Compyfox

Okay, after a couple of testhearings I ran into big trouble. You know... a good hall/reverb is like finding the needle in hay. But sometimes the hay also stings. And this is my problem. I narrowed it down to 6 Halls/Environments and I can't decide. Guess it'll be a close run. One reverb works good on the vocal tracks, but then it's too less on the other arrangements (even though reverbless some samplepacks like EWQL Silver, GIGA or Garritan have a prerecorded reverb). On some arrangements it sounds totally awesome, then it's piercing on the vocals and mud them up. *sigh* Again... a long night, and I guess the next days will be made through or something like that. Narrowed it down to these: SMA - Todd-AO Scoring Stage, Los Angeles, CA MED - Arts & Science Building, Utrecht Conservatory, Netherlands MED - Philips Hall, Netherlands MED/BIG - Atherton Auditorium - Delta College, Stockton, CA MED/BIG - Promenadikeskus Concert Hall, Pori, Finland BIG - Vredenburg Hall, Utrecht, Netherlands *BIG - Large Environment *MED - Medium Size *SMA - Small Size Like I said... hard to decide. I like all sounds, but in the end, it can only be one "hall". BTW Rellik: Everytime I read you name, I have to think of "Beneath the Surface" from Machinae Supremacy. But it's okay. Both are great tracks. One of it is just more... depressing and rock-like though. heh.

Ah I can't decide (but I have to) which room (fingerprint/convolution) I will chose for the files. That's why I asked the mixers for "clean versions". I'm still thinking about the following halls/recording environments. Thought of something like Sydney Opera Hall or something similar like the Atherton Auditorium from the Delta College in Stockton, CA. But that adds a too strongs and agressive reverb trail. Hard to decide, but these are the halls I'm thinking off (and will test the next couple of hours): SMA - Cello Studio - Los Angeles, CA SMA - Todd-AO Scoring Stage, Los Angeles, CA MED - 350 seat hall (don't know where it's from) MED - Arts & Science Building, Utrecht Conservatory, Netherlands MED - Clairmont Hall - Tel Aviv University Academy of Music, Israel MED - Ingram Hall - Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN MED - Philips Hall, Netherlands MED - Wisseloord Studios, Netherland MED/BIG - Atherton Auditorium - Delta College, Stockton, CA MED/BIG - Promenadikeskus Concert Hall, Pori, Finland MED/BIG - Ryman Auditorium (Grand Ole Opry), Nashville Tennesse MED/BIG - Stanforn Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University, CA BIG - Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Netherlands BIG - Vredenburg Hall, Utrecht, Netherlands *BIG - Large Environment *MED - Medium Size *SMA - Small Size Still hard to decide, ain't it? I'll keep you updated on what environment I actually used (I have some favourites, but nothing set yet). One thing's for sure... it will be "subtile", not full bled over everything. It still is a "digital produced soundtrack" after all.

I guess it's about time you list what track covers what theme, Claado.

I guess I let sephire take care of that (along with the collab with him and SirRus). Also have an ear out for "Schala and the Queen" (now that I finished it) and "Manifest Destiny" (which also was just completely reconstructed). Some tracks couldn't be reconstructed or improved in terms of postproduction, due to HDD crashes, already deleted files, etc: Track 09: Frog's Intervention (ellywu2) Track 21: The Chrono Trigger (Russell Cox) SE02: In Search of Light (SirRus - still hope he get's to me in time) SE03: Determination (or Determinded) - PLBenjaminZ So, sorry if they will sound a bit out of place in the final product.

Well I know all tracks, so I'm out of the race. What I want to hear the most though, is a well engineered thing, and a good balance. Some tracks were driving me nuts while in.depth engineering. Seriously.

