In case you didn?t read my last entry (A New Band?), I?ve been hard at work with writing, recording, and producing two (count ?em: TWO) music projects simultaneously. Besides my solo project, I?ve got the new band I founded with my former bandmate Tim Muraoka. As I write this, we are writing one new song, re-recording one of mine, and we have 3 songs done (two of which have been posted on our ReverbNation profile). Here?s the breakdown of the songs we are currently working on:

• Fast Forward: Complete & Posted
• Détente: Complete
• Instinct: Complete & Posted
• Nightstalker: In Production
• Pretty Little Liar: In Pre-Production

We are planning on playing some live gigs in the fall, and we have a meeting coming up soon with my manager and an old friend of mine who has offered to help us with our music videos (which I haven?t even planned out yet). Yeah, I?ve been incredibly busy, and it?s only going to get busier as both projects continue.

Disclaimer: the pic is the logo I designed for Echo D-Vice; designed using The Print Shop 2

I got to see this recently with my brother & girlfriend, and I must admit that it was worth the wait. However, I do have one slight disappointment in the casting (which can be easily ignored… I explain later).

The plot is pretty simple if you?ve seen the previous ?prequel? films featuring the cast in their own starring (and some supporting) roles: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D., and proceeds to use it to subjugate the human race. The Avengers (made up of Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)) are assembled together by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to stop Loki before he destroys all life on Earth as we know it.

• There are a lot of reasons as to why this film works so well:

• One: it was a smart move on Marvel Studios? part (both in marketing & continuity) to establish the main characters in their own films first before getting to the story that joins them together.
• Two: the co-writer/director is a geeky genius in his own right: Joss Whedon. Yes, the same guy who brought us The Cabin In The Woods while hammering out his greatest masterpiece. If it had been any other director attached to this film, I expect it would have tanked instead of shattering box office records (go ahead, check them, and try to call me a liar). He did the characters and the story justice like any good director should.
• Three: most of the casting is spot-on. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect in the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man, as is Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America (and a major improvement over playing Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films). Chris Hemsworth is much better as Thor than as the character he played in the other film I?ve mentioned. Jeremy Renner (as Hawkeye) is good in anything he?s cast in, and Scarlett Johansson (as Black Widow) looks like she can handle herself among the guys. Sam Jackson makes a much better Nick Fury than David Hasslehoff did in a previously-released TV movie (and what a horrible portrayal that was… look it up… you?ll see what I mean).
• Four: even though the plot unfolds slowly (there?s a ton to cover exposition-wise), there is plenty of action to keep the pace consistent.

Here?s where I?m slightly disappointed: Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton, who previously starred as Bruce Banner/Hulk in the last rendition of The Incredible Hulk. The reason why this can be easily ignored is because Mark does have the look over Ed. They both played the intelligence & the neuroticism of the character equally well, but personally, I would have liked to have seen Ed Norton reprise the role. Oh well, not up to me, so whatever.

With all of this said, I believe that this a great film for anyone, both geek & non-geek alike. It?s got plenty of humor, drama, and action for everyone, and it won?t leave you with the feeling of ?whoa… what just happened??.

Disclaimer: the pic is an official promotional poster for the film; ©2012 Marvel Studios & Paramount Pictures

First, a little history lesson. It?s 2008, and I?m the resident DJ/KJ of a weekly karaoke session that?s being held in my college?s cafeteria. I?m sitting with a friend of mine before the session starts, and he tells me that he has founded a band with some guys he knows from the same college. He mentions that they are looking for a vocalist, and I couldn?t resist volunteering since it?s in my nature to help my friends when they have a need. I go for the audition in June, and nail it on the first try (after some hesitation trying to find lyrics that fit the music they have been writing). We write some new stuff, we play a couple of live shows (to minimal audiences), and slowly, our cohesion begins to disintegrate. It?s now June of 2009, we?ve kicked out our bass player (the friend I mentioned earlier), and now, it?s my turn to get the ax. So was the end of an unknown band named Brand New Relic.

Fast forward to 2012: I?ve been hard at work developing my solo project, and I?ve had a few releases that have sold about $20 total. My friend had a good run with another band, and found himself without one again. We?ve talked on the phone a few times about how well we?ve worked together in the past, and then, an idea hits me: why don?t we found our own band, just the two of us (not a song cue, so stop thinking that)? As I write this, a week has gone by since I pitched the idea to him, and we had our first recording session last Friday (with more scheduled over the coming months since we?re planning on updating our last band?s material along with writing new songs).

For the record, it?s good to be back working with my friend. We have a lot in common, we laugh, we share our feelings (which is unusual for the majority of guys to do, I understand that)… in short, he?s someone I consider to be family. Sure, we have some disagreement with what I would love to see him do with his bass guitar, and that?s OK. But the fact remains that we do work well together, and I?m confident that we?ll be able to show the world something they?ve never seen before when it comes to good music. Seriously, when has anyone seen a bass player pair with an electronic artist for live performances, and that?s the band you?re seeing? No lead guitarist, no drummer? Just a bass guitar, and the electronic artist who multi-tasks as everything else? I?ve never seen that done before, and the only bass-fronted band I can remember is Primus.

