The Reboot

I haven't used this blog for a good amount of time now due to not having much to talk about, along with a big hiatus in music leaving no content to post.

However!

I've got a lot of exciting things going as of recently that would severely benefit from logging/documenting in a public environment, with input and criticism being great side perks to the entire picture. Through this blog I'll further organize my thoughts by, well, just using it! As for what the content will be? Three main sections:

• Certification training
• I'm currently pursuing a number of certs for my job-field using self-study as the method of learning. I'll be making blog posts every so often explaining whichever topic I happen to be on at the time, in order to help retain information(while teaching the random visitor something new!)
• Music
• The original purpose of this blog was to have a place to think out loud for anything music related, with updates on my music and current projects. I will continue to use the blog for this purpose, but there will be less "listen to this" and more "this is what planning to do"
• Game design/development
• I have two *somewhat* secret projects I'm currently messing with on my freetime, one being a fighting game and the other an RPG. You won't see much of either in the beginning, but as I get further along the process you'll see more content start to pop up

Along with any other random things I find significant to post, this is what you can expect out of the revived Casio Country. I'm slowly going through reworking the template to suit the new content I'll be posting, but for now enjoy the newly added poverty progress tracker and Soundcloud widget!

Luh luh luh luh maximum!

I haven't seriously listened to anything recent and mainstream in a really long time, until today after downloading the new Meek Mill mixtape. Meek is one of the local philly dudes that's been getting mainstream exposure lately, I mess with him so I had to get the tape and see what it was about. Before this the most recent album I had was Khalifa's Kush n OJ, before that was Hell on Earth by Mobb lol

Sitting down and hearing this mixtape really opened my mind up to the stuff I'm missing from my current productions. I mean the beats on this tape are super generic, even with 10 guys producing each beat manages to sound the same. That doesn't matter though because each one comes off super hot and clean, with that good sound you can't help but get hype over. I've got this insane feeling inside of me that just wants to go to work for a week straight and come up with some flame, to finally make the progress I've been trying to make for the longest now. I'm very much content with my own style and the sound I generally produce, but now I've got so many answers to the holes I've been trying to fill

This is what I needed

Money

Gonna have a large sum of money tomorrow, and when that happens I usually take care of a multitude of small neccesities at once. I've pretty much got my list of purchases which'll almost entirely clear the money pile, save for about 30%. Right now I'm mostly contemplating whether I should finally purchase the MM! OST, which I've wanted for a long time now

MM! itself was a pretty generic anime, standard harem anime with lackluster twist that ultimately had nothing to write home about. However the OST, which has at -least- 40 tracks, is filled with addicting pocket tunes composed by the same person who did DBZ SFX. I'm not sure why the soundtrack hasn't appeared on the internet, especially since literally every other piece of sound media related to MM! has lol

Anyways, the OST is something close to $50 and can only be purchased from an online import shop. Obviously wanting the OST for listening purposes, the main reason behind my want being that the sampling potential for a bulk of the songs is through the roof. I can't help but want the songs in high quality for me to mess with in any way I like, to create cut and spin in a new direction not originally intended. The only reason why I'm even giving the purchase second thoughts is the fact that I still don't have my setup 100% working yet. Getting the music would just be a bigger tease than not having it at all, knowing that I can't get to work on the samples. At the same time, I feel as though I can only go through with such a purchase when money is abundant. With paycycles that yield less income, I'm more inclined to holding onto whatever income I have(which means less impulse buying).

So I pretty much wrote an entire blog entry about being indecisive on a $50 purchase while on the train to work. I'd post samples of the OST but I'm not at a PC so it'll have to wait. I'll probably decide what I'll do as I check my to-buy list off during the week, seeing how much money I have left over

MM!

Currently listening to:

Funny that I've never played this game, but everything about it I like more than 95% of the other HM games

Current W.I.P.s

Pretty discouraged as of late when it comes to music, as my headset only plays from one ear and the built-in speakers on my ASUS is not even worth trying. In addition I can't bring myself to dedicate a large amount of time EQing a song, knowing that I'd have to redo it anyways when I finally get a proper pair of studio monitors. With these problems I've accumulated a pretty large backlog of unfinished tracks that have yet to see any work for the past couple of months, along with a huge amount of songs not yet started

I'm helping a few local friends on tracks for their mixtapes, figured I could post the previews to those until I 100% complete them

SM Winter Preview by The NTR Lifestyle

Sample Source: Here

This sampling style is my favorite and the one I'm most comfortable with. This one has a couple sections already made, but it needs better transition and an alternate section that differs from the ones I already have. I couldn't tell you what I heard in the original song to get this lol

Pokemon Preview by The NTR Lifestyle

Sample Source: Here

I started this one as a joke to show this guy who made the funniest song I've ever heard(lol), but I never actually met him(and he doesn't know I exist) since he didn't show up to the tournament he planned to attend, but the track ended up getting interest from a different person and they asked for a full version. I have a couple sections and some pretty good transition, but the EQing needs a lot of work that I'm not willing to put in right now

Battleraper Preview by The NTR Lifestyle

Sample Source: Battleraper Lava Stage

Please don't ask how or why I even did this, but the original song was actually pretty hot so I didn't have much trouble producing this. The actual song doesn't use much of the sample, the meat of the track composed of original sections. Like the others, EQing this track is whats stopping it from being complete

Original #1 Preview by The NTR Lifestyle

Original

Not much to say about this one, I've got a lot of really good sounding sections but I'm having trouble putting them together. When it comes to my originals its more of a hit or miss kind of thing when it comes to ease of composition, usually it'll take a good amount of time for me to feel out where I want the track to go

I'm stuck in the ugly place where I'm more than just motivated to work on music, especially with the new ideas I have for original non-hiphop tracks(more RPGish, ambient-sounding). I just can't see myself doing any serious work though with my current setup, since anything I make now will literally become obsolete as soon as I replace this headset. $400 for a pair of Rokits? I might be stuck with no work for a while