6.99

In the spirit of the title of the thread - do you play any electronic music by ocremixers? Maybe you'd like to play some tracks from my new album, Hero of the Grey Area. There are a lot of samples and a few full free tracks, but if you are interested in playing I will give you a full copy of the download album. Thanks dood!

CDbaby who I use to get my stuff on iTunes (and other services) just sent the stuff off to iTunes. I've had it take 1-3 months for my other CD's. Zircon's album was up in like 1 week or something though, so I really can't say when it will be up. I will make a post here, and update my site when it does go up. If you don't want to buy the downloads of my site (I guess you don't like paypal or don't trust me or something), CDbaby offers mp3 downloads of my albums I have on there. Hero of the Grey Area will be up within a week I hope. The i.transmit.this EP won't be available there though - that's exclusive to my site. Torzelan - glad you like it, man! If you want, I'll refund your money for the digitals if you are going to buy the physical. Let me know. Send an email to sgx@sgxmusic.com edit: fun fact - I sold 19 GB of music through my store in December! Woo.

Orders have been shipping. Everyone who has an order made before today should have their order shipped by Thursday. Thanks for your patience!

Cool, thanks duudess.

So leik, I got 0 comments on this. Did anyone take a listen?

So, now that people have had a chance to listen, I would be interested to hear your thoughts. I'm bracing myself a bit because I know this album is a bit different, maybe sort of abstract and slower than some of my previous stuff, so I think there will be a section of my audience that will not love it. But I think it is a strong album, and now that I've completed a major work in this style, it is time for me to move to another aesthetic for a bit. Time for some experimentation. I'm thinking I'll be doing some more poppy/clubby stuff that is more crowdpleasing. Plus I'll do some remixes (OCremixes and other stuff). Sales have been awesome. Almost everybody is adding the i.transmit.this EP to their order, and almost everybody has tipped a bit on the download. I think I'll keep that option out there for a while. Thanks a whole lot to everyone who has purchased! I really appreciate it, and the tips have been generous. A lot of that money will go back into software and sample libraries (Live 7 and Colossus, I'm looking at you). Also, please let me know what you thought of the purchasing process...I want to refine it where I can and make sure I can get rid of anything that is confusing or unweildy. I plan to sell a lot more music this way in the future. Thanks doods.