RonVreeland.com

Rumors have been running wild lately that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson may sign with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Rampage has been making a name for himself in the insanely popular Japanese MMA organization PRIDE FC. Rampage has a MMA record of 24 wins and 6 losses. He was tearing through the ranks in Japan until he met up with current PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva, who defeated him twice.

Rampage’s current contract with PRIDE FC will officially expire on April 1. He recently appeared on a video streamed from his website while wearing a UFC belt around his waist. This has started a lot of fervent speculation about where he will sign after his contract is up. Rampage just states that he will go where the money is, and that is that. Since MMA is on the rise here in the United States and since some UFC fighters reportedly have earned over a million dollars in the last year (through gate profits, fight purse and endorsements), there is a good chance that the market may be lucrative enough for Rampage. He has reportedly been on record as stating that he was not marketed well in Japan. Rampage would be well received here in the states, as his personality outside as well as the inside of the ring always gets people talking.

If Rampage does come to the UFC, it is going to turn the light-heavyweight division upside down. Rampage has already defeated current UFC LHW Champion Chuck Liddell in the PRIDE Middleweight Tournament back in 2003. Chuck has avenged all of his losses excpet his loss to Rampage, so it is definately a fight in the making. There is also some speculation of what will happen if Tito Ortiz makes his way back to the top, as Rampage and Tito are training partners and will not fight each other (unless the price is right, I am sure). Needless to say Rampage will bring an exciting new aspect to the UFC LHW division now that Randy Couture is officially retired.

Rampage’s fighting style is perfectly suited for the UFC’s Octagon. His combination of good striking, solid wrestling/submission skills and natural strength are a good fit for the closed cage atmosphere (versus a more open ring-style). His fighting experience is solid: he has racked up some impressive wins and his losses have come to top competition. He can definately make a name for himself in the UFC if he really wants to (that seems to be the real question as of late).

Jackson is a very marketable character, and the UFC loves to market their fighters. His bad-guy persona will become popular with American fans if given the opportunity. Rumor has it that if Rampage is signed with the UFC, there will be an announcement made at the next UFC Ultimate Fight Night event on April 6. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Rampage has become noted for his incredible strength and his ability to power out of a lot of situations, sometimes just picking his opponents off the ground and slamming them. Let’s hope we get to see Rampage do some of his handiwork here in the States!

Someone just recently asked me about a solo piano project I had worked on a few years ago, titled The Remembrance. The Remembrance was a project that was recorded in real time, with no retakes or overdubbing, mistakes and all. I attempted to capture a certain theme and inspiration and was in a big rush to do so. The result was a few good tracks but overall the project suffered from poor sound quality and sloppy recording. I have recently been contemplating re-recording this project in a different way.

After several weeks of mulling this over, I have decided that this new project will be named Redstem Souvenir. It will be a solo piano album comprised of story-driven songs and a corrdinated theme. It will borrow a lot of feel and emphasis from The Remembrance but have higher production values and some different tracks. The best part of all is that I will be chronicling the process every step of the way, from song ideas to recording to completion!

Digital Pianos are an interesting musical instrument. When I was first exposed to digital pianos back in 1995, I was convinced that the sound quality would improve enough to practically replace the acoustic piano in a home recording situation. Many musicians have been doing this already, but it has taken this long for my ears to be fooled enough to drink the kool-aid. I present to you my latest acquisition, the Yamaha PF-500.

What prompted this decision was really the lack of good piano tone I had. I had been previously using an older Yamaha keyboard that had a great pallette of tones, but just wasn’t convincing when it came to the original grand piano sound. When I sat down recently to play the PF-500, I was thoroughly impressed.

The PF-500 digital piano features full 88 keys with weighted (and pretty accurate-feeling) keys, dynamic stereo sampling, 38 “panel” sounds and over 480 sounds from Yamaha’s XG library, 128 note polyphony, a lot of neat connections (including USB!), stereo line outputs and stereo sustain samples (coupled with key-off samples and even sampled string resonance). All of thes features add up to equal one solid sounding piano.

The PF-500 has a great collection of piano sounds, as well as a pretty diverse library of other tones. I mainly purchased this instrument for its versatility in the recording studio. It is very flexible with its outputs and connections. The user interface is straightforward and easy to operate on the fly. The weight of the unit itself is not hernia-inducing, despite its full 88 keys and on-board stereo speakers.

The piano samples are very good and authentic sounding. Having this addition to the studio has inspired me to revisit a project long in making, so stay tuned for an upcoming announcement on a new music project that may soon be in the works!

Ron’s work has recently been selected for inclusion on the CD artwork collection The New Masters of Fantasy, Volume III!

Volume III is the latest offering of high quality fantasy art from the New Masters of Fantasy collection, a division of Epilogue.net. Artwork in this collection encompasses both traditional and digital mediums as well as a wide variety of artistic styles and techniques. It is an honor to have been chosen to create an overlay for this collection!

Be sure to stop by the Masters of Fantasy website and check it out!

Bas is the man. Three times King Of Pancrase, Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. For those of you not familiar with Bas Rutten, he burst onto the scene in the early days of Mixed Martial Arts and tore through the competition in the Japanese organization Pancrase. He was king of Pancrase three times before moving to the United States and compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He became the UFC Heavyweight Champion before retiring due to injury in 1999. He has since been contiunally involved in many aspects of the mixed martial arts world: he is known as the “voice of PRIDE” as he has been color commentator in Japan for many years. He was recently named as a head coach for the up and coming International Fight League. Besides being an excellent fighter, instructor and commentator, he is just simply one of the coolest cats around. 

Check out Bas at: http://www.basrutten.tv/