Doing Something Different With Music?

God, I am on a roll at the moment!

Well, the reason for this is myself and my cover band (same guys from The Small Party minus the drummer for the moment) are just putting together the backing tracks and getting ready to go out gigging, and this point in itself could add some brilliant posts regarding sounds, track suggestions ( myself and Leighton "what about some rocking Michael Jackson?", Mark "What about The Way You Make Me Feel??" FACEPALM") etc...

For the most part you would have to have been there.

So, I thought I would go on a bit about our production of our backing tracks, because although I am not very good at playing keyboards, drum programming, mixing, mastering (hmmm, my little project studio is now looking to be, maybe, a waste of money!), I am pretty good on a computer, and before we started in The Small Party, we used to play acoustic covers. Just two acoustic guitars and the other two singing

It was music Jim, but not as we know it!

In the video we do an acoustic version of one of our album tracks segued into Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall pt2, but we also did an 8 minute Beatles medley that we created, run 3 or 4 juxtaposed tracks into each other and would start The Coral's Dreamin' of You by playing the intro / solo to Metallica's Fade to Black. Oh, and I played the wah on the acoustic too.



Nowt Like A Good Challenge!

Now, the originals band came and went (long story, hate Bodog!), so after a bit of a break we decided that rather than do nothing, I could use basic midi files that are freely available, process them with some VSTi's in Cubase in my studio and happy days. The problem was, we changed tempo, groove, key and arrangements in the songs we had done previously, but as the versions we did previously were quite rocking, we thought we should keep them as they are. That is when this nightmare began! Playing the tracks through initially caused comments to be made in the vain of :-

"Its much slower than before"
"We kicked in a bit earlier before"
"Why can you just put the track in 5/4 straight into the one in 12/8?"

As so on, and so forth!

Well, that was 12 months ago, and now, after many an hour / day locked in my studio, I have indeed managed to sequence the 8 minute Beatles Medley together 9 (all 7 tracks at different tempo's, keys etc...) to produce what hopefully sounds like one homogenous piece of music.

Oh, and last night we finished sequencing a new medley that features 7 tracks including Shakin' All Over, Metallica and With a Little Help From my Friends, so as you can imagine, when finished I felt more than just a little self-satisfaction. Moreso when I re-learn the solo for Enter Sandman!

So when doing this, the comment was made

"I bloody well hope that people appreciate all this effort"
Well, sadly, we all know in our heart of hearts that they won't, not even remotely.

When the paying public see a band in a pub, for the most part, they don't understand or appreciate the HOURS AND HOURS that have gone into getting on stage (longer for me if I could actually program a midi track from scratch!). But honestly, why should they? They are only out for a night on the town, to get leathered, have a dance and maybe get a bit of action when they get home! Are we, the musicians expecting too much? Possibly. I have never expected to get someone coming up after a gig and complimenting me on the segue's we have come up with, or in the future remark on the fluid-like melding of Punk, Glam, Metal and Soul. The best in the past I would get is

"La, playing Floyd on acoustic, thats just sound!!!"

I suppose that is better than some of the things that could be said.

But if you do come and see us and have something negative to say, remember, we have Limp Bizkit tracks just waiting....

^ Amateurs, Meet The Professionals!!!

Now, as you could probably tell, I am quite proud of what we have managed to do with songs, but on my way to rehearsals on Tuesday, I was listening to 106.1FM Rock Radio and I heard a revelation of how to mix tracks together. Now, I know there have been mashups done before by people, but when I heard Thunder Busters by Wax Audio I knew they were something special. And I was also gutted that I never heard it before!

In the past few days, I have been looking for other great mashups, but nothing even comes remotely close to this and the other tracks which I have added below.

So, THATS how it done then!!

Wax Audio, I salute you!!!



Ritchie

 

Expectation vs. Reality

As someone that uses software LOTS in work and has been playing games and using computers for fun for years, I do sometimes get frustrated when things don't quite work as they should. If I am trying to achieve something in work or playing a game and want to get to a new level but can't, then I do get wound up about it, but in most cases it is down to my own lack of understanding of "how" to do what I want, and it is rare that a workaround cannot be found or a bit of direction from a search (cheers Google) provides that eureka moment.

