m_macdonald

http://www.lpassociation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38583 :head:

I actually kind of figured you were used to the praise, which is why I tried to stop myself from rambling on too much about how great I think your remixes are, haha.

But geez, thanks for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it! Your remixes are definitely unique, both in comparison to other remixes as well as compared to one other, and that in of itself is something to be proud of and definitely says something about your integrity as a musician. You're a prime example of quality over quantity.

And oh man, THANK YOU for the download link. I'm ecstatic.
(I seriously do love that song, the only gripe I have being the fact that I'd have preferred it to take off near the end. A full-on orchestral climax would have been amazing.)

But anyway, I'm looking forward to any future remixes you create, and if you ever happen to take requests, there are a few choice Linkin Park songs that I would love to hear orchestral-ized by you. ;)

(Also, I'm curious: What would you say your top 10 Linkin Park songs are?)

(I hope the following doesn't come off as over-the-top rambling, or anything, but if it does, then I apologize.)

I, just wanted to let you know that I'm a pretty big fan of your remixes. I was introduced to them by way of your Castle of Class remix - which was great - and have listened to almost all of your other remixes several times (Some more times than I'd care to admit...) since.

Really, the reason that I appreciate and enjoy them so much is because they're different, and it's obvious that you put a lot of work into each of them. My favorite has got to be your With You/Wretches and Kings/When They Come For Me remix. The note changes in the When They Come For Me chanting...Seriously dude, I was overwhelmed the first time I listened to that remix.

I also love your Free remix. I actually hadn't heard of Twin Atlantic prior to listening to the remix, but I looked them up right afterward because I liked your mix of the song so much. I actually listened to the original version of the song and wasn't that in love with it (Wasn't very exciting or powerful). I absolutely adore your remix of it, though (I have something of a soft spot for all things orchestral.), and it's one of the few songs that I dislike the original version of but love one of its remixes. Your remix of it just adds so much more power to the song, something that I feel was lacking in the original.

Your Burn It Down remix is also pretty great, and it's definitely one of the most drastically different remixes (In comparison to the original) that I've ever heard. There's just so many different things going on throughout the song (Like in your CoG remix), and I love that fact.

I've also been enjoying your Papercut instrumental remix more and more as of late.

But yeah, I just wanted you to know that I really, really enjoy your work. I've actually downloaded most of the songs so that I can listen to them away from my laptop because I love them so much.

The only gripe I have has to do with your Free remix - namely the fact that it's not available for download. ;)
(Of course, I realize that it probably isn't available due to copyright or other legal reasons, but I'm still a bit bummed by the fact regardless.)

(Also hey, are you working on a new remix at the moment? If you'd rather not say, that's fine. I'm simply curious, is all.)

Hey man! You know I was working on a Living Things Remix Album, right? Well, I finished mastering it (still not satisfied with some of the mastering but yeah, you can work forever on mastering) and I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to it and give me some feedback.

The album is kinda a narrative, started off as a story about a soldier on the battlefield but slowly it became some kind of collection of possible soldier stories. One song in particular is f.e. about why someone would join the army while another one is about losing control of yourself and the things that inspired one to join the army in the first place.

Anyways, it's up for download as well. Here you go: http://soundcloud.com/d3cay/sets/life/

Soo.. your inbox is kinda full :lol:

Hey man, kind of random question here but do you happen to know the band Woodkid? :p
I've been listening to some of their songs and I think you might like it as well. Here's two of their music videos 'glued' together (the second one is basically the follow-up of the first one). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT90rc2cfQU

Dem strings! :lol:

I'll probably enter this month too but I'm gonna experiment a lot this time around. I have an idea in my head but it'll be difficult to do. But I love challenges so yay! :D

I love playing guitar now but it is hard as hell. I'm still learning the very basics though so yeah, it's probably normal that it's tough now haha. About songwriting, I had this period when I started writing some stuff but it wasn't really song material (too short). And I think it's best to first make the music and then write words to the music. Music alone should already tell a story, the words just reinforce that imo.

Maschine is a big investment true but I really think it's worth it + I read on MS's blog that it's really cheap knowing what you get (there are a lot of samples already in it). That little MIDI Keyboard you showed there is really neat btw. I think I'm gonna buy one of those in the near future.

Sorry for the late response, just saw you answered on your own page haha :awesome:

Yeah, the way I learned to make music was first learning what a song's structure is (still learning that though). I had a program called Mixcraft which had a lot of loops. I used all those loops and messed around with them. That resulted in my first Youtube video with "own made music". It was pretty awful though but I learned a lot from it. Then, when I got that, I was kinda stuck. Mixcraft wasn't exactly something to make beats with and since I don't have anything to play melodies on PC, I was stuck.