Needless to say, my friend and I are charting new territory with our band. I can?t go into much detail yet about what our band name will be, or what our sound will be (since we?re still figuring that out). However, I can tell you that what we?ll be developing will be truly unique.

I went to see this last night with my girl, and the one thing I can say about this film is I will never have to see another slasher/horror film ever again (if you see it, you?ll see what I mean).

In an effort to not reveal too much, the plot is as follows: 5 college students head out on a trip into the woods, but their trip becomes more of a nightmare than they originally planned.

For the record, I was skeptical about seeing this in the first place. I knew that Joss Whedon was producing it, but I missed the fact that he wrote it, and I?ll admit that I?m a huge fan of his work. However, my girlfriend was adamant about seeing it, and after seeing it, I know why. Once again, he does not disappoint. You?ve got clever humor mixed with somewhat-predictable horror stereotypes. But the true genius in his writing is how the plot unfolds. It?s also a smart move that some actors from his cancelled TV series ?Dollhouse? are included in the cast.

I can?t really complain about this film at all (I was going to as far as one of the actors goes, but in hindsight, I have no need to do so). It?s got the typical horror violence that?s expected, it?s cleverly written… what else is there that I can say?

Disclaimer: the pic is an official promotional poster for the film; ©2012 Lionsgate

My brother & I recently went to see this in theaters, and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this film that features a story that has already been done many times before.

I won?t go too much into explaining the story since there is way too much to cover, so if you want more detail, read the books. The story (in a nutshell) is this: in the near future, the 12 districts of Panam send a boy & a girl between the ages of 12-18 from each district every year to compete in an elaborate, televised death match called ?The Hunger Games?. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers as a ?tribute? in order to protect her sister from having to compete in the 74th annual competition.

I was thrilled to see some big names appear in this film, and as usual, they don?t disappoint. Elizabeth Banks (as Effie Trinket) had an interesting character role which could be classified as cartoonish, but it played into the most interesting part of the film (which will be explained later). Stanley Tucci (as Caesar Flickerman) seemed right-at-home as an over-the-top TV personality. Donald Sutherland (as President Snow) showed his talent for portraying calm-but-menacing reserve in his character. Woody Harrelson (as Haymitch Abernathy) showed both his comical side and intelligence as the mentor for the tributes of District 12.

What impressed me the most about this film was its underlying disconcerting tone. All through the film, I felt uneasy watching the whole spectacle created by author Suzanne Collins, from the selection of the tributes to the competition itself, and to me, that plays into the nature of this world that I believe the author intended in the books. Thankfully, the violence isn?t too brutal for younger audiences, but its implication plays into the darker parts of the story. Even the portrayal of high society seemed disturbing to a point. To the credit of the actors playing the tributes, they felt more sophisticated than the ages they were playing, so you truly felt for them when one of them dies.

Again, this story is incredibly reminiscent of films like Death Race & Rollerball (two films I love & respect equally), where they show the celebration of violence in sport, and the selfless stand of one person against the established system. But, it?s the underlying dark tone that intrigues me about this film, and I feel that it stands as an equal to both of the films I?ve mentioned.

Disclaimer: I?ve only seen the film, and never read the books, so take this review as my being completely unbiased toward the material.

Additional Disclaimer: the pic is an official promotional poster; ©2012 Lionsgate

For some music artists, it works. The examples I will use are Trent Reznor (known as the founder of Nine Inch Nails) and (I?m gonna hate myself for using this next one) Lana Del Rey. Trent made himself famous with the branding of NIN, and essentially re-branded himself as a composer when David Fincher asked him to write the score for ?The Social Network? (which won him an Academy Award for best original score in 2011). Lana Del Rey originally tried to brand herself under a pseudonym of her real name, Lizzie Grant, in 2010. As part of a calculated move, she released her debut album ?Born To Die? under her preferred artist name, Lana Del Rey, in January. As part of her marketing campaign, she performed on Saturday Night Live that same month (and in my opinion, she severely sucked, so go ahead: bash me all you want for stating my opinion on the matter). The established fact is that when it?s done right, it completely reinvents the brand you want to market to the masses.

For others (like myself), that creates several issues. The logistical nightmares it creates only hurts me in the long run. I?d have to completely change the online persona I?ve created over the past 5 years, and for some parts (including my web site & Ping profile), that can cost money I don?t have to properly change how I?d want to be marketed. Also, I?d have to completely redesign all the merchandise I created for my online store, and all the album artwork for the music that has already been released. And what?s worse, that?s another 5 years I?d need to devote to developing the new brand.

So, what is the brand I?ve decided to maintain? I?m the rule breaker who writes about my observations of the world I see. I?m the quiet, introverted kid wandering around the room that examines everyone & everything. I use the initial of my first name & my full last name as my artist name, because that?s who I am, and I accept all of this as such. I can tell anyone why I haven?t succeeded with my brand yet (and that?s an entry for another time), but right now, I know what I need to do to move things in the right direction. Besides, my success with my brand is under God?s control anyway, so why worry about having instant success with my current brand?

