Ghetto Lee Lewis

I don't think enough people are aware of USB microphone technology. The Samson CO1U plugs directly into your USB port. No audio interface is needed. It sounds as good as a regular CO1 with a pro interface, and it's only $10 more (I bought my CO1U for around $80). From there, I would use audacity (that wavepad thing isn't even freeware; it doesnt' let you save). Audacity has a noise removal tool that automatically detects and removes noise, that you might find very useful. I would be sure to use the noise removal tool before applying compression. EQ should probably go before compression also, but how you mix your voice is up to you.

I rofl'ed. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata First movement is easy if you can read four sharps and a few ledger lines (if you can't then it's good practice). You're not going to get anywhere as a pianist playing easy shit. Finish Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises (should take about a year) and then start on some serious shit. Play some of Chopin's etudes: The Revolutionary is awesome. It's a bitch to learn but it will make you play a lot better. The A minor etude is mostly pure evil, but it sounds frigging awesome. Of course, the third movement from the Moonlight sonata is hella frigging sweet, but if you're playing a watered-down version of Fur Elise, I wouldn't recommend it (not for a few years at least). It's great to listen to none-the-less. Mozart's songs are fun to play, but not TERRIBLY challenging. There's Rondo Alla Turka, that sonata K 545 thingy, and easily overlooked is the 12 variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (the song usually goes by some Austrian name I forget). If you're looking for videogame music, Uematsu arranged just about every Final Fantasy game soundtrack for the piano. I've got the sheets or you can find them sometimes on eBay.

I refuse to work on my WIP until Prophecy finished the damn story.

I don't want to be misunderstood. There's no way that one song can represent what this site has to offer, or even what djp has to offer. others. I'm sure there's a lot of other music I'll really enjoy. I've always admired djp's work on this site. He really shows an open mind to more different types of music than most people, and it reflects in his style. That's definitely a good thing. I'm sure the music on this site has changed in a lot of ways, for better or worse, I really don't know. I can't make that judgement until I listen to most of the new songs. I really don't care if people listen to my remix or not. I was only expressing why I was interested in this song. This is a community, afterall. I agree with a lot of what you said. The comment about people sucking up was uncalled for. It's neither none of my business nor is it even relevant. It's difficult sometimes to correctly interpret the context of what's being said on an internet forum. I'm not going to judge who's right in this, but I'd like to get this thing resolved so I'll be editing the post that started this thing.

I'm sorry if I came across as too harsh. I may not be hearing things correctly since I'm very tired due to working full time and going to college, compounded by the fact that I am way behind on sleep and have been under a lot of different kinds of stress. I'm quite shocked by your response. It sounds almost like something Protricity would say. I don't mean to be unreasonable at all. If you truly believe your song is solid enough that my criticisms were irrelevant, then why dignify it with a response? I made an honest effort to objectively review your song as best as as I could, and at the end give my conclusion. I'm sorry that you disagreed so strongly with my opinion, but isn't that the purpose of this thread that I can post my opinion? I approached mine as seriously and as thoughtfully as I could, but instead of an equal response, or no response, you mocked it. ROFLTASTIC? I may not be the best critic, but if you really want an objective, professional opinion, I would recommend Prophecy. He works in a recording studio as a record producer.

