Official Prototype TAB Book

[protokragen]

Hey Guys,

I'm working on an official Prototype TAB book, which I will hopefully be making available through Amazon.com as an eBook in the near future. It will contain 9 songs total, with 3 songs from each of our albums, as well as performance notes and other info about each song. So far I have 2 songs completely finished and one that is finished except for the solos. Keep in mind that doing these correctly is very time consuming. I would love to transcribe every one of our songs but I want to release something that's high quality and also has a variety of songs from all of the albums. At this point I am planning to include the following songs but would love to get some feedback.

Trinity
- Live A Lie
- Pure
- Trinity

Continuum
- The Way It Ends
- Seed
- Heart Machine

Catalyst
- Catalyst
- The Chosen Ones
- Communion

If you guys have any thoughts on the song choice or things you'd like to see included please let me know.

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

Just when I thought all things Prototype-related could not get any better.

Well, if you'd like my feedback on the matter, I think this looks absolutely awesome. Some great song choices for each album, though there are a couple others I would have loved to see (namely Dead of Jericho and Ageless Heart of Memory).

Also, when you say "performance notes and other info about each song", what exactly does that entail? Would that mean like tips on how to play certain sections in the songs, or information about how the songs were written, what techniques are utilized, etc? If so, that would be a pretty cool addition, seeing as most tab books are just like "here's how it's played, now you're on your own, good luck".

 

[protokragen]

Thanks for the feedback, Unholy. I really appreciate it!

Regarding the performance notes, you're pretty much right on with what I was thinking. Some information about how the songs or specific song parts are played, techniques involved, info on how the songs were written and/or recorded, etc. My goal is to add info that other TAB books don't usually include so that it's a more complete picture of each song.

Cheers,

Kragen

 

[protokragen]

Update on the Prototype TAB book... I'm about halfway done with it now. I still have about 5 full songs to do and they are going to be the more challenging ones to notate. I've also changed the song list a little bit now that we've had some more widespread reaction to the new album. It seems that "The Ageless Heart of Memory" is a favorite on the new album for most people so I'll be including that one instead of "Communion". The revised song list for the TAB book will be:

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (in progress)
- Trinity

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst
- The Chosen Ones
- The Ageless Heart of Memory

Most TAB books present the songs in alphabetical order so I will likely follow that. I'm still planning to add the performance notes for each song.

More info coming soon...

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

THANK YOU!

I've been dying to learn Ageless Heart of Memory since I heard the demo! And I suppose Sea of Tranquility is a nice little addition as well.

Great to hear it's coming along well.

 

[protokragen]

Unholy, I had a feeling you might like a transcription of "Ageless".

By the way, if you like the demo versions of those songs, we will be making them available very soon in the form of a demo collection called "Retrospect". It will contain all 6 tracks from the now out of print "Cloned" EP plus a 4 song demo from 2001 and the 4 song demo from 2008. More details on that coming soon!

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

Wow, that sounds REALLY cool. I just might have to check that out.

Also, just a quick question. I recall that on the 4 Catalyst demo songs, the harsh vocals were instead done with the same sort of low vocal effect used on Probe (which back then Vince clarified it was intended to be more of an "alien voice" rather than a growl). Was there something that caused you guys to change your mind and have Vince actually growl those sections, or were the effects just there as place-holders for the demos?

Just a little curious.

 

[Sauna]

I'm actually curious about that as well.

Also, great job picking the songs for the book. The only glaring gap at this point would be Dead of Jericho, but you've got most of my personal favourites on that list.

 

[protokragen]

Unholy and Sauna,

The harsh vocals on the demo versions of those songs did have an effect on them that made them sound lower. Vince Did those vocals for the demos and we thought they sounded kind of cool with the effect. For the album versions of the songs, Vince tried them with a death metal style vocal and then double tracked them. We didn't know if Neil Kernon would want to add an effect in the mix or not but they ended up being natural. The way they are panned in the mix was meant to make them sound like multiple voices speaking at once in stereo. Overall we thought it sounded good and it would also be something that we could reproduce live.

On "Probe" the low voice is actually me and it's mostly natural. If there's an effect on there to make it sound lower it's very subtle. My talking voice is not that low but I can make that sound without too much "help".

Cheers!

 

[protokragen]

Minor update on the Proto TAB book...

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (in progress)
- Trinity or Shine (leaning towards Shine now...)

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed (done)
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst
- The Chosen Ones
- The Ageless Heart of Memory

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

Very cool.

I did tab out Shine myself a while back (as you may recall), though I did have some difficulty figuring out some of the fingerings, and one section of the solo was just a bit too fast for me to get by ear. It would be cool to see an official tab of it. Between that and Trinity, I like both songs about as much, though they're very different in style. I'd guess Shine would be the more difficult of the two to tab.

 

[protokragen]

Hey Unholy,

Did you TAB Shine out in Guitar Pro by any chance? If you did, I'd love to take a look at it.

