DZComposer

Winamp comes in 2 flavors: Basic and Pro. Basic is free, Pro is like $20. The main difference is CD ripping and burning speeds. But, also you can encode into propriatary formats (WMA, AAC, MP3 [yes, MP3 is a propriatary format, despite it becoming a psuedo-standard. That is why you have to pay for many mp3 encoders as there are licensing fees to use the format]) with pro. You do not lose the ability to playback formats or install plugins with basic. Winamp will play ogg files so you won't need to re-encode. If you must re-endoce, then get Win-Lame. Can't get any free-er that open source. http://winlame.sourceforge.net/

I have never seen a free marching percussion set. Also, I have only seen one commercial set (which I own a license to) and that is the Virtual Drumline. It also contains a crapload of other percussion sounds. http://www.tapspace.com/vdl2/ It'll cost you $200. However, if you want to wait, there is another library coming out that has marching percussion, and that is the Garritan Marching Band library, which will also contain the special Marching Band winds as well. http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46050 This will cost $239. Anvil shouldn't be too hard to find due to it's common use in opera. Look for Orchestral Percussion packages. If you can't find one, a break drum is similar in sound (though not as loud and rings longer). VDL has break drums.

Ove4 is nice, but it is still a pain to get the MIDIccs to behave as I'd like. I've had better luck getting good CC curves from shitty sequencers. Plus, I am starting to do things where I am needing to have audio and MIDI together. I'm just ready to go sequencer, and Cubase seems to be the one calling to me.

I beg to differ. All of my stuff is done with Notation software (cheap notation software, I use NoteWorthy ). Hook it up to a modern sampler and it works wonders (you don't need an external sequencer if you A: have a VST host program, like Bidule, or B: Have Overture 4 which has built-in VST support or C: the sampler, like most versions of Giga, has it's own MIDI driver). Personally, I hate FL. But given your options, it is very most likely the best choice. I'm looking into Cubase (haven't made the purchase yet, but it seems to be the thing that calls me). NoteWorthy dowsn't have the MIDIcc support of the bigger notation packages and a sequencer allows better MIDIcc control. It depends on the sound generators you use.

Sorry for the bump, but I really don't thinlk this question is worthy of it's own thread. Anyone Care to tell us which emulator and/or emulator audio plugin does this? Even better, how bout a USF player that does this?

I've found one, though the price is a wee high for what I'd use it for, especially if I get the whole set: http://www.sound-ideas.com/ar.html http://www.sound-ideas.com/ar2.html

It's called a sampler. Many people here, myself included, use them. Many (probably most) studios have at least one. There are many out there. There are the big ones, such as Gigastudio, Kontakt (what I use), HALion, sampletank, and others. (expect to spend more than $400 for each of those unless you qualify for crossgrades) There are free ones, such as the many free creative soundfont (SF2) format players out there. If you have a SoundBlaster Live, Audigy (1, 2, or 4), or X-Fi card then you already have a sampler as they ship with soundfont players. To create soundfonts, you need a sound font creator (unlike most samplers where you can create sample sets out of the box). If you have one of the cards mentioned earlier, you can download Vienna from Creative for free. Else, you'll have to buy anohter editor. There are hardware samplers. Some sequencers, such as Fruity Loops, have built-in samplers.

Probably because most people that use them don't know that anything else exsists. That and they don't want to spend the $200+ for other formats (sometimes a sample player isn't included in the price).

Lylat Wars was the name of the game in the European market due to a trademarking issue. It was known as Star Fox 64 in the US and Japanese markets (not sure about Australia). I am thankful for the responses to this mix, partcularly the ones that pointed out the problems. Looks like I neeed to work on my post production a bit. The dynamic contrast, however, was a very important part of this piece, and I would never change it. Unlike many of the more modern genres where louder is better, Orchestral music is dependent on dynamic changes to help bring forth the mood of the piece. Listen to some classical CDs and you see what I mean.

I can't even find the ease of note entry that NWC has in EXPENSIVE notators like Finale or Sibelius, much less the cheaper ones. In terms of free or OSS notators, I have yet to find anything worth using. I've seen a couple, but their entry is very clunky and the printed music looks like crap. I've given up and am looking for a sequener with step entry (why are these hard to find?).

Another nice thing about Kompakt is that if you later decide that you want the power of Kontakt 2 (NI's high-end sampler) you are eligible for the cross-grade price. If you shop around, you can get a good deal. I got the cross-grade for $200. Kompakt can load many sampler formats as-is, so you can always build upon the samples that come with it. Of course, libraries are sold seperately and can get expensive themselves. Also, you'll save a few bucks here (It's going for $179): http://www.audiomidi.com/Kompakt-P3576.aspx That's the same place I got Kontakt from.