This is probably the first remix I've downloaded since torrent 1000-1250. It must have been at least a year or two since I've downloaded any songs individually. However, this song interests me for several reasons: 1) Tales of Phantasia was in my opinion one of the best RPG's ever, SNES-style graphics or otherwise. Gameplay, graphics, storyline, music were all fantastic. It's a shame there was never a U.S. release, but I'm thankful for emulators and translation patches. 2) I remember DJP almost since he started this site. Long before I started posting on the forums, with OC Remix 1.0 with the ugly orange colors I was fascinated by videogame remixes. It was probably during the days of Napster that I discovered this concept. I figure it's about time that the man himself remix this awesome game. 3) I had remixed my own song from this game, which was one of the first Tales of Phantasia remixes on this site. It's always nice to hear more people contributing to this awesome soundtrack. Anyway, on to the review. I like the Taiko drums in the beginning. However, that first high percussion thing (I think it's a wood block) sound seems a tiny bit loud. That flute that comes in sounds nice, but it feels really weak to me. The attack seems too low (it needs to sound sharper), it needs more volume, and I don't think it's expressive enough either. The transition to techno at :14 seems weak to me. I can understand maybe djp is going for an old school techno feeling, but to me it doesn't really work. I would rather hear a more powerful sounding kick, but introduced by a more developed percussion section (don't get me wrong, the percussion sounds good but I wish it were more developed before going into a new part of the song). There is an airy sort of sound in the background, but to me it sounds like noise. I think it detracts from the song. The high hats during this section don't sound good to me either. I think they're too loud and don't balance well with the rest of the song. In fact, all of the techno-style drums sound like there is too much going on with the high frequencies. I long to hear some lower frequencies giving this song some energy. :29 - The sound that comes in here sounded to me at first like part wind instrument, part viola. However, it sounds more like a viola. The sample to me sounds like it is missing something; more specifically, the attack is extremely weak even though the the instrument has a nice expressive finish. :48 The transition here seems completely out of place. The atmosphere that the song had established thus far just dies right here. :50 The bassline that comes in here adds a whole new level of cheesiness that the song hadn't had until now. I'm very disappointed in this transition and even more disappointed by the direction this song has taken. At :58 the viola finally gets the attack it need, but that note is entirely too loud and sounds out of place. At 1:04 same thing. Some of the velocities need adjustments when the attack is increased because it sounds un-natural. In fact the entire viola section does not sound remotely close to live playing. 1:10 - I thought I heard a mastering problem here. More instruments are added here and the high frequencies sound like they clash with each other. It seems like djp is trying to add too many things at once to this part of the song, and they don't really work with each other that well. The Taiko drums just don't seem to work with the mood established during this section (the cheesy techno mood). 1:25 - This is the best transition I've heard in the song so far. I'm actually very relieved to hear it. The flute articulation thing sounds totally awesome. The song also picks up a lot of energy here. I get the feeling that things will be taking off from here. The section after this has a lot more energy and a lot of sounds that balance each other and keep things interesting (and add some emotion). However, I'm hearing a few mastering problems also with some of the frequencies. All in all though, the mastering issues are minor enough that I still enjoy this part of the song. 1:58 - This transition is nicely put together. I like the arrangement at this part. However, the rattling sounds badly mastered. There seems to be a lot of warmth missing (mids and lower mids) The arrangement at this section seems pretty strong though. The song seems to be breaking down a bit (sort of a bridge I guess). Around 2:05-ish, the song seems to be building energy. However, the flute/viola at 2:11-ish seem to break the mood. At the least they sound too loud. Around 2:18, the flute sounds too loud, even though the placement itself within the arrangment seems to be pretty clever. 2:28, I liked the articulation (the exaggerated airy vibrato) on the flute. It sounded really nice. 2:33, the flute sounded too loud again. 2:38, I liked the concept of having the Taiko drum solo here. However, I would have liked the drums to sound a lot bigger; maybe cutting the other percussion and pumping up the volume and velocity of the drums, making them meaner. Well, at 2:46 they sound pretty mean. This is a great part of the song. At 3:03, the song drops into a really sweet section. It sounded like piano to me at first but after listening again I realized it was a koto or similar instrument. This part is very originally and cleverly arranged, how the viola, flute, Japanese ethnic instruments and massive percussion section are put together. Even if no other part of the song were worth hearing, this section definitely is. 3:22 - back into techno with the viola lead; nothing really special here. Same things that were heard earlier in the song. 3:56, the kick drops out, and some Taikos help the song transition to the breakdown/ending. Overall impression, final thoughts: While some of the instruments sounded cheesy, this arrangement was very cleverly put together. I think a lot more work should have been put into mixing, mastering, and even balancing some of the instruments together. Some parts of the song stood out as being really awesome sounding. However, some of the transitions seemed disruptive to the moods that were being created, and were even disruptive to the entire song as a concept. I might recommend this song as long as you turn the highs way down on the equalizer, maybe play it in the car or something. I wouldn't recommend playing it on a system that has a high amount of treble though. Mixing: 4/10 - While parts of the song were balanced, this song had way too much high end on just about everything. There was not very much bass presence at all, especially on the kick drum where it needs to be. I'm sure the idea of having a weak kick would bring out the Taikos, but there are different ways of working them around each other. The synth bass was extremely cheesy and pretty much killed most of the atmostphere and emotion in the song. Some of the frequencies conflicted; some of the notes were too loud, and other notes were too soft. A lot of samples could have used more attack and needed some other tweaking to make them sound more natural. The good things were the articulations on the flute and violin. During parts of the song these things sounded super sweet. Arrangement: 9/10 - This song was very cleverly put together. The use of Japanese instruments together to keep the song going and make it spicy was very well done. Probably the most outstanding thing about this song was the concept. I just would have liked to see better implementation. Emotion: 5/10 - would get a lot more points, if it weren't for the bad techno percussion and bad techno bass. The mix of ethnic instruments in this song though was awesome. Catchiness: 3/10 - I don't remember this particular melody from the game; maybe it just wan't that memorable. DJP should have maybe changed the melody from the original song or have added some catchy material of his own to make up for it. Complexity: 9.5/10 - Some of the song there just seemed to be too much going on that different things seemed to conflict. However, certain sections had a lot of different instruments bouncing off each other doing something different that kept the song interesting. Overall: 6/10 - This song to me sounded like a great idea, but it sounded too much like a WIP. I don't think DJP understands how to produce electronic music, as the electronic/techno-style parts of the song were what made it sound weak. A lot needed to be done on eq'ing and mastering. I'm wondering how this was passed off as a finished work when the eq'ing was so completely sloppy. I even thought I heard clipping in a few sections. That could have been fixed easily with a limiter or compressor or even just turning the master volume down. I was impressed overall with djp's arranging skills, but dissappointed by the overall presentation. I have heard other songs from DJP that I enjoyed more than this one. All in all, I think DJP should focus more on developing a song as one genre, namely non-electronic genres. Either that or I think he should research how to make electronic music sound good.

