We at Rocafuerte haven't even finished our first album but we have little nuggets of joy planned for our second record already! Have a listen at a song that doesn't have a title, nor any lyrics! The FUTURE of Rocafuerte!
Showing posts with label rocafuerte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rocafuerte. Show all posts
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Rocafuerte Recording Outtakes, part 1
While recording some solos, I decided to chronicle how "easy" it is to get a perfect (YMMV) track done. First up to the plate is the ending solo to Inyectame which is really a 7-8 second finger tapping run. Being that I finalized the solo say... that morning, I wasn't exactly a pro on doing it when it came time to do the deed. Enjoy the video below, and look forward to the new version of Inyectame (that's for all those Xavier fans who have heard it before) coming soon!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 3
It's time to bang out the solos! I must admit it was a bit tougher than I expected (as was everything else, lol) but I managed to knock out a majority of the work. I also spent a good amount of time doing all the guitars for our ballad "Dame Otra Oportunidad." Some of the more involved solos include the ones for Inyectame and Para Todo Hay Remedio. The songs are really gonna come out great, and I can't wait for the album to be released so the music can be shared with everyone! More pictures are below. I also have some video of myself completely fudging up solos, but they will take some time to be edited. I'll post them for your outtake enjoyment when they're done.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 2
March 13, 2010 - braving one of the "worst" rainstorms in history, I hit the studio to record more of my guitar parts for the album. More rhythms are laid down; 7 of the 9 songs are pretty much done with rhythm guitars. I am finding it much easier than ever, thanks to our excellent recording engineer, Gerardo. I feel very comfortable and able to truly rock out with very few mistakes. Some of the tougher parts took a bit of time, but thankfully there weren't so many of those. I started out with the harder edge songs since they needed fewer guitars recorded; I ended with Inyectame, which involved a whopping 12 guitar parts! A lot of progress has been made, and I will be returning this coming Saturday to do our ballad, Dame Otra Oportunidad, clean up some of the lesser desired parts and begin THE UNDERTAKING -- solos! Enjoy the pics!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 1
February 27, 2010 - Day 1 of tracking guitar for the new Rocafuerte album. During my session I laid down some awesome rhythm tracks for Pensando en Ti, Terminara and our instrumental entitled Para Todo Hay Remedio. Need some help with the spanish titles? Run it through a translator! Anyhow, I worked on some solos as well but wasn't completely satisfied with them. I will certainly be preparing to tear those thangs up for a future session. Please enjoy a few choice pics taken by my fearless band leader, Xavier! More to come later.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Rocafuerte!
Yes, it's been a few months. A quick update of my life since the end of May:
* I got married on 7/18 (yes!)
* I turned 29 years old on 7/20
* Rocafuerte had two shows on the streets of Queens and Brooklyn on 6/21
Speaking of that last bullet point, here's a video from one of the shows. This is one of our harder edge songs, entitled "El Gran Escape." I like the groove of it and it's standard but non-standard structure: it has "no" chorus! Technically it does but there are no vocals, just a guitar melody of sorts.
It also started raining as we did this song, visually telling the story and making it feel even more epic!
* I got married on 7/18 (yes!)
* I turned 29 years old on 7/20
* Rocafuerte had two shows on the streets of Queens and Brooklyn on 6/21
Speaking of that last bullet point, here's a video from one of the shows. This is one of our harder edge songs, entitled "El Gran Escape." I like the groove of it and it's standard but non-standard structure: it has "no" chorus! Technically it does but there are no vocals, just a guitar melody of sorts.
It also started raining as we did this song, visually telling the story and making it feel even more epic!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Endurance: Viewtiful Joe 2, Guitar Hero Metallica + RocaFuerte news
Sorry about the long gap between posts. It's tough living my life and having relevant things to post. This blog ain't exactly about my personal life, you know!
Recently, I finished Viewtiful Joe 2, a tough, exciting and cute beat 'em up on Nintendo Gamecube. This game starts out manageable and fun. As the player gets further into the game, the difficulty ramps up and some pretty lofty challenges are presented. Below is a set of three videos comprising about 25 minutes of the final challenge before the end boss to the game. It's just the pinnacle of Clover Studios' (the developer) expectations of the player. I am not sure I've seen such a massive requirement to finish a stage in a while, and I've been playing some very difficult games! The content provided in the 3 videos below must all be completed in one set of lives and you start out with three; if you lose a life you will have to start at the beginning of the section, which equates to the beginning of the video. At the end, the game clocks me in as taking 12 minutes to finish the level, but you will see for yourself how long it took based on these videos. I assume it took 12 minutes outside of traveling between challenges and the ratings but I'm not sure.