Well significant changes are the panning and mix in general. I just messed with "Manifest Destiny" that was hard to reconstruct (still working on it, as I also work on "Schala and the Queen"). Compared to the original it has a completely different mix in terms of volume (instruments) and panning. And this counts to almost all tracks. Of course you can't get the "very same sound", but I tried to get a unity out of everything. And Tommy Talarico is interested in C.S.? Woha! Even more preasure. I also contacted Bob Katz as I started working on it. Leading audioengineer in terms of mastering standards. Oh... hell... yeah...

Same happened with Chrono Symphonic too. Here's a small teaser for your convenience, that covers the changes of the general sound of Chrono Symphonic. Now it means "back to work" for me.

The lyrics are in japanese and the translation (or the original english ones) will be released along with the track. If you think this sounds already good, then wait till the final version (cause I'm still working on it, among with other tracks). And be happy that you don't hear me shouting to keep quiet, even though I could record that. heh.

At least it's not "ze prooojeckt" or something like that, yo. *everyone digs my accent... what the hell?!*

Alright... I know that waiting is cruel, and giving you a teaser too, but I'll do it anyway. Now sit down and please take a listen: Chrono Symphonic Sneak Peek (2:09min, mp3, 2,5MB) This is a small insight of how the sound of Chrono Symphonic changed compared to the old available versions. One thing to keep in mind though (it's also written in the ID3v2 tags, but just in case): It's as with game/movie trailers. Sometimes there's a scene in it that's not in the final release. Can happen in terms of mixing, too. See it more like as "temporal timestamp". BTW: All used tracks are already the new mixes, who just need final treatment. Have fun while listening.

ARG THAT Fsk*n SH*T! <continues coursing and swearing but with massive beeps> Three hours of work on "Manifest Destiny", bouncing (which took almost an hour), mixing, finding a major bug in Cubase (yay) and then... I realise that I recorded at the wrong bpm! The ending is getting a bpm degration and I totally forgot that. Somehow Cubase removed the master bpm settings and all got recorded at 105bpm. F*CK! Such issues slow other things down. At least Cubase didn't crash in the middle of chosing samples and writing sections, as it did last night. Yay... short past midnight. Oh how will I love the next 7 hours of work on that track. *sigh* You see... it's not always working how it should be. And I wanted to write that off my soul.

OMG, MO' LIEK A DJPz DOUBLE... lololol!!!111!one Nah really... a couple more JD's and I'd totally think Rayza is DJP, and DJP is Rayza or something like that. Which can happen pretty quick, cause I don't drink that much.

Well breaks every other hours are essential. I can work on stuff for a couple of hours straight. But in terms of mixing, it's a bit different.

Well looks like I'm on my old schedules with "nights put through". I just did some final tweaks for "Schala and the Queen", also for "To Far Away Times", finished a bonus track earlier that day (waiting for aproval from the creator). Now I'm on to "Manifest Destiny" that SirRus and I reconstructed. It's 1:26am atm, I try to stay up till 6am/7am, then sleep a bit, grab a snack, watch Ninja Turtles (at 4pm) and then back to work. And that till the releasedate. Stay tuned, you don't have to wait that long anymore.

Just a quick shoutout for you peeps. VGF won't be aired coming saturday 17th dec, but sunday 18th dec. Larry has some private stuff to do at this weekend, so he decided to move the show to sunday. Airing time is planned as on saturday, but nothing is really set yet. Just keep an eye on this thread. I'm pretty sure Larry will give you a more detailed hookup soon.

Uh... okay.

For that money, (20k) I could build a full one in the right room, as I have most of my equipment already. Zoola: Well the Genelec are pretty good active monitors. Of course it's not the only branch, but one of the most well known. In the end, your ears have to work with the speakers. So I'd listen though a bunch of them for sure (that's why I still want Alesis Monitor 1 Mk II, then again, comapred to the Genelec, they're passive monitors, and the frequency rance is more even). Ah yeah... difference between active/passive: Active - Amp already included in the speaker system Passive - Amp not yet included in the speaker system In terms of the room, congrats that you thought of that already for yourself. You did a good step towards better room acoustics without knowing some basic informations at that time. Keep up the good work, and good luck with your studio.

