The Debutante Hour - Croak, Hiss and Sputter

If I ever manage to fully comprehend the drums in this song, I may have to make a DTX of it. Just a super-charming, cute song, with a video to match.

Off topic, I will try to finish Inner Core soon. That's my current DTX-in-progress, but my computer messing up really threw me off my game.

Hirakawachi 1-chome - Yamiyo ni Umarete - DTXMania

This is Yamiyo ni Umarete ( 闇世に生まれて ), another song from the brother-duo, Hirakawachi 1-chome ( 平川地一丁目 ). It's not a particularly hard song, but it has a nice driving rhythm. This is one of the fastest simfiles I've ever made, work-time wise, maybe even faster than Rap Chop. It only took me about 3 hours (take that, Mr. Me!). My wife has been trying to get me to make a simfile of this forever, so I figured I'd crank it out....and it turned out pretty ok. I don't think anyone's going to get carpal tunnel playing this song, but we beginner drummers need songs too, so there.:p If you're looking for something more impressive, watch White Feathers.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?d0ch02m3mo0
http://rapidshare.com/files/344050568/Yamiyo_ni_Umarete.zip
http://www.billkwando.com/sim/Yamiyo_ni_Umarete.zip

Enjoy!

L'Arc~en~Ciel - White Feathers - DTXMania

The idea of doing this song originally seemed sorta silly to me...kind of a "for fans only" idea, because the it's so long and simple (in parts), but I think the fills and the bridge really balance it out and make it a good simfile.

It was a bit of a challenge fitting 6 toms into 3 lanes (2 cannon toms, a hi tom, mid tom, low tom, and floor tom), but I tried to make it as playable, fun and varietyish (made up word) as possible. You may notice that Sakura (their former drummer) is featured in all the graphics. Sakura was awesome, so I kinda made this a tribute to him.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jnzejydjl3t
http://rapidshare.com/files/343548505/White_Feathers.zip
http://www.billkwando.com/sim/White_Feathers.zip

I also made a sort of "Making of" video about this simfile, to make it easier for first-time viewers of my YouTube channel to understand what they're looking at:




I made the loading graphic from snaps I took in VLC, and I was so pleased with it, I made wallpapers out of it:



http://www.billkwando.com/senseoftime800x600.jpg
http://www.billkwando.com/senseoftime1600x1200.jpg
http://www.billkwando.com/senseoftime1440x900.jpg
(the last one is widescreen)


Anyway, commence comments!

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Kaze ni Kienaide - DTXMania

This is Kaze ni Kienaide ( 風にきえないで, "Don't Vanish in the Wind"). I really like this song, and the video for it, a lot. It makes me feel nostalgic for the 90's. Even though I didn't know L'Arc back then, the video is a very 90's style, and particularly evocative for me. It reminds me of stuff like Lisa Loeb, Singles, The Lemonheads, The Cure, and of course the video for Losing My Religion......by my favorite band, R.E.M. I think any video with a small room and a window in the back would remind me of that. Of course, this is a much more colorful room. The song definitely has that clean alt-rock sound that I've always gravitated to.

It's not a super heavy drum song, but I thought it would be a nice fun warmup song for any skill level. I thought making it would go by really quickly, but it didn't. It still took 3 days. Note to self: Stop living in denial. You will never finish making a DTX in one day.

I do find it amusing that Sakura still manages to throw some double bass into a light alt-rock song like this. For that reason, I've included both double bass and single bass drum versions....and for the first time in forever, I've done a medium diffculty version (and a 2BD and 1BD ver for them as well).

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/337550034/kazeni_kienaide_v1.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmmit2nznjw
http://www.billkwando.com/sim/kazeni_kienaide_v1.zip

Also, am I crazy, or is Hyde singing into a rock with a cord attached?



He appears to be listening to it here. Singing into a rock.....it doesn't get any more rock than that.

Comment, or I may have to hit you with Hyde's rock.

