Well you missed several songs!

As you might notice: I really stopped blogging. Why? Well I released a ton of songs...

Nr. 11

 

Nr. 12

Nr. 13

Nr. 14

And I even launched my Off The Grid series (this is the 3rd song)

Announcing: latest video and new channel trailer

Well...there'll be a few changes (additions) to the channel:

And I released song no. 10

Working on the next releases so blogging will continue to be paused. If there's anybody out there wanting more blogs - let me know. Otherwise I'll focus on the videos...

DrScythe Thoughts - Part VI: How good feedback can be demoralizing

I already posted something about feedback and critique but I've got to add something: good feedback can be demoralizing. Don't get me wrong here: I absolutely LOVE the good feedback I receive. It was necessary to give me the confidence to launch Project 100. But I recently had to think about life and stuff again...

I soon will release my 10th song and it's a little more ambitious than the ones so far. Not in terms of the music but in terms of the lyrics and setting. But while working on this one I also was thinking about what I achieved so far..more than doubled my subs on YT, got the attention of a company (although that's mostly due to my reviews on a forum) and a relatively large number of "great song(s)!" "you're talented" "keep going!". While this is incredibly uplifting for the artist half of me, it's really frustrating for the rational part.

I am struggling to find a job at the moment so money is a big issue. I studied something very different from music because I always was (and still am) ridden by the idea that my songs and abitilies will never be good enough for people to like them. So I chose to do something more solid (IT management). Apparently companies are looking for people with my knowledge according to their advertisements but not me. So with every positive comment about my music I am now closer to cursing myself for wasting my time with this degree. And also cursing the whole internet for being so cluttered that it seems to be impossible to be noticed by more than one or two persons every time I try to promote my stuff.

It would be a completely different situation if I would've got a job (or a mysterious source of income..). I could just be happy about every single nice word and keep on working towards the 100 songs. But now I am always split between the two parts of my psyche which kills motivation for both things - the 'real world' problems are killing the creativity and the declined applications kill the motivation for applying again and again. It sometimes feels like everything is absolutely pointless. To have these feelings again (last time I was 16 or 17, now I am 28) is worrying me even further...

I have to admit that this blog was one of the first things I couldn't do anymore at the moment. So I figure that this will be one of the last posts for a while until things are back on track again...sorry for that...

so long

DrScythe

DrScythe - announcing PROJECT 100! 100 songs within 10 years (91 songs and 9 1/2 years left)

Project 100

Video version:

Right after I’ve released the 7^th and 8^th song I realized that two of those eight songs weren’t part of the initial ‘more than 30 songs’. That means I am close to forty songs in the catalogue and as a matter of fact there are still many more ideas and parts lying around. This revelation spawned an idea: to record one hundred songs. I am the first to admit that I had no idea where the DrScythe project was headed. Just go on making songs and videos? Form a band at some point to play live but change the whole approach accordingly? Both options lacked something to me. I know that I am quite disciplined so just going on releasing songs wouldn’t be much of a problem no matter if there’s a lot of fans or not. But with no goal to achieve it felt a little random. And forming a band might not even work so my brain came up with a finish line:

100 original songs in 10 years!

Excluding:

-       Covers/Traditionals

-       Acoustic versions of own songs

-       the recently introduced Vaccines

-       Collaborations with more than ~20 sec guest part

Some may think that 100 songs over the course of 10 years aren’t that many others may be impressed by the sheer number. I myself simply instantly loved the idea of looking back one day and having released one hundred tracks.

Technically there’s a little discrepancy between the 100 songs and ten years when releasing monthly. It’s either the 123^rd song in November 2025 or the 100^th in December 2023. But one central element of project management is headroom and I think it’s fair to leave some space and just say: completing 100 songs within 10 years is big enough for one artist alone. If I can pull it off in seven so be it. I don’t want to force a certain date for the ‘big finale’ so if it turns out to be April 2024 it’ll be April 2024.

So let me explain the exclusions. The ‘Vaccines’ are obviously just for fun and do not count as a full song (especially as they’re limited to 1:59min). Although I am giving away the surprise now I want to say that I want to do acoustic versions of some of my songs and some traditional folk songs in the future on a random basis which are not even included in ‘monthly release’ (thus the ‘random’ tag) under the label ‘DrScythe raw’ or something like that. This would also include covers of copyrighted newer material if I’ll ever decide to do those.