A couple of hints from my side: - To have the best acoustics, don't use the room's length, but width. This way your sonic doesn't clutter that much and you have less frequency problems. Good for mixing/engineering As example: YES: ___---________---___ | SETUP | | | | | | | ----D--------------- The sparings up top are windows, D stands for door A definite NO: ________ |setup | | | | | | | | | | | | D | | ________ - On speakers I'd go with Genelec Active Nearfield Monitors. They're in the midrange in terms of price, they're very balanced and you can upgrade easily to 5.1 if you should ever work with that setup. It's up to you if you want to use a Stereo only system, or a 2.1 (stereo + subwoofer) system. - Monitors on the same height of the ears (important for mixing and no altered sound) - Try to build up your studio in an efficient way. Nothing is more nagging than having a slowed down and uncomfortable workflow (in this case... keyboard near the screens, etc). - Speaking of screens, try to get LCDs. Best if 2. Trust me, your workflow in Cubase is way better this way. You also don't have any problems with recording noise (radiations). Especially good for guitars (E-Guitars). - Ah yeah... if you want to do vocal or acoustic recordings (violin, guitar, etc) recordings, a good preamp and a large membran microphone is essential. The rest was pretty much mentioned already.

Due to demand, I ripped the (almost 1 hour long) call from the OCR SoCal Meetup from the last VGF show and uploaded it to my FTP . You can get the file here: VG Frequency #74 OCR SoCal Meetup And also please enjoy the "Pokemon" loop in the background. (now I wish Pokemon was also done for SNES)

Dudes... if you'd read at least one time that there's a mirror, read the posts from the last couple of pages, it's mentioned there at least 3 times.

Dunno! Tell me about it.

The usual thingydingy every saturday. Join in, to... VG FREQUENCY Show #74 - SATURDAY, 10pm EST *and get to know if Larry really has a pubefro or not!* Here's a small overview of the most salient timezones for you. (now CET'ed and sorted by timezones!) Small World-Timetable Los Angeles (CA, USA): 7:00pm Calgary (Canada): 8:00pm Chicago (Illinois): 9:00pm Atlanta (GA, USA): 10:00pm Rio de Janero (Brazil): 1:00am (*, Sunday) Reykjavik (Iceland): 3:00am (Sunday) London (England): 3:00am (Sunday) Paris (France): 4:00am (Sunday) Oslo (Norway): 4:00am (Sunday) Germany: 4:00am (Sunday) Kapstadt (South Aftrica): 5:00am (Sunday) Helsinki (Finland): 5:00am (Sunday) Moscow (Russia): 6:00am (Sunday) Hong Kong (China): 11:00am (Sunday) Tokyo (Japan): 12:00pm (Sunday, noon) Sydney (Australia): 2:00pm (*, Sunday) (*) currently observing daylight saving time (DST) Have fun while listening to VGF#74. Also: The year is about to end. According to Larry he tries to do a show between X-mas and New Years Eve (there won't be a show at 24th/25th). And as hint: VGF#75 will be a special show.

And I know this project from the start... Some of the musicians are working for free. Unless Trenthian proves me wrong. I don't see a reason why this is so wrong to post it in here? Trenthian offers you the chance to get your stuff recorded by an orchestra. And that will happen soon. And by soon I mean... 2006/2007. Now tell me... when do you get the chance for something like that? Fairly cheap, and pretty soon. I guess that won't happen unless you're fairly rich, have access to an own orchestra (aka you're the leader of one) or have a record deal (which is a rare event, too). Don't judge a book by it's cover.

One thing: Release is not Sep 29th anymore, but more like "december 2005" Nevermind the pic, it's huge, but it's (finally?) in there. (just thought it might be at the top)

If I'm not mistaken (from the files on my HDD), "The Last Battle" wasn't finished and then there was a HDD crash involved from the side of PLBenjamin. He's still on the project with "Denadoro Climb" however.