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I've been having issues with bots signing up on the forum and posting a bunch of garbage despite my efforts to stop them. I have setup notifications to when a new user has signed up. If the account looks legit, then I'll keep it. If it looks like a bot, then I delete it. If this has happened to your account and you are wondering why, this is why it happened.
I'm sorry for all of the accounts that were real that have been deleted and that will potentially be deleted in the future.

If you would like to ensure that your account will remain intact and safe, when registering, sign into the account right away and put in some user information after you have activated it. To do this, follow these instructions:

Login to your account
Click the profile link
Under Modify Profile, click on Forum Profile Information
Enter in some information

The more information that you put in, the more real the account looks. If you've done all this and still the account has been deleted for some reason, in personal text put in that the account is real and to stop removing it.
You can also send me a personal message once you've done the above saying that your account is real and to not remove it.

I'm sorry to everyone for having to resort to these measures, but I have little options left. I've already employed all I can at the settings side of the board to minimize the bot registration, so I've landed on this method for now.

If I can find a way around having to do this in the future, I'll remove this post and all will be well. However, I don't see an end to this anytime soon, so even if security improves from the people that code the board, I may still have to manually remove the odd account.

Cheers

I've completed my remix for Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. It's up in the music section for downloading. It was completed as a joke for my friend Riley. He expressed his hatred for her when I was at his house one time and I decided that it'd be funny (for me anyway) to do a remix of one of her songs for him. So after putting probably way too much time into a joke, it is complete and online for all to listen to!

Enjoy ;p

I've got a few mastered mp3s up in the music section. Download, listen, share and enjoy!

I hope everyone had good, safe holidays.  If not off of work and doing something fun, then enjoying the extra pay from working! Things here have been quiet. I've been taking a lot of time off to recover from the move and accidents from the summer/early fall. I've been starting to write some new material however. I have 4 tracks in various stages. I don't know if they all will be finished or if some will be gutted and sampled for later use. We'll have to see how progress goes on them.
This year I have a few tasks set out for myself. I want to start to break into a different genre of music. I won't leave industrial behind but I want to do something new. I've located 3 potential vocalists for some trip hop. I just need to get a track finished and on CD for them to work on some lyrics/vocals and take it from there. I'd also like to start back on the RCM training I stopped last year when my arthritis got really bad. I'm thinking of maybe signing up for the summer test cycle. I still have my goal for writing a proper symphony in the next 4 years. I'd like to achieve that goal, along with the others I have set out for my self in music.
This year, maybe.....just maybe...... I'm hoping to play at least one show. It'll probably be around the end of summer to give myself lots of time to see how my health progresses and prep a set. It'll be 5 years in May that I played my last show. I'd like to not have it go any longer then that EVER again. I really do miss it. Even if I can't play drums anymore, I want to get out there and start playing/getting my music to people.

cheers

I'm going to post an update on what's been going on the last year:
In Aug 2008 I started doing an at home computer service job in Ottawa. It was a lot of fun. I was enjoying it a lot but it was really wearing me down. It made my knees so much worse. I was going up and down stairs, on my knees crawling on the floor, cabling and had to carry about 40-50lbs on my back. I had to haul all my gear around with me all the time. I struggled with this job for a number of months. In early 2009 my dr had recommended that I give up the job because it was hurting me too much and having a really big impact on my life in a not so good way. The pain got bad enough that it was hard to concentrate on things, I wasn't sleeping very much, I wasn't eating very much, anxiety and depression increased and overall I was miserable. In May I decided I was going to give it up and move out to the country. I got a job in digital wide format printing and doing computer repairs as well. Things were going ok. It took a bit to recover from the move but after about July, things were alright. In Aug I decided to go out zip lining with a friend and his family. This I should not have done. After it, I was back on my cane and the pain increased just as it had with the old job. Things started to spiral down. I went out in early Sept to take some pictures and this just increased the process further. My hands started bothering me and swelling up along with my knees.
I was able to get my dr to sign disability papers for me finally. She is going to be on maternity leave until May 2010, so in the time that she is gone, I'll be on disability.
I'm currently working 2 days a week until disability kicks in and then I'll drop those as well. I'm still doing computer repairs as they come in. Being in the country, there isn't that much work for computer repairs but it's enough to keep busy. I'm going to be prepping for starting to play live again in the summer/fall of 2010. I'm just STILL waiting for my disc to be finished mastering. I've almost given up hope in waiting for it. I've picked up some mastering books so that I don't have to wait in the future. I can just do it myself and send it to someone else for small touch ups.