As for collaborations it will depend on if they’re ever going to happen. I guess that the number of my future subscribers will be the central figure here for others to be interested in a collab. If there’ll be collabs I will allow the song to be a part of the 100 only if the guest part is around 20 seconds total. Anything way beyond that will get a different label. What I’d see as a possibility is to reissue a previously released song with a guest musician and simply do not count it again. But that’s to be figured out later…

Fun facts:

I’ll keep some statistics. All the instruments used are on their 1^st set of strings since I began the project (and no, I don’t need to change them, I don’t use regular nickel- or stainless steel roundwounds) but sooner or later that’ll change. I am on the 5^th pack of coffee. I use too many different picks to keep track of those accurately.

Aaaand let’s finish on a song; number 9 of 100!

DrScythe Thoughts - Part V: Status update

Well…six months already. Eight songs done. I intended to stay motivated. I knew that my self-discipline is quite strong after more than two years of pushing myself through bodyweight exercises that became more and more difficult. But I also thought that I would struggle after the first two or three songs. Instead of struggling I sped up to release the 3^rd one just to allow myself to enter the D’Angelico endorsement contest. And that resulted in a third place and two fantastic guitars being lent to me. What a boost!

So month after month I kept my focus on finishing recording and mixing on time although my overall mood isn’t too good: looking for a job, no money – the usual sorrows. But what else should I do? Can’t apply for jobs all day long, there’s not even enough offerings for that. So making music is quite a thing to avoid wasting time (or: use it purposefully).

Eight songs that roughly outline where the whole DrScythe-music is headed with more to come that brings new nuances and colors to the project.  The first song just hit 500 views. That’s not a large number compared to other YouTubers, that’s not even a large number compared to some other musicians in the region. To me it’s incredibly cool. I don’t have hundreds of friends who watch the videos. It’s not even a dozen of people I know personally who watch the videos. So 500 is quite a milestone for me. Obviously I’ll celebrate the 1000^th one when it happens.

Before I give you a small status update I want to tell the story of ‘Home’, the 7^th song and ‘Mind Pirates’ the 8^th. Let’s begin with the latter one. The main melody goes back to 2005 or 2006. It just lay around for a while and then, during the Meinthat-era, I played around with it and the idea of using a violin. Then the band split up and the idea was buried until I began sorting out the songs for the DrScythe project. I instantly thought: ‘how could I ever abandon this?’ So it made the list. And I recorded it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1VrKJn66Uw

My fiancée has been asking me for years if I will ever write a song for her. I always said no, partly because I didn’t want to disappoint her, partly because I feared I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. When I finally came up with the idea for ‘Home’ I tested the ‘riff’ out of context and she liked it. So I began writing the rest and here we are. To cover up the recordings I pretended to work mostly on ‘Mind Pirates’ so that she wouldn’t notice the progress until it’s almost done. And it was successful. She suspected nothing (at least she said so), was quite surprised and loves it. Mission accomplished.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgbOwBKYBUM

So what’s the next mission? Keep on releasing one song per month! Try to gain more fans by doing so. Improving my mixing skills, improving my videos. Releasing the first 14 tracks as album. And then, depending on what’s going on in my life and how much the number of fans grows, begin looking for musicians to perform live. But for now it’s more like trying to promote my stuff as much as possible without being annoying. What seems to be impossible...

On the one hand it’s a great experience to receive a lot of positive feedback and even get a manufacturer of fantastic guitars interested in you especially because every release is accompanied by the typical artist’s mixture of feeling: doubting oneself and exposing your soul. On the other hand is the stagnation of response to that. Only few new followers/subscribers, only the initial larger amount of views which quickly dies off to the slow increase over time. Don’t get me wrong here: I am incredibly thankful for what I achieved so far and I will keep releasing songs. But it’s a little weird to be encouraged to go on and nothing happens. I know that consistency is key on YouTube, but I fear for my computer breaking every time I boot it up – and that would be the end for the whole project for a while. No spare parts, no money, nothing. So my job situation is becoming a larger problem every week and drawing away my attention every time I make music – because I fear to be stopped by defective devices…

Well…that’s it for this week. Happy with the project, happily in love, anxious about the usual topic: money/job. Just like everybody else…

Small extension to the first FAQ

Downloads

I will definitely enable free downloads for the album. Until then I don’t want to spread the ‘not-on-spot’-versions as downloads out of context.