I do find that this is part of what makes me, well, me.

I enjoy the challenge of thinking how I can get around a problem, be it technical or how to do something within a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, such as Cubase), and even finding my own methods to get things that cannot really be done with the software, or discovering a new level of how to use the tools I have.

Not Actually Me! Still, Really Like The Sense Of Achievement!

Are You Being Serious????

The main reason I am writing this is really because, as stated in my About Me, I am a bit of a forum lurker. If I am looking at a subject online, I will have a look at open forums, but rarely do I join them! What I do tend to find is that for the most part you have the widest spectrum of knowledge there, from those that understand every single nuance of the software / application / game, to those that, it would appear, seem to struggle with which way to insert the installation disk. And that is not just because they are posting on an English language forum and it is not their native tongue.

Now, I could spend hours writing about why the pedantry I have seen over someone's misunderstanding on a subject or the simple mistakes that you cannot believe a supposedly intelligent person will make, but that is not actually the point of this post. The real reason is because sometimes I struggle with the belief that people have over what a piece of software can do.

I am not going to start on specific subjects like

"Why Does AutoCAD 20xx Not Automatically Build 3D Models From 2D Drawings?"
"Why Doesn't Word Make My CV Look Better?"
"How Come Internet Explorer Didn't Stop My Wife From Finding My 'Specialist' Sites?"

At present, my focus is a LITTLE more specific!


In Formula 1 2011, Codies, Can We Have....

I have been lurking on this forum for about a year when news of the 2010 version came out, and whilst it may be that other game forums are LIKE this, surely some of these members need to just take a reality check on what is actually achievable by computer programmers and the hardware at this point in time. Maybe in the future, when we are all plugged in, your eyes are the screen and moving your head will do the same in the game, then some of this is achievable, but for now, reality check anyone?

"Well Mr. Smith, your copy of C.O.D. 27 is now installed.
Thank you for shopping at Game, Just remember all
software is non-refundable"

When Williams announced their new supercomputer 4 years ago to do much of the work of the wind tunnel, it contained 500 processors and even last years' Virgin Racing car that was modelled 100% using CFD was not exactly a world beater, but over at the Codemasters website, the poor developers are being berated by members of their community because the F1 car in the game, being played on £150 games consoles "doesn't feel like how an F1 car should handle", or because the effect of slipstreaming is not as dramatic as they thought it would be.

Unless Fernando, Seb, Lewis et. al. are playing it, HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW!!! I once read that only about 850 people in the world have ever driven an F1 car in anger, so even though Antony Davidson (Former F1 driver / Test driver) was a consultant, it just simply isn't possible for the mass populous to know.

Don't get me wrong, there were bugs in the previous version, but as I am not a hardcore gamer and don't own a £10k Scan 3XS Gaming PC (great system, but think of all the studio hardware I could get for that!!! Hell, I could even buy a Leica GS09 GPS system for £10k!)), they weren't exactly showstoppers for me. I just loved seeing the tracks, the thrill of using my Microsoft Gaming Wheel (the discontinued one, hunted bloody high and low for it!), flooring it up Eau Rouge at Spa, getting lapped by Vettel. Just awesome!

Even bought a new LED TV just before it was released, just for that!

I do appreciate that people can be passionate about gaming, but in the case of this, the forces involved in just one car are complex, factor in 23 others, track geometry, dynamic weather and it is going to be far too advanced for what can realistically be achieved in todays commercial systems. Its when people then want realistic physical modelling of mechanical failures and wheels to be tethered, but still break off and fly into surroundings and other vehicles you just have to think, be sensible! The intertial modelling to do this is difficult even when doing CGI for movies, which is controlled and not a realtime gaming environment.

God that was starting to get in-depth!

I guess what I am trying to say is, those writing this game are working hard to create the full F1 experience, but people are just not happy. Time will come when all their (and mine also) dreams can be achieved, but until then, but a ticket to a race, attend a track day, or remember, it wasn't THAT long ago that Outrun was the peak of driving games.

Now, off to request that virtual wind tunnel....

Ritchie