Yesterday I purchased (via pre-order) Guitar Hero: Metallica. Being that this is the band that takes half of the credit for me playing guitar in the first place (and 100% of the credit for me being a lead guitarist), I was incredibly interested in this game. There are 25 songs from the band, spanning all the albums. The offerings are a bit uneven between albums, but wisely chosen. The game is touted as being very hard for people who aren't experienced in the world of Guitar Hero, and for them I must agree. I did manage to finish the career mode after having completed 23% of the songs in the list. The songs open up based on how many stars you get, as opposed to how many songs are completed. It's safe to say that I got 5 stars in most of the songs I've played so far. I did play some of the higher tiered stuff, including one of my favorite songs, "Dyer's Eve." The first song I failed in my play through, this is a beast wanting to be tamed. It took me several tries to finish it and I scraped by with 3 stars. Below is a video of me playing it on Expert. I was so happy that I finished the song that I started singing along near the end. Pardon my being off-pitch; this song is very tiring!
I'm disappointed in two things with this game; the first is that the final song in the game is not a difficult one, but it is preceded by some of the toughest songs in the game, including "Dyer's Eve." It did fit with the venue where I performed it, which opened up solely for the final song. The other disappointment is that the Rock Band drum set does not support the double bass functionality. I honestly think it's a software related thing (Activision hatin') since all the hardware connects properly. I'll have to purchase the Guitar Hero World Tour kit on a deal some time in the future, as I just don't have a Benjamin to pony up for extra equipment I won't be using all the time. Anyone wanna donate to the cause? j/k
Finally, some RocaFuerte news: the songs in our demo have been complete for some time, but my singer finally e-mailed them to me in their final form. Enjoy!
1 - Terminara (3:58)
2 - Vuelo Letal (3:50)
We're also working on a new progressive-type song to go with our heavier tunes. I'm pretty excited about what we're working with and hope we come up with an amazing song. More info later!
We have a Facebook page up in addition to our mySpace page. If you've got a Facebook account, search for RocaFuerte and become a fan! We should be playing some gigs soon so if you're in the NYMA come out and see us.
Recently, I finished Viewtiful Joe 2, a tough, exciting and cute beat 'em up on Nintendo Gamecube. This game starts out manageable and fun. As the player gets further into the game, the difficulty ramps up and some pretty lofty challenges are presented. Below is a set of three videos comprising about 25 minutes of the final challenge before the end boss to the game. It's just the pinnacle of Clover Studios' (the developer) expectations of the player. I am not sure I've seen such a massive requirement to finish a stage in a while, and I've been playing some very difficult games! The content provided in the 3 videos below must all be completed in one set of lives and you start out with three; if you lose a life you will have to start at the beginning of the section, which equates to the beginning of the video. At the end, the game clocks me in as taking 12 minutes to finish the level, but you will see for yourself how long it took based on these videos. I assume it took 12 minutes outside of traveling between challenges and the ratings but I'm not sure.
Yesterday I purchased (via pre-order) Guitar Hero: Metallica. Being that this is the band that takes half of the credit for me playing guitar in the first place (and 100% of the credit for me being a lead guitarist), I was incredibly interested in this game. There are 25 songs from the band, spanning all the albums. The offerings are a bit uneven between albums, but wisely chosen. The game is touted as being very hard for people who aren't experienced in the world of Guitar Hero, and for them I must agree. I did manage to finish the career mode after having completed 23% of the songs in the list. The songs open up based on how many stars you get, as opposed to how many songs are completed. It's safe to say that I got 5 stars in most of the songs I've played so far. I did play some of the higher tiered stuff, including one of my favorite songs, "Dyer's Eve." The first song I failed in my play through, this is a beast wanting to be tamed. It took me several tries to finish it and I scraped by with 3 stars. Below is a video of me playing it on Expert. I was so happy that I finished the song that I started singing along near the end. Pardon my being off-pitch; this song is very tiring!
I'm disappointed in two things with this game; the first is that the final song in the game is not a difficult one, but it is preceded by some of the toughest songs in the game, including "Dyer's Eve." It did fit with the venue where I performed it, which opened up solely for the final song. The other disappointment is that the Rock Band drum set does not support the double bass functionality. I honestly think it's a software related thing (Activision hatin') since all the hardware connects properly. I'll have to purchase the Guitar Hero World Tour kit on a deal some time in the future, as I just don't have a Benjamin to pony up for extra equipment I won't be using all the time. Anyone wanna donate to the cause? j/k
Finally, some RocaFuerte news: the songs in our demo have been complete for some time, but my singer finally e-mailed them to me in their final form. Enjoy!
