ye i feel similar. i started out with rock bands and metal (first band love was guano apes back then), rode the new metal wave with system of a down and other bands. i still dig limp bizkit's old sound also, man!
but then i discovered psychedelic trance and figured out that that is what i always wanted from heavy guitar music, quite to my surprise. was never into electronic music before.
i make psychedelic trance these days (when i have power for the laptop), but i will always remain a guitarist at heart.
ye i use the focusrite with a laptop, got a not so power hungry one that uses the cigarette lighter thingie, sort of. but man. for recording dry guitar while hearing it wih finest distortion when tracking, that is just the best. i am referring to electric guitar. acoustic recording is fine just listening to direct monitoring.
i have browsed a lot of music also, finding a lot of diamonds everywhere. i feel this will all add up to a more interesting style of psytrance eventually. i just dig the promise of it but it has not yet matured enough, most artists playing it safe and sounding the same which is a shame.
sorry but i got to share, this is one of my all time favorite tracks in psy. it shows what is possible. the whole album is incredible.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NaamLPp_OOM
as for a more metally feel, i have met people on nighttime dancefloors on full heavy metal outfits having the party of their life to some hightech (one of psytrance's night styles). the gruff looking dude was sooooo happy, had the biggest smile and yelled to me: "this is so much harder than metal!!". it was quite funny ;)
here is a legend from that scene, i can definitely hear the roughness and metal in it ahhaha. and the heart. hiteh trance.
needless to say both are best enjoyed on headphones or decent speakers but you know that. maybe it is a novel experience and can add something to your musical inventory.
will definitely check out converge. thanks!
I've never actually listened to Guano Apes, but I have heard of them.
I didn't get to appreciate Limp Bizkit until after they had faded, but I get it now.
I've loved System Of A Down since they popped off on MTV, and then discovering their first album really blew my mind. They really don't even fit into a mold. They sort of lost me after Steal This Album, but I love everything prior.
I often like stuff that isn't "mainstream" I guess you could say, and the albums that a band puts out before they're really making money are often the best to me.
The way music gets recorded greatly affects how it sounds, and with metal I think it's particularly hard to capture the sound right. A lot of times it loses it's "edge" when it gets recorded. Converge's guitarist Kurt Ballou runs God City Studios, and he's a very sought-after engineer particularly for heavy/aggressive music.
I checked out both of those songs you sent. It's not bad, but it's definitely dance music.
I've never been one to dance. I understand why people love dancing, and I love watching them dance. In a live event where there is dancing and motion it's actually a part of what makes it amazing. The people dancing are having an even more visceral experience than those who are watching. I know I'm missing out, but it's just not something that comes natural to me.
I've done the circle pits and moshing, but nothing that requires sequence/coordination. I've been to raves and seen live psych/trance stuff as well. There's a big annual rave in Baltimore called Starscape that probably won't happen this year because of the whole incident at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Fort Armistead is where the rave happens, and it overlooks the bridge. They have it all blocked off it's crawling with cops and feds.
Are you in the USA? Not tryna pry or anything, but I'm curious.
I'm from Maryland on the East-Coast.
As for electronic music I like a lot of it. I'm a big fan of The Chemical Brothers. Lots of European stuff too like KMFDM, Assemblage 23, VNV Nation. That's sort of industrial though. I really like non-dance stuff too like Aphex-Twin, Cex(he's from Maryland), Kid-606, Venetian Snares, Boards Of Canada. Duran Duran Duran. I love a lot of break-beat,breakcore, IDM etc.
I have a music collection of mp3's that I started over 20 years ago. It's approaching 30k songs, and usually I have entire albums/EPs.
People used to listen to entire records, and the album itself was a piece of work.
Today everyone has playlists and there's more of a song by song thing.
By having the music myself it lets me listen to a band's entire discography album by album. I rarely use Spotify or anything like that.
Most of the music I make these days is electronic. All of the music in my videos is my music.
It's not particularly music that you can dance to though, and I think of it more in terms of a film score or something that adds a vibe to something else. Most of it is unfinished like I might be able to figure out an intro to a song, and maybe months later I'll figure out the next section of it.
I still write stuff on guitar, but I don't record it that often.
When I write music I'm not really thinking of intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro.
It's more like an atmosphere, a texture or feeling. I'm usually not trying to add lyrics at any point.
Do you use a particular DAW? Like FL-Studo or Logic?
i have switched to bitwig when it came out years ago and never looking back.
started on cubase, tried studio one and ableton but bitwig takes the cake. modulate everything.
no i am actually in albania hunting a future home. i was in the us for a year though.
ye i feel similar, when a band gets too big their sounds start feeling stale. the hypnotize mezmerize era of soad was when i stopped caring.
will check out some of those names.idm in europe tends to be faster, more trancy than dubsteppy.
hopefully i can make some music in the next weeks. there is a housesitting gig coming up.
blessings dude
I love Bitwig.
I have several videos about making music on Linux, and Bitwig was one of the DAWs I demoed, but only the trial version.
I've considered buying the license, but I'm pretty comfortable using LMMS which is free and tries to be like FL-Studio.
I wish you the best in finding a home dude.
It's expensive most places now.
How is Albania for you?
Do you travel a lot? I've never been to Europe, but maybe one day. I've always wanted to visit Spain or Italy, but the costs.
House sitting sounds like an interesting gig.
If you do publish some music I'd love to hear it.
Blessing to you as well.