Here is my WIP. Please feel free to review it. http://gll.prophetikmusic.com/music/WIP.zip

Please finish the story. I don't think I'll have inspiration to finish my mix until you finish your story. I'm thinking of submitting a WIP here if it means you reviewing it. Just try to make your review not completely consist of mastering techniques.

Multiple submissions would definitely make things interesting. A month is a pretty decent amount of time, and there are lots of awesome midi's. I will probably only remix one or two songs since I don't have a lot of free time. Better ask Prophecy on that one.

That sample pack r0x0rz, and so do the midi's. I remember some of them from last FLMC2. The new ones are awesome also. I can't wait for you to finish writing the story. If it's anywhere near as awesome as the last story you wrote... I'm stuck between a couple of themes to remix, but will probably do "Seven Chiropractor Cat (Fifa's theme)". One more thing I gotta say about this compo: Jack Thompson's theme, LOL.

You guys are so narrow minded. Good music is both catchy AND complex (emotion also makes a song good). All great music is defined as great by possessing these three elements. However, most music that is catchy is extremely simple. It's very difficult to have both complexity and catchiness in the same song. The is GLL's theory of great music. Emotion is usually added by the rapper/MC, but can sometimes be found in the beat itself (i.e. sad/angry strings, piano and stuff). There is such a thing is great rap music, but it is very rare, and somewhat a matter of opinion/taste (although not entirely). Almost every mainstream rap song is more or less shit. Techno is often the same way. Usually there are tons of shitty techno songs for every good one. Back to the damn topic: What you charge for the license depends on several things: Is the artist well known already? Have they been involved in the release of any albums or live performances before? How much attention did they get? What will the license be used for? I wouldn't recommend an unlimited license unless it's a very shitty production/arrangement and you're getting a large % of royalties or whatever. Probably the best bet is to charge a base rate + a percentage of their profits. Also make sure you get the proper credit wherever the song is distributed/performed so the artist can't take credit for it. The base rate should be larger if the artist is well known. If it's some unknown amateur you might not charge them upfront and only charge a percentage of their profits. That's just what I think. Find something that's fair to both you and the artist. If you still want you can ask DJ Prophecy, but he had to figure all that shit out at some point.

