So I finally got around to making me one of them new fangled SoundCloud accounts. Not gonna lie, i'm really diggin' the site. Pretty nice!

LINKAGE!

Stop by and say hi, won't you? :D

Some of you might be aware, some of you might not, but internet usage in Canada is about to get a whole lot more shitty. Long story short, you're going to start getting a whole lot less internet for a whole lot more money, and small internet providers are going to disappear, which means even less competition for Bell & Rogers. This will affect any online usage, including Newgrounds. To see the full details, please go here:

http://openmedia.ca/meter

SIGN THIS PETITION AND EMAIL TO THE CANADIAN MP'S! This CRTC decision needs to be reversed. Otherwise you can kiss youtube streaming, video streaming, online gaming and all other bandwidth intensive internet uses good bye.

Big business needs to get their damned hands out of things they have no right meddling with.

Just finished up my new studio recording desk, big enough to fit a smaller (~16 to 18 channel) mixing console, houses up to 8 rack units (or more, if you desire). The rack housings also double as audio monitor platforms which should place the monitors at approximately the right ear height for a person of average height. It also has a keyboard tray & raised LCD monitor platform big enough for dual 22" monitors side by side and a dedicated computer housing bay, which can be sealed off for noise isolation if you desire. The whole desk is built out of 3/4" ply/particle board sheeted in a real wood veneer, which is then stained and finished like any other wood, giving you lots of versatility in what decor you wanna match! I'm really proud of this desk, it came out much better than I had anticipated.
The whole thing was designed/drafted out in Google Sketchup, then built from the printed plans. To see more pics of the desk check out my site post on it here:

Click!

I will be releasing the plans/sketchup files for this desk in the near future once I get all the updates made to it in case any DIYers want to have a crack at it. The whole desk cost me around $230 to build. An equivalent desk from any other manufacturer with these features and at this size, with this quality of wood, would cost $1500... and up, so it's totally worth it, if you're handy with power tools!

Now I just need to get the Allen & Heath ZED R16 up on this bad boy.. I can't wait! Man i'm gonna be so broke....

It's not often i'll post about another groups music here, but Anathema has come out with a new album recently entitled "We're here because we're here" and I have to say the album is truly superb and has been getting a good deal of repeat listens on my playlist. Even more interesting to me is that I just found out that Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree) was involved in the production and mixing of this album, and you can clearly hear his hand in it. It's a brilliant mix of progressive rock elements, ambient and some orchestration with a ton of great harmonic layering. It's also great to see that a lot of thought was obviously put into the arrangement of the tracks, with many either seamlessly flowing into each other or otherwise sounding connected when listened to as a linear whole that really made the album sound organic and stand out to me (this has become a bit of a lost art in these ipod centric days, it seems).

I've been a long time fan of Anathema, from their early doom metal days to their current prog rock incarnation, and their progression has been brilliant all the way through, and it fascinates me to no end that after nearly 20 years of playing together and producing music, they can still release an album like this, that is so different and so fresh sounding, but maintaining all the things that has made them great all these years.

If you're a fan of any sort of progressive rock, you owe it to your self to check out Anathemas new album, it really is a beautiful piece of work!

I finally got around to updating my Youtube page. I took down the old videos and re-upped with a new style which gives better audio quality and loads faster. My 3 most recent tracks are on there at the moment, and i'll be putting the rest up as time permits. So yeah, if you're a youtuber, gimmie a click, and stuff!

And then rate my videos. And by rate, I really mean give me a thumbs up. Because it makes me feel special. You want to make me feel special, don't you?

~ Daniel

My new song 'Come Red Tide' is up on the NG audio portal and also available on my website for high quality download links. It's a 6 minute long epic prog rock sort of dealie, with orchestration and a powerful, heavy climax.

Click to have a listen:

Newgrounds

Rottenbread

That's all!

This is something i've been wanting to do for a while but never got around to it, but anyways, i've finally released some presets for other musicians or producers to use on their own projects. There isnt too many right now but i'll add more as time goes on (and permits). Currently there is a preset available for a nice natural sounding, compressed kit for Addictive Drums and a metal / rock powerchord preset for amplitube 3.

You can find them for download here

And if you want to hear what these presets sound like in the mix of a song, click here!

My new track, entitled Coalescence is now out for download. It's an ambient, acid jazzy sort of piece that evolves into a heavy prog rock deal.

Click Here to listen!

Or for High Quality download links (the 192 kbps version here on NG seems to have artifacts in the bass regions).

Click Here!

Thanks for looking!

~ Daniel

Coming Full Circle is finally out after nearly a month of fiddling!

Check it out here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /310333

or on my website here for high quality download links and more information.

After nearly a month of fiddling with the same damn song I think i'm finally done with this piece. The track, which was originally to be a re-make of "Sixth Circle" has evolved into something else entirely. While maintaining some similarities to the original, this piece is considerably more elaborate, featuring the original acoustic guitar arpeggio piece, but then backed by more varied acoustic guitar work, full symphonic orchestration, heavier and more elaborate drumming, much heavier electric guitar work as well as a fairly elaborate solo piece near the end. The entire piece has become more progressive, more powerful and has a considerably more "epic" feel to it (for lack of a better word).

And, quite honestly, this is by the far most complicated song i've ever composed (see pic). Not so much in the sense of the music (though I have tried to break away from some bad compositional habits I have), but no, i'm referring to the sheer technical complexity of this piece. The massive amount of tracks and different instruments that i've got going on at once made this song a real challenge for me to mix and properly balance without things getting lost and/or muddy. However, it has been an enormous learning experience for me and the effort, I think, has been worth it. I am (mostly) pleased with the results and hopefully others will be too!

So, for now, i'm going to rest my ears, and tomorrow I will be doing the final master runs on the track, encode the files, and have them ready for download. Hopefully i'll have the piece on my fancy new Youtube channel as well, with some pretty visuals to go with it.

Appropriately, this new song will be entitled Coming Full Circle.

So... Many.. Tracks..