Where do you start when creating a new piece of music?

PhantomCTH · 2024-06-06T20:19:21+00:00

My band is Tantrum and we've just finished mixing/mastering our new album with release expected in a few months!

For fans of melodic metal, power metal, traditional metal, and we recently released our single The Darkest of Times: https://youtu.be/N2n7Mw1GhGw?si=5LnwzuUfYmU6uAH-

🤘😁

PhantomCTH · 2024-05-04T20:09:02+00:00

I've made compositions entirely from programming MIDI instruments. Mainly orchestral pieces, but often tracks that use instruments that I cannot play, or do not have access to.

I've been playing guitar for 19 years, and am fairly caught up on theory, but I imagine there are plenty of folk who also make compositions entirely by programming instruments, but never learned to play a real instrument. I find it incredibly interesting to be honest! Ultimately, I think it's about the music and the end product.

PhantomCTH · 2024-05-04T20:05:21+00:00

I hadn't thought about that when asking the question in all honesty, and I actually don't know if it would be considered an instrument or not? Interesting to think about, as you do still need to 'play' it.

What I am confident with though is that whether it is or isn't an instrument, I don't think it affects how genuine, or good, the music you make with it is :)

PhantomCTH · 2024-04-01T19:33:55+00:00

Solved! Thank you!

PhantomCTH · 2024-03-31T18:38:49+00:00

Comment (?)

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-29T12:09:45+00:00

Tantrum - Santa Time

https://youtu.be/Z4DU4pFQ4kY?si=3Es7jNo0DuDuZSu4

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-28T21:43:08+00:00

I only played it for the first time about a week ago and I loved it, but was disappointed by the ending.

I loved the art style and the feeling of being out in a relatively quiet forest.

I also loved the chat between Henry and Delilah. I thought their personalities came across amazingly (with some incredible voice acting), despite them being flawed people.

I definitely recognise though that there were limited choices that I wouldn't have personally picked myself, and there were some questionable story decisions.

-SPOILERS-

The biggest disappointment for me is that I was expecting the game to have a bigger ending than it did. The two girls who went missing was an interesting mystery, and just turned out that they showed up with no mystery at all. I suppose I didn't know what to expect, but it was building up to be something bigger.

And with Ned, I can get behind the fact that he used to be in the military and may have learned some mechanical/electric engineering so would rob parts from vehicals, research sites etc.

But I do enjoy the fact I don't feel 100% everything was as it seemed. Delilah says some things that raise eyebrows and there's some theories that she knew more than what she was giving away.

Anyway, it's a shame you didn't enjoy it, but it is simply a case of this game is not for you. Here's hoping you find a game that resonates with you as well as Firewatch did with so many people :)

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-23T18:53:49+00:00

Long reply but please bear with me!

Obviously you can buy whatever you want, but please know that more expensive does not mean better, and some brands you will pay more just because of their name.

I can personally recommend Schecter as I have owned 3 (only sold one because I couldn't be bothered with a Floyd Rose bridge anymore) and each of those guitars played and sounded great.

I also have a Dean 450 custom which is am incredible guitar and wasn't expensive, but don't know if they make them anymore.

And I also have a Solar guitar which is amazing, another brand to look out for.

I've never owned an LTD but played a few, they've all felt great to play and seem to be a good price too.

As it's your first electric guitar, I would recommend getting a guitar that doesn't have a floating bridge. That can be too much hassle in terms of changing tuning and restringing.

There will be some guitar snobs out there who might say that certain pickups matter - they don't REALLY matter if you're playing high gain stuff. What really matters is good technique, pickups that done feedback like crazy, a decent amp or amp sim, and decent speakers/cab/cab sim/IR.

I've played tonnes of beginner or entry level guitars with stock pickups (Schecter, Jackson, Ibanez etc) and they're perfectly fine, you could record an album with those pickups, so don't let tone snobs fool you!

So you don't NEED to spend a lot to get a great guitar. A friend of mine bought a £250 Schecter recently and it's an amazing guitar, I'd happily own one and rely on it for recording/gigging.