1 - Terminara (3:58)
2 - Vuelo Letal (3:50)
We're also working on a new progressive-type song to go with our heavier tunes. I'm pretty excited about what we're working with and hope we come up with an amazing song. More info later!
We have a Facebook page up in addition to our mySpace page. If you've got a Facebook account, search for RocaFuerte and become a fan! We should be playing some gigs soon so if you're in the NYMA come out and see us.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Rocafuerte in the studio... and many more books.
On Tuesday, January 20th, the band entered a studio in the foothills of Harlem, near Washington Heights to record two songs for their debut EP. The recording environment, located in City College and manned by seniors majoring in audio engineering, was a high-tech and excellent quality studio. We recorded drums from a recital hall on the ground floor while watching from a spy camera-like interface in the recording hub. The mixing system was intricate and the band recorded using Pro Tools for Mac. From the hours of (roughly) 6PM to 4AM, we toiled away and successfully laid all the tracks for both songs, "Terminara" and "Vuelo Letal." I'm very proud of the work we've done so far and can't wait for these songs to be mixed and mastered! This will be the first big near-professional job we've done and we ensured that it would be of the best quality. Below, I've got some pictures and videos of the recording in progress for your enjoyment!
In other news, Metallica is playing at Nassau Coliseum tomorrow! I'm so amped about this, as this will be the third time I've seen them live. The new music is great (imo) and I can't wait to hear it in person. The Guitar Hero: Metallica game will be out two months to the date after that, with an amazing set list. This makes me very happy and I can't wait to break my wrists (lol) when the game releases.
On Saturday, I will be moving to a new residence. I hate moving. All the heavy lifting and transporting back and forth is just a big pain to me. Alas, it must be done, and I hope that one day soon I will find a permanent residence (i.e. house or condo or something) so that I won't ever have to move again!
More on the games front, I've been occupied with playing Prince of Persia, the recent release for Xbox 360. I'm really enjoying the game, perhaps because I've never played the Sands of Time trilogy much. I think I put about 3 hours into the original Sands of Time, but never played Warrior Within or Two Thrones. The acrobatics are fun and haven't gotten stale after about 4-5 hours of play. The dialogue is witty; the prince is extremely sarcastic and even cynical at times, which makes his conversations with Elika (his ally) humorous and entertaining. The graphics are wonderful; it's cel-shaded, but the high resolution (I'm playing on 1080p) makes things look Disney-esque. It's a joy on the eyes.
Next month is "Bad Ass Brawlers" month! I will be playing six games (and hopefully finishing them!) in this short month that feature pugilists, ninja and swordsmen of the most high. Ryu Hayabusa will be featured in both his Ninja Gaiden games for Xbox 360. Kratos will have a stab at his fellows in God of War II for PS2, while Gene knocks foes into the sky in God Hand. Sieg Wahrheit battles "hideous monsters" in Chaos Legion. Joe returns to cel-shaded, quirky action in the sequel to the previously completed Viewtiful Joe. Details to come soon!
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| Studio Session 1/20 |
In other news, Metallica is playing at Nassau Coliseum tomorrow! I'm so amped about this, as this will be the third time I've seen them live. The new music is great (imo) and I can't wait to hear it in person. The Guitar Hero: Metallica game will be out two months to the date after that, with an amazing set list. This makes me very happy and I can't wait to break my wrists (lol) when the game releases.
On Saturday, I will be moving to a new residence. I hate moving. All the heavy lifting and transporting back and forth is just a big pain to me. Alas, it must be done, and I hope that one day soon I will find a permanent residence (i.e. house or condo or something) so that I won't ever have to move again!
More on the games front, I've been occupied with playing Prince of Persia, the recent release for Xbox 360. I'm really enjoying the game, perhaps because I've never played the Sands of Time trilogy much. I think I put about 3 hours into the original Sands of Time, but never played Warrior Within or Two Thrones. The acrobatics are fun and haven't gotten stale after about 4-5 hours of play. The dialogue is witty; the prince is extremely sarcastic and even cynical at times, which makes his conversations with Elika (his ally) humorous and entertaining. The graphics are wonderful; it's cel-shaded, but the high resolution (I'm playing on 1080p) makes things look Disney-esque. It's a joy on the eyes.