As soon as Samson releases dual mic drivers for the CO1U USB condensor you'll have your solution (combine with a $20 Sound Blaster or integrated sound card). I don't see that happening any time soon. Right now you can only use one USB mic at a time.

LOL I'm borrowing one of those from my fiancee. Awesome keyboard. PM me if you want to hear samples from it.

Samson CO1U condensor mic (It's USB!!!) for only $80. Try looking at www.samash.com or other places. There might be Sam Ash or Musician's Friend/Guitar Centers in your area that sell these things also. I bought mine for $72. The sound is crystal clear, and I can use it without mic cable, mixers, expensive soundcards, or any of that garbage. I'm assuming you have a computer. Buy the mic and download audacity and you're set. The only limitation I know of with this mic is that you can't record stereo. So recording wide range instruments like piano is out of the question. For most everything else you should be fine.

All my music on this site was made in FL 3xx I think. On www.remix.thasauce.net I got one made in FL studio (5 I think). The only VST I used I think was RCGA Z3TA+. I have another remix submitted a couple days ago made with FL studio that uses Native Instruments Pro 53 and FM7. www.animeremix.org. The Ayashi no Ceres mix was made in FL (3 or 4 probably). The Noir remix was made with Reason though. I use Fruity Loops almost exclusively, but occassionally use Reason.

Buzzmachines is free AND can use VST's (I think one of the plug-in's for it can load VST's). However, the learning curve is really high. Refer to Hornpipe's "Mixing for Free" guide if you have no money to spend and a lot of patience. http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23568 After that you might refer to Zircon's Remixing Tips thread: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68216 I could help you find the right software to purchase, but that depends on your budget, what style you're going for, etc. Chances are, if you try to do this for free, your music isn't going to sound very good (although a talented and trained producer can make almost any kind of software sound good, although probably not great).

I was talking about another pentatonic scale, not that one (pentatonic meaning any scale with 5 notes); it's similar to blues (I forget which one), but without a couple of the chromatic notes.

Here's how I look at it: Anything that I haven't paid for yet is either: EDUCATIONAL USE: I'm not making commercial music yet, so my software is being used for learning and enjoyment; OR TRY BEFORE BUY: I'm just getting into Real Estate, so soon enough I should have enough money to purchase everything I need and not have to warez anything. I will not use anything warezed in any commercial music I produce (I've only contributed to one commercial track, but I only worked on the arrangment; my friend is the one producing it). Also, My girlfriend purchased FL Studio 4; she never used it; I had to get the warez one because we couldn't get it activated for the free upgrades; AND IMAGE-LINE HAS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER; however, I heard you can get issues resolved by posting on their forums, but I haven't tried it yet. I also purchased Reaktor 3, then purchased the upgrade to Reaktor 4. A lot of these programs are extremely annoying because you have to put a dongle into your USB port to use the program. The only way to use all these programs at the same time is to get a USB hub (or several hubs) so you can use all the stupid USB dongles. Getting Warezed/cracked versions is more convenient; AND I believe it's perfectly legal if you paid for the original software. I have no moral issues with warez because no one gets hurt if you're not going to buy the software anyway. I won't specify anything on this list that may be warez'ed; I don't even think it's relevant; the software companies even get free advertising if I like their software (and I'll probably buy it all eventually).

You may need to know some music theory and use your own ear/judgement to find a BPM (although for 4 on the floor trance it shouldn't matter a bit). It can make a big difference knowing the time signature/meter of a song and how beats are divided (i.e. 6/8 time vs. triplets; 4/4, 2/4, 2/2, etc.)

If you use a pentonic scale, it's the same notes as both blues and major/minor (I forget which pentonic scale). There are actually three different minor scales: melodic, harmonic, and natural (I forget the differences at the moment). Sometimes you may run into chromatic notes that don't really fit any scale nicely. Just play what works and sounds good (but if you're working with other instruments in an arrangement it's easier to stay working in one particular key/style).