Of course, but I want to know all of the options first.

I've decided to change the focus of this thread a bit. I have decided that if I had a sequencer with Step Entry ability, I could figure out the rest of the things I need to do. So, I want to know the names of Sequencers with step entry. Thanks.

No one knows of any crowd noise sounds?

You can load up to 8 instuments in a single instance of JABB or GPO, but for your trumpets you'd want to put them on individual MIDI channels. I believe the KP does it for you. (I've been working in full Kontakt 2 lately) I would advise against using the "Omni" MIDI port for JABB/GPO. Especially if you want to write multiple parts as loading all 3 trumpets and putting them on OMNI restricts all 3 trumpets to playing the same 1 note. I personally assign things to channels for more control. GPO and JABB are different. GPO is designed more from an ensemble standpoint. In GPO, the "Solo" wind instruments are like the JABB ones with the one note at a time thing. Load a "PLR #", "Overlay", or "Ensemble" patch to get multiphony. The Solo Strings do not have a 1 note limit, but rather a 4 note limit. I would advise you read the JABB and GPO manuals. They describe this kind of stuff better than I can. My best advice is to play with GPO a lot first before trying to dive into the JABB deep end. One of the functions of GPO's design is that it is a great introductory library. JABB, however, is not. It is a more advanced library with a steeper learning curve. Knowledge of how GPO's more advanced features work will help trmendously when working with JABB. The Strad is an advanced library and I suggest you wait until your comfortable with Kontakt Players (and for the Kontakt 2 Player to come out because as of now, you need the full Kontakt 2 to use it). Might I also suggest downloading Garritan Studio so that you han have up to 8 instances of GPO with/or JABB at a time. You can get it here. http://www.garritan.com/downloads.html Make sure your JABB and GPO are up-to-date while your there. Remember, you're moving into the world of more advanced sampling. Very few things out there are as simple as the SoundFont way, and there's a reason for that: you can get more realism by including more control features and/or articulations.

JABB has a learning curve. (I still haven't gotten it to sound good yet, but I know it can and have followed it's development since it was announced). You MUST use several of the special MIDICC controls to get it to sound right. The reason is realism. A lot of different sounds exsist in Jazz and Gary Garritan wanted Tom Hopkins (the programmer) to program it so that you don't have to load 50 bajillion instruments to get the all the sounds you want. The one-note at a time thing is another realism thing. JABB is designed as an ensemble of individual players, rather than a collection of ensemble sounds. Thoug I agree that ensemble patches would be nice for JABB. Here's a quote from Tom Hopkins concerning JABB trumpets: "there was no attempt to offer a "Miles Davis trumpet," or a "John Coltrane tenor" or a "Cannonball Adderley alto" or any other specific, individual sound. That's a bottomless pit that we considered impractical in the extreme - and unnecessary for our purposes. For solo trumpet, I suggest that you avoid the brightest of the instruments and also make sure that any instrument you choose is not used at too high average mod wheel settings. High average mod wheel settings will give very bright results. Modest settings will give less-bright results. The horns are all recorded dry so the tone quality of the instrument in a mix will depend as much on the choice of placement in an acoustic environment as it does on the instrument itself (perhaps more.) The "Margot's Mood" Chuck Israels big band demo used a solo trumpet/tenor sax out front and I had no trouble getting a reasonable sound in that context using the Tpt 5 instrument. As with all attempts to use these instruments in an exposed solo context, it will require a great deal of time-consuming, detailed controller manipulation to get good results. In due time, I will create a number of solo instrument tutorials to spell out the best ways of applying the necessary controllers if one wishes to invest the time. But I will always include the strong recommendation that the user hire a real player if solo work is required." JABB requires a lot of learning. While GPO is similar, it isn't as hard to get right. Oh, and trust me, GPO's F Horns kick the grap out of the Fluid ones when used correctly. Take it from an F Horn player who has used both sets. I would advise moving up from the Audigy at some point. While the Audigy does have the ASIO driver set, there are better cards out there. I've moved from an Audigy to an Audiotrak Maya 7.1, to a M-Audio Delta 1010LT. I've found better sound quality and usability with each step.

Is this dying already?

Here's an odd one, but I need it for my Star Fox drum corps project. The final result of the project will be one big file that I will attempt to make sound like it was recorded at an actual drum corps contest. I need crowd noise. A large crowd. Preferable with no reverb. I need sevreral different applauses, including a couple of huge ones, some small, quieter ones, perhaps a noise floor. No air horns or noise makers or any of that stuff. Any format is acceptable as I will just rip the samples out of it, but WAV is preferred.