Next month is "Bad Ass Brawlers" month! I will be playing six games (and hopefully finishing them!) in this short month that feature pugilists, ninja and swordsmen of the most high. Ryu Hayabusa will be featured in both his Ninja Gaiden games for Xbox 360. Kratos will have a stab at his fellows in God of War II for PS2, while Gene knocks foes into the sky in God Hand. Sieg Wahrheit battles "hideous monsters" in Chaos Legion. Joe returns to cel-shaded, quirky action in the sequel to the previously completed Viewtiful Joe. Details to come soon!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
And the new year rolls on
Happy new year, reader(s)! Yes, I'm lazy. Yes, I'm busy. No, I still don't have any videos to post. Eventually, I will. Maybe I'll grab videos from my grandfather who has recorded me play (terribly, in my opinion) at church over the holidays just to sate your appetites. In any case, videos will come one way or another...
Oh, the New York Jets. It looks like the season ended right about in the middle. No 1-15 record, no 15-1 record, but a rather impressive 9-7 record (compared to last year). Maybe the Madden curse took it's toll this year on Brett Favre. He is indeed injured, but not like previous Madden cover artists - he and his torn biceps tendon roughed it out for the entire 17 weeks, really showing some terrible play in the last 5 games, 4 of which were big "L's." Yeah, they should have benched him. I guess that's why Señor Head Coach Mangini got the big "F" right after week 17's loss against the (now Division leader) Dolphins. Who led that team to the playoffs? None other than "Ol' Chaddy Boy" Pennington, the ex-Jet QB who was a part of a 4-12 record last year and who brought the Dolphins from 1-15 in '07 to 10-6 this year. Que será, será.
2009 will hopefully be the year Roca Fuerte comes out of the dark recesses of the studio and rises to the top of the world. I'm working hard along with the other talented members of this group to make this music sound better than anything we've worked on before! We should be recording our EP within one to two month's time and once that is done, I'll have some more content on the blog. Solo takes, anyone? :) Wish us the best!
2009 will also be the year I make some big dents in my gaming backlog. In '08 I finished a grand total of 11 games, starting in July. I finished one game so far since the new year; I had actually been 1 hour or so away from its full completion since about 2004... how shameful! I am going to set up a gadget on the sidebar to show a tally just for kicks. See it? Love it!
So now I'm off to start my new year of music, gaming and makin' that cheddar. I just wanna give a couple of shout-outs before I go, though. All my love goes out to God for making everything possible and blessing us with our talents. Big ups to my fiance E'vy, my mom and dad, local family (grandparents/aunts/uncles), my best friend Sonzer and his wife and twins, the band, MrCHUP0N and NYCShogun. Finally, I wanna give a big shout out to Barack Obama, our new President starting January 20th. I believe that we're all headed for a world of positive change in the coming years.
Until next we meet!
Oh, the New York Jets. It looks like the season ended right about in the middle. No 1-15 record, no 15-1 record, but a rather impressive 9-7 record (compared to last year). Maybe the Madden curse took it's toll this year on Brett Favre. He is indeed injured, but not like previous Madden cover artists - he and his torn biceps tendon roughed it out for the entire 17 weeks, really showing some terrible play in the last 5 games, 4 of which were big "L's." Yeah, they should have benched him. I guess that's why Señor Head Coach Mangini got the big "F" right after week 17's loss against the (now Division leader) Dolphins. Who led that team to the playoffs? None other than "Ol' Chaddy Boy" Pennington, the ex-Jet QB who was a part of a 4-12 record last year and who brought the Dolphins from 1-15 in '07 to 10-6 this year. Que será, será.
2009 will hopefully be the year Roca Fuerte comes out of the dark recesses of the studio and rises to the top of the world. I'm working hard along with the other talented members of this group to make this music sound better than anything we've worked on before! We should be recording our EP within one to two month's time and once that is done, I'll have some more content on the blog. Solo takes, anyone? :) Wish us the best!
2009 will also be the year I make some big dents in my gaming backlog. In '08 I finished a grand total of 11 games, starting in July. I finished one game so far since the new year; I had actually been 1 hour or so away from its full completion since about 2004... how shameful! I am going to set up a gadget on the sidebar to show a tally just for kicks. See it? Love it!
