Messages

Brief sidenote, Scribbly! You have just answered something I've been trying to find the answer to for ages: who The Paper Chase was sampling on When (And If) The Big One Hits... I'll Just Meet You There. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys7IV126T4A John Congleton is so fucking cool.

But on-topic: this is an IMPORTANT piece of writing you've got here, QGP. The way it gets out ahead of all the directions your brain could shoot off in and kindly guides you back onto the path is brilliant.

Yesterday I did a vocal recording for Memorrhage LP2. I had to do 8 throwaway takes to get one good take due to not having a good vocal recording stack. When I finally got a decent take, de-essed and de-hissed, I learned some things.

1: I have a lisp. No one told me about this, and it's very mild -- but it means when I de-ess, you just hear the th instead. Need a de-eth plugin, too.

2: My vocal distortion when recording is WAAAAY higher than I thought it was when just practicing. I thought I was in hardcore-range, but my vocal distortion is closer to the most extreme of post-hardcore. Garry said "Zao, but filthier". I said "whisper-scream harmonic content, death-roar volume, blackened-crust pitch". I have to dial that shit back and get shoutier when recording, the level of distortion is just insane -- the waveform looked like someone ran it through a fucking bassist's fuzzbox with the gain maxed. All I did for recording was use Airwindows Density2 to stand in for a mic preamp since I'm using a USB mic, and throw on some compression to help normalize the volume. I did that distortion with my raw voice.

3: Holy shit, I burnt my voice. I'm feeling it today. That shit is crispy. Gotta be more careful and maybe try not to do 9 g-d damn takes of max-distortion high-pitched shrieking.

4: Actually, I'm a g-d damn good harsh vocalist. I kinda suspected this, but hearing it for real is a different story. When Garry put it in the track, pretty much just some mild EQ work and a delay based on Static-X vocal delays to fill, it took the guitars in the chorus and dragged them up by the high-frequency hair. Yes, the chorus -- this is a keystone vocal feature. I've never actually felt vindicated on this level about my skill before. Legitimately, the vocal stem, for all its flaws (recorded in a garage while cars were going by on a subpar microphone, vocalist lisping, vocalist didn't know their own power) sounds INCREDIBLE.

Today, I need to rest.

Goofy slam death.

Ever wanted to get into death metal but don't like the high percentage of Nazis and pretentious, self-important hipsters that cobble every inch of extreme metal like ticks on a snake? Ever wonder if these guys even enjoy making their goofy ass pig-grunt chug-chug music? Ever wish you could see a metal band just hanging out and being doofuses?

For your listening pleasure, I present to you Snuffed On Sight. Please enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4dot1OyzXY

I've been pushing through a very upsetting (but not bad) breakup by, uh, working on a remix and some trance synth leads for the Memorrhage guy. And crowdfunding my home-recording setup so I can contribute vocals. (Isolation shields worth a goddamn are PRICY.)

I think this is the most involved I've ever been in music. Almost daily I'm discussing with actual successful underground musicians my opinions on production and songwriting, and they're taken seriously. I can commiserate over EQing synth organs to sit nicely in dense mixes* and the other person will nod sadly and say "the decay..." because we've both been there.

It's really nice to be taken seriously by musicians who are legendary among "Thinking Man's avant-death metal" elitists and have done everything from chiptune grindcore to Bay Area screamo to nu metal. It's times like this I know my faith in my musical abilities is not Dunning-Kruger shit.



* Seriously, have you tried to do this without having to automate every band of an EQ to shift note-by-note? it's a fucking NIGHTMARE, and if you're gonna tell me to break out the comb filters I'm going to tell you to put that shit on some Scriabin-ass synthetic chords so you can hear the pan-pipers of Azathoth for yourself. It is an Incontrovertible Fact that organs, even basic ass synth organs with 3-oscillator formants, are made for filling every frequency above the fundamental with pure clean tonal bands and you had just better hope your tits that you have the headroom in your fucking mix to pull that off.

Do you take very dumb music requests? Because there is a very dumb thing I want

Depends. I can't record vocals yet (the crowdfunding was just finished thanks to one of you wonderful fuckers, but it needs to be ordered and arrive) and I can't do physical instruments, but I have production expertise and am pretty good at electronic music -- especially simpler stuff like trance, DnB, goth-industrial.

When I do have my bedroom studio setup done, I specialize in harsh vocals, but I can sing okay. Nothing special, poor range, lacking power, but it's something.