The future is looking like this: I'll be out in the country for a bit. I'm going to be prepping for live shows again. When my disc is finished, I'll be sending it out and applying for music grants from the government. I'm going to try and keep going with the RCM training but until the pain levels go down a bit, I'll be putting it off.

That's the short version of everything. I'm still working on music, just not very much. As things get better and the pain gets more manageable, I'll be increasing.

Cheers

I was sitting around a couple weeks ago pretty down and thinking of something to pick myself back up. I decided that I want to start playing shows again, knee problems be damned! So, I spent some time thinking about how I’d make this happen. I decided that I would sequence the tracks live and have everything as flexible as possible. To do this, I needed to add more buttons and keys. With this in mind, I’ve added another keyboard and controller to the mix. I’ve picked up the Novation SL Mk II 61 key keyboard and the Novation Zero SL Mk II controller.
With these I should be able to put on a good set. I picked up a 3 tier stand for these and my Edirol PCR-800

A note on the Novation keyboard and controller, they are AWESOME! I love the action on the buttons, sliders and knobs much better then the Edirol PCR-800. They are even better then the MAudio axiom 61. The reason I went with the Edirol over the Maudio was that the overall construction felt more stable then the maudio. Even though I didn’t like the knobs as much. The novation feels very solid. I’m completely loving it! I’d highly recommend this keyboard and controller over anything else that’s on the market. I’ve tried a range of different keyboards and the Novation so far is my favorite. It cost a bit more then the other 2 I mentioned but it is well worth the extra money.

I’ve also picked up some books to help with the mastering process, which will save a pile of time in releasing tracks and in the future, discs. The books are –
Mastering Audio – the art and the science
The Audio Mastering Handbook
The Recording Engineer’s Handbook
Mixing Audio – complete practices and tools
Dance Music Manual

cheers

I've got a myspace page up - myspace/c1r
there is a CIR facebook group/page
All my random forum/message board user accounts has this site listed for contact info.
Since I'm getting my disc mastered for free, I don't want to push the guy that's doing it. I don't want to actively promo the site until the disc is done and I have the last version of the mp3's online. Until it's done, I don't plan on ramping up the advertising. When it is done, I'll go out and start to promo the site more and I'll have a good bunch of mp3's up here and on different sites for people to download. The difference is noticeable between the mastered tracks and the ones I have online that I don't want to put tracks up on different sites just to over ride them with the final versions. I'd rather people have only 1 version of the track - the mastered one unless they get them from this site directly. That way I can let people that certain tracks are demo's only or what the progress is on them.
I do put up stuff that is in various forms of completed, I usually put thees in the members section on the forum as like a members only bonus. I've also put up tracks just starting to get direct feedback from the public as I'm writing them. After the tracks are  done and are waiting to be mastered, I remove the forum topic as it's not needed anymore.

Also, welcome to the site!

Be sure to let people know however you can about this site.  Via myspace, word of mouth, whatever.  Hopefully we can get a small group of good people to visit this site and make it successful for all.

