Meteo Xavier

He's got you there, 'blix. I just now saw this myself. But let's get back on topic, shall we?

Yeah I fixed it. Awesome, Zebra 2 is your synth, man. It has a crazy amount of stuff that can help you make kick-ass sounds you're looking for. Even Hans Zimmer uses Zebra 2 for stuff like Inception. You have your winner there.

Granted there is some hypocrisy with that everyone else here is suggesting other synths than what he was asking, but the goal still is to keep it simple and yours really wasn't that helpful. It's not quite the same as a guitar store because you can't just pick up a VST and play it quite as easily as you could a guitar. Absynth is not a synth I would recommend along those same lines because its far better for ambient purposes than what Sylenth and Vanguard give. Actually, recommending anything NI has by itself is pretty pointless since they exist in the much better KOMPLETE package (or will at some time). Zebra 2 is the best recommendation (although I probably would've gone with z3ta). Ok, enough of that tangent and back to the topic. Walker of Energy Auras, what is your skill level with synthesizer/DAW stuff? Are you a beginner, intermediate or something along those lines?

Well, the thing with a synth like that is, if you know what you're doing, you can probably get/make virtually the same stuff with it that you could for others - so don't spend more money out just to get more stuff on a discount. Start with Zebra 2 first (try the demo) and see how much you like it. Don't fall into the myth that buying more stuff will somehow advance you automatically as an artist.

He's asking which of the TWO he was looking at, you actually multiplied his conflict by adding more choices and no definite answer. Why do you post here if almost everything you offer is counter-helpful? Chiwalker, I'll also throw in a vote for Zebra 2. It has a different interface, but once you get past that, this thing can do about everything for you. The best part is that almost everyone uses it, that means a lot of people develop more sounds and presets for it, a lot of are free and pretty damn good. U-he is a pretty cool guy too, so its a win all the way around.

Thats about twice what I expected, but PER SONG is a very nice touch and you do have a great, prof-quality sound going. I like your style. I don't have anything set up right now, but its very likely I might need some solo violin work in the future. What does $200 per song buy me exactly?

Well if you have consistent rates, it'd be good to know as a good rate can CREATE projects and paid jobs.

Awesome - now we're getting somewhere! Granted, that was just a 20-30 minute little file and I was just using the same double bass, cello and violin samples alongside the harp and flute - mostly my goal there was to figure out if I was doing correctly the volume automation to make it less stiff, but I hadn't graduated to the line of thinking (or computer resources) to use and blend several articulations of the same instrument in a song. Also Special thanks to WXVAVA for providing EXACTLY what I was looking for (still not sure why that was so hard, but beggars can't be grumblers) and Moseph for a much better and tangible explanation on leaps. I will put these to use.

I didn't see these last two posts until just now. I had something else I was going to try here and I'll need to get to those after my vacation tomorrow and Friday. This is something I threw together in roughly 20-30 minutes using EWQLSO and FL Studio's volume automation. Apart from the mixing, which I didn't pay that much attention to, how close am I to this being somewhat convincing or something you'd hear in a generic JRPG?

Glad you found something to enjoy out of it. I think this was a waste. Back to bothering individual composers instead of making advice useful for the general public for me...

I already said that.

Rexxz, I'm trying not to be frustrated here, but I find this idea that I'm just not studying seriously very insulting. The method is the issue, not the effort. I'm looking for new methods and new sources of information and I've explained why already. I shouldn't have to be arguing about this because its just that simple.

Chrono Trigger's music translates OK into jazz, but the rest of that is going to be pretty hard I might think, especially prog. What is endearing about the Chrono series music is how simple and easily digestible the songs were, which is Yasunori Mitsuda's trademark and secret weapon. There's already been a jazz arrange album for Chrono Trigger and a project OCR did for CT already. If I may suggest, it might work better to draw up interest and in general if you limited it to 15 songs from Chrono Cross. I think that soundtrack would translate better into prog/funk/etc based music. Chrono Trigger's been done to death whereas there is still stuff to mine from CC. I'm definitely not trying to rain on a parade here, you can take this post with as much salt as you like, but most of the interest in projects, at least from my perspective, has gone toward existing projects in development of which we're plenty full up on anyway. Consider it.

I'm not asking for a damn frequency flow chart, I'm just asking for rules of thumb and just some simplified techniques, preferrably represented by pictures or videos, for how to make my samples and background sound more realistic. Things that YOU do to achieve certain results. I know this stuff exists because I've already seen it but don't have access to it in further depth or just have any access to it at all. If I knew it was going to be this much to ask for, I wouldn't have tried to waste everyone's time just to come to the conclusion "It's magic, you either got it or you don't hurr" Yeah, this is something I have to terms with. I hate doing that on principle, but then again that really is what everyone else does. Thats how I learned composition was studying and copying stuff from MIDIs, but you can't learn production from MIDI alone and I can't learn through imitation alone. There are techniques, I just want to know what they ARE so I can find it and study and practice it myself.

Rexx, I can only assume you didn't read much of anything I typed already. I'm not looking for an easy way out, I'm looking for different methods of learning the techniques because I can't piece things together like that from the sound alone. If I could do that, I would've figured it out by now. Also, I'm not looking to learn strictly for orchestral purposes, I'm just looking for ways to get samples to sound convincing enough in many other genres too.

