Wow, those are some pretty great compliments. Guess the mix is not as weird as I had thought. Thanks everyone! 

Quote from: Fear 2 Stop® on July 03, 2011, 12:22:30 AM
...pretty much covered everything I wanted to say...really good job.

I agree about the Sega Genesis...for some reason I was thinking Toe Jam & Earl!

DUDE! I almost said that instead of Earthworm Jim, but the I didn't think anyone would know what I was talking about! XD

Here ya go, man.

http://www.mtv-music-generator.com/index.php/topic,4278.0.html

Man, this tune takes me back. This is straight out of Sega Genesis greatest hits. Love what you've done with the drums. Starts out sorta low key, then boom, straight up front. Love it. This would have fit nicely in the soundtrack to an Earthworm Jim game. (You know, one of the more serious songs) 

Excellent work. I love the string work in this. Very pro sounding piano, too. Reminds me a bit of Coldplay. Great stuff. Two thumbs up!

Keeping a promise to Zodiac, here. This is a song that I've held back for a little while, partly because I think the mix might be a little bit... I don't know what the word might be... eccentric? I kinda took the framework of the original and threw whatever I thought might sound cool at it a'la Jackson Pollack to see if it would stick. What I ended up with is a mishmash of synth, overdrive guitar, pizzicato strings, and synthesized wind effects. I also tried, and ultimately failed, to get the synth lead in the chorus to sound right, so I scrapped it entirely. I've been wanting to find a multitrack of the original so I could place the vocals into the mix but, alas, it doesn't seem to exist. Also, just so you know, I DID sample the iconic snare sound for this track, but everything else is original.

Anyway, I hope you all like.

Ooh, as an after thought, this is the first track I've managed to record strictly digitally in it's entirety. I happened to remember that my PC has a digital S/PDIF input built onto the motherboard and, somewhat of a surprise to me, I can record from it through the software that came bundled with my Soundblaster X-FI Fatality card. True digital, baby! 

@Arcane. TMBG have been around since the early 80's and have an unbelievably massive discography. Birdhouse sort of fits what I'm talking about, but only in that the subject matter is really the invention of the lightbulb, and not one of any spiritual relavence which is usually the misinterpretation. Check out a song called They'll Need a Crane, which is a very peppy mid-80's rock sounding track, the lyrics of which seem to be describing a man who built a house for his wife, only for her to leave him.

Another good example is a song called Destination Moon which is, again, kind of an optimistic sounding 16 beat rock song about a bed ridden man who is possibly dealing with Alzheimers. He either was or believes he was once an astonaut. He is consumed with escaping the hospital because he believes he is about to miss a mission to the moon which his orderly has secretly (and deviously) convinced him is real.

My Man is another optimistic sounding song about a man who is being informed that he will never walk again. There are a ton of these. I could literally fill up a whole page.

PROBLEM SOLVED!! And in a big way! Just realized that I can record from my PS2 through an optical cable directly into the S/PDIF port on my PC. This means all of my future recordings will be strictly digital! Freaking sweet! 

So, I'm having a terrible time with the NIN track I promised to post. Here's the situation: My PS2 is situated downstairs from my PC. I record by running a 3/4 inch plug cable from the rca output on my PS2 to the input on my PC. This, unfortunately, creates an electronic buzz on my recordings.

Now, usually, I can remove the buzz no problem using Audacity's noise removal plugin. This time however, there are so many silent and bassless parts in the track, I'm having a hard time striking a balance between not removing enough noise and removing too much fidelity from the higher end sounds. AAARRGH!

I will post this track soon, I promise, I'm just losing a wrestling match for the moment. If worse comes to worse, I'll just post the old version of it. Sorry for the delay, Zodiac.

Ok, well, promises are promises and I will get that NIN cover up as soon as I can. I actually still need to master it as I've made changes to it since the last time I recorded it. I will be busy today, but I'll try to have it up tomorrow.

By the way, we MUST come up with a better name for this track. 

Just tossing this out there: Midnight Ride.

A favorite band of mine is They Might Be Giants. (Not really your style, Zodiac, but bear with me) One of my favorite things about them is that their music comes off kind of light and poppy, but if you listen closely, their lyrics are often very dark and brooding... almost twisted at times. It gives many of their tunes an almost insane quality that I really get into. It's like you're in on the joke that anyone just casually listening will almost certainly miss.

