shadycicada

This Week's Song [Free Early Download]

We're getting festive this week! I hope you enjoy! I couldn't come up with much of a name this time, so uh...enjoy this one lol!

Scrapped demo of a video game rock cover [Special Download]

I actually don't know if I showed this one to you guys. Always teased it here and there. This song was the biggest request on my channel once upon a time. I gave it my all, but in the end, I couldn't really find a way to make it stand out from the original. If I do this, I have to do it right. Bring it into my own style. I figured I would show you guys the progress I made on it anyway, so here's a demo! This cover was meant to have violins and brass all throughout (especially in the second half)...

My plans for this week's video (and a hint at next week's video)

It probably wouldn't be right if we didn't do SOMETHING Christmas related this year, so we're doing one more How-To before 2017 is over. How To: Make a Christmas Metal song! This one might be a little more comedic than usual, mainly because I honestly don't know how legitimate it is genre-wise. I will put my best efforts in! Expect an early download soon. 

While it IS my last How-To this year, it won't be my last video. If all works out, you can expect a special video the week after. It w...

This Week's Song [REMASTER] [Free Download]

Here it is! I hope you dudes enjoy! 

This Week's Song [Free Early Download] [DEMO]

The only reason this is a demo version is because it's going to be professionally mixed and mastered by SixteenInMono! I went for the "Final Boss Level/Lair" idea, because it was the most fleshed out in my mind. I hope you guys enjoy! As soon as the new mix is done, I will put it here for download. 

Plans for this week (Announcement)

This week is a bit of a confusing one. Mainly because I have many options to consider. Musician's block from weekly originals is slowly returning (no worries, it tends to end pretty quick). So here is a list of potential videos with what I currently have.

How To: Make a Final Level/Boss Lair

How To: Make a Comedic Character Theme

How To: Make a Boss Theme

"Simon Says" Metal (Might save this for another time though. I'll explain it in the future)

A professionally remaste...

How To: Make a Heist Theme

This one was actually suggested by a few people in the comments. I never even thought of making something like this, but I'm happy I did. Because of you guys, I'm able to broaden my horizons a little more each month. And for that, I'm thankful. I hope you enjoyed!

This Week's Song [Free Early Download]

Here it is! One of my favorite songs I've ever written. No guitar at all. Getting this one eventually remastered will be a treat. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! Some of you might remember this song from almost 1-2 years ago.

Not sure what to title this one. I'm thinking "How To: Make a Pretty Area Theme". If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Plans for this week!

Right! So things and work have been a little busy again, but the recent How-To's might be able to put me ahead of schedule. Turns out I'm currently in full inspiration mode. I'm planning to finish a few songs so I can attempt to be a few weeks ahead of time. And at least that way, you can get some earlier sneak peeks! There are currently two ideas I'm shuffling between for this week.

How To: Make a Space/Pretty Area Theme. I might remove the "space" part. The song...

This Week's Original [Remastered]

Mixed and Mastered by SixteenInMono! Let me know if you guys dig it. If you have any issues, hit me up and I can see if he can make any changes. Personally loving this one. The end/main melody in this song is definitely a favorite.

How To: Make a Fire & Ice Theme

This one was a TON of fun. I think I say that for most of these videos, but I love playing leitmotifs in different atmospheres. Plus any song that makes me feel nostalgia for other games (Mario Galaxy in this case) always equals a good experience. I'm definitely putting this one on the "re-mix and remaster" list in the future. 

2 free early downloads this week! Get em' while they're moderately warm.

Some context for each:

The Xenoblade one is part of the collab I did with another musician (surprise, it's Gabocarina96! Amazingly talented guy and a fun person to work with). I did the rhythm guitars and lead guitar harmonies while he did bass, keyboard, drums, and the other half of lead guitar harmonies (basically everything). You can grab a download right here and then check out the video on his channel this saturday! 

2017-11-30 11:40:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Plans for this week!

Hey guys! I got a busy week ahead of me! A collaboration and a new original. The original is still being decided, but I have some ideas for a "Heist/Thief" theme. If you're having trouble picturing what that might sound like, think "Sly Cooper", "Metal Gear Solid", and to an extent.."Persona 5". If I end up doing another style of song, I will update you guys ASAP. I might also get mono to mix and master this one if all goes well.

As for the collaboration, it might please some of you who miss t...

How To: Make an Underwater Theme

This song came out way better than expected. I spent 4 hours trying to get the mix right. The main issue was a cello I had that was flooding up the whole mix. Replaced it with subtle bass guitar and it ended up being pretty alright. I hope you all enjoyed! 

This Week's Original [Free Early Download] [ROUGH VERSION]

As you might have known in the past, mixing and mastering has always been a bit of a challenge. Mixing an orchestra is even harder. Still trying to get this one as right as possible, but here's a rough-ish version to tide you over for now! 