Poke around here, you may find an answer: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Audacity's a nice little WAV editor. The problem with most free software (of pretty much) any kinjd nowadays is that a lot of it is loaded with adware and spyware. Audacity is nice because it is from a particular breed of free software that does not have this problem: It is open source! Putting Spyware/Adware in an open source project is stupid because it is just asking for someone to fork your code and release a clean version. Of course not all open source software is free (as in beer), But then, not all free (once again, as in beer) software is open source either. And, I wouldn't call it free if it crapped up my computer with poorly written ad-retreval software that filled my screen with popup ads.

Yay! I'm not alone!

While it would be helpful, you don't have to do that. I don't want to take up your time (especailly since you're a judge) making a video for me. Sadly, Tracktion 1's MIDI seems to suck pretty bad. I guess I need to look for something else...

Well, like I said, I'm not going out and buying Cubase SX tomorrow or anything. I want to learn how to properly use a sequencer before doing that. One of the reasons why I want to go there eventually is so that I can do things like mixing tracks together, working with audio and MIDI at the same time (That would be nice for that Star Fox drum corps project I'm working on), that kind of thing. Now that I think about it, I actually already have a sequencer. I grabbed Trackton 1 back when they were giving it away for free as a promotion for Tracktion 2. I forgot that I can work with MIDI in it as I only use it for layering multi-track audio and my pittiful attempts at mastering (another thing I need to work on, but that's for a different thread that I think already exsists). Though I don't know how the MIDI and input compares with other sequencers. This fact doesn't nullify this thread, though. In fact, I didn't really start this thread as a suggestion box for sequencers (thought that was part of it), but rather as a way to gather tips on how to wean myself off of notation. Piano rolls seem clunky to me for entry and my sense of tempo on fast moving lines doesn't warrant my use of direct MIDI recording. Though I guess I should ask this, as it would help me tremendously. Do any/many/most/all sequencers allow "step entry" from a keyboard onto a Piano roll? By "Step Entry" I mean selecting a duration (preferably though a PC keyboard shortcut) and then playing a note on the keyboard. Yeah, n00bish (probably even stupid ) question, but hell in the world of sequencers I am one, and truthfully, I am a bit afraid of them. Also, if someone could provide me with a link to a good guide on Tracktion 1, I would appriciate it. As I got it during the give-away time, I got no docs at all.

I've seen SX for $599 (full, not upgreade or education) on the street, which is within my budget, albiet near the limit of it. Though my question about Cubase is does it come with the required dongle or do you need to buy that sperately?

Can you tell me about Sonar? I have no expiriance with it. For future posters: Please give me an explanation of why you recomend a sequencer. I don't mean to be pressy, but I want to make an educated desicion here.

I've decided to change the focus of this thread a bit. I have decided that if I had a sequencer with Step Entry ability, I could figure out the rest of the things I need to do. So, I want to know the names of Sequencers with step entry. Thanks. ------------------------------------- Original post: Everything I have done has been done in Notation software. It makes the most musical sense to me as I tend to think of visual representation of music in that way. Every time I try a sequencer, it feels clunky and unnatural to me. Of course the easiest and most obvious thing is to "use what you're most comfortable with." Only, that presents a problem: It hampers me from being able to get the full use out of the sample libraries I am using. Most notation programs don't handle MIDI CCs beyond velocity, mod, pitch, tempo, and volume as well as sequencers and many of the libraries I find myself purchasing are dependant on other CCs to reach their full potential, such as the Garritan Jazz and Big Band library. I've tried several different notation packages. I started with NoteWorthy composer, and actually still use it quite a bit as it is nice for throwing something into MIDI very quick as it seems to have the best entry system of any notator. I've also used Overture 3 a bit. I've piddled with Finale some, but the learning curve gets in the way of my creativity. Of course Notation has other problems, such as it can sound robotic without the use of humanizers. I am aware that many sequencers have a notation entry function, but every one I have tried was far too clunky. My question is this: How should someone like me who thinks in notation use a sequencer in the most painless way possible. Note that my primary style is Orchestral. What tips do you guys offer? What's the best entry method? How do you draw-in MIDICCs without losing control of them? Also, which sequencer(s) should I look into? I'm wanting to purchase one of the big ones, such as Reason or Cubase, in the future, but I'd rather start with something more basic first before I plop several hundred bucks on one. Integrated multiple (at least 4 instuments and 4 effects) VST with ASIO support is preferred, but I can live without as I have Bidule. Oh, and please don't suggest Fruity Loops/FL Studio as I totally hate it and it hates me. Every time I touch it I have a bad expiriance.