I'm looking for a "dramatic movie trailer" downbeat cover or remix of Billy Joel's My Life that fits the overall vibe of the Andor soundtrack. I'm very normal.

I can almost imagine this. I'm a dork, so I'm imagining it as funeral-paced symphonic blues/funk, like Zeal & Ardor's Hold Your Head Low but with piano and big, swelling orchestra instead of the guitar strums and short heavy sections. That would be really cool. But I don't think I can help you here.

I could mix and master it (the key to moody movie trailer music cover stuff: per track - expand, dither, noise gate, reverb; overall - compress until the mix pumps and heaves like a motherfucker, master), but I couldn't make it. You'd need at least one real live musician, someone who can work with symphonics appropriately, and probably a good, loud singer for that real powerful "impossible odds" movie trailer vibe. I can do none of these.

Sucks about the hearing, but yeah, at least you know now. My hearing has made it through an astonishing amount of abuse, and I've been eyeballing some concert earplugs to cut down the impact of dogs barking, traffic noise and, of course, the rare concerts I go to.

I used to play guitar, but kind of fell out of it because life. I got kind of decent I guess, and it was cool, maybe it's worth picking up again? I tried songwriting, which didn't go anywhere, but maybe I could try again.

IDK, for a while, I've just felt sapped of creativity. I lost passion for anything.

Damn, I miss when things felt good and I had hopes and dreams.

Honest suggestion: channel that hopelessness and frustration into creativity. Not necessarily music, just making things in general.

You're not alone in how you feel, but you are alone in the ways you'll express that. No one will be fed up and downtrodden the same exact way as you, which sounds like it's isolating, but it isn't.

People want to hear, see, feel something that reminds them of what they're going through, but in someone else's words. Making something is healthy catharsis, and helps others that find it, too.

I've been pushing through a very upsetting (but not bad) breakup by, uh, working on a remix and some trance synth leads for the Memorrhage guy. And crowdfunding my home-recording setup so I can contribute vocals. (Isolation shields worth a goddamn are PRICY.)

I think this is the most involved I've ever been in music. Almost daily I'm discussing with actual successful underground musicians my opinions on production and songwriting, and they're taken seriously. I can commiserate over EQing synth organs to sit nicely in dense mixes* and the other person will nod sadly and say "the decay..." because we've both been there.

It's really nice to be taken seriously by musicians who are legendary among "Thinking Man's avant-death metal" elitists and have done everything from chiptune grindcore to Bay Area screamo to nu metal. It's times like this I know my faith in my musical abilities is not Dunning-Kruger shit.



* Seriously, have you tried to do this without having to automate every band of an EQ to shift note-by-note? it's a fucking NIGHTMARE, and if you're gonna tell me to break out the comb filters I'm going to tell you to put that shit on some Scriabin-ass synthetic chords so you can hear the pan-pipers of Azathoth for yourself. It is an Incontrovertible Fact that organs, even basic ass synth organs with 3-oscillator formants, are made for filling every frequency above the fundamental with pure clean tonal bands and you had just better hope your tits that you have the headroom in your fucking mix to pull that off.

Do you take very dumb music requests? Because there is a very dumb thing I want

Depends. I can't record vocals yet (the crowdfunding was just finished thanks to one of you wonderful fuckers, but it needs to be ordered and arrive) and I can't do physical instruments, but I have production expertise and am pretty good at electronic music -- especially simpler stuff like trance, DnB, goth-industrial.

When I do have my bedroom studio setup done, I specialize in harsh vocals, but I can sing okay. Nothing special, poor range, lacking power, but it's something.

I've been pushing through a very upsetting (but not bad) breakup by, uh, working on a remix and some trance synth leads for the Memorrhage guy. And crowdfunding my home-recording setup so I can contribute vocals. (Isolation shields worth a goddamn are PRICY.)

I think this is the most involved I've ever been in music. Almost daily I'm discussing with actual successful underground musicians my opinions on production and songwriting, and they're taken seriously. I can commiserate over EQing synth organs to sit nicely in dense mixes* and the other person will nod sadly and say "the decay..." because we've both been there.

It's really nice to be taken seriously by musicians who are legendary among "Thinking Man's avant-death metal" elitists and have done everything from chiptune grindcore to Bay Area screamo to nu metal. It's times like this I know my faith in my musical abilities is not Dunning-Kruger shit.



