Marcato

Would you care to expand a little more on your past experience or give a sample of what you've done before? I'd like to know a little more about you and your playing if you can provide. Alrighty, could be a good experience for the rest of us in writing sheet music, though you've got some competition in the piano spot you should know! I'll get back to you as I find out more this weekend, after I talk to a few other folks that are trying out some of their instruments. I've gotten your contact request and would love to chat sometime this weekend! Today I'm already fully booked, but I'm totally available tomorrow pretty much all day. Woah. Okay. I'm sold. That *is* perfect. We're looking for something exactly like that celtic sound for the earth ponies and for the rest of ancient equestria. I also know another project I might be able to get you in on that's looking for the same style as well that I'm a part of... details on Skype, I'll explain there.

Well well, not bad! I like it! You're definitely quite a good pianist, and the piano sounds alright too. I think it could use some audio mastering, but we can provide that I think. Not that this will make or break anything, but can you play music by ear? Also, can you improvise or spice/touch-up existing music, or do you just purely read sheet music?

Well what about your microphone? What have you got for that? The quality of your microphone is what really makes or breaks it. I too use Audacity myself when mixing mastering and recording.

Haha, no worries about age here, we just want talent and passion. The real question is can you record your trumpet? If you have the ability to record your trumpet and for it to sound good, we might be able to fit it in. I'm all game for trying new things.

Hey, I really like some of this stuff... particularly the "Ponified" track. It reminds me a lot of the soundtrack from the Portal games. (Fantastic games...) You've got some good progression and well mastered/balanced effects. Hmm... and banjo... not sure how well we can fit that into an album as serious-toned as Chaos and Harmony, but I think I recall bluegrass not being your stereotypical bouncing banjo. Either way I'm keeping you in contact, not only as a critic and reviewer, but as another musician that covers a niche I'm not so familiar with but have a great interest in. I have always loved the concept of mixing electronic with orchestra, so we'll definitely have to keep in touch... Hey give yourself a little more credit! There's some nice guitar stuff in there, some nice chord progressions and overall a nice sounding solo guitar. We may have use for an acoustic guitar, and we're plenty open to guest musicians. I'd also like to put you on the list of critics as someone to send our stuff to for some feedback as the album is worked on.

Greetings, fellow musicians and pony lovers. I am Marcato; a composer, violinist, and hopefully all around resplendent person, and I want you to be in the Chaos and Harmony project. To explain a little more, me and a few other mostly-brony musicians have gathered together to work on a very large music project; an album if you will. This album is planned to revolve around two genres. Soundtrack/orchestral, and metal. (Yes, they can be mixed together.) Although that’s not all. My fellow musicians and I are very passionate about music, and we have extensive plans and goals we intend to meet for both our project and our futures in music. What we wish to accomplish, is to weave a story into our music, a powerful and emotional story, and to have that reflect through the instruments themselves. This story is a tale that’s become almost classic at this point; Equestria’s struggle against Discord, primarily of the princesses Celestia and Luna overthrowing him one thousand years before the events of the mane six. Currently, we are a group of four musicians, going by the title or band name Aluminum. Among us are also some studio technicians, and other audio critics to help us out. However in order to accomplish our goal, we’re going to need much, much more. For this project, we’re looking for musicians, voice actors, artists, and yes even writers! We want to ensure the greatest quality we can muster from our indie music skills, and create the closest thing we can to a masterpiece, and we want you folks to help us achieve it! If you would like to see more specifically what we’re looking for, scroll down to the “What we’re looking for” section. A little about the project… We are not a serious group of people. http://pastebin.com/WBVMYEF0 So far we’ve never been ones to care for limiting formats and methods, we just like to keep things organized to some extent and keep things casual. We generally try to keep away from deadlines and prefer to call them “goals” rather than deadlines that must be met, that way they remain flexible and stress-free. A little about the album… The album, as you know, revolves around the overthrowing of chaos, and the prevailing of harmony, hence the name “Chaos and Harmony.” It attempts to tell the story of Celestia and Luna’s rise to power, and their triumph over Discord, spirit of chaos. This story is not intended to be cannon, but rather a fictional interpretation and theory of what transpired before and around the events seen in Twilights flashback in the Season 4 pilot episodes. Progress on the album itself is coming along quite well, given that it was really started three months ago. The concept for this album and project has been around for over two years now, but it wasn’t until recently that I and my fellow musicians finally acquired the skills needed to pull off this feat. Currently there are three tracks completely written, with the recordings having been started on one of them, and the layout of several others known. The album is planned to have a total of 13 tracks dedicated to the story, with a few unrelated bonus tracks also written and performed by the Aluminum group for a little extra content. Track list: A little about the Aluminum group/band… Well I’ve already mostly explained who we are and what we’re doing, but to expand on us a little more, I’ll detail what our goals are for us as a group. Most of us all plan on some day turning our passion for music into a profession one day, and only now has that dream truly become a reality with the work on this album. We’d all like to someday perform on stage, but that’s looking quite far ahead at the moment seeing as half of us are scattered across North America. Current primary members of the band include: · Matthew “Marcato” on violin and vocals(?), composition · James “Ice Storm” on rhythm and/or lead guitar, composition · Drew “Normally Average” on drums · Dysen Katzel on bass As a band, we are in fact looking for additional members, primarily a vocalists and another guitarist, with the possibility of a keyboardist being uncertain at the moment. But that brings me to the next topic! What we’re looking for… Spoiler'd for size... Conclusion WE NEED YOU. PROBABLY. So please, contact us! Even if you think you don’t have a shot, please just say something! If you don’t apply to join the project, then who will? Less people, that’s who. You never know, maybe you’ll even surprise yourself! On a closing note, here’s a preview featuring live instruments of what we’ve got. (Minus vocals and narration.) https://soundcloud.com/aluminumband/chaos-and-harmony-album-preview Questions? Thoughts? Concerns? We’d love to hear ‘em. Fire away! But first I'm going to bed. Because I am exhausted from a long day of music. I will respond on the morrow! Contact and find us at the following locations: Twitter | Facebook | Youtube Okay you can stop taking me seriously now. Implying you might have been before. Woot woot?

