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If I had the amount of followers on YouTube these audio engineers do, I'd honestly make my own video tearing these apart. The irony of these videos produced by audio engineers stating "the real reason today's music all sounds the same!" is that they are all saying the same things every other audio engineer is. and they're all wrong. This is a subject that really needs an experienced, old composer's perspective on. To his credit, Billy does passingly mention things like 120 bpm, loop packs and a lack of key changes, but his arguments are still mainly "Everyone is recording the same way." like what Rick Beato and Glen Fricker talk about. "No one is recording guitars with real mics! They're all using Superior Drummer! They're quantizing!" etc. Yet they cannot explain why so many different-sounding albums in popular music used and still use the Shure Sm57, Marshall JCM800, Celestion Speakers, 6L6 tubes, and a Gibson Les Paul or strat with DiMarzio super distortions. How come everyone who writes for an orchestra doesn't sound the same? It reminds me of how, back in my electronica phase, guys said not to use presets because "You'll sound like everyone else!", and then proceeded to plop down a four-on-the-floor (the only beat they know) with an offbeat or side chained, straight 16th note bassline just like everyone else. Guy...I don't think it's the patch you chose for the bass that is causing you to sound the same. Stuff sounds the same now because everyone is WRITING THE SAME MUSIC I don't know why this isn't obvious these guys; it should be obvious even to a layman. Like I said in the thread about "what makes a chord move poorly": This thinking in terms of "chord progressions" is one of the things making everything sound identical, as is the dominance of "ostinato". It's just crazy to me that someone out there is laying down "epic" drums and plunking in that "root-third" 8th note ostinato every trailer piece plays on the violas and thinks to himself "...I'll bet if I had my own string library, I'd sound unique!" Granted, I do think that it helps to an extent. I don't think anyone else's mockups sound quite like mine due to me having a rather unique collection, but this by itself would not be enough. I like to lean into genre tropes, but as @PeterthePapercomPoser accurately noticed in my latest cinematic-metal track, the guitar riff is a seamless mix of Phrygian and the diminished scale. Most metal bands today would stick to the Phrygian the whole way through the song. Curious to hear your thoughts. In my opinion, it is a more damning report on the current state of the music industry that everyone seems oblivious to the obvious decline in craftsmanship at the songwriting stage than it is that everyone is using Superior Drummer.

I liked what i heard but it cuts off (at least for me) only after about a minute. If you upload an updated version, I'd love to hear it.

Guilty as charged

Much appreciated! I myself cannot play the piano at all so your comments about its playablity are particularly helpful.

Hi @AngelCityOutlaw! Dang! I love the main overdrive guitar shredding those power chords, at first in C Phrygian and then you go to what sounds like a modified octatonic scale (C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, and Bbb). Very cool sounding riff! Thanks for sharing this demonic doom metal instrumental!

Hi @UncleRed99! I love this piece! It's damp and full of emotion in a very nonchalant way which I think is a characteristic feature of music from Japan and China informed by Western music. It's nice and bittersweet like something out of an Anime. I don't hear anything about the piece that sounds rusty or flawed in any way. I love the saxophone! It's just overflowing with passion and/or sadness. It's one of those pieces that's a bit emotionally ambiguous as emotions sometimes tend to be. The harmony suggests melancholy but the melodic contour suggests hope. It's also very well produced and the rendition is excellent! Congrats on an excellent collaboration and thanks for sharing!