Retailers have to get their stuff shipped from somewhere. I would think the quality in headphones/speakers would be the same as buying them from a store; and in any case, why would you buy a display product, if everyone who goes in the store uses it? I see no problem at all with buying online. I bought my Sony MDR V600's from amazon. They were in the same package you'd find in a retail store anyway. If you get into delicate or hand-made items like violins or guitars I could see why you'd want to try before buy, but well-built manufactured items like speakers it should make no difference.

Software Cubase SX3 Reason 3 FL Studio 6 XXL NI FM7 NI Reaktor 4 (will be getting 5) NI Pro 53 NI Absynth 2 RCGA z3ta+ other various VST's, and VSTi's Drumkit from hell Symphony of Voices Wired (drums and other samples for Reason) a bunch of soundfonts (too many to list) Cakewalk Home studio Cakewalk Sonar Noteworthy composer Modplug Sony Soundforge 7 Sony/Sonic Foundry Acid pro 4.0 T-Racks cdex (for .ogg/.mp3 encoding) Instruments Baldwin upright acoustic piano a plastic recorder (from elementary school, lol) a metal kazoo and plastic kazoo a harmonica 2 acoustic guitars sitting in my closet (I can't play them though) Casio 76-key keyboard (I forget what model; I want to upgrade to 88 fully weighted keys) Casio Rapmaster with plastic built in turntable("borrowing" from my girlfriend, hella old skool 80's or early 90's keyboard) my awesome voice I have a drum set too, but it's at my gf's house Mics Shure SM 57 (dynamic) Shure SM 58 beta a (dynamic) Samson CO1U usb (condensor) Other hardware some cheap 2-channel mixer M-audio Audiophile USB soundcard 2 mic stands a bunch of cables Sony MDR V600's (broken, I stepped on them a couple of times..) crappy yamaha speakers Computer (necessary for recording/sequencing) Pentium 4 3.0 ghz with HT technology LGA 775 with 2 mb cache, 800 mb fsb 2 GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) RAM (2x 1GB) ASUS mainboard ATI Radeon 9700 (for dual monitor display) 17" and 21" CRT monitors Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS full tower case with 4 case fans Big Typhoon heatsink with 120mm fan (to cool my cpu) 2x 300 gb Maxtor hard hard drives (7200 RPM) 1x 80 gb hard drive (680 gb total) CD RW/DVD drive combo drive My case not only stays really cool with all the fans, but ALSO is VERY quiet. You barely notice it's even turned on. I probably got other music related sheeyat also, but this is the stuff that I can think of right now.

I heard that from bLiNd actually. I think some of the responses from certain frequencies are weak. If you want some serious monitors for under $200 each check these out: http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMHS50M These are made supposedly in the tradition of the NS10M's. The saying goes, if you can get your music to sound good on them, you can get it to sound good on anything. There is also a larger model available if you're on a higher budget, the YAMHS80M'S, for $350.00 each: http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMHS80M I wouldn't really see anything wrong with the cheaper ones, unless 70 watt speakers are too weak for you (if you're in a quiet room using near-field monitors they should be perfect though). I don't use speaker monitors yet, so I would recommend doing more research or asking someone else (bLiNd is a great person to talk to on the subject though).

I bought it from Tower Records. However, I checked Amazon.com and they are selling it also. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0872887235/qid=1143236757/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-3063776-9665755?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Definitely buy Hanon the Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises (from your local music store). Pace yourself through it (you should be able to get through it in about a year if you do one exercise each week), and your hands should be strong/fast/coordinated enough to play most of the moderately difficult classical music. Make sure you play the exercises every day so you get the most benefit from it. Overall, the book isn't really difficult to read, just as soon as you get the hang of the different patterns. If you want to get into advanced technique for classical playing, I'd recommend practicing Chopins etudes (as many as you can, as much as you can; the "Revolutionary Etude" in C minor helped me tremendously with playing arpeggios and strengthening my left hand). If you really want to get serious about technique, consider Czerny's "The Art of Finger Dexterity". However, that book is insanely long, so good luck if you ever get through it. It's more difficult reading than Hanon also. If you want to learn jazz or other genres there are some other good books out there, but it ALWAYS helps to be classically trained before you get into serious playing.