This Week's Video [Announcement] A pretty interesting one

So I had a few things planned and any one of them were possible. A desert theme, a southern metal song, a sci-fi/space theme, a lava "bowser-like" world theme, etc. But someone posted a pretty cool suggestion in the comments of the last video and I thought it would be a pretty fun challenge. They requested an "Ice/Fire World" theme. Basically, a world that has both ice and lava areas and shares the same melody, but the atmosphere changes drastically to accompany each area. I already have an outl...

How To: Make a JRPG Battle Theme

This video is probably one of my all-time favorites. I has an extreme amount of fun putting this together. And to top it off, I was able to pay someone to mix and master the song! It's probably one of the first times a song of mine came out the way I pictured it in my head. If we continue to get more patrons, I'll definitely be able to pay him every time and bump up the quality! I hope you guys enjoyed this one! 

This Week's Original [Free Early Download]

This one took longer than expected. Had a bit of a mishap and lost a bunch of progress. Still re-editing the video so it can go up in a few hours lol! Saturday will be sleep day. I hope you guys enjoy the song, nonetheless! To those who didn't see the last update, this song is more of a chill "underwater" style. 

Plans for this week

The last 2 videos have been doing extremely well (especially the final boss video). Well enough to boost my channel from 30-50 subs a day to anywhere between 200-700. While I don't expect this spike to last (it would be amazing if it did), it's still been a fantastic experience knowing I could achieve such a thing. It's all thanks to you guys. 

With that being said, originals with a video game style have always been one of my main styles, but I never got to show it off much until these tw...

Tabs for "Here I Come!" and "Before The World Dies" are now available!

Get em' while they're hot! 

NOTE: ".gp5" and ".gpx" files are made for Guitar Pro 5 & 6 respectively, but a free program called "TuxGuitar" can run them both, albeit in less quality. It is still the recommended way to look at these tabs. 

I came to notice that sometimes the notes don't move over to PDF well (some numbers for fast parts can be squished together), so I also started exporting in PNG. Just zoom in on the image, and you'll have the full tab. I hope you enjoy!&nb...

This Week's Song [Free Download]

I got someone else to mix and master this one. It feels amazing to hear a song the same way I pictured it for once. Especially a song that's closer to my style than most other How-To songs. So damn happy about this one. I hope you all enjoy!

NOTE: Tabs for this song and last week's one will be coming sometime over the weekend! Stay tuned.

Plans for this week (which video do you want more?) + A thank you message

I was not expecting the last video to do so well, but I'm seriously happy it did. I was very happy about that song. I hope you guys enjoyed it too! To those that did, I had 2 ideas for this week, but I'm not sure which would be appealing, so I thought I'd ask here. Which sounds better:  "How To: Make a JRPG Battle Theme" or "JRPG Soundtracks in a Nutshell". The second one consists of 20 second segments of originals + funny-ish skits. Basically made to showcase the different styles in a jrpg...

This Week's Song [Free Early Download]

BAM. Time to go to bed. Need to wake up and finish this video!

Change of plans this week (download coming in a few minutes!)

So my original idea was to release a "JRPG Soundtracks in a nutshell" video, but I ended up getting some great ideas for it to make the video a lot more enjoyable for both myself and you guys. Because of that, it will take some more time before it can be released. However, one of the songs in the video evolved into it's own thing (Super Mario Odyssey broke my long musician's block and I've been writing stuff that I've been incredibly happy with). A good mix of rock, orchestra, and other weird st...

Plans for this week (I need your opinions on a title again if possible!)

So this week I have another new thing/series I want to start. It's not incredibly original, but it has potential to be a lot of fun, and obviously I would be giving it my all from a composition standpoint. The idea kind of plays off of my "How-To series" but in a more short/segmented form. For example...this week, I want to try a video showcasing 20 second music tropes in JRPG games. Each segment would have a title like "boss theme", "when your town gets attacked", "when that one person dies", e...

HALLOWEEN METAL

This is probably one of my favorite songs I've ever made. That includes the song at the end as well. Having more than a week to work on originals like these is definitely the way to go. I hope you all enjoyed! 

Secret Bonus Song [Free Download]

Now this is a new favorite. Getting to write stuff in my own styles again has been quite an uplifting experience. I hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed making it!

This Week's Song [Backing Track]

This Week's Song [Free Early Download]

I hope you enjoy! I'm not the best at mixing and mastering, and having a whole orchestra over the song makes it 10x harder, but I hope you enjoy the result so far! This song will eventually be taken to a studio to get professionally mixed. 

Plans for this week (Free early download coming in a few minutes)

This week is pretty exciting. I'm doing "HALLOWEEN METAL". The "Halloween" style is one of my main writing styles, next to rock/metal/swing/etc, so I'm much happier with this composition than the other things you might hear on my channel. I usually write those in a week or less, but this one definitely took some more time. I'm planning to throw it into my Solo Album, whenever that happens (Not the How-To album). The solo album will be an album done in my personal music style, but it won't happen...