I wasted $2,000 on piano lessons over the course of like 3 years. The best I got of that was composing Sagetellah from my album on it. I have no physical capacity to perform. As you may already be aware (because there was a time on here where I couldn't shut up about it), I have certain and inconsistent physical and intellectual disabilities that, while not hampering abilities to function overall, create obstacles due to nerve impairment and possible brain damage where I don't have the finer abilities to perform or understand performance by ear training (I am also nearly tone-deaf). This is not an excuse I'm providing to cover a lack of discipline, this is a real disability that causes me to get lost in a Wal-Mart I've gone to for 15 years, draw up a diagram for how to get out of a crowded table at Pizza Hut and walk by a flaming toaster twice before I figure out something's wrong there. I'm not trying to give you a sob story, I'm just trying to illustrate once and for all that I cannot learn through these conventional methods. I require something different. Everything I learned about composition I learned through watching MIDI data in Fl Studio and now composition is my strongest point in this racket. Certainly there must be stuff like that for some orchestration somehow.

I don't need to get the exact same level, just a better one than what I have now. I know these sound people do something to make it reasonably convincing and I know they've worked for years at it - I just want to know what it IS. That MIDI orchestration is probably the book I need to study, but I'll have to have a library special order it because I am not spending $65 on a book that only MIGHT help me. I haven't had much luck with books as teachers. Don't you think I've already been trying to do this? If I could just get it by listening to it, I would've gotten it at some point over the last 7 years. Maybe other musicians can just study stuff by ear and figure it all out, but my body and my ears don't do that (or they would've by now). I don't mean to be rude, Moseph, but that kind of advice just frustrates me. I need visual stuff, examples, and the rules (if any) of how that stuff works in a DAW like Fl Studio. I know this stuff exists somewhere and can be reasonably condensed down into a more specific how-to, I just have yet to find it for a variety of reasons. I'm not asking for everything, just some starting places I could go to from there. I'm a visual/example learner and I know this stuff is out there somewhere.

That's fine, I don't know what the hell tl;dr is anyway. The MIDI keyboard I figured, but they are still trained in something to achieve that sound, they still know how much automation and velocity go in to make it realistic and how much is too little or too much. I want to know what that is so I can train into it myself if possible. Well I still need some examples and hard information on dynamics to improve there too, but I hadn't really considered it would be the instrument itself. Tell me more. Actually yeah, thats a good start. What I get frustrated with is that advice that goes like this is assuming I understand exactly how to produce that effect, I just never thought of it before. Some of the best advice I got from written tutorials where Zircon's because he actually tells you not to go past certain numbers because it doesn't sound realistic. I know others have this kind of advice - thats what I'd like to find if at all possible. Good stuff Neblix, thanks. There's no formula for this kind of thing without copying straight off of what you hear in what you describe as more professional works.

I can hear the CPS2 version playing now. Yeah, that was an asinine way to word it, but he did at least suggest t'aint' nothing wrong with having both (if you have that kind of money anyway).

I can't tell if you're being facetious or not, 'blix. In any case, I am being facetious myself as I expect no such list could ever exist.

Howdy. Man it's been a while since I've posted here with something. My music is improving and I'm still slowly getting better with larger samples, but I still have much to learn about getting sample/synth based music to feel like it has some real FEELING in it. I still worry most of my stuff sounds too stiff and doesn't move correctly as other recorded music does. Most of what I'm looking at trying to improve on is focused in background and accompaniment. I'm trying to learn how music gives a certain SOMETHING to it so it sounds like it has some weight to it without drowning it in chord and rhythmic accompaniment. I'm trying to learn how to simplify my tracks down but then they still sound empty and insignificant. Are there any relatively simplified guides to how music accompaniment can produce a sense of feeling to the listener? Just something to start with there would be good. Additionally, I'd been experimenting with volume automation with EWQLSO and I feel like I've gotten ok results with the simple stuff, but now I'd like to learn more about what volume automation I need to do with strings and pads and instruments in the background to make it more fluid sounding and much less mechanical, not to mention dramatic swellings for new music parts and dropping them out. What I'm looking for are numbers - how much should make the strings flow in and out in the background when no one is paying attention to it, how much % variation should put repeating lines in their velocities. Certainly there are rules to this kind of stuff that professionals and people who know what they're doing follow - I'd like some perspective and some insight to what they might be. I'm not looking for perfection or overnight success, I just want to know what everyone else seems to know that I don't. tl;dr version (if I spelled that right): You know those fancy-sounding MP3 demos of sample/synth products that sound like the real thing without any external mixing/mastering? Yeah, I want to know how they do that with these samples because I sure can't figure it out on my own. Thank you!

A list of companies offering paid work to nobody-freelancers would be much more helpful, but if you're offering challenges, I'll take you up on some of them. I like to think even if I can never become a full-fledged professional in what I might generously refer to as an "industry" here, I'm still more than enough of a composer to take up this quest. I accept.

How much do you charge?

Well what did you think? If you post it, they will come? You have to do some work. This means posting around in a way that doesn't make you look desperate (not saying you have been, but so many musicians do this today its utterly depressing) and submitting music to podcasts, local record stores if you have any that take local talent, or abroad. There's lots of things you could do. I haven't actually heard your album, but I learned the other day as I'm looking for places to spread my album, ESPERS, that Music Choice on Charter and IIRC Comcast has a seemingly simple way to submit your music to their music channels. I guess all you have to do is send a CD with some artist info. I haven't done this yet so I have no real idea how it works, but thats a start. The hard part isn't the effort or the creativity, so get on it if you want your music to spread.

There are lots of titles like this already that you could be playing.