What's up, RMers?

[Kain Nobel]

Yeah, XP can be a nightmare sometimes which is why the Standard Development Kit was created. That too isn't perfect, and I know a few people who prefer to live life without it. Nevertheless, I've always considered XP to be the best of them all when it comes to mapping. There are things I like about mapping with the Makers that came after XP, I'm very fond of a lot of what was introduced, but XP maps stand out as the most visually appealing and complex.

Current Album News

Writing and recording is done for ALL tracks (except "Wicked Underground", which I like in it's original synth form. I've jammed good jams to this one but... eh. If it goes on the album, it'll be the only all-synth track. I feel it would be strange to exclude it, no matter what form.)

Progress

• Recording is done for ALL lead guitar parts. (It wasn't a lot.)
  
• Recording is done for ALL rhythm guitar parts.
  
• Recording is done for ALL bass guitar parts.
  
• Recording is done for ALL keyboard parts. (It wasn't a lot.)
  
• All 18 tracks have been assigned their track number, which means this is close to final.
  
• A prototype album has been assembled with raw, unedited recordings.
  
• The family has listened to portions of the album and seem pleased / surprised.
  

To-Do

• Cut recorded tracks into micro-samples (where applicable).
  
• Rearrange the drums (for the most part, they're probably A-OK!)
  
• Do live shake egg recordings for one track (low priority).
  
• Prepare either ShaderToy or REGAL to produce "music videos".
  
• Clean up any album related artwork (the cover is nearly finished.)
  
• Have the family listen to the finished and finalized version of ALL tracks (on a proper sound system.)
  
• Post everything to the interwebs.
  

The shake egg was never found. The digeridoo was never used. No digital instruments were used (except "Wicked Underground" as noted above. And the drums, of course, were samples since I don't have a real drum kit.)

Cleaning and slicing the recordings is the next step. Everything got recorded twice or more, so it's a A, B and sometimes C comparison of what was played best. I was on fire yesterday so I'm assuming they're each near perfect. I was going to do the solos on a different day, but those too are recorded! And I think I nailed it all! We'll see...

While I have put together the full prototype album with all parts included, I have not gone through and listened to the redundant 3 versions of each bar of each recording.

This whole project was a journey outside of the comfort zone.

(What even IS a "comfort zone"? XD)

So the current album is almost finished. Granted, I might go back to do better solos or I might record parts that I've left out. If a track only has 2 verses, well, there is a 3rd verse written for all tracks but I've omitted them in some instances (to keep the album run time so it's not much longer than a single hour.)

Next Album Planned

New music is being written too, which means another instrumental album will be in the works sometime next year. I'll probably get to work on it in Spring 2023 and have it finished before the season is over. At least that is my goal and plan.

While I'm fairly pleased with the current music, I'm ecstatic about the new tracks that are being written and I already have 4 done. I played it safe thus far and have been careful to "write to my ability", but the new album throws all of that overboard. I do think it is all playable; however, I do not think it will be super simple like what I've already done thus far. The time signature is always changing, chords have unique picking patterns, whatever is being played doesn't stay inside the "box" for very long, the new chords themselves are things I've never played in my entire life.

The first two tracks have been titled "Industrial Zone" and "Manufactured Chaos" and I can't play them to save my life (yet). From what I've already recorded (I haven't recorded anything for the newer album), I think I've gained enough EXP to be able to eventually tackle these tracks but it'll require some serious grinding. I've got my Thrash materia equipped courtesy of Troy Stetina (it's that yellow materia on the cover of "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar", hahaha!)