This is going to be a quick entry, but I wanted to share the web site for an independent film I?ve had the honor of working on recently.

Professionally (when I?m not working on my music), I work as a free-lance stage technician. I spent 2 days last year as a sound grip for 2 green screen shoots. I got this gig through an old friend of mine. We worked together in dinner theater (doing musicals primarily) over 13 years ago.

Long story short, I came highly recommended for the green screen shoots, and the director/producer is a true visionary (and a great guy as well). My heartfelt thanks goes out to Mark Ross & Jason Goldberg for allowing me the honor of working on this film.

Click on the link below to view the official web site:

www.curseofthephantomshadow.com

The pic you see is a screenshot taken from a cover song I?m writing. I?m using Logic Pro 9 (which I upgraded to last year from GarageBand). I?ll admit that it looks like nothing spectacular is going on, but here?s what?s really happening due to all the new tricks I?ve learned:

• Flex Time: One of the cool features of Logic is that you can stretch out audio files to fit whatever timing you want. I had to do this for the audio files attached to the vocoder since I?m using two different tempos in this song. It starts at 90 BPM, then switches to 120 BPM after the breakdown. Without Flex Time, I would have a problem since the original recording was too fast because it was originally recorded at 120 BPM.
• Vocoder: This is the first time I?ve used a vocoder in any of my songs. I thought it would be cool to use a vocoder as the melody track, while I did clean vocals for the harmony. I?ll admit that in the pic, I haven?t recorded the clean vocals yet, but I wanted to show the use of this new effect (at least to me, it?s new).
• Transitions: This is a cool, but useful part to any song composition (if it?s done well). I had dreamed of having brief transitions from one part to the next in my previous works, but I never had a chance to fully realize this aspect of songwriting until I acquired Stutter Edit.
• Side-chaining: This is a heavily used technique in audio production. What side-chaining does is it attaches one track (audio or MIDI) to another, and this is something that needs to be done in order to use effects like the vocoder or Stutter Edit. What I learned through watching some YouTube videos (check out SFLogicNinja – the guy is very good at explaining anything about Logic in a simple way) is that I had the whole side-chaining process backwards. What I didn?t do then (which is what I do now) is I needed to send one track to an auxiliary bus channel first, then side-chain the bus to the effect I wanted.
• Output Sends: This is, by far, one of the most important things I?ve learned that I?m now applying to every song I write (this is some audio 101 stuff from here on, so pay attention). Just like using any sound board, where the individual channels send their output affects everything within an audio production. This is where a lot of my knowledge in Logic was lacking. What I found when I first started working with Stutter Edit is that I had the tracks I had side-chained to it bleeding into each other (both tracks playing simultaneously, which increases the overall volume of each track). What I learned to avoid this is I could turn off the outputs completely, or re-route the outputs to an auxiliary bus channel (which gets side-chained to an effect).
• Mixing: Another important part to any song is a good mix. What mixing does is separate individual tracks within a song, and puts them within their own space in the stereo spectrum. The techniques used to accomplish this are adjusting the gain (or individual volume) of a track so it can be heard, and panning it to one stereo channel or the other. How much gain, and how much you pan a track affects its clarity within the mix. You can add effects to adjust the gain & panning as well, but that only effects the individual sound within the track. What you don?t see in the pic is the ?Mosh Pit? guitar track is slightly panned to the left, so it?s still clearly heard in the mix, but it?s not taking up too much space in the overall mix.
• Mastering: There is a common mythos about mastering, and it?s that only professional sound engineers know the secrets to a proper mastering. This is only because the music industry has determined that if you want to have a proper mastering done of your song, you need to go to a specific engineer that a record label has used before. With the invention of digital audio workstation software (or DAWs), anyone can buy the program of their choice, and completely write, record, mix, and master their own songs. What mastering is can be explained in one simple answer: it is the adjustment of the overall dynamics of a mix so that everything will be loud & clearly heard. I explained this in a previous post (?Louder Is Better?: A Startling Revelation), but I didn?t explain what exactly I did to adjust my mastering. You?ll notice in the pic that I?m using a preset master setting called ?Broadcast Ready? (meaning, it?s ready for radio play). What you don?t see is the settings for the EQ (equalizer), multi-pressor (a combined compressor for multiple mix bands), and limiter (a plug-in that sets the maximum gain for a track so you can reduce clipping, or overloading) within that preset. I primarily use presets so I can focus on the mixing process. The presets I used for the mastering are the Dance Music Type EQ, the WaveBurner Enhanced Medium MP, and the Soft Limiter settings. This combination of presets creates, for me, the right mastering I feel my music needs.

As you can see, there is a lot that I learned that is being applied to not only the song I?m writing in the pic posted, but to other songs I?m currently writing/mixing/mastering/remastering right now. You gotta love it when your production quality gets kicked up several notches, and I find it surreal that I had learned all this rather quickly.

I?d like to end this post with a question that?s directed at any music producer, sound engineer, or music artist: what are some of the production techniques you?ve learned, or are currently using?