blackout

Back in the day, I loved WFTE->Blackout and Blackout->W&K on A Thousand Suns. It is still a fantastic trio for me, but I don't have any explanation for that. Now when I think about this, my favourite would be probably Papercut->OSC. Both are iconic LP songs, and there is that specific sound at the end of Papercut that always makes me want to hear One Step Closer. When it comes to other albums, I very much enjoy One More Light to Sharp Edges on OML. One of the saddest song LP has ever written is followed by one of the most uplifting songs I have ever heard. Sharp Edges is like the ultimate acknowledgment of the past and mistakes within it. It has a nostalgic vibe and I'm glad that the band put it as a closer on the album because it really fits there, in my opinion - especially after Chester's death. I can't come up with anything more. Maybe honourable mentions would go to Final Masquerade->ALITS, The Catalyst-> The Messenger, In Pieces->TLTGYA and APFMH->Forgotten.

11 hours ago, PurpleFlinstoneVitamins92 said:

Midnight here and can’t find the song on Spotify 

It's up on Spotify already: https://open.spotify.com/album/6N2WfLgBPl7LBg6lUbw1AV

3 minutes ago, martinez said:

So according to what Mike said, you will get not a song but a mov video file with the song. Yes the preview on the Zora site is in mov format. And according to some Mike's tweets the preview is exactly the thing what you will get (yes the full video has 37 seconds).

This is getting even more ridiculous. 

The rap in this "GATS demo" sounds like the bits of "Petrified" rap mixed together. The way Mike pronounces the words in "Petrified" is very characteristic and different than in any other song. It definitely reminds me of "Petrified" - that's why the lyrics doesn't make much sense. The beat is not very LPish too, I think, and it seems to be a fan-made demo in general.

The problem is partially solved, at least for now. I found another tracking number on the American DHL tracking website and it was a code that I could put on the tracking website for my local post office. It worked and it turned out that the American DHL tracking website really didn't update the status of the shipment. It's strange that it stopped tracking, I don't know why. The local tracking site showed me that the package reached Poland on the 8th of December and it's in transit to the destination. It's believable so I am just waiting for now. I hope it'll be with me soon.

Please, don't delete this thread because it may be useful if the shippment doesn't go according to my expectations once again. Thanks for your reply, hahninator!  

Hello all,

When there was a stream of Projekt Revolution 2002 with various bundles on linkinpark.com store, I bought myself the biggest one for Christmas. It was said that the shipment will start early December. On the 18th of November, I got the notification on my e-mail that my order is being shipped with a DHL tracking number. It was going nicely on the DHL tracking site until the 22nd of November. From this day, it is stuck on "PROCESSED AT EXPORT FACILITY" (in the USA) and nothing seems to happen. I had been waiting for around four weeks and two days ago I contacted linkinpark.com support. They told me that once the item leaves the USA, the DHL tracking site doesn't show the real status of the shipment. It was also said in the e-mail that I may pay some additional fees once it reaches Europe (?) but it seems improbable since I paid a lot for the international shipment already. I live in Poland and when I put the tracking number on the Polish website of DHL, it shows me the same information as on the American one. 

Did you have a similar experience when you ordered something from Linkin Park official store to Europe? Maybe someone had a shipment to Poland like me? Is it normal that the status is the same for so long? Will I really have to pay some additional money? I am afraid that my shipment is lost somehow or I'll need to bother with some additional actions.

1 hour ago, PeppePark said:

Did you get another answer after you wrote your address?

I'd like to know if they will inform us about the shipping and if we'll get a tracking number, or they just send the package and that's it 😂

No, I didn't. I sent them my shipping address and there was no response after that.

40 minutes ago, JediAHoles said:

Not all of us. Rip

Maybe it depends on the day you sent them the first e-mail. I did it almost right after the e-mail address appeared on LP's Twitter.

13 minutes ago, PeppePark said:

Got an answer from Warner, they asked for my shipping address!

Me as well! It seems like they responded to all of us today. Good!

9 hours ago, Astat said:

HTEP was most likely meant to showcase new material written with Chester rather than re-hashing anything they had done before that. When they got signed to do a whole album, they pulled from their entire backlog of songs for potential album material.

HTEP was before the Carousel/Part of Me demos (the version of And One on the demos CD is the same recording as the HTEP). Song arrangements changed, stuff was re-recorded. No different than something like the Xero Stick N Move getting deconstructed and made into LP Stick N Move and then getting deconstructed again and made into Runaway. The only reason the HTEP sounds better is they threw more money at it than the demos, half of it was done in a professional studio with a proper producer (Mudrock). The majority of the other pre-HT demos were done in their little rehearsal studio.

I don't even think the HTEP sounds THAT much better than the demos, listen to how pretty much the entire backing track to High Voltage is programmed and Step Up clearly doesn't have real drums on it. The bump in quality is really only evident on Carousel, And One, and Part of Me, and those are the tracks they did with Mudrock.