DrScythe Reviews III - Kuassa Cerberus

Intro

You could ask yourself: why even bother with bass amp modeling? Often enough the bass is recorded and mixed as a DI track. Even live some bass player don’t use an amp. So why spend time on creating a versatile piece of software for basses? Then on the other hand there are still a lot of bass amps out there so there are also a lot of people who’d like an amplified bass sound. Like me. And I am so happy that the team of Kuassa decided to create this. I know that giving away the final verdict at the beginning is kind of pointless but I would like to make something clear at the beginning: I bought this and I am just so satisfied with it that I wanted the world to know about it. So here we go…

I decided to do this review with the help of the screenshot so can easily see what I am writing about.

Functionalities

1. I’d call this the ‘management panel’. Input, Input level, Presets, Gate, Quality-Switch – you can see them so I won’t list everything in detail here. I love the option to compare presets and the master CAB-switch. While it works I’d say that the preset window is somewhat clumsy in terms of handling but I don’t know any better examples (or at least none with other flaws) so I’ll let it pass. Personally I tried the Dry-Wet-option once but to be honest: it only makes sense if you really change the sound via Cerberus.

2. Now it’s time for what you could control on the real thing (if it were the pictured rack device). VALVE gives you an extremely rich and fat tone and if you crank up gain it will slowly begin to become something on the border between heavy saturation and overdrive. It will keep an extremely low punch if you don’t cut out the bass via EQ or Cabs what is really great. FET behaves a lot more, well, behaved. It’s clean to hell and back. It can feel a little sterile at times but you have to force that. It’s a lot more flexible if you’re willing to use all the other controls (including those on your bass). DRIVE is self-explanatory. It features a slightly generic sound but it’s usable. Personally I would put TSE B.O.D. in front of VALVE or FET and call it a day. COMPRESS does is job subtlety but effective. You can use it as a nice support up to noon and from there it acts more and more like a ‘drunk bassist’s best friend’. I don’t use CONTOUR myself a lot. It feels like a scoop at the mids which cleans up a little but I prefer shaping my tone with the EQs.

3. What more of an EQ-section do you need? LO effectively controls the bass its working point was chosen very well. The Boost really adds a lot of punch. I wouldn’t use it unless your bass sounds really thin or you want to have fun. But for recording tasks it just blows up the whole bass too much. Maybe if you’re using a pick and a pickup close to the bridge. LO MID and HI MID will help you massively adjusting Cerberus to your liking or manipulating the sound to quite extreme settings, especially when using the FET mode. HI and its boost option can be used for slightly dull basses and I really like to use those when playing with my Epiphone T-Bird Pro. Especially while recording because I can remove too bright sounds quite easily but not recover them from a rendered but dull signal. Excellent work here!

4. To answer the introductory question of No 3: A graphic EQ! I am not particularly fond of those but after I tried a Mesa Mark V I know that they can be really helpful. In this case I have to say: I don’t need it. It works fine but I am happy with what the regular EQ does and so I never switch it on but for reviewing purposes. If you want to know something specific about it you might want to check it out yourself as you can download Cerberus from kuassa.com

5. CAB and MIC selection and a MIX bar. I like most of the included cabs and mics although I mainly use the 8x10 one (which most probably is a SVT-cab-simulation). This section is quite unspectacular but functional so…that’s it. Better to hear some stuff later on.

6. The mics can be positioned freely although one can hear the changes quite intensely. So I think it would’ve been better to just offer 3 or 4 distances and the two angles. Maybe a choice between cone and cap but that’s all you need. But it feels and looks nice. So no complaints here ;)

7. If you don’t like the included cabs you can load yours here. There’s also a Limiter and a Master Output Level. They all work perfectly fine. There’s not much to say about here because I don’t know which IRs you would want to use and I only checked the function once.

Sound

So now over to some samples. I used my father’s 1974 Framus S-380 (Jazz Bass) and my own C-tuned Epiphone T-Bird Pro. Settings were as shown.

First the pure DIs

Preset01



Preset02

Preset03

Preset04

Preset05

Preset06

Preset07

Preset08

Link: http://www.kuassa.com/products/cerberus-bass-amplifikation/

Conclusion

I love it. Do I need to say more? It’s really fantastic. VALVE, slight compression, Contour off, EQ adjusted to T-Bird or Framus, 8x10, done. Pure fat and warm growl.

Overview

Pro	Neutral	Con
Sounds (!!!)	Preset management	Nothing
Ease of use	Drive a little boring
Lots of options Looks Available as Standalone Price and value

PS: I used it on every DrScythe-song since 'Destiny':