General Music Chat

Talbot I don't drink coke either.
But I like my wine.
My girlfriend says I'm a racist cause I
got a confederate flag hanging in the garage.
It's really cool
Sorry but the gloom and doom talk is everywhere
and I guess I don't respond well to it

Yeah Lynard I hear you. I'm not my usual upbeat self these days. Got canned a couple weeks ago and my wife's job is on the chopping block.

I lost the best job I ever had (Netbank) because of that yankee govt Mortgage boondogle. Just got excused from latest job where I'd run a string of successful projects. Thanks tough guy - now hit the road!

Now every job I apply for (I'm an IT project Mgr - my secret identity) is about enforcing Fed rules - meaning instead of solving business problems I'm sucking juice out of the economy.

Plus a band I thought I wanted to play with I now think I don't. sigh.

But I'm of good cheer. My wife's out of town, I have a bottle of Early Times and a pretty good rig so I'm blasting it out of my system. Should be hooking up with a new drummer this weekend. I'm fixing to play original and the nay sayers be damned.

Talbot

Yeah Lynard I hear you. I'm not my usual upbeat self these days. Got canned a couple weeks ago and my wife's job is on the chopping block.

I lost the best job I ever had (Netbank) because of that yankee govt Mortgage boondogle. Just got excused from latest job where I'd run a string of successful projects. Thanks tough guy - now hit the road!

Now every job I apply for (I'm an IT project Mgr - my secret identity) is about enforcing Fed rules - meaning instead of solving business problems I'm sucking juice out of the economy.

Plus a band I thought I wanted to play with I now think I don't. sigh.

But I'm of good cheer. My wife's out of town, I have a bottle of Early Times and a pretty good rig so I'm blasting it out of my system. Should be hooking up with a new drummer this weekend. I'm fixing to play original and the nay sayers be damned.

Talbot

Dude I feel for you...

- I am the 'ace-in-the-hole' in house developer for a Gov project. I had to remind my project manager who the real guy is that is responsible for his paycheck... <Grin>

- We actually get along great, but I had to spank him a few times when he started dabbling in my Reqs & specs processes. <Grin>

-I would never put a choke hold on him, but he knows better than to ever try to throw me under a bus, when he faces his director under adverse moments. <Grin... I know how to build time bombs in an application...<grin> >

-I tell HIM what the level of effort "will" be and he never argues <grin>

- I Remind him, that the code gets done on my time...and nobody else's... Of course, I have rewarded his compliance by making him look damn good in front of his directors...with the work I produce. <Grin>

-Finally. I work from home 98% of the time. He knows better than to disrupt my nap time with silly meetings.

LOl!

You know, I am 10 years older than him, and I still have most of my hair... LOL!

Good luck to all.

I don't drink whiskey anymore,
Never make any new friends when I do,
The grocery store used to have me hooked,
On those 1/2/gals of Jim Beam, before I
moved up to blended whiskey, ah Crown.

A yankees like a quickie only by hand

I just thought I'd pop in and say hello... That was some of the most interesting 5 forum pages I've read in awhile. Usually I have seen topics like this become extremely stupid with personal attacks and logical fallacies before 10 posts are up.

So, to add in to the topic and make my first official post, I thought I'd add a few comments to the thread.

- Love guns! I own a few, but mostly black powder muzzle loaders I use to shoot in competitions... Guess I should upgrade to something more convenient for self defense.

- Politically, I'm pretty darn conservative... Got this way over the past 15 years as I started to pay less attention to myself and more to the world around me and the others that live in it.

- Liberal ideals lead to pretentious and murderous behavior. Go ahead and accuse me of reaching for that one, and then analyze the Liberal camp in detail with the various topics mentioned by other posts like abortion, Kill a TeaBagger video game, yadda-yadda.

- I don't drink any soft drinks (coke), and not much for whiskey, but I gotta say I was turned on to boutique beers and micro-breweries a couple of years ago. The last round of Eisbock by Red Hook was really tasty.

- Racist or not, we are all judgmental... It's a human nature that we should responsibly keep in check... Maintain your clarity on how you perceive things. Sounds easier that it is sometimes.

- I read the end of the Book, and we win. I don't know what the future may bring, or how it will effect me, my life, my family, but I am at peace with it... Yes, it's easier said than done, but it keeps me sane... (The guns help too, LOL!)

- Regardless of tomorrow, I'm gonna rock my socks off today and every day I can after that. Just like the rest of you here, regardless of your opinions, political, or religious views, we all have the same fiber ingrained in us that is stimulated when a group of individuals strike a chord in harmony and fill the ambiance around us with sonic beauty... My hat off to each and everyone of you for being what you are - Musicians! God Bless you!

TJ, Welcome to the site I am listening to your tunes Wow! Very symphonic love the tunes you have up! More Please! Away With You and Rome In Tears.
Thanks for what you do as well!

I'm not a big fan of "Heavy Metal". Most of the youngsters don't understand the power that can be unleashed, instead it becomes the same old boring guitar star playing banging 1,5 chords as fast and loud as possible.

You just raised the bar. WAY UP THERE!

Great recordings TJ.