Thank you. I'm glad that someone came up with more extensive and logical explanation to me because it all didn't make sense to me. Now I get it fully. 

One thing that I maybe don't understand is why they decided to continue working on such songs like Carousel of Part of Me. They definitely had the intention to put one or two songs from HTEP on HT. However, I wouldn't have liked it personally - the vibe of the EP is much different than the album and songs from HTEP kinda belong together nicely where they were initially.

But then again, wouldn't it be more logical to throw more money at demo CDs than at HTEP? HTEP seems to be a very underground release while the demo CDs contain much stronger material (Papercut or POA early versions) and were sent to various labels. I don't doubt the facts that you presented, just thinking out loud. 

I've already brought up this topic on shoutbox, but I decide to write about it here since this topic really bothers me. 😂 I cannot really get the relation (if I can call it like this) between Hybrid Theory EP and Hybrid Theory (album). The thing I cannot understand is why they chose to put songs such as Carousel and And One on HTEP while they already had tracks like Esaul or Rhinestone, which they eventually released on their debut album (therefore, probably thought that they're better than songs like And One or Part of Me). 

What is more, on CDs such as the 9-track demo or 8-track demo, there are songs such as Part of Me or And One (obviously, from HTEP) but they sound much more demo-ish than the versions released on HTEP, even though most of these demo CDs were released in 1999 or 2000, which is after (I guess?) the release of HTEP. Did they decide to re-record some HTEP songs and consider to put them on HT (but then again, why do they sound more demo-ish?)? And why did they decide not to release Esaul or Rhinestone on HTEP (maybe they even had other tracks like POA ready since it appears on demo CDs) if they had probably liked them better than the tracks from HTEP?

Phoenix in this hair colour looks crazy. 😂 I actually find this era of the band very interesting. I know I've said it a thousand times already but I'd love to see a video from Xero performance one day. There would be an interesting setlist, for sure. Maybe Pictureboard or Dialate live. 

4 minutes ago, mrfox said:

How much is shipping to EU or Poland?

I don't know the exact number yet, but obviously it'll be expensive. I just thought that if someone doesn't want to use the discount code that was supposedly sent to every member of LPU, I'd take it. It'd be really helpful for me as the bundle is expensive in itself and I've already bought the biggest box for HT20. 🙃

Does anyone have a discount code from LPU and WON'T buy any of the bundles? I'm considering buying the ultimate bundle because I'd love to finally have an official LP tee and guitar picks. I'm not in LPU so if anybody didn't want to use the discount code, I'd gladly take it. I'd be really grateful for this since I'd need to ship it to Poland and it's extremely expensive. 

6 years ago I created a studio version of In Yourself/Pictureboard. It is a demo version of my remake (I planned to extend it furhter up and change some sounds but decided not to do it eventually), but you still can check it out: https://www.mediafire.com/?bdkb8yvlht9zifo. It's not awesome by any means - I've grown as a producer since then but it's a good example how Pictureboard can actually sound.

1 hour ago, LPLStaff said:

Didn't mean hardcore fans only, or mean to imply that only hardcore fans are the ones who pay $500. What I meant is that the higher priced packages are usually catered to those fans who are not casual fans of a band. $100 isn't enough for a box set release. It needs to be at least $200+.

What I mean is that even if I don't pay $500 for the best package possible, it doesn't mean that I'm not a hardcore fan. Even the most devoted fans cannot look at everything the band releases as something that they need to have, possibly just to prove that they're hardcore fans. Everybody needs to judge by themselves and see whether the most expensive package is really worth it or not.

1 hour ago, LPLStaff said:

 

The simple solution to that is to make package tiers. $100 casual fan + $250 mid tier + $500 hardcore fan.

I know it's probably not exactly what you meant but I don't like how you described the most expensive package as the one for the hardcore fans. It's not a case of being a hardcore fan or not. I'm a hardcore LP fan, but I simply wouldn't spend so much money on some "cool gadget-like stuff" that are just rare and that's the reason why they're so expensive. Of course, if a more expensive package was to include some rare live footage or something like this, I'd buy it. However, if I were to spend around 2000 PLN (I live in Poland) to get a different art cover or some additional photos, I would pass. It's not just a case of being a hardcore fan or not, sometimes it's about spending money responsibly.

54 minutes ago, vinifeijo said:

Is it the first LP-related biographic book?

There is a book written by Brad Whitaker called "Everything is a Hybrid" available in Poland, but I haven't even seen an English title for this one. I don't know if it's available worldwide or it has been published only in some countries then. 

I hope it'll be available in Poland. Would like to read it.

I'm a music producer and songwriter and I'm highly inspired by Mike so I try to closely follow more technical side of his music.

