Harmony

Yeah, it works in sfz for me. That's odd that the upgrade is a downgrade

This is cool, but needs work before submitting. I basically agree with everything OA said, but to add some to what he said: - I think the arrangement is conservative, but passable. - I also like the guitar sound, but it’s drowning in reverb. Tone it down! - The bass is kinda dull, especially in exposed areas like 1:40-1:49. A better sample or slightly better sequencing might help, but you could also layer it with something that has a little more life. An automated synth with some bite to it might be cool. - If you can’t shorten the attack on the strings pad you have towards the end, I’d choose a different sample or synth. - The drums could be a lot stronger if you: 1) work on making the sequencing less mechanical. This is especially true where the drums are exposed, ex. 0:09-0:30. I’d start by trying to mimic a real drum part that you think might fit this song. 2) bring up their volume, maybe lower the threshold on the compression while you’re at it 3) Take some of the reverb off (especially for the kick). Again, they’re drowning buddy! Hope this helps. Good luck

Try the GSCW drums. They sound great,they are highly playable right out of the box, they're free, and someone has been kind enough to convert them to SFZ format. With SFZ its just a matter of editing an easy-to-read text file for any modifications that you want to make. They are big though. Loading them up in sfz uses 210MB of RAM for me. KVR thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=103752&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 Place to download samples+SFZ files (DrumKit-2 is much better than DrumKit-1): http://www.drealm.info/sfz/GIRO/

I bought Studio 6 and although I'm happy with it, I think I'll be buying Producer edition from now on. I don't really care about the Synths, but I REALLY want v-vocal and the -64 mastering plugins. The ability to work with video sounds like it may come in handy too. But a little off topic, don't discount the power of soundfonts. It's still a great format that's really easy to customize, and they're highly portable. Oh, and although that Sky kit sounds really great, I can point you towards some SFZ drums kits that are absolutely fantastic. long live SF2 and SFZ!

Nice work Star, as usual. The whole ambient section towards the end is tres sweet, and the stutters at 5:37 are spot on. Props on the mastering too. You've got a very rich track on your hands; it feels incredibly full at every turn with just the right amount of edge -- whatever that means . Awesome stuff all around. haha, gotta say it: Everytime that drum break that first comes in at 0:15 repeats, I want to sing "Rewind, dniweR!"

Hmm, I don't hear a difference. But hey, if you like the kick, you like the kick I do hear a difference in the master EQ; sounds like you pushed the highs a little too far to me. It can be grating, so I'd scale that back. If you want more high end sparkle without adding harshness, I'd do it with a harmonics exciter like x-cita (which is great, but crashed one too many times for me) or dominion (which is awesome, but may require you chaining a few together before getting the same excitation impact as x-cita). The new song structure is slightly better imo. Nothing too drastic, but I do think that it drags a little less. That sucks. I'm too controlling to live with something like that. What are you using to scramble it? dBlue's Glitch will scramble it randomly for you but with repeatable results based on a seed value.

I totally meant to put hot dogs, but my mind was stuck on bacon when I was typing that. In other news, I need to try to get Samuel L. Jackson to agree to play the dual role of Harmony and Liontamer for the movie.

Ahh if you've already taken it, then I'll forgive your misread. I know I started forgetting that stuff the instant I left the test room. NOONE USES SAT-STYLE ANALOGIES IN REAL LIFE!

Hmm, pretty sweet. I like the distortion that fades in and out on various synths and the panning is nicely not over done. I think the conceptual nature of the song is pulled off well, in that the neither the tempo change nor the ending feel forced or cheesy I think the introduction of the kick at 0:17 is way too early. There's nothing leading up to it and it is unpleasantly shocking to me. I'd either fade it in gradually using the volume or by automating the attack from something long to something shorter. Lengthwise I think it starts to drag a little, but that would probably be fixed if you varied up the main line of the synth that comes in at 0:47. You do some doubling and delay work, but it still just doesn't change enough for me. Maybe some filtering automation, interesting harmonies or layering would work. Overall, nice work

Misreading the instructions is the most common reason that people fail the SAT... and failing the SAT is the most common reason that people fail at life... good luck high school seniors!

Nice. I've always wanted to be part of one of those SAT multiple choice analogies:DJPRETZEL : JOSHUA JACKSON :: (A) DARKESWORD : SHARIQ ANSARI ( HARMONY : LIONTAMER © JOE CAM : BACON (D) DISCO DAN : DISCO STU (E) NONE OF THE ABOVE

Just FYI, if you have an integrated realtek device, then to disable it you first need to turn off the onboard sound device in the BIOS. Then you should be able to disable it in your OS (for windows you can delete the device from the device manager in the control panel). Although I don't use Reason, I had a similar problem (actually many problems) with SONAR before I disabled the realtek device. Obviously, this is all assuming that you're not using the realtek device as your primary sound card. Seconded. Keep that garbage to yourself.

