http://ryanleber.com -- Help me test!

http://ryanleber.com/

I updated my website, again! I adjusted the design for my upcoming recital, and added a better music player.
More tracks and videos will be up once the recital's over, in two weeks. I wish I had more time.

Also, the html and css is much, much smoother and more "valid."
Also, the total size of my design folder, which had all the images used in the website design, is less than 500k.

I still need a new favicon, though.
And I'm learning about forms and fieldset stuff now in my Website Design class, so the contact page will be better, soon.

Me likey =o

I'll just comment on how it looks so I don't have to complain about the HTML, but I like =o One thing is though that I thought those Composer / Arranger / Performer / Transcriber things at the top would be links to other sections.

I downloaded them anyway by nerdy means, but perhaps providing download links of those previews would be useful too for people checking you out =o

+fanned

I agree about the Composer / Arranger / Performer / Transcriber images. I thought they were links too. It might just be an easier solution to write all that as "Composer.Arranger.Performer.Transcriber." and without the | that separate each word.

I'd like download links too :3 (Though it probably would help out those seeking employers to download and listen later instead of keeping a webpage open or returning to the webpage. Similar as to how your resume is downloaded, instead of returned to online.)

Ohh, cool. :3 Yeah, like everyone else, I thought that thing at the top looked like a link (knew it wasn't one because I read their posts and I didn't see it before the images loaded so it was obviously an image, lol).

Now, everyone stalk arl through his resume, ahaha

The resume's a "lol" for me, though. Not that it's bad, but it's just different from a resume you'd normally see for standard job applications and whatnot; of course, it makes sense considering that arl's focusing on music. :p The different set-up of it was just funny to me. ;p

EDIT: Site doesn't have your music anymore ;-;

That's how we were instructed to make our resumes, but I still know what you mean.

But yeah, I am going to fix the "links" thing at the top, you're right, it's a bit misleading. I like the idea of using periods, it'll make them less like buttons.

And I'm not really sure if I want to make the tracks downloadable, because I'm not 100% on them being "freebies," you know? I mean, if you can figure out how to download them, good for you, I don't really mind, but I think blatantly providing links would be kind of like, I dunno, giving up, you know? Ambiguity can be a powerful thing.

Thanks for the input, guys. You're like my test audience. Very helpful to a solo guy like me.

Addendum: Yeah, the music from the old site has all been removed. Most of it was unofficial, in poor formats, or poorly sequenced anyway. I decided to just tear it all down and only put my strongest work up, at least for now.

Maybe I'll add an archive section later, and put all of my old crap back up, but in the meantime I think it's more important that people see my absolute best, first.

The resume's a "lol" for me, though. Not that it's bad, but it's just different from a resume you'd normally see for standard job applications and whatnot; of course, it makes sense considering that arl's focusing on music. :p The different set-up of it was just funny to me. ;p

That's what resumes look like. I don't know why you thought it was a little odd... There is no 'standard' layout for making a resume. Mine looks like the attached...

Addendum: Yeah, the music from the old site has all been removed. Most of it was unofficial, in poor formats, or poorly sequenced anyway. I decided to just tear it all down and only put my strongest work up, at least for now.

Maybe I'll add an archive section later, and put all of my old crap back up, but in the meantime I think it's more important that people see my absolute best, first.

Oh yeah, like, 99% of the music is on the Tabit site, too, isn't it?

That's what resumes look like. I don't know why you thought it was a little odd... There is no 'standard' layout for making a resume. Mine looks like the attached...

It was a bit of a surprise (for some reason) when I saw so many music-related things, lol. Of course, I've only seen two resumes (being my dad's (woot, go plant biology ) and my brother's (random stuff for applying to internships and thingies)) so I guess my knowledge would be a bit limited on resumes, huh @_@

By the way, I love Agrarian Synthesis.

Wow man. The site looks awesome, the songs are awesome.
I especially like the background of the site. It somehow makes the site look...deep?


ps. I think that photo of yours is kinda old. It's from the 60s, I presume?

lol, so, I made some adjustments, but hopefully these will be my final adjustments.