Although the style (and instrumentalism) of your track here is unlike anything TMBG has ever done, the mood struck me as very Giants-like. A dark, brooding undertone in the chord progression masked by a peppy beat and melodic synth flute lead. Lounge house meets suspense movie soundtrack. I really dig this sound. Only real gripe? Kinda disappointed at how short it is.

Totally impressed, man. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, here.

Oh come on! I've posted everything from prog rock to 90's house. Why stick to a single genre? Mix it up a little! It opens the creative arteries!

Tell you what: You post this project, and I'll post and old NIN cover I've been holding back because I think it's a little cheesy and kinda cliche.

Unfortunately, because of an incident I had while backing up to a PS2 memory card, I somehow managed to delete the only hard copy I had of this tune. So this (kind of low quality) recording is the only one I have left.

Ah well. Memories...

Thanks for the compliments, gents.

So, I'm kinda noodling around with something pretty epic at the moment, but it's giving me a hard time, so I thought I'd dig into the archives and bring out something old. Well, it doesn't get any older than this for me. This is the first track I ever worked on in MG1. Some of you will recognize that the main riff is one that existed in MG's prebuilts, which is why I can't take full credit for it. Still, it's interesting to look back and see how far I've come, creatively. I kinda enjoy the old-school Robert Miles vibe this track has going, too. 

Sweet tapdancing jesus, man. This is incredible. Straight out of Reznor's lost tracks. These tracks would seem completely at home on Ghosts. Amazing. I don't know how you squeeze this this kind of sound out of MG, but keep up the great work!

This beat is badass. Love what you've done with the drum sounds here. I like a lot of your synth sounds. Your backing guitar is spot on. LOVE it.

If I have any constructive criticism at all, it's this: When creating a lead guitar, if you mean for it to sound realistic, you really must use pitch bend. This track does sound great as it is, don't get me wrong, but a live guitarist utilizes a technique where he stetches the guitar strings along the fretboard to add soul and depth to his phrasing. And this method can absolutely be recreated in Music Generator to keep the guit sounding natural and non-synthy. Try listening to some of the guitar masters; Your Kirk Hammets and Joe Satrianis and Stevie Ray Vaughns and the like. The really tricky thing about creating a lead guitar part is that an electric guitarist doesn't play like one would another instrument. It's not straightforward. When an electric guitar lead is done correctly, it sounds more like someone is singing than playing an instrument.

My own method is to create a phrase in flat, straight-on notes and then add bends and shifts to the existing phrase. A guitarist will often add an upward bend of about a half step to the beginning of the first note in a phrase. So it looks a little like this:

    __________
  /
/

Play around with it. It really adds some life to your lead parts. This same technique can be used to make a synth lead really pop. Check out a guy named Jordan Rudess here for a little inspiration if you like. The opening of this vid is ALL keyboard, no guitar:

Just noticed the little guit shred at about 3:14. Subtle, but HIGHLY effective! 

This is the sort of thing I love to listen to. Lots of character. This reminds me a LOT of the work Soundteam JDK did for the Turbografix CD. Youtube "Ys: Books 1&2". Great Tunage! Very nice work on the drums. Wow! Excellent changeup aroud 3:00. Amazing synth. Sounds a bit like a digitized Dragonforce track. Incredible.

Sidenote: I would freaking LOVE to hear you work on a lead guitar solo on a track like this. I bet you would destroy it.

Not real sure where to post this, so I guess this seems as good a place as any...

So, I have a good friend who happens to be an amazing songwriter by the name of Chris Everson. (He also uses the stage name Vinegar Williams. You can look him up on Facebook, if you're so inclined. He has some great tunes.) He plays guitar and sings. So, one day he's playing for me a few songs and sketches he's recorded on a little Sony voice recorder. One song, in particular, catches my attention and I'm immediately inspired. I ask him if I can do some work around it and he grants me permission. I begin work immediately...

A year and a half later (like two days ago) I find the old recording on my hard drive. Lots of work, retooling, timing out, and LOTS of time with Audacity, and I finally finished it yesterday! (I actually began work on this song before I moved from NY to CO, and before I even discovered TIMGUL.)

This is going to be different than the things you've heard from me in the past. The voice and guitar is all Chris, everything else was produced on MTV Music Generator, then recorded, multi-tracked and tweaked with Audacity. This was especially tricky because the original recording was not timed out on a metronome. I had to use a fake guitar track I previously created (which is not in the finished song) to time out the original recording one... bar... at... a... time. Long process, but I'm really proud of the results.

The song itself was written about a friend Chris knew in school who commited suicide. It's called Byron.

Good to be back!