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Be Destined (Dune ver. & Live) - DTXMania

This is Be Destined, and it's easily my favorite song from Dune. My favorite was Shutting from the Sky first, then it was Floods of Tears.....but then I saw the live performance of Be Destined from Close by Dune, and that was it. It was one of those things where I decided I was gonna make the DTX one way for the other, but fortunately the drum parts are really cool (like Sakura's parts always are).

This is actually 2 different simfiles in one. It's both the album version and the live version from the Close by Dune video. It actually has a few small double bass parts. I do plan on going back and making an easier difficulty and a single bass drum version soon. The live version is a little faster than the studio version, and thus a little harder. This video shows both versions.


Download:

http://rapidshare.com/files/335538286/be_destined_dual_v1.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmii0jyh4yj
http://www.billkwando.com/sim/be_destined_dual_v1.zip

Check it out and comment!

お気軽に日本語でのコメントも快適です。 Googleの翻訳ツールを使ってそれらを読むことを試みます。 

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Floods of Tears - DTXMania

I originally started out listening to Hyde, but I'm really starting to appreciate L'Arc~en~Ciel. Since lots of DTX makers do simfiles of their newer stuff, I like to kick it Sakura-style sometimes. I was really proud of how Vivid Colors came out, and I've been listening to DUNE obsessively lately, so I really wanted to do Floods of Tears. I'm pretty proud of it. I think it's a really interesting song, with a lot of cool parts. Hopefully it's fun to play. I think I may be destined to do another song from DUNE.

Download:

http://rapidshare.com/files/330491248/Floods_of_Tears_v1.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/?jgymijcnm4h
http://www.billkwando.com/sim/Floods_of_Tears_v1.zip

Comment, or I may be forced to chase you down the street with a can of hair spray.

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Hurry Xmas - DTXMania

Merry Christmas! I've been working on this DTX, a little bit at a time, all year long. It's a really fun song...though the DTX looks pretty challenging in parts. The ride cymbal is a little hard to hear in the video, but not in the actual DTX.

Maoke Jackson was kind enough to help me synch it (I'm a little out of practice since I haven't made a DTX in a while), as well as contributing some ideas.... so a big thanks goes to him. I think it may still need a few tweaks before it's perfect. Suggestions & comments are welcome.

Download:

http://www.billkwando.com/sim/HurryXmasV1.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/323345193/HurryXmasV1.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/?ontymyzwlxm

I'm not dead!

Greetings, DTX-seekers! Due to some life/heath issues, I've been away for a while....but I wanted to post and say that I haven't given up on DTXing, and plan to fix the dead links soon!

I also have a special "Christmas Surprise" DTX on the way. Hmmm, I wonder what that could be?

I'm afraid to look at the page traffic at the moment, but if you're still keeping an eye on this page, thanks for your patience.

Watch out for ninjas,

Billkwando

George Washington *Version 2* New & Improved!

I'm enjoying my nice lazy 3-day weekend, chillin', eatin' Chinese food and playing Killer 7.....so I didn't feel like turning into "Crazy tunnel-vision DTX-makin' man" (which turns me into a zombie for about 10 hours), but I didn't want to not release anything at all.......so here it is:

A slightly more competent remake of my very first DTX simfile, about the nation's first badass. Only a little late for Independence Day. The Basic version is almost the same as my original version from last year. The Extreme version is harder, but still not "hard".

Download:

http://www.billkwando.com/sim/Washington_V2.zip

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IJE1BLJF

This one also has a preview, result images, and all the fancy stuff I didn't know how to do before. Funnily enough, I sampled the keysounds from the song when I originally made it, but I added a few new ones that I didn't know how to incorporate before.

Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump

This song is awesome. One of my favorite Beasties songs, and one of the best ones on Paul's Boutique. Lots of neat drumming action in this one. 95% of the keysounds are sampled from the song. It's probably not even worth trying to play this one with the keysounds turned off. It took about a week to do. I didn't rush or set any particular timeline for myself. It was kinda like "it's done when it's done". I was sick for the making of most of it, so that was probably for the best. I hope you guys enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it. Make it funky. Free James Brown!

Download:

http://www.billkwando.com/sim/beasties-shakeyorump.zip

Comments and snacks are appreciated.