As Anton has wrote in his The Devils Notebook he was an advocate of artificial human companions. A thought crossed me, what about artificial musical companions? Myself, in my own environment I find that I would much rather be surrounded by my own self-created atmospheres, my own subjective universe. Music can create for me entire worlds and atmospheres in themselves. Many times back in high school days I was allowed to entertain this concept with a like minded musically inclined friend. In class I couldn't wait long enough to escape into our musical chamber and create and compose. Percussion, keyboard, and guitar was our evocation triangle. Moreso these days it seems that music is more worthwhile and interesting than company.

Just a thought.

Hail the Drum Kit!

Have you ever seem a movie called The Abominable Dr. Phibes and a movie called Dr. Phibes Rises Again?

If not, then I recommend that you buy a copy of both films and check them out. Dr Anton Phibes plays the organ in a wonderful art – deco inspired total environment with a band of artificial human companions, who play along with him or else set the background music when he and Vulnavia dance together.

The comparisons between Dr. Phibes and Dr. LaVey are quite remarkable I think and the Phibes movies were important to Dr. LaVey.

I feel that what Dr. LaVey did in the Den of Iniquity was of great magical power. It is just genius I think.

That image of the magician at the keyboards in his space with his companions is such a powerful image for me.

This may sound strange, but if the environment is truly historically authentic and the human companions have taken on their own life then the magician has truly stepped back in time. I mean he is there back in the 1930’s or the 1940’s etc. That is magical.

Guy Hoffman at Georgia Institute of Technology created a robot (Shimon) that can improvise jazz music.

Here's a small article with a video about Hoffman and Shimon:

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2261

That is some really cool stuff from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Technology these days is unbelievable.

Q: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
A: On a drum machine, you only have to punch in the information once.

(Apologies to Warlock Gausten, Warlock HellofallHells, etc. .)

I think many people have already been using "artificial musical companions" for years, in some form or another. Synthesizers have done jobs that you formerly needed entire orchestras for. Most parties have a single DJ instead of a band. There are lots of looping and sampling programs on the market that allow people with no musical skills to drop in different samples from musicians who aren't there, and construct songs.

As a musician myself, I've gotten more done when I've had other musicians and we'd bounce ideas off each other. Though even then, you can put together programs that will use AI to establish things like beats and chord progressions.

I DO find it very curious though that people immediately start raising a fuss when you make a device anthropomorphic. I don't hear too many people whining about drum machines, but when you have something like this, the whole technology-phobia rants seem to fly:

I had no idea the Rock-afire Explosion came from Alabama, that's neat. When I was a kid I had similar interests in animatronics, specifically when I visited Chuck E. Cheese's. If I had the resources I would pursue interests in animatronics. Namely for ritual purposes.

This was just too damn irresistible...

Many many years ago I worked as a roadie with various bands and there was this girl who used to do various wardrobe and accommodation services for bands that visited Oslo, Norway. She had a hobby and that hobby was to "collect" sexual experiences with famous rock stars. A groupie, in other words (although not by strict definition).

Anway, she came to see a band off as they left town after having gone to the after-show party, met, chatted up, and spent a great night with their drummer. But he was nowhere to be seen so she approached one of the other band members to enquire about this. "Drummer?" the guy said, a little perplexed. "What do you mean drummer? We use pre-programmed drum machines."

I use Guitar Pro to write, so the program will play along all the parts necessary. I'm begging to start a band now because it's a bit more difficult to write the parts for 6 people that just one or two, So I would never discredit the use of extra people.

Guitar Pro is such an amazing tool, my main band uses it for most of our composing and individual rehearsing. Just being able to write and email files back in forth with bandmates is such a convenience.

I personally love to surround myself with music whether is being writing and composing my own music for myself or working with other like minded musicians. I'm a bassist and a guitarist, but I'm not too talented with drums or writing beats, but with Guitar Pro I can program out a basic Idea for a riff and send it to my drummer who can then add his style and/or improve on the beat.

Adveser, what genre of music do you compose?

Well, I try not to think about it, but my influences are Power and Progressive Metal, New Wave and I listen to all kinds of rock music. They are all written the same in my opinion at their core, it's just the tonality and technique that shifts between genres.

The only complaint I have is that Guitar Pro can't translate intricate guitar rhythms I have in my head (this is my fault, due to my limitations of writing music "on paper"), so I usually have to use something less complex for demos util I can record a real guitar. I'm not the first to use the method of starting off simple and making it more complex as I go.

My band used Guitar Pro as well, without it we probably would have not remembered half of our material. Anyone used the new version of Guitar Pro? From what my friend tells it's the best version to date.

I'm currently using the mac version of GP5.3.1B(beta). I recently switched to Mac, and I'm not sure if the GP I have has a different layout or if its because its the Mac version of GP, but I prefer the GP5.2 for PC layout better. Then again I'm still figuring out the bells and whistles of the new one.

The death metal band that I'm in rarely practices together as a band due to busy and different schedules between me and my bandmates. Fortunately we have everything written and arranged in guitar pro, so we all practice individually to the GP file. All we need is one or two practices to get a new song tight with each others playing because of this.

adveser, you may be interested in checking out some of the powertab or GP files from different bands that are on www.riversofgore.com
All the tabs are very accurate and its all technical death metal for the most part, you may be able to pick apart some of the tabs on there to learn how various intricate guitar rhythms were programmed and tabbed out to aid in your own composition.

Thank you for the tip. I appreciate it, sir.