By the way, Politics up here,,, Don't let them know you're my brother.

You don't know me but I'm your brother

Wow guys! Thanks for the compliments on the music!

Funny about the Heavy metal thing... I'm 41 and grew up during the whole 80's thing... Van Halen, Scropions, etc... Queensryche was my favorite at the time... Along came Dream Theater and I've been hooked ever since. They sort of 'Raised the Metal Bar'.

Most of the newer stuff I'm not too fond of... Except for Sevendust... I dont know... something about the insane heavy, almost cant take it anymore and then they break into something melodic and their singer is really good. Plus it's interesting to hear the timbre of a black man's voice in that kind of music...

About 3 years ago, someone gave me a Nightwish CD. I really liked the symphonic thing and sort of fell along those similar metal lines with an opera singer but female... So about 2000 dollars later, I've purchased on iTunes music from about 25 Symphonic/Gothic/Progressive metal bands (mostly with girl vocals).

So then it hit me... I like this stuff, but would like a little more Dream Theater riffage, so I started analyzing the songs, finding out what I was drawn to and pulled an emotional response out of me, and then began to construct my own songs... (Granted the more progressive ones are not posted yet).

I don't consider myself a music composer/writer. Never been very good at it... I am good at collaboration, and producing. I generally feed off of other peoples inspiration. So what I sort of did was analyze the music I was listening to, and used it to create starting points. From there I just hammered out what I could and got the music sounding like it would fit with the bands I was listening to. Away With You was inspired by the band Delain, and Roam In Tears was inspired by the band Sirenia.

The problem with this approch is I have a feeling when I get done, my album may not sound so congruent. Oh well, at least I will accomplish what I set out to do - Finish an album of music that I like and enjoy.

Where everything became really fun was when I found my singer, Jessica. After working with her and us pushing each other for excellence, I have more drive to write more music. I've literally become addicted to the engineering and production of vocals.... I can't sing my way out of a paper bag, so go figure, right?

As I get stuff done, I will continue to add to the profile so please feel free to visit, listen and give me your honest feedback. Also, if you hear a possible mistake, let me know as my ears get tired after listening over and over.

I Have 2 more songs just about ready, we just need to do the vocals, but Jessica is out of town for a couple of weeks, so it will be November or December I imagine.

As for brothers, funny thing as we could be in the literal context. I was adopted at 5 weeks old. My birth mother was 16 years old... Born in Charleston SC in 1970. Don't know anything about her or the father... Don't really care. I had a wonderful childhood that I am sure is way better than being raised by a teenager in the 70's

Ah-Hah! my life is becoming an open book, LOL!

Seriously though, you guys rock and thanks for the compliments!

TJ

TJ, Welcome to the site I am listening to your tunes Wow! Very symphonic love the tunes you have up! More Please! Away With You and Rome In Tears.
Thanks for what you do as well!

I just checked out yours as well. Man, you've got those 'classic' unmistakable strat tones. I assume those are real amps and not plugins. Shame your band dissolved, you have some good stuff.

TJ I am in another band. I need to update my site. I am in the 2cd band since Cruise Control split up. Yes I am a strat man. I like the tones your guitar player was using it sounded like a Mesa Boogie. The band I am in now is called Mission Imposter.

missionimposter.net

NIce Songs... Well Done. Very interesting signature.

I like the tones your guitar player was using it sounded like a Mesa Boogie.

I played all the guitar except for the lead on Rome. I used a 2011 Ibanez RG 7320 with a Liquifire at the neck and Crunch Lab at the bridge run direct into a Focusrite Liquid Channel set to the SSL model mic pre and Compressor set at about 2.5 to 1. That goes to my Digidesign 192 I/O and using Amplitube 3 for the main Boogie sounding tone... To polish the sound off in the mix, I use the Waves CLA guitar plugin for post processing. The solo was played on a nice Paul Reed Smith by a friend through the same setup.

FYI - The CLA (Chris Lord Algae) plugins are the bomb. I use it on the vocal final as well (vocal version of course). They are my 'Go To' plugins when things aren't meshing right, or I want a super slick, produced sound.

I envy you guys with real amps though... The plugins are darn close, but just dont respond and have the sag like a good tube amp on the attack. Also there are little artifacts here and there that the plugins produce which are a real pain to get out or smooth over.

Saving my pennies for a Mesa Boogie Road King head and cabinet. Got a chance to mess with one and was blown away by it's versatility. First time I ever saw a divided chamber 4/12 with half the back open on one chamber to simulate combo open back sounds. It was very interesting to get modern cruch, vintage fatness, warm blues, twangy almost clean country, and shimmering twin-like tones out of 1 amp without it being digital modeling of some sort. Then there is the whole 'choose your tube path' and dedicated reverb per channel settings on the back....

Gadgets... One of my vices... Amps with flexible settings just begging to be tinkered with.

tj great stuff plug ins seem to work !

TJ,

Away With You didn't get my attention as much as Rome in Tears, but it was good.

The vocals on "Rome in Tears" remind me of "Heart" before Nancy ate one of the band members. Nice clear voice. I like the composition.

By the way, nice toys in your equipment list.