​November 2023 Blog Post: Editing finished => Time to mix the new Better Than The Book album + INKtober hiphop with Cyberdevil, an exclusive beat download for Patreon supporters, more guitar/gear videos, a World Beyond music video + more!

Hi everyone and man oh man has it been a busy month of October! There's a tonne of stuff to share this time so let's get straight to it!

Firstly in the news for this month, a huge update to share as Better Than The Book's upcoming album is now edited and ready to start mixing! That's 14 tracks all ready to hit the mixer this coming month (and beyond), and man oh man have I been looking forward to this! That's not to say there won't be any further editing at all, but things are sounding pretty solid right now! It's really just a case of polishing things up now and bringing out the best in every track. Super exciting, though I'm sure it'll still be a few months until everything's complete and ready to release! In any case, I'm positive the album will be out in 2024, so look forward to more BTTB in the new year!

Next this month, my good friend Cyberdevil has been up to his usual INKtober challenge for the 5th year in a row, where he writes and records a rap every day of October, and as usual I've thrown a beat his way to provide some backing and inspiration! It was an especially fun challenge for me this year as after spending so much time editing BTTB stuff on the computer, I decided to compose and live perform the beat entirely with my first ever groovebox, the KORG EM-1 Electribe. It's only got a set selection of sounds and effects in it, unlike a sampler or DAW where you can record your own sounds into it, but the limitations make it a super fun sketchpad to play and compose with. It gives you what it has, and it's up to you to make the best of it! I ended progamming and then live mixing/performing the beat, then giving it a quick mastering style polish in Ableton before sending it CD's way for him to lay down an oldschool rap verse and what a great performance he gave too! The track even went onto receive a Front Page Feature Award on Newgrounds.com which is super cool! Check out our Inktober collaboration "Pool Party" below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1258761

And if you're a Patreon supporter, you have an exclusive download of the instrumental beat to download too! Head here to become a supporter for as little as $1 a month and get ALL past rewards including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun Discographies and tonnes more as soon as you sign up. Enjoy and hope to see you over there!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

On top of that, after watching some of my YouTube guitaring videos, CD got inspired to rap over one of my Guillotine Switching riffs too! It's very rough and ready but I very much appreiate the word being spread, and super happy to hear my guitaring has people inspired! Check out "The Guillotine Switch Pitch" Below: 

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1252434

AND if that's not enough my twin Eamon also threw a beat in for the first time this year too! Completely different vibes to mine and I think Cyberdevil and Eamon worked well on this one too! Check out "Rockstar Inc" Below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1258481

And if you feel like catching up with the full INKtober2023 month, here's a link to the full playlist below. It's quite a ride!

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlist/319932/inktober-2023

Next on the list, it's onto another good musical friend Vlad from World Beyond who's been busy making music videos for his revisited Winter Legend EP! The video series concluded yesterday with a full on music video to the track Everything We Stand For which I played acoustic guitar on! Check out some top notch WB video editing and some cute hedghogs, and feel free to revisit the Winter Legend EP too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slX8_6h5BNA

Finally it's onto the gear and guitar videos for the month and it's another 2-a-week packed playlist for you with some more fun Guillotine Switching (including my best numetal DJ impression), some extra guitar techniques and alternative tunings, messing with effects and sound design and more! Here's the usual playlist link with the added videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And here's a list of the latest additions:

• This octave tapping guitar lick sounds a lot faster than my fingers are moving
• Another Short Guillotine Switching Riff on my homemade doubleneck guitar!
• When the Numetal DJ doesn't show up but you have your homemade doubleneck guitar!
• Angels and Airwaves Tom Delonge guitar tone in 3 pedals
• Stumbling into CGDGAD tuning on guitar
• The Veldt - Deadmau5 short cover Roland J-6, Tr-08 , KORG Volca Keys Synths
• Home made Leslie 18 / Vibratone style rotary speaker cabinet demo with Guitar
• Guitar effect shootout: Detune vs Rotovibe vs Phaser vs Tremolo vs Chorus vs Flanger vs Real Rotary!
• Digitech Whammy pedal on Organ sounds unreal and dreamy!

Hope you enjoy them and there's much more to come in the coming month!

And that about wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a pre-mix demo for a bonus version of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight" from the upcoming album to look forward to! Looks like I'll be busy getting started on mixing that album in this coming month along with recording some more guitar/gear videos for the YT channel so I'm sure it'll be an exciting time! Until the next post, I hope you have a great month to come, enjoy all the new music and videos and fun stuff and thanks as always for supporting my work however you can! Take care and all the best and see you in December!

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$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/90192161
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding