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I miss when the average post on this site wasn't from an egomaniac looking to stroke their e-dick. Hey, Maestro. You should ask your counselor about how you can politely correct people without sounding like a complete asshole 20 year old who speaks like he has 35 years experience. Advice is cheap - you can take it or leave it. Nobody should be ultimately relying on posts by hobbyists on a random internet forum for professional music advice anyway. In that thread about YoungProdigy's FL Studio problems you talked about things that are "bad form" in public settings. Apparently, you don't consider going on a profanity-laden tirade against someone who made a post you don't like on the internet to be "bad form". We get it, you think you're hot-shit because you intern or whatever for Impact Soundworks. Why a software company would want to have someone with your attitude representing them is a mystery, but why don't you put all your knowledge to use and write an all-encompassing guide so that you can at least spare us your patronizing posts. Jesus Christ...it was Dan Reynolds who was talking about the CALM act, which is a U.S. regulation about the volume of commericials in broadasting if you're going to make a long post like this throwing around terminology for the sake of pseudo-intellectualism irrelevant to the topic at hand, at least read and properly quote people. Why is anyone even talking about this? Strader's post is talking about increasing loudness while limiting the output in music production. No guide I have seen anywhere else on the internet talks about the difference between dBTP or dBFS, whittaker-shannon interpolation and certainly not the CALM act because it is irrelevant information to most people looking to use a limiter on their music. IF YOU DON'T LIKE BRANDON'S POST, TRY THIS: 1) Ignore it. 2) Politely correct him or add to/build off of his post 3) Say, "Thank you for sharing this with us Brandon. I hope it helps someone out there!" I don't even give a shit if I get banned for mini-modding at this point. This site used to be the best around for useful advice and feedback and it felt like everyone worked as a team to help each other but guys like you are degrading it into holier-than-thou pissing-matches that don't help anyone and no one else seems to have the balls to call you out on it.

A few notes: What is important to acknowledge is that a Limiter is ostensibly (functionally, at least) a compressor with a compression ratio of infinity. That means what ever you set your threshold to, any signal above that threshold will be subjected to an amplitude factor of 1/infinity. Because of this expectation, basic limiter plug-ins will usually just have a very simple gain parameter and an output parameter where the output parameter is your threshold. However, because it is also for all intents and purposes a compressor, some limiters will offer more complex or advanced compressor like behaviors. This is often true when using a plug-in which models a particular hardware device. This is because in a hardware situation, a hardware limiter (depending on the components used in its construction) may have some time delays on enacting their limiting effect. This can mean that a specialized limiter plug-in may have simulated attack and release values that make the effect less rigid. However, this can become problematic because often times limiting is a part of our mastering chain and mastering is the process where we prepare our audio to media specifications--our delivery specifications must be very exact. In the case of your Ozone plug-in, I suspect the "vintage" simulation has an attack value and possibly even a ratio less than 1:infinity (infinity isn't really achievable in a hardware scenario). This puts you in a bit of a situation if this is on your master chain because the limiter may not be brick-walling your audio signal like you need it to, so they provide a ceiling parameter which sets the absolute maximum. Your description of the limiting process is also indicative of a compressor that utilizes auto-gain (as you said it gets louder as you lower the threshold--this is not the normal result of lowering the threshold) or some kind of make-up gain acting upon your signal which is again more of a compressor style behavior and reinforces the need for an absolute maximum or ceiling parameter. If you are working on broadcast media (like film or television) then the CALM Act requires a maximum peak of -1.0 dB and a Full Scale measurement in Loudness Units--since you asked about why someone might want a specific peak limit under a particular value. I have also heard that meeting the Mastered for iTunes specification means that your music file must not have any intersample peaks, which means you will want to use a plug-in that is able to detect and act upon peak values that occur between sample values--though I haven't looked into the Mastered for iTunes specification myself.

The People's Remix Competition 316 PRCv13-04 Hello everyone and Welcome to the People's Remix Competition! Three songs appeared on the ThaSauce page last round. One of them was a Bonus Mix by NinjaPenguinDan. Gercr got the most points, he defeated PlanarianHugger and claimed the win. Source: Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii) - Gerudo Desert MIDI MIDI 2 Source Information ThaSauce link: Click here to submit To submit a song at the compo page a ThaSauce account is required. If anyone has problems with registering or uploading the song to ThaSauce, please upload the song somewhere else and post a download link in the thread. I recommend Soundcloud, don't forget to allow downloads to enable me to upload the song at ThaSauce. To register and submit, do the following. Click the ThaSauce Link. Click the 'You are not logged in' button in the upper right. Click on 'register' (at the bottom). Read the terms and click 'I agree to these terms'. If you don't agree with them, upload the song somewhere else and post a download link as mentioned above (by doing that, you allow me to upload the song at ThaSauce. Continue the process by filling in your information. You will get a question to confirm that you're not a robot. Here are some answers: Name a compo: PRC Who organizes One Hour Compo: Starla Name a ThaSauce subdomain: compo.thasauce.net Who created Mega Mans: Capcom A confirmation mail will be send. There might be some issues with it (meaning that you don't get it), if that is the case, upload the song somewhere else as described above. Once registered, login with your username and password, go to the mentioned page and submit the song. If you want submit two or more songs you can create multiple ThaSauce accounts or upload the song somewhere else and post the download link. PRC instructions Limitations at ThaSauce require your entry to be 20 MB or less in size. Length for length's sake and MIDI rips are not allowed (only as Bonus Mixes). Entries must be posted in the by Friday February 26th 2016 at 6:59 am ThaSauce time (14:00 UTC, 15:00 GMT), check the ThaSauce page for the exact time left. You may enter as many mixes as you like and work with as many people as you like on each mix. You are free to create a second ThaSauce account for that, it's needed to be able to upload a second remix. You can also upload it somewhere else and put a download link in this thread Do not make qualitative comments on an entry until the results of the vote have been posted in this thread. Mixers cannot vote for themselves but if they vote they recieve a free first place vote added onto their score. The winner of this round may select the source for PRC317. The winner of PRC315, Gercr, can only take part by submitting a bonus mix. You can find the full rules list at this page as well. GOOD LUCK! PRC ThaSauce Home Page!

I think this (any serious discussion on audio tools) is a good discussion to have and people should not fear being corrected or clarified--neither should people feel glory for wielding knowledge but rather they should feel encouraged to assist each other in revealing the function and procedures of the tools we all love and use. We have an opportunity to ensure a strong community where everyone improves simply by participating--simply by engaging--and we lose or miss that opportunity when we attack people for not knowing or belittle people for explaining to the community how much (or little) they may know about a subject. Knowledge is really just an ever expanding grasp of what is happening and it is in our human nature to continue to act upon what we understand at any given time we understand though our understanding may grow tomorrow--if we're lucky--and change our subsequent agency. In this way, we are all in this together and we all benefit from assisting each other. Now, for the very oddly specific (and seemingly misinterpreted) post about my input, APZX, I'm not sure why you confused me with Brandon Strader--I can only assume that you didn't really read carefully since you harp on about distinguishing Full Scale measurement vs. True Peak when I did not specify Full Scale measurement as the peak limit measurement (even suggesting that would be silly since it is a peak value we're discussing). With regards to my comparison between a limiter and a compressor, all I can say is that I choose my words carefully (though I cannot ensure you will read them with the same care). So let's work together on this, yeah? os·ten·si·bly äˈstensiblē,əˈstensiblē/ adverb adverb: ostensibly apparently or purportedly, but perhaps not actually.

Download Alucard Round 2 here! As for the Simon bracket, you know the drill. Three-way faceoff: Sir_NutS: Entrance, 1691 vs. War Machine: Dungeon, 1691 vs. OA: Entrance, 1797. Special shout-outs to YoshiBlade, Jorito, and Trism; these were especially strong entries despite your loss this round. May Dracula grow strong on your blood! The source for the Dracula bracket, Round 1, is Moonlight Nocturne from Symphony of the Night! Please use "Moonlight Nocturne, 1797" as the name of the theme in your remix titles, e.g. MindWanderer - Time for Bed (Clock Tower, 1691 and Moonlight Nocturne, 1797).mp3

Very good point that cannot be emphasized enough. I realized this early on when farming XP in live sound on a digital mixing console, as the compressor's parameters can be tweaked to literally operate as a limiter once a certain threshold is crossed. This really comes in handy when dealing with instruments and performers that have a tendency to get spontaneously aggressive. Even if you don't need to compress a signal for a live performance, it's still imperative to use it as a limiter on nearly everything.

There's a lot of people who don't know how to use a limiter. It's a tricky thing, even for people who are pretty familiar with mastering... so I thought I'd share a couple thoughts here. What a limiter does is basically cuts off the peaks of the song -- the lower you set the threshold, the lower into your song's peaks the limiter will cut. Meanwhile, there's also usually a ceiling that you can set as well. This ceiling sets the maximum output level for your song. Basically, you think they do the same thing, right? Well, sort of. What this basically allows you to do is set the limiting on your song with the threshold (the level at which your peaks will be cut) while the ceiling sets the max output level for your song. So for example, this guy in this picture set his ceiling at -0.8db which means the volume of his song will never go above -0.8db That's a bit silly, I've always set my output to -0.1db just to prevent clipping from the audio level going above 0db. See, even I'm not completely sure why you would want it as low as -0.8db I ran into a fiasco yesterday while working on a song because I had set the ceiling to something like -4db to compensate for a loud mix, but what that did was set the volume of the WAV I exported to -4db -- it made the mix too quiet, which is a bad thing. So yeah, even I wasn't sure how it worked, I hadn't really used a limiter that had a ceiling option before. As you turn the threshold lower and lower, you'll hear the song get louder and start clipping and pumping dramatically. The end goal is to hit a level of volume that doesn't clip or pump (or does so in the most transparent way that people don't notice it) while not being too loud. There's not an easy answer of what your threshold should be in a limiter. You've got to use your ears and choose what is best for your mix. You can also look at the red bar to see how much limiting is being done on your sound. That's a good indicator of how much limiting is going on, too. Not sure if any of this information is helpful, but hopefully there's a beginner out there who gets a tiny bit of understanding about limiters from this.

That's correct, assuming 100% participation. It's similar to Darkesword's Gauntlet compos. I'm guessing some will opt out, but the more that participate, the more points each participant will earn. The highest score at the end of three rounds will represent Dracula in the final battle. Since we have some newer mixers, I'll put forward a suggestion: Moonlight Nocturne is a long and complex piece, 1:45 long with not a lot of repetition and no loop. Rather than attempting to tackle the whole thing in order and smooshing your own source into it somewhere, you may have more luck breaking it apart into some of the more recognizable themes. Just a suggestion, not a rule or anything, just bear in mind that you don't have to use all of it, but identifiable parts of it should constitute a significant part of your remix.

Congrats to WarMachine for winning, with a clear lead in the last few votes. And better luck for me in the next round

Interesting, almost old-school sound to the whole thing. Not like NES-chiptune old-school, but more like old-school electronic music in general. There's a lot to like about it. The repeating portions of the track do grate after a short period, though - just too many stabbing notes going for too long, there. The NES (kind of) pulled it off since the notes were not as pronounced, though it was still kind of bad in the source. Some variation in the note velocities and/or volumes would add some much needed variety in this. Overall it overwhelms you with a wall of sound, which doesn't leave much room for varying the sound space. You do good with what you got by dropping instruments and such, but I think you'll find it much easier to create an interesting track if you vary the volumes to a greater degree. Not a bad track, though. I hope to hear more from you

I've talked to Dave about this very thing, and from what I understand the lack of labeling is an artifact of the site switch to v6. When he's able to get to it he'll implement the tagging system again. Other things have taken priority though, unfortunately (Magfest, album releases, music releases, etc.), so it may be a little while. They are nice, though, and they make the whole eval process a lot easier, as well as making it easy to find WIPs, finished products, etc.

Remixing stage hasn't ended yet, there are 11 hours left.

GAINZ MODE: Nando's Peri-Peri: Eat a half chicken for every meal of the day.

Ok, so I updated the original post with two things. First, I added OA's review of Redstone (thanks!) to it. Second, I put together a couple of challenge modes that may be of use to some folks (vegetarian, vegan, and cheap). All that's in the original post, but to save the scrolling, here's the added info below: ________________________________________________________________ CHALLENGE MODES: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Below is a specific strategy guide for some players who are looking for a challenge, whether out of necessity or... well, usually necessity. VEGETARIAN MODE: Fortunately the DC area is pretty friendly to vegetarians, so you have plenty of good options among most of the places I listed above. I'll list out the best places for vegetarians and strats to keep in mind at each. Nando's Peri-Peri: Has many vegetarian options -- the halloumi cheese wrap, roasted vegetable wrap, veggie burger, and all of the sides, are good for this. You're definitely not missing out by just going vegetarian here. Elevation Burger: Their vegetarian and vegan burgers are pretty good, and if you're fine with dairy then you can still get their shakes. Rosa Mexicano: They have a specific vegetarian menu. When you sit down, ask for that -- it'll give you more options than you may see on the normal menu. Succotash: There are fewer vegetarian options here, but still enough, and they clearly label which items are vegetarian or vegan on the lunch and dinner menus. Fiorella: There are several vegetarian options as long as you're fine with cheese. Subway: Well, if you're running out of options, you can always get the veggie sandwich at Subway. I'm always suspicious of their veggie patties though. VEGAN MODE: The DC area is also relatively friendly to vegans, though understandably your options will be more limited than vegetarians. But! You'll still have plenty of options here. Nando's Peri-Peri: The only good vegan options are the roasted vegetable wrap and butternut squash salad, plus most of the sides. Mind you, those are all still really good, so you're not missing out by joining us for a Nando's run. Elevation Burger: Their vegan burger is good. However, make sure you are specific that you don't want any cheese on it (I've actually had this problem at other Elevation Burgers). Rosa Mexicano: Similar as the vegetarian mode, ask for a vegetarian menu when you sit down -- you'll have way more options. Many (though not all) of the items on there can also be made without cheese upon request. Succotash: There aren't many vegan main dishes, but most of the side dishes (which have generous portions) are vegan. The menu clearly specifies what is vegetarian or vegan, too. Fiorella: There are fewer options here -- mostly just pasta and sauce, or some custom orders without cheese, but I haven't tried either so I can't vouch for quality there. Subway: ...and when in doubt, there's still Subway. CHEAPSKATE MODE: So you want to get through spending as little on food as possible? Well, that involves a little bit of a different strategy. The short version is that you should make a grocery run before you get to MAGFest, and just store what you need in the mini-fridge for breakfast and lunch, and eat out for dinner. Prioritize fruits, ditch the junk food, and drink plenty of water. So here are some specifics: (1) Breakfast: Pack some cereal, milk, and disposable bowls/spoons; OR some granola bars (...not the kind that are no better than candy); OR some fruit like bananas and apples. Don't skip breakfast -- you just end up hungrier and more tired. (2) Lunch: A bit more of a challenge, but you can tide yourself over with other things you've packed or stocked up on beforehand. Fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, etc.), peanut butter crackers, granola bars, yogurt, etc., can help you last until dinner. And drink lots of water. (3) Dinner: Unless you plan on bringing like a portable hotplate (...honestly this is a bad idea unless you have a lot of room, like in the suites, and even then really know what you're doing), allow yourself to eat out for dinner. The best low-cost options are Nando's, Potbelly, Subway, and Potomac Gourmet. (4) Other: Drink lots of water. Yes I know I keep repeating this, but it keeps you from getting too hungry, and makes it less likely you'll get sick. Also, if you run low on anything, CVS and Potomac Gourmet should have what you need to restock. HEALTHY MODE: ...um... ...I'm not good at this one... OA would give better advice here.

I would just like to give fair warning that I may not be submitting something up to my standards for this round. I've been dealing with a lot of pre-MAG anxiety and stress, and so far I don't have anything down for my track that I'm proud of. MAGFest is taking up most of this week, so I'll pretty much be submitting whatever I can get done next Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night. I will most certainly submit something, rest assured. On an unrelated note, who here am I going to see at MAGFest?!

In the time it took for this to flounder, I made 2 remixes and submitted one for this site. Sorry and better luck next time? I suppose that's the problem with trying to do an album for a popular game that just came out.

Managed to make it just under the deadline. I didn't see this compo till about a week ago so I had to rush to finish. Still think it came out alright.

HI hope u guys like the source, I think it has a lot of potential for remixing.

Hey, everyone... It has been 10 years since VGMix 2 was forced to "shut its doors". So in order to celebrate the positive impact it had on the game music scene, I am sharing 29 remixes from my old backups (I have more than that. But honestly, I don't want to share music that no one could possibly like). None of these tracks are on VGMix Archive, which means many of them will finally see the light of day after a whole decade! I tagged each song and even included comments from the artists themselves, when such info was available for me. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hfwl3l85n2i716/VGMix.rar I hope you enjoy!

At least back in the good old days, sham artists traced other people's works instead of just copypasting in Photoshop.

The thing about albums is that if you really like a game and its soundtrack, you should commit to doing the album for that game.. not asking if people are interested and posting a few different album ideas, etc etc... because people will start to see a pattern of stuff not happening and they'll question the validity of the project you eventually decide on.. what's to stop you from being like "Undertale is old hat now.. hey this new game just dropped, wow this song is cool! hey you guys wanna do an album for this!?" I also disagree on choosing something popular to do 'just because'. Even if you choose something that isn't really popular, you can still find people who care about that music as much as you should (if you're doing an album for it).. pick something that really appeals to you on a personal level, and follow it through. That's more important than gauging interest in a bunch of things and deciding to do what other people like the most. but what do I know, I'm crazy!

Dang, has it really been almost two months since I've posted anything on this thread. Somebody slap me! No, seriously that's pretty bad. I didn't mean for this album to come so close to being forgotten (we were almost off the the first page of posts...), just some real life stuff came up. But, with renewed vigor, I am back and ready for action. ...So, does anyone here know how to put a website together?

Can you use the file to create sheet music for the song? I play piano but not by ear to well. what hear here isn't too difficult with a little practice and work. I'll give it a try. I may alter the arrangement a bit and toss in some echoes, more grace notes, and likely fuck with the arpeggios but I'll certainly give you one as is and my version.

... and that's how I get rid of competition! #trololo

This is a very sweet tune. It really reminds me of Genesis Sonic music. I don't know what the source music was like, but assuming that the original sounded like a Sonic tune (you know that cool Genesis sound), this mix upgrades the synth quality and makes it more listenable while retaining the charm and feel of the original sounds. (I really hope that was understandable) This is very well put together, and everything done here is done tastefully. The ending is interesting, but a little abrupt. This is some super good stuff right here. Check it out if you're yearning for a little Sonic but not Sonic musical goodness.