Harmony

I completely disagree. The human voice is nothing more than an instrument for producing sound, just like a guitar or snare. Therefore vocals are inherently musical. Any additional meaning that you as a listener attach to the sounds created by the human voice can only add to the musicality and impact of the song. I've used the example before but if words were "not music" then I think that many people would find it hard to enjoy songs with lyrics in languages that they don't understand, like Jill's Prayer, or Star Salzman's Pillar of Salt. For that matter, if lyrics only added to the song in a poetic sense, I think death metal would be even less popular than it is now

Spring cleaning! SPRING CLEANING!

Why would that be the case? Most guitars are unbalanced, as are the inputs of most integrated or consumer-grade soundcards. Unbalanced output into an unbalanced input should be fine. Sure, you will probably pick up hum from the power source and you'll have problems with long cables, but I'm not so sure it will "blow up your soundcard." Besides, balanced vs unbalanced really isn't the issue when it comes to frying your equipment. It's impedance matching, right? Your consumer grade soundcard will probably be fixed at -10dBV. If you plug in something that's rated at +4dBu out then you may have problems with the signal being too hot (in which case just keep the gain on your guitar/equipment low), but will that actually destroy a soundcard? I've heard stories but I wouldn't say that it's a common problem, especially if you're not trying to do anything too crazy with low-budget cards. Bottom line for me is that in 5 years of plugging keyboards, guitars, mics and stereo systems into the line input of el cheapo soundcards, I haven't blown anything yet. I've always thought of frying soundcards as something of a myth based loosely on fact. Then again, maybe I've just been lucky

The fact that this adapter is so hard to find online probably means that there is a better way to accomplish this, but anyway: From audiogear.com, this 1/4" female mono to 1/8" male stereo should get the job done. Although it is really overpriced, just like anything else that has to do with Monster cables. Looking at my old rig, I actually didn't have a single adapter doing the job. It was accomplished using a 1/4" mono to 1/8" mono, into a 1/8" mono to 1/8" stereo (the title of the product is wrong but the product description is right). That's a lot cheaper than the first option. Also, I just tested a 1/4" stereo to 1/8" stereo on my laptop's integrated sound card and it worked fine. That was not the case when using the SoundBlaster Live card though, so I guess what connection is required depends somewhat on the card. Best advice is to experiment. Also keep in mind that it may have nothing to do with the connection. I don't use Audacity so I can't give specific advice, but make sure you have a track all set up to receive input from your line-in and make sure your line-in doesn't have it's recording volume muted (which you can check from the control panel if you're using Windows) Hmm. Might also have to do with your gain settings. I find that turning the guitar's gain to its max and setting the soundcard gain as low as possible gives me the best results with a SoundBlaster Live.

I knew you would ask that and I knew I wouldn't have an answer, because before I typed that advice I searched online and couldn't find a good link (even at Radio Shack). I'm heading home from work now though, and I'll look at my setup and try to remember where I got mine from. They exist though! I swear!

Nah, you should be able to do better than that. For $170 the M-Audio Keystation61 is a pretty popular 61-key controller that will get the job done with semi-weighted keys and your standard pitch-bend mod wheel combo. The only reason I see to get anything more fancy is if you'd like to have external controls for some of the effects and VST parameters you'll be using. That would be nice if you were planning on doing lots of electronica, or if you want the ladies/fellows/undefineds to be impressed by all the shiny buttons, but for orchestral composing I'm not so sure the extra controls would benefit you all that much. Even if you do go for more controls, the M-Audio Oxygen61 is the same price! You lose the semi-weighted keys but since you're not trained as a pianist, that most likely won't bother you.

