Souliarc

http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/ Free audio software seperated into convenient categories. Lots of VST's to boot. http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/studiotools/ Sweetwater creates a nice free "Studio Pack" each year. The new one is out, and you can download past ones as well.

So a MIDI controller is used in conjunction with something like FruityLoops? I'd like to see/feel how one works before I actually used it. What do you set the buttons to? Different instruments and stuff? Or do you still choose a lot of things with your mouse? Sorry, hard for me to imagine how it works, exactly. http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/keyboards/keyboard-controllers/buying-guide.php And the link that led to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi_controller

Whut? You do know that you can seperate the rack and sequencer views, right? Reason is pretty good with two monitors. Your project files always had the windows seperated. I first learned about it then 0_0

Maybe you should get used to people having opinions.

Well, that's not good advice because it's subjective. You use the term "tweak" too lightly. Gah... i'm done.

I don't understand why you think samples can't be used for originality... Zircon uses pretty much nothing but samples and he has many original songs with an original sound. Keith Crouch (producer for Boyz II Men, Chaka Khan) and Mark Isham both use the Synthogy "Ivory" Grand Pianos plug-in because of how good it sounds. Mix Engineer Kent Hitchcock from Jurassic 5 uses Reason and Bomb Factory plug-ins. Josh Wink uses the AKAI MPC that I mentioned. Need more examples? You might as well consider every orchestral piece to be unoriginal. They all basically use the same instruments (and therefore the same sounds). It doesn't just take unique sounds to be original but a unique composition. It's fine if you don't want use samples, just don't say it isn't "professional" or "original" to use them.

Great take on the song. I really LOVE the build up into the acoustic guitar, though I could hear a little buzz thoughout the song coming from it. Like when you don't hold down the fret hard enough. Just kinda... sticks out, but it's still excellent work. The drums flow well with the instruments. The reverse feeds seem somewhat off-kilter sometimes and I have to agree with Gray on the snare's transient being too sharp, but TO's drums always work so well. Reminds me of Enigma's drums. Real dramatic. The electric's tone throughout the solo just doesn't seem to fit well to me. Without much accompaniment, it's grunge really sticks out and is not warm enough compared to the rest of the song, but I can understand what's trying to be done. Pixie's voice is right on.

The most common way we would mic an acoustic guitar at the studio was to have one mic (a Neumann U87 D: ) pointed at the sound hole, about 1 foot away. Another mic (a Shure SM87) would be placed directly above the fretboard, pointed downwards at around the 7th fret (which can vary). I have heard that AT4041's are a pretty popular choice. There's a bunch of acoustic guitar miking techniques and mic recommendations here. I'm at work, so that's all I got

First off, a soundfont is a format in which to load samples into a sampler. They're not in the same category. Second, define instrument? Is an instrument not something used to play music? Regardless of whether it was sampled or not, it's how you use it that matters. When the sound fits, it becomes your own, regardless if it was a sound from Reason's Factory Soundbank. If people want to use generic drums, let them. Not everything has to be Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill Industrial. Unscathed drums are a commonplace in music, just look at JJT's "Voices Broken". Those drums are from a very popular drum kit by Maestro, but they fit. Even look at the reviews, people mistook them as a real drummer, which reiterates my point on "it's how you use them". The AKAI MPC series was (and somewhat still is) very popular for drums, especially in rap music. We don't all have the luxury of recording every instrument we use, due to either time or money. Sampling's popularity stems from that aspect and has allowed us instant access to instruments across the globe.

This one looks to be pretty in depth, but it's $100. This one's free.

Actually, that's right. VIKTOLY!

Great production man. This ReMix is so greatly groove-ridden. Like, groove is literally raping this song. The end kind of reminds me of the tumbleweed commercial theme.

Where did you get this information? I'm far from having a perfect ear, but the delay when I'm playing my guitar at 10ms is too distracting for me to stay in time. -steve I've just been told and read about it different times. Still, if you take into account the Haas Zone, lag isn't perceptible until around 50 ms. Sound is either reinforced or phased out below that level. I can't remember which delay times pertain to each aspect. However, being that there's pretty much only one sound source (your speakers, headphones, whatever) if you're playing electric, and not 2 seperate waves (inital and delay), maybe it's more perceptible. Maybe your computer is introducting latency not represented by your DAW? Or maybe i'm just wrong.

Just wanted to add that my experience with the Echo MiaMIDI has been grand. And is 2ms latency really necessary? I guess if you can get away with having it down that much, you might as well, but the human ear can only detect around 11ms of delay.

Hahaha. I read Swamp Ash as Swamp Ass.

"Necessary" is in the eye of the beholder, yes, but i'd say there are plenty more things necessary to the common musician than dual monitors.

Mix window on one, Edit window on the other. Entirely sensible, but definitely not necessary.

First off, you get an Mbox for $450 and it's bundled with Pro Tools LE. So, you get an audio interface and audio editing software for $450. Sonar is $500 without an interface. It doesn't have to be expensive. You can get a VST to RTAS wrapper for $100. For MIDI sequencing you just create a MIDI track. Pro Tools isn't that bad, but of course, the top dawg always gets a bad rap... just for being the top dawg. It's got great functionality and a no-nonsense user interface [omg why doesn't it have fake serial #'s like Reason to make it look so kewl]. The recently introduced Strike drum module is really sweet too. I'm still deciding on which DAW I want in the future though, so, to each his own.

Snappleman makes a very convincing argument, don't we all hate fat chicks? Snappleman is a fat chick. The random asshole attitude is just a facade.

Well... I just got a job at Axxis Inc.. I can get items straight from the manufacturer and it doesn't get that much cheaper than that for me. JBL's half price? Cha. Though in regards to software, I may still have to get it elsewhere.

A soundfont is simply another type of sample format, like a ReFill. To use it, you'll need a sampler, or possibly a wrapper to load it, as it may not be a format native to Sonar (not sure, but it should be). A synth is entirely different from a soundfont; it is an actual instrument in the analog world, or a virtual instrument in the digital world. A synth can be sampled as a soundfont for use with your DAW, a plug-in (sometimes attempting to replicate analog synths), or it can be an actual hardware device (rack-mount, keyboard, whatever). I don't think you used a compressor, lol, to "inflate" the file, but probably unpacked it using whatever program you use, as they are .sfpack files. Good luck. Try here.

Me, bLiNd, and even DJP have used the Radium 61 MIDI Controller. I've been pretty satisfied with it and now it's only $170, compared to $200. Easy USB hook-up, 8 knob and sliders, CC programmable from the board, and a host of other features. Edit: Though I would love an Axiom 61... damn you BGC and DJP!

Very good guidance. I hope to be attending music school in the future and i've been quite worried about this.

He just needs to add some drum loops and he'll be fine. KNO SRSLY