Cheers!

 

[protokragen]

I've been making some good progress on the Proto TAB book over the last few days. Here's an update:

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (done)
- Shine (in progress)

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed (done)
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst
- The Chosen Ones
- The Ageless Heart of Memory

I decided to go with Shine as one of the Trinity songs because the guitars are doing a lot of interesting stuff. Once I finish that one I'll move on to the songs from Catalyst.

Cheers!

 

[protokragen]

Lots of progress on the TAB book this week. Here's where I am at this point:

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (done)
- Shine (in progress)

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed (done)
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst (done)
- The Chosen Ones
- The Ageless Heart of Memory

I just have to finish Shine, transcribe The Chosen Ones and The Ageless Heart of Memory, and then work on the performance notes. Because I'm using classical style notation (with extra staves for the overdubs and solos), the page count is going to be pretty high, probably around 500 pages!

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

Great!

No, I didn't tab it out in guitar pro. I have it in this free software called Tux Guitar instead. Sorry.

Great to see you've got so much done in such short time though. I'll definitely have to check this out when it's finished.

 

[protokragen]

No problem, Unholy. I saw the TAB you did for Shine online and it's very close.

I'm still working on Shine and then I will move on to the last couple of songs and the performance notes.

Cheers!

 

[protokragen]

Quick update on the TAB book:

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (done)
- Shine (done)

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed (done)
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst (done)
- The Chosen Ones (in progress)
- The Ageless Heart of Memory

I have also started on the performance notes. I've been thinking about having 4 different TAB e-books available to let people pick and choose what they want:

- "The Prototype Guitar Collection" TAB book - This would have all 10 of the songs listed above. "Sea of Tranquility" and the performance notes would be exclusive to the "Collection" book. Cost would be around $10.
- "The Best of Trinity" - This would include the 3 "Trinity" songs. Cost would be around $3.
- "The Best of Continuum" - This would include the 3 "Continuum" songs. Cost would be around $3.
- "The Best of Catalyst" - This would include the 3 "Catalyst" songs. Cost would be around $3.

I want to make it affordable for everyone and I think $1 per song is a good starting point. If you guys have any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

Cheers!

 

[UnholyCrusada]

That's a steal of a price! I figured it would be a bit more pricey. At the very least it's a lot cheaper than other tab books I've seen/bought, and those don't even have performance notes.

The "best of" books seem like a good Idea for those who may be strapped for cash or who just may prefer one album over the others and such. I'll definitely have to check out the full version though.

Also, as far as tabs go, I've since been trying to figure out some of Illuminatum/My Own Deception. I've got Illuminatum finished, and have the beginning of MOD down (that verse riff is a lot tougher to play than I thought it would be!), so I hope to have it tabbed eventually.

 

[protokragen]

Hey Unholy,

Thanks for your feedback, dude. I really appreciate it.

At this point I'm done with all of the TABs except for The Ageless Heart of Memory. I've done some of the performance notes as well. I'll be busy with work (stupid work!) for a couple of weeks but then I hope to get back to it and finish things up. I started looking into self-publishing services (including Amazon) and the upfront cost/cost per unit is pretty pricey. I know that the audience for the book is relatively small so I probably won't invest too much money into the book (just my time, haha). Right now I'm looking at just putting together a monster PDF and selling it directly through my site and the Prototype website as an eBook. I'm a little concerned about the PDF getting spread across the internet for free but I'm hoping that people will be honest and consider buying it since it's going to be a low price.

Anyway, I hope to have more updates soon.

Cheers!

 

[protokragen]

Hey Guys,

A quick update for those interested in the Prototype TAB book... The song transcriptions are done now. I need to write the performance notes for a few songs and figure out how I'm going to compile everything without having a ridiculous page count in the book. Hopefully I can get the performance notes done over the holidays and then finally get the book released. I did make one change to the song selection:

Trinity
- Live A Lie (done)
- Pure (done)
- Shine (done)

Continuum
- The Way It Ends (done)
- Seed (done)
- Sea of Tranquility (done)
- Heart Machine (done)

Catalyst
- Catalyst (done)
- The Chosen Ones (done)
- Into Oblivion (done)

Unholy, I know you were really looking forward to seeing "The Ageless Heart of Memory" in the book... There are a number of reasons why I chose "Into Oblivion" instead. The biggest reason is that I really wanted to have a variety of techniques that we use in our songs represented in the book. "Into Oblivion" has some unique stuff that we don't really do in any other songs, particularly in the middle section and I thought it would be cool to include it. Another would be the song's popularity on iTunes, which far exceeds the popularity of several other songs on the album. I could have chosen "Cynic Dreams" as well based on this criteria but felt that "Into Oblivion" was more interesting in terms of playing. If there is a lot of interest in the book I will consider going back and transcribing all of the other songs for individual songbooks for each album. I definitely don't want to disappoint anyone and hope that you can understand.

More on the TAB book soon...

Cheers!

Kragen