* Seriously, have you tried to do this without having to automate every band of an EQ to shift note-by-note? it's a fucking NIGHTMARE, and if you're gonna tell me to break out the comb filters I'm going to tell you to put that shit on some Scriabin-ass synthetic chords so you can hear the pan-pipers of Azathoth for yourself. It is an Incontrovertible Fact that organs, even basic ass synth organs with 3-oscillator formants, are made for filling every frequency above the fundamental with pure clean tonal bands and you had just better hope your tits that you have the headroom in your fucking mix to pull that off.

For me, resting really is normally giving up. Like, in the moment I make that decision -- whatever happens happens, I am down for the count, I don't care.

It's just that when I'm recovered, it's straight back to fucking work.

The two parts are related, too. I can't properly rest if I'm concerned about what happens while I can't do shit about it. But if there's still time to fight when the nap is over, I'm looking for knives.

The key of the fictional work I've been doing is that the protagonists CANNOT win. They will always fail, no matter what they do. But they fight anyway, and yeah, they didn't win. Most of the time it wasn't even a Pyrrhic victory for the antagonists. But they made the antagonists have to pay /something/ for it, rather then getting it for free, and the cost is never trivial.

You never lay down and give up. You can do it for short times, to recover, but when you CAN stand up, you DO stand up.

[5000 angry combat drones]

Hi.

Please stop shitting up the entire fucking forum with your trash. I don't want to log on to see three dozen ancient threads, half of which are garbage, bumped from the ancient abyss with your weirdly racist misuse of non-Latin characters for "lol random", or your "I'm 13 and this is deep" pseudo-philosophy.

Failure to be responsive to this benign request will be met with a decidedly unequal and very opposed reaction, where I will shit up the place even more everywhere you so much as sniff at, so that action /must/ be taken to contain your pointless mess. We will probably both get banned. I am okay with this.

Thanks.
--5000 angry combat drones

That's my new band name.

Everyone should know that your first album, Seasonal Migration Patterns of the MQ-1 Predator, is coming out next year.

Hi.

Please stop shitting up the entire fucking forum with your trash. I don't want to log on to see three dozen ancient threads, half of which are garbage, bumped from the ancient abyss with your weirdly racist misuse of non-Latin characters for "lol random", or your "I'm 13 and this is deep" pseudo-philosophy.

Failure to be responsive to this benign request will be met with a decidedly unequal and very opposed reaction, where I will shit up the place even more everywhere you so much as sniff at, so that action /must/ be taken to contain your pointless mess. We will probably both get banned. I am okay with this.

Thanks.
--5000 angry combat drones

It's been an EVENTFUL few days.

Last night, some lyrics I wrote last year in a very very bad headspace made it into a song by a friend of mine. I really, really hate those lyrics in hindsight, but the song itself might actually be the absolute best ever written in the genre, which has me feeling very autistic (complicated subtype).

I don't get a break, things are so strange.

In other news, I'm really happy with the work I'm doing now. Not paying work, but I don't need to be paid for what I'm doing now.

I'm finally making real use of my networking skills, putting an upcoming musician's demos in the ears of label owners and established musicians. I'm giving her advice on how to pull off a first release without having to use her vocals since she's not confident in them (I suggested a vocal anthology sort of deal, a dozen featured artists on her songs -- and even suggested starting points for artists who would do vocal features), I'm building a small hype crew for her, I'm giving her mix feedback and helping her feel confident in her work.

This? This is stuff I can do, it's stuff I feel good about, it's stuff where EVERY STEP of the process feels fulfilling and is independently very cool to be involved in. I enjoy this. Yeah, I'm still poor and she probably ends up making enough money to be a full-time musician if I can bring it together for her, but I don't care. I enjoy this.

I survived my first ever metal/hardcore show. It was fucking awesome. I don't think anyone here is hot for caveman slam death, cybergrind, drone/powerviolence, or whatever the fuck you call Omerta, but I'm losing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa2ANHa690E

That link goes to Omerta, by the way. I genuinely don't know what you call this shit, it's doing something totally distinct. They were the headliner and while I know /you/ have never seen people brutalize each other to cartoon doll singing over stupid heavy riffs before, I saw a man try to stage dive and nearly not make it because the slamdancers were only two rows behind the stage. (They helped save him, fortunately.)

A meningitis outbreak mishandled like COVID is game over. Humanity doesn't survive that.