Then I downloaded FL studio and yeah, started making beats. But honestly, I learned A LOT this month because I entered the mix contest here!

But I remember you said something a while back about how you were concentrating on songwriting first? Or words to that effect. Obviously gear always comes second to your ability to write good music, so as long as you have some cool ideas in your head, you'll do fine with whatever gear you've got.

Have you seen the new smaller version of Maschine? I like it's called Maschine Mikro? I think it's maybe a bit cheaper. Then you can learn stuff like this :P :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2aynMMBpo

Cool, you're learning guitar? I'm a guitarist myself, I've been playing a few years. I actually used it as my main study instrument when I studied Music at College. You'll enjoy guitar, it's a great instrument.

Yeh, I've got a pretty basic but useful MIDI keyboard with semi-weighted keys that I've had for a few years. It's an M-Audio Keystation. It was about £120 here in the UK, or about 200 US dollars. I've also got a Korg padKontrol. It's awesome - BUT I got it before Maschine even existed. If I was buying it now, I might reconsider and get Maschine instead - maybe. I also have this, which is cheap and quite handy for traveling and for just playing around with melodies: http://regmedia.co.uk/2010/06/30/korg_nanokey_1.jpg

Yeh, same here, I'm not a turntablist but if I had the money, I'd try and get into it, just for fun. I love old school hip hop too.

Obviously I can't speak from experience, because I've never used Maschine. BUT, everything I've seen about it online, everything I've heard about it, everything I've read about it seems to be really positive. It is expensive, so it's not a purchase to be taken lightly, but if you did ever decide to go for it, think of it as an investment. Afterall, why settle for second best when you can spend a bit of money and get a top-notch piece of kit that should (hopefully) be totally reliable? That's why sometimes I don't mind having to save a bit of money and buy something a bit more expensive, if I know it'll do everything I want and be really reliable and have a great, intuitive workflow.

Oh yeah, I love turntablism! I basically love everything that's old school hip hop. I'm not a turntablist though but if I had the oppurtunity (and the money lol), I'd try it out! Thanks for the link, it's very interesting. Watching the second part right now.

I'll either send you a link from Mediafire or my Youtube account. When I really like what I made, I upload it on Youtube. And it is true, when you can play something by hand, you can just jam and find out stuff. I've experienced this quite a lot when playing guitar. I just started learning to play guitar but I already found several melodies just by jamming. I've been thinking to buy the real Maschine hardware but it's still kinda expensive for me. If I could buy that, I would probably use that to make beats.

A MIDI Keyboard might be a good idea too. Do you have one? :)

No worries man, I tend to have the same problem from time to time :lol:

Well, I made 2 'songs' purely made out of samples of Joe Hahn's Gas Station Vinyl. One's on Youtube (click) and the other one isn't, basically because that one was just a try-out but I'll probably upload it on Youtube too. These 'songs' as you will notice are just over a minute long though so you can call them experiments if you will. I started doing these ones after we had the sample discussion, I thought this was the perfect way to actually learn how to sample.

About sending some beats to you, I have a mediafire account. If I have new stuff, I can always upload them there, send the link over to you so you can download and listen to it. However, I don't really have any new beats to share right now as I can't figure out how to put the beats made on Maschine from my iPod to my PC hehe :lol:

It's okay man! Thanks for the reply! :). If you want, I can give you some other work I did in the meantime. I've made 2 songs made out of samples from the Joe Hahn vinyl that was put online a couple of weeks ago. I also bought Maschine for my newly bought iPod Touch and made like 9 short beats on that too (still have to search for a way to put'em on my computer).

But anyways, thanks for the kind words already. You saying it kinda sounds like something Mike would do is already something I'm very honored to hear from you! :). Looking forward to your future critique. If you ever need someone to give new songs from you a listen, don't hesitate to PM/VM me

Hey there! I don't know if you remember me but I asked you about sampling the other day in the thread where Mike tells something about sampling. Now, I used your advice and I started sampling stuff myself and made this beat with those samples: http://www.mediafire.com/?crwic12yzntywcb

Would you mind checking it out and give some critique? :)

Some things like the hi-hats that start at 0:29 I added pretty randomly because I still don't have my own sampled hi-hats. Also the structure of the 'song' is just to have some progression and to show what's possible with the beat I made. The only part I actually want critique for is the part between 0:09 and 0:28.

Thanks beforehand! :)