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PCI is just a type of connection for additional cards. Do you mean that your current soundcard is integrated into your mother board and you're wondering if you need an additional sound card? If that is the case, your onboard soundcard is fine and you probably won't need an additional card. When you record you'll probably get a lot of hum (from other components in your system and the electrical current that powers them) and hiss (from the low quality preamps in the soundcard) but you should be able to get decent results with some work. A better soundcard will give you a better quality signal with less work. Since you said you have an amp, I'm assuming you have an electric (or an acoustic electric) guitar, so alls you gotta do is plug the output of that into the line-in of your soundcard. You could also use the mic input of your soundcard, but you'll probably get a quieter and potentially noisier signal. Your guitar most likely outputs a mono signal, which can be a problem since your line-in/mic jack is probably stereo. When I recorded with that type of setup, if I didn't convert the mono guitar signal to stereo first using a 1/4"-1/8" mono to stereo converter (Radio Shack has them), I got no sound. Take that with a grain of salt because I really can't explain why that happens. You could also, and potentially more effectively, just use a mic to either mic the guitar itself or the amp. Just plug the mic into the mic input of the soundcard and record away. Silly question maybe, but...what's a jackstik?

Sounds remixed to me :/ T0sH, hopefully when you finish this one you'll fill out the mix a little more. Get a ride over those drums for example, throw some more instruments in, add some hand percussion. Mario music always begs for a conga or bongos or a cow-bell or something...especially if the mix is to be described as "fun." Might want to vary things up a little more too. Change up the lead from time to time in the overworld theme, change keys or tempo in the underworld theme, and add some more of those sound FX. 3:14-end was slick. I actually didn't catch what it was a remix of until the 3rd listen or so, but nice work. Make the rest of the mix that cool and you're good.

All good advice by a:b, but I'm of the opinion that for beginners a keyboard is an excellent and almost necessary investment. In learning about music I think you will find that the keys will make the music learning curve a lot less steep, they will help you build an intuitive knowledge of what notes sound good together, and all of that info will be more quickly absorbed because you are able to associate the sounds with tactile and visual cues...something that the piano roll of your typical sequencer doesn't do that great a job of. 88 keys is overkill for beginners, 61 is great, and 41 is the minimum if you would like to begin to learn to play piano. djpretzel, and I'm sure many other people on this site, have taught themselves how to play piano, so with a reasonably sized controller and time, you can do the same. 25 keys is fine, but don't expect to get any better at the piano. Unless it's just really your thing, I'd hold off on the self-taught formal music theory until you get a little more experience. At it's core, music is about enjoyment. That's it. In my first adventures in computer music, I threw all of the music theory I knew out the window and had a blast programming "Frere Jaques." Start out simple and fun, move on to complex and deep. Great equipment doesn't hurt, but experience and creativity are the only real tools necessary to make 'good' music. that's my 2 cents anyway.

Does anyone know how to pitchbend a soundfont more than 2-semitones using SFZ (in SONAR, if it matters)? There's no option for pitch bend range that I see in the interface. I've also tried setting the "pitch bend range" continuous controller (CC 6) to different values at the beginning of my midi track...no dice. Any ideas?

Glad DJP mentioned the duduk in the writeup, cuz after hearing its skillfully executed hauntingly tribal vibe, I'm placing it on my created-for-the-purposes-of-this-review "woodwinds to watch" list. The entire last segment (4:20-end) ooohhh....so nice. Like Shaun said, chills. Nice work Rich.

Wow, from the jump every square inch of sonic real estate is packed with lushness! This is an unrelenting storm of sound from 0:01-end. Gotta love that !

Happy B-day man. May the inspiration that has brought us some ridiculously good music continue to flow

QFT. The intro sounded like something that needs to be on OCR.

Very nice. I particularly enjoy the segment at 1:23-2:02. The ending leaves sorta unresolved, but in a way that I can appreciate as a creative decision. I would have liked to hear a more...frugal...use of the sustain pedal. That combined with the reverb and the warm piano tone gave the piece a mushy quality at times. Overall though, a very enjoyable listen. Thanks Susie!

