Harmony

Guitar: http://www.zzounds.com/item--FEN952000 Strings: D'Addario Custom Light FX: Nothing special -- mainly tons of compression to even out the volume of my low quality pickup, followed by delay and pinch of reverb Thanks again everyone !

chumble spuzz gets disillusioned, RFB gets an excuse to drink, blad's out of hiding AND the most useful tab ever might return to the frontpage? Hell yes! Man, my birthday should be everyday.

Happy birthday Jill! Our existence scientifically and irrefutably proves that people born on March 4th love to sing, and your existence scientifically and irrefutably proves that some of them are mindbendingly good at it

Haha, thanks everyone!! I didn't get the day off of work, but at least I get to enjoy the birthday wishes of the OCR community

Oohhh, way to rock the harmonica solo.

I see my winking smiley wasn't strong enough to deter an explanation of that which I already knew. Not to worry, I shall try harder next time Back on topic!

Floyd Rose? What's that? (acoustic guitar player)

Do you mean the strings were out of tune relative to each other, or were all of the strings just tuned down/up relative to standard E?

You can record the violin on a $20 mic -- it won't sound great, but it shouldn't sound terrible either. IMO, the best suggestion for you is to just have fun recording (plug the mic into the line-in of whatever soundcard you have and go for it) and don't worry about sound quality right now. First of all, you can learn a lot by really having to focus on mic placement, getting the room quiet and post-processing the audio. Secondly, you can take this as an opportunity to improve your compositional skills, as opposed to your production skills.

Rap haters, the lot of you!

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2865&postid=54604Still don't understand what the big deal was. Meh. In anycase, controversies should never get so big that they leave wounds that would last for this long.

Cool mix, gotta love Lemmings. I like the change-up around 1:59, although the harpsicord-ish synth could use some humanization. I also like the bass-only breaks that show up now and then. So yeah, I think this one has some potential, but there are a few issues that I think will keep this from pulling a YES from the panel. Biggest shortcoming for me is the number and variety of ideas that get worked into the mix. It's only 3:22, but it feels like it's dragging on at points, because although there are changes, they don't sound all that different from each other. Add to that a bunch of repeated sections and the drums that barely change at all and you have a mix that doesn't hold attention for very long. Beef up the drums, play even more with automating the synths, and make sure that you've got more texture than 'buzzy synth 1', buzzy synth 2', etc. Second, that main snare is far too simple, both in sound and in pattern. Try layering it with something else to get a fatter more interesting sound. Change its pitch once in a while, add a filter and play with that during fills. As far as the pattern, those eight note fills like at 0:35 have absolutely got to go. The fill at 0:32 isn't terrible, but it could use some flare as well. You jazz up the snare pattern a little at 0:51 but that's about it. Play with it a lot more, listen to some of the great electronica drum programmers on this site (like zircon and tefnek), and steal ideas if necessary Lastly, for a dance mix, I'd expect a lot more energy in terms of mastering. This is often overlooked by the newer guys, but it's an important aspect that adds fatness and dancibility to the final product. Learn about the compressor and try compressing both the drum track and the entire mix. Using EQ you can bring in some more kick, get a snappier snare, and really highlight the main synths. Nice work so far, keep working to make it nicer!

Tabs on the front page make a little more sense without "mixing" in there, although it was easily the feature that I clicked on the most. And I definitely agree that the WIP on the front page is all sorts of good.

I can't suggest this guide enough, especially if youre looking for general tips (and there are a few out there) or are specifically looking for info on the mastering stage. Easy to read and easy to apply.

You already know I love this...dissonance and all. Transition at 1:00 gets me every time, and the similar refrain at 2:18 perfectly pulls the empty space back from what might have been an otherwise overdrawn dropout. The bookended Angel's Fear is great as well, especially with the cool percussive work during 3:33-4:00. Nice work all around man.

It was nothing more than a time constraint on my part. While judging was an amazingly rewarding experience, I'm also a grad student, and I couldn't dedicate enough time to do both well. So something had to go, and since judging doesn't pay the bills... didn't we all

Exactly. Sounding good isn't really that difficult these days, but getting an idea from your head, into the computer, and out the speakers is where the trouble and skill is at. So generally when I say something like "this mix took me 3 months," after the first couple of weeks or so most people would probably say that the WIP sounds "good." Why the additional time? The last 10 weeks are spent fine-tuning details (big and small) that make the mix sound as close to what I imagine as possible.

Nice, Dragonlord. If only I could swing something like that in SONAR

I'm confused. How'd you get it to work? Did this Taylor guy help you?

I believe the arcade version had the same music as the SNES version so these are probably the mixes you want.

Need vocals? Butcher away

Right, I've heard all of the reasons that Wal*Mart supposedly sucks, but I just don't get it. They are convenient because they are everywhere and have everything. They have low prices because...well...I don't particularly care why they are charging me less than anyone else for the same products. The worst shopping experience I've ever had at a Wal*Mart isn't any worse than the ones I've had anywhere else. And Wal*Mart was once a local chain and I don't recall Sam Walton whining about bigger competition edging his stores out. This is America, suck it up small business owners! Never got into Technics, but they always looked cool. I still doubt that they could handle the beating that I put the K'nex through though. Because they were based on rods and connectors, rather than bricks, I think K'nex were much better suited to building vehicles, and that's pretty much all I built...especially the K'nex rubber band racers. Those were the best.

I played with Legos religiously until my mom brought home my first box of K'NEX, whose awesomeness proceeded to utterly dominate the remainder of my childhood. So for me, the world is safe as long as K'NEX still line Wal*Mart shelves. Unparalleled low prices and convenience, and now this Lego thing...those bastards!

If you're too lazy to go learn German (can't imagine why) you could always take the slacker route and click the English button at the top of the page

Yoozer: any reason why you're not suggesting the super popular SM57 or 58?