There was a Minecraft Survival server. In fact there have been two or three in the past that I was actively involved in. The problem is, managing it became a serious problem with little outcome for the community, as Minecraft frequently updated, breaking all the plugins and such. Not many people actually played on the server. Though it was talked about and made openly available to people on the forums, there simply weren't enough people regularly playing. Players are attracted to servers with more players; something we didn't have, and have struggle to get. Part of this could be my fault, as I didn't dedicate a ton of time and effort into the Minecraft side of things, as I had other things to do on the site and on the gaming project back then. Nevertheless the problem came down to management and popularity. It was a lot of work keeping the Minecraft server going at a high quality, and very few people used it. I don't know what PoniArcade has been doing since I left, but from the sounds of things they'll likely be reviving it eventually. I'm sure you're more than free to make your own private server and invite some MLP Forums members to join you via status update or blog post though.

Just look at her. Thinking she's so fabulous. I mean look at that eyeshadow. She's so modern. And that mane and tail, so stupid. bad oc :u [/badjoke]

Posts like this are a breath of fresh air. It's becoming more and more uncommon that the staff are challenged to think of something, and that usually promotes healthy growth in the forum and community. Usually. While I can understand the reasoning from which you're complaining, there is one thing I'd like to address. I am not here to agree or disagree with your viewpoints on the staff, or the users, as I simply have not been active enough, but this part of your post caught my attention and I believe requires a response that may or may not have already been stated. Every community is different. From forums, to gaming server networks, to chatboards. Before you say that "I'm a moderator on a different forum and therefore know the struggles and issues," take a look at this community. In fact, take a look at this network. Compare it to the one in which you are a staff member. Now there's a lot that can be deemed different. The most significant ones though I'm going to name: What fandom is this forum of yours for? Bronies are an infamously over-dramatic fandom, that, while yes there are also many incredibly reasonable people in it, is a bloated fandom with a surprisingly large share of not-so-reasonable people and emotional teenagers like myself. How large is this forum you are on? The number of users vastly affects the kind of community that is being run. It affects the rules, it affects the staff, and of course, affects the people you'll be dealing with. I was a staff member here, and let me tell you dealing with debates and arguments is the absolute worst among this community, and this community can already be extremely chaotic and difficult to handle. (Especially since it's grown a good 5,000 users since I resigned.) By what rules and system is your forum staffed? This is everything. I needn't say much about this as I think it's pretty straight forward. Those are the largest things I wanted to point out, as I think you're missing a very large part and making an inaccurate statement claiming that you know what it's like. Though yes, you have presented some good points that I hope will be given some thought by the staff, namely in regards to the debate pit and its purpose, you must realize that the staff are, in fact, volunteers. I'll give you credit, you're pretty genre-savvy on the whole "what the staff does and should do on here" discussion, as it's one I've seen and discussed often, and very rarely do people open their argument acknowledging counter arguments such as "We already have enough responsibilities as it is." That doesn't exempt you from that little piece of info. It doesn't stop being true nor does it become any less of a problem. You've not debunked the argument, it's still a true and unfortunate reality. This is why, at least while I was here, the staff were actually assigned places they should focus most of their attention on. I'll admit though, this wasn't exactly very effective back then because all moderators really had equal power and just focused on dealing with reports. Debate pit only popped up sometimes, and last I checked there was no moderator assigned to the debate pit specifically. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, mods.) Basically, what I'm trying to say is, attempting to relate with the staff is really hard to do when you're talking as though you're disregarding they're problems and struggles and saying they should suck it up and do their job. Though that may not be what you intended to say that is definitely what it sounds like to me as an ex-mod after reading your post.

