So, I've talked about vocaloids before and how I adore them, however, this newspost is not just to talk about them or how much I enjoy the music people put out using them... This time, I'm announcing that I'm working on a cover of one of my favorite, if not my favorite, Hatsune Miku song.

Last Night, Good Night

I've mentioned it before, but I'm gonna say it again, this was basically the song that got me into Vocaloids. And it very quickly became one of my favorite songs, vocaloid or no, because of it's very mellow and soothing nature (The kind of music I love most... bet you wouldn't guess that with all the metal I end up doing would you?).

Currently, I'm referencing a MIDI file I've found to figure out the chords and whatnot that are used... Although I more or less figured out the intro piano by ear (It's actually pretty simple once you ignore the delay).
However, the MIDI file I found is so incomplete it's not even funny, no drums (trying to replicate those drums will be a real pain in the ass... with all the ghost notes and what-not in the song), piano notes are out of place or missing altogether (The piano part beyond the intro is completely non-existent)... The only thing that really seems to be correct or finished is the vocal part... So it may take a while for me to figure out all the missing notes/sections... and even then I'll likely leave a few things out (Such as a few of the finer pad or "twinkle" effects) just to make it a bit easier on me.
Fortunately, I also have a high quality instrumental version of the song to help me pick out the sections I'll be doing by ear, which will help immensely with the piano part in the verse/chorus.

As for the vocal part, I'll likely end up recording that as a guitar or synth part once I finish the instrumental, unless someone would care to do the vocals for me once I finish the rest of the song.

So it's something to look forward to instead of going another 2 months without an upload. I'm still struggling with writers block, so I don't really have any new original songs planned (Or new versions of existing songs unfortunately)... Although I was playing around with a guitar riff earlier. But at least I'll have something up... soon... ish.

Music
First things first, I'm sure those of you who follow me are already well aware that I haven't submitted anything in a while (A while being around 2 months at this point). And unfortunately, it's not because I'm about to release something big, nor is it because I've been ridiculously busy (Save the time leading up to Xmas). It's mostly because I've had severe writers block over the past couple months.

I had told one of you a little while back that I was gonna write something while I was pulling an all-nighter in an attempt to get my sleep schedule back on track, adding on the fact that I always seem to write better music when I'm tired as hell. Well... Unfortunately, that fell through, once again I was struck with a lack of motivation/inspiration and a whole lot of writers block.

Nothing actually written aside... I have still be practicing, so hopefully this means by the time I do upload another song (Which at this rate may be a cover just so I can have something new up in a half decent time), it'll sound a lot better than previous stuff. I'm not guaranteeing anything though.

Christmas
So, Christmas has come and gone, so I figure as an unwritten law of the "jolly season" I would share what I got for Christmas. Unfortunately, nothing new came under the tree to help my music, but I'm not too fussed, I can certainly make do with what I have, but it would be nice to have a few new musical toys to play with to help keep the motivation flowing (Which as mentioned above, I am severely lacking).
But here's what I did get:
New Graphics card (Nvidia GTX 560)
Battlefield 3 (PC, feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to play, although I am kind of terrible, seeing as I haven't played many shooters lately)
Resonance of Fate (PS3, for my JRPG fix)
Dark Souls (PS3, for the masochist in me)
A hoodie with built in headphones... Very trippy having headphones actually built into my clothing... Suitable though seeing as I'm pretty much listening to music 24/7.
A couple shirts
And a bunch of chocolate

And that's about it. Your turn, list off what you got!

Audio Mod Stuff
Ok, now I'm gonna take a moment to try drill something into the heads of people new to the audio portal, and I'm gonna do so in a convenient list:

1: READ THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES!
--- All too often people complain that they were banned stating they didn't know what was or wasn't allowed. Or people complain that they were banned without warning. I've got news for you, you are supposed to read the guidelines before you submit anything so that you can avoid a ban... We are not obligated to explain or give warnings before bans that you could have easily avoided if you had just read the guidelines!

2: IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, ASK!
--- Should actually be more like point 1b, because it's largely related to reading the guidelines. It's not our fault if you don't understand the reason you were banned if you never took the time to clarify a rule you didn't understand.

3: SONGS MADE OUT OF PREMADE LOOPS ARE NOT YOUR OWN WORK!
--- Programs such as Garageband, Mixcraft, Magix Music Maker, among a few others are notorious for their premade loop banks, and believe it or not, the Audio Mods are very good at hearing premade loops in a song (Because we hear them A LOT). When the submission guide lines say, "You are making the legal claim that it is your own original work." It means that YOU made the song... Making a song consists of a lot more effort than what it takes to drag and drop a bunch of loops into a playlist and hit "Export to MP3".

