I've decided to post my music. Get some feedback on it and whatnot. So far I only have one song recorded that has 2 different uploads. I know some of you know that I mainly listen to metal music, but my influence for my songs comes from many different genres. So not all of my music has that "metal" sound to it (or at least it'll just have a tiny hint).

IDX Rider - Revamped (with better drums) - SoundCloud (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/revamped-with-better-drums)

In the note attached to this track, it explains why there are 2. I'll eventually get rid of the other one or both because someone I know is writing lyrics for it so it can have vocals and I still need a bass guitar added to it. But we'll see. I used a different guitar effect instead so the bassline is there, but it's just done on the guitar. And I'll eventually add more music too after I'm done recording it and putting the drums in and all that jazz.

Hope you guys like :D

Also, this was originally written on the acoustic and my bandmates called this one the "revamped" version. So for now, that's the title but it will most likely be changed.

That sounds good man. Not only musically but production-wise (it's very clean). I know you've already stated it, but yes it does need some low end.

And yes I am a nit picky person, but at 4:55 the drop out sounds a bit un-natural. kind of sounds like you just muted everything out for a bar. Maybe try stopping all instruments on that last snare before the drop-out and have a least one of the them ring out (maybe just the drums).

Besides that, good stuff.

btw, what program do you use to record and do you use any software for composition?

The drop out was intentional. At first I wanted a small build-up for the drums but I lack the "idea" for it since I'm no drummer so I decided to have some kind of vocal part in that area instead. Depending on how the vocals turn out, it might stay like that or I might have to change the end musically to where it won't be cut out. Just depends on what's going to happen.

And I use Sony Acid Pro 6.0 and that's it. Eventually I'll probably get Cubase but I really don't feel like relearning how to use that next and Acid seems to get the job done just fine (at least it does for me).

I figured it was intentional, but it just sounds a little odd to me. That's all.

But ya, it sounds pretty clean especially for just what you're using.

IDX Rider - Revamped (with better drums) - SoundCloud (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/revamped-with-better-drums)


............................. I gave it a listen......... and I'm going to perfectly honest about my reaction to this track........


This is one of those tracks that actually connects with my soul. My skin tingled, my breath got heavy, I clutched at my shirt and I shed a tear. No lie......... even if that does sound weird..... I feel this piece and I'm highly impressed. I know you said your not finished with it and stuff, and other elements wouldn't hurt it but I feel that vocals would detract from this piece. If you do add vocals, then please for the love of all things good in this world make sure you save it separately and always keep an instrumental copy.

I won't pick at it or anything. I'll leave the creative decisions to you because you've already proven yourself to have amazing talent...... even though that drop off was a little awkward :p But now you ARE one of my new favorite undiscovered music makers (Pogo [Disney kind of found him though] and Ray Koefoed being at the top of my list :) ) Keep up the good work dude. I'll be awaiting more from you. :)

I just have to listen to that again........



edit - and upon a third listen it still has the same effect on me..........

Haha really? Must say that's the first time I got one of those reactions. But I'll keep what you guys have said in mind.

I liked it, I found it a little dense, but I think that it's the intention.

The intro is worth for a Silent Hill game. Congrats man.

When I compose something someday I'll let ya know.

Cheers.

Nuke North Korea.

IDX, may I ask you for a mp3 of your better drums version? Please? :)

Nuke North Korea.

Subliminal message :D what the!

IDX, may I ask you for a mp3 of your better drums version? Please? :)
Sure! I'll send it to you via PM.


Subliminal message :D what the!
That was posted in a different location and some idiot decided to move it here. Doesn't bother me though lol

i liked this! i expected bono to start singing at any time haha (this is not an insult or anything, i think it's the opposite because it speaks of the quality)

I have so many other songs I need to record :(. Some finished and some in the works. Totally sucks without having a bass guitar because on the ones where I'm having a writer's block I'm sure bass would help me out. But with this song, I'm going to have to rerecord it (AGAIN!!) because I decided to not have any vocals for any of my music unless I'm in a band. And because I adjusted the settings of my guitar amp, the sound will be different (example, I pumped up the bass haha) and I'm going to change the area where the drop off was so there will be something there musically. Might be longer than just the duration of the silence but we'll see if I'd rather do that or work on finishing up other projects. I'm sure Neg is a little disappointed I haven't finished my cover for Silent Hill 2's song "Promise" :(...

And don't worry! I actually think U2 has a few decent songs lol

I don't get why U2 was/is so big ?_?

But your talents are unbound, young Gunbladeslinger! Keep it up~

I don't either. They just have a few songs I like. I don't really think they're as great as their fans do lol

With your awesomeness you could usurp their position and TAKE OVAH!!!!!!!

Alex - have you seen Proxi on FB lately? been wondering where she is, man.

Considering all the positive feedback, I don't feel bad being overly critical:

The second note in the guitar slide that starts repeating at .29 doesn't work at all. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, because I think it's in tune. My guess is it's not harmonious with the synth note behind it. I don't have the means to extract that one second or so and loop it, but if you do you might notice something's wrong too.

I'm not going to knock a complete dropout (4:55ish), but you do it a split second too early. The final note isn't resolved, so it comes across as a technical malfunction instead of an intentional stop.

As for the song as a whole, you're going for something sort of ethereal/spiritual here, and for that to be really striking it's got to be mixed more fluidly. The high hat sounds like you hit play on a drum loop, as opposed to it sort of naturally emerging from the musical mist. I'm not talking about a fade in or anything like that; I don't know how to speak of music in technical terms, but I can describe the vibe I got, and for me it felt like it lacked a wholeness, a sort of congruity of parts, both in the drumming and in the clean guitar. I think you're well on track at the stronger parts like 1:29, but the soft moments need some work.

The more simple a song is, the more difficult it is to construct. What you're aiming for isn't easy. The drumming throughout is what did it in for me--my ears eventually adjusted to the "off" note I referred to first, but I never got over the drumming. If they weren't all programmed loops, they certainly sounded like them. They lacked variations in depth and intensity--not what to hit when, but how hard to hit it, I guess. I want to say "nice job in the absence of a studio drummer", but drumming is the most essential ingredient for this style of song. It makes or breaks it.

Drumming and mixing! Those are what need work. Sorry for being so negative, especially since I sound like I'm critiquing a finished product when it's clearly a work in progress; I'm a natural jerk.

Considering all the positive feedback, I don't feel bad being overly critical:

The second note in the guitar slide that starts repeating at .29 doesn't work at all. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, because I think it's in tune. My guess is it's not harmonious with the synth note behind it. I don't have the means to extract that one second or so and loop it, but if you do you might notice something's wrong too.

I'm not going to knock a complete dropout (4:55ish), but you do it a split second too early. The final note isn't resolved, so it comes across as a technical malfunction instead of an intentional stop.

As for the song as a whole, you're going for something sort of ethereal/spiritual here, and for that to be really striking it's got to be mixed more fluidly. The high hat sounds like you hit play on a drum loop, as opposed to it sort of naturally emerging from the musical mist. I'm not talking about a fade in or anything like that; I don't know how to speak of music in technical terms, but I can describe the vibe I got, and for me it felt like it lacked a wholeness, a sort of congruity of parts, both in the drumming and in the clean guitar. I think you're well on track at the stronger parts like 1:29, but the soft moments need some work.

The more simple a song is, the more difficult it is to construct. What you're aiming for isn't easy. The drumming throughout is what did it in for me--my ears eventually adjusted to the "off" note I referred to first, but I never got over the drumming. If they weren't all programmed loops, they certainly sounded like them. They lacked variations in depth and intensity--not what to hit when, but how hard to hit it, I guess. I want to say "nice job in the absence of a studio drummer", but drumming is the most essential ingredient for this style of song. It makes or breaks it.

Drumming and mixing! Those are what need work. Sorry for being so negative, especially since I sound like I'm critiquing a finished product when it's clearly a work in progress; I'm a natural jerk.