Good luck.

Because when it comes down to it, in this politically correct world, everyone is in the right, and everyone is in the wrong. Opinion is everything, there is no longer any "fact" in anything. The amount of time it took you to become a staff member is irrelevant. The amount of HOURS you have on here, is irrelevant. It's all numbers, don't make the mistake I did in thinking those numbers display how deserved you are of a position. Forgive me, but arrogance is berserk button #3 for me. I already know that if you respond to this blog again, you are simply going to deny arrogance, and claim that everything you stated is your opinion. I do know you well enough to say that you were accusing me and that you are the one being biased here. Do not try to tell me about bias, when you are coming to me telling me Poniverse is not run like a business. And so, I'm going to drop the famous cure-all phrase "It's my opinion and you can't hurt me!" and promptly get the fuck out of here. Thank you~

I've been on the Homestuck forums of over 60,000 people and they do not run their forum like this. Honestly, most of what you're saying just sounds like damage control to me. :/

Well... no offense but you've never exactly been in the moderation Skype groups. :/ You can't claim something is well run when you haven't seen the full scale of it. When a site focused on a childrens TV show starts getting a Public Relations team and begins descending its forums into politics, I don't consider that well run. The way I see it, well run means "this is what everyone wants and everyone needs" and as far as I'm aware, the excessive business atmosphere is not what everyone wants, and honestly with the amount of non-staff voices that have complained, there's obviously something wrong.

To be fair, I do see where the reasoning of Poniverse's business-like system comes from. They've gotten so large that they need to have more organization and structure. Unfortunately, I do think that a lot of it has been influenced by several peoples preferred career interests. There's at least one person who was brought on the team who claimed to be going into business and management as a profession. (To which my reaction was "oh shit")

I didn't want to make a public thread because some information is a little too person for the entire server to see. Rest assured I made a full massive Marcato-length post in the super secret staff sections~<3 So, yeah! I've resigned from Poniverse and the forums as a whole! Yeah shit happened. Long story short, I realized I was staying in Poniverse for the wrong reasons. Poniverse and it's staff have become far too business like and every time I try to fix something, or even anyone else tries to fix a seriously problem with how Poniverse is run it becomes all talk and no action. I won't say any names, but I just became too sick and damn tired of the emotionless staff among the group and the fact that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Truth be told, as "great" as mods and men apparently was (which was generated by just me getting pissed off), my passionate fire kind of died after a few bad happenings within the Poniverse staff communications. I lost a lot of faith in the Poniverse staff and honestly see where some of the previous staff that inspired me before are coming from. They warned me of everything that happened, and they were right. I don't regret my decision to leave Poniverse. Not in the slightest. It's been long coming really. I know that my true friends will remain my friends even beyond Poniverse, and I know that if my words meant anything to the staff at least one heart will be set ablaze. There's always at least one person within the staff trying to find the answer and successfully achieve what their predecessors could not. And what might that be you ask? Fixing the problem cycle and making Poniverse focus on what it was made for: Bronies. P.S. If you'd like to do something, you could always tell the staff how much you love them again. That worked last time right? :3