Yeah, I'm definitely my biggest fan. In fact I just got finished listening to a song of mine (twice) on my lunch break. Unfortunately, I can't say that my music exactly fits my personal tastes. My music does a good job fitting my personal talent, in that finished songs are usually a good representation of what I'm capable of at the moment, given my current skill and equipment. Sadly, what I'm capable of never quite matches up to what I'd like to be producing

Just got them a few days ago and I think they are really nice. I wish there were more instruments but I'm just being greedy I guess. Drumkits: Acoustic - The kits are a good replacement for many of the free ones out there, but aren't nearly as expressive or interesting as say the free NS7 kit. Definitely usable though. Electric - meh. nothing special. Guitars: Classical - I love it, and I'm a guitar player! It's fairly expressive and cleanly recorded with a nice rich tone. There are a decent number of velocity layers, although they don't vary very much. I really wanted that characteristic buzzing that nylon strings give with plucked very hard. I have it on a free soundfont I picked up once, and I would have expected it here. Instead, the highest velocity layer gives a 3-4 semitone slide, which is actually pretty nice to have. Electric - Haven't played with it much, but it seems decent if you want to get a jug jigga jug jigga JAH JAH!!! Its also got some nice pinch harmonics, which are always cool. Electric Bass - A keyswitched 4-string tuned to E (no sampled low D!). Got some nice fret noise, slides, and various other bass one shots, but I haven't found it very fun to play with. Good sound though. Acoustic Bass - Plain. Very Plain. Don't see myself using this often. Keys: E. Piano - Classic sound with nice velocity layers that smoothly transition between a soft and very bright tone. Its got that DX7 sound that you've heard so many times before. I like it though. Organ - OK pipe organ that might find some uses here and there. Not much of an organ connoisseur so I can't say how it stacks up against others. Synths: - There are a bunch of choices, each one more terrible than the last. Percussion: Lots of really nice samples, including a pretty extensive sampling of an udu. Unfortunately, all of the samples of hitting the smaller high-pitched hole have a simultaneous shaker sound that limits its use, imo. The cajon is cool too; I'll probably be using that a lot. Other percussion highlights are the bamboo and tambourine. No Djembe There are also a few preset loops for the percussive instruments and drumkits that might be helpful if, for example, you don't know how a cajon is typically played. Some are actually kinda groovtastic. I haven't explored the sampler itself much, but it looks very customizable in terms of being able to layer the sounds, adjust the velocity layer switching and quickly edit individual samples. It comes with a variety of standard FX and a few special ones like cabinet sims for the electric guitars, and Oragami LE, their reverb module. I have no idea why it sounds so nice, but it does. Much richer than the bundled reverb in Sonar 6 (Cakewalk or Sonitus).

Nice, it needed to be said.

The keyboard only has midi out. It's an older midi controller, but the key action is absolutely amazing. Therefore, I would have to have the midi out from the keyboard go into the PadKontrol's midi in. From there I suppose I could either use USB or midi to connect to my computer. I think what's being said is that you don't have to connect the midi controller to the korg just because it only has a midi out. I would think that chaining them like that could create unnecessary headaches. If you get the EMU 0404 you can connect the midi out of the studiologic 88 to the midi in of the 0404, and the Korg can be connected via usb. Even without the EMU 0404, you can buy a midi to usb converter and connect the keyboard to usb that way. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm understanding you correctly, that setup wouldn't work the way you're thinking. Yes, the PadKontrol can be used to manipulate the sound, but only after the midi data from the keyboard has gone through your soundcard (the EMU 0404 for example). So, linking the two devices really wouldn't matter as far as most fx are concerned. If your goal is to be able to play the keyboard and manipulate its sound via effects pedals (I'm assuming you mean audio fx pedals like those used for electric guitar, not midi fx pedals like the sustain pedal) then the keyboard midi still has to go through the soundcard, but you could set up what are called "effects inserts" by properly connecting the pedal to the in/out of your sound card. I'm pretty sure the EMU 0404 can be setup to handle effects inserts. I'm no expert so maybe there is a way to do it the way you suggested, I just don't see it. Yes and yes. The EMU 0404 is a soundcard

done. fin.

Now I know. And knowing is half the battle. GI Joe.

Cool, so wrinkles get smoothed by a sort of spot Gaussian blur. I’ll have to try that sometime. Sounds like the same thing could be accomplished by using a quick mask to select the wrinkles, and then applying the Gaussian blur. Nice It’s nitpicky, and maybe not an error at all since it’s a title, but “Proletariat” is spelled incorrectly in your resume.

djpretzel I am shocked and appalled. I never thought someone who let blacks, women and The wingless onto the panel could harbor such prejudice. For shame.

I have got to get me a classical guitar. Very nice Michael.