As winter comes to a close and a week of good weather left my knees feeling a bit better, I sat down to work on some music. It’s been so long since I’ve worked on music or even touched that computer, that I hadn’t even bothered to set it up since it was moved to a different location and I got a nice desk for it. I’m using the Ikea Jerker desk. The name of the desk is just as awesome as the desk itself. I highly recommend it to anyone that can find one. I noticed that they stopped selling them because I’d like to get a few more swiveling side shelves and the rolling thing that goes under it for something to put my feet on to keep my knees straight while I work. No dice on this one though. Anyway, getting back on track, after setting up the new location, updating the software on the computer I was back up in action. I ended up getting a nice shell to expand on. I have so many music ideas floating around in my head usually, that it doesn’t take much to get something started. The hard part is using my ideas and expanding on them to get a full track, or finding the right sound to use. After 5 hours I rendered what I had and stopped for the day. I put the mp3 on my other computer and listened to it a bunch of times to get ideas on how to expand on it and finish up the track. A week later I put into action my ideas on expanding the track and rendered it out again. Right now its structure is done, all complimenting sounds mixed in and some voice samples added. All that’s left is some fine detailing. Adding in some drum fills, cymbals, minor changes, maybe adding in some noise samples for more texture and maybe adding in some short synth hits or 1 bar lines to be placed randomly through out the track for further variation. Certainly don’t want the track to sound stale. After a few more hours the track should be complete. I will post it online when it’s done up in the forum members section. If you want to get a preview of it, you’ll need to register an account and login to the forum to get access to the members section, then the track itself when I post it. There is no downside to registering in the board. You do miss sneak previews of tracks and in the future, there will be other features I’ll have for members.

As I come up to my 25th birthday, I find myself wondering when I’ll play live again. That is, more then I usually think about it. If all goes well with the disc when it’s finished, I might start to gear up for something near the end of the summer and hit up the kids going back to school. As my knees feel better with increased medication, I think about trying to do some shows a lot more. I’ve put everything on hold, even posting tracks on facebook and myspace because I want my disc to be mastered, finished art and *fingers crossed* a deal with someone to put out the disc. I don’t want to have mush of anything on the go until the disc is finished (art and mastering) After this is done then I’ll probably plan a set even if I don’t play and post up a bunch of tracks. I’ve been notified that it’s mostly complete now, I just need to sit down and have a final listen to them and give them the OK for final rendering. Apparently it’s close now but finding time with the guy that’s doing it recently is becoming very hard.

Cheers

So the test back on dec 10 went very well. I won't have the marks until Jan 14th and the papers put online until the 27th but I have a good feeling about it. I think overall that it went very good, the usual mess ups that are improving but when tonicization or modulation with incomplete chords or just not ones that are normally used, I still have a hard time picking them out in the manuscript. Aside from that, the concepts and rules I have a good grasp on, so that helps in picking out the chords I'm not sure about. The next course will start sometime in Jan with the test in May. This course will be CounterPoint. I didn't buy a book for it because when I was first looking over the certs and figuring out what I wanted to do, I didn't think I wanted to take it. However with speaking to my current music teacher and my music mentor Mark, I've decided to take all the theory RCM courses. So, I have 3 more tests to go. CounterPoint, Harmony 5 and Analysis. After these are done, I'm going to speak with someone at a university and see if I can get into a program. I want to further study Orchestration and Symphony Composition but these aren't offered certs from RCM. If I can't get into University then I'll have to look for a private tutor that will be able to teach me these. What I really need is an orchestration mentor. Someone to teach me what I need to know about big and proper composition, then to review and help me with my work for a year or so after. This is proving hard to locate.

Happy Holidays even though its a bit late. I hope all enjoyed their time off. IF you don't celebrate then at least I hope you enjoyed the time off from work, or the extra pay from work with the 3 holiday payable days.

Album, ya ya ya ya, I know. Jairus is still mixing it. It's partly my fault for delaying it a bit by continuing to write tracks and push it back. However I haven't written anything since the spring for it, so there's been lots of time. I hear him working on it a lot lately but I'm not sure when it's going to be finished. He seems to be working on it between remixes.......I hope it's finished soon. Even though my knees hurt a lot and I haven't been able to write lately, I'd like to get started on a new disc.

I have some dr appointments coming up this month that will hopefully improve my current situation. Things with my knees is slipping when I get booked up and do a bunch of busy days. When I sit around and do nothing then I'm ok but as soon as I start working full time and am busy then things go quickly downhill. I need to get on something that is more stable and viable long term. I don't want to keep sitting around and doing nothing all the time. I want to start practicing for shows, doing exercise, going out to the club, working more ect... these things and more Im unable to do at the current time. I'm still coming home from work too sore to do much of anything. I can go days without eating very much and sleeping very good. I'm hoping for things to turn around and progress quicker then they have been. We'll see.