4: DON'T GET OFFENDED WHEN WE ASK FOR PROOF THAT A SONG IS YOUR OWN!
--- We Audio Mods are here to keep the Audio Portal clean, and this involves investigating tracks (If they're waiting for approval or not) that we, or the community, suspects may be breaking the rules. If you get offended and refuse to offer up the proof we ask for, we take it as an admission of guilt and you will be banned. We aren't asking to piss you off, we're asking to give you a chance to defend yourself!

5: SAMPLING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS NOT OK!
--- Recently, we've been really cracking down on people that have been using copyrighted samples in their submissions, and a lot of people seem to be upset that we aren't giving special treatment to long time members. The fact of the matter is, we aren't all seeing, it takes time for us to find and investigate submissions that break the rules. We are not overlooking people because of social status or any other such nonsense, we simply haven't found or received reports about their submissions breaking the rules yet. And because of this, I think a lot of people are seeing samplers in the community and thinking, "Oh, they're getting away with it, so I should too!"
This is simply not the case. We are bound to find out eventually, and you will be held responsible for your actions. The, "Well, so-and-so hasn't been banned yet!" excuse does not work. "So-and-so" probably hasn't ever been reported, in which case, we don't know... Until you inadvertently tattled on them because of your own ban.

And that's about it... For now.

So, I'm gonna veer off a different direction from usual and ask a couple of questions as well as (hopefully) gain a few more subscribers on youtube (For those that like my music enough to subscribe that is).

But first, the question:
Currently, I am using my youtube channel as a medium to put out both my music, and gaming videos (All of which have my music in the background so far). And lately, I've been curious as to whether or not I should specialize or not... People love gaming, and people love music, but not everybody necessarily love both. Should I create a separate account for my gaming videos and keep my main profile dedicated to the music?
Let me know!

On that note, if you enjoy my music, I have a few links for you to abuse, subscribe, follow, favorite, whatever each lets you do, and I'll love you long time!:
Back From Purgatory's Youtube
Back From Purgatory's Soundcloud
Back From Purgatory's Twitter
And you already know where my Newgrounds profile is... at least I would hope so.

Also, I'm still looking for some more feedback on the latest version of "A Taste of..." So please do go give it a listen and leave a review, send me a PM, or even reply here.

That aside... Skyrim... Awesome. 50 hours in 4 days awesome. Don't know what else to say, been playing as a thief, 1 shotting everything (Including dragons)... Planning on turning the difficulty up.. as a 30x damage multiplier on my sneak attacks is making things somewhat easy... Although I guess the drawback is that once I'm spotted, I'm pretty much dead.
Regardless... Skyrim is orgasmicly awesome.

The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim is almost upon us... Just 3 days and 5 hours left (At the time of this post). The mere fact that I'm using my front page post should give away how excited I am for this game, which will save me an explanation.

Usually, when I'm really looking forward to a game, I try to refrain from learning too much about it before it's released (Unless it's out real soon). But I broke down a week or two ago and started looking up all the juicy details I could find on the game, and if I wasn't looking forward to it enough before, I want to knock myself into a coma now and wake up when it's out so I don't have to wait any longer.
Right... I started looking up info a tad too early.

I've also broke down and watched a couple streams that people have put up after the leaked copy of the 360 version of the game started circulating. However, I've been keeping it to a minimum, and skipping anything that could potentially be a spoiler. I've watched people do a couple dungeons, wander around towns or wilderness... but I stop watching the second they go to pick up a quest or do anything involving guilds or other major events. I even refused to watch the intro to the game, including the tutorial, because nothing beats coming out of the tutorial for the first time in a game like Skyrim on your own. I didn't want to spoil that for myself.

So yeah... Skyrim... almost here. It's a good thing I got version 4 of "A Taste of..." out the door already, because once Skyrim hits, I likely won't do any writing for a while.

Speaking of...
Do check "A Taste of..." version 4 out if you haven't already, so far the feedback has been minimal, and I'm dying to hear what people think of the progress. Listen, leave a review, vote, or even just send me a PM with your thoughts, it's all good!

And lastly:
Please do check out my previous newspost and give me a some feedback/suggestions! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, but now that I actually want to try it, I'm torn as to what song to do first!

So, today I was playing around with my keyboard, playing the usually stuff with my signature piano sound heard in most of my songs (Of those that include piano of course), and I had a funny idea...
"I'm gonna open up Toxic Biohazard, pick my favorite lead synth and play To Zanarkand with it."

And to my surprise, it didn't sound half bad, and I could just hear the possibilities for a trance remix of it.
Along with To Zanarkand, I also ended up trying Lilium, God Knows, and Eternity of Lightwaves using this lead synth... And now I'm torn by which one I want to do.
Note: The versions of these songs I play may not be the exact same as shown in the videos I linked to, most notably, God Knows (I play a softer piano version).

So I'm asking you guys, if I were to do a trance/techno/whateveryoucallit remix of any of these songs, which would you prefer? Keep in mind, I may end up doing the others eventually either way, I'm just asking which I should do first.

So, let me know, and I'll see if I can pump out a remix of the song you guys want most!