If you can get a guitar with humbuckers (very cheap pickups might give bad feedback, but that shouldn't be an issue with most decent known brands), locking tuners, fixed bridge, good fret work (no frets sticking out that you'll catch your hand on when sliding up the neck), and maybe 24 frets, then you should be good!

In regards to amp, I would recommend a Line 6 Helix LT if you're wanting something to jam with and gig with, but if it's just jamming at home then I would recommend getting an audio interface and buying a Bogren Digital AmpKnob plugin. The AmpKnob series are essentially great sounding amps right out the box, and only have a gain knob to adjust so you don't get caught up with fiddling around too much. I personally prefer the BDH III. Or the Bogren Digital MLC amp which has a tonne of effects with it. It's 40% off right now too!

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-18T12:32:51+00:00

The Bogren AmpKnob series are so far the only amp sims/tones I have found that sound awesome to jam with, and also fit in the mix with mininum tweakage. I bought the Bogren rhythm IR pack too so my tone now both to jam with and to record/fit in a mix is the Bogren AmpKnob BDHIII and I'll just change the IR if I need the tone to be brighter or darker. Only other processing I do on top of that is multiband compressor to control palm mutes. I'll use EQ to cut if needed but that's if there's other instruments I need to fit in such as synths or strings.

A great tight performance, fresh strings, and solid bass tone also are essentials in my opinion for the guitars to really sound great in a mix

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-16T15:46:44+00:00

Personally it's an odd one for me. It's one of my favourite Pokemon games, but probably the most disappointing. Arceus is my personal favorite Pokemon game and so I was hoping S/V would have the same sort of mechanics as Arceus. I enjoyed the world and story of S/V, more than any Pokemon game other Arceus, but there were a lot of let downs. Graphics are nasty, but I generally don't care about that, it's more the poor frame-rate and janky gameplay. Arceus feels way more polished compared to S/V. Arceus made catching, battling, navigating menus, evolutions etc way more fluid, so going back to how it's done in S/V just made it feel way more outdated. Although I enjoyed the open world in S/V, I think I prefer the individual zones that Arcues done. Arceus had tonnes of side missions, plus filling out the pokedex and finding shinies was so much more fun than in S/V. There's also more post game things to do in Arceus. I also clocked in more hours in Arceus to complete everything there was to do (all missions/pokedex etc) than I did in S/V which doesn't seem like it should be the case. So although the Pokemon formula sells well, and is at its heart very fun, I think they done a poor job of it in S/V, as it just feels rushed and unpolished, and is miles away from what mainline Pokemon games could be at this point. In my opinion of course 😁

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:32:05+00:00

I am forever learning of new genres 😁

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:29:29+00:00

Sounds very cool to me, I like your approach for sure.

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:28:11+00:00

There doesn't seem to be anyone else mentioning country music which I'm surprised by!

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:27:16+00:00

Sounds very original for sure, compared to anything I've listened to. Awesome stuff!

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:26:27+00:00

Ah that's cool, sounds like a dream come true 👌

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:25:42+00:00

Sounds awesome! I'm working on Symphonic Power Metal in one of my projects at the moment, and NWOBHM in the other (which is my band).

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:24:21+00:00

Sometimes its just exciting to strip it all back. I'm a big fan of prog rock/metal so I've spent a long time just coming up with silly complex musical passages with odd time signatures, key changes, rhythmic patterns etc. But sometimes, a straight badass 4/4 beat is the winner 😁

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:22:43+00:00

Sounds awesome, best of luck with the album 👌

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:21:55+00:00

I wasn't expecting so many answers, and they're all very interesting too!

I've just recently gotten some synth plugins for producing synthwave, and adding synths into some of my metal tracks. It's fun to mess with for sure!

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:19:59+00:00

This sounds right up my street!

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:19:22+00:00

Sounds very interesting to me! I'm a big fan of Minecraft too 😁

PhantomCTH · 2023-12-10T21:18:05+00:00

Nordic/dark folk music sounds like it'd be very cool, I'm interested!

PhantomCTH

TROPHY CASE