Actually, I don't think it would be the speed that would be the problem. If you were "really good" then most of the techniques that make for awesome guitar playing (artificial harmonics, standard harmonics, palm muting, scrapes, choice pick alignment, even simpler stuff like hammer-ons) don't have obvious equivalents in the MIDI specification so they wouldn't get transferred well or at all.

No demo always struck me as kinda weird. But hey, I think Steinberg is doing ok on the business front, so I'm not going to question their marketing scheme. Hmm. I’m not trying to be sarcastic or patronizing here, but I think it’s a little bit of jealousy. Jealousy that they probably had to work, save and sacrifice to get what you got for free (I know I did). Jealousy that you don’t have to deal with a buggy, clumsy dongle that’s only in place because of people doing exactly what you’re apparently unrepentantly attempting to justify. And with the current state of affairs, in order to get to get 90% of the stuff that’s out there, no one really has to work, save and sacrifice only to have to deal with buggy or complicated copy protection. But we do. Because it’s right. Because you get tech support. Because it’s illegal not to pay. Whatever. We all have our own reasons. With that in mind, surely you have to understand when people get riled up over this stuff.

hahaha, I've been exporting stuff to CoolEdit (yes CoolEdit) for years to visualize the waveforms and I never thought to just grab an oscilloscope vst. Thanks sgx, I'm such a n00b.

You'd be able to record the guitar into something like fruity loops, yes. But it's going to sound like a guitar. You can also skip the mic and just plug the guitar directly into the Firebox and record into FL. Again, it will just sound like a guitar. Of course once you get the guitar sound into FL you can apply whatever effects you want to it...but you still won't be able to easily make it sound like a piano. I agree with what's been said, get a keyboard instead (I'd suggest a midi controller rather than a digital piano or keyboard synthesizer, see below). It's much more precise and versatile for music making, which is why you see a lot of musicians using them. But, a midi guitar would be really fun to play with. You'd have to get a midi guitar, or something similar, to do that. Let's clarify though: the sound that you play from the guitar won't be processed to sound like a piano. The sound from the guitar will be used to trigger piano sounds from your computer or synthesizer. I think some of the confusion may be with the prevalence of keyboards. Lots of the remixes here are made using midi controllers, which have keys like a piano, but are not pianos. MIDI controllers make no sound on their own. When a key is pressed, a signal is sent out (MIDI) which basically says "play this note at this volume for this long". Your computer or synthesizer then uses that message to trigger a sound (maybe a sound of a prerecorded piano playing that note, for example). What you're trying to do with the guitar would require the sound from your guitar to be interpreted as digital MIDI messages, and then to have those messages sent out in order to trigger sounds. With a MIDI controller, that first interpretation step is basically skipped, and that's the part of midi guitar that is, as has been said, difficult and experimental at best.

It really sucks that upgrading your OS from XP (32bit) isn't a truly viable option by now. I paid for both the XP64 and Vista64 DVDs and they are both at home competing to see who can collect the most dust before I throw them away. And Ubuntu is my fav linux these days (Kubuntu actually) but I'll back up your Google findings and say that I wouldn't try to use it as my DAW's primary OS. My M-Audio FastTrack Pro works fine, but for the sequencers I've tried, most of my soundfonts don't work out of the box and I've never been able to get a VST to work.

Mine hasn't gotten any better in more than a year of playing it every day, although as I said, if you're not playing nuanced keyboard parts it does become less noticeable. Just curious. Assuming you're using it to control softsynths, why does usb as the power source bug you?

Some of my at-work playlist: Static Wonderland - Christian Pacaud and ktriton Ten Rupees - Neskvartetten Prayer – pixietricks The Ballad of Sir Kibbles – Suzu Moontang – Bladiator Revisiting the Ruins – Patrick Burns Short Skirts – Vigilante and DJP A Whisper and a Shadow – DarkeSword OverClocked Spot - BGC Tidal Sequence - DJP Dragon Song! You’re gonna scare the pets

The Nimbus preview sounds awesome! Can't wait for the release

Oh hey now...this is...mmmm yeahhhh. Very sexy. Normally I'm not a fan of wild panning on the lead, but it works in context here. Plus the lead performance is so awesome that it would take a whole lot to ruin it. Great use of FX to keep everything dynamic. Love the drum programming too - clean, simple, and tight. Late 70's sitcom background music ftw!

Although I love the Axiom 61, there is a problem with the keys being "sticky" for lack of a better term. I can't find it now, but I remember reading an article where a guy took his apart to see what the trouble was, and it turned out to be a suction cup-like effect created by some of the lubrication on the keys. It's an annoying problem that gets less annoying with time, although you may find it a deal breaker if you play your keys delicately looking for nuance and subtlety. I don't have that much of a problem because 75% of my playing involves mercilessly bashing the life out of the keys. EDIT: Hope they fixed this in the axiom pro!

Who's getting these points, me or Dream Theater?

Quite nicely actually.

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