TSO

[Tarkus]

Hey, seeing how it's not EMP - I figured this was the best place to post.

I just finished uploading my submission in Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Do you have what it takes to play with TSO"? Contest. It can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwbcE4dkdHE. Right now, I'm the only keyboard entry... gotta like my chances of making the finals if THAT trend continues! 8)

Most special of thanks to MarkE - while the audio was usable on the original video, at his suggestion I simultaneously recorded a clean piano track onto my MacBook. He then took that and mixed it with TSO's custom studio track (their song with piano removed), then looped/synched both into the video. The result is so frickin' clean that I'm now GLAD I made a couple of minor mistakes - lest people start alledging that I was "finger-synching"! :lol:

Wish me luck!

[MarkE]

Fuggeddaboudittt Piece of cake. I'm really happy with the way it came out. You know, I could have done a lot better with it, especially the audio but I figured "whats the point"? It would only be converted into a low res audio anyway.
I expected far worse from the audio when I converted it from that big-assed AVI to a small mpg. I'm really suprised how clean it sounds. Actually it was by design to a certain degree...I was able to configure the audio and video, which reflects on file size. I started with reasonable video resolution and max audio. Then I stepped down the audio a few notches to reduce the file size and heard almost no difference.

Hey....now that we have this "technology" we need to do a music video. Perhaps each of us sending in video parts playing to one of our shorter songs. I'll mix it with the audio and fade between the video snippets. What a kool idea!
Or enhance it by adding video snippets of us doing everyday shit like walking down the street, talking on the phone, restringing a guitar etc like the ones on MTV. Shots of us playing fading into those pieces.
Im up for it!!

[MarkE]

I also just posted links to the video on Hawk's Home and EMP's music page

Im really excited about this. I think Dave is a shoe-in for a win. Imagine....one of EMP's very own musicians :) :) You did us proud Dave!

[MDDRUMZ]

Great stuff, David! Really nice work. I cracked up when mid-song you turned to the camera and stared. Very reminiscent of the Bugs Bunny meets Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde episode were bugs is hammering it out at the grand piano adorned with candelabra, stops, turns to the camera and in a Liberace voice says, "I wish my brother George was here." lol

MarkE - Yeah, a video would be cool experiment. It's funny b/c back when you did Karn Evil I was wishing I had this in digital format to send to you for laughs. But when I was in high school, my Great Aunt taped me on her VHS Camcorder doing some songs including 1st Impression. Ah, those were the days when I had the freedom of playing whenever I felt the urge.

[SilverHamer]

All I can say, David, is that YOU DA MAN! Very nicely done! And great audio work by MarkE. I hope you are able to get that gig! That would be an incredible thing to be part of!

LC

[MarkE]

That part when Dave turns toward the camera....my sister reminded me that it was very much like Chico Marx. He was an excellent pianist and used to goof around like that and never miss a note.


I only saw one other keyboard entry. Did any new ones pop up yet?

[Tarkus]

there's now a third entry - a 13 year old boy - his piano is outta tune and he hits a few clinkers, but he's got moxie. i fear with tso's love of the younger generation he may well off me from winning the thing. oh well *shrugs*

btw, mark, definitely take a little time for yourself and enter the guitar/bass competition... nothing ventured, nothing gained... but i have had a couple of passing laughs if more than one member of emp won the thing (if nothing else, tommy could beam with pride! :) )

[MarkE]

I dont know if you saw it yet, but there are four entries. Not only are you up against a kid, but also the muppets.

The kid is good and he is going places, but if he wins it'll be the biggest upset since Jethro Tull took the heavy metal grammy from metallica

[Tracy]

Hey guys! That 13 yr old was impressive indeed and David, you're kind words to him were so sweet. You earned a few karma points with that post ;)

But of course, I want David to win!!!!!

The kid may win by virtue of his age, but that impish grin you gave the cam added a ton of relaxed and playful personality to your entry. So don't count yourself out by any means!

And Mark, if you have time to pull it off, ENTER!!!

[MarkE]

I'm shooting a video today. I still have to decide to enter it or not. lets see how it comes out.

[Tracy]

I see some sour grapes in the comments on Davids entry. But I wouldn't sweat it, it's a legal entry and if you look at the view and rating counts he has, he's kicking everyones ass! 12,901 views and 284 ratings (with days more to go!).

I gave everybody a 5 star rate today. I believe you can rate once/day.

[MarkE]

Its only the stars that count.

dredging-up a thread from days-gone-by, i thought you guys might be curious to see something in my davidpresley.com inbox this evening (upon arriving back to the fantasy camp hotel):

Hi David,
Congratulations! You won the Trans-Siberian Orchestra YOUTUBE contest. You
won a brand new Korg Triton Ex88. Please reply to my email so I can get
your details and we can discuss getting it sent to you. Thanks for entering
and I will speak with you soon

Kind Regards,

at first i thought this was a joke - until i went to the youtube discussion group and saw that this is apparently how winners are being notified.

that said, i replied asking how they could've awarded me the keyboard prize given that i withdrew my entry late on december 15? i'm curious what they actually judged - if it's the replacement vid, that's not an official entry... so how could i win? similarly, since i publicly withdrew, it seems they cannot award me the prize. very weird indeed!

wll have another fantasy camp blog posted tomorrow morning - suffice to say that it continues to be spectacular! we've already knockedout our beach boys song ("barber-ann", which may well give brian apoplexy when he hears our arrangement on sunday night), and have the guts in place of our original (kind of a weird prog-rock / funk number with yours truly fillingout a bunch of B3 arpeggios throughout). tomorrow (well, actually, a few hours from now) we work on our KISS tune - "detroit rock city". i've been blessed with a terribly talented band, and from what we're hearing, we're the team to beat. i love it!

oh, and the two keyboard guys - teddy andreadis of guns 'n roses and spike edney of queen, got a load of some of my elp covers this evening. both were left with their mouths hanging open, with spike shaking his head and repeating "why aren't you a working musician?". lol. seriously good for one's ego.

i'll keep you guys posted about my apparent youtube win... although i do not think it appropriate for them to have done so.

