I've just come out of another pretty good Ninjam session and so, once again, I thought i'd share it with you guys. This one thankfully is a bit better mixed than the last one I posted, though it still suffers from low bitrate which unfortunately I can't control as ninjam does it's own compression when syncing with other players. Anyways, because it's a bit long like the last piece, I didn't want to put it on newgrounds, especially when half of the instrumentation going on isn't even actually by me.
So you can find the file for direct streaming or direct download on my site here as well as information on who was involved, etc.
http://www.rottenbread.net/2009/12/fun -ninjam-session-and-some-updates/

The post also contains some information on an upcoming song, which some of my followers might be interested in as its a re-make of one of my more popular pieces (Sixth Circle).

Enjoy! :)

Finally opened my new website to the public!

http://www.rottenbread.net/

To coincide with the launch of my site I took it upon my self to re-master many of my more recent songs. Most of them should be more consistent, with improved dynamics and an overall smoother sound.

If you were a fan of my previous work and if you downloaded any of it, it would be worthwhile for you I think to go back and re-download these now in their higher quality formats.

So yeah, that's all for now, more music is in the works of course whenever I get around to finishing it. It's taking me longer and longer to finish tracks these days it seems.

Looks really great for the price, and the sound samples on the site are really convincing. I can't wait to start playing with it, it's downloading as we speak. I'm really pumped to work with more expressive sounding instruments through the use of natural sounding swells, legatos, etc. I'm particularly interesting in the close mic'ed intimate solo instruments.

Anyone else use this? Specifically the newest version based on their new ARIA engine? Thoughts? I'm kind of skeptical about this library at only 2 gb, but it seems to have a lot of praise so I thought i'd give it a go.

I've got a new song out, it's purely orchestral and it's got a heavy military vibe to it. It was composed as a tribute to this coming Nov 11th and all it signifies.

See it here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /287054

Also got a bunch of other new stuff in the works, including a very heavy rock song that's sort of eastern inspired, and also a more calm, groovy floydish rock song. Whether I actually finish them? Who knows :).

Thanks for looking!

You're drunk, asshole.

So after having purchased reaper as my new DAW I found out it comes with an interesting plugin known as Ninjam, which essentially allows people to play/jam together over the internet in almost real time but in perfect sync. The program is fantastic and you can get some really awesome stuff going in it if you happen to find some good players with you.
At any rate, one of the recent jams me and about 4 or 5 other guys had was pretty good sounding so I thought maybe i'd share it. I don't want to put it on the audio portal since it clocks in at almost 14 minutes of random/unrehearsed playing and the quality already isn't that good, so chopping a 20 meg file down to 8 is only going to make it worse, but you can find the piece on my web server here:

www.rottenbread.net/music/randomintern etjam.mp3

If you do listen to it, keep in mind it starts off pretty slow as it takes people some time to sync up and figure out what to play, etc. And yes, about half way through the song starts to take on a very pink floyd sort of sound, likely due to the bass line which is almost exactly the same as that from Another Brick in the wall (pt 2), but that's the nature and beauty of random unrehearsed playing, the fluidity and way the music will dynamically change over a given amount of time.

Anyone who hasn't heard of Ninjam should check it out, it's fun and it can help inspire you to do new stuff and try different styles in your playing :).

Well, i've finally given up on FL Studio. It's a great sequencer but it's limitations have finally annoyed me to the point that i've moved on to a different DAW. While browsing for a new DAW that would suit my needs I stumbled upon Reaper. It's a cheap as hell DAW for personal use ($60) and it's by far one of the most capable programs i've ever used. It's powerful and lightweight. It will easily give just about any DAW a run for it's money (Cubase, Pro Tools, etc.). The way it routes tracks is fantastic, the sound engine sounds great (noticeably better to my ears compared to FL Studio). The only area it's weak compared to FL is in terms of MIDI editing, but then FL has always been king in that realm so it's no surprise. I was so impressed with the programs free trial I purchased a license for it a few days after trying it and haven't been happier. Anyone in the market for a new DAW id suggest reaper in a heartbeat.

Also, i've got a new song up, made for the Dead Of Night HL2 mod which is now back in production. It's a very heavy, dark and slightly repetitive track that will be used for the games menu music.

Check it out here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /261736

Well, I finally went and got my self a new audio interface. I was getting sick and tired of that Line 6 piece of shit I was using. Tone ports are good for guitar, but absolutely useless for anything else. You've been warned folks!

So, I managed to snag a nice Presonus Firepod (FP10) on ebay for dirt cheap, the preamps sound fantastic, and I can finally use my mics without having to spend an hour fiddling with gain and levels just to get a reasonable signal to noise ratio due to the noisy ass preamps on the line6 unit. My MPA gold tube mic pre also sounds great running into the FP10 now, I even picked up some nice mullard tubes for it to replace the cheap chinese ones it came with, haven't really given them a strong testing out yet to see how much they've affected the sound, but they don't sound any worse from my initial tests, so that's good :). At high gain they do seem to have more warmth.

Maybe now i'll finally do some songs with vocals, hmm?

The only thing my little home studio is missing now is a nice hardware compressor and a nice hardware delay/reverb unit. Compressor is not so much a big deal, but a hardware delay/reverb unit would be great. I love reverb and delay effects but they really eat up processor cycles. A dedicated hardware unit would really free up some processing power for other stuff!

My newest song entitled Ascension is now out for your listening pleasure. It's another heavy orchestral/rock progressive hybrid in similar vain to Turning Of the Tide, which has proved to be one of my most popular songs to date.

See it here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /239920

I'm noticing lately that it's become a real chore for me to actually finish songs. I have so many ideas, and I record them.. put them down, maybe finish a song half way, then I get a new idea and lose interest in my original song. It's actually kind of frustrating because i've got like 40 unfinished tracks sitting on my hard drive that with a little work could all be decent enough songs. Anyone else have this problem when writing music? It makes me want to kick my own ass. ;)