I take all feedback. There are a few things that I am confused about though. First off is what part do you mean about the guitar slide? I haven't done any notes that require me to "slide" from one fret to the next (or if there was then it's unintentional) nor is there a pick slide area. Are you sure it's not the reverb? And there's nothing off beat either because there's a metronome throughout going at 115BPM so that is also something I can't really take into account when you said the drop off seemed to cut off a split second early. But that in itself doesn't matter anymore since the drop out won't be there anyways.

As for the drums I was a little disappointed on what I had to work with when it came to mixing them. No drum loops were used at all so it was just me filling out a grid that told which drum to hit at which time. I used the same beat a few times though so I guess you could say I "looped" it. And I know what you mean about how hard each drum/cymbal is being hit because I adjusted all of that already. The drums themselves is what gave me the most trouble because I just couldn't get it to sound exactly how I wanted. The way the drums sound now is the best it's going to get. I probably spent 4 hours just tinkering with the sound of it itself. The crash symbols that I was able to use didn't even sound like what I wanted (I was only able to use two) so I adjusted the velocity and volume quite a few times trying to get it right. Everything else I tried actually made the drums sound worse. I haven't used the Drum Kit From Hell expansion with this song because I didn't have it until later so I might use that and see how it'll sound then.

But like I said; I'm no drummer. That's the only instrument that I haven't tried yet so in terms of drumming you're just going to have to deal with what I use lol. Unless you know someone who can actually play drums plus the amount of money it takes to record drums (probably want at least $3000USD on mics alone) then let me know. Otherwise you'll just get with the beats I make myself or use samples. Which I plan on doing from now on just because they're already mixed and it'll save me a whole lot of time and effort.

Finally was able to put down Black Ops (damn game is addicting!) and am recording another song. I'll post a sample once I reach a stopping point, but beware, there will be no drums. I usually add the drums at the end because sometimes it won't sync right with my playing (the drums will be on tempo, but sometimes I'm not) and I'll have to re-record the guitars again. This one will have more distorted guitar to it compared to the Revamped that had different kinds of guitar effects.

Awakening by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/awakening)

Read the description of course. Actually going to record it again with a little less bass for the regular guitars then pump it up for the "bassline" along with adding more parts for the second guitar. Didn't try the bass thing with Revamped but hopefully it'll work out just fine.

Genesis by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/genesis)

A song written by me and the other guitarist from the band I was in back in college. I couldn't remember exactly how it was supposed to be played so this is kinda my "version" if anything. A friend of mine mixed this and added bass and drums as well. This was recorded using my old Ableton software while my friend used Sony Acid when mixing and adding the bass and drums.

EDIT: Just so everyone knows, this wasn't recorded recently. Maybe a year or so ago. I lost the actual mp3 and myspace won't let me make the music I upload downloadable anymore but a friend of mine led me to a program that was able to record it and allow me to save it. So now that I have the mp3, I decided to go ahead and upload it for you guys to hear.

Holy crap! I'm completely digging Genesis! It's got an 80's flair to it and I love it! In some spots it kinda gives me a Blue Man Group vibe from their stuff for their Complex album. May I ask for an mp3 of this one too? :)


I like Awakening and I look forward to see what you do with it :)

Haha sure. I'll send it through PM :)

I remember when I sent it to the other guitarist he was bitching about it being too slow. I told him that's wrong because I played it at the speed we always did back in the day. The one who added the bass and drums think that the guitarist probably felt threatened that I didn't need him anymore lol

That may be true but it doesn't alter the fact that it's still very hard to get into the music industry. Especially for someone who doesn't deal with pop music. I have a friend who's been making his own music a lot longer than I have. It's pretty good and ranges from thrash metal to the kind of sound that my Revamped song does. But he still drives a crappy car (we would rather have nice guitars/equipment than nice cars) and has a job anyone can do. And he's the one I go to with questions regarding guitars, music, or just advice on something that deals with the subject.

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------

Forgot to mention something:

Lyrics are FINALLY being written for my song. I've seen it and the one writing it actually sung it for me along with the Revamped song and it sounds pretty good if you ask me. I have to get an XLR cable for my mic (the one I have is broken :() and when the lyrics are done then it will be time to finish. And there will be a new title that I gave it but I won't say until it's completely finished.

