Harmony

I was disappointed to see that the 20% coupon for black friday was reduced to 15% last year, which didn't make sense to me because, as you said, the larger discount may have increased sales. Marketing economics are a complex beast though, so I'm not entirely sure it would have worked in GC's favor. In addition to the mailing alerts on coupons and stuff like "the list" sales (great deals to be had there too), you can sign up for the e-mail coupons by either buying something from their online store or (I think) a simple no-purchase-necessary registration.

Off topic, but Jimmy do you know if GC ever plans to bring back a 20% off coupon? That was the best time of the year for me. That would bring this deal all the way down to $320!* *weak attempt to stay on topic.

Awesome. Unfortunately (for my plugin collection) I've got other more microphone-related plans for that coupon

if it hasn't been said (and I doubt it has been) then Caveman Games. Ahhh, memories of dragging your wife to the line, then hurling her downrange for distance. Good stuff

yeah, I know! I just saw this today and was kinda ticked that I just paid $250 for Kontakt 3 alone a couple of months ago. I wonder will Guitar Center's 4th of July 15% off coupon apply to this as well, making it an even more amazing deal?

Congrats OA, you're gonna be awesome! ...Don't start slacking on hanging out with OA junior though

Having a semi-valid excuse to bring women into your bedroom and serenade them with song should be a pro, not a con. In fact, I think it says something about that on the Axiom's box.

Ahh, I guess I read too far into your original post and assumed you were looking into formal (read: classical) piano lessons aimed at proficiency. If you're looking to learn the piano to improve your ability to write, sequence, and just generally create music then my recommendations will definitely change. Weighting is, as you said, the feel of the keys. Are they easy to press down? Do the move smoothly to allow for subtle nuance (weighted) or are they light (synth-action) to make playing faster easier.So, if I'm understanding what you're looking to do, I'd stay away from fully weighted keys. You're paying for the feel of a real piano that you don't need right now. If you're ok with being tied to a computer, I'd say the best route is to go with a semi-weighted midi controller like the Axiom 61 ($300). It is as fully featured as they come, without breaking your budget. Going the midi controller route means you don't have onboard sounds, but the sounds that you can buy or get for free online will be better than your onboard sounds anyway, especially in your price range. If you want something more stand-alone and with onboard sounds, I could make a few uninformed suggestions, but I don't have much experience with them so I'll leave that to someone else.

If you're trying to learn to play the piano and you plan on sticking with it for more than a few months, I would strongly recommend against anything except an 88-key piano. IMO, even 88 synth-action (unweighted) keys are better than 61 fully-weighted ones. That said, if you do go with a 61-key model, I wouldn't pay more than $200 or so. Above that price, but still within your price range, you'll most likely be paying for more/better onboard sounds/fx, and they don't do anything for the budding piano virtuoso. I also like the CDP-100. It feels great and at your price range, I don't think you can find anything much better new. Unfortunately, I haven't seen one in either of the two music stores I hang out in so it may be hard to try before you buy :-/ If your $400 isn't a hard budget and you want to make a good investment in your piano future, I REALLY like the Casio Privia series. The entry level PX120 ($500) has very smooth and solid action, and it's bigger brother the PX320 ($700) feels similar with the benefit of having the optional 3 pedal setup as in an acoustic piano, and better audio output options, should you want to record the onboard sounds. There is actually a cheaper Privia, the PX110, but it has a limited 32 note polyphony which is a big turnoff for me. Good luck.

Rebirth may be something that would interest you. As far as I know though, it only operates as a standalone, not as a plugin. http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/ Maybe you mean that you're looking for audio samples instead of synthetic sounds? If so, there are tons of good soundfonts out there. Don''t remember where I got it, but I have a generic but useful Roland drum machine soundfont that I could give you if you send me a PM.

oh yes, yes, yes. The vocal harmonies are so beautiful! You've got a great instrument there Kate and what's more important, you've got great control of it. In fact, I'm loving all of the instruments, so nice work on them as well. Thanks for sharing this!

The OCR front page mascot is awesome.

