This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - Not a Number
1
« on: January 13, 2015, 04:12:14 pm »
Yeah, I'm still trying to make my music a thing. I've been spending the last two-and-half years (on-and-off what with university) writing and recording this, and I'm proud to say that I've finally finished my debut album (which is weird to say that only now is it my first album, after I started Not a Number all the way back in 2006/2007). It's a 63-minute mixture of prog, rock, and metal; inspired by the likes of Dream Theater, Coheed & Cambria, with a hint of the likes of TesseracT; and with a storyline that only serves as one piece of the puzzle (the "II" in the title being a bit of a clue  ), I'm really happy with how this has turned out, all things considered. Tracklist: 01. run /INTROD~1.BAT 2:2202. Overture for the Upgraded 1:2103. Pareidolia 5:3804. To Arms, Brothers; We Are At War! (pt I: Fate Denied) 3:5305. To Arms, Brothers; We Are At War! (pt II: The Rebellion) 5:4306. Cure? 5:3707. Man Becoming Cold (The Surrender) 2:1508. Frozen, Unconscious... Immortal 7:2409. Rogue Terminal 5:2510. Machine Becoming Warm (The Uprising) 2:0911. VICHAMA The Destroyer 4:1612. Release Candidate 8:1413. The Ghost Inside 9:05The whole thing can be streamed for free on Bandcamp, with a download price of £4 (which according to XE, is ~US$6) Alternatively, if you're not into Bandcamp streaming, I have two versions of the album up on YouTube: ALBUM SAMPLER: (30 second previews) FULL ALBUM STREAM:
2
« on: December 01, 2014, 07:18:02 am »
| Title: | Machine Becoming Warm (The Uprising) | | Length: | ~2:00 (currently) |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< I know what you're thinking, where the hell have I been for the last, what, 4 months? Well, for those of you don't follow me elsewhere (if I wasn't typing on my phone I'd be dropping links all over this), I've been in the process of moving (graduating University and all that) and as such, music has been very much on the back burner while I've been getting wverything else sorted. But, now I'm at point where I can resume work on my album, so it's full steam ahead on that front!  As for the track itself. It's something a little different, a bit more acoustic than the usual heavy stuff (but this will get heavy-fied, don't you worry), and plus it's good practice for me because admittedly, my acoustic skills are severly lacking. There's only one guitar in this, but I do plan on adding some more for the final version. This, if anything is just a taster of what the track will sound like. And as always, enjoy/endure. > STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE<
3
« on: August 05, 2014, 06:52:24 am »
Well, any Sketches that I do make are still on my FA page (just in my Scraps folder), but they're never really fleshed out as full chiptune versions to songs, they're just ideas that I try and piece together, which is why there's seldom any drums or even bass on them (bass tends to follow the guitar and drums are usually finished after the Sketch). The only true exception to this so far is To Arms, Brothers; We Are At War! (pt II: The Rebellion), which did have a finished MegaDrive version. Saying that, a "16-bit Remix" album sounds like a good idea... no guarantees, but we'll see.
4
« on: August 04, 2014, 05:57:24 pm »
I use a MegaDrive SoundFont as a placeholder for the actual instruments just to test out the structure, before I replace them with actual guitars. As of writing, the song itself is finished, but I'm waiting until the whole album is done before I unveil the finished song.
5
« on: August 04, 2014, 07:16:00 am »
I'm liking it My only criticism is with the drums; Granted, I'm not a drummer nor am I well-versed in power-metal (I'm more into my prog - 170bpm's my limit as a guitarist), but they seem to lack variation - on their own, how would I know where each section (verse, chorus etc.) is? I'll give you an example: This is part of the drums stem to one of my songs, "To Arms, Brothers... pt II" - [ link] - you can easily tell which section is playing just from the drums alone. Similarly, I don't know what kit you've put together (kick, snare, etc.), but it doesn't sound like there's a lot of things being played - I'm hearing a kick, a snare, two cymbals and a ride? When I'm writing the drums, this is the kit I tend to visualise (I play everything left-handed to it'll be the wrong way around for anyone who plays right-handed) and while I don't go crazy with the drums, I try to use as much of the kit as possible where needed (you gotta at least have the hats). My advice would be to get a MIDI of a couple songs, open them in something like FL Studio/REAPER (just to look at the notes) and recreate them note-for-note (kind of like what I did back in the day  ). Alternatively, just watching on YouTube doing a drum cover of a song could help in understanding how a drumkit works. In my opinion, when it comes to songwriting, it's usually best to learn from previous examples and then build on them. That is, if you are going for a more "realistic" style of drumming. Otherwise, ignore everything I just said
6
« on: August 02, 2014, 06:55:24 pm »
