i play, but im not making any promises on my skill level. It would be safer to say i beat on stuff and see what sound comes out. That said, A Judas Priest is pretty simple on drums and a snoozefest on bass (at least after sad wings of destiny) and Maiden is easy to fake for the most part, but some of the fills, unison parts, and more complicated patters would take time.

my playing ability on bass is decent, but my music theory is poop, so that may be a problem. but as for jamming, that doesn't matter all that much, although it does help a lot. got a good feel for Maiden, just a matter of building speed.

of course, not everyone is a metal head, and i do listen to almost everything else. Steppenwolf, The Who, Anthrax, Nightwish, Iron Butterfly, Symphony X (one of my favs, well they all are, but this ones a little higher), Yes, Genesis, Victor Wooten...The list goes on. These aren't necessarily my favorites, just the ones that popped into my head.

but i'm always down with a jam session. it would be a different experience to play with a percussionist as i don't know any. and i'm always looking for new people to play with. i feel like i've stopped really growing as a musician, so i need to get out there and play.

 

I'm a bit out of touch with anything deemed an instrument, I can however, still mix so when you guys get to the point that you need an engineer, let me know !

Mike

 

Ah ha! Something I can get in on with confidence. Let me know if you need another bass player.
John

 

Here's my favorite guitarist in the world though I like his stuff more before 1990.

Michael Schenker along with Paul Raymond

 

Here's my most favorite guitarist in the world though I like his stuff more before 1990.

Michael Schenker



and for you drummers, that's Cozy Powell back there on the kit ! Cozy (RIP) was awesome, when I drummed, he was my main influence, never over fancy, just good solid rockin'

and here's Michael with UFO, that is Pete Way on bass, he was/is one of the main influences for Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris.





One of world's best but yet still somewhat "unknown" at least in a popularity vote......

Mike

 

How is it that you know how to mix? I almost went to school for Recording Arts...

 

I went through Omega Recording Studios (Rockville) engineering program, interned and then was hired on.

I totally enjoyed doing the work but its really tough for pay and hours. Go in at 10:00am and get off at 3:00am. Not to mention the high stress of making artist happy (good coffee) you literally run around the studio grabbing gear.

If you're young and really want to go this route, I really liked Omega, great program, great engineers, and great owner.

Mike

 

I used to be BIG into anime, i still like the good stuff but i used to think almost all of it was the coolest thing ever. anyway, there was a series called Black Heaven (never got around to watching it) that was on a failed metal band. apparently their music could power this ultimate weapon that could win the war against some aliens or something. typical japanese plot a la Macross/Robotech. but whatever, its about METAL, so it has to be good, right? apparently the main character idolizes michael schenker and plays a flying v similar to his. also, it seems that all the episodes names are songs titles, and the second to last episode is called to Into the Arena. the first episode is Stairway to Heaven. thought it was interesting, i remembered it when you mentioned michael schenker. i actually will probably pick this up now, i mean, really, whats cooler than the world being saved by metal? not much.

anyway, here's the link to the wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Heaven

 

Another guitarists here...but with heavy leanings toward more complex tunes and classical inspiration. I know, it's pretty wide open. I play because I love it, but my greatest accomplishment has probably been turning my kids on to the whole thing as they (now in their 20s) write and perform and generally have much younger fingers than I. I do occasionally transition to a baritone uke (pressing a totally rebuilt sax case into service) for easy transport in the MINI!!!

 

Im not sure who my favorite guitarist is, but here is the guitarist fom my favorite band. John Petrucci from Dream Theater.

Old School:


New School:


I was hoping to find a picture of him with the 7 string, but i really didnt wanna go through a bunch of pictures, so i'll just tell you that he's awesome.

 

by complex tunes, what exactly do you mean? just name a few bands/composers/whatevers if you dont mind.