I disagree. For a career that lasted as long as his, I don't think his core sound evolved very much at all. Especially considering that his characteristic sound came through so clearly, even when working with people notorious for coloring the sound of those they work with (Glen Ballard, I'm looking at you). The similarity across the years is actually a minor gripe I have with his work. But an artist's "sound" is somewhat subjective, so if you feel that his sound actually has significantly changed, how do you know that this doesn't simply indicate in large part an evolution of the artist?

That's a valid point -- the people that shaped and created some of his music are epic in their own right (Quincey Jones, I'm looking at you). But with the longevity, scope and originality of his music, I can't reasonably come to the conclusion that his producers were primarily responsible for what I see as unparalleled musicianship, all the way through Dangerous.

I went with 4 to make sure that we'd have enough time to eat then get back to the hall and setup the OCR booth by 6pm. If it's not that critical, later is cool too. What say you Dave? 4pm too early? I'm actually going to be coming from another event so later definitely works for me.

I'm 99% sure that you can just pick them up at will call once we get there like any other BSO performance...but there's always that 1% chance that I'm totally wrong on that.

So, meetup at Houlihan's at 4pm -- how's that sound to everyone? Maybe...depends on how late things go.

Yep, but I'm hanging out with Dave 'n crew for dinner and the pre-show stuff so you'd have to get picked up much earlier than before. Cool?

Got your PM Ferret; yeah I can give you a ride if you're still going. Buuut...if everyone's backing out, I may follow suit. Let's see if I can get tix next to OCR people.

Ferret, where do you live? And yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and buy Tuesday if I haven't heard from ye old tamer of lions by then.

*hands up*

Tight, tight, tight work. Love the bookend glitching, the time sig shifting, oh the PHATness of it all! Beautiful, man. Great interview too

So Larry, what's up with the group buy? We gonna make it to 15, or should I just buy my own?

I hear you, and it sounds like you've got your head in the right place, but this is exactly my point about this terrible idea of quality. Brittney Spears has sold millions of records, not because of the quality of her production techniques or the instruments(or rather, of those of the people that produce for her). She creates music that lots of people enjoy, and to me that's all you can really measure if you're going to try to compare your tracks to other people's tracks. I'm not sure if it's relevant for you or not, but I just wouldn't want anyone at your level of musical proficiency approaching music making thinking that the best way to improve their sound would be to improve the "quality" of their samples or their production. To me, those are secondary to the core or the issue...making music that has some sort of indescribable instinctive connection to listeners and yourself. Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that they actually don't change; they do, and I did notice that. But as you said, I don't think it was enough to keep them from sounding overly repetitive after minute 4.

While the songs are downloading, I'll say that regardless of what I think of the songs, I think it's a dangerous slippery slope to go around comparing your art work to others' in terms of "quality". You can't define that, and if you think in terms of your tracks having better "quality" than someone else's, that is an excellent way to drive yourself up the wall. All that should matter when making music for fun is whether it moves you. All that should matter if you're just trying to make money is whether it moves a lot of the people that listen to it. The best case scenario of course is to balance these two (not necessarily mutually exclusive) desires. "Quality" doesn't have anything to do with it, imo. I won't go into any deep critiques of the songs, but I did like them both, especially Perchance. Great mix of synthetic and organic textures, especially for the latter half. Didn't like the super plain lead that comes in at 4:10 though. It is blown out of the water by every other lead (like the violin that comes in right after it, or the flute, or whatever reed that is that comes in at 5:21), making it feel like the unwanted child. Espers is, for the most part, very rich. The hand percussion pattern that starts out the track goes essentially unchanged for the first 5 mins, which I understand serves as an element to ground the track, but its so strong that it stands out and starts to get slightly repetitive around the 4 min mark. I LOVE that the percussion pattern is swapped out for a chromatic percussion version of basically the same thing at 5:08. Very cool transition to the chilled extended outro. Hope you don't go insane before you finish the album. My tracks usually move me more in retrospect, so hopefully you get a little of that hindsight love for your music once this is all done. Good luck.