The streams that he's doing nowadays are really helpful. Still, to be honest, it's a hard question to answer. There is no one specific rule. His production on "Heavy" sounds different than his production on "World's On Fire", right? When it comes to the LP-sounding stuff, I think that it's a specific type of melody that is more important. I hope that you'll get what I'm saying - sometimes there is a feeling in the song that it is really LP-ish without any specific sound. Nevertheless, I don't have almost any theoretical background when it comes to music/songwriting so I won't dig into this. Maybe others will help you.

I can say something about his production though as I'm super into this part of Mike's music. He uses a lot of saturation/distortion (saturation more frequently, I believe), that's why his drums or synths often sound "dirty". Usually it's really subtle but it gives a specific type of sound that gives a cool flavour into the sounds. Mike also likes a lot of glitchy stuff. When you have this "stuttering" effect in a song, it's often him experimenting with a different plugins or cutting samples/loops into pieces to get that effect (he explained it on one of the early streams on the example of "In Stereo" outro). On the recent songs (LP/MS 2010s; A Thousand Suns and further up), he also uses a lot of 808s (Wretches And Kings, I.O.U, Until It Breaks to name a few). What I also found out from the streams is that he uses a lot of delay effects to get that "space" vibe. Obviously, there is a lot of reverb to get that "beautiful/epic" feeling in the tracks, but I think that every producer uses reverb so I don't know if it's even important. There may be something in a specific type of guitar that Mike's using - I play the guitar too, but I think that, for example, Astat can say more about this as I'm not a specialist; I'm not super into the technical stuff of guitars. What I can also say is that when I've been watching the streams, I am surprised that he doesn't use any unique VST plugins - a lot of stuff that I use too, like Massive, Kontakt, etc. Nothing special here, to be honest. His physical synths are more imporant - OP-1 is the one that he uses a lot and he creates many atmospheric sounds with it, which definitely give a lot of "Shinoda vibe". 

Besides the effects/plugins stuff, I can also say that his typical track structure is to build a verse around one/maximum two chords/notes only (frequently it sounds more agressive/heavier than the chorus) and then goes with a full chords progression in the chorus. The chorus sounds much "bigger" than verses then. I found it useful in songwriting in general, not only in creating LP-inspired songs. It simply often makes songs more interesting. 

To put it simply, there are a few "tricks" to make your tracks sound like Mike's/LP's ones, but there is no formula. I gave some examples of effects that he uses, but that's all that we can actually do. I think it all comes to listening to a lot of his stuff - sometimes I've got a feeling that I unintentionally copy his style in some of my tracks because I simply listen to a lot of LP/FM/MS songs and follow everything that is connected with how Mike produces tracks. To be honest, it's not really hard to recreate his signature style when you have some experience and are really into how he does stuff. I hope what I've written will be somehow helpful for you.

I like Volume 2 more than the first one. Both have their strenghts and weaknesses (I wouldn't really put tracks like Isolation Bird, Booty Down and Party Meow on my daily playlist, honestly, but I get the idea of them as songs purely created for fun), but the newest one seems to be more enjoyable in general. In my opinion, it is more coherent and a lot of the stuff sounds LP-ish. Also, as Diaux wrote - Volume 2 sounds more "serious", more like a proper album. I'd like to hear more transitions though. I know there are some but they are not as noticeable as on Volume 1. My favourites are Astral, Transitions and Sunset Drive. All in all, as I watch Mike's streams from time to time, I see that he works on these intrumentals only on the streams without changing them much afterwards. Thus, I really respect that he can create numerous cool instrumentals and create a solid album out of them. Seeing him working on this stuff is dope and the streams only show a part of his skills when it comes to making music and songwriting in general.

By the way, I don't care about the heavy instrumentals that he's doing on the streams as much as other people (I like them, but not all of them are my favourites), but I think he plans to put them all on one part of Dropped Frames (volume 3? maybe later). There are a lot of heavier stuff that was done on early streams but apparently, none of them have been released yet.

The titles kinda fit new stuff for LP, right? I feel like "Warriors" could be a great song for the LP comeback. They are warriors despite various obstacles. Maybe I go too far with this 😂

6 hours ago, PurpleFlinstoneVitamins92 said:

What is El Rey Demonio ? Also, curious to hear what you mean for WID 2021 version  nice setlist and pretty possible 

El Rey Demonio is one of the tracks from Dropped Frames, vol. 1.

I think that I'll do my setlist soon too! I've got pretty hyped for LP comeback after all the discussion that we had on shoutbox so I'll try to write something interesting.

22 minutes ago, LPLStaff said:

In high school, Rob had issues with alcohol and drugs. That was a very, very long time ago and before he even joined Xero. He could have, at that time, sworn off alcohol and drugs and not wanted to be around any of it any longer.

Thank you for clarification!

I wouldn't ever really or almost never would put alcohol on a rider when it was Linkin Park because of Chester and Rob.

Was Rob addicted to alcohol too? I didn't know that. He seems to be a guy with no addictions and stuff like that. Interesting.

32 minutes ago, PeppePark said:

After a while I got a new working title!

That's a nice find! Hope it's a LP demo.