Also:
Please be sure to check out my newly released Version 4 of "A Taste of..."... While it's been getting good votes, not a soul has left a review so far, and I'd really like to know what people think, good and bad.

"What is?" You ask?

Well, in my previous newspost I said I was finally working on version 4 of "A Taste of..." And I wasn't lying. Today I sat down and spent the vast majority of the day recording. And the end result was finishing version 4. So I'm here to present it to you all after the long, painful wait it's been.

Enjoy!

A Taste of... V.4

Be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think!

That's right, I've finally figured out what I'm doing for the next section of "A Taste of..." (My most popular song). And I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I do.

I don't want to spoil the surprise, but the song will be taking a pretty mellow turn in the next section (Seeing as the section I left off at in Version 3 is pretty intense). The song will also introduce a piano for the first time.

It's not done yet (Only a couple tracks are recorded so far), but now that I know more or less what I want to do with it, it shouldn't be too long before I have it up on my profile. I may shoot myself in the foot giving an estimate as to when I'll release it... But I'll dare to say in the next week or two (Hopefully before Skyrim hits) it'll be up.

The wait is almost over!

I feel a lot like how my avatar looks right now.

Also, Dungeon Defenders is addictive as hell.

That is all.

PS:
Someone got mad because my post lacks purpose... soooo...

I write music.... Check it out and leave a few reviews while you're here...

That is all... Again.

Another week, another set of weekly picks and babbling.

So over the course of this last week, I... Uhh... ummm... Did nothing exciting. Given my antisocial nature, this isn't too surprising I guess.

So instead, I'm gonna put this out there, ask me a question, any question at all, and I'll do my best to answer it. It can be a question about me, my music, about life, hobbies, games, movies... Anything. I spend a lot of time rambling on about myself, so instead, I'll have you guys come up with questions and I'll do my best to come up with an answer for any questions you have.

Song of the Week:
Artist: Kirbyfemur
Song: Tread Lightly, As This May Be Your Last Dance
Purgatory Comment:
Kirby, everything you do has a very unique sound to it, it has it's own personality, it's own Kirbyfemur flair. When I'm listening to your stuff, nothing comes to mind like, "Oh, this sounds a lot like X Artist"... it's just... This is Kirbyfemur. And that by itself is commendable.
To top things off, this song in particular seems to have a great way of shifting between two vastly different tones... And I am a huge fan of songs that manage to pull this off.

Art of the Week:
Artist: Sandragon
Art: Crisis Lhesus
Purgatory Comment:
Have I ever mentioned that I have a thing for Dragons? If you were to ask me what my favorite animal is, I would immediately spout off Dragons... Real or not, they are awesome. So naturally, I would enjoy art of dragons, it's only made better by the quality of the piece and a more unique spin on the appearance.

So, I missed weekly picks last week because I was feeling absolutely god awful, but fret not, I will not miss two weeks in a row! But first, as usual, I'll do a little blabbing before I reveal my picks of the week:

For starters... Remember I was talking about Disgaea 4? Well.. I still haven't completed the post game bosses. I'm at around 90 hours into the game right now, and I still have the last post-post game boss to beat, he has this awesome way of one shotting my strongest characters, while I can get him down about half health in practically the first turn, he then wipes out half my team on his turn, which leaves me without most of my heavy hitters, which inevitably leads to a Game Over screen. But I WILL beat him dammit!

Secondly, along with the theme of my previous newspost about sad anime, I had just finished watching Clannad ~After Story~. I had already watched the previous season of Clannad under curiosity hearing everyone say it's one of the saddest things you'll ever watch, and honestly... I was kind of underwhelmed, so I had put off watching After Story up til now.

(((Before you read on, if you have any intention of watching Clannad ~After Story~ and don't want any spoilers, however minor, skip this next paragraph.)))

Well, I kind of regret putting it off, because After Story was what the original Clannad should have been. I cried like a baby a couple of times. And while the ending was more or less ridiculous in the "Something has to happen to make it a happy ending!" kind of way, it didn't bother me as much as previously mentioned H2O. I enjoyed the story enough to see past the somewhat supernatural turn around at the end. Although I was left a little confused at the very final moment of the series. There was a scene of which I didn't really know what to make of it.

(((Ok, spoilers done, read on!)))

In music news, keep it a secret.... but I've started working on Dream Part Two. But you didn't hear it from me!

And that's really it for news this week, so here are my weekly picks:

Song of the Week:
Artist: SBB
Song: ==(Hammock Song)==
Purgatory Comment:
Very smooth jazzy feel to it, it's real relaxing. And oddly enough, to me, sounds like something you'd hear in one of the Sims games while you're in "Buy Mode". Take that however you will, but it's meant as a compliment.

Art of the Week:
Artist: Comick
Art: Idoltry-Close Up
Purgatory Comment:
Never before has gazing upon a cat made me scared to go to sleep.
... I like it!