I made it much clearer what the website is selling, and what talents I have. It's all right there in your face.
I took out "performer," because honestly, I'm not interesting in performing. I will, if I get tapped to do so, but I don't have any recordings of my up there anyway, so this point is irrelevant.
I put my strongest works first, and took out a crap song. I'm not really sure why I put Nature Death up there, it's dumb. But yeah, Ops Via first, to suck them in, then other tracks that are also good. Finish with the cheese song, as a bonus to you.
I adjusted the tables, so now EVERYTHING lines up vertically, properly. Even the music players!
I put headers over the two sections at the bottom, so it's more clear what's going on, and directs your attention a bit better.
I re-wrote the bio, taking out the year I graduated (since I haven't really graduated, yet, but you don't need to know that), and made it more concise.
I made the background web-safe. Now it's 1/4 the size, because, lol, it was like 2 MB before. Totally didn't notice that until I tried to load it on the school's shitty internet, and the background took like 30 seconds to load.


I still have 2 issues:
1.) The background still loads LAST. AFTER all the music players and text, and link icons. This looks really unprofessional if you have a slower connection.
I tried fixing this with some scripts, but I can't make them apply to a table background, which is what the entire page is based on.
For now, I'm just gonna have to leave it this way, unless I really want to rework everything in, like, DIV's or something, or chop up the background, but that could be really messy...

2.) I'm going to make a contact/affiliates page, where I'll list the people I've worked with, and other musicians I know (I'll link to your page if you link to mine). I can't get the mailing list php thing working right, but for now this is good enough. I'm taking a web design course next semester, so I'll figure it out then.


Thanks again for all the input, guys, I really think this is the best iteration of my website yet, and I couldn't have done it without your feedback.




And yes, an archive section will be coming later on, maybe next year, where I'll put everything back up in MIDI and other various forms.

Nice. :3

ALSO, OMG, "SENTIENCE IN THE BALLROOM" IS #2!!! I've always loved that song. ;o

Also, not sure if other people recommend this, but having all your styles in a separate .css file and linking/sourcing/whatevering that would seem a bit better for organization's sake. Speaking of which, I found a way to download it. Not the hardest thing. But it's kinda useless considering my iPod doesn't want to work anymore. ;-;

Yeah, I know about linking .css files, but since my website is only 1 page, I don't really see the point, lol.

Also, it's okay if you found a way to download my demos, like I said I'm trying to be ambiguous about it. If you find a way, good for you, they're just demos, but I'm not going to actively announce my stand on pirating music by saying "DONT DOWNLAOD THEES " or "HERE THEYRE FREEEE " anything like that.

But I just wanted to show off and say how cool I was. :3

Neat, dude. I might try something similar for my own resume and stuff; fire departments all over the country could see it.

I still have 2 issues:
1.) The background still loads LAST. AFTER all the music players and text, and link icons. This looks really unprofessional if you have a slower connection.

Yeah, that happened to me. I was like, is it supposed to be all black? Then it came and I got amazed. I think its kinda neat that it loads last
..

Your music is amazing. I love it all.

I also love you. ;__;

Bump!


I updated my website, again! I adjusted the design for my upcoming recital, and added a better music player.
More tracks and videos will be up once the recital's over, in two weeks. I wish I had more time.

Also, the html and css is much, much smoother and more "valid."
Also, the total size of my design folder, which had all the images used in the website design, is less than 500k.

I still need a new favicon, though.
And I'm learning about forms and fieldset stuff now in my Website Design class, so the contact page will be better, soon.

out of curiosity last night, i actually went to your website again because i remember a little bit ago you said you were re-doing it. So i noticed all of these changes, i like it.

This looks pretty awesome
and its faster ._.

Aside from the two tiny grammatical errors, I think it looks inviting and professional. I only bring up those errors to be helpful, honest.

What grammatical errors? >_>

edit: I found one... but not the other...

Teeny tiny one.

"Samples of my work can be found through the navigation links above, and you can also find me on various other websites, to which I've provided links to over on the right."

If I'm not mistaken, the italicised "to" should be omitted.

BTW, I like your work.

Ah! Gotcha. Thanks!

One (1) of (possibly) 4 new videos is up, by the way! (Or will be in a minute or two, lol).
I also am uploading a .flv version of TimeStep in a few minutes. I think it's a bit better than the mp4 version.

Edit: Okay, more like in 10 minutes, but whatever. Check back in 20 or so. :|

Awesome
I'll join it.... If I can.