So now I'm off to start my new year of music, gaming and makin' that cheddar. I just wanna give a couple of shout-outs before I go, though. All my love goes out to God for making everything possible and blessing us with our talents. Big ups to my fiance E'vy, my mom and dad, local family (grandparents/aunts/uncles), my best friend Sonzer and his wife and twins, the band, MrCHUP0N and NYCShogun. Finally, I wanna give a big shout out to Barack Obama, our new President starting January 20th. I believe that we're all headed for a world of positive change in the coming years.
Until next we meet!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Snakes on a Band... Practice
First thing's first. Practiced with the band yesterday, and came up with a new tune! Here's a clip:
Also, I managed to catch Snakes on a Plane and have time to watch the thing in almost its entirety - I missed the first 17 mins (boo hoo). My impressions and observations:
Note: Edited due to wanting to expand my audience (lol)
- A girl got bit on her nipple, much like a baby would attack a teat. Hilarious.
- An old lady got her eye bit off. Hilarious.
- This one woman went to barf into a bag and a snake jumped out and bit her tongue. Ultra-hilarious and unexpected!
- A man went to pee, got bit on the junk from a snake hiding under the rim of the toilet. He proceeded to bash his head on the mirror above the sink and wipe his bloody head on the wall as he died. Hella funny.
- This one cold-hearted businessman decided that to save everyone from a python (fell out of a light fixture), he'd throw this girl's annoying toy dog to it for lunch. After berating the old fogey, he said something like "It's just a dog! It would do the same thing to us!" Moments later, he was the python's dessert.
People who didn't die from snakes:
- This dude got trampled and a woman's high heel got lodged into his ear! Nasty and painful!
- People started getting impaled after falling off the stairs (stairs on a plane!?) when the banister broke off. This one guy got paled in the jugular! Raw! (lol)
Samuel L. Jackson said:
- "Well, that's good news - snakes on crack." After hearing about the snakes possibly aggro after being exposed to pheromones that women may be wearing.
- "Turn left! Turn this big mother****er left, Troy!" Yelling at Troy (played by Kenan of Kenan and Kel fame) when he had trouble stopping the plane after landing.
- "All praises to the Playstation!" After landing, thanks to Troy's flight sim game skills.
- Of course, there's the ever-famous: "Enough is enough! I've had it with these mother****in' snakes on this mother****in' plane!" That was said approximately 1 hour and 27 minutes into the movie.
One thing I didn't know about snakes: they can climb stairs! I'm not talking about any old stairs, but those that are disjointed, like spiral stairs. Let's just forget for a moment that these were CG snakes.
Finally, no black people (i.e. African-Americans who had lines in the movie) died! Is this a first for the horror genre?
Also, I managed to catch Snakes on a Plane and have time to watch the thing in almost its entirety - I missed the first 17 mins (boo hoo). My impressions and observations:
Note: Edited due to wanting to expand my audience (lol)
- A girl got bit on her nipple, much like a baby would attack a teat. Hilarious.
- An old lady got her eye bit off. Hilarious.
- This one woman went to barf into a bag and a snake jumped out and bit her tongue. Ultra-hilarious and unexpected!
- A man went to pee, got bit on the junk from a snake hiding under the rim of the toilet. He proceeded to bash his head on the mirror above the sink and wipe his bloody head on the wall as he died. Hella funny.
- This one cold-hearted businessman decided that to save everyone from a python (fell out of a light fixture), he'd throw this girl's annoying toy dog to it for lunch. After berating the old fogey, he said something like "It's just a dog! It would do the same thing to us!" Moments later, he was the python's dessert.
People who didn't die from snakes:
- This dude got trampled and a woman's high heel got lodged into his ear! Nasty and painful!
- People started getting impaled after falling off the stairs (stairs on a plane!?) when the banister broke off. This one guy got paled in the jugular! Raw! (lol)
Samuel L. Jackson said:
- "Well, that's good news - snakes on crack." After hearing about the snakes possibly aggro after being exposed to pheromones that women may be wearing.
- "Turn left! Turn this big mother****er left, Troy!" Yelling at Troy (played by Kenan of Kenan and Kel fame) when he had trouble stopping the plane after landing.
- "All praises to the Playstation!" After landing, thanks to Troy's flight sim game skills.
- Of course, there's the ever-famous: "Enough is enough! I've had it with these mother****in' snakes on this mother****in' plane!" That was said approximately 1 hour and 27 minutes into the movie.
One thing I didn't know about snakes: they can climb stairs! I'm not talking about any old stairs, but those that are disjointed, like spiral stairs. Let's just forget for a moment that these were CG snakes.
Finally, no black people (i.e. African-Americans who had lines in the movie) died! Is this a first for the horror genre?
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