 

I've been in a few recording studios too, but on the other side of the microphones
Sure wish we had somebody taking care of us like you, Mike, but I guess we weren't high enough up on the musical food chain to command that kind of service. As I recall, I was the one who brought coffee and doughnuts to the recording techs

One of my professors at IU (the first college I flunked out of) had a 16 track studio (probably state of the art back in the day) in his basement, and I spent some time down there helping and learning. Truly a great experience since I was doing it for extra credit. I was amazed recently at how the tools have changed... laid down a couple of tracks with a brass quintet at a studio in Easton last year. Totally digital, simple, and computer based. So much easier to edit than tape And much easier to fix small mistakes

 

Ah, so we're posting pics??

Favorite guitarist....Tommy Emmanuel (not a stretch really, is it?)


Another favorite...best mandolinist ever...Chris Thile of Nickel Creek!!

 

What's the challenge in that ? Give me a 2" multi-track anyday ! I love tape hiss !

Gotta run, I post a little more later

 

Not familiar with this but Michael Schenker Group, Scorpions (Rudy Schenker) and UFO have all been very popular in Japan. Both MSG and Scorps released live albums from Japan, Live at Budakon and Tokyo Tapes.

In the list I see "All night long" by Rainbow, sung by Graham Bonnet, he also did the favorite "Since you've been gone" with them. Sang for MSG on the "Assault Attack" album. Bonnet's vocals are quite amazing, I would have loved to have been at the desk laying down his tracks ! The power and emotion is just....Wow ! Love the song "Dancer" totally rocks in Wensleydale !

Here's Graham with my favorite drummer, Cozy, he was killed in a car crash in England, a very sad day.




Also in the list of song is "Space Child" that's UFO,1974, from Phenomenon with music also written by Schenker. Here's Phil Mogg from UFO



I've had the pleasure of meeting Michael and the guys in UFO, all great chaps !

As for Dream theater, yeah, I'm a fan, I liked the first album, they're very very very tight, very technical, sometimes, IMO, a bit too much ? But still good stuff !

I like a little bit of flaw, keeps things in perspective that these guys are human. Sometimes it's so easy to get carried away with "punching in" to fix this or that. Perfectly flawed I suppose.

Back in the old days of recording, bands and producers were quite creative, Led Zeppelin for instance, recorded in a house using different rooms for different sounds. Another example is the Beatles, in the song "Come together" the ratchet sound you hear right before the "Shoot" vocal (I think its Lennon) is actually......the telephone being dialed ! Alan Parsons (Pink Floyd engineer and also "Alan Parsons Project") was assistant engineer on that one.

In the 70's and 80's many studios went overboard to kill natural sounding rooms. They wanted it flat so that what you heard is what you got, but the music suffered (IMO) it started to sound overdone, nothing but effects, equalization and artificial reverb in an effort to make things sound "good" and "big".

The fact is rooms can enhance sounds that we cannot electronically recreate, for instance, I had the opportunity to tour Abbey Road Studios in 2000, most of the Beatles album by the same name was recorded there in studio 2 (If memory serves me right)



I swear in the song "come together" I can hear that room's "sound" in the drum track just having walked in there. Real cool studio, even has a pub inside ! You'd never know it looking at the front of the place !

Enough of my ramblings ! Too much caffeine !

Cheers to all !,

Mike

 

Oh very cool! I was increadibly close to changing my career to pursue recording arts but I was going to focus on sound for film. At Full Sail, where I actually enrolled briefly, it is the same program for sound for film and music. Would love to talk more about it sometime

 

I'm a sound for film junkie too, I really like connecting images to music. So far I'm only a closet amatuer. If I one day come into a fortune, I intend to go to film school. Right now, I love my career so no need to make changes.

Did you see this in my thread, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvr9iXlUgCw

Its my first self taught "Movie Maker" project for work, done on a zero budget. It needs some spelling corrections and the some of the footage is rough, but the idea is there. Most folks I've shown seem to like it....or maybe they're just being nice !