I agree with IDX pop music is the way to go to make cash, also film music, although pop music is more concrete, r&b + rap/hip hop also makes tons of cash. It's pretty easy to make it even without theory, as long as you follow the stereotypical structure. :p

Decided to share another one of my projects that is currently still being written. The sample is just the intro and a basic melody throughout. Everything else about it is written in the description.

http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/wedding-song-draft

Great stuff, IDX!

I dont know how I didnt hear this sooner.

Got another song uploaded. This one has a more metallish sound. Obviously not done and no longer the way I play it (I've added guitar squeals now for example) but figured why not share it since I haven't shared any of my "metal" sounding songs.

Untitled by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/untitled)

IDX, you're incredibly talented :) Love the way your songs just flow and hook me from start to finish. I wish I had that kinda talent. I've been in a band myself, but nothing that could churn out sound of that consistent quality. Keep up the kickass work, mang :)

Alright. I'm re-recording the "revamped" song (still no vocals) but adding bass and a few other elements to the song along with filling in where that momentary pause was towards the end. I decided not to just use the wav file of the song because I felt it would probably be best just to redo the entire thing. I'll post a link to the song when it's done for you guys to hear or to anyone who's interested.

I'm interested. I still listen to it on my mp3 player <3

A quick sample still in it's rough stages:

http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/new-revamped-incomplete

Okay, I don't know if you guys remember me posting a draft of a song I was writing for my sister's wedding (which didn't happen because me and the drummer couldn't get a hold of the bass player for practice) but I started working on it again. We wrote a new bassline because he used to be a drummer and the original bassline was too complex for him so we rewrote the whole thing (and wrote the bassline for the interlude too), but he can't seem to find time to come over here to record the bass. So, I used the original bassline and split it up to make it fit where it's supposed to be. If you're having a hard time understanding what I mean, look for the draft before listening to this version.

http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/sisters-song-80

It's about 80% complete. Everything about it is in the description and I hope you guys enjoy.

Page no exist :(

Sorry. Try this one:
sister's song (80%) by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/sisters-song-80/s-QP1ce)

I dig this one <3 I can't wait til it's finished. I really dig your stuff so much~

Okay, another one. This one actually hit me all at once (entire song) randomly and I wanted to share a tiny sample with you guys. And like I said before, I'm using the loops provided by the EZDrummer program to save me time. It's more of a metalish song but I hope you guys enjoy it :).

New metal song by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/new-metal-song/s-SwwSv)

:happycroc:

New metal song UPDATED by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/new-metal-song-updated/s-MvetK)

Okay, this is an updated sample. And last sample I'll post regarding this song. Might share the whole song when I'm done but we'll see. Hope you guys like it :).

Deciding to share this with you guys. I wrote this for a DBZ trailer (check the song description for a link to the trailer). Hope you guys enjoy :).

DBZ trailer by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/dbz-trailer)

Definitely different from all the other DBZ music but I really like it~ It's got a superhero kind of sound~

Definitely different from all the other DBZ music but I really like it~ It's got a superhero kind of sound~

Yeah I broke it down to three different parts: the arrival, the losing battle, and the savior. I tried to stay away from the usual "uppity" music DBZ has where it gets your blood pumping or whatever and decided to treat it as if something like this really happened where aliens came to destroy the earth. Wouldn't exactly be cool. Kinda hard to explain but that's what I was going for. I do admit it can use more refining but if it was actually behind the trailer (which is how I was listening to it to make sure everything synced right) you can't really tell with all the other sounds from the actual video going on. I messaged K&K Productions about reposting the video or just message me the video without The Dark Knight Rises trailer music behind it but they didn't :(.

Okay, I don't consider this a "serious" song I wrote especially if it only took me around 6 hours or so to finish it, but I've wanted to write a zombie-themed track for a while now just for fun. It's pretty simple and I think it could serve as an intro song of some kind or just add to it since I left a lot of room to maneuver.

Anyways, I hope you guys like it :D.

Z Day by IDX Rider on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (http://soundcloud.com/idx-rider/z-day)