[MarkE]

David
Yeah man...it looks like this is for real. I was just up on the group reading through that long winded, boring thread by that Aneketria guy. So far keys, bass and drums have winners. Nobody from guitar has chimed in yet.

Given that there was no "official" way to resign from the contest I guess you are still in. WAY TO GO MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The bass winneer is mind numbing to watch. He wrote his own score on this.

The drum winner was solid too, although I didnt like his mix. MarkD sounded much better.

Here we have examples of two entries that played it straight up and one that was completely original. I guess they werent looking for playing it correctly.

I would ask if your having a great time at camp, but I know better! I've been following it. KNock em dead man...we are all proud of you. I expect pictures and vids for the web site when you get back :)

[Tarkus]

indeed (and good morning!). sure would be nice if i could somehow sleep past 6am... this now makes for ten total hours sleep in the last three days. eventually, i'm going to hit a brick wall if i can't get somemore sleep!

i suppose it is legit. i checked email and have the following reply:

We culled entries from time to time. So yours was viewed before you took it down.
Enjoy your time at the Rock n Roll Fantasy camp. We can discuss when you get back.
Best Regards,
Kenny

I sent him a reply back that my intent is to donate it to Cape Coral High School - but because I'm on the road I don't have any of the contact info with me (so I'll get back with him late next week).

Hey, if nothing else, this is gonna make for an interesting story to tell over breakfast!

With that, I have a blog to write and a shower to take. ttyl...[/i]

[SilverHamer]

See there, you can run but you can't hide David! It is not surprising at all to any of us that you won the contest, but it is a bit surprising that you won in spite of withdrawing from the contest. I think you deserved to win anyways.

R&R Fantasy camp sounds like a real kick and I'll bet you are having the time of your life in spite of lack of sleep...hey, it's ROCK N ROLL, Baby! LOL!

[Tracy]

That's freaking awesome David! You must be having a totally mind blowing weekend between both events! I'm so happy for you. Keep your blog up when you can, I'm enjoying reading whats going on there.

How flipping exciting!

Just a suggestion though...you may want to consider putting your entry back on the TSO-youtube page. When they post the list of winners, everyone's going to want to see the winner submissions.

[MDDRUMZ]

David - Excellent work, my man! There really was no other choice for top performance. So it's very refreshing to see that despite all that transpired between your early entry (SO long ago it seems) and now, the judges made an intelligent and fair decision. You must be on Cloud 9!

Now win that Battle of the Bands at RRFC and do us all proud all over again! :D

[SilverHamer]

I finally got around to finding out who all the winners of the contest were and I was surprised by two of them, and not surprised at all with the other two. I told my wife that the winner of the guitar category was going to win when I first watched it way back when. The mountain of Marshalls, the stance, the hair, the showmanship, the little trill insert, his performance was great. Nor was I surprised with Dave winning.

The Bass surprised me...even though the guy does a fantastic job with the tapping and all, he's not playing the song the way you'd expect...but perhaps that is what clinched it for him.

The Drummer did a good job, but MarkD's performance, mix, sound, etc. was superior to the winner's in my opinion. And I don't say that out of being biased either.

[MarkE]

I agree Larry, specially about MarkD. Mark was easily was better all around.

The bass guy really smokes. I can do most of that shit but decided not to. I must say though that he blended it well and has lightening fingers. A top notch player indeed. I think he deserved the win but I would have picked others.

perhaps next time I should participate in an "Old Fart's Beatles Contest" Perhaps there I might have a chance :)

[SilverHamer]

perhaps next time I should participate in an "Old Fart's Beatles Contest" Perhaps there I might have a chance :)

HEY!!! Now THERE'S a COOL IDEA! Something like that would be a lot of fun, not only to participate in but to set up and judge! If I were a marketing whiz I would try to figure out how we could get sponsored and figure out what the prizes would be...and we'd have to pick a song with all of the instruments...yada yada yada. I doubt there would be very much participation if there were no prizes for the winners...but then again you just never know.

But, if I were to get involved on THAT level, I would probably have to bow out of participating...so nevermind. ;)


HAHA

Peace to All!

LC

[Tarkus]

an update: after a couple days of phone tag i finally spoke with the music director at cape coral high school. i explained how the donation came about - and, like many, when he heard "trans-siberian orchestra" he thought i had been in the old soviet union or something! :P he then wondered as to the make and model - when i asked if he knew what a korg triton extreme 88 was, there was a second of silence, then a loud "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" with giddy laughter... followed by repeated thank yous. i guess that means he knows what it is! 8)

at any rate, it feels kewel to be able to make this happen. and, as i've written to others, were it not for owning both the kurzweil pc2x AND the korg triton rack i would've kept it for myself... but since it would've been redundant, why not see what philanthropy feels like? (answer: it feels pretty good)

btw, tso is blown-away that i'm doing this - and has promised me comp'd tix for the florida shows late this year. kind of a pay it forward once again.

off to golf now, boys and girls... be good! :)