Cheers,

Mike

 

I'll throw Brian May in to the 'my favorite guitarist' part of the thread. I used to play some and my favorite old guitar was my 12 string semi acoustic. Later I used to have fun with a Martin backpacker, nice and small to take when I was sailing. Arthritis hit my fingers at 30 and that was the end of that I'm afraid. (Playing guitar, I still sail)

 

Didn't know that. I like Rainbow a lot, but I dont really know anything about the members or who was in Rainbow at what time. I do know that I like them a lot.

"Since you been gone, since you been gone, I'm outta my head can't take it."

Great song, and now it's stuck in your head all day.

And I can't believe i forgot about Brian May. Nice addition.

Just wait till we get to favorite bass players. Then this thread will be mine. hoohoohahaha!! <---meniacal laugh

 

Another great guitarist you may not have heard of. Paul Gilbert. He played with Mr. Big (Haven't really heard them) and Racer X (Short lived 80s metal band but ridiculously talented). Now he is solo. Saw him with the 2007 G3 tour along with Steve Vai and John Petrucci. At first I didnt want to admit it, but I thought Paul's performance was the best of the night. Even though John Petrucci played with the drummer of Dream Theater (my favorite drummer) and Dave LaRue (Dixie Dregs, among other things) was on bass. Paul was just amazing. Part of this could have been the fact that i know dream theater so well that i already know what John's solos will sound like, in general, and how fast he can play, so it wasn't anything terribly new. I had never heard Paul before so it was completely new. Anyway, here are some pics, he's kinda strange lookin.





Found this one on accident but thought it was cool.


and heres a link to the G3 07 tour that i saw. it was on the page with two of these pictures and i said what the hell, ill post that too.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=G3+%2707

enjoy

 

Dream Theater is one of my favorites as well.

Saw Petrucci with Vai and Satriani on the G3 back in 2001 (I think).

DT is gonna be in town on the 26th of May at DAR Constitution Hall if anyone is interested.

I am a big Beatles fan, I've had Hey Bulldog stuck in my head for the past few days...although A Day In The Life is my all time favorite Beatles track.

 

sweet, who knew? its hard to find people who like dream theater, but apparently a few are hiding in this club. i'm a huge beatles fan too, oddly enough, so is Mike Portnoy.

i really wish i could have seen vai too. would rather have seen him than satriani, not to talk down satriani, i just think vai is better.

also, about that concert. ill be there. im sooo effing excited. i had a friend online ordering the tickets exactly at 10 am when they went on sale. saw them last year in baltimore for the first time. awesome. of course i have all their dvds and have seen countless live videos on you tube, but i finally got to see them live, after missing like 3 tours.

I also cant wait to see Opeth, theyll be there too in case you didnt know, along with 3 and Between the Buried and Me. Opeth is also way up there on my list of favorites. gonna be a great show. maybe ill see you there? of course i wouldnt know what you look like.

on a side note, im going to see symphony x on may 3 (or thereabouts) at Jaxx in Springfield. dunno if anyone likes them.

also just found out theres an Average White Band concert tomorrow and saturday night at 7:30 pm both nights. kinda wanna go but probably wont make it. Just puttin out there in case anyone is a fan. its at the birchmere in alexandria. apparently they are playing at merriweather post pavillion on june 8th as well.

looks like an awesome concert season.

 

Oh yeah, definitely looking forward to seeing Opeth at that concert as well.

I don't go to too many concerts, but there are some that you just have to go to.

Also, I've got my fingers crossed for a north american Led Zeppelin show.

 

Sorry I wish I could post a more in depth response to all the above comments but I'm exhausted, I like all of those guys, Satriani has always been a favorite, Vai I've never really listened to at length, but what a showman ! I can appreciate ! Brian May....oh yeah ! He and his dad made his guitar, pick-ups too ! what a unique sound !

Rainbow has had some great members, my fav is Bonnet, Blackmore, Glover, Airey and Powell, hard to beat !

Being a drummer, Cozy is...well just can't say enough, so solid !

Cheers and good night !

Mike

Mark- My wife has one of those backpackers around here somewhere. She has a black and white Gibson flying V autographed by Michael Schenker too !

 

And last year Brian went back and finished his doctorate in astrophysics.