| Title: | Release Candidate | | Length: | ~8:20 (currently) |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Because II: Decet Hostium wouldn't be a progressive rock/metal album without some sort of stupidly-long instrumental track even though it'll have three shorter instrumentals dotted about. Although saying that, the original (unreleased, maybe I'll save it until the full album is released) version that I wrote some time last year was even longer, clocking in at just over 12 minutes. Don't be surprised if you get some kind of Dream Theater vibe off of this; I actually based this off of their 2003 song Stream of Consciousness - in fact, back when the band were writing the song, they had a competition where they gave out the section names and timings to the song, and had fans write their own "Dream Theater song". Of course, that was over 10 years ago, but I figured this could still be my little tribute to a band that admittedly has been flying under my radar for the past few years. As I said at the start, this is entirely instrumental, so outside of adding more guitars and overall mixing, this is at least "25% finished" already; I don't need to worry about vocals or lyrics this time (on the subject of vocals/lyrics, all the vocals to the other unfinished vocal tracks have been recorded, I just need to record the guitars for it, so this whole album is getting close to completion - kind of surreal for me since this is the closest to finishing an album as I've been..) > STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE<
7
« on: July 27, 2014, 06:34:32 pm »
| Title: | VICHAMA The Destroyer | | Length: | 4:24 |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Original description (copypasted from FurAffinity): ------ After a short bout of writer's block, I've managed to push out all the vocal melodies and even wrote all of the lyrics (but you'll have to wait until I record those ). I'll be honest though: Of all the tracks that are going on II: Decet Hostium, this one was the hardest of the lot. What with my music being guitar-orientated, I write it all in TuxGuitar (freeware GuitarPro clone). While all the other songs are generally made from 1 or 2 tab files, this one took about 5 rewrites (including ones between SKETCH 01 and this one) because I didn't know what I wanted it to sound like. I always knew what was going to happen in this song with regards to the overall storyline, but that was as far as it went for the longest time. How ironic that I ended up making use of SKETCH 01 the most. All that said though: I'm really happy with how this track is turning out so far.  With this being the last vocal track on the album; once I get the vocals recorded, I no longer need to worry about not being to record them (what with having to loan equipment from a University that I'm soon to graduate from; everything else I record/compose through the computer). "Tell me, my brothers; do you know fear? If not, I'll make you wish that you did..."------ > STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Older versions: SKETCH 02
8
« on: July 27, 2014, 06:32:05 pm »
The software I use for my chiptunes is Cakewalk's SFZ+ with The Ultimate Megadrive SoundFont. Really simple if you're working in just MIDI (my DAW of choice being REAPER). And maybe it's just my nostalgia, but dat megadrive snare; I am just a sucker for 16-bit SEGA drums Although saying that, I don't think Cakewalk offer the free version to SFZ+ anymore; I somehow managed to get it off their website completely legit for free so I can only guess that they might still do? That's just my recommendation though. My advice is; If you're wanting to go down the route of chiptune, you gotta use SoundFonts, in my opinion.
9
« on: July 20, 2014, 12:34:20 pm »
New version: SKETCH 02 - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14040240Definitely happy with the structure at this point. Lyrics are also about 70% finished, so I'm definitely making progress.
10
« on: July 19, 2014, 05:30:49 am »
| Title: | Frozen, Unconscious... Immortal | | Length: | 7:28 (currently) |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Much slower than the others; hoping to go a little more proggy with this one; Think Beneath the Waves by Ayreon. I'll need some proper synth/organ VSTs for this, though. > STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Older versions: SKETCH 01
11
« on: July 12, 2014, 11:01:30 am »
| Title: | Pareidolia | | Length: | 5:53 |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< Yes, I know I already had a thread for this, but that version is so old and outdated that I don't think we need reminding of it. So yeah, this is the NEW AND IMPROVED version, that's actually going to be the proper length. Still in Sketch Form, kinda (MegaDrive synth, but actual* drums), but that'll be sorted out once I get the guitars recorded. > STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< (*sampled, just not the MegaDrive ones)
12
« on: July 04, 2014, 06:09:59 am »
| Title: | To Arms, Brothers; We Are At War! (pt. I: Fate Denied) | | Length: | 1:52 (currently) |
> STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE< After writing Part II to this, I figured I'd start showcasing the other half to "To Arms, Brothers...". I believe I may have posted an earlier version to this long ago, but I figured I might as well leave the old thread to die. :| There's not much new in this version: The song is made slower (60bpm instead of 65bpm) and some temporary guitars have been added, but while I have all the lyrics written down, I'm focusing on making this song longer than the under-2-minutes it currently is; I mean, Part II is breaking 5:30 and this Part is too short in my opinion. Especially since I think I need some organ sound some synth to play in the background just to fill the void - something like Beneath the Waves by Ayreon. If anyone could steer me in the direction of some (preferably free) Organ VSTs, that would be a great help.
15
« on: June 26, 2014, 09:21:03 am »
Sounds cool, would be nice to see (hear) a better guitar/bass soundfont (or a real one)
I'll be putting my own guitar over it (and vocals too); the MegaDrive SoundFont is just there to lay out the initial foundations (what it'll sound like, how it flows etc.). It's why I call it a "Sketch" - it's like I've "drawn" a rough outline of it before I put in the proper outlines.
|
Show Posts
